Panhandle Truth Squad

Conservative Management Theory

2012-01-12T14:15:00.002-06:00

Walter Williams' concept of conservative management has been revealed in his Wednesday column "In greed I will place my trust." "click here" By exploiting workers unprotected by any kind of minimum wage law or union protection "people trying to get as much as they can for themselves" could earn greater profits by hiring someone to do the job of a protected "worker for only a fraction of the wage." In the column Mr. W referenced statements by southern congressmen back in 1931 such as "That contractor has cheap colored labor that he transports, and puts them in cabins, and it is labor of that sort that is in competition with white labor throughout the country."

In Walt's work world he would repeal the minimum wage law, pass legislation to disband unions, offer no benefits and have a total at-will labor market so that people trying to get as much as they can for themselves would not have to pay a living wage or offer any benefits to their workers.

His conclusion is "There are many examples from around the world of how people have used legal and extralegal means to thwart people trying to get more for themselves, or what I like to call greed."

The conservative business management theory.

The Liberalator

Greed

2012-01-04T16:13:00.002-06:00

This morning Walter Williams finally deciphered the conservative mind for me. I've wondered my whole adult life what type of person can ignore the people hurting in our society, as well put by Hubert Humphrey, "those in the dawn of life, the children; those in the twilight of life, the eldery; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped."

Well, ole Walt said greed is good, (his headline is "Greed actually is good for US") that what conservatives aspire to is "people trying to get as much as they can for themselves." [my bold] "click here" He admits that free market capitalism "is ruthless in its profit and loss discipline," and we can only assume he means that as long as it is legal capitalists can do anything they choose to do, keeping wages low for workers, laying off staff, cutting back hours, closing plants, sending jobs overseas, not offering benefits to working folks - the list is endless.

The dictionary definition of greed (Dictionary.com) "an excessive, extreme desire for something, often more than one's proper share", "excessive or rapacious desire, especially for wealth or possessions", "avid desire for gain or wealth", "excessive desire as for wealth or power."

The word "excessive" is repeated over and over in these definitions - so excessive is okay with Walter as long as it is for one-self, and a greedy person is a good person. The mind-set of the conservative is finally revealed to me. Thanks for that enlightenment, Walt!

The Liberalator

Empeach 'em!

2011-10-30T15:10:00.002-05:00

Read a really frightening article in the Amarillo Globe Republican. If it were President Gingrich in office he would like congress to have the ability to summon judges before congress to explain and defend their rulings, and if congress disapproved they could be impeached!

With the current ability of congress to impeach presidents we would be down to one branch of government - congress - in control of both the judiciary and executive.

I certainly believe there are better ways to select judges rather than on party tickets, but congressional control is not one!

The Liberalator

Hallelujah

2011-08-12T15:02:00.002-05:00

The greatest thing on the news today was the fact that Michele Bachmann fought for one of the most important things needed in our country - she introduced The Lightbulb Freedom of Choice ACT!

Liberalator

QUESTIONS

2011-08-08T18:19:00.002-05:00

Some things I ponder.

Where are the jobs the rethugs said would be here as long as we don't ask the very wealthy to contribute more to the country's income by minimally raising their taxes? The rethug party leaders say the "job creators" will spend their income creating jobs with their money - and this has gone on since the Bush tax cuts went into effect years ago, and reaffirmed last December and in the recent debt ceiling drama. WHERE ARE THE JOBS?

Why does Standard and Poors have any credibility at all? After rating Enron AAA up to the day it crashed, missing the subprime mortgage fiasco that ruined our economy, keeping Lehman Brothers highly rated until it folded, having a 2 trillion dollar error when figuring the fed rating -I DON'T UNDERSTAND!

Why has it been impossible for decades for a single wage earner , male or female to support his or her family, at least modestly, as it was when I was a kid? Why can't one breadwinner earn a comfortable income that would allow a nice middle income life for the family? WHAT HAPPENED AND WHO IS RESPONSIBLE

Paid Vacation

2011-08-03T17:44:00.001-05:00

Wouldn't it be nice if all the millions of unemployed in our country could take a month long, salary paid vacation like the U.S. Congress ins taking in August?

Liberalator

Ain't Life Great?

2011-03-20T15:30:00.003-05:00

I'm sure everyone that doesn't have a job, is underemployed and working at a minimum wage job, is worried about their kids' future schooling, keeping affordable health care, and on and on is happy (as reported in the Glub News Saturday, March 19th) that the government declared the major banks passed their "Stress Test" and can now pay big dividends and buy back shares, and the executives can receive massive bonuses for having saved our economy.

Liberalator

Blah, Blah

2011-03-19T11:54:00.003-05:00

Isn't it interesting that the Blub News published two Letters to the Editor on two consecutive days (Friday, March 18 and Saturday, March 19) over two different signatures that quote the SAME repub talking points?

Maybe they aren't receiving many LTEs - or they won't print any from Libs/Progressives/Democrats!

The Liberalater

Makes Ya Proud!

2011-02-04T15:42:00.003-06:00

Don't it make ya proud? - According to the House and Senate budgets our gov, all elected officials state-wide and the appointed heads of all Texas agencies are going to let our teachers, direct care workers, and other peasants working for the state help with trying to balance the budget by cutting their wages. All the elected officials, etc. - ALL REPUBLICANS - will find all their salaries intact! None of their salaries will be cut!
Thank you workers, for your sacrifice!

The Liberalator

Hey! Let's Cut Teachers' Salaries

2011-02-03T15:44:00.002-06:00

Florence Shapiro from Plano (someone from Plano has got to be an R!) wants our lege to allow school districts to be able to cut teacher salaries or furlough them. Why not figure out a way to keep educating our kids so we will have a "well-educated work force" so our state can compete not only nationally but internationally in the future? We can only do that with the help of good, dedicated well educated and qualified teachers.

Right now the salaries of all our teachers, from the best to the poorest rank 32nd in the country. How much lower does our governor and legislators want us to go? Of course the Gov doesn't want to use our Economic Stabilization Fund (better known as "The Rainy Day Fund"), $9.4 billion for use in the next budget for our kids' education - don't ask me why not! And the Gov is sitting on a pot full of cash in his Texas Enterprise Fund that he uses to reward his contributors. There is $295 million to help our schools!

Like ole Warren Chisum from Pampa says our obligation is to the tax payers - let the kids fend for themselves!

The Liberalator

Obligation?

2011-02-01T15:26:00.002-06:00

In the Glub News this morning (Feb 1), our wonderful congressmen Warren Chisum, in an article concerning anticipated cuts in education spending (of course we are already last in per capita spending in the country!) was quoted saying "we passed a bill to reduce the burden on the taxpayers. Taxpayers have told us they've had enough taxes. We have an obligation to the taxpayers." So, in a nut shell the repubs running our the Texas gummint feel NO obligation to the children of Texas to give them any kind of education - he is only obligated to the tax payers. This only confirms what I've known all along!

The Liberalator

Achmed The Dead Terrorist sings Christmas Carol

2010-12-06T23:25:00.002-06:00

2010-11-18T12:34:00.000-06:00

The race for the speaker of the Texas House of Representatives continues its nastiness, but at least I have to give Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, credit for distancing himself from the injection of hyper-Christianity and right wing silliness into the fight.
"I think it's wrong that they do it. We need to stick to the issues of the state, and that is not one of them," an article in Thursday's Houston Chronicle quotes Chisum as saying.
By recapitulation, a group of right-wing, hyper-Christian whackos have attacked current speaker Joe Strauss, R-San Antonio, because he is Jewish.
My acknowledgment of Chisum's behavior doesn't mean I believe he is redeemed as a legislator. Like most politicians, he is undertaking a politically expedient step that might get him in trouble with others who would support him.
In fact, I consider Chisum dangerous.
Like so many conservatives of his ilk — as opposed to thoughtful conservatives who understand what public policy should be about — Chisum is one of those who continues to be hypocritical about keeping government off our backs while trying to shove it into our bedrooms. I have come across a video that I have edited to show Chisum at work in the legislature in 1993. It is funny, but to some the language, even though it is spoken of the floor of the House, might be offensive. And, the late Molly Ivins quotes some folks (it's not clear who) using language that might also offend. Nevertheless, if you enjoy a laugh and are not offended by a few off-color words, take a look at the video.

But there is a more important issue at stake here. It seems there is an awful lot of silence in the Panhandle about this injection of anti-Semitism into the speaker's race. No other legislator has issued a statement; or, if they have, they have not issued one to The Amarillo Independent. Nor, has the corporately owned right-wing daily alleged newspaper jumped on this with an editorial distancing itself from this fray.
I can understand how some legislators might see this issue has too hot to handle.
I could say I don't understand why the other media hasn't reacted so negatively to this turn of events in the speaker's race. But, I do.
And for now, I will leave it at that.

Proposed downtown master developer troubled

2010-11-15T23:28:00.002-06:00

What's it all about, Wallace?

By Gina Haschke, Greg Rohloff and George Schwarz
The Amarillo Independent

The principals in the development firm that the Amarillo City Commission is considering as the master developer for downtown revitalization are no strangers to litigation, with one of the firm’s showcase Houston area projects the subject of a foreclosure and lawsuit. And, those same principals, David G. Wallace, and Costa Bajjali, are on the periphery of an ongoing Securities and Exchange Commission fraud investigation.

Last Tuesday, Wallace, co-founder and chief executive officer of Wallace Bajjali Development Partners, L.P., impressed city commissioners and staff with a presentation touting his experience with developments in his hometown of Sugar Land, where he served as mayor until 2008. He also touted his firm's developments in other cities, including Waco and the Houston area.

(See the video of Wallace’s presentation here.)

But at least one development has soured — the Creekmont Plaza mixed use commercial development in Fort Bend County.

According to a petition filed June 10, 2010, Frost National Bank foreclosed on the Creekmont Plaza Development in Missouri City.

The two men took out a loan of more than $1.9 million with Frost in August 2008 as the general and limited partners in Creekmont Plaza Partners, L.P. and personally guaranteed the loan.

“Despite demand for payment of the balance due, Mr. Wallace and Mr. Bajjali have failed to pay the balance due,” the petition alleges.

The petition states that the property was sold in a foreclosure sale in April at the Fort Bend County Courthouse. But the sale, which brought $1.1 million, was almost $820,000 short of the loan amount. At that time, taxes on the property were also overdue.

“The delinquent taxes for the years 2007 through 2009 were in the amount of $157,494 if paid in March of 2010, plus the 2010 taxes and the Defendants are jointly and severally liable to Plaintiff for the taxes plus interest thereon as allowed by law,” the petition alleges.

The petition asks for payment of the shortfall of the sale, interest, court costs and lawyer’s fees.

All the defendants have entered a general denial and, as of Monday, the case is set for trial in March 2011, according to Harris County District Court records.

A search of additional Harris County District Court records shows Wallace involved in several other lawsuits, including litigation in 1995 with Mark Thatcher, son of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Wallace’s former business partner in several United States-based businesses.

How much Downtown Amarillo, Inc. is aware of all the court actions isn’t clear.

Melissa Dailey, executive director of Downtown Amarillo, Inc., said she had done “quite a bit” of background research on the firm. She said she had not looked into the Thatcher alliance in detail, but added, “I’m more interested in his development activities here in the United States.”

When asked about a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation, she said she was “aware of the situation.”

It has little negative reflection on Wallace Bajjali, Dailey said, adding, “In fact, it’s a positive.”

Daily wouldn’t discuss the matter further, saying instead Wallace would talk about it when he was in Amarillo in the next week or two “because he knows the details much more intimately than I do.”

Several calls and repeated messages left for Wallace for comment were not returned.

The SEC investigation focuses on Kaleta Capital Management, or KCM, and a Houston business known as BizRadio, and may yet reach Wallace and Bajjali or some of their business entities.

The year-old litigation — the SEC filed suit Nov. 13, 2009,— names Albert Kaleta and KCM as defendants in a claim that they defrauded investors of $10 million.

According to a July 2010 update on the receivership website , “Based upon the recent inclusion of BizRadio in the Receivership Estate, negotiations have now been commenced with respect to potential liability of the Wallace Bajjali entities and their principals with respect to investments by members of the public in BizRadio directly, and in other related investment vehicles. To date no agreements have been reached with respect to these matters.”

On Monday, Thomas L. Taylor III, the Houston attorney who is overseeing the SEC-ordered receivership of KCM, said neither Wallace nor Bajjali or their entities are yet named in any of the court papers but he would also neither confirm nor deny that they could be pulled into the federal investigation at a later time.

In negotiations with Taylor, Wallace has paid back $92,348 and Bajjali has paid back $45,550 to date, according to the publicly available information.

Taylor said negotiations are ongoing about further repayments by Wallace and Bajjali.

Nevertheless, DAI’s Dailey said Monday, “We have not come across anything negative. When we looked into it in detail, it all was positive.”

ch-ch-ch-ch...ch-

2010-09-29T20:27:00.004-05:00

It's been a long time since I've posted here, and I no longer have time to make it a habit, but November is close and the Vice-President is telling us to stop whining.

I have an Orange Hat displayed proudly in my loving room. My left-leaning Democrat credentials are in order.

But, FWIW, here is my perspective, circa 2010: Dude chose to make teachers (and unions, and gays, and etc.) into his Sisters Souljah, dude should have known he'd lose those of us who prioritize those issues. That's the way the game is played.

You stop whining, Joe Biden.

Show us the light between Arne Duncan and Margaret Spellings, and we will vote for you. Show us progress on Don't-Ask-Don't-Tell, and we will vote for you.

Hell, just show us progress of any kind. Show us change we can believe in... not philosophically, but existentially.

You ran on change? Change something, dude. Anything.

spacedark

A Must Read

2010-08-25T14:50:00.002-05:00

Although this is dated, it's is as true today as when it was written. The site is:

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0831-02.htm

Also If you haven't read Garrison Keillor's "Home-grown Democrat" it is also a must.

Liberalator

For Moderately Confused:*

2010-08-22T21:03:00.001-05:00

On the general principle of contacting employers about the outside activities of employees you would, all things being equal, tend to be correct, but the particulars in this case are not equal.

First, it is Mr. Grisham who has drawn attention to himself, making himself a public figure. That is what demonstrations are for. By these acts he has given up a right to privacy as far as this activity and the public record are concerned. In stark contrast members of the Swingers Club have chosen to maintain their privacy and, no harm being done, should have some right to it.

Second, Mr. Grisham's motivation in contacting employers of Swingers Club members was to further his mission to expose, harass and intimidate with the explicit threat of (and realized) termination by employers. On the other hand The Amarillo Independent's inquiry could not "expose" someone who was already a public figure whose outside activities were already known. And making investigative inquiries is what journalists do (not self-appointed pastors) which was meant to illuminate, as said in the piece, whether Pantex had talked to Mr. Grisham about his outside activities.

Third, supposing certain members of the Swingers Club were in high-security positions, their private behavior (however libertine) cannot be said to pose a real risk to their employment (other than termination) or community, nor should their work influence what is essentially a passive (restricted) private behavior. The same cannot be said of Mr. Grisham, who has proven to be aggressive, threatening and deceitful, whose employment gives him access to weaponry (he’s not patrolling Pantex with a soda straw) and who therefore could, conceivably, pose a risk both to the community and his workplace.

A final and obvious point is that Mr. Schwarz’s contacting Pantex was to confirm or deny rumors that Mr. Grisham’s superiors had asked him to “cool” his outside activities. If the rumors were true it is Pantex not respecting the personal freedom of its employee, to put it in your own words, not Mr. Schwarz. In asking that this rumor be confirmed or denied Mr. Schwarz was not interfering with Mr. Grisham’s employment status or personal freedom. Mr. Grisham’s contacting of employers was to inform on employees, to deliberately harm their employment and damage their personal freedom. That is hardly the same thing.

Your proposition on all counts is therefore undermined.

Let’s not pretend here. Most anyone who believes a nature preserve is a pagan cult center or an espresso macchiato is the devil’s work has got to be off their nut. Mr. Grisham has a First Amendment right to be off his nut, but he does not have a right to impose his beliefs on others -- except in Amarillo.

Were he any other run-of-the-mill Amarillo nutcase who worked for an auto parts dealer, or ran a religious radio station, or taught history at WT, and had access to your everyday Amarillo stockpile of automatic weapons, he could be laughed off as just another extremist clown. But he is not ordinary. He works at Pantex at the pleasure of Pantex. Maybe he’s just guarding paperclips. Maybe he’s guarding W82’s. No one knows whether he’s mentally competent to do his duty or not, or whether he’s a deluded ticking time-bomb.

But we know Mr. Grisham is into taking people down, and escalating his tactics. Normally it is only a matter of time before people like him cross the line. His sympathizers want the rest of us to ignore him and do nothing. Perhaps we should just wait to watch John Alan Jones before a congressional panel trying to explain how he did nothing to stop David Grisham from blowing up an Amarillo gay bar resulting in 165,000 casualties, mostly Republican.

*With apologies for the delay. But you deserved a cogent response.

Pantex stonewalls on Grisham

2010-07-08T17:55:00.001-05:00

Reporters, editors and publishers hear rumors all the time. It comes with the territory.

Sometimes those rumors can be discounted or confirmed because people who have the information cooperate and provide the information journalists can use to craft a story.

Other times, of course, rumors stay just that because the information just isn’t out there.

Then there are the rumors that should be confirmed or denied, but the people with the information just won’t cooperate.

The latter situation exists in our own community and it should not, because it concerns our collective safety and it concerns a large institution funded with taxpayer dollars.

And my telling you about this will give you an insight into institutional arrogance right in our own backyard.

David Grisham, the force behind Repent Amarillo and its aggressive attacks on those with whom Repent and Raven Ministries disagree, is a guard at the plutonium playground north of town. An armed guard, by the way.

I’ve heard for several months that B&W Pantex has told Grisham to cool it — to be less vocal and less visible.

But Grisham scares some people. After all, he and his crowd aren’t harmless little protesters who march up and down the sidewalk spouting their beliefs.

We’ve documented extensively that Repent went after members of the swinger’s club, to the extent of calling employers. In short, those who fear Repent do so because they’re not sure if he might go off the deep end and launch some kind of assault.

Remember the Hutaree in Michigan last spring? Members of this hyper-Christian group were allegedly going to attack the police and had a cache of arms that could make for a serious assault.

Richard Rhone, a co-owner of Furrbies, is one of those people who worry about Grisham’s stability. On a couple of occasions Grisham has protested in front of the eatery on Sixth Avenue. Rhone was concerned enough to call Pantex and, according to Rhone, he spoke to Terry Cox, whom Rhone described as the head of the security contractor over on the radiation ranch.

I did what any reporter would do. I called Pantex, and, following their rules, went through one of their public information officers, in this case Laura Bailey. You can’t really talk to anyone with Pantex and working with Bailey gave me flashbacks to Los Alamos, home to Los Alamos National Lab, and one of the most dysfunctional towns I’ve ever seen. The PIOs for the lab are some of the slipperiest characters you’ll ever meet in journalism. Since LANL and Pantex work so closely together, it was no surprise that Bailey’s job wasn’t really to help the public with information about a contractor who works for the taxpayer.

One indicator that Pantex isn’t really serious about working with the public is their protocol. They don’t answer questions. They put out statements.

The next time you hear or read a story from Pantex, know that it is a totally engineered response. Bailey said it’s because everything has to be “classified.” National security, my friends, is often the refuge of a scoundrel who wishes to keep public information hidden.

So, what statements did I get from Pantex?

Here is the direct response that Bailey e-mailed to me: “B&W Pantex has not spoken to Mr. Grisham about his personal beliefs or activities conducted during his personal time.

“The opinions of Mr. Grisham do not represent or correspond with that of the company, and Mr. Grisham does not represent the company during his personal time.

(Statement attributable to John Alan Jones, Chief Counsel, B&W Pantex.)”

When I asked the direct question about whether Cox had talked to Grisham about his activities, Bailey wrote Cox “categorically denies ever having spoken to Mr. Grisham on any subject.”

And when I pushed for more information, here was the written response:

No one within the B&W Pantex management team has spoken to Mr. Grisham.

B&W Pantex has appropriately considered Mr. Grisham’s outside activities and found no employment concerns.

Mr. Grisham has a Constitutional right to express his personal opinions during his personal time so long as they conform to the law and do not involve issues of security concern. The opinions of Mr. Grisham do not represent or correspond with that of the company, and Mr. Grisham does not represent the company during his personal time.

B&W Pantex has no appropriate basis of concern to this point involving Mr. Grisham’s activities outside of work. It is not appropriate for the company to speculate on issues with our employees, therefore, B&W Pantex will not provide further information on this subject.

Then there is the cute little line, “(Statement attributable to John Alan Jones, Chief Counsel, B&W Pantex.)”

It’s laughable, really, to think I am going to play this silly game. I didn’t talk to Jones and I am not going to attribute any of this stonewalling to him.

So, while Pantex regales us with its wonderful safety record, we are never going to really know if one of its guards is a risk to the community.

It’s a neat little package we’re getting from nuclear nirvana.

Our tax dollars at work.

George Schwarz: Editor and publisher of the Amarillo Independent. george@amarilloindy.com

UPDATE – Top Globe-News editor gone

2010-06-30T07:57:00.002-05:00

The Amarillo Independent has unconfirmed reports that Dawn Dressler, executive editor at the Amarillo Globe-News is no longer with the paper.
Dressler’s blog is no longer on the Globe-News’ website.
And Tuesday evening, Publisher Les Simpson and Valerie Bintliff were seen going through Dressler’s office, according to a source close to the situation.
The Independent is seeking further information and awaiting an e-mail response from Simpson.

America Founded As Muslim Nation

2010-06-27T20:33:00.003-05:00

There are many strange and peculiar claims made by fundamentalists and right-wingers to support their notion that America was founded as a "Christian Nation". Many are cherry-picked quotations from the Founding Fathers or arguments about the origins of our laws that are entirely specious. Few "proofs", however, seem as contrived and tenuous as pointing to the original founding documents and claiming that "even the Constitution of the United States was dated ‘in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven’”.

This line is buried in the ratification clause, Article VII, the very last article of the main part of Constitution. This all too slender reed is simply evidence of mere convention, just as A.D. or B.C. is used to indicate periods in history rather than one's religious persuasion. To give "in the year of our Lord" more import is like arguing the Soviet Union (when it existed) wasn't really atheist because it used the Gregorian Calendar out of faith instead of convenience.¹

Interestingly, a mere glance at the Declaration of Independence, whether in .pdf form, facsimile, or even the original in Dick Cheney's bunker being used as a coaster beside his easy lounger, shows the very first line proclaiming: "In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776."

What we should first notice is no “in the year of our Lord” but the date and its use of Arabic numerals, clearly an overt reference to Islam. July is, of course, the month named after Julius Caesar, a pagan Roman dictator. The rest of the phrase and the document are written in English, which conservatives have never given a second thought to but which has great significance.

Because fundamentalists believe the King James Bible is the original Bible, they quite naturally think English is a Christian language. They seem totally unaware that English had its origins amongst the Angles, Saxons and Jutes, who were pagans.

Recognizing this, the Founding Fathers, had they truly desired to establish a "Christian Nation" based on Judeo-Christian values, would have chosen a traditional Judeo-Christian language with which to express those values. Hebrew immediately comes to mind (from the Judeo part) thus “The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America.” would have appeared as
“ההצהרה האחידה של השלושה עשר ארה"ב של אמ”.

It must be remembered, however, that the Declaration of Independence was being addressed to the King of England, George III, who, like George Bush II, was not the brightest bulb in the box, and therefore a Hebrew text showing up from the colonies might have been a tad confusing for him.

Another possible language was Aramaic, the very tongue Jesus used, but perhaps there was a dearth of Aramaic speakers in the early colonies. Greek, the original language of the New Testament, was another excellent candidate for Judeo-Christian founding documents, and the famous opening line of the Constitution would have appeared as “Εμείς πληθυσμός των Ηνωμένων Πολιτειών, προκειμένου να συγκροτηθεί μια τελειότερη συνδικαλιστική οργάνωση”.² But as we all know Greek did not catch on in American life and never got beyond college fraternities and sororities.

We are left then with English, and forced to conclude that its use as a pagan language was quite deliberate, and that the Declaration of Independence is in fact a pagan document with a special allusion to the Muslim religion. The only nod the Declaration of Independence actually makes to Christianity per se, and this out of convention, is to the calendrical system established by Pope Gregory (Gregorian Calendar) instead of Julius Caesar³(Julian Calendar) by setting the date as July 4th instead of June 23rd.⁴

Let us return now to the non-Christian influences in the Constitution of the United States of America.

Once again we discover that it is written in English, a prime indicator that it is a non-Christian document. Further, we notice that the enumeration of the Articles in the Constitution is in Roman numerals. As the founders were not papists or Jews who still use Roman numerals to date their encyclicals or movies, one can only conclude that this is a reference to the pagan Roman numbering system of Republican and Imperial Rome, which, to put it lightly, found Christians rather suspect.

Coming after the Roman numerical headers we find Arabic numerals to mark the sections and clauses. Once again this is the Founding Fathers' obvious cultural and religious reference to Islam. It even demonstrates their knowledge of history, its import, and their desire to convey it by subtle means: Mohammedanism came a thousand years after the Roman Republic, therefore Arabic numerals come after Roman numerals in their text.

Returning to the headers, the use of the term "Article" to delineate the main parts of the Constitution demonstrates that journalists (who write articles) heavily influenced the writing of the Constitution. This is further confirmed by their plug for a free press in Article I of the Amendments. Some scholars argue that English (i.e., pagan) teachers were involved and making double-entendres on definite and indefinite articles, but as this is too obscure it is not generally accepted.

The subdivision of the Articles into sections and their hidden references has long been ignored. Had journalists or English teachers determined the nomenclature of these divisions one would have expected the use of the terms "Paragraph" and Sub-Paragraph". The word "section", however, means an entirely different group is behind this organizational pattern, and considering that the Land Ordinance of 1785 had been passed just two years before, dividing up new townships into 36 mile-square blocks known as "Sections", we have our answer in land surveyors, developers and property agents crafting a major portion of the Constitution.

Further evidence of land ownership shaping the very heart of the Constitution is on display in the Bill of Rights. Each Article of the Bill is an Amendment, which would go unnoticed were it not drawn from gentlemen farmers and gardeners who used soil amendments every day. Were they telling us, cryptically, that the Bill of Rights was the soil amendment to the Constitution, allowing the nation to grow and flourish?

Finally, had the Founding Fathers wanted to establish a truly "Christian Nation" founded on Judeo-Christian principals they would not have been shy about expressing those principals in the founding documents. They had a perfect model in the Bible, and could have cited each line in the Declaration of Independence and Constitution by chapter and verse (e.g. I Book 8:15). Instead they used non-Christian, pagan, and highly secular terms. They were so averse to Christianity that the clause in Article VI against a religious test for holding office, long interpreted as an enlightened exclusion of religion from government, is in fact a reflection of the Founding Fathers' distaste for Sunday school pop quizzes.

We can now see why the Constitutional Convention was held in secret and few records were kept. In a country heavily populated by fundamentalist Christians a secular government established by Muslim-pagan-journalist-English teaching-land surveying-gardeners might not have gone over so well. Yet over two centuries later right-wing Christians claim the nation's origins as their own. This is either a tribute to the Founding Fathers' clever subtlety, or conservative Christianity's fundamental stupidity.

¹ Some Christians did in fact use this argument during the Cold War so that really, we had nothing to fear from a nuclear armed Christian Soviet Union. The Gregorian Calendar is named after Pope Gregory XIII, Bishop of Rome from May 13, 1572 to April 10, 1585.
² “We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union,”
³ Also inventor of “Et tu, Brute?”, Caesar Salad, and Orange Julius.
⁴ See second sentence of footnote No. 1

BP's sordid history from BBC

2010-06-20T21:34:00.003-05:00

From BBC, the sordid history of BP's corruption:

In 2006, a US congressional hearing accused BP of "unacceptable" neglect of pipelines in Alaska after it was forced to shut down oil operations in Prudhoe Bay because of leaking pipes.

In 2007, the company was fined a total of $373m by the US Department of Justice for environmental crimes and committing fraud.

The fine included $50m relating to a Texas refinery explosion in 2005 that killed 15 people and injured 170 more.

The largest single fine of $303m related to a price manipulation scam in the propane market.

Last October, BP was fined a further $87m for failing to correct safety hazards at the Texas refinery.

Jackboots On Rye

2010-06-17T21:13:00.004-05:00

The ~~citizens~~ residents (AP style) of Amarillo have pretty strong opinions about private property rights and intrusive government.

Years ago there was a gentleman who had turned his property into a veritable junkyard. For years the neighbors complained that the overgrown lot, ramshackle buildings and rusting hulks constituted an eyesore, health hazard, and threat to their property values. The city commission, after numerous letters asking the owner to tidy up, danced around the idea of hiring someone to forcibly do the deed. The Amarillo Globe News editorialized that whatever menace garbage and rats and filth might pose to certain sensibilities and the public welfare, the commission was correct to proceed cautiously, to tread lightly, on what obviously constituted a government intrusion upon inviolate private property.

And who can forget the brouhaha over the proposed ban on smoking in restaurants and bars? Whatever the merits of public health or lives to be saved, private property rights trumped all. It was argued that such a ban would be government run amuck, a gross violation of Texans' sacrosanct privacy and property rights. If passed it would lead to an erosion of those rights, allowing government ultimately to invade homes and bedrooms without let or hindrance.

You would think then that truly, here in Amarillo, a man's home is his castle, well guarded by law, tradition and opinion, and even should the moat alligators eat a neighbor's dog or child or two, it would be seen, however grudgingly, as their own damn fault as trespassers had it coming.

Imagine then the shock of a private property owner (i.e., yours truly) receiving a letter from the local government (i.e., city hall) charging that said property owner’s property had become a public nuisance.

It was not because of your typical, overlookable "nuisance" like radioactive drinking water or toxins in the food or cow flatulence in the air. It was because, of all things, “HIGH GRASS” (i.e., the lawn needed to be mowed).

This ominous notice was no friendly reminder like those sent by Corleone Home Savings telling you you're a week behind on a 200% interest loan. It threatens action, with another inspection to be held on a date printed in portentous bold numbers, and a contractor to come do the job if you don’t do it, plus an administrative fee and taxes, and a lien against your property if you don’t pay up, all in the name of keeping “Amarillo clean”, a city festooned with plastic grocery bags on every elm and barbed-wire fence.

There is no denying the grass had gotten a bit tall, tall enough to hide the pants on a herd of midget buffalo, if you could get them to wear pants and stand on the Chevy up on blocks, but yours truly has not been well lately and has a bad back, which has impaired yours truly’s lawn-mowering capabilities. That doesn’t carry much truck with the Building and Safety Department, but is the restricted visibility of midget buffalo britches a legitimate reason for limited government to impose itself upon a free people?

Incredibly, the law states that not only are you responsible for the grass on your own property, you are responsible for the grass and weeds between the property line and the curb, which is public (Sec. 8-3-118). That means a private ~~citizen~~ resident (AP style) is being held directly responsible for property in the public domain. Isn’t that socialism, or worse, communism? In Amarillo, Texas?

Perhaps yours truly would have been left alone if yours truly owned a derelict, vacant building downtown, visited only by pigeons and vagrants (9th and Harrison), or like Mr. Cumquat, had a sign in the front yard (conforming to regulations of course) demanding “GET U.S. OUT OF THE F**KING U.N.” (sans ** by the way). These offend certain sensibilities but as they comport with the collective conservative view they escape the ire of the local constabulary. Conservatives regularly excuse their offenses by responding “do not read it then”, or “do not listen to it then”. Why cannot yours truly simply say “if high grass offends thee do not look at it then”?

If conservatives can argue their green cash is free speech, why shouldn’t yours truly argue that high green grass is free speech? Isn’t the city threatening censorship? Isn’t our so-called limited and conservative government attacking our third most precious liberty (the right to bear arms and weapons of mass destruction being first)?

And if yours truly’s high grass is private property, isn’t the government threatening to confiscate it? Under the Constitution the government may take private property for the public good, but not without fair compensation. Yours truly is not being compensated, but being forced to pay for the very taking of that property. That is not only unconstitutional, it is socialistic, and probably communistic, right here in Amarillo, Texas!

Under Texas law yours truly has a right to defend yours truly’s private property, and under the Castle Doctrine yours truly has the right to use force of arms to prevent theft. Should some trespasser come to steal yours truly’s high grass by mowing the lawn yours truly has a right to shoot them down for such an illegal, unconstitutional, socialistic, and communistic act.

If this unconstitutional law is allowed to stand it will only be the beginning. It is the thin edge of the wedge. If a tyrannical government can tell you to mow your lawn what is next? Will the fescue fascists tell you what lawn you can grow? Will the Bermuda Bolsheviks take over your garden? Won’t it all lead, ultimately, to the government invading your home and regulating what size your terrarium must be and how to arrange those little stones around the fake blue pond and when to put water in it so the tree frogs don’t shrivel up? What despotism! What totalitarianism!

Now, you might be thinking by this screed that yours truly may have some objection to Sec. 8-3-118. Actually yours truly does not. It is in the public interest to have such a law. Yours truly would be worried if yours truly saw midget buffalo in the neighbor’s yard, especially if they were wearing trousers. What yours truly truly objects to is city commissioners, business owners, and Amarillo Globe News editorialists pretending that all powers of government end at the property line, while private property owners cannot be compelled to act to protect the public's welfare.

Because of them people still have the freedom to die from secondhand smoke, while the common man, forced by law, toils at his lawn to maintain public taste. Thank goodness corpses do not pile up in the street like grass clippings.

So Ron, Scott, or Les, the next time you’re having your lawn mowed think about all the lung cancer patients who have gone on to greener pastures, and what complete and utter hypocrites you are.

Report on president’s visit to Louisiana

2010-05-02T17:26:00.002-05:00

The Amarillo Independent has e-mail access to reports from pool reporters covering President Barack Obama’s visit to Venice, La. to assess the impact of the massive oil flow from BP’s now-sunk Deepwater Horizon oil rig.

According to Anne Kornblut of the Washington Post:

Obama emerged from his hour-long meeting inside the Coast Guard station into a light drizzle that instantly became a downpour the moment he stepped outside.”

He walked to a driveway to shake hands with a line of Coast Guard members waiting to meet him, then strode to a podium to make remarks. Speaking in the driving rain — and joking about it at one point — Obama began with a statement on the Times Square incident, calling it a potentially deadly act but refraining from calling it terrorism.

He took no questions.

On the Gulf Coast, he described the oil spill as a massive and potentially unprecedented disaster, and went through the federal effort — saying, again, that the administration had been prepared for the worst from the start. The comments at the podium were broadcast live on TV and there will be a transcript. The logistics of this trip are such that a quickie transcript is impossible for now.

After speaking, Obama boarded the motorcade and drove to do an OTR nearby, meeting with a group of five fishermen under a tent by the roadside. Accompanied by the president of the local parish (county), Obama talked to the men about the recovery effort and said the first priority is plugging the oil spill. After that, he said, protecting the estuaries would be the next priority. And he assured them that BP is on the hook to compensate for financial losses. Obama summoned Thad Allen to join him in talking to the men at one point.

Civility?

2010-03-24T17:41:00.002-05:00

John Boehner just said democrats are trying to "stifle debate through the disguise of Civility."

What does Boehner know about civility? Let have no civil debates - curse folks, put cross hairs on their locations, "reload," spit on them, call them derogatory names, obstruct - that's the way toward bipartisanship and getting things done!

Liberalator

Bringing Dignitude Back To Presidenting

2010-03-24T10:06:00.002-05:00

Like I needed one more reason to think Dubya is a sociopathic f***, he gets caught on film in Haiti, wiping his hand on President Clinton's shirt after shaking hands with a Haitian.

Seriously, though. . . Dubya is an as*ho** is NOT breaking news . . .

But if Clinton had done this, FAUX would run this video 24 hrs straight, with the headline "Bill Clinton; Haitians Are Diseased?" or some such horse sh**.

-Prodigal Son

"Fair and Balanced"

2010-03-23T18:01:00.002-05:00

For those of you not familiar with the (cough, cough) Amarillo Globe the headline on Monday the 22nd, the historic day following the signing of the Insurance Reform Bill was "Top Tech execs spend $112k."

Back on page four (at least above the fold!) was "Congress clears historic health bill." Certainly shows who runs the paper. (It goes without saying that Mac "the poor man's representative" Thornberry voted NO.

Liberalator

AMEN!

2010-03-23T13:51:00.002-05:00

Here is a wonderful column that you will never see in the (cough, cough) Amarillo Globe.

click here

From the link: "This is the party of trickle down and weapons of mass destruction, the party of birthers and death-panel lunatics. This is the party that genuflects at the altar of right-wing talk radio, with its insane, nauseating, nonstop commitment to hatred and bigotry."

Go read the whole thing - it's worth it. (Written by Bob Herbert)

Liberalator

We Have Overcome

2010-03-23T12:28:00.002-05:00

This is a long post. It is ripped COMPLETELY from Russell King at talking points memo.

This must be passed on, communicated, posted everywhere, OVER AND OVER.

Just Read IT ALL, it is manifest.

-Prodigal Son

_____________________________________________________________

Dear Conservative Americans,

The years have not been kind to you. I grew up in a profoundly Republican home, so I can remember when you wore a very different face than the one we see now. You've lost me and you've lost most of America. Because I believe having responsible choices is important to democracy, I'd like to give you some advice and an invitation.

First, the invitation: Come back to us.

Now the advice. You're going to have to come up with a platform that isn't built on a foundation of cowardice: fear of people with colors, religions, cultures and sex lives that differ from your own; fear of reform in banking, health care, energy; fantasy fears of America being transformed into an Islamic nation, into social/commun/fasc-ism, into a disarmed populace put in internment camps; and more. But you have work to do even before you take on that task.

Your party -- the GOP -- and the conservative end of the American political spectrum has become irresponsible and irrational. Worse, it's tolerating, promoting and celebrating prejudice and hatred. Let me provide some expamples -- by no means an exhaustive list -- of where the Right as gotten itself stuck in a swamp of hypocrisy, hyperbole, historical inaccuracy and hatred.

If you're going to regain your stature as a party of rational, responsible people, you'll have to start by draining this swamp:

Hypocrisy

You can't flip out -- and threaten impeachment - when Dems use a prlimentary procedure (deem and pass) that you used repeatedly (more than 35 times in just one session and more than 100 times in all!), that's centuries old and which the courts have supported. Especially when your leaders admit it all.

You can't vote and scream against the stimulus package and then take credit for the good it's done in your own district (happily handing out enormous checks representing money that you voted against, is especially ugly) -- 114 of you (at last count) did just that -- and it's even worse when you secretly beg for more.

You can't fight against your own ideas just because the Dem president endorses your proposal.

You can't call for a pay-as-you-go policy, and then vote against your own ideas.

Are they "unlawful enemy combatants" or are they "prisoners of war" at Gitmo? You can't have it both ways.

You can't carry on about the evils of government spending when your family has accepted more than a quarter-million dollars in government handouts.

You can't refuse to go to a scheduled meeting, to which you were invited, and then blame the Dems because they didn't meet with you.

You can't rail against using teleprompters while using teleprompters. Repeatedly.

You can't rail against the bank bailouts when you supported them as they were happening.

You can't be for immigration reform, then against it .

You can't enjoy socialized medicine while condemning it.

You can't flip out when the black president puts his feet on the presidential desk when you were silent about white presidents doing the same. Bush. Ford.

You can't complain that the president hasn't closed Gitmo yet when you've campaigned to keep Gitmo open.

You can't flip out when the black president bows to foreign dignitaries, as appropriate for their culture, when you were silent when the white presidents did the same. Bush. Nixon. Ike. You didn't even make a peep when Bush held hands and kissed (on the mouth) leaders of countries that are not on "kissing terms" with the US.

You can't complain that the undies bomber was read his Miranda rights under Obama when the shoe bomber was read his Miranda rights under Bush and you remained silent. (And, no, Newt -- the shoe bomber was not a US citizen either, so there is no difference.)

You can't attack the Dem president for not personally* publicly condemning a terrorist event for 72 hourswhen you said nothing about the Rep president waiting 6 days in an eerily similar incident (and, even then, he didn't issue any condemnation). *Obama administration did the day of the event.

You can't throw a hissy fit, sound alarms and cry that Obama freed Gitmo prisoners who later helped plan the Christmas Day undie bombing, when -- in fact -- only one former Gitmo detainee, released by Dick Cheney and George W. Bush, helped to plan the failed attack.

You can't condemn blaming the Republican president for an attempted terror attack on his watch, then blame the Dem president for an attemted terror attack on his.

You can't mount a boycott against singers who say they're ashamed of the president for starting a war, but remain silent when another singer says he's ashamed of the president and falsely calls him a Moaist who makes him want to throw up and says he ought to be in jail.

You can't cry that the health care bill is too long, then cry that it's too short.

You can't support the individual mandate for health insurance, then call it unconstitutional when Dems propose it and campaign against your own ideas.

You can't demand television coverage, then whine about it when you get it. Repeatedly.

You can't praise criminal trials in US courts for terror suspects under a Rep president, then call it "treasonous" under a Dem president.

You can't propose ideas to create jobs, and then work against them when the Dems put your ideas in a bill.

You can't be both pro-choice and anti-choice.

You can't damn someone for failing to pay $900 in taxes when you've paid nearly $20,000 in IRS fines.

You can't condemn critizising the president when US troops are in harms way, then attack the president when US troops are in harms way , the only difference being the president's party affiliation (and, by the way, armed conflict does NOT remove our right and our duty as Americans to speak up).

You can't be both for cap-and-trade policy and against it.

You can't vote to block debate on a bill, then bemoan the lack of 'open debate'.

If you push anti-gay legislation and make anti-gay speeches, you should probably take a pass on having gay sex, regardless of whether it's 2004 or 2010. This is true, too, if you're taking GOP money and giving anti-gay rants on CNN. Taking right-wing money and GOP favors to write anti-gay stories for news sites while working as a gay prostitute, doubles down on both the hypocrisy and the prostitution. This is especially true if you claim your anti-gay stand is God's stand, too.

When you chair the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children, you can't send sexy emails to 16-year-old boys (illegal anyway, but you made it hypocritical as well).

You can't criticize Dems for not doing something you didn't do while you held power over the past 16 years, especially when the Dems have done more in one year than you did in 16.

You can't decry "name calling" when you've been the most consistent and outrageous at it. And the most vile.

You can't spend more than 40 years hating, cutting and trying to kill Medicare, and then pretend to be the defenders of Medicare

You can't praise the Congressional Budget Office when it's analysis produces numbers that fit your political agenda, then claim it's unreliable when it comes up with numbers that don't.

You can't vote for X under a Republican president, then vote against X under a Democratic president. Either you support X or you don't. And it makes it worse when you change your position merely for the sake obstructionism.

You can't call a reconcilliation out of bounds when you used it repeatedly.

You can't spend tax-payer money on ads against spending tax-payer money.

You can't condemn individual health insurance mandates in a Dem bill, when the madates were your idea.

You can't demand everyone listen to the generals when they say what fits your agenda, and then ignore them when they don't.

You can't whine that it's unfair when people accuse you of exploiting racism for political gain, when your party's former leader admits you've been doing it for decades.

You can't portray yourself as fighting terrorists when you openly and passionately support terrorists.

You can't complain about a lack of bipartisanship when you've routinely obstructed for the sake of political gain -- threatening to filibuster at least 100 pieces of legislation in one session, far more than any other since the procedural tactic was invented -- and admitted it. Some admissions are unintentional, others are made proudly. This is especially true when the bill is the result of decades of compromise between the two parties and is filled with your own ideas.

You can't question the loyalty of Department of Justice lawyers when you didn't object when your own Republican president appointed them.

You can't preach and try to legislate "Family Values" when you: take nude hot tub dips with teenagers (and pay them hush money); cheat on your wife with a secret lover and lie about it to the world; cheat with a staffer's wife (and pay them off with a new job); pay hookers for sex while wearing a diaper and cheatingon your wife; or just enjoying an old fashioned non-kinky cheating on your wife; try to have gay sex in a public toilet; authorize the rape of children in Iraqi prisons to coherce their parents into providing information; seek, look at or have sex with children; replace a guy who cheats on his wife with a guy who cheats on his pregnant wife with his wife's mother;

Hyperbole

You really need to dissassociate with those among you who:

assert that people making a quarter-million dollars a year can barely make ends meet or that $1 million "isn't a lot of money";
say that "Comrade" Obama is a "Bolshevik" who is "taking cues from Lenin";
ignore the many times your buddies use a term that offends you and complain only when a Dem says it;
liken political opponents to murderers, rapists, and "this Muslim guy" that "offed his wife's head" or call then "un-American";
say Obama "wants his plan to fail...so that he can make the case for bank nationalization and vindicate his dream of a socialist economy";
equate putting the good of the people ahead of your personal fortunes with terrorism;
smear an entire major religion with the actions of a few fanatics;
say that the president wants to "annihilate us";
compare health care reform with the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a Bolshevik plot the attack on 9/11,or reviving the ghosts of communist dictators (update: it's also not Armageddon);
equate our disease-fighting stem cell research with "what the Nazis did";
call a bill passed by the majority of both houses of Congress, by members of Congress each elected by a majority in their districts, an unconscionable abuse of power, a violation of the presidential oath or "the end of representative government";
shout "baby killer" at a member of Congress on the floor of the House, especially one who so fought against abortion rights that he nearly killed health care reform (in fact, a little decorum, a little respect for our national institutions and the people and the values they represent, would be refreshing -- cut out the shouting, the swearing and the obscenities);
prove your machismo by claiming your going to "crash a party" to which you're officially invited;
claim that Obama is pushing America's "submission to Shariah";
question the patriotism of people upholding cherished American values and the rule of law;
claim the president is making us less safe without a hint of evidence;
call a majority vote the "tyranny of the minority," even if you meant to call it tyranny of the majority -- it's democracy, not tyranny;
call the president's support of a criminal trial for a terror suspect "treasonous" (especially when you supported the same thing when the president shared your party);
call the Pope the anti-Christ;
assert that the constitutionally mandated census is an attempt to enslave us;
accuse opponents of being backed by Arab slave-drivers, drunk and suicidal;
equate family planing with eugenics or Nazism;
accuse the president of changing the missile defense program's logo to match his campaign logo and reflect what you say is his secret Muslim identity;
accuse political opponents of being totalitarians, socialists, communists, fascists, Marxists; terrorist sympathizers, McCarthy-like, Nazis or drug pushers; and
advocate a traitors act like seccession, violent revolution , military coup or civil war (just so we're clear: sedition is a bad thing).

History

If you're going to use words like socialism, communism and fascism, you must have at least a basic understanding of what those words mean (hint: they're NOT synonymous!)

You can't cut a leading Founding Father out the history books because you've decided you don't like his ideas.

You cant repeatedly assert that the president refuses to say the word "terrorism" or say we're at war with terror when we have an awful lot of videotape showing him repeatedly assailing terrorism and using those exact words.

If you're going to invoke the names of historical figures, it does not serve you well to whitewash them. Especially this one.

You can't just pretend historical events didn't happen in an effort to make a political opponent look dishonest or to make your side look better. Especially these events. (And, no, repeating it doesn't make it better.)

You can't say things that are simply and demonstrably false: health care reform will not push people out of their private insurance and into a government-run program ; health care reform (which contains a good many of your ideas and very few from the Left) is a long way from "socialist utopia"; health care reform is not "reparations"; nor does health care reform create "death panels".

Hatred

You have to condemn those among you who:

call members of Congress n*gger and f*ggot;
elected leaders who say "I'm a proud racist";
state that America has been built by white people;
say that poor people are poor because they're rotten people, call them "parasitic garbage" or say they shouldn't be allowed to vote;
call women bitches and prostitutes just because you don't like their politics ( re - pea -ted - ly );
assert that the women who are serving our nation in uniform are hookers;
mock and celebrate the death of a grandmother because you disagree with her son's politics;
declare that those who disagree with you are shown by that disagreement to be not just "Marxist radicals" but also monsters and a deadly disease killing the nation (this would fit in the hyperbole and history categories, too);
joke about blindness;
advocate euthanizing the wife of your political opponent;
taunt people with incurable, life-threatening diseases -- especially if you do it on a syndicated broadcast;
equate gay love with bestiality -- involving horses or dogs or turtles or ducks -- or polygamy, child molestation, pedophilia;
casually assume that only white males look "like a real American";
assert presidential power to authorize torture, torture a child by having his testacles crushed in front of his parents to get them to talk, order the massacre of a civilian village and launch a nuclear attack without the consent of Congress;
attack children whose mothers have died;
call people racists without producing a shred of evidence that they've said or done something that would even smell like racism -- same for invoking racially charged "dog whistle" words (repeatedly);
condemn the one thing that every major religion agrees on;
complain that we no longer employ the tactics we once used to disenfranchise millions of Americansbecause of their race;
blame the victims of natural disasters and terrorist attacks for their suffering and losses;
celebrate violence , joke about violence, prepare for violence or use violent imagery, "fun" politicalviolence, hints of violence, threats of violence (this one is rather explicit), suggestions of violence oractual violence (and, really, suggesting anal rape wth a hot piece of metal is beyond the pale); and
incite insurrection telling people to get their guns ready for a "bloody battle" with the president of the United States.

Oh, and I'm not alone: One of your most respected and decorated leaders agrees with me.

So, dear conservatives, get to work. Drain the swamp of the conspiracy nuts, the bold-faced liars undeterred by demonstrable facts, the overt hypocrisy and the hatred. Then offer us a calm, responsible, grownup agenda based on your values and your vision for America. We may or may not agree with your values and vision, but we'll certainly welcome you back to the American mainstream with open arms. We need you.

(Anticipating your initial response: No there is nothing that even comes close to this level of wingnuttery on the American Left.)

Written by Russell King

Genius!

2010-03-15T16:47:00.001-05:00

Absofrakkin'lute GENIUS!

Excerpt. . .

"Study Questions:

1). During a televised 1954 confrontation with McCarthy, Harvard-educated liberal lawyer Joseph Welch melodramatically declared, "Have you no sense of decency, sir?" Do you think this was a case of "shooting the messenger" because liberals were so embarrassed about their woeful record in fighting Communism?

2). Compare and contrast Senator McCarthy and Vice President Dick Cheney. Based on your personal experience, explain why liberals are so reluctant to face up to the dangerous threat from Islamic terrorism.

3). How many card-carrying Communists do you believe are currently in the State Department under the leadership of President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton?"

-Prodigal Son

Update From the Armed State of Jesusstan (Formerly Texas)

2010-03-15T11:41:00.004-05:00

OH FU**! Obama is going to INDOCTRINATE our children!!!! Oh . . . IOKIYAR

Seriously, the Texas Board of Uneducation wants to glorify St. Ronnie? Don't forget to include. . .

The 29 members of his administration that were convicted of crimes.
His quadrupling the national debt.
The Iran-Contra scandal.
How he thought trees were the cause of air pollution.
Ketchup is a vegetable peeps!
How he often failed to recognize members of his own Cabinet when he met them in public.

Any other Ronnie Raygun hits from the 80's I am missing?

-Prodigal Son

no doubt

2010-03-11T17:13:00.001-06:00

PLEASE PASS HEALTHCARE!!!!

2010-03-09T11:40:00.004-06:00

Especially for THIS reason:

Rush Rumproar: I'll leave the US if healthcare passes.

Responding to a caller who asked him where he would go for health care if Congress enacts reform, Limbaugh replied,

"I don't know. I'll just tell you this, if this passes and it's five years from now and all that stuff gets implemented -- I am leaving the country. I'll go to Costa Rica."

Have a listen:

WAIT FOR IT. . . Rushie, we all KNOW how much you love those viagra filled SEX romps in the carribean!

WAIT FOR IT . . . Costa Rica has GOVERNMENT run universal healthcare. LOL

Ahhhh. . . FEEL the irony!

-Prodigal Son

For those who know Bruce Beck

2010-03-06T17:21:00.002-06:00

I have been asked by Tanya Beck to convey to Bruce's friends that his condition is more grave than she thought earlier this week. Bruce had a seizure and fell out of bed last night, breaking his wrist and cutting his left eye. He was admitted to Baptist St. Anthony's Hospital this morning and is expected to go to home hospice tomorrow.

While the oncologist has tried to hold out hope so Bruce would keep fighting, the doctor said today that the brain has shifted, in part due to swelling.

Tanya would like to sell one of their cars, a 2008 Toyota (I think Camry) for $13,900 (23K miles). So, one way you can help is pass the word on a well-maintained car being available.

Otherwise, thoughts and prayers are the only things we can think of now. I will keep folks informed as I finds out more.

Amarillo On Dailykos! Wait. . . .Oh, F***!

2010-03-06T07:28:00.004-06:00

Christian 'Army of God' Militia terrorizes Amarillo Texas is the headline, and I think that about covers this unholy Taliban domestic terror group located in yellow city.

Yes, Taliban. Yes, terror group. Terror is a tactic. These supposed Christians use the power of the mob to scare the sh** out of people minding their own business. Just like the Taliban, they believe they are called to repress anyone not of their twisted mindset.

Just look at their website, NO I WILL NOT LINK. It has an overwhelmingly military feel to it. These domestic terrorists showed up in hoodies and fatigues.

On the other hand. . . looking at their map, who knew Amarillo was such a rocking place! Woo! HELLLOOO Vegas east! LOL

The Texas Observer has a great article HERE

WE NEED TO UPDATE OUR RECANT AMARILLO MAP, can anyone please help? Post suggestions in comments please.

-Prodigal Son

UPDATE: Is it wrong to hope that a high profile Rethug gets caught up in this hooha?

Stupak is as Stupak Does

2010-03-05T08:52:00.003-06:00

Holy sweet frakkin' Mary mother of God. . . Bart Stupak has reared his Christianist FAMILY approved head as health care reform finally gets close to a wrap.

His beef is that he does not want taxpayers to pay for abortions. HEY BART. . . it is already illegal to do that.

This does not stop the crazy from manifesting itself however . . .

And what is this Family thing? A far-right evangelical house in DC that the "Correct" kind of Christians get to stay in for minimal rent.

Governor "appalachian trail" Sanford, and Senator "Cuckholded husband makes payoff" Ensign were also residents. SEE HERE

This place brings you closer to the message of the Lamb of God by helping you rendezvous with your mistresses, cover up lying and graft, and promoting the belief that you are chosen by God himself to be a political bigwig.

-Prodigal Son

Thursday Accountability Check

2010-03-04T06:39:00.002-06:00

Just googled "Vernon Hunter" and "Amarillo Globe News": Hits?

ZERO, ZIPPO, NADA

No mention = acceptance of domestic terrorism for the local bird cage liner. Prove me wrong guys?

Take a sec this AM, and PLEASE READ David Cay Johnston's article in the Huff Post mentioning Mr. Hunter.

It is outstanding.

-Prodigal Son

Rangel, another corrupt one

2010-03-03T21:50:00.007-06:00

George Schwarz wrote:

The Associated Press reported the following Wednesday

The Associated Press reported the following Wednesday, “Rangel, 79 and a member of Congress for the past 39 years, stepped aside just days after being admonished for breaking House rules by accepting corporate-financed travel.

He called his exile temporary. But he still faces inquiries by the House ethics committee over late payment of income taxes on a rental villa he owns in the Dominican Republic, his use of House stationery to solicit corporate donations to an educational institution that bears his name, and belated disclosure of hundreds of thousands of dollars in previously unlisted wealth.”

It doesn’t matter what side of the aisle the person is on, this is what has created a plutocracy in Congress. If every incumbent hits the bricks in November, it can only help us.

America Founded on Christian Principles: Jim Bunning, Horrible Bastard Edition

2010-03-03T13:00:00.003-06:00

"Brother Can You Spare A Job?"
From the "Bush in 30 Seconds" Contest in . . . 2004! WTF!
_______________________

That cartoon is six years old, and it hits home even more NOW.

Can anyone really argue that the senate is not broken when one jackhole from KY (Jim Bunning) can crap on tens of thousands of our most vulnerable American families for 5 days by holding up unemployment and cobra benefits? Shout obscenities on the floor and pay no price?

Why the f*** would someone do that? He stated that any new spending should be paid for. . . . oh, except for Iraq, the irresponsible Bush tax cuts, and eight years of budget busting sh*t he wanted.

If you watched Harry Reid's press conference about it the other day . . . he sounded less like the FRIKKIN LEADER OF THE SENATE's majority party, and more like gramps bitching about the nursing home cafeteria moving Salisbury Steak day to Monday's from Sunday.

How did Texas' . . . ahem. . . representation do? Cornyn voted against American families today, and Kay Bailey Rocket Scientist did not show up. HERE

If we had ANY kind of self-respecting media in this country Bunning would be made a laughing stock.

This comity thing as a virtue in the senate . . . I dunno, this country deserves better methinks.

-Prodigal Son

Gov. Goodhair beats Kay Bailey Rocket Scientist

2010-03-03T06:38:00.003-06:00

Reuters calls it a victory due to an "Anti-Washington Message". More like an anti-American one (helloooo secession!)

However you slice it, Perry appealed to the fringe and now wants to be the governor of crazytown, USA. It will be interesting to watch during the election. Does he come back toward the center?

GOOD NEWS:
This was a long EXPENSIVE primary for Rethugs. BONUS! There is lots of crazy to use in campaign commercials.

Bill White. has been in campaign mode with no challenger.

BAD NEWS:
The Gov will get some tea-bagger friendlies to newly redistricted congressional seats, this will suck some air out of the election.

Who really gives two sh**s about Perry, though. How do we help get Bill White a victory?

Define Rick NOW before he defines White.

Rick Perry: A DECADE OF FAILURE! He's unstable, divisive, anti-family, unable to lead, and anti-small business.

IMHO, Mark Ames has it about right, "Look, here’s the Cliff Notes version: Americans are mean, and they don’t like losers. " Yeah, and Texans double that.

Republicans are evil bastards, they have embraced their inner crazy, and they play to win.

Lets kick their teeth down their throats in this election.

-Prodigal Son

Monday Quick Poll

2010-03-01T08:45:00.003-06:00

I am about to delete and ban all of west-texan (AKA OBB in comments), anyone have a problem with that?

Although, maybe his purpose in life is to act as a bad example, LOL

-Prodigal Son

How Should I Vote?

2010-02-27T17:27:00.003-06:00

I need some help. Should I vote in the republican primary (for the first time!) for Kay so that there might possibly be a Rick/Kay run-off, or should I vote for our DEMOCRATIC winner Bill White? I can't imagine "Republican" stamped on my registration!

Liberalator

Stay Classy, Republicans

2010-02-27T11:45:00.004-06:00

Our nation was founded on Christian Principles Edition: (h/t Media Matters)

. . . . "Limbaugh previously told a caller who could not afford the $6,000 it would cost to treat a broken wrist that he "shouldn't have broken [his] wrist."

. . . "Beck mocks Slaughter's story: "I've read the Constitution ... I didn't see that you had a right to teeth."

. . . "On Fox News' The O'Reilly Factor, radio host Laura Ingraham said she "liked the dueling sob stories, OK? One Democrat was trying to outdo the next on the sob story about how rotten our health care system is. Louise Slaughter won the Olympics of sob stories by saying one of her constituents had to wear her sister's dentures."

Click on MM's link to read more.

-Prodigal Son

Not a Frakkin' Hero

2010-02-27T09:37:00.004-06:00

Vernon Hunter: HERO
Two Vietnam Tours
Killed Needlessly By Scumbag

Quick! Take a sec and google "amarillo globe news" and "vernon hunter". NADA

Google "amarillo globe news" and "Joe Stack" . . . 2 articles, plus MANY comments. Great F***ing job from the local "News" paper.

Been thinking about this for a while, so lets make it simple for our far right rethug readers here at PTS;

Joe Stack AKA "Austin IRS Plane Crasher Into Building" = Domestic terrorist/murderer

Simple, ain't it!

OOPS. . . . apparently NOT for Newsweek at least.

Look, Stack was a serial tax cheat. His suicide note, (NOT A MANIFESTO) is well written, and you can almost feel for the dude, but he did not file returns for years, he hung out with the equivalent of anti-tax teabagger zealots in the early 80's. At some point you gotta realize that the IRS has more stick than you have ass, and you pay up.

It helps no one when Congresscritters like Steve King (R, Religiously Insane, IA), sympathizes with domestic terrorists instead of praising Vernon Hunter.

How many of you righties have called in to Rush Rumproar, or written your local rag to denounce Domestic Terrorist Joe Stack? (Chiirrrp, Chiiirrp. . . ) instead of raising him to hero status?

Lastly, here is a thought: What is an acceptable number of Austinites to waterboard so's we can find out who Stack might have worked with?

-Prodigal Son

Anthony Weiner clarifies his position

2010-02-27T08:30:00.000-06:00

Democrats aren't exactly enemies of The Establishment, but this is still awesome.

Anyone seen. . . .

2010-02-27T08:06:00.001-06:00

Spacedark?

-Prodigal Son

Oh, the games the parties play...

2010-02-25T07:45:00.001-06:00

Glenn Greenwald explains the problems with health care reform:

The Democratic Party's deceitful game

A less cerebral explanation is provided by The Daily Show:

Summit's Eve

Health Care Explained

2010-02-24T11:37:00.004-06:00

UPDATE: Woo Hoo for ~~price collusion~~ capitalism! Anthem is going to go ahead with that 39% rate hike for the Governators constituents. . . .
-Prodigal Son

OK . . . . America's thought process. . . .

If you can afford healthcare, and you've got it, it's a "Privilege"

If you do not have it, cannot afford it, been dropped because of recission, lost everything because of lack of it, it's a "Right".

Kind of sums it up neatly, huh?

FUN TOPIC! How many "Christians" think it's a "Privilege"? Show of hands, plz. . .

-Prodigal Son

I'm Just Saying . . .

2010-02-24T08:47:00.003-06:00

Liberalator said it far better below, but in 2008 America voted to go down a different path. That path was a rejection of 8 years of getting every Republicans wet dreams enacted, tax cuts for the rich, unending wars, regulatory and public service as a JOKE "Heckuva job Brownie".

Every time I hear a rethug say JACK, I have a simple response, "Remember The Bush years, yeah that worked out GREAT!"

So. . . . . why should America give a RA* F*** what rethugs want after the electorate told them they wanted them in the minority?

Dems. . .face the hard job of enacting what we elected you to do. . .or enjoy looking for work in the CONTINUING Bush recession.

-Prodigal Son

"Cities Shortening Yellow Traffic Lights for Deadly Profit"

2010-02-23T20:11:00.000-06:00

Cities Shortening Yellow Traffic Lights for Deadly Profit

GIVE IT UP!

2010-02-22T17:24:00.003-06:00

I'm fed up wih Barak's bipartisan acquiescence to the Republicans, and the cowardliness of our spineless Democratic Congressmen. He said "Now, bipartisanship depends on a willingness among both Democrats and Republicans to put aside matters of party for the good of the country," and " I've also called for a bipartisan fiscal commission. Unfortunately this measure, which originally had received the support of a bipartisan majority of the Senate and was cosponsored by Senators Conrad and Gregg. Democrats and Republicans, was blocked there." Democrats have failed time after time to stand up to the minority party!

John Boehner said "The house can't pass the health care bill it once passed; the Senate can't pass the health care bill it once passed. Why would we have a conversation about legislation that can't pass?" and wants to start from scratch, as does Mitch McConnell, minority leader. Both have said they'll attend the HCR conference Thursday, but SO WHAT?

Paul Krugman says "The truth, which is obvious from every day's news, is that there is nothing, nothing at all,that Obama could offer - other than switching parties - that would get him any GOP cooperation," and Elliot Spitzer said Friday night "Fundamental reform doesn't come from bipartisanship. And it seems to me bipartisanship has become appeasement. Barak Obama won an election based on a set of principles. Fight for them."

Today Obama presented the White House proposal for the conference, and it did not include the Public Option. It is now time for reconciliation, and fifty-one votes for HCR.

BARAK AND CONGRESS - WHAT ARE YOU AFRAID OF? THE COUNTRY WANTS HEALTHCARE REFORM - I AM DISGUSTED WITH YOUR GUTLESS, SPINELESS, PUSILLANIMOUS REPRESENTATION OF ME!

FIGHT!

Liberalator

Globe-News misrepresents journalists

2010-02-18T21:24:00.002-06:00

Rarely does Amarillo see the kind of journalism that Kevin Welch gave the community this past weekend.

Welch went into the field to investigate as best he could Victor Leal’s claimed Potter County residency in his quest for the District 87 seat in the Texas House of Representatives. From the moment Leal declared his candidacy, his recent move to the Belpree street address raised questions; and, while Leal has done nothing illegal, those questions have yet to be answered directly by the candidate.

Welch’s employer, the Amarillo Globe-News, published the piece in Saturday’s paper, one of the least-read days of the week. The disservice to Welch and his hard work and the disservice to the public are in keeping with the corporate-owned daily’s approach to existing for money instead of the community. After all, publishing a story that raises questions about an advertiser or potential advertiser doesn’t fit into the Augusta, Georgia-owned paper’s business plan.

Of course, the story, especially when ProNews 7’s Jay Ricci and Mitch Roberts pressed Leal on the residency issue, prompted Rep. David Swinford to defend Leal and bash Welch.

The Indy can understand Swinford’s ire. It wasn’t the usual puff piece pandering to his political career.

But the Globe-News ran a picture with the story with a caption describing those gathering around Leal as supporters. The heads of two of the people were not in the pictures, but Billy Loftin of ProNews 7 was easy to identify. The two others with their heads not in the frame were an intern with the Indy and the publisher, wearing his telltale yellow jacket. Therefore, three of the four people around Leal in the photo were journalists and it was totally inappropriate for the shrinking daily to characterize other journalists in any way.

Further, the publisher of the paper, Les Simpson, has not only failed to honor a request for a correction but has also not answered an e-mail emphasizing the need for accuracy.

That pretty much says it all for Simpson.

I am a Democrat, FU

2010-02-15T08:38:00.003-06:00

WOW!

Have not posted for a while, forgive me PTS'ers. . . and. . . anyone seen spacedark or liberalator???

My acquisition of an existing firm happened Jan 15th, and I have been busy. New software, new hardware, client transitional meetings, staff training,. . . exciting. 6 months later than I wanted. . .my finances resemble a crater in fallout3 . . .

I have also made a tough decision. . . Now that I am the boss, I made it clear to my employees that I am a Democrat, Liberal. I am also a capitalist pig, LOL

I did not want to hear any Obama slamming, liberal slamming, non-Christian slamming, etc.

In return I would do the same. We are Americans FIRST here.

If anyone had a problem, they could resign (GULP, I did need them). They actually seemed OK, surprised but OK. Like many conservative parts of the country, they were confused. . . how could a liberal be a successful biz owner? Weren't tax and spend hippies plotting with Mao at this very moment to take our money, give it to welfare queens and to give terrorists lawyers?? WTF??

LOL. . .also went to see the Color Blind movie with Sandra Bullock. Great flick, but Kathy Bates says at one point, " I have to tell you. . . I'm a Democrat".

OK. . . from now on I am an in your face FU liberal. Here is my response if it comes up, "If you want competent and trustworthy, we are your firm. End of story."

I have some thoughts about the last 12 months too, but Helen from the margaretandhelen blog says it better

-Prodigal Son

"To all my Republican readers out there – I have had quite enough of your nonsense.

Your party gave us Sarah Palin and George W. Bush – dumb and dumber. He’s the guy whose mission still isn’t accomplished and she’s the gal who couldn’t handle being governor of one of our least populous states. Even the “professional” wrestler was able to finish the job in Minnesota.

Your party had an issue with President Obama telling school children to stay in school and study hard. I guess a black man can’t be trusted with your children regardless of his credentials. And your party decided the tradition of separating church and state had an expiration date. You love the constitution but you seem to pick through that document the same way you pick through the Bible – with all the effectiveness of eating corn on the cob through a picket fence.

We are actively involved in two wars, but you just can’t understand why the deficit is so big? Regardless of what you have been told, every time a bomb is dropped, an angel does not get her wings. Hint: Defense spending represents almost one quarter of all federal spending.

Today’s Republican Party has an issue with abortion, but then fights against healthcare reform knowing full well that more than 9 million children lack health insurance. A stretch argument to be sure, but then again 18 19 Children and Counting is a big hit.

My party at least recognizes the need for increased access to birth control. Your party is pro-life right up until they cut the cord and then you turn your attention to electing judges who promote shortening the waiting time on death row.

And for Pete’s sake your party has an issue with gay people, but you gladly send your straight children to war while telling gays they cannot serve. This one, more than any other, has me scratching my head. Aren’ t you just delaying their eventual trip to Hell?

You actually have Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck as your spokesmen. Rush Limbaugh? Are you serious? Even the NFL didn’t want Limbaugh. And Beck… Glenn Beck? When people use the expression ”nuttier than a fruitcake” Glenn Beck is the main ingredient.

The Republican Party of yesteryear was respectable. You were all about a small government that carried a big stick. Now you are just despicable. You used to be the Party of Lincoln and now – honest to God – you make Archie Bunker look progressive.

If it wasn’t for Fox News you would be irrelevent. That’s right. You have become a party that owes its entire existence to a cable news channel owned by an Aussie. Your mascot should be a kangaroo instead of an elephant. After all, the last guy you sent to the White House arrived there thanks to a kangaroo court ruling rather than an election. He then spent the next 8 years bringing our nation to its knees. How about sitting down and shutting your damn pie holes long enough to see if the guy in office now can actually clean up your mess. Honestly, you are embarrassing yourself. "

This is Great

2010-02-08T14:27:00.000-06:00

City planners fail to plan for snowfall

2010-02-05T18:28:00.004-06:00

Reminders of the severe snow storm that battered us last week remain six days later. It is understandable neighborhoods are still unplowed. But some of the arterials and other main streets are rutted and divided by a barrier of snow.
The storm dropped 10-12 inches over the two-day period, by our standards a major snowfall.
Local blogs and Facebook comment on how poorly the city has responded to the storm. The Amarillo Independent has heard reports of people being angry about the city’s performance.
So why, six days later and with another storm threatening, is the city in this situation?
City Public Works Director Michael Rice and his crews tried their best and kudos to those workers. Rice said Monday the city doesn’t have enough resources to handle this much snow despite calling in the entire crew and running 12-hour shifts through Friday.
How much of the heat should Rice and his crews take for this situation? None.
Most of the city’s response to questions focused on the lack of equipment. But the problem is a lack of of planning. Rice has never been to a conference on snow removal and he should have been. Declaring a snow emergency and other measures not related to equipment are available. Just ask Coloradans.
The Indy called City Manager Alan Taylor, who had Rice return the call. But the specific request was to talk to Taylor because he is where the buck stops on the city’s day-to-day operations. Taylor is responsible for leadership and vision.
A massive blizzard paralyzed Denver in 1982 and cost popular Mayor Bill McNichols the next election.
Amarillo’s form of government should not bear that heavily on Mayor Debra McCartt; but when Taylor is next evaluated, the commission should consider new blood is needed at the top.

Bad even for Amarillo

2010-02-01T08:00:00.001-06:00

I understand that a city located in a highly temperate weather zone with a corporatist city leadership is going to have, at best, a minimal amount of resources available to deal with inclement winter weather. Having said that, the City's response to this storm was bad even by Amarillo standards. The roads around the schools this morning are absolutely appalling. Between the idiots who speed, stop in the middle of the road or run through stop signs and crosswalks, taking my kids to school feels like running a gauntlet even on the best of days. Today was unbelievable. Repeated thawing and freezing has turned the snow into boulders of ice that give way under the vehicle causing it to slide in unpredictable directions, a situation only made more hazardous by numerous, stranded vehicles of every type. I wouldn't be a bit surprised if some kid gets killed today.

I made several runs to and from the hospitals Thursday night through Friday night and those roads were in equally poor condition. Pity anyone who had to try to get there in a sedan.

Meteorlogists have called for a cold, wet winter this year, so there is a very good possibility we'll have another storm like this blow through before the season is over. Let's hope the City's strategy improves between now and then.

If my calculations are correct...

2010-01-27T07:45:00.001-06:00

...a 5% reduction in military spending would save our country something like eleventy gazillion dollars a year, but that's off the table. I know people around here tend not to go for that sort of thing since Amarillo would dry up and blow away without the rivers of government money that flow like water into city coffers, but would America still be safe with say 25 Ospreys instead of 30? Or just enough nukes to destroy human civilization 8 times over instead of 10? I mean, if government spending is that big a deal...

The question is fairly moot at this point...

2010-01-16T08:32:00.002-06:00

...but why does anyone expect a first responder like an emergency ambulance service to be a money maker?

Harry Reid wasn't talking about Obama...

2010-01-11T07:45:00.000-06:00

...he was talking about you, whitey.

Staff Blogs

2010-01-08T19:56:00.001-06:00

Staff Blogs

Posted using ShareThis

Become a Friend of the Indy

2009-12-31T00:44:00.001-06:00

Become a Friend of the Indy

Posted using ShareThis

Let no man put asunder...

2009-12-30T08:00:00.001-06:00

Oops, nevermind.

Rove: Champion of "traditional" divorce

Move Your Money

2009-12-30T07:35:00.000-06:00

Obviously there isn't a bus around that the Big Bank whores in Washington won't throw the American tax payer under. If you do any business with JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America or Wells Fargo I challenge you to move to another bank that isn't a bankrupt ward of the state. We have a rewards card with one of these and will discontinue it's use. Please share this with your friends and family. We the People will do what Washington wouldn't.

Move Your Money: A New Year's Resolution

Greed is God

2009-12-25T06:17:00.003-06:00

A philosophical schism has occured in our nation. Many Christians, also happen to be Republicans. In recent years, Republican dogma has been dominated by men like Rush Limbaugh, Michael Medved, and Sean Hannity. The basis of their thoughts, or the Limbaugh doctrine (as I will call it) can be found largely in the works of writer Ayn Rand. Rand suggests there are certain individuals in our society, who because of their independant spirit, hard working attitude, and vision, are more valuable than others. Many in our society, for numerous reasons, find Rand's notion of individuality to be appealing. This group, mostly Republican, imagine they are the men Rand speaks of, when in fact this is usually (as in almost always) not the case, as these men are neither harder working nor do they have greater vision than any other average individual. The type of man Rand referred to in her books is rare indeed, while the Limbaugh Doctrine would have us believe these types of men are plentiful. In fact, according to the Limbaugh Doctrine one need only be a business owner or other non-government employee to be one of these uber-men. Such teaching satifies a basic flaw in human nature, which is, the desire to believe one's self to be superior to most other men.

As the Limbaugh Doctrine gained popularity, the need to compromise such self centered thinking with the selfless philosophy found in the bible became necessary for many Christians. Thus the rise of the Evangelical movement, and the Prosperity Doctrine.

Prosperity Doctrine is an attempt to compromise the selflessness of biblical doctrine with the selfish "man love" philosophy propounded by the Limbaugh Doctrine. Greedy and giving at the same time. This battle of opposing philosophical ideas has created a great schism in our society as an entire political movement has arisen around this hybrid, Greed is God, movement. We now have a huge portion of our society dominated by men who believe concurrently that they are superior to others because of their hard working and visionary personalities, and secondly they are superior because of their moral selflessnes.

Any attempt to point out that adherants to the Limbaugh Doctrine are no harder working or morally superior than the average man is greeted with scoffing and disdainful suggestions of weakness. The question is, I suppose, if God exists, can one combine the idea of selfishness with the selfless doctrine taught in the New Testement. The combo Limbaugh/Prosperity doctrine seems to suggest that for many, just such a combination is not only possible, but rapidly gaining in popularity.

Amarillo A-hole of the Week, Eddie McMurray

2009-12-22T09:33:00.003-06:00

Eddie McMurray, popping up with weedlike predictability, has done it again. In today's Globe News Letter Eddie takes aim at overpaid government employees. According to Eddie, a school adminstrator managing dozens of employees, accountable to hundreds of parents, knowledgeable of reams of bereauracratic regulations, and responsible for millions in tax funds, shouldn't earn as much as the average mid-level insurance salesman. As for retirement money, in Eddie's world, government employees that have spent decades paying into retirement funds, shouldn't have even a slight raise, despite the ever rising costs of food, medical care, and other necessities. In Eddie's world, working for anything other than a "for profit" business, renders your existance of lesser quality and importance.

You see Eddie is worth much more than any policeman, teacher, judge, or soldier. He works at and perhaps even owns the local francise of Bolner's Fiesta Products. We all know the gigantic contributions to society that Bolner's makes every day. The contributions of a teacher that influences the lives of hundreds of kids over the years, or a policeman that provides public safety, or a soldier that protects our national interests all pale in comparisons to the important work done by men like Eddie McMurray at Bolner's Fiesta Products.

Eddie has other opinions that sprout on a near monthly basis. For example read his tacky treatise on "Limousine Liberals" from February of 2005. While Dubyah was diligently blowing trillions of dollars finding WMDs in Iraq, Eddie was concerned about Clinton riding in a limousine five years earlier.

Or how about this racist rant in response to a Leonard Pitt's column that dared to suggest Rush Limbaugh has partisan tendencies.

Or this Teabagger tirade that spews venom on any government program that dares to help the elderly or needy, but makes no mention of the trillions spent on the war in Iraq, or the other trillions in tax cuts given to the wealthiest 1% of Americans during Dubyah's reign of idiocy.

I could go on. Like that bit of crabgrass that cannot be excised from your flowerbed, McMurray appears again and again with predictably hateful opinions aimed at any and all that dare to exist outside of his "for profit" morally superior universe. So, he has earned, with all congruent honors, this weeks title of Amarillo A-hole of the week.

Falling Sky Alert: Full Squawk Needed

2009-12-21T09:20:00.003-06:00

Health Care Reform is on its way... Chicken Little Commandos... Curious Texan... Celtic Texan, and recent Chicken Little Lieutenant... Liberal Masterbator... report for full squawk...the sky is falling...the sky is falling...the sky is falling.

Seriously though...the victory isn't all I hoped, but we must ...and I mean must ...remain united if we hope to move forward. I will not stop supporting the people I believe in, just because I didn't get exactly what I felt was needed. To do so would be to grant tacit support to the opposition. If we're going to be the big umbrella party, we have to learn to accept compromise. Otherwise, we're just like the lockstep monsters on the Right.

Recant Amarillo

2009-12-21T08:36:00.001-06:00

Is it time to bring back the Recant Amarillo map. Seems like devilish goings on these days. My self righteous zeal is percolating... lets condemn some sinners.

URGENT! Consumer Reports: Senate health bill has sneaky medical underwriting

2009-12-18T16:13:00.002-06:00

This is also why I sent the following letter to Kay Bailey Hutchison's office:

December 18, 2009

James Christoferson Deputy Chief of Staff - Hutchison 284 Russell Senate Office Building Washington, DC 20510

Dear Mr. Christoferson:

Earlier this week, I sent an e-mail to Ms Hutchison through your Web site. The next day, I got a “Dear Friend” e-mail — obviously from you mailbot.

My message to Ms Hutchison was that she represented the right wing of the Republican Party and was a captive of those lobbyists who bribed her. Further, I told her I wished, in the theological sense, she be damned to Hell for her political record.

As an Episcopalian, Ms Hutchison should know the magnitude of that wish. As I am an Episcopalian, I know the significance of that wish and did not make the statement lightly. The Episcopalians I know in Amarillo are far kinder and far more compassionate than Ms Hutchison. They understand that the Jesus we follow as part of a Triune God would disapprove of the coddling of the moneyed and corporate classes so obviously being done by your boss. Jesus would want people in power to take care of the least of us. None of the GOP cronies are doing that. Clearly, it is ludicrous to refer to me as “Dear Friend.”

I recognize Ms. Hutchison has millions of constituents and some may bother to contact Ms Hutchison’s office. But a one-size fits all response sent back under the illusion that we all agree with her politics fails to realize that Texas is becoming a purple state. Even worse, the “Dear Friend” letter is loaded with more bullshit than you’d ever find in the Texas Panhandle and you know how much cattle we have here. The response is a cud-like regurgitation of the talking points from the GOP masters that Ms Hutchison, Mr. Cornyn and Mr. Thornberry repeat interminably. They are following the “Big Lie” theory of propaganda: Keep repeating something long enough and it becomes perceived as truth. Do you know who last successfully used this technique to take over a country?

Ms. Hutchison’s claim that her proposals are fiscally responsible and the right approach to a market-based health care system shows an ignorance of basic health care economics. I would think someone who could get through the University of Texas Law School might have the intelligence to understand the basics of supply and demand theory — unless, of course, she got a pass and it’s her staff feeding her information. It’s clear that neither Ms Hutchison nor any of the Republicans spouting this kind of drivel know anything about supply and demand in health care.

The call for national medical malpractice reform is also a cipher. Texas implemented medical malpractice reform and it’s not yet clear that it has help make things better. The fact is that a national medical so-called reform would protect incompetent doctors and place the public at risk. As long as the National Practitioner Database is exempt from the public disclosures and other peer review and medical credentialing are protected from disclosure, so-called malpractice reform is useless.

To close her letter with the bashing of “bureaucrats” and “government” is so beyond being crassly disingenuous that it is a flat-out lie. Yes, I am calling Ms. Hutchison, your boss, a liar — to your face and to her face. Why? Who is that government? She is. She has been on the public payroll a long time and now is employed by me, but she really doesn’t work for me because I’ve not made a big enough campaign contribution to get her attention. The Republicans ran the government for eight years while the Democrats have held their majority for less than a year. The first stimulus package was at the behest of Bush and the GOP. Don’t tell me it’s anyone else’s fault but her and her cronies.

If the GOP part of the Texas delegation continues to blindly goose-step behind George W. Bush, who I hope at least you have noticed, is no longer president, they will find themselves loosing out more and more. By the way, is Ms Hutchison aware of that fact? The public isn’t as stupid as Ms Hutchison thinks they are and will realize Ms Hutchison can only be bought for so long.

You and your health staff might do well to look at history. P:L. 89-749 did more to control costs and rationalize health care than any other legislation ever passed in this country. I may not agree with some of the things in the health reform measure before the Senate now. In fact, I think it is so watered down that I agree with Dr. Howard Dean that it should be killed and started over. I also agree with Sen. Franken, who said we have a right to our opinions, but not our own facts.

I am writing this letter as a personal one, as a constituent. And you’ll notice that throughout I’ve not referred to Ms. Hutchison as a senator because she isn’t my senator. I have no senators from Texas representing my interests in Babylon-on-the-Potomac just as I have no representative from Texas-13 representing me in the house. In fact, most of the people elected to the Senate aren’t worthy of being called senators. They, like Ms Hutchison, are career politicians only interested in aggrandizing themselves and their cronies.

I hope this takes care of the illusion that Ms Hutchison has broad support in the Panhandle.

Very truly yours,

Swinger’s club loses peace bond fight - exclusive

2009-12-11T17:25:00.001-06:00

Swinger’s club loses peace bond fight - exclusive

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Indy Exclusive: Interview with Texas Dem party chairman

2009-12-07T08:06:00.001-06:00

Indy Exclusive: Interview with Texas Dem party chairman

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I am thankful.

2009-11-26T08:40:00.002-06:00

I am thankful I have a job in a time of tremendous economic uncertainty.

I am thankful for my family, who are the only reason I put up with the b.s. I put up with (see above).

I am thankful there is cold food in my refrigerator, clean water flowing from the faucets and warm air blowing from the vents.

I am thankful McCain/Palin did not win last year (that goes twice for Miss Alaska).

I am thankful that America, despite it's many deep flaws, is still greatest country on earth.

I hope this day finds you with family and friends and reflections on the things in life that really matter.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Much Ado about Nothing On - A Midsummer Night

2009-11-14T18:40:00.001-06:00

Much Ado about Nothing On - A Midsummer Night’s Nude continues tonight and next weekend

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Smoke and Mirrors Economics Part: 3658

2009-11-03T08:56:00.003-06:00

Average incomes have been declining for the last 30 years. Let me sum up the economic boolsheet we were fed that turned out to be smoke:

1. Rising tide lifts all boats
2. Decreasing taxes on the top 1% brings in more tax revenue
3. Trickle down?
4. Moral Hazard will keep CEO's and corporation in line, no need for regulatory enforcement.

Quick summation here:

60's-70's:
pensions are a staple of retirement, health care inexpensive, and growing wages even in recession. Couples begin to realize in late 70's that two incomes are necessary.

80's:
Raygun elected, rethugs control senate.
Union busting and 'personal responsibility' for healthcare and retirement through 401k's and IRA's become mainstream.
Minimum wage stripped from inflation indexing.
Corps let go of pensions, and begin to underfund existing programs.
Bankruptcy or private equity takeover deals allows corps to steal your pension.
Massive healthcare corps go public and begin to merge.

90's: Wall Street gets lesser scrutiny, derivatives and other exotics become more available, hedge funds gain in popularity.
RIGHT TO WORK laws pass every state.
LTCM fails, and S&L's that fail give us a warning.
Massive inflows to Wall Street from people's IRA, etc.
Glass-Steagall repealed.
Healthcare costs and medicare fraud skyrockets.
Pension underfunding becomes pronounced.

Late 1990's-early 2000's: First "jobless" recovery after recession.
Commodities Futures Modernization Act passes
Faced with shrinking wages, higher costs of living, newer tech costs, and a housing bubble, people assume that real estate will continue up and tap their home/atm.
Wages are shrinking, more money is funneled to the top through default swaps which grow to $500 trillion in 2007.

2008:
The bottom falls out.

Just interesting to look back. . . .

-Prodigal Son

Defense of Entitlement

2009-10-30T08:54:00.002-05:00

Can I just start out by saying, I hate that Gods-damn Joe Lieberman piece of shit?

Ya know, the whole "entitlement" phrase regarding universal healthcare is a lazy catch all for the right. A poll tested, FAUX news talking point deliberately designed to invoke a gut reaction of, "Hey, he/she ain't pullin' their weight, unlike me!"

It's dishonest. It's typical of the Frank Luntzification of the Greed Oil Pollution party, which dumbs down our national discussions. Remember that cadillac driving welfare queen Ronald Raygun talked about? Never existed. Same with the f***ing death panels boolsheet.

Same thing again, and again, and again. . .

This healthcare discussion seems insane to me. "We should be responsible for our own healthcare choices!" screams the right, while accepting Medicare assistance.

Really? Mentally challenged individuals should be able to sort out the maze of PPO, PPP, supplemental, catastrophic, etc?

Shit! I can barely figure that stuff out, and who has the 100 hours necessary to get a basic cursory knowledge of our crappy overpriced health insurance industrial complex?

Or,"It was that 4 year-old child's parents fault they were not successful enough to have insurance when she got leukemia. They must have a character flaws! Or lazy!"

Let me expand on what I said in the comments a couple of posts below:
Are we entitled to police? firemen? Entitled to national defense? Entitled to credentialed doctors? How about good roads? Safe food supply? Safe drinking water? Safe (Hmmmm) drugs? All of these are supported by the taxpayers together for the betterment of each other.

At one time we were not "entitled" to free speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion.

Let's ask the REAL question here . . .

How many people should die because of no healthcare a year? How many people every year should lose everything because of cancer? Give me a number that would be acceptable to you righties;
100?
10,000?
100,000?
A million?

Huh? Tell me righties, how many dead and/or financially devastated FELLOW AMERICANS are acceptable to you?

I hear all the time that this country was founded on the tenets of Christianity (It wasn't), well, how many people would Jesus approve for recission?

Did Jesus give a s**t about deficits or helping the poor and sick? Did he cheer on wars paid for by off the book funds or ask us to look out for each other?

I pity your non-humanity righties, and damn you to hell for your short sightedness. I guess I am going to have to accept that you will hate us "San Francisco liberals", and "Socialists" as we fight for affordable healthcare coverage so you don't lose it all.

F**k you very much.

-Prodigal Son

Sign of decency hard to find at Dumas business

2009-10-29T00:51:00.001-05:00

Sign of decency hard to find at Dumas business

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Time To get All FDR and Sh*t!

2009-10-26T07:26:00.002-05:00

PTS'ers. . .

The past 5 months, I have called the white house comment line every Monday morning with a simple, but polite message.

" My name is . . . and I live in . . . I am out of work. No savings to speak of. One accident or illness with my kids or spouse would destroy everything that is left.

I would like to ask the President to support medicare for all, and let us buy into an existing program OR a public option EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY with no 'trigger' or 'opt-out' malarky."

Now? A new message:

"I would like to say that I am a supporter and contributor to President Obama. My message is this: if no simple, AFFORDABLE, IMMEDAITE, public option is signed into law . . . NO money, NO time, NO vote from me for Obama in 2012."

I know it is drastic, but I am not f***ing around here. There are lives at stake, futures being destroyed everyday. And I f***ing mean it. No immediate affordable public option, and President Olympia Snowe can freeze her Maine ass off. . .

Won't you join me?

Comments: 202-456-1111
Switchboard: 202-456-1414

-Prodigal Son

"Sick Around the World" Documentary Screening, 10/28/09

2009-10-22T23:49:00.001-05:00

Free, and open to the public, a screening of the PBS FRONTLINE documentary Sick Around the World, sponsored by the West Texas A&M University (WTAMU) Democrats .

"In Sick Around the World, FRONTLINE teams up with veteran Washington Post foreign correspondent T.R. Reid to find out how five other capitalist democracies - - the United Kingdom, Japan, Germany, Taiwan and Switzerland - - deliver health care, and what the United States might learn from their successes and their failures."

Time: 6:00 p.m.
Day, Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Location: WTAMU Campus, Jack B. Kelley (JBK) Student Center, Legends Club
Map: Building #2 - http://www.wtamu.edu/about/campus_map.aspx

For more information, please contact 806-584-1801.

Repent Amarillo wants to stifle Avenue 10 -- again

2009-10-13T22:44:00.005-05:00

Oh, OK . . . I'll just tell the bank

2009-10-13T09:45:00.011-05:00

(Unemployed men vying for jobs at the American Legion Employment Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great Depression.)

Or is it 2009? (25,000 Detroiters converged on Cobo Hall to get one of the 5,000 applications for federal aid to people in poverty.)
________________________

Hear the good news? The recession is over! Everything's looking UP! Or so says, bazzillionaire Larry Summers, (now pulling down a taxpayer-funded six digit income.)

(Part of the daily lineup outside the State Employment Service Office. Memphis, Tennessee. June 1938. Photographer: Dorothea Lange.)

BE HAPPY! Your future job is just around the corn . . .uhh . . . next year or two. Don't worry! After all, employment is a lagging indicator, so I guess I can just tell my mortgage holder and credit cards that payment might be lagging . . .

Look at this unemployment chart from calculated risk blog: Look like improvement to you?

Look, you have a job. You worked hard to get to the spot you are in. You are not seeing anything about this stuff on the TeeVee. Yeah, it's bad out there but people should have planned better . . . LOOK! OVER THERE! Letterman was banging a staffer!

It's time for an adult conversation in this country about the economy. I know it is not uplifting, but we need to face up to the fact that millions of people are losing it all, and are sliding rapidly backwards from the middle class lifestyle they once had, and their spending losses made permanent. Fact is, if you have a job you are going to be OK. Those of us out in the rain? A long hard slog. A lost decade.

The kids getting out of school are getting decimated. NYTimes Bob Herbert.
"Only 65 of every 100 men aged 20 through 24 years old were working on any given day in the first six months of this year. In the age group 25 through 34 years old, traditionally a prime age range for getting married and starting a family, just 81 of 100 men were employed."

_______________________

Myself? Been EIGHT difficult months.

3 months salary in savings. a small severance. GONE. At age 41 I have had to borrow money from my 401k (about 10 years worth of saving and investing with huge penalties), and borrow money from my parents to survive, and I AM LUCKY. Unemployment insurance income represents 9% of what I was making. Do a little math in your head if you had to subsist on 9% of what you are making.

Been busy too. . .

Plan A: Get another gig like I had. Over 150 applications sent regardless of openings. Financial Firms STILL firing business development folks. Career path: GONE

Plan B: acquire existing tax business. SBA needed seller to self finance 30% for a loan. Seller threw up all sorts of requirements. Me and partner had to back away.

Plan C: Start a tax firm from scratch. Partner too reluctant, worried in this economy.

Plan D: Get anything with a paycheck, in or out of sector experience. 300+ applications sent, overqualified, not hiring, job freezes, posted job had internal fill (required to post, not a real opening) A few interviews. Mostly nothing.

Plan E: PLAN F**KING E? Seriously? Going back to school to get the credits I need to sit for the CPA exam. Been at it 1 month already. Old Dogs can learn new CRM systems. LOL

What about income? How long can the family survive on this austerity level? As long as we can. I don't have a date. My wife and I have stopped talking about the future. About kids' college. Kindermusik. Paying off the car early. Future vacations. That ladder rung where we were looks awfully far up . . .
________________________

Last point. A friend in the industry I have known and respected for 10 years called me last week. We used to call him "Mr. Clean", and he was. He was the most ethical guy I know. He did so many hard luck cases, we used to tease him. He told me that he was let go 2 months ago, and asked what was out there. He sighed and broke down.

You see, his wife is disabled. A car wreck. He has three kids. He lives in upper state NY just outside Manhattan. He is going to lie on a mortgage app, get a HELOC on his house, pull all of his equity out and let the bank take it. Integrity be damned.

That was his best option. Parents are dead. He can't afford health care for his wife without an employer plan, Safety net? You kidding?
_________________________

So please congress. . . by all means . . . take your time on health reform. Take your time funding potential job creation. Just wait until the non-existent free market turns things around by itself, so you don't piss off your corporate owners.

After all . . . no one will see us on the TeeVee or Meet The Press . . .

-Prodigal Son

Poor Les is at it again

2009-10-01T23:13:00.002-05:00

Staff Blogs

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Media Bias Redux

2009-09-25T10:52:00.002-05:00

As those of you who follow this blog will recall, a few days ago we had a discussion about media bias in the comments section.

I just posted below and on The Amarillo Independent Web site a story about John Hicks no longer being chief executive at Baptist St. Anthony's Health System.

When I referred to media bias and how different media outlets handle the actual information, this is a perfect example. I normally don't paste in totally a story from the Amarillo Globe-News, but I have known them to change their content on their Web site. Here is how they handled the story:

John Hicks, the only person to serve as chief executive of Baptist St. Anthony's Health System since its 1996 formation, announced today he will leave the hospital. A news release from BSA didn't give a reason for his departure.
"We are fortunate to have a strong and experienced senior leadership team at BSA, along with quality physicians and nursing staff, so we anticipate a smooth transition with no impact at all on patient care," board Chairman Bob Schneider said in a statement.
Bob Williams, a longtime vice president for BSA and High Plains Baptist Hospital, will assume the role of interim CEO.
-- Staff writer David Pittman

The fact is that Hicks did not "announce today he will leave the hospital."

The opening paragraphs of the story and the Indy reflect the tone of what happened and of the news release.

I can't think of a better illustrates than this of how when different media handle a story with their own bias you get an entirely different perspective on what happened.

New England Journal of Medice holds health reform roundtable

2009-09-24T20:01:00.001-05:00

New England Journal of Medice holds health reform roundtable

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The Republican Base

2009-09-24T11:20:00.004-05:00

Hey righties! Here is an experiment you can include in the new "Jesus Approved" science textbook for Texas!

Glen Beck is f***ing crazy. He describes himself as a rodeo clown, which is a disgusting insult to real rodeo clowns who actually face down charging bulls.

Glenndie just cries on his teevee show.

But last night was too weird for even his bizarre sociopathic performance art.

No sh*t, he boils a frog alive on his show trying to make a point about . . . I dunno.

How much does this jackhole make again? And this is on a "news" network?

Just sayin' . . .

-Prodigal Son

What should medical center be?

2009-09-23T22:03:00.003-05:00

Last week we wrote about how the board and top management of Baptist St. Anthony’s Health System did not take salary cuts while the hospital laid off some 50 workers.
We have since heard that the hospital also approached doctors who take emergency call, sending a letter to them asking them to take a 20 percent pay cut. We are working on obtaining a copy of that letter.
Earlier this week, we also broke a story with ProNews 7 about how the Amarillo Area Foundation rejected Mayor Debra McCartt’s attempt to get the Harrington Regional Medical Center and AAF together to try to settle their differences.
About the only things that BSA and Northwest Texas Healthcare System agree on are that smoking is bad for you and they don’t want to be part of the HRMCI.
Last year, BSA launched a multipronged war against Northwest. The hospital rattled a saber by recruiting the highly regarded emergency physician group, placing a helicopter in Guymon, Okla., and making noises about seeking designation as a trauma center. BSA also spent thousands of dollars to build a new neonatal intensive care unit
No one openly made a case that Northwest was below par in either emergency care or neonatal intensive care. And it’s because they couldn’t.
Both of those services are well known in the region, not just Amarillo, to be excellent. Neonatal ICU was supported by Texas Tech University’s medical school.
The decision to launch this competition was irrational at best and mendacious at worst. And BSA is a nonprofit institution that gets tax breaks for being a responsible corporate member of the community.
The fact that Northwest is a for-profit isn’t a reason for the hammer-and-tongs competition. In fact, it’s the wrong thing to do.
McCartt did the right thing by trying to bring these two organizations to the table with a mediator. It brings to mind a wonderful quote attributed to Benjamin Franklin in the play and movie “1776”: “There is no idea so dangerous it can’t be talked about.”
Clearly something is amiss.
I can’t tell you what is wrong. If someone could, I’d love to know what it is. For a city that places such a premium on getting along, these breaches are a mystery.
As I understand the history of the medical center, those forward-looking folks 40 years ago wanted the medical center to be modeled after Texas Medical Center in Houston. But the big city’s medical center is structured in a quite different way from Amarillo’s. First, none of the hospitals has a seat on the TMC board. In addition, the TMC runs the infrastructure: the common laundry, maintenance of the roads, lawns and the common utility system that provides steam and air conditioning.
The heavyweights at the table in Houston, without a seat at the board, at least don’t have that sandbox in which to fight, were they inclined to fight at all.
The list of institutions that are part of TMC reads like a Who’s Who in medical care. Who hasn’t heard of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, which is part of the University of Texas? Or, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital, Memorial Hermann or the Methodist Hospital?
People can accuse me of being a lot of things, but unrealistic isn’t one of them. What Amarillo has isn’t what Houston has. But it had the potential to emulate the model.
Hindsight is 20-20, of course.
I don’t think it’s too late to regroup and try again.
Texas Tech is doing its part by buttressing its services and academic medicine capabilities.
But the lack of leadership, the vacuum of a vision that is embraced by the entire medical community and the region, is evident.
Who will step up and openly ask the key question for Amarillo? Although a friend posed this to me, I’ll put it in the open: What is a medical center?
And, I’ll add my question. What vision does Amarillo have for a medical center and who is to lead the way toward that vision?
Now, who will step up and answer these questions?

PSA:Support Insurance Industry Profits

2009-09-22T17:12:00.000-05:00

"SiCKO" Film Screening in Canyon, TX, Tuesday, 9/22/09, 7pm!

2009-09-20T12:58:00.004-05:00

You're Invited
to a
FREE Public Screening
of
Michael Moore's
Urgent, U.S. Healthcare System Documentary, "SiCKO"
(http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/about/synopsis/)

When: Tuesday, September 22, 2009, 7:00 p.m.
Where: West Texas A&M University Campus, Jack B. Kelley (JBK) Student Center Legends Club, (JBK is building 2 on this map: http://www.wtamu.edu/about/campus_map.aspx)
Sponsored by: The WTAMU Democrats
Contact: lcaidalphabravo@yahoo.com

"This one is likely to strike home with anyone, left or right, who has had serious illness in the family."
-- Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

C-U there! Tell your friends!

Sincerely,

Lisa Caid
lcaidalphabravo@yahoo.com

It's called Faux News for a reason

2009-09-18T22:03:00.003-05:00

Talk about Fox New and ethics? Look at the producer in the green shirt.

It's not what I wanted but I'll take it.

2009-09-16T19:51:00.002-05:00

The Senate Finance Committee released their Health Care Bill today. We have to start somewhere.

Another AGN drivel editorial

2009-09-15T21:13:00.001-05:00

I can’t believe how poorly understood the health care issue is — or perhaps how so committed to the Republican-conservative viewpoint and agenda that a newspaper would want to spread disinformation. But the editorial in the Sept. 15 Amarillo Globe-News (http://www.amarillo.com/stories/091509/opi_opin1.shtml) did just that.

Here are some specific problems.

“He (President Barack Obama) needs to go all the way - by inviting Republicans into the White House, and to consult with them personally with their ideas on how to improve the system.”

Iowa’s Sen. Charles Grassley, the blowhard GOP hit man on health care, was part of meetings at the White House last May. The visit was not only well documented in the media it was also posted on Grassley’s own Web site. Here is the interchange between Grassley and a reporter:

QUESTION: Thank you, Senator. Will you talk to us about your White House visit last week,

please?

GRASSLEY: Yes. I can tell you a lot about it. I won't quote any other person present. There was four of us there. No staff. The president, the vice president, Senator Baucus, and me. We went more of our time talking about health care reform, more about process than

substance.

The president made very clear to me that he wants a bipartisan proposal -- I mean, a bipartisan product. And I think he best indicated that by saying that he did rather that a bipartisan one and get part of what he wants than getting all that he wants -- all of what he wants with a partisan vote.

And there was just good change, good atmosphere. The president is very disarming. You feel very much at home. You know, so anything else you want to know, ask me.

The editorial goes on to tout Rep. Mac Thornberry’s column in the Globe-News and suggest Mac has the right answer: tort reform. The editorial said, “One idea for improving the system, said Thornberry, is to set up ‘health courts’ in which doctors and hospitals are ‘judged by their peers.’”

Mac’s suggestion isn’t original. In fact, it will protect screw-up doctors more than ever. New Mexico has this system and, believe it or not, it’s administered by the New Mexico Medical Society. Not many patients win at this level and if they go to court after that, they have and even poorer chance of prevailing.

And none of this addresses that the tort reform in Texas hasn’t lowered costs; that good studies have shown that the effect of tort reform-defensive medicine accounts for less than 1 percent of the total GDP devoted to health care.

But I have a suggestion: If the medical community wants national tort reform, here’s what the public should get in return – (1) All the information in the National Practitioners Data Bank becomes public record; (2) All complaints filed with every state medical board becomes public record, as do all of the adjudication process, including testimony and exhibits. Let’s treat it like a real court case; (3) All hospital (no exemptions for private, government, military, or any hospital) peer review records become public (including morbidly and mortality committee information); and, (4) Hospitals will be required to compute and post case-mix adjusted morbity and mortality rates for all attending physicians on staff.

That’s change I can believe in.

Damn Liars

2009-09-09T22:40:00.000-05:00

When will they start telling the truth?

Posted Sept. 9 - 9:55 p.m. - I can’t help but wonder about Rep. Charles Boustany, Jr., M.D., R-La., who gave the lame Republican response to President Obama’s speech on health care. Like every other Republican, he condemned “government-run health care.” Just like our own Mac Thornberry, he parroted the GOP talking points like a good little junior congressman, just as he was told to do by Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh and others.

“The president had a chance tonight to take government-run health care off the table,” he said. “Unfortunately, he didn’t do it.”

But if Boustany is so against “government-run health care,” where would he be if he examined how he got educated and trained? First, he got his bachelor’s from either Louisiana State University in New Orleans or the University of Louisiana in Lafayette, La., according to different sources. He got his medical degree from Louisiana State University Medical School in 1982, according to his own Web site. Oops. That’s government-run health care.

According to the Louisiana State Board of Medical Examiners Web site, which doesn’t show where he did residency and fellowship training, he has no complaints filed against him although Politico reported he was a defendant in an unspecified number of malpractice suits. However, the Web site gives little other information about him, such as verifying whether he is board certified.

He spent some time in Rochester, NY, according to Wikipedia, but that doesn’t indicate what he did there. But, he worked at Charity Hospital of Louisiana. Funny thing about Charity: It’s owned by the State of Louisiana and was for many years the primary teaching hospital for LSU medical school. Oops. That’s government-run health care.

The president said he will start to call out the opposition to health care reform for their lies. Obama did so when he referred to the Whacko-in-Chief Republican Sarah Palin and her “death panel” trash talk. She did so again today in the Wall Street Journal, which now lacks credibility with Rupert Murdoch at the helm.

So I join the president and it starts here and starts now.

If Boustany finds public, i.e., government-run health care, such an anathema, let him turn in his public college and med school degrees.

Kudos

2009-09-04T21:46:00.001-05:00

I should give kudos when kudos are due.

Jon Mark Beilue: Country's ingorance is scary sometimes

Holy F**K! Enough!

2009-09-04T13:10:00.004-05:00

Be warned . . . I ain't holding back here . . .

Have you had enough yet? We busted our asses getting democratic majorities in the senate and house, AND the white house.

Is it me, or have the grassroots become expendable? We must give up OUR position on single payer and the public option to make a few MINORITY PARTY hairy-eyed republican anarchists in the senate and David f**king Broder comfy cozy? And then the rethugs shit on whatever pops up anyway. Rahm Emmanual's response to us so far has been, "Unhappy? Go somewhere else then!"

Republicans have been absolutely batshit insane since Feb 20th. Rather than discourage the fringe haters, they have whipped them into a frenzy, only for the purpose of torpedoing Obama. Reasonable repubs? WTF are they? I don't read any reasonable repub LTE's in the paper. Just the haters.

It's Obama Derangement Syndrome. . . only veeeeeery deranged for real.

Well . . . it has been seven months. Obama has had an enormous pile of steaming disaster handed to him by the MASTER of f**king everything up and then running out the back door, but the first big initiative is health care.

We need medicare for all. We need the public option, and it is useless to try to talk to someone frothing at the mouth, and calling you traitor! Socialist! Nazi! Dixie Chicks lover! (Sorry . . . flashback to 2003 there . . .)

Thanks to Liberalator for bringing up calling the white house.

I am changing my message, and it is this, "Mr. President, no affordable public option or medicare for all, no money or vote from me in 2012. PERIOD!"

Care to join me? 202-456-1414

-Prodigal Son

NOW, President Obama!

2009-09-01T19:57:00.002-05:00

In conversation with my son awhile back, he put me on to something I should have been doing for months but hadn’t thought of. It’s something all of us must be doing, and encouraging their friends, relatives and co-workers to do.

He said every Monday morning he calls (and now I also) the White House comment line and politely but firmly tells the answerer that candidate Obama said he would work to pass Universal Health Care, Single Payer and get us out of Iraq. He (and I) tells the answerer that we have already compromised from Single Payer to Public Option, and can’t see that he is laying his presidency on line for either. My son (and I) says “please tell the president that NOW is the time to draw the line in the sand, and rise or fall with the bill to make Health Care Universal with the Public Option."

Start calling today. The White House number is 1-202-456-1414. Ask to leave a comment. Be prepared to wait five or ten minutes for your turn, and then politely but firmly DEMAND THE PUBLIC OPTION (or single payer, your choice) and anything else you want to add. I also go to www.Whitehouse.gov , click on “CONTACT us” in the upper right hand corner and pass on the same message – every week! It is easy, is not intimidating, costs nothing but a little time, and is vital.

The president needs to hear from millions that there is no option but the Public Option – add your name to that list of progressives/liberals that is speaking out.

Telephone: 1-202-456-1414, ask to leave a comment
www.Whitehouse.gov, click on “CONTACT us

LIBERALATOR

Journamalism! WOO!

2009-08-31T10:24:00.002-05:00

Proving that the rich and connected part of America is immune to unemployment and economic downturns, meet your sparkly, newest, 27 year-old TODAY show correspondent . . . Jenna Bush Hager!

Qualifications? She has "White House experience", LOL.

Oh, yeah. . . she has ghost-written two books, and is a reading coordinator at an elementary school, so naturally she will be reporting on, wait for it . . .

Education.

My fav quote from the fruit of Dubya's loins, "It wasn't something I'd always dreamed to do," she said. "But I think one of the most important things in life is to be open-minded and to be open-minded for change."

Shorter; It's so AWESOME to be handed a surprise f**king job offer on a famous Teevee show out of the blue without any experience whatsoevah! Totally!

More from Gawker:

"Jim Bell, Today's executive producer is already giving quotes about how he's not using it as political grease for a future shot at trying to Frost/Nixon old Daddy Dubya. Watch that D:

"Bell said Hager won't be covering politics. He said he didn't consider the job as a down payment for a future interview with her father, who has been living quietly in Texas since leaving office earlier this year. Attacks on NBC News by conservatives for the liberal bent of MSNBC also had nothing to do with it, he said. "I hope to focus on what I'm passionate about because I think I'd do them best job on them - education, urban education, women and children's issues and literacy," Hager said."

MMM, HMMMM, riggghhhhht. . .

Look, I am gonna go out on a limb, and say that Jenna is probably a nice person (never met), and I know that legacy hires always trump competency and experience (Liz Cheney, anyone?), but seriously, she has only been a teacher for a couple of years.

What is her cred regarding education? Or Journalistic digging? Or . . . anything relating to the average American's struggles with paying for crushing school loans for example?

-Prodigal Son

The Audacity of Business as Usual

2009-08-25T07:45:00.001-05:00

So much for all that hope and change and shit:

Bernanke to Be Nominated for Second Term as Fed Chief

Exactly how bad do you have to screw up these days to be held accountable for anything?

Depression Continued

2009-08-21T07:46:00.005-05:00

This morning, I wanted to go into some more detail about what is happening now, and what to expect in this economy. Stuff that must be fixed before any real recovery can happen.

BTW . . . you won't see this reported on the Jon and Kate networks. LOOK OVER THERE! Sarah Palin also said something crazy again!!!

Real Estate: sobering numbers to consider here;
13% of homeowners are behind or in default, and notice from the chart that over half are fixed prime rate loans. People who used to have middle class jobs, and good credit. This is now a Prime foreclosure crises.

Mortgage modification has failed. There I said it. Chase has my mortgage, and when I applied for the Presidents "Home Afforable Modification Program", Chase lost my paperwork 3X, and then tried to stick me in a lower interest rate ARM . . . with them collecting a massive fee. I told them to go to hell. Peter Goodman had a great article about this in the Financial Times

"But for the loans in question, servicing fees range as high as 2%-3%. In some cases, Chase, or Washington Mutual previously, modified interest rates on the loans down to 3%, while keeping the servicing fee flat. This essentially strips cash flow from the mortgage note holders and diverts it to the servicer, a tactic that doesn’t sit well with owners of the impacted bonds."

Get it? You get your mortgage rate lowered to 3%, but it's an ARM, and the bank takes 2-3% in fees. IOW, you are not paying down your mortgage that much.

SOLUTION 1: Without giving judges in bankruptcy court the option to reduce payments for a period, we will still be in free fall.

SOLUTION 2: Have the government use FNMA to refi anyone who is 1 month delinquent, in foreclosure, or unemployed. You get a 40 year fixed at 3%, no points. When things improve, the gov can sell these mortgages to the banks, or keep it.

Tomorrow I want to discuss unemployment.

In the meantime . . . has anyone else experienced boolsheeet with their bank regarding their mortgage or modification?

-Prodigal Son

Winding Down the USA

2009-08-20T14:40:00.003-05:00

This country is in a depression.

Just because it does not look like the 30’s does not mean it is any less significant for those suffering. As of this week, I have been without a professional gig for six months now. Unemployment insurance has run out.

AND THERE ARE MILLIONS OF YOUR FELLOW AMERICANS LIKE ME. 6.4 million.

Wish I could be upbeat, but things are hard-core. The tax firm acquisition did not happen due to various seller-related issues, (it may happen with a different firm down the road, my partner and I are looking now), I am down to my last few thousand in the bank, although I still have not tapped my 401k yet. Still making house/car payments, but I gotta have some fresh income starting yesterday, or I am gonna have to start peeling off some retirement funds, withholding plus penalty or no.

I have not been sitting around waiting for something to happen. My family has cut back till it hurts. Thank goodness for local grandparents who can pay for the little fun stuff. Pop sure can't right now.

I have sucked it up and am waiting tables at a steak joint at nights now. I made $50 last Saturday, LOL. That's what I use to make in an HOUR. 41 years+ old, and back to college kid wages with a family and a mortgage.

I have applied to over 250+ jobs, interviewed for 3. Wanna know what ELSE keeps me up at night? At what point do I become 'damaged goods'? Ya know, "This guy has not found a job in 'X' months, must be something there . . . let's take a pass". Tell me it does not happen every day.

The crazy thing is that the career path I was on is dead. Every week I get a call from a former peer asking about what is out there. Nada. My headhunter says more hiring freezes and more layoffs coming. The financial sector is hemorrhaging jobs like crazy even now. Except at the top. Except the f*ckers who caused this economic cardiac arrest.

I have a buddy whose daughter has a chronic lung condition, laid off three months ago, and who had to choose between his house in Richmond or COBRA payments for his kiddo last month. He is living in a three bedroom apt now with his wife and 2 kids.

45 years old.

Can you imagine? Seem real yet? Ask yourself, “If my income was wiped out for six-twelve months, how would we get by?”

My kids are healthy, my wife and I are healthy, so we have the only important thing anyway. House and Car, etc. are just stuff.

But . . . can anyone here define “Middle Class”? Seriously, WTF does that mean anymore?

As a financial guy, I did the following to offset any tough period. . .

3 months salary in bank . . . CHECK
Controlled little debt . . . CHECK
Used cars, keep after paid off . . . CHECK
Did not buy more house than I can afford . . . CHECK
Life Ins . . . CHECK
Will/Medical power of attorney, etc . . . CHECK

And it was still not enough . . .

Last question: IF YOU CALL YOURSELF CHRISTIAN, WOULDN'T IT BE THE CHRISTIAN THING TO HAVE UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARE? To, ya know, have one less thing on your neighbors mind while he tries to survive financially?

Tomorrow I want to talk about what our economy looks like and what that means, but for now;

Reach out to your buddy without a gig, buy him/her a beer. Joke about better times, do not talk about your upcoming vacation to the Caymans.

-Prodigal Son

Long, but worth watching

2009-08-17T12:08:00.003-05:00

H/T: The Market Ticker

Have the Whackos Won?

2009-08-14T22:23:00.001-05:00

Well, the wackos have won a partial victory, led by Wacko-In-Chief Sarah Palin.

By grabbing onto the propagandist rhetoric of the worst kind, Palin undercut one of the better provisions in HR 3200, calling end-of-life counseling "death panels."

The proposed legislation was nothing of the sort, of course. It was a provision that allowed the reimbursement of counseling for terminally ill patients. The measure would've opened options for hospice care, either at home or in an inpatient facility, and other opportunities for enhancing the quality of life near the end of life. It also would have paid for counseling and some legal help in preparing for the end-of-life.

Instead, Palin and other right-wing extremists used the same fear-mongering tactics that stampeded this nation into Iraq — Vietnam with sand— and the Patriot Act, which gave Dick Cheney an extension on your phone and a tap into your Internet.

Palin was aided and abetted by a group known as "Patriot@FaxDC.com," which is blast faxing members of Congress and spewing its stupidity at newspapers. This outfit is a huge offshoot of the Tea Party movement that started last spring.

Take a gander at the e-mail The Amarillo Independent got today:

Alert: Part of the controversial Obamacare proposal pending in Congress that discusses "end-of-life" counseling and medical procedures that could be rationed based on the age of the patient and other factors was written by suicide advocates who argue openly for the "right" to death, according to reports.

The sources for the Obamacare provisions have been documented on a blog for Family Research Council Action and discussed by prominent pro-life columnist Jill Stanek.

"Come again that promotion of euthanasia isn't part of Section 1233?" Stanek wrote in her new explanation of the dangers of Obamacare. " Kudos to FRC's The Cloakroom …for drawing attention to the fact that the two authors of Section 1233 are major proponents of euthanasia and assisted suicide."

The authors include an Oregon congressman who has argued for assisted suicide before federal courts and an organization that openly boasts it helps "thousands of clients each year by ... guiding their search for a peaceful, humane death...."

FRC Action reports on its website the group "has been getting some heat" for its criticism of the plan.

"Today comes (a) smoking gun … with the group Compassion & Choices coming out defending the questionable rationing portions of the bill and admitting THEY ACTUALLY WROTE THE LANGUAGE!" FRC Action said.

Can you believe this stuff? There is not one documentable name for the source of these allegations. There is a regurgitation of garbage published by the right-wing Family Research Council, the folks who want to censor your television watching, but not one reliable source.

My column in the Aug. 13 issue talked about propaganda and public relations.

I support Pres. Barak Obama's agenda strongly but I wish he had been more calculating in the way he had introduced health care reform and more aggressive in the way he defends it now.

One problem at hand is that the vocal minority has taken charge of the conversation. The other problem is that the attack on health care reform is concurrent with an attack on the elected officials of the federal government.

As a progressive, I think we need insurance and health care reform tied together. And as a compassionate human being I don't believe all government workers are bad. But, as I look at the members of Congress and their behavior and their self-serving activity that has turned them into a “ruling class” I share the anger with the right-wing wackos.

Well said!

2009-08-12T20:09:00.002-05:00

Pass it on! The perfect answer to "guvment cain't do nothin!"

"click here"

The Liberalator

Misleading, As Usual

2009-08-04T19:31:00.002-05:00

The Amarillo Globe Republican ran an AP story this morning headlined "Both sides mislead issues in debate on health care." The only problem is that all four claims (government encouraged euthanasia; government funded abortions; having to change doctors; and health care rationing) are all right wing lies that were disputed in the facts presented in the very same article. Oh well, what else can you expect from that rag.
(Sorry no link - article was not on Amarillo.com)

Liberalator