El Pueblo Unido

I was proud to march with the thousands in Amarillo on May 1 for immigrant justice. I was energized and uplifted by what is possible when people come together.

But I am continually dismayed at the ignorance and ill will expressed by too many of my fellow citizens (read here, here and here for the sampling of letters the AGN could print; many others were too vicious for ink). People need to educate themselves with facts, not blind themselves with prejudice. And hearts must be enlightened with compassion, not darkened with exclusion.

Do some research and this is what you’ll find (thanks to the Pew Hispanic Center). Families with children make up 41% of unauthorized migrants, and 2/3 of the 4.7 million children in those families are US citizens. Three-fourths of those families are mixed with regard to citizenship, with some parents or children unauthorized and some US citizens. This is a big reason youth are so energized; Republican-proposed legislation threatens to criminalize unauthorized presence and tear families apart.

Most unauthorized adults have paying jobs (75%). The 6.3 million unauthorized workers are 4.3% of the American labor force; 92% of men and 56% of women work outside the home. Unauthorized workers dominate in service occupations, agriculture and meatpacking, construction and extractive industries, and production, installation and repair industries.

But, on average, those jobs don’t pay much; median income for immigrant workers is only $300/week; unauthorized workers earn 43% less than native workers. The system is designed to keep workers voiceless and without rights, silently exploited by businesses that benefit from their labor. This is the dirty little secret that they don’t want you to know.

Those who work and shop and rent are paying taxes. We’re not talking about a free-loaders or Reaganesque welfare queens, but hard workers doing hard jobs for a lot less than native workers earn.

It is not a crime to work hard, to seek a better life, to provide for your family, and to enrich the culture and economy where you live. Immigrants do this. Just like all hard-working Americans.

It is wrong to operate an economic system that exploits people and gives them no voice or power. It is wrong to seek to break and divide families and uproot productive lives. It is wrong to let hate and fear and racism poison the common air of our society.

The immigrant justice movement is about workers’ rights. The movement is about families. The movement is about fairness. If you’re a working man or working woman, you need to be marching with us. Don’t accept the crumbs the system hands you and deny even that to others. Stand together, not apart, and demand what’s right and fair. Most Americans have more in common with our immigrant brothers and sisters than with those whose pale hands are on the levers of economic and political power.

Immigrants will only enrich America. They always have; poor Swedish farmers like my great-grand parents, or the working families I was honored to march with. I will march again, because justice and fairness compel us to put our feet on the street and join our voices in solidarity with those whom we have common cause.

no dan quayle

Lloyd Bentsen is dead. He used to be our Senator. In fact, he was the very first political figure to whom I wrote a letter about a political issue. That would have been around the turn of the decade between the 1970s and 1980s. I wrote in support of Amtrak. My letter fulfilled some sort of merit badge requirement, back when we thought that the Boy Scouts were merely teaching citizenship and before we knew they were a gay-bashing, fundie front organization.

Later, Lloyd Bentsen was the first Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate I refused to vote for. 1988 was the first Presidential election in which I was eligible to vote, but I couldn’t bring myself to vote for either Bush père or Dukakis. And back then we still had the luxury of pursuing a stubborn independence. Maybe someday, when things aren’t so polarized, and when the American government no longer spies on its citizens and distrusts free speech, and when environmental protections have been restored and our health care system isn’t killing us; maybe then I can wander drunkenly back into some off-the-chart third party and live out my dotage in the kind of ideological purity I enjoyed when I refused to vote for the top of Bentsen’s ticket in 1988.

He was a bipartisan moderate who defeated both the left (Ralph Yarborough in the primary) and the right (Congressman George Bush in the general election) to win his first Senate term. He wasn’t perfect, but he wasn’t a disaster, either. He belonged to a different time. He once told us he knew Jack Kennedy. He served with Jack Kennedy, he said. Requiescat in pace, Senator. Say hi to Jack.

spacedark

*asterisk

Yeah, but Ruth not only didn't take steroids, he had an appetite for substances that actually disenhanced his performance.

spacedark

drinking liberally in the merry merry month of may

"I mean, for god's sake, it's Raspberry Beret, not Strawberry Parade. And Prince is not 'bubblegum rock'"












newsguygeorge demonstrates how one Drinks Liberally. Democrats everywhere express shock and horror.


As lequino induces a trance state, the Blue Force of Progressivism emanates from his head. John watches the process with concern.













The Blue Force of Progressivism envelops Erik's shirt.














... and blogarillo says F.U. and good night.

we might be laughing a bit too loud / ah, but that never hurt no one

I just can’t believe all the things people say. – Controversy.
Am I black or white? Am I straight or gay? – Controversy.
Do I believe in god? Do I believe in me? – Controversy,
Controversy, Controversy.

– Prince, “Controversy”

Creating a controversy, I’ve learned, is like writing humor. You can’t do it if you try too hard; it only happens when you’re just surfing, sailing along, being yourself. Suddenly, out of the clear blue sky, there it is.

We’ve recently received some negative feedback about Drinking Liberally. Not much—and nothing compared to the positive feedback we’ve received—but some. The Democrats who complained expressed shock and horror, cited drunk-driving statistics, and said we were an embarrassment.

Now, we at Panhandle Truth Squad would never deny the fact that we are an embarrassment to The Party. We wouldn’t have it any other way. But I do think it's strange that this would be an issue since I have consumed alcohol at fundraisers, watch parties, candidate meet-and-greets, and while canvassing Iowa in the snow. My understanding is that Republicans, Independents, Greens, and Libertarians also drink occasionally.

Furthermore, my gut reaction is to say that progressivism is about expanding human freedoms not denying them. But I'll try to be more charitable than that.

My purpose in starting a chapter of DL here was to attract newer people and younger people to the Cause. There are a number of folks who—for all sorts of reasons—are unable or unwilling to agitate in the traditional ways. And, as I’ve expressed, we in the netroots generation are growing doubtful of the efficacy of those traditional methods, anyway.

So we’re not so much trying to recruit volunteers as establish a network of people who will talk and spread progressive ideas and ideals. Read between the lines: if you come to Drinking Liberally, we won’t pressure you to canvass nor to give us money. That kind of politics has its place—but so do we. And we believe that a casual conversation over intoxicants can accomplish as much as a knocked door or a pamphleted car. Drinking Liberally chapters sponsor Laughing Liberally events, progressive book signings, and Screening Liberally progressive movie nights in other parts of the country. Eventually, we would like to do these kinds of things, but we have to establish the network first.

I guess I intuit that some of the fun has gone out of liberalism in recent decades. Woody Guthrie used to sing those great songs; mischievous Yippies once nominated Pigasus for President; and there was a time when Hunter Thompson shot his guns at targets other than himself. Now, much of the general public associates us with PC police, strict and humorless vegans, and would-be car and gun regulators. And I have to say that some of the reactions we’ve received to Drinking Liberally suggest that the stereotype isn't altogether undeserved.

Nevertheless, we believe that many people will still go where the party is. Some of us still argue, with Codename-V, that a revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having. Drinking Liberally is for them. Lookit, we don’t have to all be the same. If you’d rather debate issues quietly in your Inside Voice, there are already places and events for you.

If we are to create a progressive movement in this young millennium, we'll have to do it like our parents and grandparents did. By including everyone—from Dust Bowl farmers to factory workers to New York aristocrats. By including everyone—from mothers of 19-year-olds shot in Vietnam to blissed-out Hashbury heads to Walter Cronkite. By including everyone—from the FDR-remembering daughters of those Dust Bowl farmers to old hippies to Sojourners-reading religious progressives to drunken bloggers.

We all have our place. Ours is to steal the Fun from Fundamentalism and put it back in Progressivism where it belongs. The straight-edge schoolmarm Democrats whom we embarrass and offend have a place, too. I certainly hope they continue to vote Democratic, but don’t worry: I have no intention of kidnapping them and forcing them to come drink martinis with me.

Meanwhile, I've noticed that they serve milk and cookies at the Potter Randall Democratic Club.


spacedark

shh, don't tell anyone there's a democrat in the race

Now that Kinky and Carole Keeton R'ander Strayhorn MacInerney Shaw are in the governor's race, it's literally anyone's game. I travelled to El Paso for a teacher's meeting this weekend and spoke to a colleague who is sympathetic to The Cause about the governor's race. Well, actually we were talking about that Kinky Freidman song about El Paso, and my colleague opinied that he would probably vote for Kinky. Grandma was, I guess, a tad too tough and Rick Perry was too, well, Rick Perry. And, he said, there wasn't a Democrat in the race.

Well, there is Chris Bell, I told him.

Who?, he asked. Now this is a person who is more politically informed than me. But somehow Bell's candidacy had just sorta slipped by him.

I can see how. If I hadn't spoken with Bell on the phone I might doubt his very existence. No press. No ads. Nothing.

At least not up here in the Panhandle. And, I really wouldn't think that Bell, who used to live up here, was the type to just blow us off.

Looking at the campaign's web site, I see some appearances in front of sympathetic crowds. Is this the strategy? Remind Democrats to stick with the party, while lying low in the general population and hoping that Grandmaw, Goodhair and the Kinkster rip each other to shreds?

To be honest, I'm not sure it's a bad idea . . .

Yo, Mr. Bell. Shoot me an e, and lemme know what the strategy is. I promise I won't tell anyone about you.

spacedark

keeping it real(ity-based), lesson 42

I was in El Paso over the weekend and missed the hullabaloo over Karl Rove's indictment, or "indictment," depending on whom you believe, but as I understand the situation:

1. Jason Leopold and Truthout are standing by the story,
2. Which has not been independently confirmed anywhere else, and
3. Leopold's past credibility has been impugned, but, of course,
4. He's not (or shouldn't be) the story.

I've read Truthout in the past. I particularly enjoy William Rivers Pitt. I think he's a good writer. This story's a big one and they knew it and know it. If they got it wrong and Rove's not indicted-- even if he's not yet indicted-- I won't rely on them as even as alternative news source. Simple as that.

I only hope that dysblogtopia¹ will similarly adjust their viewpoints and news sources if the report turns out to be true.

spacedark

¹skippy coined the term "blogtopia," for which he incessantly takes credit. I'm coining the term dysblogtopia (which does not, spelled or misspelled, appear on any google search) to refer to the right-wing blogosphere.

in which I speak too soon, yet again

Last month, I described 32% as "rock bottom" for the Emperor W's popularity. Guess I spoke too soon.

Surely, by this point everyone who would abandon the Emperor has abandoned him. Surely that 29% is rock bottom. Surely that 29% would (and will) follow the Emperor into Hell itself.

Whoops, spoke too soon, again. This poll was taken before the NSA-spying story broke.

And to think, back in June, 2004, I was gloating over 42%.

spacedark

a one-party system sounds like an improvement at this point.

An improvement, that is, from the current status quo in which no party represents The People:

The White House stood by its nominee for CIA director, Gen. Michael Hayden, amid new controversy over the surveillance programs he piloted as head of the National Security Agency.
. . .

The going got tougher with the disclosure that the NSA has been secretly collecting millions of Americans' phone records, said Sen. Joe Biden, who blasted the surveillance program but called Hayden "a first-rate guy."

I've said this before and it invariably pisses people off, but I'm not married to the idea that the Democrats are the only thing standing between us and dictatorship. If the Democratic leadership doesn't freaking care that millions of innocent Americans are being watched by Big Brother, they're not a real opposition party. They can have their role as Emmanuel Goldstein in the emerging dystopia.

Of course, party-liners of all stripes will criticize anyone says things like this for not having a solution-- and they'll be right. I don't have a freaking solution. All of the available options are just different forks on the road to Hell:

1. Swallow hard: support the Democrats (but, really, what have you done for me lately?)
2. Go to Disneyland: take your soma and go on vacation (whoops, wrong dystopia)
3. Love it or leave it: just go somewhere else (but why should those of us who believe in America's ideals be shove out by those who don't), or
4. Revolution: (as Billy Joel once sang "I don't have time")

Ungh. What am I leaving out?

spacedark

welcome to oceania

1984:

NSA has massive database of Americans' phone calls: The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.

1985: The Sequel:

The [Justice Department] has abruptly ended an inquiry into the warrantless eavesdropping program because the National Security Agency refused to grant Justice Department lawyers the necessary security clearance to probe the matter.

1983: The Prequel :

Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, nominated Monday by President Bush to become the director of the CIA, headed the NSA from March 1999 to April 2005. In that post, Hayden would have overseen the agency's domestic call-tracking program. Hayden declined to comment about the program.

. . . and . . .

The replacement of Porter Goss as head of the Central Intelligence Agency appears rooted in one presidential objective: to coordinate and streamline America's various intelligence agencies to "stop the terrorists before they strike."

1986: Part IV

One major telecommunications company declined to participate in the program: Qwest. According to sources familiar with the events, Qwest's CEO at the time, Joe Nacchio, was deeply troubled by the NSA's assertion that Qwest didn't need a court order — or approval under FISA — to proceed.

Yeah, good for Qwest. A dailykos diary suggests inundating them with valentines. But, wait. There are all sorts of reasons to doubt Quest’s—and Joe Nacchio’s—sudden status as good corporate citizens.

(Scroll down to “Over at Qwest Communications" on the last link.)

spacedark

Great Moments In Speaking Too Soon

What a Gas!

I just got home from the Amarillo City Commission meeting in Southeast Amarillo. I was just going to show up for a little while and leave early, but it was so facinating and entertaining I stayed for the whole thing.

It was wonderful to see our every day working folks present to the Southwest Amarillo elite information, pictures, and colorful descriptions of our city that they don't have a clue about. One fellow had a slide show of slum areas, falling down apartment buildings, unpaved roads, trash strewn streets and lots. Another lady told about the chickens in her neighborhood that created such noise and odor they couldn't enjoy the outdoors at their house. She also told of how attractive fences being built of sheet metal, old garage doors and scrap wood made her neighborhood. Another talked about abandoned mobile homes that are a danger to children in the neighborhood.

I don't know how much the commission was paying attention to what was not being said, but I have to give it to them, they were polite and friendly. Maybe if they hear this enough it will wake them up to the Amarillo they don't know, and maybe will work to change.

When the commission is meeting in your area of Amarillo, if you have the least bit of liberal blood and compassion in you, GO! And while I'm at it, if you haven't signed a petition for establishing Single Member Districts, find one and sign on. It will make all the difference in the world!

The Liberalator

I'm a little bit country

In a post about Merle Haggard's disillusion with America and its putative leader, Wally reminds us why country music fits today's Republicans so badly:

Like a lot of old country singers, Haggard grew up sympathizing and empathizing with the working class -- and he can see that they're getting the raw end of the stick from the Republicans. Hope he's able to persuade some of the country music folk to get off the dead-end Bush bandwagon...

I agree, but I have to admit that I've always viewed country musicians and their fans as Kansans with whom something was probably the matter. Like my dad, who recently read me page after page of progressive-sounding ideas he'd sent to Rep. Mac Thorneswabble, but continues to support Bush.

But when you think about it, country musicians were among the first to criticize the Emperor. The Dixie Chicks paid a heavy price for doing so. And then there was TimMcGraw&FaithHill. And Willie Nelson. Rosanne Cash. Bonnie Raitt. And so on.

Makes me feel like going scoot booting or whatever the hell it's called.

spacedark

I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together

When I posted last week about comments, I had only one real concern. Those of us who post on the front page have obviously allowed wildly unfettered free speech here. We regularly get insulted and even threatened. As a consequence we’ve developed fairly thick skins.

Granted, we’ve done our share of insulting as well. I personally try to limit my out-and-out rudeness to those who, in the paraphrased words of one commenter, come into our house and defecate on the carpet, but I probably haven’t always been successful.

When I posted, I was concerned about the casual commenters who use this blog as we intended – as a progressive forum for panhandle progressives. I worried that some of them might not have skins that were quite so thick. While we haven’t discouraged conservative commenters and trolls, and approach absolutism regarding free speech issues, this blog would be pointless if its core audience were driven away. In that event, I at least would turn my attention elsewhere.
Those worries seem to have been unfounded. Apparently, a thick skin is a prerequisite for liberalism in West Texas.

However, another issue has arisen. A fraudulent post was called to my attention. It appeared to be from one of our posters but was actually posted by a conservative troll. Since it accurately reflected neither fact nor opinion, I deleted it and have set comments to require approval for the remainder of the day. Consequently, comments may take awhile to be posted. Sorry about that.

I will delete only comments are inaccurately signed. And I really don’t even want this much responsibility. I also don’t want to require people to sign in to post comments in perpetuam. Consider this a warning. If you don’t want to post under your own name, post under anonymous or “Porky the Pig”. Just don’t post under someone else’s name. Assuming we don’t have any more problems, I’ll turn realtime commenting back on later this evening or tomorrow morning.

Goo goo goo joob.

spacedark

mis estudiantes

Will they or won't they?

spacedark

say no to war unless a democrat is president

It’s no secret that many members of my netroots generation—including such prominent activists as Kos—have come to doubt the efficacy of the rally/march model of political protest. Rallies so often seem to be social gatherings of people who already agree with each other. Generation Xers worry that they will send the general public running like Jehovah’s Witnesses are knocking on their doors. But this morning I learned that these old-school events so beloved by the baby-boomers among us are not complete anachronisms. They can still be effective methods to recruit new members to the Cause.

Witness this picture from this morning’s Rally To End The War In Iraq sponsored by Question War Amarillo. The young gentleman in the middle has never been to a Question War event but is obviously very dedicated to the cause. He clearly took time to prepare for the rally, going so far as to dress up in fatigues and a turban. He’s obviously much further out there on the left’s fringes than me. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

At the same time he’s an extremely partisan Democrat. His sign says “Say no to war unless a Democrat is President”. Again, I’m not entirely sure I agree: LBJ, for example, thoroughly botched an unnecessary war, and I’m not too sure about all of Clinton’s military actions.

Those reservations aside, it was great to see a new and committed face show up to protest this war this morning. Keep watching; we’ll have some more pictures up later.

spacedark

how you gonna stop the clock / when the well runs dry

Y'know, he reached his limit with me years ago.

But, in a Daily Kos diary, Kurt Kaletka reminds us that a vast majority of first-year congresspeople elected in the infamous "Contract On America" year of 1994 took a pledge to serve no more than 12 years.

They believed in term limits so strongly that they wanted to see it codified into the frickin' Constitution: Item 10 on the Contract read

This resolution provides for consideration of two joint resolutions which propose amendments to the constitution limiting the number of terms members of the Senate and the House of Representatives can serve. The first joint resolution (identical to H.J.Res. 38 as introduced in the 103rd Congress) limits the number of Senate terms to two and the number of House terms to six. The second joint resolution (identical to H.J.Res. 160 as introduced in the 103rd Congress) also limits Senators to two terms, but it limits members of the House to three terms. Under the terms of this resolution, the joint resolution with the text of H.J.Res. 38 will be debated first and the first amendment in order will be a substitute consisting of H.J.Res. 160.

The Representatives of the Class of 1994 have now served the six terms they swore they'd stop after. And most of them who are still in office are running for another term. And one of their number is quite familiar to us...









Rep. Mac Thornberry explains to a skeptical constituent why he will serve so many more years than he originally promised.








Rep. Mac Thornberry points to a bar chart. The long bar on the right represents how many more years he intends to serve. The short bar on the left shows how many years he originally promised to serve.










Rep. Mac Thornberry uses a graph to show how the number of years Republican reps are allowed to serve will steadily rise under the "Contract on America II"









Funny how term limits seemed like such a great idea to Republicans when Democrats were in power.

spacedark


UPDATE:

Inspired by blogarillo's comment, we are now able to show this hastily photoshopped picture of Rep. Mac Thornberry praying for guidance while an unidentified Republican donor shows him why God wants him to "continue his work." Note the divine glow around the wad of cash.

straw man, no straw

For some time, there have been those who believe that we should start putting our trolls to death. A number of our number have asked us why we continue to feed them. Just ignore him, they say, he’ll go away. Or ban him.

Wally, for example, has said:

Dudes, ban him or quit feeding him. Let the troll spew his crap somewhere else.

Iman has said just ignore him, he’ll go away.

Even the venerable Prodigal Son has said he’s tired of a specific troll and he should go back to freeperville.

I certainly sympathize with all of these opinions. At least one of our trolls is a savage racist who has no place in the polite society we’ve built here.

Nevertheless, so far we've taken a pretty laissez-faire attitude toward our trolls. For the most part that policy has worked for us. We've even found some common ground with the more rational wingnuts.

And, as for those with whom there is no common ground, I think blogarillo has had the right idea when he sais: Let the world see the unmasked face of the right wing. He may seem extreme, but he speaks for a great many people.

Thing is, if I were to create a straw man wingnut to argue against on this site, he wouldn’t be as batcrap crazy as some of this stuff spouted by the trolls in the comments. We get all of the advantages of inventing a straw man with none of the trouble. Also, our page views go up when there is controversy.

But what do we do when they cross the line and become personally abusive? My skin is as thick and prickly as a stegosaurus, but I hate to see commenters get harassed. Basically, there are four options:

I haven't started moderating or deleting comments or banning IP addresses yet, and, honestly, I'm struggling with it. This is a group blog and everyone should have input. Let me know what you think, in comments or e-mail.

spacedark

anti-war rally

Question War Amarillo

Presents
A Rally To End The War In Iraq

Saturday, April 29, 2006, 10 a.m.
Centennial Plaza,
Buchanan St. and 7th Ave., between City Hall and Civic Center

fight the power on net neutrality

Net neutrality is essential to the operation of the Internet as we know it today. Essentially all data is treated equally whether you are Amarillo.com or panhandletruthsquad.blogspot.com. This allows equal access for smaller sites like this one and should be important to all who blog, comment, lurk, or even troll here.

Telecommunications companies like Verizon and AT&T are lobbying to change this in the new telecommunications bill. If they are successful, the sites you can access and the speed at which they load could be entirely up to your Internet provider. At worst, what used to be the Internet could look much like the old bulletin board sites like CompuServe, Prodigy, and the first iteration of AOL. And those sites went over like a . . . well, like something that didn't go over very well.

This isn't a partisan issue and the threat isn't just from Republicans. Save Daily Kos and Free Republic. Visit Save the Internet.com. Now.

spacedark

Here We Go Again

We’ll be distributing the second issue of The Amarillo Independent Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning.

We take in in-depth look at the downtown task force and we covered Roger Waun’s presentation to the Potter-Randall Democratic Club. I’m sure he got all of three seconds on TV Monday night ¾ and I sure didn’t see any of my friends from the Globe-Republican, nor did I see anything on their Web site.

We’re at Hastings, Happy State Bank, Roasters, Big Texan, Hoffbrau and elsewhere. Pick up the paper and enjoy “Real News, Honest Journalism.”

pts poll: rock bottom

CNN is reporting that the Emperor W's approval rating has sunk to a new personal low: 32%. Even in Texas, only 41% approve of his performance. We wondered who the 32% and 41% were and conducted our own polls:

National:
Q: Would you continue to support the Emperor if he ate a puppy on live TV?
No . . . . . 68% Damn straight! . . . . . 32%

Q: Would you continue to support the Emperor if God told him to sacrifice a young child, and he did?
No . . . . . 68% Damn straight! . . . . . 32%

Q: Have you been taking shots of vodka from a plastic bottle and smoking methamphetamine since 6:00 this morning?
No . . . . . 68% Damn straight! . . . . . 32%

Texas:
Q: Would you continue to support the Emperor if he strapped you down and poured hot molten lava down your throat?
No . . . . . 55% You know it, boy! . . . . . 41%

Q: Would you continue to support the Emperor if he killed his father and married his mother?
No . . . . . 55% You know it, boy! . . . . . 41%

Q: Is that you, John Kanelis?
No . . . . . 55% You know it, boy! . . . . . 41%

(polling by spacedark)

amarillo's first drinking liberally meeting!

On Friday, April 21, we had our first Drinking Liberally meeting at Bodega's and it was a rousing success. Pictures speaketh thousands of words:











Here's to Drinking Liberally! And here's to Prodigal Son -- thanks for the round of Shiner Bocks, Prodigal!

you know we'll meet again some sunny day

A group of thirteen prominent physicists have petitioned the Emperor W to halt any plans to bomb Iran with nuclear weapons and to announce that the U.S. will not nuke non-nuclear powers.

In World War II, after V-E Day, Leo Szilard, a Los Alamos physicist who had called for the development of an atomic bomb to counter potential German development of such a weapon, decided that it would be immoral to use the bomb against the Japanese. He wrote a petition to support that view and collected seventy signatures.

We know how that worked out for him.

Stay tuned for World War III.

spacedark

It's Almost Here

Another voice — a progressive and kind voice — comes to Amarillo.

By tomorrow morning, some 30-plus locations in Amarillo will carry The Amarillo Independent, a free newsweekly, available for pick up. Some of those places include the three Hastings in Amarillo and the one in Canyon, the lobbies of the five Happy State Bank branches, M&R Liquors, the Ambassador, English Field Restaurant and Northwest Texas Hospital.

We’re starting small but look for in-depth coverage of the Texas Tech pharmacy school lawsuit and some coverage of the arts community. As we grow, we’ll do more investigative reporting and in-depth news on other topics. Our plan is to offer the community "Real News, Honest Journalism."

Enjoy the first issue and watch for a new one each week.

Three Signs That Your Superpower Is Becoming a Cheap Rip-Off of the Soviet Union

. . . care of the Rude Pundit:

"1. Members of the party in power pledge allegiance to their party's own symbol. At a GOP dinner in San Diego, the fine Republican attendees stood like good meerkats and began to say the Pledge of Allegiance until some observant Pavlovian diner noticed that there was no, you know, American flag to pledge to. "Pledge to the elephant," shouted one quick-thinking GOPer, and all the pledgers, including weepy Rep. Darrell Issa, turned to say the pledge to a starred and striped elephant banner."

Go Read Now. A glass of scotch can help here. . .

-Prodigal Son

Happy Springtime Christian Majority Victimfest

Hands off my hijacked pagan imagery.

lead, follow, or get out of the way

It was the calm before the storm. At about 8:30 a.m., I went out into the halls of the high school where I teach. For two weeks, the kids had been talking ‘bout a revolution. They were going to walk out in support of . . . they were going to walk out against . . . um . . . well, they were going to walk out on this date at this time.

So I walked the halls. The administration had determined that the kids should just be allowed to leave without staff making a scene. They would be truant, but not punished in any other way. That was about the right level of reaction—they would incur the natural consequences about being absent from school, but not punished for political action.

So I walked the halls. My liberal bleeding heart had compelled me to work lessons on civil disobedience into the classes I was teaching about the Harlem Renaissance to the juniors. It had been harder to work it into the seniors’ class: they were studying Frankenstein. But, whatever. The juniors hadn’t been able to independently bring up any connections to what they were doing, and it was inappropriate for me to make that connection for them.

So in the end I walked the halls. And watched, and waited. And nothing. A few kids came out of class, looked around, looked confused, wandered aimlessly. The walkout fizzled.

It was exactly what I had, in my cynicism, expected. A couple of weeks before, the assistant principal had told me that this was being planned. I had told him half-jokingly that I didn’t think our kids had the initiative to pull of something like that. “To be honest,” I said, “If they did walk out, I’d be proud of them for doing something for once.” He laughed.

It was exactly half a joke and half serious. It was a difficult balancing act for me. I believe in the potential of civil disobedience in America. Hell, I teach it in Americana Lit. I did, of course, also have to uphold my responsibilities to the school. I couldn’t bring it up, so in class—in a foreshadow of Thursday morning at 8:30—I was left waiting for them to say something about it. To the few who did, I said that only they could decide what they had to do. I told them that there were always consequences for civil disobedience. MLK and Thoreau went to jail. Kids in Tiananmen Square got run over by tanks. They had to decide for themselves what they had to do. And inability to decide for themselves is this generation’s fatal flaw.

I never thought they’d pull it off. But I know what it takes to organize a political action. It isn’t easy. The kids who did walk didn’t have signs, flag, banners, or a place to go. Most importantly, they didn’t have leaders. A lot of kids had come to class obviously planning to walk. They sat in class in their “Mexico!” t-shirts and, when 8:30 came, did nothing. I’m convinced they were waiting for an announcement to come over the PA that it was time to walk out.

I facetiously suggested to the SO last night that I now believe that the kids who did walk out should be punished more severely, perhaps suspended. Because the administration’s policy—to give them a truancy only—was carefully crafted to avoid punishing them for political action. But there was no political action. They just walked out of class, that’s all. That, to my mind, is worse than a mere truancy.

In the end, I was saddened by the whole thing. The day before in my class, a couple of Hispanic seniors had argued. The girl asked the boy why he was walking out. He could really explain, mumbled something about how the government was going to kick out all the Mexicans, and ended up decided it was about “culture”. When it became clear that the girl needed a specific reason, and wasn’t going to walk out for culture, the boy called her a traitor to her people.

Both students were in class Thursday morning.

spacedark

Dave Henry: Historical Hypocrite

Dave Henry recently asked:

When in this nation's proud history did immigration require schools to spend millions to educate students who cannot speak English (the Clovis, N.M., school district is offering $1,569 stipends to bilingual teachers because of the need). When in the past did immigration overrun the nation's emergency rooms with patients, many indigent or here illegally, and jack up the already-rising cost of health care? When did immigration require governments to produce documents in foreign languages, not to mention put blame on law enforcement for not being able to communicate in a foreign language? How about government services?

Of course there would be no U.S. of A. were it not for immigration, but Dave thinks ahead and answers his own question:

This is not the early 20th century. Times have changed.

Have times changed? There was indeed a time when immigrants were allowed into this country in droves. In fact, one now famous facility was set up to handle part of the influx - Ellis Island.


Hordes of European scum, probably Irish,
force their way into our beloved country.

Millions of European immigrants passed through halls of Ellis Island, being practically rubber-stamped into the country. I'm afraid I don't have the time to go digging around for ancient budget numbers, but readily available evidence suggests that a fair amount of money was spent on the facilities and personnel required to process all these immigrants.


Enjoy your potatoes, Seamus O'Fay! That better not
have come out of the taxpayers' pockets.

I'm not so doe-eyed as to believe that everyone welcomed the newcomers with open arms. There were people on both sides of immigration then as there are now. In fact, it seems the more things change the more they stay the same:

David Phillips Discusses the Chinese Question
Hinton Rowan Helper Opposes Chinese Immigration

Hostility towards immigrants is certainly nothing new:


We're all aware of the treatement the true first
immigrants received.


A family of African immigrants, who probably
don't appreciate the chance God has given them,
are processed in Richmond, VA.


Yep, you just can't trust the micks.


A Jap sympathizer prepares to be "Malkinized".

The fact of the matter is this nation has a long history of "catering" to non-English speaking people, be they legal citizens or not. In particular, bilingual education has been around for ages and certainly hasn't been restricted to Hispanics - A Timeline of Bilingual Education. Some cities offer their websites in multiple languages:

"Visit Amarillo" in German
"Visit Amarillo" in Portugese
"Visit Amarillo" in Spanish
"City of Dallas" in Spanish
City of San Francisco - Multilingual
City of Seattle - Multilingual

It isn't just government addressing this issue. Non-English newspapers are certainly nothing new.

A couple of old examples:

New Braufels' HERALD-ZEITUNG, which was published in both German and English in the past.

Il-Progresso Italo-Americano


A few contemporary examples:
Vietnam Daily News
Al Watan
World Journal
La Prensa San Diego

Truth be told, I agree that something needs to be done about illegal immigration. They are breaking the law, as are the people employing them. That fact is undeniable, but I have no doubt that the backlash against Hispanic immigrants is racist in origin. They are going to destroy our language. They are going to destroy our culture. They are going to destroy our schools. They, they, they... This anti-Hispanic sentiment is especially hypocritical when coming from Texans. Our state used to be a Mexican territory, for god sakes. Our own Amarillo takes its name from the Spanish word for "yellow".

Since I'm neither a bigot nor an isolationist, rather than rounding up millions of people for deportation I'd like to see our system streamlined so these people can be given legal working status and put on the fast track to citizenship, as has been done with the immigrants of the past. Hispanics represent a significant part of our workforce and we depend on them heavily. We should have a new Ellis Island to do the job.

Microcosm for US economy?

Enormous debt, leadership chanting that all is well as the ship goes down, shifty leaders looking more and more like they might get off scot free.

It must be sweet to be a big business guy: make millions of dollars, suck dry the retirement accounts of working guys, take "adventure" junkets to baja every other weekend, walk away with a bundle of money, make a deal with the government.

Lay and Skilling are as adept as their chum George W. at making themselves seem innocent, and making certain they didn't leave any smoking guns.

If you ever have a hard time believing that our country is full of greedy pigs that will do anything to make a buck look at this company. From top to bottom, investor to CEO, they did all they could to mislead and rip off the small guy. Sickening.

Check out Juanita's

From time to time, we like to post a link to Texas blogs.

Here's a goodun' from Tommy 'deep pockets' DeLay's home district by a blogger named Juanita, owner of "The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc."

She has a great post about a DeLay supporters pushing around Nick Lampson folks.

Go there.

Nick is the Democrat running for DeLay's seat. Send him some Turkee

-Prodigal Son

we don’t need no water let the m.f. burn

“This must be Thursday. I never could get the hang of Thursdays.”¹

Scenes from a West Texan Thursday:

10:40 pm: My fiancée calls to tell me to go outside. “Is the whole place burning down?” I ask. It isn’t, not yet, but outside, even in the city, you can still smell the smoke. My eyes still burn, and my throat is as sore as it has been since I quite smoking over ten years ago. My clothes—and even my car—smell as day-after smoky as a post-bar-hop hangover.

1:15 pm: Shortly after a kid asks, for the bazillionth time, what foreshadowing means, all of the electricity at the high school cuts out and remains off for half an hour.

3:15 pm: My cell phone starts playing Depeche Mode’s “Somebody”. That’s odd, because it means my fiancée is calling and she knows I’m in class at this hour.

3:20 pm: The math department chair knocks on my door. She tells me that Highway 285 is closed, all the way to Amarillo. Another math teacher who resides in our yellow city is on MapQuest.Com, she says, finding alternate routes. I send cute e-mails to everyone I know alluding to that damnable Tony Christie song. “Show me the way to Amarillo,” I type over and over, chuckling at my own cleverness.

3:35 pm: I close and lock my door and race the kids out of the building. I get in my car and head toward Channing.

3:37 pm: I realize that my front driver’s-side tire is flat and turn around to air it up at Allsup’s.

3:50 pm: On the road to Channing, fires rage in all directions. I’ve rarely been so scared and rarely wished so strongly that I had my camera. I can see billows of hellish red raging smoke and sparks of actual fire at all four compass points. I can actually feel an irregular heat in the car, and I certainly smell the smoke.

3:51 pm: The phone rings. It is another teacher, who tells me that they were advised to go the other way out of town, through Borger, and that the highway through Channing will soon be closed.

3:52 pm: I swear, and turn around. My dad calls and tells me that the fires in Hartley County – which I can see raging all around me – are contained, according to the scroll at the bottom of his screen.

4:00 – 5:00 pm: I stop in each town I pass through to put air in my tire. I watch the massive cottony smoke fumes rise over Dumas in my rearview mirror. On the phone, my father (age 66) scolds me (thirtysomething), saying I should have stayed in Dumas, but it looks from here as if Dumas is burning. Also the whole northern Panhandle. And the river basin.

Through Stinnett and Borger, the air clears, but I look west as I cross the Canadian River. An ginormous black mushroom cloud rises into an eerily blue sky.

5:25 pm: My son calls, wondering how he will get to his guitar lesson if I am not back in town. I am glad that he is so obsessive compul— responsible, but—I can’t work miracles, here . . .

5:40 pm: Driving on rims and unwilling to spend the time to put on the spare, I desperately search Panhandle for an air pump. I learn two things:

1. Panhandlians don’t appeciate hearing “Where the @#$%^ in your @#$%^ing godforsaken piece of @#$%^ little @#$%^ing town is a working @#$%^ing air pump?,” and
2. The only working @#$%^ing air pump in Panhandle is at a quaint little hobby shop called, swear-to-God, Buttons-n-Bows.

6:10 pm: For the first time in my entire life, I am glad to see Amarillo.

spacedark


¹ Douglas Adams, the true prophet.

you / you were acting like it was the end of the world

Years later, Biblical scholars reflected that the find had only been the first of a series of discoveries later named the "self-serving gospels". They included

• the Gospel of George, in which God confirms that he did indeed tell the Emperor of America to attack Iraq
• the Gospel of Osama, completed with 72 centerfolds
• the Gospel of Tom, which excuses most sin as the result of a Leftist conspiracy
• the Gospel of Virgil, in which God creepily condemns teenagers as "Painted Jezebels" and "Harlets"
• the Gospel of Spacedark, in which Jesus says in bold red letters, "Yea, thou shalt find Truth on the Panhandle Truth Squad, even unto the End of the Age

spacedark

Today's Top Medical Story

New Red, Blue Rings Found Around Uranus

all together now . . .

Paleontologist Neil Shubin's goin' straight to hell.

Just like Kent Hovind said.

(He said) You're goin' str-a-a-a-i-i-i-i-ght

To hell.


spacedark

Time: Turning the Tables

I didn't want this one to get lost in the comments.

from: Time magazine

"And Democrats can't be accused of lacking ideas: many of the party's most prominent leaders are putting out long tomes detailing their views. Later this month, Ted Kennedy's book America Back on Track will lay out ideas to ensure universal health care for all Americans, and House Democrat Rahm Emanuel and former Clinton aide Bruce Reed will put out a modestly titled book called The Plan in August that includes ideas such as a national science and technology center modeled on the National Institutes of Health. Illinois Senator Barack Obama has told the Chicago Tribune his new book The Audacity of Hope, due out in October, will look to show how politicians can "shift away from ideological debates and focus on traditional American common sense."

By contrast, on many key issues, Republicans can't find much agreement. Moderates and conservatives in House will spend this week battling over proposed spending cuts in the budget, while Republicans in the Senate fight about immigration reform. President Bush's domestic agenda, from health savings accounts to a commission to reform Social Security and other entitlement plans, has drawn little enthusiasm on Capitol Hill."

posted by Iman

ding dong

...the witch is dead.

spacedark

Fools to repair our schools

I'm thrilled to see we have some of our city's finest thinkers working on the problem of public schools. Virgil and Celtic should get together at one of the local coffee houses (no wait, too liberal)--waffle houses (less sissified, more manly, good conservatives don't drink lattes)--and pencil in ...er um... set in stone(I almost forgot we're dealing with divine wisdom in this case) the solution to the sticky problem of school finance and low test scores. I'm sure their combined experience in the field of education will stand them in good stead.

Meanwhile they should sleep at a Holiday Inn Express tonight and tomorrow morning call up Dubyah to solve the problem of illegal immigration (or if not solve at least figure out who to blame, i.e. blame Vicente Fox and liberals, though business owners certainly can't be blamed at all.). Lets see....tomorrow afternoon they can get down to the problem of the national debt(blame liberals and even though Reagan ran up 4 trillion, Dubyah Sr. another 2 trillion and Jr the rest, blame Bill Clinton as well), and just for grins around Letterman time tomorrow night after Virgil's bed time (Celtic is still up spending all that "hobby money"), Celtic can resolve the war situation in Iraq (if liberals would just shut up and get on board we would have kicked butt by now. Most Iraqi's really love Americans; just look at how well that sixty year old Palestinian thing has worked out. And remember how well we almost did with the Shah in Iran...we could do that in Iraq too, only this time we'll spend 400 billion a year for the next twenty years to make it stick. I'm sure the Chinese will lend us the money, at least until we gain Banana Republic status).

It's good to know with guys like Virgil and Celtic on the job we can all just relax...just like Hunter Thompson finally did.

1 April 2006

Y'know, the Emperor W ain't so bad after all.

spacedark

all in all it's just another brick in the wall

Democracy is a damn good thing, and the increasing democratization of the public chatterbox via the netroots and the blogs is certainly a net positive. But (to use an analogy from neocon mythology) in emerging democracies sometimes you gotta dodge the car bombs and the snipers before you git yer purple thumb.

The car bombers and snipers of Blogtopia are the legions of the uniformed. I compare these folks to Spacedark, Jr. when he was two or three years old. That was his “I help” stage. He wanted to “I help” with any and all chores: painting, dishwashing, whatever. (This is where I should say, “Now that he is in middle school that stage is sadly over.” Only, it’s not. He’s still a helpful kid, but instead of painting and dishes he now wants to help with the global revolution.)

At Panhandle Truth Squad, as at all blogs, we often discuss issues on which everyone believes themselves to be experts. Most of us openly acknowledge our own limitations or biases. But, amazingly, we have a troll (we affectionately call him RacistTexan) who apparently has no limitations or biases. Well, he can’t spell, or write a grammatical sentence, but that’s probably not his fault. He’d probably blame it on public schools. Some disturbing examples of his racism and bad spelling:

• So duh we really don't teach the three R's any more. At least not at the level white children are capable of.
• And black kids will never be smart in their own schools. Only by mixing them with the white kids will they grow a brain.
• But of course allowing a child to get to full potential would result in mostly White and Asians at the top and mosstly blacks and hispanics at the bottom and we can't have that. In the liberal world legislated equality is more important than full potential. Even if that equality requires a dumbing down of a certain white group of kids.

So you see. Public education and race relations are two of the issues in which RacistTexan is an expert. (Another is welfare. He has accused me of smoking crack because I told him the truth about my experiences working in the welfare system before I became a teacher. And since my experiences in public education differ from RT’s in-depth knowledge of the Way Things Really Work, I must here issue a disclaimer: All of the paranoid screeds about education here fantasized by me must surely be equally drug-induced. Sorry about that.)

Expert that he is, RT has also demanded to know my qualifications:

do you actually teach literature or is it more english of one type or anouther? And is it a grade school or the college. I suppose Amarillo college could be considered public. Just curious as to the level you teach and if there is actually a pure lit course in high school not trying to insult you or anything.

I don’t know RT’s motivations for sure, but I’m pretty sure that my employment in the public schools is sufficient to qualify me for insult in his book. But no matter. I am not insulted, if only because I do not care what RT thinks. For the record—and as many of you already know—I teach junior and senior high school English. RT’s skepticism of “pure lit” courses in high school reveals an ignorance of pedagogy—both contemporary and universal—that alone should make us question his rants about public education. For one thing, despite the fact that I am almost finished with my M.A. in History, I have yet to take any course at any level that was “purely” anything. Every course I have taken, for example, has had a writing component and every teacher and professor has taken her or his responsibility to help students improve their writing seriously. Additionally, contemporary pedagogy emphasizes “horizontal” and “vertical” approaches that teach across the curricula at the expense of purity but to the benefit of students.

Nevertheless, Junior English in Texas is traditionally American Literature and Senior English is traditionally Brit Lit. Grammar is traditionally addressed in-depth in junior high / middle school and research in high school, but these are mixed and matched in the TEKS. The manner in which specifics are specifically mixed and matched is a matter of individual teaching style. My classes contain some in-depth grammar review (because I still believe in diagramming, yargh), but generally teach grammar in the context of the literature. This approach is shown to be successful by most recent research.

Here’s how that works in practice. Yesterday, I conducted a lesson about the Harlem Renaissance. I taught the poem “Ardella,” by Langston Hughes. Since Hughes used the words “would” and “were” to make statements in the poem that were contrary to fact, I taught a mini-lesson on the subjunctive mood. Students’ knowledge of both a classic poem and a little-understood grammatical mood were improved. And despite RacistTexan’s racist claims I was able to teach Readin’ and Ritin’ to students from all sorts of backgrounds.

RT’s strange notion of “purity” strikes me as archaic at any academic level— as unsafe at any speed. The fact that he brings it up shows an utter ignorance of education so extreme that he probably wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between a good school and a poor school. Not that he doesn’t try. He insists, for example, that schools should be segregated into “liberal” and “conservative” schools and the sacred marketplace should determine which is better. He tells us that current schools are liberal and that most educators are raving leftists, a fact which would surprise most of the Republicans I teach with in this small town in the Texas Panhandle. RT then describes what a “conservative school” would look like:

I think I should be able to send my child to a conservative school, that opens with prayer and the pledge of allegiance, and that then teaches conservative values.

In accordance to a wacky Texas law, the school I teach at opens with the pledge of allegiance to both the United States flag and the Texas flag. Thanks to the same law, we also open with a “moment of silence,” which is a pretty thinly-veiled prayer. So our “liberal” school looks pretty conservative by RT’s own definition. And the ignorance of Texan critics of public education knows no apparent bounds.

spacedark

bibo ergo sum

In honor of René Descartes' 410th birthday, all together now, The Philosopher's Drinking Song. Make mine a Scotch, no rocks, just Scotch.

spacedark

oil & water

First off, I have no doubt that any city that increased its size by 200,000 people in a single week would experience some increase in crime. The 200,000 people who live in this yellow city manage to commit a crime or two.

And Houston’s never been a pleasant place, nor has it ever been a particularly crime-free town. Personally, based on my few nasty, brutish, and mercifully short stays in Houston, I would’ve expected more kvetching to run the other way, from evacuee to adopted city.

But there were premonitions of this backlash, even this far north. The week of the hurricane, when we expected thousands of evacuees in Amarillo, rumors spread darkly around town that they were sending sex criminals and murderers up here, that prison walls had been thrown open and the inmates shown the way to Amarillo.

As we’ve seen in the comments section of this blog in recent weeks, extant racist fear & hatred leads inevitably to trumped-up statistical justifications of that hate.

Now. How long will it take the troll racisttexan to fill up the comments under this post with pseudoscience about head sizes and I.Q.’s he read in this man Goddard’s book The Rise of the Colored Empires?

spacedark

weird.

So PTS received this e-mail today . . .

In 2 the months following Spacedarks comments on Allen Finegold's GN editorial of Jan 25 no other comments about those of Spacedark or Finegtold's editorial have appeared. It is indeed sad that Mr. Finegold could not have asked for a better confirmation of his point than Spacedark's comments along with the silence of its audience. And it's a point that does not pertain to just one class of politician. "Say 'Hello' to Joe Lieberman......" There is more than one basis by which Spacedark suggests Democrats reject Mr. Finegold as one of them. Apparently Spacedark thinks it has an audience for such a comment and wants to make sure it connects with it in its summation. Spacedark's comments and the silence of its audience shine a bright light on one of the ugliest elements of social cohesion that typically evolve in school settings and which, to Finegold's and most reasonable people's disgust, a very large number of adults never outgrow.

The e-mail refers to this post about this article, and based on the author's bizarre syntax and confusing points, I'm guessing he's related to Allen Finegold. Well, actually, I'm also guessing that because his last name is "Finegold".

Guys! You're confusing us out here!

spacedark

teach the old coots well

Occasionally and regrettably, those of us who teach focus on the negative. It happens because the little craphead drumming on his desk and feeling up the girl sitting next to him is an immediate problem. He must be dealt with. Sadly, the kid who takes care of business doesn’t always get noticed so readily.

Friday, as the debate/extemp coach, I was one of the sponsors who took a group to the UIL district meet in Canyon. I spoke with one of the other English teachers about how nice it was to spend a day with the good kids, to get away from the distracting noise of the idiots and see that the future isn’t completely hopeless.

Last week, blogarillo responded to Virgil Van Jackboot’s latest diatribe against public education. I had some opinions of my own but no time to post them. This morning, Dontreka Matthews, editor of the Palo Duro High School Prairie Sage, outdid us both. In a letter to the editor, Ms. Matthews politely but firmly ripped Virgil a new one:

How we dress now does not determine who or what we will become in life.

We would like a public apology, in the newspaper, from Mr. Van Camp. We also request his presence at PDHS for one full school day to gain a deeper perspective on 21st-century high school students.

We’d like to express our admiration for a student who took care of business and stood up for herself and her fellow students. And– for all kinds of reasons– Panhandle Truth Squad would like to join Dontreka Matthews in calling for Virgil Van Camp to spend a full day at Palo Duro High School.

spacedark

Like Uncle Bushie . . .

Bush's nephew and spawn of Neil Bush, Pierce Walker Herbert Herbert George Mallon Prescott Bush. . . (whatever! Let's call him "Beavis Bush"). . . appeared on the Today show, discussed his sleepiness, and his article in the Houston Chronicle defending poor Uncle Shrubs' botched Dubai deal LIVE FROM AMARILLO

(Sing together now, "I did my time in Amarillooooo . . .")

WATCH HERE

My Fav line, "You people on the Today show really know when to get a 19 year old on TV. 6:15am on Saturday isn't my typical Saturday morning."

Maybe it was unintentional, but the whole super-cool, frat boy, scorin' with the chickies, growin' up Gott, er, Bushie, entitled rich kid facade came off poorly.

Watching this train wreck, what amazes me again about the Bushes is their total lack of fear of inadequacy. It just doesn't matter to them. "Beavis Bush" actually thought that his views on the Pope, the economy and whatnot were not getting adequate attention, even though he'd written, you know, an article, knowhatimean, dude?

The BCF are like a whole family of Paris Hiltons without her, um...what WAS her redeeming facet? I forget. Well, without THAT thing.

IMHO, when a member of the BCF pens a letter saying Governor Bush is a jackhole, NOW THAT would be worthy of 7 minutes on the Today show. Better even than "Where in the world is Matt Lauer."

UPDATE:
There MUST be a law enacted never allowing another member of the Bush shallow gene pool to serve in higher office.

-Prodigal Son

pts roll call

We're updating our mailing list for future events. If you are a reader, lurker, or commenter on this blog, drop us a line at panhandletruthsquad@yahoo.com. If you post in comments, you might also let us know the screen name you post under. We won't bother you often, but we will soon be sending out something you won't want to miss.

Ghostwriters at it again!

Friday, March 24th the Opinion Page ghost writers had another senior moment. In the article Freedom a work in progress in Taliban-free Afghanistan their very first phrase was "Afghanistan is free of the Taliban monsters who governed that country.

Once again they are depending on Fox News and Rush for their source! Wouldn't it be nice if they would learn to use the internet? CNN reported today "A U.S. soldier has been killed and another wounded in a battle with about 20 Taliban fighters in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. military says. The Taliban, fundamentalist Islamist movement based in southern and eastern Afghanistan and the border regions of Pakistan, began an effort in late 2005 to regain the power and influence lost when their government was toppled by the U.S. and its allies in 2001. The Taliban still act as a shadow government and retains a loyal following." (my bold)

And Radio Free Europe says "The U.S. military said coalition forces and Afgan troops backed by U.S. aircraft early today engaged in fighting with some 20 suspected Taliban insurgents in the province's Sagin district.
. . .
Helmand Province has been a bastion of Taliban insurgency."

WHAT WORLD DO THESE GHOST WRITERS LIVE IN?

The Liberalator

Virgil Van Camp's 8 Point Plan Too Sav Are Skools

Virgil Van Camp graced the pages of today's Globe-Republican with his 8 point plan to save, and by "save" he means "destroy", public education. His points, in italics, and my comments:

Run our schools a bit more like a military boot camp, with a strict dress code, possibly a required uniform.

The idea of a boot camp is a little over the top, but I'm not opposed to a stricter dress code. I think the most you could hope for is a decline in discipline problems.

No cell phones or iPods.

That seems like common sense to me, as well, at least at the classroom level. I imagine there are already teacher imposed prohibitions against these devices already. Any teachers want to chime in? Anyone? Bueller? I don't think I'd be supportive of a campus-wide ban. If some kid wants to listen to some tunes or chat with someone at lunch it shouldn't be a big deal.

A core curriculum that requires proficiency in the three R's, a knowledge of our history and a thorough grounding in what we used to call civics.

Well, duh. If we aren't teaching those things anymore it's because of staff reductions brought about by budget cuts.

A longer school year with better utilization of expensive plants.

I don't have much of an opinion on the length of the school year, but for the sake of argument I'll support Virgil here, too. Having said that...expensive plants? What?

De-emphasize sports and cheerleading. Turn them into truly extracurricular activities.

You'll get no argument from me on that one.

Reduce the number of school districts by at least 50 percent. There are more than 1,000 in our state. Amarillo has seven within 35 miles of downtown.

From my point of view this isn't necessarily a bad thing, as long as the money freed up is used to hire more teachers. Different communities might not be too happy about giving up control of their schools, though. I doubt this would ever really go anywhere.

Insist that a diploma mean something. Allow the unmotivated to fail. Failure can be a learning experience.

No argument from me, though I think one of a teacher's numerous responsibilities is to try to motivate the kids. That's a tough job and I'm sure most teachers make a good effort at it, but there will be some who just have to learn a lesson the hard way. Man, I'm agreeing with Virgil a lot here...

Allow vouchers to attend private schools. These schools turn out a better product for considerably less money.

Bzzzt. Wrong. There it is. There's the deal breaker. Virgil's 8 point plan to save the schools just became his 1 point plan to ruin them. Public money should be put into public schools. Period. End o' discussion. Vouchers will just lead to racial and religious segregation and, utlimately, the rise of for-profit, corporatized education.

An Interesting Study

Not all that suprising, I guess. Click here.

In Other News...

AMY GOODMAN: You don't think he's smart?

KEVIN PHILLIPS: No. He's got a certain smart sort of fraternity boy, towel-snapping, would make a good second vice president of the First National Bank of Amarillo, but, you know, nothing particularly for heavy lifting.

I wonder why he had Amarillo on his mind? Maybe Don Powell did something recently? The whole thing is here.

remind you of anyone?

This old This Modern World cartoon?

spacedark

follow the green paper road

The S.0. and I recently drove all the way from one end of American consumerist culture to the other. Our journey down that green road began in Madrid, New Mexico. Madrid is a touristy, arts-and-crafts former ghost town in the northern New Mexico mountains. We leaned its history from an O.H. (Original Hippy) who ran one of the shops, looked like a skinny, aged Andy Warhol, and by his inconvenient existence refuted the contention of our Republican trolls that all them former hippies have learnt their dad-blamed lesson. Thirty years ago, he told us, he and several other ''pioneers" had found the old mining town abandoned in the mountains and had moved in. It was his job, he told us proudly, to impede progress; to make sure that the town never incorporated and never had a mayor or a police force. We walked around the town and, although I'm not a member of the Writer's Guild and hence don’t have to describe it as ''quaint," I can’t really think of any other appropriate adjective. We had just come from Santa Fe and I should now comment on the irony that old hippies have become such good shopkeepers and small-time Capitalists in their dotage.

Not all 21st-century capitalism is so small-time, of course, an ugly truth we were reminded of sixty miles down the highway at Clines Corners. We stopped in at the huge, nightmarish truck stop/tourist trap at the comer of I-40 and Highway 285 in search of a Dr. Pepper and a restroom break. We found archetypal screaming kids shooting each other with archetypal plastic rifles, septuagenarian RV wanderers spending their children's inheritance on cheap crap, and scores of American nomads with the faces of zombies and the bodies of rhinoceroses. In the men's room two travelers arbitrated a disagreement that had begun with an apparent road rage incident. The guiltier party blamed his highway rudeness on incessant spousal nagging. Our own search soon proved fruitless. If we wanted a drink at Clines Corners, we would have to buy in from the resident Subway, in their approved, clumsy, prone-to-spill-on-long-drives paper cups. There wasn't a bottled Dr. Pepper to be found.

At two ends of a brief stretch of the ubiquitous American highway we found America. It was a synecdoche, this small part representing the whole sordid glory of our culture. This is our land: blissed-out hippie salesmen, families of unruly children and bickering parents, and everywhere the oppressive fluorescent lights offering nothing you want but determined nevertheless to sell you crap you don't at a price you can’t afford.

spacedark

Snatching Defeat From the Jaws of Victory

This recent Onion article seems especially relevant in light of the lack of support Sen. Russ Feingold is getting from fellow Dems to censure the President:

Democrats Vow Not To Give Up Hopelessness

The late Bill Hicks once joked that a new President is always pulled into a room filled with corporate scumbags who then show him a film of the Kennedy assasination from an angle that nobody has ever seen before. The nervous new President then responds "What do ya'll want me sign?" Times like this make me wonder if there may be some truth to the idea that there is some shadowy, X-Files-like cigarette smoking man who is actually running the show. I almost hope that is the case, because the alternative is just pathetic.

The Rude Pundit weighs in: Message To Democrats: Supporting Feingold Is the Path To Enlightenment