Total Pageviews

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

And The Beat Goes On

Republicans Love Obama

Some Romney supporters have been writing horrible reviews of Scott Van Duzer's restaurant on Yelp, and many others are participating in a boycott of it. All because President Obama stopped by to thank him for his effort in promoting blood donations, and Mr. Van Duzer gave the president a hug.

Real "patriotic" of them, isn't it?

We support Mr. Van Duzer and Big Apple Pizza, and we encourage you to support them as well. Also, please check out Mr. Van Duzer's not-for-profit foundation here: http://www.thevanduzerfoundation.org/

Read more here: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0912/80998.html
— with Jennifer DaMomme.

10 Things This Week: 911 Edition

1. Republicans always say that Bush protected us after 9/11. But why didn't he protect us on 9/11?

2. Today commemorates the 11th year of Dick Cheney politicizing 9/11. 

3. Bushnesia is a disease that's spreading. Don't believe me? Head out to a Texas Rangers playoff game. 

4. I remember 9/11 very well. I also remember those who used the collected sadness of a nation to exact revenge beyond what was necessary.

5. I was getting ready for class when a plane hit the South tower. I stayed home and watched in horror as the second plane came in. When the North tower fell, I remember thinking it looked like a professional demolition crew had planned the collapse. You know the kind you use to raze old buildings and sports arenas. Tom Brokaw agreed with me as he echoed my sentiments.

6. Since Obama took office, there are no more planes flying into buildings. Eleven years later, the nation paused to reflect, lead by the great president.

7. The first book donated to the George W. Bush Presidential Library: My Pet Goat.

8. Following 911, the Bush administration started a war with Iraq that cost 100's of thousands of lives. They started a war predicated on a lie that Hussein had WMDs.

9. Towards the end of his presidency, GWBush said, "I don't know or care where Bin Laden is."

10.  President Obama and Navy Seals give the order to take Bin Laden out. Another promise kept.


Nine Eleven Wrangle

On the 11th anniversary of the national tragedy, The Texas Progressive Alliance stands in solemn remembrance of the fateful events of that fall day in lower Manhattan. Here is a selection of photographs and a panaromic slideshow that display the area we call Ground Zero, as its transformation into a open-air shrine to those who were lost is nearly complete.

Here is this week's roundup of blog posts from the best of the left of Texas from last week.

Off the Kuff says that the state of Texas has clearly demonstrated the ongoing need for Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

BossKitty at TruthHugger sees this election year faced with critical health issues hurting working class people, when bubonic plague and Legionnaire's disease and hantavirus still occur in America: are we Unprepared, Careless and Incapable In 2012?

The GOP's plan may have backfired; by intentionally discriminating they may have actually saved the Voting Rights Act. Because, as WCNews at Eye on Williamson shows, The Voting Rights Act is still working as designed.

Neil at Texas Liberal saw Mitt Romney's jet plane in Cincinnati last week. Neil offered up his view of what the letters on the tail of the plane were meant to convey.

Lightseeker at Texas Kaos reminds us that it is easy to throw the low-level supervisors to the wolves when scandal strikes, but we should not forget where the fundamental problem lies. Are you listening, Rick Perry and Republican legislators? Check out Behind the Drug and Rape Kit Scandals.

Rick Perry wants Texas women to get pap smears at colonoscopy clinics.  CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme didn't think that even Rick Perry was that stupid.

Update: Here's my post from last year, on the tenth anniversary. It does seem as if the raw sensations have ebbed since then.

Friday, September 7, 2012

DNC Convention Humor


It's not too snarky.




Last, the convention that the Republicans saw when they did have their TVs on and tuned to Fox.

With the savage roar of the heathen Democratic horde rising all around him, President Barack Obama delivered an incendiary speech to close his party’s national convention Thursday night, commanding the ultraprogressive minions in attendance to help him “destroy Jesus and usher in a new age of liberal darkness that shall reign o’er the earth for a thousand years.”

The thunderous 45-minute address—during which the president argued for a second term so that he could “finally kill Jesus once and for all, as well as all those who worship him”—was well received by the frenzied, wild-eyed audience, whose piercing chants of “Four more years!” and “Slaughter the believers!” echoed throughout the Time Warner Cable Arena.

“My fellow Americans and godless infidels, I command you to join me as we cast an endless pall of far-left evil across the hills and valleys of our nation!” Obama bellowed from the stage, as thousands in attendance moaned in compliance and gyrated their hips and groins in a lascivious dance. “Together, as a barbarian people forged by the wicked flames of irreligiosity and united by visions of a liberal dystopia, we will rise up as one to scorch the earth with boundless amorality.”

 “The streets shall run red with the blood of forced sodomy, performed daily upon every American man, woman, and child!” the commander-in-chief shouted, froth forming around his mouth as the crowd threw hundreds of aborted fetuses onto the stage. “Die, Christians, die!”

More here. Remember, conservatives: we're not laughing with you, we're laughing at you.

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance has its eyes on Charlotte as it brings you this week's roundup.

There were two major court rulings last week, with the state of Texas losing and the voters of Texas winning as both the redistricting maps and the voter ID law were found to be illegal. Off the Kuff followed the action
  
BossKitty at TruthHugger is sick of all the emails and robocalls wanting money for this or that political cause. Quit violating my personal space to beg for money when Super PACs are doing that job: You Have My Vote, But Not My Money!

With the Texas GOP's dual losses on redistricting and voter suppression this week, it's still key for Democrats to keep the pressure on. Because, as WCNews at Eye on Williamson points out, they still have big and destructive plans for the future: Public education being left for dead in Texas.

The Austin Police Department not only infiltrated Occupy Austin, but one undercover cop designed and supplied the devices used in the Houston port protest that resulted in felony charges against several protestors. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs wants to know if Mayor Annise Parker still supports this kind of police misconduct.  

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know that Quico Canseco is a whiner -- your typical Republican crybaby.

Labor Day Funnies and Facts


The first Labor Day holiday was celebrated on Tuesday, September 5th, 1882, in New York City, in accordance with the plans of the Central Labor Union. The Central Labor Union held its second Labor Day holiday a year later, on September 5th, 1883.

On September 5th, 1882, some 10,000 workers assembled in New York City to participate in America’s first Labor Day parade. After marching from City Hall, past reviewing stands in Union Square, and then uptown to 42nd Street, the workers and their families gathered in Wendel’s Elm Park for a picnic, concert, and speeches.


Labor Day parade, Main Street, Buffalo, NY, ca. 1900.

This first Labor Day celebration was eagerly organized and executed by New York’s Central Labor Union, an umbrella group made up of representatives from many local unions. Debate continues to this day as to who originated the idea of a workers’ holiday, but it definitely emerged from the ranks of organized labor at a time when they wanted to demonstrate the strength of their burgeoning movement and inspire improvements in their working conditions.

In 1884 the first Monday in September was selected as the holiday, as originally proposed, and the Central Labor Union urged similar organizations in other cities to follow the example of New York and celebrate a “workingmen’s holiday” on that date. The idea spread with the growth of labor organizations, and in 1885 Labor Day was celebrated in many industrial centers of the country.

Here are some quick tips on how to celebrate labor the union way:
  • Fire up your Weber grill, made by the International Union of Allied Novelty and Production Workers.
  • Grill some all-beef Butterball patties. If you are in the mood for hot dogs and brats, Oscar Meyer, Nathan’s and Johnsonville have what you are looking for.
  • Add some Heinz Ketchup, Gulden’s Mustard and Vlasic pickles.
  • Throw it all on a Wonder Bread bun.
  • Funyuns, Fritos and Doritos are good side options.
  • Wash it all down with a cold Budweiser or any other union-made brew. And there’s Minute Maid juices for the younger set.

Update: The Agonist has some good reading about Eugene V. Debs, who ran for president in 1920 from his prison cell.

When Republican Warren Harding was elected, he commuted Debs' sentence and invited him to the White House. The day after leaving the Atlanta Penitentiary, Harding greeted Debs at the White House with these words: "Well, I've heard so damned much about you, Mr. Debs, that I am now glad to meet you personally." It was a different time.