Presidential Address - Nice Visual

...Republicans refusing to stand for increased healthcare for children. Keep on digging, idiots.

Change - Month 1

President Obama addresses Congress tonight, a month after taking the oath of office. Instead of clearing brush at a fake ranch, he's actually been working for his employers - us. The Sierra Club is pleased:

There's never been a month -- not at least since the heady days of the early 1970s -- when environmental policy has moved so dramatically towards a sustainable future. The challenge now is to keep up the pace.

And even though the republicans have remembered their misplaced-for-eight-years dedication to fiscal discipline (i.e. trying to block government spending on infrastructure and state aid), it's the President who looks to be tackling the sacredest of D.C. sacred cows, weapons spending:

Unlike most of his predecessors selected to be under secretary of defense for acquisition, technology and logistics, Carter has no professional ties to America's arms makers or manufacturing industry, nor has he spent his career in government procurement. Instead, from his perch at Harvard's Kennedy School, Carter has been criticizing the Pentagon for buying too many armaments it doesn't need, decrying what he calls a lack of discipline and "failure to take account of cost growth in weapons systems and defense services."

Wow, you mean that there's something in the federal budget that can be cut other than social security benefits?

Add that to SCHIP, fair pay protections for women, following through on promises to cut middle class taxes while simultaneously funding health care reform and renewable energy (American Recovery and Reinvestment Act) and the executive order to close the Guantanamo Bay prison and it's been an incredible month.

There are still things to be concerned about, such as the DOJ tending to support Bush administration positions on "state secrets" and the open question of Bagram prison in Afghanistan. We need to insist on accountability on these issues and others, but let's not forget where we were just last month (and for the last eight years). If President Obama keeps up this pace, the next eight years might be as good for America and the world as the last eight were bad.

Texas Giant Lightnin' Hopkins

Been pretty busy lately. Here's some music.

Open Letter to Glenn Greenwald (Updated with Glenn's Replies)

Glenn,

I respect your work, although I’m less pessimistic than you regarding President Obama. I was confused by one of the statements in your post “Charlie Savage on Obama's embrace of Bush/Cheney "terrorism policies". You refer to “Obama supporters” claiming that anyone who criticizes him as being (among other things) “Marxists”. I followed the links and read the text, but I didn’t see any evidence to support your claim. I saw Nate’s observation that the ’radicals’ borrow ideas from the 19^th century Marxist approach to social change.

The attribution you make seems fuzzy at best. If I follow it, it goes: Glenn criticizes Obama -> RKR observes that the criticism seems to fit with a recent model by Nate Silver of ‘radicals’ (including a reference to Marxist ideas among others) -> therefore Glenn is: referred to by some Obama supporters -- using the Fox News script -- as "Far Leftist, Marxist, reactionary, radical demagogues.” It seems like a stretch and I’m not sure what the point is (other than trying to increase division among liberals).

The other thing that bothers me is that you seem to have allowed your defensiveness over an obscure slight detract from the main point of your post - which, as an Obama supporter and a human rights supporter, I thought was important and not over the top.

I’m also posting this on my blog in a cynical attempt to get hits. Feel free to flame me and drive traffic to my site so I can get my adsense off of $1.63 :)

Update: Glenn replied to my message and was a good sport about allowing me to post his response.

From: "ggreenwald@salon.com"
Sent: Wednesday, February 18, 2009 10:51:46 AM
Subject: Re: confused

Did you read Nate's post?

Apparently, there are two types of progressives -- the type like him, who are rational incrementalists.

And another type who are impatient with what Obama is doing and critical of him-- those are irrational, dangerous, radical, reactionary, Marxist Far Leftists.

And I'm the one dividing progressives by linking to that?

I didn't say Nate singled me out as in the radical Marxist reactionary Far Left camp. From what I could tell, he put David Sirota in that group. Other people have stepped forward to declare themselves rational (progressives) and put more and more Obama critics on the radical/Marxist/Far-Leftist list.

I don't think Nate intended it as such, but I thought what he wrote was really, really ugly.

My response:

I didn't get that the choices were rational vs. irrational from his post. In reference to who's dividing progressives, I'd rather be called a 'radical' than be told that I'm using the Fox News script. Plenty of progressive folks refer to themselves jokingly as DFH's. I wouldn't expect those people to get too upset about getting labeled as 'radical', but maybe I'm off the mark.


Anyway, thanks for the reply. Do you mind if I post it?

and his response:

If one category is "rational progressives," what are the people who are in the other category if not irrational?

More to the point, these are the terms he used to describe the other category: Marxist, Far Left, dangerous, reactionary, demagogue, radical.

Liberal bloggers jokingly call themselves "DFHs" in the same way that gay people jokingly refer to themselves as "faggots" -- as ways to mock the term and drain it of its meaning.

I don't think any liberals expect to be called Marxist, Far Left, dangerous, reactionary, demagogue radicals by other progressives -- especially ones who, while spewing those ugly terms, praise themselves for being "rational."

I like Nate. I think he's done great work. I don't think he was driven by bad motives here, just by animus towards David Sirota. But he wrote a post invoking all the worst Fox News demonizing terms -- it was almost McCarthyite in the words it used and the unspecified group of people it smeared.

I didn't really intend that first email to be public when I wrote it, but feel free to post the emails, though I'd appreciate it if you'd post both in unedited form. Thanks -

Glenn Greenwald

done

U.C. Davis Guantanamo Testamonials Project

I saw this on Rachel Maddow. They have gathered testamonials from (among others) Prisoners, Marines, Chaplains, Translators, FBI Agents and Guards.

From the main page:

We begin our endeavor with The Guantánamo Testimonials Project. The goals of this project are to gather testimonies of prisoner abuse in Guantánamo, to organize them in meaningful ways, to make them widely available online, and to preserve them there in perpetuity.

The strength of these testimonies is considerable. Based on them, a number of distinguished individuals and organizations have called for the closure of Guantánamo.

At CSHRA we take no position as to whether the Guantánamo prisoners are guilty or innocent. Yet we recognize that these individuals are, in either case, entitled to a set of fundamental rights (a) as individuals held during an armed conflict, (b) as prisoners in general, and (c) as ordinary human beings.

Bush Lift of Guns in Parks Ban Defended by DOJ

It was really stupid when Bush enacted it. I can't think of any reason we would want to keep it in place. From where I'm sitting, things like this and this are giving me a pretty poor impression of the Obama DOJ.

Recovery.gov On Line

As promised, the tracking site for the The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is up and running.

Live Archive Link of the Day

Andrew Bird live in Amsterdam, 2005. This guy is soooo good. Saw him at the ACL fest a couple of years ago and he killed.

Leahy Truth Commission

On a DailyKos diary, Sen. Patrick Leahy lays out his reasoning for a Bush administration crimes 'truth commission'.

Here is the link to the petition.

London Homesick Blues

Gary P. Nunn and Jerry Jeff Walker. A little break from politics.

This is too easy

(alternative title: Dispatches from the other side of the looking glass)

More RedState comedy. It's kind of hard to take anything you say seriously when you lead with crap like this:

3. The Verdict on President Obama's First Prime Time Presser: Pain.

What we saw tonight in President Obama was a man who, flailing about for words and faiing to form cohesive sentences and responses, turned in a stumbling, meandering performance worthy of the most extreme caricature of George W. Bush.

A sample:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

...And Mr. Bush:

Must Read

A Guardian UK expose of the study that claimed to link vaccines to Autism. Disgusting...

Sitagu Sayadaw Update

Sitagu Sayadaw (a.k.a "the Billy Graham of Burma") has been raising funds and delivering supplies personally to the victims of cyclone Nargis in Burma (Myanmar). From The Irrawaddy:

About 10,000 Burmese migrant workers living in Mahachai, in Thailand’s Samut Sakhon Province, attended a Buddhist sermon on compassion given by Dr Ashin Nyanissara, a famous Burmese monk, on Monday night, said one of the organizers of the talk.

Dr Ashin Nyanissara, who is better known as Sitagu Sayadaw, is the abbot of the Sitagu International Buddhist Missionary Center in Sagaing and one of Burma’s most respected monks. He has been active in raising funds for relief efforts in the Irrawaddy delta, where over 130,000 people were killed by Cyclone Nargis on May 2-3.

The Sayadaw also mentioned the recent change of President in the USA:

In his two-and-a-half-hour sermon, Sitagu Sayadaw discussed the common Buddhist themes of compassion and change. On the latter topic, he focused on the message of new US President Barack Obama, whose inaugural speech last Tuesday attracted worldwide attention.

Later in his visit, The Sayadaw met with the Archbishop of Thailand

If you wish to support the Sayadaw's efforts, you can donate online at the Austin Sitagu Vihara (monastery) website.

The President on the Economic Recovery Package

...Let's hope he doesn't let the Senate to irreperable damage to this thing. For the life of me, I don't understand why the Democrats can't get tough with the Republicans. They seem to get the wrong message when they lose elections, and no message when they win.

Live Archive Link of the Day

Warren Zevon live at the Record Plant 1978. I was fortunate to see Warren at the Backroom in Austin. A hair metal club, not sure how he got booked there. He wrote such a fine line, I hated to see him go...

Jeez...

I'm going to have to have the willpower to not turn this blog into "RedState Morning Briefing stupidity of the day". Today's bulletin is priceless:

4. A Majority Party (and President) with a Minority Mindset
Barely two weeks into his first term in office, President Obama is sucking for air and grasping at straws to pull even the semblance of a single victory of any kind out of the rubble that is fast becoming his presidency.

"the rubble that is fast becoming his presidency"

Let's review (and see if we can find "even the semblance of a single victory"):

• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
  
• Executive Order to close Guantanamo Prison
  
• SCHIP expansion
  

This, while working the hill for the economic recovery plan.  Well, it has been 17 whole days.  What a disaster...

Live Archive Link of the Day

Blues Traveler live at the Horde Fest, Austin 1996. Outdoor gig at Southpark Meadows (now a shopping center, apparently this is what all outdoor venues grow up to be in Austin). Big John was having fun, waving a samurai sword at thr sky and declaring "we defy the rain!"

...Better...

The President sharpens his tone today:

In the last few days, we've seen proposals arise from some in Congress that you may not have read but you'd be very familiar with because you've been hearing them for the last 10 years, maybe longer. They're rooted in the idea that tax cuts alone can solve all our problems; that government doesn't have a role to play; that half-measures and tinkering are somehow enough; that we can afford to ignore our most fundamental economic challenges -- the crushing cost of health care, the inadequate state of so many of our schools, our dangerous dependence on foreign oil.

So let me be clear: Those ideas have been tested, and they have failed. They've taken us from surpluses to an annual deficit of over a trillion dollars, and they've brought our economy to a halt. And that's precisely what the election we just had was all about. The American people have rendered their judgment. And now is the time to move forward, not back.

Video:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

The President writes Op-Ed in The Washington Post

A strong reminder of the urgency of passing economic stimulus.

In recent days, there have been misguided criticisms of this plan that echo the failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis -- the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems; that we can meet our enormous tests with half-steps and piecemeal measures; that we can ignore fundamental challenges such as energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive.

I reject these theories, and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. They know that we have tried it those ways for too long. And because we have, our health-care costs still rise faster than inflation. Our dependence on foreign oil still threatens our economy and our security. Our children still study in schools that put them at a disadvantage. We've seen the tragic consequences when our bridges crumble and our levees fail.

Every day, our economy gets sicker -- and the time for a remedy that puts Americans back to work, jump-starts our economy and invests in lasting growth is now.

Hopefully, he'll follow up with a prime time TV address to the nation.

UPDATE: Looks like the TV address is Monday at 7pm.

Live Archive Link of the Day

New Monsoon at Austin City Limits Fest 2006 - a short set, but great energy (and a soundboard recording). Brings back fond memories of my sisters dancing in front of the stage.

RedState of Disarray

I was lucky enough to sign up for the "Red State Morning Briefing", which is sent out to email subscribers and "media outlets" (which is sweet, I'd hate for "media outlets" to miss out on all the stupid).

Here's a selection of the breaking news so far...

They were off to a great start the day after America sang "na na na na hey hey..goodbye" to King George:

1. Goodbye President Bush
We get the bumper sticker cliches. But serious reflection on George Bush's Presidency has been missing.
...
History will also doubtlessly cast a more favorable eye on the many places in the world where President Bush and his team strengthened America's alliances and brought desperately needed freedom and relief.

(cough)...New Orleans...(cough)
Right, got that out of the way, on to Bipartisanship:

2. Let's Hope Obama Fails
The pleasant face and smooth rhetoric hide in the case of Barack Obama a morally depraved and crooked man.
...
A man who has gotten to his position of power by climbing the greasiest and dirtiest ladder in all of politics.
You see, what happens when the trains run on time is that people are quicker to forget the moral failures of their elected officials, and their government at large.

Hey buddy - America, Love It or Leave It!
Oh, and if you go to the Hitler allusion on day 1, what's in the clip for the rest of the EIGHT YEARS??

7. The Non-Partisan Congressional Budget Office Says Stimulus Won't Work
Obama just hired the CBO head to be his budget director. Before leaving the CBO, the new budget director's office said Obama's stimulus won't work

Yeah... about that CBO report... it doesn't exist.

Two days after the inauguration they're still on about the crushing CBO report:

3. Congressional Budget Office Slams Stimulus Plan
Republicans and others concerned about throwing good money after bad should oppose this package.
There is no policy justification for a stimulus package that centers on spending. The CBO is clear that it's simply not possible to pay out the spending at a fast enough rate.

On the 26th of January, it was "we're all gonna DIE!!!1! Monday:

2. Barack Obama Is Already Signaling His Weakness to Terrorists
Changing Bush policies designed to keep us safe will only get us killed.
3. Muslim Leaders Expect Obama to Take Eye Off Terror
It's already beginning and it will end up killing us.

Does this mean I shouldn't buy that "HOPE > FEAR" t-shirt?

Plenty more where that came from. Believe me when I tell you that RedState's well of stupid is deep.

Right Wing Media

Great point made on Daily Kos regarding how the corporate-owned media are uncritically repeating Replublican talking points on the stimulus package without examining the substance of those talking points.

Live Archive Link of the Day

The Live Music Archive is an online repository of shows by bands who have given permission for the free sharing of their music. The shows are usually in lossy and lossless format and often have a streaming option on the show page.

I'm going to do my best to make this a daily feature. Today's link is to the 2003 Michael Franti & Spearhead Austin City Limits Fest show. A nice soundboard recording of a short, sweet set. Spearhead was on a side stage that year, but many of the folks who saw them think they stole the show (myself included). Enjoy.

About Freakin' Time

...oh yeah, and sports.

'Bullet' Bob Hayes, the only man to own an Olympic gold medal and a Super Bowl ring has finally been inducted into the NFL hall of fame seven years after his death and twenty eight years after he became eligible.

For those who don't know, Bob Hayes changed the game of football with his speed. It is generally acknowledged that the zone defense was invented to try to stop Bob Hayes.

From Ralph Wiley's great ESPN Page 2 eulogy (emphasis added):

(Hayes) led the Cowboys in TDs four different seasons, including his rookie year, when he shocked the league, put them all in the Zone, by scoring 13 touchdowns on only 46 catches, for 1,003 yards in 14 games. Talk about a home-run hitter. If Bullet Bob caught four balls, one of them was going all the way. That's a better home-run percentage than Babe Ruth.

After football, Hayes had problems with drugs and alcohol. This was used as an excuse, IMO, to deny him entry into the hall of fame. I am more inclined to attribute this injustice to the anti-Cowboys bias that existed for the 80's and 90's among HOF voters. The bar certainly seemed to be higher, in terms of off-field behavior for Hayes or Michael Irvin than for someone like Lawrence Taylor (for instance).

Here's a little video from NFL Network. Note the bitter DJ from Philadelphia. I guess he had a little time to spare from cheering for injuries.


looks like a spot just opened on this list...

Stumbling out of the blocks...

Here's the initial post in what I hope will be a fairly frequently updated blog. Topic most often will include politics, religion/philosophy and music (mostly politics & music). Topics less often will include movies (Kung Fu & otherwise), science, maybe some BBQ... It's an interesting time to be an American and an equally interesting time to be a liberal in Texas.

Of course, you don't call yourself TexasDan and name your blog "the Stumble" without kicking things off with the late, GREAT Texas Cannonball...Freddie King!