Lubbock Left

A strong majority of Americans support the teachers, firefighters, government employees, and others protesting for the past week in Wisconsin. I believe that most people see what WI Governor Walker is really up to: trying to break the backs of unions, period.

Thank goodness union members and their supporters stood up and took to the streets in Wisconsin. Thank goodness that 14 Democratic legislators in Wisconsin had the guts to deny a quorum in the WI legislature. (This is the state-level equivalent of a filibuster, by the way.) Their swift and decisive action has stopped similar legislation in nearby Indiana, galvanized union supporters across America, and made Gov. Walker a pariah even among his fellow Republican governors (and made him the object of hilarious-and-revealing prank calls as well).

Also, I applaud our President for vocalizing his support for the side of the unions. This is something he didn’t have to do, but he spent the political capital to do so because it’s the right thing to do. I wish he would take a clear stand like this on some other issues, but that’s another post.

Public sector employees are a bulwark in stormy economic seas. When the private sector goes to hell, the public sector provides some stability (Colbert has a good take on this point). They are also a measure of economic justice, a frame of reference to juxtapose with the private sector. Public sector workers typically take a lower pay than comparable private sector employees (with similar jobs, education, and location — don’t settle for comparisons of “average” salaries) but often have better benefits than private sector counterparts. If the private sector is too far off from the standard set by the public sector (in terms of salary, benefits, working conditions, rights, etc), then we can and absolutely should stop to question why that is. The public sector is a sanity check for so-called market forces.

The current problem is that the Tea Party voters of 2010 elected a slew of candidates backed by those who are winning from status quo exploitation of market forces. These people — the Koch Brothers chief among them — only want to protect their bottom line, and they have no interest in protecting working people (whose pensions they would rather raid by way of Wall Street manipulations). These are the special interests granted unlimited election spending power by the Citizens United Supreme Court case. Unions are one of the few forces capable of engaging them in a national-level political dialogue (though unions are still outrageously outspent by these new, unaccountable political entities). That’s why their puppets like Gov. Walker are trying to kill unions.

Maybe it took seeing democracy start to take hold in the unlikeliest places in the Middle East. Maybe it was seeing just how fast and how far the moneyed interests were willing to push their domestic agenda. Maybe it was the appropriate response we are seeing from unions and their supporters. Whatever the reason, we as a nation are rediscovering one of our most important principles which we were in danger of losing: solidarity.

What does solidarity mean? Right now it means we are Wisconsin.

Social conservatives and libertarians don’t get along. Here’s a FOX News opinion piece about the recent CPAC Conference illustrating that point. (To my friends on the right: yes, I occasionally read FOX News, holding my nose the whole time.) Social conservatives can’t stand libertarians wanting a voice within the Republican Party, though they courted libertarians eagerly enough in the 2010 election cycle, mostly through the TEA Party concept. Now that the 2012 Presidential posturing is well underway, both factions within the GOP are openly rude to each other when the cameras are rolling.

I say: it’s time to break out the popcorn and watch the GOP self-destruct.

The Republican House of Representatives will be unable to deliver a Federal budget that satisfies its TEA Party constituents. That means strong primary challenges in “safe” GOP seats on one end of the spectrum, and growing disillusionment with the TEA Party concept on the other. With President Obama weathering 2010 with an approval rating still over 50%, the Democratic Party is poised to reclaim the House, keep the Senate, and keep the Presidency… IF Democrats get out there and work hard in all 50 states.

To my libertarian friends: this weekend’s spectacles at CPAC are exactly why I think the Libertarian Party deserves access to the kinds of infrastructure enjoyed by both the Democratic and Republican parties (ballot access, financial support from the states for primaries/caucuses, and so forth). As a proud supporter of one of the two major political parties in our country, I still see the need for multiple, strong, national parties. TEA Party Republicans are a mix of two factions (social conservatives and libertarians) that, despite all the media hype, are not a natural fit and never will be.

It’s in the news that District 1 Councilman Victor Hernandez needs to pay his property taxes. No one disputes that.

What is up in the air right now is what can, should, and will happen next. Will the City Council try to remove District 1’s elected representative in the middle of his term?

Let’s look at a little background information. I find two things interesting about this affair:

1) The timing, and
2) The source.

First, the source.

This has, from the beginning, been a KFYO story. KFYO is the most far-right radio station in town. (Don’t agree? Name me one that is farther to the right.) As a station, they have a long history of antagonizing Lubbock City District 1 and its representatives. Last weekend, someone fed them the idea to run a story about Councilman Hernandez’s property taxes. They started running the story right away on Monday.

Interestingly enough, KCBD Channel 11, our local NBC affiliate and also the most right-leaning TV station in town, was fed the same story from (presumably) the same source at the same time, but did not run the story until later in the week when they could verify the details themselves.
Or, to put it another way: KBCD, being a news station first and a right-leaning source of opinion second, sat on the story until they could do their due diligence. KFYO, being a right-wing propaganda outlet first and a news station second, ran with the story immediately.

So, given the initial coverage of this story, who is the source? Who created a story when there was none?

Now, to the timing.

The A-J’s Elliott Blackburn has the best coverage of this story. A careful reading of that article is rewarded with many details not brought to light anywhere else. Chief among them:

1) Both Hernandez and his runoff opponent Glen Robertson had tax issues in their campaign that were known at the time and not seen as a barrier to the job of Councilman. If they were not barriers to service then, why are they now?

2) Both Hernandez and Robertson question the timing of this attempt to remove Councilman Hernandez. Here is the money shot from Blackburn’s article:

Hernandez intended to seek changes in March to city rules to require high-level board members disclose conflicts of interest.

He raised other issues in a late January memo sent to council members and legal staff.

Hernandez questioned possible conflicts of interest between High Plains Diversified Energy Corp. Chairman Scott Collier, who was seeking to purchase power plants and sell electricity in the region, and his father, the chairman of Lubbock Power & Light.

Hernandez also questioned whether the project’s bank was the same bank run by the utility board chairman, W.R. Collier, and challenged participation by Texas Tech and, potentially, advice given to the project by city staff.

Robertson, who lost by just a 10-vote margin last spring and now serves as a council appointee to a volunteer position on two city electric utility boards, said he was “trying to stay as far away as possible” from the matter but questioned its timing.

There was nothing new about the facts of his former opponent’s candidacy, he said. Both of them faced tax questions during the spring campaign, he said.

“I hope I’m wrong, but it just doesn’t pass the smell test,” Robertson said. “I don’t think the motives are pure. I think it’s politics at its worst.”

So, right after District 1 Councilman Victor Hernandez began formally pushing for financial disclosure and prevention of conflicts of interest on city boards and appointments that can act as “Officers of the City,” (i.e. commit the City financially), he is on the receiving end of the political equivalent of a knife to the jugular. I don’t think this passes the smell test either.

For background about what is inspiring possible Council action regarding financial disclosures and conflict of interest ordinances, check out LubbockPowerGrab.com, which features research done by local attorney Charles Dunn regarding a pending electric power deal for our region. The information from LubbockPowerGrab.com was made public on the Wade Wilkes morning show at KRFE AM580 two weeks ago. Elliot Blackburn also has good coverage of that issue from last Sunday’s A-J.

One other thing to consider: redistricting is coming up right over the horizon, and here we see the City Council perhaps removing District 1’s elected representative in the middle of his term. District 1 has always been under attack from those who preferred the (illegal) at-large system of representation that Lubbock used to have. A councilman-less district does not bode well for the redistricting future of District 1.

With these circumstances, it seems that certain members of the Southwest Lubbock power elite and Lubbock’s most far-right media mouthpieces have decided that attacking District 1 Councilman Victor Hernandez is a natural fit.

Much ado has been made (and rightfully so!) this week about the GOP’s attempt to redefine rape as part of a bill to reduce or eliminate abortion coverage from private insurance plans. (What does this bill have to do with jobs, GOP?) The media did a better-than-usual job of catching this, and The Daily Show had one of their best segments of all time based on this issue. The reaction from the left was exactly as it should have been, and it was effective. Today House Republicans took the “forcible rape” language out of the bill.

However, the temptation now is to congratulate ourselves on a job well done and move on to the next issue. Not so fast: this bill is still on the GOP fast track. It was never a bill about rape or its (re)definition­. It is a bill about ending all private health coverage of abortions. The Republican Party can “lose” the language battle because they never cared about it in the first place.

We are witnessing political theater by the party that, unfortunately, performs it effectively and often — if not constantly. If this bill passes, it will be a huge victory for the anti-choice movement, not to mention a morsel of red meat for the far right’s base.

The real question is not “How does the party that is terrible on women’s issues choose to redefine rape?” but rather “Why is the party that said it would focus on jobs and deficit reduction doing neither and focusing instead on social wedge issues?” Where is the TEA Party mandate to have the government interfere in medical decisions? The public was sold a TEA Party movement that was about economic — not social — issues. What a crock. TEA Party is the same old GOP.

At any rate, call your senators to make sure that this bill doesn’t make it out of the legislative branch. And remember the lesson from the political theater of this bill: be careful about celebrating victory too soon. We are in for a long two years and we must be vigilant.

My conservative counterpart Dr. May has a post up that draws on a Washington Times editorial to bash President Obama by contrasting him with President Reagan. It’s a silly editorial, and I have to say that most of the side-by-side jokes they make actually leave me with a profound feeling of relief that we have Barack and not Ronald.

Neither president is perfect — far from it. But what we see on the right these days is an ongoing campaign to elevate Ronald Reagan to sainthood. “Yea verily did the Gipper do no wrong and worketh’d he many miracles,” spake Cardinal Hannity. Yea, right.

I understand why the right works so hard to elevate Reagan — he’s the best one they’ve got post-WWI. But the truth is that Reagan was a very problematic president in many ways. Dismantling our infrastructure, tripling our national debt, nearly ending the world in a nuclear holocaust… it’s safe to say he had a few problems for sure.

So, in the spirit of friendly comparison and of (potentially) being snowed in, I came up with my own list of Reagan-Obama comparisons:

Obama: Disarmed the Taliban
Reagan: Armed the Taliban

Obama: Improved access to health care
Reagan: Put mental patients out on the streets

Obama: 2010’s optimism
Reagan: 1980’s materialism

Obama: Ends Wars
Reagan: Star Wars

Obama: Arms reduction
Reagan: Arms for hostages

Obama: Consumer protection
Reagan: Buyer beware

Obama: Listens to our scientists
Reagan: Had a jar of jellybeans on his desk

Obama: Ledbetter Fair Pay Act
Reagan: You’d better find another job

Obama: Ended the Bush Recession
Reagan: Reaganomics

Obama: Said salaam to the Muslim world
Reagan: Unleashed Osama on the Muslim world

Obama: Muslim-Athiest-Marxist-Socialist-Fascist-Nazi
Reagan: Alzheimers

Obama: 50 State Strategy
Reagan: Southern Strategy

Obama: His opponents jokingly call him “The Messiah”
Reagan: His supporters literally compare him to Christ

Obama: Organic vegetables
Reagan: Ketchup is a vegetable

Obama: Yes we can
Reagan: *tilts head* Well…

That should be enough trollbait for one evening. Time to watch the snow fall.

Oh, one parting newsworthy bit: My old college friend John Scott-Railton is one of the folks calling people in Egypt and rebroadcasting their words and voices via Twitter (follow @Jan25Voices). He was interviewed by PRI today. Way to go, John!

Concealed carry on campus is a hot issue in Texas this legislative session.

One of the major points used by the right in the debate surrounding concealed carry on campus is that Texas concealed handgun license (CHL) holders are trained and therefore able to respond in the event of a shooter on campus.

There are two serious problems with this point, both dealbreakers in my opinion.

First, the nature of Texas CHL training does not qualify one to handle a crazed shooter. (Disclosure: I have not taken a Texas CHL training class, though I intend to do so in the near future.) Texas CHL training does cover personal safety, safe use of a pistol, gun care and maintenance, the law, and marksmanship. It also includes a range test; I do concede that CHL holders can likely hit what they are aiming at under range conditions.

However, an active shooter event on campus is not exactly range conditions. All kinds of emotions, physical reactions, and group dynamics come into play. In Tucson, a citizen with a gun almost shot the wrong guy before helping to subdue Jared Loughner. I believe that the Texas CHL training is inadequate for handling an active shooter situation; we need qualified law enforcement. Peace officers, who bear the responsibility of campus security and of responding to an active shooter situation, undergo weeks of initial training and must renew their training throughout their careers. A 10-hour CHL class just doesn’t cut it.

Second, the training required to get a Texas CHL can be avoided completely by applying for and receiving an out-of-state CHL. Texas has a ridiculous number of reciprocal and unilateral agreements recognizing other states’ concealed handgun licenses (40 other states, in fact). Some of these states have CHL licenses available to Texas citizens that are, quite frankly, a joke.

For example, a Virginia non-resident CHL can be obtained by watching a video and taking a 20-question test online (along with $100, a picture, and some forms). A Washington State CHL is yours for $55 and a two-page form. Both will let you legally pack heat in Texas without taking the 10-hour Texas CHL training course. And if the requirements for either of those two don’t suit you, there are 38 other possibilities to consider.

The idea that CHL holders are necessarily trained to handle a crisis is part of the mythology of the hero gunslinger who saves the day with his or her pistol. Unfortunately, it just ain’t so.

I remember meeting Rep. Neugebauer at a social event and facebook friending him while we chatted. It was a neat experience, and I thought, “Good for you for knowing how to use facebook,” even though we disagree politically. Rep. Neugebauer’s facebook page has been a venue for lively discussion. Since that time it seems that his (or his staff’s) tolerance for dissent on his facebook page has diminished.

Now if you disagree with him too often you get booted from his page. This is what happened to my friend Brian a few days ago:

Reading the postings on the Congressman’s FB page is an exercise in the fringe of a movement that champions a person who would shout “babykiller” on the floor of Congress. Extremists of all types can post on his page with impunity as they reveal the conspiracies of high attitude chemical spraying that is poisoning us (I always thought those were simply condensation that formed behind jet planes), how illegal immigrants are having terrorist babies on US soil, and endless variations on how our President is not a US citizen.

However, when one posts comments that run against this tide of fanaticism you will find yourself removed from being able to post to his page. Mention concerns about the availability of large capacity gun clips or the lack of funding for mental health services and you trip the wire and are denied further comment. If you then send an email asking why your access has been restricted expect a long delay from his office getting back to you (I’m still waiting).

I used to post on Rep. Neugebauer’s facebook page pretty regularly (in fact I posted “I hope that wasn’t you that yelled Baby Killer” the night he yelled Baby Killer), and I know what Brian means about the fanatics who post there with impunity. By comparison, I am grateful for the right-wing readers I have here.

So, to borrow a campaign slogan from Rep. Neugebauer: “I’m mad too, Randy.” Quit allowing your supporters on facebook to abuse other posters with obscenity and personal threats while you ban people who are being civil.

I am inviting all my readers — fans of President Obama or otherwise — to join me at the LubbockOnline version of my blog tomorrow night for the State of the Union Address. I will be liveblogging it as I have done in the past, and it’s been really fun for everyone involved. This is one of those “the more, the merrier” situations as we all exchange commentary while the event happens. I will also stick around for Paul Ryan’s rebuttal afterward and the wind-down chatter after that. I hope you’ll join me.

In the meantime, I want to share some links (I get a ton of political links in a given day: email, facebook, twitter, the radio show, chatting with friends, etc) to tie us over until tomorrow night’s liveblogging.

LubbockPowerGrab.com — My friend Charlie Dunn has been doing some serious research into the goings-on surrounding Lubbock’s utilities and the sources of our power in 2019 and beyond. There are hefty questions for our elected officials to answer about a private investment company’s involvement and a possible conflict of interest. Check out the summary, supporting documents, and links.

The Texas budget in the Senate is looking just as dire as it is in the House. Here’s a statement issued by State Sen. Eddie Lucio, Jr. (D-Brownsville), via Capitol Annex:

“Overall, the Senate base budget contains the same bad news as the House base budget, with similarly drastic cuts to schools and healthcare. These cuts may save the state government some money but at the cost of slowing Texas’ recovery from the global recession. The good news is that this is only the start of the budget making process. As a member of the Senate Finance Committee, I am going to work as hard as I can to persuade my fellow lawmakers that we should use the rainy day fund and new sources of revenue to ensure that we continue to invest in Texans and in the Texas economy.”

You Have Flunked Humanity — another example of GOP officeholders failing the empathy test (thanks, Scott!).

The stack of laws broken by George W. Bush while in office keeps growing, but nothing will likely be done about it (via NY Times — thanks, Justin!).

One of the toughest aspects of being a Texas Democrat is that we are continually being written off by the national Party. (In fact, David Plouffe mentioned his one regret in the 2008 Obama campaign was not fighting harder in Texas!) On Sunday, there was a DailyKos diary to that effect pointed out to me by regular reader VoodooBen that illustrates this situation in all its frustrating glory. Regular reader BlackSheep01 gets in exactly what I wanted to say in the comments, incidentally. Kudos!

That oughta do for now. I hope to see you all Tuesday night as we liveblog the SOTU!

This fun little video of a piano key staircase in a Stockholm train station is making the rounds, and I think that, oddly enough, it is a pretty good representation of modern liberalism.

What we have here in miniature is a problem: not enough people are taking the stairs. Right away I want to point out that the modern conservative would throw his hands up and decline to address the problem. After all, it’s a matter of “personal responsibility,” isn’t it? People will take the stairs if they want to, end of story.

The modern liberal, on the other hand, will propose that, with new ideas and new infrastructure, we can create/induce/encourage a measurable and significant shift in people’s default behavior. (I want to emphasize once again on this blog that it’s in the public interest to be concerned about what people’s default behaviors are.) Clearly, this concept worked in the stairs example, and it works in large-scale projects as well.

Of recent real-world note, Portugal’s new liberal approach to their drug problem seems to be working too.

Oh, beware of another conservative canard here: the unfounded charge of utopianism. When liberals try to make a better world, we are accused of trying to make a perfect world. There’s a huge difference. Nothing can be perfected, but everything can be improved. Improvement is a reasonable goal; perfection is fringe lunacy.

Moving on. The fact that money was spent — even reasonable amounts — will outrage the modern conservative as well. “It’s not the role of [institution] to pay for [some good thing].” How many times have we heard that line? The staircase example was a corporate project, but could have been a public works project and would have been just as successful, with the only difference being that conservatives would be up in arms over the negligible amount of “their tax dollars” going to waste. When the inevitable spending cut discussion gets underway in Washington, I hope Congress cuts proportionally more from the black hole of the military-industrial complex than they do from the barely-funded NEA.

Finally, the setting of the stairs video is one that the modern conservative cannot stand. No, I don’t mean Sweden. I am talking about urbanism, public transit, and just plain old public spaces with crowds of STRANGERS in them. And these strangers might interact with one another! All of these are anathema to modern conservatism.

Look at Lubbock, the city that conservatism built. Unless you’re on the Tech campus, you’re probably not going to run into crowds of people you don’t know. The most socializing-with-strangers that a typical Lubbockite gets involves staring at the faces of the drivers in the opposite left-turn lane. Lubbock life looks like home-work-church, along with a few shops and restaurants — all in cars, all over unwalkable distances. That is the antisocial legacy we continue to build for ourselves in Lubbock, by no coincidence the 2nd most conservative area in the country.

Broadly speaking, liberalism is the philosophy you tend to get when you live with, interact with, and learn how to get along with lots of people you didn’t know before. You can’t help but brush up against core liberal values like empathy and social justice in a big, walkable city. Likewise, conservative cities tend to be cities of distance and isolation and keeping-to-your-clan.

Well, that was a lot of blabber to extract from a 2min video. What do you think?

Tune in next week, where I’ll explain the difference between Birchers and Randians using only funny cat videos!

In Texas, liberals and progressives are in the worst situation (legislatively speaking) that we have seen in some time. The $27 billion budget crisis is the perfect cover for conservatives to reduce or eliminate programs they have always wanted to reduce or eliminate. Look at the first “shock and awe” budget draft released. HB1 represents a totally unbalanced approach to budgeting. It’s all cuts with no attempts to raise revenue. There are huge bites into public education, kindergarten through college. Several community colleges, including two in West Texas, are slated to be closed. Mental health care is facing a 40% cut. Services for elderly and children are also at risk. Why not, at the very least, tap into the rainy day fund to prevent some of these enormous cuts in public services?

Also, look for right-wing pet projects to receive legislative priority (or even “emergency status” granted by the Governor to expedite them even ahead of the budget). The unconstitutional voter suppression bill could be taken up by the Lege as early as Monday. Laws based on the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the right may also see the light of day before the state budget does. Already the SBOE is discussing more ways to replace public school science education with Bible stories. Check out the Young Conservatives of Texas legislative agenda (but get ready to hurl) for more right-wing pet projects that will be pushed this session. (The short version of that YCT document? “God wants you to bring a gun to school.”)

However, I have already seen some of my legislative heroes in Texas have success. State Sen. Kirk Watson successfully introduced a senate rule that requires 48 hours of public examination of the conference committee on the budget before it is enacted. Also, Democratic State House members are standing up to the mega-austerity of the first proposed budget. Check out remarks from Garnet Coleman, Mike Villareal, and Donna Howard for the correct way to respond to HB1.

Lastly though, I want to mention the environmental mess that Texas is becoming, thanks to GOP enabling. Andrews County is on track to become the next Yucca Mountain, taking nuclear waste from 38 states and dropping it near-or-on the Ogallala aquifer. All the right hands have been greased, it seems. Texas coal plants are killing nearby plant life with no consequences to the plant operators. Fracking is still a big fracking mess in Texas. Thank goodness the EPA is becoming involved now in doing the job that the do-nothing TCEQ should have been doing.

Texas progressives: we have our work cut out for us this next six months. Time to step up our game.