A shaved beaver is a shaved beaver is a shaved beaver

Shaved beaver anyone?

We knew we should’ve renewed our membership at the Safari Club. They had a celebrity auctioneer Tuesday night, you see, by the name of Tom DeLay. One of the items he auctioned off was “a sheared beaver fur vest,” and before you start sniggering at that, well, the former Majority Leader was way ahead of you.

Heard on the Hill quotes DeLay-as-auctioneer: “Who wants a beaver?” “Everybody likes beaver, even women” and (“as a couple of people in the crowd recall”), “The best thing about it, it’s a shaved beaver!”

At one point, as the bidding went up, DeLay pointed in the crowd to Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) as he held up the fur vest and said, “Sen. Burr, they don’t have beaver like this down in North Carolina.”

Texas Racial Bias for Dummies

Cross-posted from Think Progress.

Houston Chronicle, 6/22/06:

The House abruptly dropped plans Wednesday to vote on a renewal of the Voting Rights Act, a seminal law from the civil rights era, after criticism from Republican lawmakers from Texas. …

“I don’t think we have racial bias in Texas anymore,” said Rep. John Carter (R-TX).

“It would be dumb to discriminate,” said Rep. Henry Bonilla (R-TX). “That is the last thing anyone is trying to do.”

Report by the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, 6/26/06:

Texas leads the nation in several categories of voting discrimination, including recent Section 5 violations and Section 2 challenges. … Section 5 of the VRA, the preclearance requirement, was extended to Texas in 1975 due to the State’s history of excluding Mexican Americans from the political process. … Texas is home to the second largest Latino population in the U.S.

Unfortunately, Texas isn’t the only state with continuing discrimination against voters — help renew the VRA.

Leak of the week

Run like a rabbit

and take your furniture, dishware, appliances and the cockroaches with you. Memo to Republicans in CD22. You have been conned by the man that is Tom DeLay.


Fly like the wind...far, far away.

Chris Baker: Local Jackass can't handle prime time

Funny how Chris can't handle the heat on a show where doen't have control of the mute button. Bernie Ward does one hell of a job sticking it to Chris Faker...

C&L has the Video.

What world do they live in

Quotes from our Republican leadership...

"I don't think we have racial bias in Texas anymore," Congressman John Carter (TX-Rep) said after House Republican leaders suddenly cancelled plans to vote on a renewal of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, according to an article slated for Thursday's edition of Houston Chronicle, RAW STORY has found.

Excerpts from the article written by Samantha Levine:

The change in course was announced after the Texans and other Republicans raised complaints about the legislation during the weekly House GOP meeting.

....

Among the objections brought by several Texas Republicans is the requirement that the state must get permission, or "preclearance," from the Justice Department or a federal court before making changes to voting standards, practices or procedures.

The rule was aimed at states with a history of discrimination in voting. Six states were targeted when the law was originally passed: Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina and Virginia. Texas, Arizona and Alaska were added in 1975, when the law was expanded to protect people who have limited knowledge of English.

"It would be dumb to discriminate," said Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-San Antonio. "That is the last thing anyone is trying to do."

Bush offspring

This ought to make his uncle proud...see for yourself.

Racial Profiling?

Karl speaks. Someone's gotta do it, just not my kid.

Another Bushie bites the dust

David Safavian, the senior Bush administration official accused of covering up assistance he provided to disgraced GOP lobbyist Jack Abramoff, has been convicted “on four counts of obstruction and making false statements.”

Missing soldier's uncle criticizes U.S.

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - As the families of two missing soldiers waited to hear if two bodies found Tuesday were their loved ones, the uncle of one lashed out at the government, saying it didn't do enough to bring the men home safe.

"Because the U.S. government did not have a plan in place, my nephew has paid for it with his life," Ken MacKenzie, uncle of Army Pfc. Kristian Menchaca, told NBC's "Today" show.

Some things never change

CBS News contributor Gloria Borger on the media’s coverage of President Bush’s surprise June 13 trip to Iraq: “I think we are suckers. .. [Y]ou know you’re being used, but in a way you kind of like it because it’s good pictures.” - TP

Some are suckers...

Why Bother To Have An Election?

Sugar Land Mayor David Wallace is among the Republican candidates to replace Tom DeLay, who resigned as congressman in District 22. Although the Texas Democratic Party has filed a legal challenge, each of the county Republican parties within District 22 is set to select an elector. The four electors are to pick DeLay’s replacement on the ballot.

In the article detailing the comments made by David Wallace on the congressional District 22 lawsuit (The Daily News, June 9), I think Wallace has revealed a frightening shallowness of his character.

Wallace accuses Nick Lampson of being responsible for the lawsuit, but consider Tom DeLay ran a vigorous primary campaign, raised money up until the day he decided to throw in the towel and left the Republicans in District 22 with four people to decide who is going to be on the ballot in November.

Is this legal and acceptable practice? Why bother having primaries for incumbents?

Why not have every single retiring congressman stay in his seat through the primary and let the county leadership of the party pick the replacement for the ballot?

The entire Republican population in District 22 was disenfranchised by DeLay’s latest political maneuver, all in an attempt to keep the GOP strong and without regard to the people of the district.

Lampson has always done what is best for his constituents. Can you say the same for the DeLay and Wallace crew?

When you realize why the lawsuit was filed by the Texas Democratic Party, you will see it is acting in the entire United States of America’s best interests.

C.J. Farley Houston

From the Galveston Daily News.

It's time to Act Blue for Texas

As many of you know, ActBlue is the federal clearinghouse for donations to Democratic candidates, having channeled over $5.5 million to Dem contenders so far. But did you know, that with your help, you can activate it for Texas... for statewide, state house, and state senate candidates?

Together, Texas bloggers have agreed to help activate ActBlue for our state's non-federal candidates by asking our readers to put us over the top. Normally, ActBlue asks each state to raise $10,000 before moving forward (Texas being at $4,500 so far). But we've got some good news for you from the people at ActBlue.

However, in doing some more preliminary research Texas turns out to be similar to some other states we've already done -- so if we could break $5000 we'd be ready to move ahead with it. Would the texroots be able to help us out with the remaining $1000 by the end of the month?

As far as timeline, my aim would be to have everything ready to go as early in July as we can.

So we ask you, will you, the TexRoots get us over the $5,000 mark and activate ActBlue for all our state non-federal candidates? Do it here- donate today!

This is the most important thing you can do for the Hank Gilberts, Juan Garcias, and Kathi Thomas's of Texas as we move forward in unity to support our TexRoots candidates to be announced in the coming months by the Texas blogosphere.

Yes he really is gone...

Dear Constituent:

Thank you for contacting the Office of the Twenty-Second Congressional District of Texas, formerly the Office of Representative Tom DeLay.

If you are writing regarding a legislative matter, the office can take no action because the U.S. House of Representatives seat for the Twenty-Second District is vacant. Until the special election, you may choose to contact Senator Hutchison or Senator Cornyn regarding legislative matters. I have included the addresses and telephone numbers of both Senators below for your information.

Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison Senator John Cornyn
SR-284 SH-517
Washington, D.C. 20510 Washington, D.C. 20510
(202) 224-5922 (202) 224-2934

Pending a special election to choose a successor for the vacant congressional seat, the offices in Washington, D.C. and in Texas remain open under the supervision of the Clerk of the House of Representatives to assist with casework inquiries and other requests for information.

If you are writing regarding a matter where you need personal assistance relating to your interaction with a federal agency, please put your request in writing and send it to: The Twenty-Second Congressional District of Texas, 10701 Corporate Drive, Suite 118, Stafford, Texas 77477.

Again, thank you for contacting this office.

Sincerely,

Office Administrator
Twenty-Second Congressional District of Texas

Where's the bounce

The media are suckers...the American people are not. Bush is a bad president...the media has a hard time dealing with with.

Crazy woman

Coulter and plagiarism by the Rude Pundit.

Hello I'm Tom DeLay and I'm from California

He ran so fast from his home town that he doesn't even know where the f$ck he went. Hilarious.

DeLay, now a permanent resident of Alexandria, Va., put his name to good use by doing a round of get-out-the-vote “robocalls” on behalf of Mark Ellmore, one of two GOP candidates who ran in Tuesday’s Republican primary to oppose Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) this fall.

DeLay began his message by saying, “Hello, this is Tom DeLay.” He mentioned that as Majority Leader, he “battled Jim Moran in Congress for 14 years.” Then, for some reason, he continued, “I recently re-registered to vote in Northern California.”

A House GOP aide who lives in Alexandria and who played for HOH the voice mail message she saved from DeLay’s robocall said, “My husband made me listen to it three times, he thought it was so funny.”

Whoops. Clearly, or so we assume, DeLay meant to say that he recently re-registered to vote in Northern Virginia. Though we just can’t help but wonder if perhaps he was dreaming of the day that hippy dippy Marin County takes a hard turn to the right.

You can find this piece of comedy in Roll Call.


You can run but you can't hide.

Can't he do anything right

People in European and Muslim countries see US policy in Iraq as a bigger threat to world peace than Iran's nuclear programme, a survey has shown.

The survey by the Pew Research Group also found support for US President George W Bush and his "war on terror" had dropped dramatically worldwide

Indictment pusher is late

Rove escapes indictment.

Five hour trip for what?

1984

Governor Rick Perry of Texas has mandated to spend $5 million to install cameras nearby the Texas Rio Grande river in an effort to prevent terrorism and illegal immigration. These cameras allow internet users to watch people suspected of crossing the border illegally, and if they see someone break the law, they can call law enforcement by using an 800 number that will be listed on that particular web page. Gov. Perry calls it a neighborhood crime watch program. I call it another element of the Republican engender - Totalitarianism. See also the Patriot Act and the White House eavesdropping scandal.

It's a shame that I haven't heard anyone in the press complain; as a matter of fact, local law enforcement have applauded the idea. Fools, by doing this terrorism has won over our freedoms. This idea sets a new precedence. First cameras nearby the border, then cameras in our neighborhood, then the thought police will be knocking on your door.

Great Republican quote(s)

"Nothing is more important in the
face of a war than cutting taxes...’
-- No hammer-having Tom DeLay Link

Wait, yesterday that Louisiana handjob said,
"There's no issue more important
than banning gay marriage."
-- Sen. David Vitter Link

Isn't national security a top concern?
We lost the Constitution over a third-rate issue?

Gosh I love bartcop.

The Zarqawi Invitation

They got him -- the big, bad, beheading berserker in Iraq. But, something's gone unreported in all the glee over getting Zarqawi … who invited him into Iraq in the first place?

If you prefer your fairy tales unsoiled by facts, read no further. If you want the uncomfortable truth, begin with this: A phone call to Baghdad to Saddam's Palace on the night of April 21, 2003. It was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld on a secure line from Washington to General Jay Garner.

The General had arrives in Baghdad just hours before to take charge of the newly occupied nation. The message from Rumsfeld was not a heartwarming welcome. Rummy told Garner, Don't unpack, Jack -- you're fired.

What had Garner done? The many-starred general had been sent by the President himself to take charge of a deeply dangerous mission. Iraq was tense but relatively peaceful. Garner's job was to keep the peace and bring democracy.

Unfortunately for the general, he took the President at his word. But the general was wrong. "Peace" and "Democracy" were the slogans.

"My preference," Garner told me in his understated manner, "was to put the Iraqis in charge as soon as we can and do it in some form of elections."


But elections were not in The Plan.

The Plan was a 101-page document to guide the long-term future of the land we'd just conquered. There was nothing in it about democracy or elections or safety. There was, rather, a detailed schedule for selling off "all [Iraq's] state assets" -- and Iraq, that's just about everything -- "especially," said The Plan, "the oil and supporting industries." Especially the oil.

There was more than oil to sell off. The Plan included the sale of Iraq's banks, and weirdly, changing it's copyright laws and other odd items that made the plan look less like a program for Iraq to get on its feet than a program for corporate looting of the nation's assets. (And indeed, we discovered at BBC, behind many of the odder elements -- copyright and tax code changes -- was the hand of lobbyist Jack Abramoff's associate Grover Norquist.)

But Garner didn't think much of The Plan, he told me when we met a year later in Washington. He had other things on his mind. "You prevent epidemics, you start the food distribution program to prevent famine."

Seizing title and ownership of Iraq's oil fields was not on Garner's must-do list. He let that be known to Washington. "I don't think [Iraqis] need to go by the U.S. plan, I think that what we need to do is set an Iraqi government that represents the freely elected will of the people." He added, "It's their country … their oil."

Apparently, the Secretary of Defense disagreed. So did lobbyist Norquist. And Garner incurred their fury by getting carried away with the "democracy" idea: he called for quick elections -- within 90 days of the taking of Baghdad.

But Garner's 90-days-to-elections commitment ran straight into the oil sell-off program. Annex D of the plan indicated that would take at least 270 days -- at least 9 months.

Worse, Garner was brokering a truce between Sunnis, Shias and Kurds. They were about to begin what Garner called a "Big Tent" meeting to hammer out the details and set the election date. He figured he had 90 days to get it done before the factions started slitting each other's throats.

But a quick election would mean the end of the state-asset sell-off plan: An Iraqi-controlled government would never go along with what would certainly amount to foreign corporations swallowing their entire economy. Especially the oil. Garner had spent years in Iraq, in charge of the Northern Kurdish zone and knew Iraqis well. He was certain that an asset-and-oil grab, "privatizations," would cause a sensitive population to take up the gun. "That's just one fight you don't want to take on right now."

But that's just the fight the neo-cons at Defense wanted. And in Rumsfeld's replacement for Garner, they had a man itching for the fight. Paul Bremer III had no experience on the ground in Iraq, but he had one unbeatable credential that Garner lacked: Bremer had served as Managing Director of Kissinger and Associates.

In April 2003, Bremer instituted democracy Bush style: he canceled elections and appointed the entire government himself. Two months later, Bremer ordered a halt to all municipal elections including the crucial vote to Shia seeking to select a mayor in the city of Najaf. The front-runner, moderate Shia Asad Sultan Abu Gilal warned, "If they don't give us freedom, what will we do? We have patience, but not for long." Local Shias formed the "Mahdi Army," and within a year, provoked by Bremer's shutting their paper, attacked and killed 21 U.S. soldiers.

The insurgency had begun. But Bremer's job was hardly over. There were Sunnis to go after. He issued "Order Number One: De-Ba'athification." In effect, this became "De-Sunni-fication."

Saddam's generals, mostly Sunnis, who had, we learned, secretly collaborated with the US invasion and now expected their reward found themselves hunted and arrested. Falah Aljibury, an Iraqi-born US resident who helped with the pre-invasion brokering, told me, "U.S. forces imprisoned all those we named as political leaders," who stopped Iraq's army from firing on U.S. troops.

Aljibury's main concern was that busting Iraqi collaborators and Ba'athist big shots was a gift "to the Wahabis," by which he meant the foreign insurgents, who now gained experienced military commanders, Sunnis, who now had no choice but to fight the US-installed regime or face arrest, ruin or death. They would soon link up with the Sunni-defending Wahabi, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, who was committed to destroying "Shia snakes."

And the oil fields? It was, Aljibury noted, when word got out about the plans to sell off the oil fields (thanks to loose lips of the US-appointed oil minister) that pipelines began to blow. Although he had been at the center of planning for invasion, Aljibury now saw the greed-crazed grab for the oil fields as the fuel for a civil war that would rip his country to pieces:

"Insurgents," he said, "and those who wanted to destabilize a new Iraq have used this as means of saying, 'Look, you're losing your country. You’re losing your leadership. You're losing all of your resources to a bunch of wealthy people. A bunch of billionaires in the world want to take you over and make your life miserable.' And we saw an increase in the bombing of oil facilities, pipelines, of course, built on -- built on the premise that privatization [of oil] is coming."

General Garner, watching the insurgency unfold from the occupation authority's provocations, told me, in his understated manner, "I'm a believer that you don't want to end the day with more enemies than you started with."

But you can't have a war president without a war. And you can't have a war without enemies. "Bring 'em on," our Commander-in-Chief said. And Zarqawi answered the call.
By Greg Palast

Kerry 'almost certainly' won'...if he had a backbone

Times columnist: Kerry 'almost certainly' won...

But Herbert wrote on Monday: "Kerry almost certainly would have won Ohio if all of his votes had been counted, and if all of the eligible voters who tried to vote for him had been allowed to cast their ballots....No one has been able to prove that the election in Ohio was hijacked. But whenever it is closely scrutinized, the range of problems and dirty tricks that come to light is shocking. What's not shocking, of course, is that every glitch and every foul-up in Ohio, every arbitrary new rule and regulation, somehow favored Bush."

I really have no reaction to this other than if the Democrats had the balls to fight this something may have come of it. Unfortonately, we had a Democratic candidate who seemed to care more about his political career and stand down instead of doing what John Edward wanted to do and challenge the votes. Oh, well...now shall we learn and select a stronger candidate.





One for the history books.

Stop the Diebold thieves!

Delay's Dollars

I'm away for awhile and I sure miss a whole of alot. Nick Lampson has a cool online game called "Delay's Dollars". This is damn good work by whoever created it and though Tom did the famous "cut and run" on my now famous district, it's never to late for a little laugh at ole' Tom's expense. Can you do a better job of collecting cash over the master of indictment and ethic's violations.

Bush Supporters

This is what we are up against. Help!

Dems file suit to keep DeLay at home

He quits and steals from his his party...all the more reason he should stay and fight it out.

In a surprise twist to the Tom DeLay saga, the Texas Democratic Party filed suit Thursday in an attempt to keep the resigning Republican Congressman’s name on the November ballot.

The suit, filed in Travis County 126th District Court, seeks to undo an hours-old declaration by Republican Party Chair Tina Benkiser that DeLay is ineligible to run in the general election.

If DeLay doesn’t serve as the party’s candidate for Congressional District 22, then according to the Texas Election Code, no other candidate is allowed to replace him, the suit says.

"I'll stay here with my new friends because I'm a chicken-shit!"