How to choose a Bum Steer of the Year (click title to entry - thank you) in such a bummer of a year? We thought we had an answer in February, when U.S. marshals raided the Houston headquarters of Stanford Financial, the house-of-cards money-management firm of the knight from Mexia, Sir Allen Stanford. He spent two days holed up at a girlfriend’s house while we rubbed our hands together, imagining his pugnacious mug frowning out from our January cover. But then he surfaced, and as the story unfolded of his “massive ongoing fraud,” as the Securities and Exchange Commission put it (with gusto!), we began to worry. Ridiculous as his “outside wives,” gold helicopter, and fake British snobbery were, Stanford turned out to be more villain than clown. The sins were too serious. The victims too aggrieved. He didn’t make you want to laugh; he made you want to punch him in the face.
But not to worry. The year was young. Another candidate would come along. Sure enough, on tax day, with tea partiers making merry all around him, Governor Rick Perry obliged, hinting strongly—though erroneously—that if the federal government didn’t watch out, the State of Texas might just have to see about seceding from the union. Visions of the governor storming Washington immediately began to dance before our eyes. There would be pitchforks! There would be torches! Someone would be riding a mule! But this one wouldn’t stay funny either. Next thing we knew, Perry was tied up in a controversy about the possible execution of an innocent man. Not a lot of yuks there. Then he was proclaiming that the president was “hell-bent toward taking America towards a socialist country.” It didn’t make you want to laugh; it made you want to cry.
Meanwhile, a dark horse had entered the race. On September 21, before a television audience of 17.5 million viewers, former House majority leader Tom DeLay pranced into our plans as a contestant on season nine of Dancing With the Stars. Unlike our previous contenders, the Hammer got off to a slow start. The fact that he had made a calculated decision to appear on ABC’s hit reality show, weighing the probable humiliation against the probable goodwill it would generate, initially hindered his candidacy.
Needless to say, any doubts we had were completely obliterated by the first close-up shot of the DeLay buttocks awkwardly shaking from side to side like two elderly lap dogs fighting under a blanket. Over the next three episodes, the former majority leader showed a surprising passion for ass-shaking. Who knew? Who wanted to know? The response from the judges’ table and the morning talk shows suggested that it was not necessary for us to see any more rump, but DeLay carried on gamely, tossing that thing around whenever he had a chance, putting the bum back in Bum Steers. He also favored the knee slide. And his outfits! In an early Entertainment Tonight interview from the rehearsal studio he explained, “Most of my costumes are going to be really classy and tasteful and reflect the grandfather image rather than the extreme fighter image.” That made sense until he came flouncing onstage for his first cha-cha looking like an extra from Boogie Nights. Goodbye, Grandpa. Hello, Fabulous. When you were done cringing, you had to laugh, and in a year as unfunny as 2009, this was no small feat. Thanks, Tom. We needed that.
30 June 2010Why 2010 Elections Are So Important for Texas Democrats
BIG ISSUES CONFRONT 2011 TEXAS LEGISLATURE
In seven short months we will have worked our way through an election and have seated and convened the 2011 Texas legislature. That January 2011 session will begin to deal with many issues affecting Texas for decades to come:
Redistricting: The 2010 National Census presents an opportunity to redraw state and congressional electoral districts to reflect population changes. It could present Democrats an opportunity to undo the Tom Delay "gerrymandering" or the Republicans the chance to continue and entrench the process. And, it is likely that Texas will pick up one or more House seats. It will, without any doubt, be the most rancorous issue facing the new legislature and will very likely spawn its own set of legal challenges and lawsuits regardless which party is in control of the process. You can expect this to be one of the, if not the most, dominant issue before this legislature.
State Budget Shortfall & New Taxes: The 2011 legislature will be presented with a budget shortfall now estimated to be in the range of $18 billion. Putting aside all else, common sense (I know, I know) dictates that there are only a few options available; amend the state constitution to permit a continued budget deficit, reduce spending through budget and service cuts, austerity programs, accounting tricks and devices, tap the so-called "Rainy Day Fund", find new sources of state revenue i.e. casino gambling, or raise taxes. Even if we were to see some or all of these measures except "raise taxes", there still would be a shortfall....
Sunset Review/Environmental Issues: Twenty-eight state agencies are to come under "sunset reviews" this coming session. The process will determine which agencies will continue and how and if they should be "reformed". Businesses and and established interests will be ready to fight any attempts to increase or impose new regulations. If the Democrats are in control they will target many of those agencies, which under Republican control, have all but given businesses and special interest veritable wave throughs in the regulatory and review processes....
Voter ID/Immigration: We do not expect these hot-button, emotion laden issues to even come forth in a serious manner this session. Frankly, this legislature is going to be so busy with the issues itemized above that there will no doubt be one, or even several, special sessions next summer. There will be some posturing and blustering, but no significant action.
Health Care Reform: Most of the noise on this will simply be Republicans and Democrats getting "on the record" for the folks back home. However, look to decisions on how Texas is to implement new federal requirements to generate a lot of spleen as the legislature confronts whether to join the federal high-risk pool, and at what level to set Medicaid reimbursements....
Posted by Shane Fox at 9:23 AM
http://psst-progressivesavvyseniorstexas.blogspot.com/2010/06/why-2010-elections-are-so-important-for.html
...Records made available to the public make clear that Green Party leaders – particularly Executive Director kat swift and Party Co-Chair Christine Morshedi – knowingly conspired with Republican political operatives to use money from a secret donor funneled through a non-profit corporation to pay for the collection of ballot petition signatures. Green Party leaders have acknowledged publicly that they did not have the money or the organizational ability to collect the ballot signatures on their own (Source: Dallas Morning News, June 6, 2010)....
http://bayareahouston.blogspot.com/2010/06/advice-for-green-party-dont-mess-with.html
Everyone knows who replaced DeLay, right?
No?
The 'Bone Man' himself.
...Just ask John Boehner, the tan man who serves as the House minority leader. Early in the week, in an interview with the Pittsburgh Tribune Review, Boehner said President Obama's Wall Street reform plan amounts to "killing an ant with a nuclear weapon."...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/07/02/AR2010070202443.html
http://sex251.chi2.pl/?p=5239
Casino Jack and the United States of Money
http://www.imdb.com/video/imdb/vi3267168025/
Follow the Money
The news out of Washington D.C. is filled with talk of "earmarks," "pork barrel-spending" and "goodies," but what do these expressions really mean, who is responsible for them and how do they affect the average citizen? The Social Action Campaign for CASINO JACK and the United States of Money highlights the corruptive role of money in politics with initiatives designed to educate citizens about their elected officials ties to special interest groups and provide tools to create a movement to bring real and meaningful campaign finance reform.
In Theaters May 7, 2010
Of course, the former Secretary of the Treasury had nothing to do with the mess we are in and of course, DeLay would know best. Murdoch.
July 1, 2010, FOX, home of the great patriots.
Jack Abramoff's new job: Selling pizza, not influence
Convicted lobbyist hired to work in marketing for Reisterstown Road pizza shop.
June 22, 2010
By Jean Marbella, The Baltimore Sun
Convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, still serving a sentence for defrauding clients and conspiring to bribe public officials, has a new job: He's selling pizzas in Baltimore rather than influence in Washington.
Abramoff, recently released from a federal prison camp in Cumberland to a halfway house in Baltimore, began working Monday at Tov Pizza on Reisterstown Road.
"I think people get a second chance," said Ron Rosenbluth, owner of the shop, which boasts of the city's best kosher pizza — which means lots of veggie options but no meat. "If they do their time, they deserve a chance."
Abramoff's job, first reported by the Baltimore Jewish Times, will involve marketing, Rosenbluth said, "to get us more business."...
http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-06-22/news/bs-md-abramoff-pizza-20100622_1_jack-abramoff-home-detention-new-job
