The Noise Machine (11/11/10)

Ah...rain.


Starting off with a note for bosses everywhere. Treat 'em right.



This is the sound of political desperation. After the mid-term shellacking you knew this was imminent.



I wonder if Steve Mostyn was at this meeting? He dumped a ton of cash into the election after all and has zilch to show for it.

On another front: How to handle this story from a "news-ish" perspective courtesy of Jesse Zwick writing for the American Independent:

It looks like the left-wing independent spending infrastructure, long moribund, is starting to show its first signs of new life.

Independent? Hardly, coordinated is more like it. Just as all of those conservative 527 organizations are parroting the R message.



Imagine that: Poor disclosure surrounding the stimulus. Nah, that could NEVER happen.


Bad Radio-gate? And where the hell is our classical station?


If you listen to some, the cause of the Democrats downfall was, in part, those damn, greedy Democrats.


Your Ooops! moment of the day.


Full of ambition and ready to...... Well, OK, so they don't really know what they're going to do yet, but hey....they're ambitious! Right?


To quote Houston's sexiest blogger: Good. It's a bad planned designed on dodgy science.


Fight! Fight! At least it's not boring.


Glory, Glory Hallelujah! Their truth is marching on. Or something like that.


The return of the Republicans to power. With Texas getting a nice boost as well. (Which will, hopefully, put an end to the "if you would have only voted the right way you wouldn't be getting screwed" meme) Or not, calling voters ignorant is the new campaign yard sign.


Note to the students staging hunger strike: Many of the people who oppose the DREAM act would consider your demise to be a good start. Just sayin'. (Either that or they'll call for ICE to go and round you up.)


There already IS a ban on texting and driving. It's called distracted driving laws. If police would enforce those.....


And finally,


For all of the talk about Texas dirty energy, we sure have a lot to teach the Chinese about how to get at it cleanly.

What is "News-ish"? (Part II)

This is news-ish...

(Will the Tea Party Go Nuclear?, Sue Sturgis, Texas Observer)

From Facing South, where this story was first published.

Among the special interests that see the outcome of the mid-term elections as a win for themselves is the U.S. nuclear power industry.

NRG Energy, the New Jersey-based power company that's seeking federal subsidies in the form of Department of Energy loan guarantees to build two more reactors at the South Texas Project near Bay City, has already told Bloomberg that it expects to benefit from Republican gains in Congress:

What is Facing South? I'll let their website tell you...

Since our founding in 1970 by veterans of the civil rights movement, the Institute for Southern Studies has established a national reputation as an essential resource for grassroots activists, community leaders, scholars, policy makers and others working to bring lasting social and economic change to the region.

The Institute draws attention to the national importance of the South and offers an exciting vision of the region-a place brimming with a capacity for progressive change that challenges its reputation as a monolithic, conservative stronghold.

An organization that advocates for progressive policy change. Which is fine, encouraged even. After all, people and organizations have a right to champion their views.

For that matter, news organizations have a right to advocate for views*. Provided they're shooting straight. The problem with the Observer is that they are play-pretending to be a straight news site....

We will serve no group or party but will hew hard to the truth as we find it and the right as we see it. We are dedicated to the whole truth, to human values above all interests, to the rights of humankind as the foundation of democracy.

Except when they're running stories from Democratic-aligned, progressive groups that is right? THEN they might serve a group or a party. Maybe.


The Texas Democratic Trust may have failed, but their legacy lives on.



*As a matter of fact, I wish more of them did. I just wish that the Texas Observer, the Texas Tribune (Now, with more HIP eye wear!!) and the American Independent would just be open and honest with everyone about what positions they are advocating.

What is "News-Ish"?

THIS is "News-ish"...

(Denying in-state tuition to undocumented college students would ‘be stamping out hope,’ Noriega says, Karie Meltzer, Texas Independent)

When Rick Noriega heard that Texas A&M University’s student senate voted to keep illegal immigrants from receiving in-state tuition rates, he was surprised –- but not angry.

Rick Noriega?

It's illustrative of how deep the hole is for TX Democrats that progressive news-ish organizations are starting to look to marginal candidates for leadership on big issues. What's next? Chris Bell on Education Finance? (Another moon-shot perhaps?)

Another telling point you're dealing with news-ish and not news? Unfair treatment of the opposing side's opinion:

Noriega said about 20,000 students –- not just immigrants, but students from other states — have gained access to higher education because of this law.

“I don’t know any rational argument that could refute the fact that that’s a good thing as it applies to our values as Texans,” he said. “Education and higher education are core fundamental values of Texas.”

IRCOT’s petition claims at least 8,000 illegal immigrants are attending Texas colleges and universities and receiving in-state tuition. However, a 2006 report from the Texas Comptroller’s office says the number of undocumented immigrants who attend Texas colleges and pay in-state tuition is unknown, so estimating the cost associated with HB 1403 is difficult.

State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) is confident the court will reverse the law. IRCOT’s attorney, David Rogers, said the case is still in discovery mode. But if the state law is upheld, Berman plans to file legislation to reverse it on purely economic grounds.

“The $42 million we’re spending on these illegal aliens should be benefits going to Texas students in the form of loans or grants which they aren’t getting,” he said. “The law says we have to educate these students from K5 through 12th grade; we don’t have to educate them in college.”

David Hinojosa, an attorney with the Mexican American Legal Defense Fund, is defending the state in the case.

“We think this is a frivolous case. People like [Rep.] Leo Berman don’t like undocumented immigrants,” Hinojosa said. “They want to make lives as miserable as possible for these people.”

Bracketing an opposing opinion with two opinions the writer favors, thus allowing the favored position to both frame, and respond to the argument, is a tactic employed not just by news-ish organizations, but by actual news organizations themselves. You find a lot of this on Op/Ed pages and in opinion columns: 1. There can be no reasonable argument against the favored position. 2. The opposing position says ..... 3. But they're wrong because.....

To be fair, it's also found a LOT in blogs and other amateur writing, on both sides of the political aisle.

To their credit, these news-ish sites (and the InterLeft that's increasingly using them for source material) are very good at latching on to the approved narrative and beating readers over the head with it. They did a very good job of establishing the truthiness around Perry's actions in the Cameron Todd Willingham case, and they maintained the fallacy that Bill White was a credible candidate up until the obvious. Now they're playing right along with the tune "Bill White was a bad candidate".


When they're not calling Texas voters ignorant that is.

What I'll be watching during the next Lege session.

As I type this, the 82nd session of the Texas Legislature is less than one business quarter away from dropping the gavel. After last week's election I've given some thought to some of the possibilities and this is what I'll be watching for....


The success rate of Sen. Dan Patrick. It's no secret that Patrick's goal is to remake Texas politics, with himself set up as a major regional power-broker. It will be a bell-weather session for him if Voter ID, anti-illegal immigration and appraisal-cap bills get passed. It will be a nightmare for future Texans if he's successful in repealing the Rosebush/Blocker Bill.


Does Warren Chisum win the speakership? Possibly the biggest question is going to be answered early. How Republicans are going to attack the significant problems they'll be facing will be revealed in this vote. For my part, I'm rooting hard for Straus.


How much of Debbie Riddle's legislative agenda passes? Riddle is setting herself up to be the darling of the anti-immigrant, social-values "the sky is falling" because people that don't look or talk like us are ruining the country crowd. At the same time some of the elephants are starting to make noise about minority outreach, the pass/fail rate of Riddle's bills will be telling.


How will the Freshman do? There are a LOT of freshman R's. Many of them lacking political experience. Fortunately for the GOP they are in a position of dominance and can overcome this by keeping the herd in line. Most people are saying the Tea Party is going to be a big driver, but even Tea Party politicians understand the need of party structure. How big of a roll will it play?


How effective a minority can the Democrats be? To answer this, my guess is that Scott Hochberg will be the key. Besides the stamping of feet and profane classification of political opposites that one expects to find amongst the InterLeft, at some point the Democrats are going to have to present a viable opposition legislative package. My expectation is that Rep. Scott Hochberg will offer up the best bills. He's a serious thinker on matters of budget and education who could actually squeak one or two bills through this session. If he can do that, he should be the guy Democrats look to in the future for direction.


Is Ardmore in play? In 2003 the TX Democrats famously absconded to Ardmore in an attempt to shut-down TX government and block the GOP legislative agenda. It was John Whitmire who eventually returned to Austin and broke the stalemate. What Whitmire rightly understood, and Democrats didn't, was that the ploy wasn't playing well outside of the far-left base, and they were going to be there anyway. Where Democrats were suffering was among the middle, voters who, while not crazy about the GOP agenda, understood the stalling tactic for what it was: Political grandstanding.


Oh that short-fall. By some accounts it's up to $25 Billion, the most reliable estimates peg it at around $18 Billion. The expectation is that the GOP is going to attack spending with a machete, all while trying to pass a tax cut which could exacerbate the problem. One are in which I find myself in agreement with TX Democrats is that TX Budget has a structural flaw on the income side, we disagree on how to fix it. I also agree with Republicans that government spending is too, too high. Where we disagree is what, where and how deeply to cut. My ideal scenario is a restructuring of the tax-code that is not revenue neutral (but which spreads a small increase over all residents and businesses with few (if any loopholes) coupled with small cuts in agencies whose budgets are full of projects and not recurring charges. For example: Road building would be a good place to cut, for now. We can go without new roads for a bit, we cannot go without education or assistance to the poor. Any tax code written should be designed with an eye toward future stability and made to be as free from future political class-warfare as is possible.


Who's going to provide the coverage? MSM newspapers are flaming out, and online sites such as the Texas Tribune (hip, urban eyeware and all) have, so far, been unable to fully fill that void. Last session the Trib (without as much eyeware) did a serviceable job but, as we saw during the last election, their limits are still being fleshed out. Harvy Kronberg's Quorum Report is a good source of information, but it's a pay-site that the general public won't read. One interesting issue of note is the rise of news-ish sites such as Texas Observer and the Texas Independent. Their agenda being the forwarding of progressive causes under the guise of straight news stories could be instrumental in framing the largest issues facing the 82nd, even before the first gavel drops.

The Noise Machine (11/10/10)

OK Look....


Imagine that, a call for the Tea Parties to reach out to minorities is being initially dismissed by white Republicans. (see the comments) BigJolly.com is forwarding some of the best discussion on various issues in the Republican party today. It's a shame more people don't know about it.


Hearing that a new quasi-governmental agency has been created to oversee the "amateur" portion of the Dynamo sports stadium makes me happy that Houston's budget problems, crime-lab issues, police shortage and infrastructure issues have all been addressed. Wait.....What?


Why I think Tom Delay is going to skate courtesy of R.G. Ratcliffe from ChronBlog:

Prosecutors in the political money-laundering case against former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay are relentlessly building a circumstantial case, but as the sixth day of testimony ended Tuesday, they still had not directly linked DeLay to the alleged scheme.

You'd think a position this important would deserve tougher press scrutiny than the typically ChronBlog "Puff" special". You'd be wrong apparently.


A preview of the Democratic response to pretty much everything this Lege session. In summary: "The Republicans are (insert derogatory statement {or mild vulgarity} here)" (The thing is, I tend to agree with them re: "tough" anti-illegal immigrant legislation, it's just that they're not offering up thoughtful legislation either. Both parties are approaching the issue from the standpoint of political gain, not strength of the Country.)


More attacks on conservative government policy by so-called conservatives. Someone in the Republican leadership needs to remind Mr. Patrick why that rule was put in place to begin with. (Conservatism 101 would be a good place to start.)


And Texas and Nebraska shall lead them? Go figure.


Obsession typically makes for bad political journalism.


It appears the election is not "quite" over. At least not until the courts have had their say right?


Odessa GOP head Tisha Crow admits to minor election violations. At this point I just want to say........"No Relation".


Rick Perry vs. Social Security. The thing is: He's right. Some just don't want to admit the problems.


Speaking of Perry's book: this is why journalism is dying. Weak attempts at humor masking thinly veiled partisan shots all of which offer nothing of consequence to the reader. (Kind of like this blog really. The difference being I'm unpaid and reading this is free.)


And finally.....


And here we go again..... Expect there to be much wailing and gnashing of teeth about contract terms being upheld.

The Noise Machine (11/08/2010)

Better late than never....


Want to see how your elected representatives are voting? There's an app for that. (Would like to see said app for Android phones)


Just what is a Conservative anyway? (For that matter, what is a liberal? Or a progressive? Political labels are meaningless when stands on issues fluctuate with "what does my party want me to do?")


It seems that Latino voters gave a lift to the GOP this last election cycle. Square that one with the political rhetoric.


Following their completely lack-luster coverage before the race (which included the laziest man in the world not finding him on Google and another reporter mis-spelling his name) ChronBlog offers a 'make-right' piece to Jack Morman.


Speaking of Garcia, her loss cost her more than just her elected position. Her leadership roles in various political groups is gone as well.



And so it begins....It will be time to see if Rick Perry was telling the truth when he said the Arizona immigration bill was wrong for Texas, because Riddle's bill is almost a carbon copy.


Bi-Partisanship is good especially when it's used to prevent laws meant for adults to be too-harshly applied to kids.


They still don't get it. And the beat in the State Senate goes on. (It's easy to do whatever you want to do when there's almost a 0% chance you'll be voted out.)


This is good news for the Trib whose reporting was in desperate need for editing. It will be interesting to see if a lefty editor from a lefty publications is able to improve some of the glaring errors at that shop. (I'm not expecting much, after all, he and Evan share tastes in eye wear.)


It's always funny to see sour grapes in action. Jason Stanford is an angry man. Maybe Chris Bell will give him some of his windfall and that will make him feel better?


And finally......


How bad has it gotten for Big Labor? Bad enough that they're having to result to puff-pieces ran in news-ish sites assuring Democrats that the disastrous election would have been even worse if not for them. That's pretty bad.