Hiding In The Dark

Political Cartoon is by Pat Bagley in the Salt Lake Tribune.

Teabonics

These fine examples of teabonics (the language of uneducated teabaggers) were found at the blog of Yellowdog Granny.

Christmas Mountains Still In Danger

A few years ago, the Richard King Mellon Foundation and the Conservation Fund bought a large tract of land in the Christmas Mountains (bordering Big Bend National Park) and gave the land to the state of Texas. Their only stipulations for the gift was to leave the land in its natural environmental state and assure that the land could be open to use by all the citizens of Texas.

The state made a solemn promise to abide by those stipulations, but now Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson wants to break that promise. He tried to sell the land about a year ago to a private interest, but was stopped by citizen outrage. It was thought he would relent and give the land to the National Park System (which would obey the gift's stipulations), but now he's changed his mind and once again wants to sell this valuable gift to the people of Texas.

Why is he doing this? Because he's a gun nut, and the Big Bend National Park doesn't allow firearms or hunting in the park. Patterson told a conservation group, "No guns, no hunting, no deal." He figures if he sells to a private person, then hunting leases could be granted.

The problem is that selling to a private interest means all the citizens of Texas will not have access. It also means there is no assurance the land will be kept in its natural state (as the state promised). Selling this public land to a private interest is really a bad idea, and the state would get very little from it. The previous high bid was $650,000 -- just a drop in the bucket that would do nothing to solve Texas' financial problems.

Fortunately, Patterson has a Democratic opponent who wants to honor the promises made by the state. His name is Hector Uribe (pictured), and he is the only hope to avoid the sale of this land to private interests. If Patterson is re-elected, the land will be sold. Here is what Uribe says:

"From generation to generation, Texans take pride in keeping their word. Back when Ann Richards was governor and Garry Mauro was Land Commissioner, the Mellon Foundation and the Conservation Fund gave more than 9,000 acres outside Big Bend National Park to the State of Texas. It is known as the Christmas Mountains Ranch, and the views from Christmas Mountain are spectacular.

The General Land Office accepted the gift with the understanding that strict conservation restrictions had been placed on it. Selling the land to private parties would be a violation of our fiduciary duty to the donors and to their beneficiaries, the people of Texas.

Accordingly, I will preserve and protect our scenic Christmas Mountains in West Texas. I’ll urge the passage of legislation to transfer their management to the National Park Service and their inclusion in our Big Bend National Park."

Please save this land for the people of Texas (and the United States). However you vote on the rest of the ballot, it is important to vote for Hector Uribe and save the Christmas Mountains. This is not a liberal or conservative issue. It is just a vote for the people of Texas and a vote for the state to honor its promises.

Friend Of Coal

Political Cartoon is by Joel Pett in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Taking Stupid To A New Level

The state of Wisconsin just had a new law take effect in March. The law says that schools that have sex education courses can't teach "abstinence only". The law, starting in the Fall, "requires schools with sex-education courses to teach students medically accurate, age-appropriate information, including how to use birth control and prevent sexually transmitted diseases. It also requires the classes to include information about how to recognize signs of abuse and how alcohol can affect decision making."

This is a great law. The state government in Wisconsin recognized the fact that "abstinence only" courses have been proven not to work. They instead chose to educate their students about the dangers of the real world. I expect the law will not only prevent unwanted pregnancies, but very likely will save the lives of some of those being taught -- because it teaches how to avoid pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.

But, as expected, this law is not popular with the fundamentalist right-wingers. They seem to live in a fantasy world that says if you hide the truth from students about sex, then they will never learn about it or have sex before marrying. This is just silly, because as any thinking person knows, you don't have to be taught about it to discover sex -- it is a biological urge and not a learned behavior. However, a proper education can teach students to be safer in their sexual choices.

But in Wisconsin, there is one fundamentalist that is even stupider than the others, and sadly he has a little bit of power. He is Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth. This nut doesn't just oppose proper sex education -- he considers it to be a criminal offense. He has written a letter to the school leaders in his district telling them that a teacher who teaches a sex education course according to the new state law "could be charged with misdemeanor or felony delinquency of a minor", and be subject to from 6 months to 6 years in prison.

He added, "Moreover, the teacher could be charged with this crime even if the child does not actually engage in the criminal behavior." He says the schools should stop teaching any kind of sex education until the legislature "amends or repeals these new mandates."

I can understand this fool being upset because his fundamentalist right-wing views were overruled by the new law, but he doesn't have the right to use his elected position to try and force the schools to ignore the law. I hope someone files an ethical complaint against Southworth (pictured), because he is obviously abusing and misusing his elected office.

I really don't think he could get a conviction based on his ridiculous threats, and if he did, I'm sure an appeals court would quickly throw it out. But the people of Juneau county need to vote this fool out of office. I don't care if they replace him with a Republican or Democrat -- as long as it's a person who will not abuse the powers of the District Attorney's office.

Is This Who Our Soldiers Are Fighting For ?

Political Cartoon is by Jim Morin in the Miami Herald.

Idiocy And Genius

Words of wisdom from the great Yellowdog Granny.

Texas Economy Is Still Hurting

Although the state Republican leadership would like for everyone to believe that the Texas economy is improving, there is little doubt that the state is still in the firm grip of the recession. If there's any doubt in your mind, just look at the newest sales tax figures.

According to Texas Comptroller Susan Combs (pictured), the state collected $1.46 billion in sales taxes for March of this year. That may sound like a lot of money, but all it proves is that Texas is a large state with a huge economy. That figure is actually 7.8% lower than in March of 2009, and means that the sales tax generated has been falling for more than a year now.

Combs tried to paint a rosy picture by noting that the drop in sales taxes were back in single digits now, where the year before that each month's drop had been in double digits. She says that shows the figures are tapering off as the economy improves. That is not only false, but it is more than a bit disingenuous.

She might have a point if she was comparing the last two months to months in a normal economy. But the harsh fact is that both February and March of 2009 were recession months -- not normal months. Since we are now comparing current months against other recession months, it is not a good sign that we are still experiencing revenue drops of 7.8% and more.

The sad fact is that even if we have showed a zero drop in revenue compared to March 2009, it would still mean we were double digits down from where it would be in a normal economy. The fact that it dropped another 7.8% shows the economy is still badly hurting and the state is not yet entering a recovery period.

That is no surprise, since the state has yet to start producing a significant rise in job creation. Although the state gained a few thousand jobs in the last employment report, they were just a tiny drop in the bucket when you consider the size of the Texas economy.

It almost seems like our Republican leaders think the state's economy will recover just by wishful thinking. It won't. There won't be anything like a real recovery until the employment situation makes a radical improvement. Jobless people and people afraid of losing their jobs are not going to go on a buying spree and jumpstart the economy.

Past Powering Future

Political Cartoon is by Rob Rogers in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

Homophobia Rules At Mississippi School

About a month ago, I wrote a post about how a Mississippi school board had cancelled their high school prom to avoid allowing a lesbian girl, Constance McMillen, attend the event with her girlfriend. It was breathtakingly stupid of them to do this, but I figured the matter would be ironed out once the ACLU got involved (because the girl's rights were obviously being violated by the school district). It turns out that I had underestimated the sick and dastardly homophobia of the people of Fulton, Mississippi.

The ACLU did take the Itawamba Agricultural High School to court, and the judge ruled that the school had indeed violated the student's rights. The judge stopped short of ordering the school board to have a prom with all students allowed to attend, because the attorney for the board assured the judge a private prom was planned and Miss McMillen would be allowed to attend. It looked like the problem had been settled, but the school's attorney had lied (or at least failed to tell the whole truth).

Miss McMillen was told the prom would be held at the country club, and indeed a "prom" was held there -- for seven students (including a couple of disabled students). It turns out that there had been two proms planned -- one for the unliked students like Constance and the disabled students, and another secret prom for everyone else.

The bigoted parents of the town had gone out of their way and spent extra money just to make sure their homophobic offspring didn't have to go to a prom with undesirable students like lesbians and disabled students. Frankly, I don't know how these parents and students can look at themselves in a mirror, because truly a monster would be looking back at them. How dare they do such a sick and twisted thing to high school students!

I find myself at a loss for words to describe how I feel about the students and parents of Itawamba Agricultural High School, but Badtux, the Snarky Penguin does a pretty good job of it. Here are his words:

"These inbred redneck cracker motherfuckers ain't learned a goddamned fucking thing in the past forty years. They're still the same hate-filled spiteful cocksucking bastards as always, pure festering evil masquerading as human beings, just looking for a new nigger to hate now that their old ones have given them the finger and worse. And now they found one: Gays."

(The picture above was taken at the secret prom and posted on FaceBook by some of the student homophobes. They were very proud of the trick they and their despicable parents had played on the seven students.)

Drawing The Pope

Political Cartoon is by Daryl Cagle at msnbc.com.

Republican Jesus

Found at the web site of Russ' Filtered News.

Teabaggers - Not A Broad-Based Movement

The Winston Group, a Republican polling organization, released a new poll in the last few days which said that about 40% of teabaggers are either independents or Democrats. Since the poll came out, right-wingers have jubilantly claimed this proves the teabaggers are a broad-based movement, and not just a fringe element of the conservatives. This is simply not true. What it really shows is just how small the teabagger "movement" really is.

Let us look at three polls that examined the same thing (results are pictured above). The Gallup Poll (shown in green) asked people if they supported the teabaggers. The Winston Group (shown in orange) and the CBS Poll (shown in blue) asked people if they were a part of the teabaggers.

Gallup shows that while nearly 50% of Republicans said they supported the teabaggers, only 30% of independents and only a miniscule 7% of Democrats supported the teabaggers. Put another way, 70% of independents and 93% of Democrats do NOT support the teabaggers.

CBS and Winston figures look even worse for the teabaggers. They show that only 30-35% of Republicans, 18-20% of independents and 2-5% of Democrats would identify themselves as a part of the teabaggers. That doesn't look like a broad-based movement to me, since 80% of independents and 95% of Democrats (not to mention 65% of Republicans) would not identify themselves with the teabagger group.

Frankly, this looks more like a small group that probably won't grow any larger. They are mainly made-up of conservatives and other anti-establishment types. If they join with Republicans, they might have a small effect on the coming election, but if they try to go it alone they will go down to a crushing defeat. Gallup shows that across all groups, they only have about 37% support.

Another figure from Gallup makes this very clear. It seems the teabaggers have about the same support as socialists do. While 37% of respondents had positive feelings toward teabaggers, 36% of respondents said they had positive feeling about socialists. The socialists, who the teabaggers claim to hate, are just as popular as they are.

The teabaggers are not a broad-based movement. They are a fringe group just like the socialists (although I hate to admit that). Neither group will control the next election. For the time-being at least, America is a middle-of-the-road country and the winner in November will be the party that voters identify as being in the middle.

I hope the Republicans keep on identifying themselves with the teabaggers. By doing so, they give the Democrats that middle by default, and the election.

Fighting For Nothing

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.