We all know or know of Hillary Clinton women supporters saying that they won't vote for Barack Obama under any circumstances. Never mind that John McCain wants to overturn Roe v. Wade, never mind that he called his wife an obscene name in public, never mind that he left his crippled first wife to marry a wealthy younger woman. McCain didn't do the unforgivable, namely derailing the Hillary juggernaut. Slate's Dahlia Lithwick calls these women "Hillary Harridans," and argues that they hold feminism up to ridicule...
Clinton diehard have formed the unfortunately named PUMA (as in cougar) pac...
"Let's see, I think it's...no...that wouldn't be right...four, seven maybe...I'll have to get back to you on this one." Man-of-the-people John McCain doesn't know exactly how many homes he has...
Supporting the troops can get you fired. Just another example of the gaping chasm between reality and an empty slogan...
Wish I Were There Dept: The James Burton International Guitar Festival starts tomorrow in Shreveport. You may not know the name of James Burton, but chances are that you've heard him. In a career dating back to the Fifties, he's played for Elvis (Presley and Costello), the Everly Brothers, Merle Haggard, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Ricky Nelson, Emmylou Harris, John Denver, and even The Monkees. Among others, that is...
R. I. P., Danny Young. Every now and then, fortune graces the world with someone whose existence makes it a better place, who makes every life he touches the better for it. I've been proud to count Danny Young among my friends since since I went to work for him 34 years ago. (Three of my four brothers followed.) "The Mayor Of South Austin" died yesterday at age 67, leaving a lifetime of good will behind. Danny was a restauranteur, a community activist, a musician, a tireless booster of South Austin and Austin music, and terrific friend. A few years ago, he helped T.'s son with a school project simply because I asked him to. His restaurant had a picture of my then one-year old son poking his head through the door from the day it opened until the day Danny retired. He was always glad to see you. Read more about the life of this wonderful human being here and here. And don't miss Danny playing rub board for the Cornell Hurd Band, shown here performing in the parking lot of Texicalli Grille, Danny's restaurant and the hub of South Austin:
I'm back from a couple of days in Austin, where I visited friends and attended Danny Young's memorial service. The downtown church filled with the friends of a life more than well-spent. A couple of Danny's favorite songs (Dylan's "When The Deal Goes Down" and Ernest Tubb's "Waltz Across Texas") opened and closed the service, which also included singings of "Danny Boy" and "I'll Fly Away." Neighbors, colleagues, ministers, and his grand children read moving tributes, and we all sang "Amazing Grace." Readings included two of Danny's favorites, Matthew 25: 34-40 and Matthew 5: 14-16. If anything could sum up the man, it's these: The light of the world giving to the least of his brothers with a huge smile and a bear hug. The reception at Antone's overflowed, exceeding fire marshall limits. Today, Michael Corcoran of the Austin American-Statesman selected lines and phrases from the on-line tributes and reminiscences and assembled this poem...
Not only did I reunite with old friends, I met a new one: PWALLY (a.k.a. Hrrmph!) met Cafe Nita Lou and I for lunch. We had a great time. It's terrific to think of this skein of blog friendships being formed and forged...
Otherwise, I ate at some good old Austin restaurants -- Guero's, Artz Rib House, and Threadgill's (meat loaf, spinach casserole, yam fries, and pecan pie for lunch) -- and picked up Fonda San Miguel's beautiful new cookbook for Premium T....
I will try to blog during the speech tonight. So far, it's been a good convention. Hillary Clinton really came through. Her recital of the people she's met on the campaign followed by the challenge to her supporters -- "Were you voting for me or for them?" -- has been the rhetorical highlight of the convention. Plus, her "keep it going" mantra was a diplomatic and effective way of delivering the "move on" message. For all of the talk about tensions on the floor and Hillary's most dedicated supporters voting for McCain, neither are actually much in evidence...
Let's face it, this is the real problem facing not only Obama, but the whole country: "Race is a tool that is used to divide working people." It has been since the cursed introduction of slavery to American shores, and there's no reason to think it will stop now...
elsestsp: Else's Teaspoon. Reference unclear. Thought to be the quantity of "or else" administered to anyone crossing their mother.
fartines: Bean-based soda crackers.
flument: A virus intended for another person but that infected you instead.
frool: 1. What you are if you drool in public. 2. The involuntary expectoration of a male of the species completely bewitched by a female of the species.
gratorsa: Latin: Being thankful for the body you have.
iache: Def: 1. A sore ego. 2. iPod induced tinnitus. 3. Archaic: Any wound inflicted by Iago or an Iago-like person.
mootion: Cow-etry in motion.
olest: Not as bad as "molest," but the next worst thing.
puzzlia: 1. Brain cramp caused by the Saturday New York Times crossword puzzle. 2. Proper noun: A city in the land of Baffledom.
retyll: Archaic English form of "retail." See Chaucer, "The Merchant's Tale."
soymethi: Organic form of Greek crystal meth.
visorath: Rage of the Visigoths.
An incredulous Campbell Brown shreds Bush's claim that the government responded quickly to Hurricane Katrina:
The Mahalia Jackson Theatre for the Performing Arts reopens this weekend. At one time, the Katrina damage to the theatre was thought to so extensive as to render the theatre a total loss. Here, Mahalia Jackson sings her overwhelming version of "We Shall Overcome:"
"Waterboarding is torture." So testified Attorney General nominee Eric Holder in as clear and unambiguous a statement as anyone could want. It's sad that something so obvious took so long for someone in an official position to recognize. There may be no greater indictment of the Bush Administration's cynicism than its continual claims that it was not pursuing torture as a policy...
Danny Barker (1909-1994) was a tireless torch bearer of the unique culture of his home town. Barker's long career spans much of the history of Jazz; he had tap danced in infamous Storyville and later migrated to New York where he performed on more than 1000 recordings with such diverse artists as Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Charlie Parker, Lena Horne and his talented wife Blue Lu Barker. Danny's work with young talent in the creation of the Fairview Baptist Church Band was pivotal in the brass band revival of New Orleans in the 1980s that still flourishes today...
Check out Danny's version of "Saint James Infirmary:"
Twenty-six years after the release of "Born in the USA," Glenn (Mr. Cool) Beck has discovered that the Bruce Springsteen epic is not the patriotic anthem he had supposed it to be for over half of his life. A stunned Beck has awakened to the cold reality that BUSA criticizes the treatment of young men used as cannon fodder and then cast aside when they return home from war. After revealing that "This Land Is Your Land" is also unpatriotic, a dazed and disillusioned Beck robotically recites the lyrics to BUSA, then shakes his head sorrowfully over the solace they must bring to Cuba and the "Soviet bloc."
All of which begs the following questions:
Mr. Beck, is it untrue that some young men from dead end towns enlisted in the Army and went to Vietnam?
Mr. Beck, is it also untrue that some young men chose the military as an alternative to jail?
Mr. Beck, is it untrue that many of them lost buddies in battle, and that said buddies often had Vietnamese girlfriends?
Mr. Beck, is it untrue that these men returned home to a country that largely turned its back on them?
Mr. Beck, is it unpatriotic of Mr. Springsteen to point out these realities and lament them? Put another way, is it wrong to say that we can do better by the young people we ask to die for us? If so, why?
Mr. Beck, why is it unpatriotic of Mr. Springsteen to point out national flaws, but o.k. for you and the teabaggers to do the same?
Texas Board of Education Blues: I read this and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. I love Texas. The music is sensational. All of the people are like no one you'll ever meet in your life, and that's true in a positive sense for many of them. I have lifelong friends there. I identify with it more than any place I've lived. But if my kids were in Texas schools, I'd feel obligated to go over every assigned reading with them and point out the errors: "That's wrong. That's wrong. That's misleading. That's sort of right but incomplete. The correct term is 'capitalism,' not 'the free enterprise system.' And God is a matter of faith, not of fact, but don't tell anyone at school that I said so."
Board member David Bradley, who apparently derives his expertise in the Constitution from his work selling insurance and real estate, rides tall in the saddle and bravely asserts that
I reject the notion by the left of a constitutional separation of church and state. I have $1,000 for the charity of your choice if you can find it in the Constitution.
Well, no one has ever said that words "separation of church and state" are in the Constitution. But the establishment clause of the First Amendment states plainly that "Congress shall make no law regarding the establishment of religion." Thomas Jefferson, a reasonably intelligent if not especially religious man, wrote that establishment clause created "a wall of separation between church and State." James Madison also referred to the "total separation between church and state." In 1947, Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black used Jefferson's words to argue that the
establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment means at least this: Neither a state nor the federal government can set up a church.
In other words, the plain wording of the establishment clause and over 200 years of commentary, scholarship, and court opinions say that the Constitution means exactly what David Bradley says it does not: That there is a wall of separation between church and state.
Meanwhile, board member Don McLeroy insists that textbooks include vote tallies for 1960s civil rights legislation, smugly claiming that "Republicans need a little credit for that. I think it’s going to surprise some students." Now, it's true that many Republicans voted for the 1964 Civil Rights Act and 1965 Voting Rights Act. It's also true that no southern Republican supported either bill, and that the '64 bill was weakened to attract Republican support. As for the Voting Rights Act, President Lyndon Johnson introduced it within a week after the first Selma march, when few non-southern politicians of any stripe cared to be identified with fire hoses and police dogs loosed on peaceful marchers.
Moreover, inclusion of the vote tallies without interpretation implies that the Republican party of today is the same as it was 45 years ago, when it actually had room for social moderates and even out-and-out liberals. The vote for civil rights legislation legislation fell largely along ideological lines, with liberals and moderates of either party supporting it and conservatives of either party opposing it. Today's conservatives would deride the Republicans who voted for the civil rights bills as RINOs. You think that will make it into the textbooks?...
Danny Westneat discovers that health insurance premiums are skyrocketing more and faster than the MSM has reported. And that's in shadow of health care reform. What do you think would happen if the Republicans were ever to get their way and allow insurance companies to sell from the most poorly regulated states?...
Concerned that his bitter critique had been co-opted, Springsteen often performs a slashing, deconstructed acoustic arrangement that stressed the anger of the lyrics:
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