It's something we touched on in the episode of HUST FM below (and mixied it up with a certain Statesman columnist over), but it's positively exploded across the blogosphere in in the last few days: the unhinged hate emerging from the McCain/Palin rallies. We all know what Godwin's Law has to say on the subject, but a certain uncomfortable comparison is fast becoming inevitable, especially when a major party candidate is squarely laying the blame for all their supporters problems at the feet of an alien other. There's been plenty of disgusting, us-versus-them identity politics in Republican campaigns before shit, it's practically all their campaigns are run-on but the degree of bile emerging from these rallies ("Traitor! Terrorist! Kill him!") is truly jaw dropping.
Here's just a sampling of the thought out there on this:
In one hour from this posting (at 8pm), Democratic challenger Rick Noriega will be debating incumbent Republican U.S. Senator John Cornyn on public television, shown locally on KLRU-TV.
Frankly, given his lack of name ID and lack of funds to create any name ID, I don't think there is anything he can do to defeat Cornyn. Still, the latest poll showed him at 43% support, only seven points away from Cornyn. So maybe
Given that slim bit of hope, I think there are two main things he needs to do to capitalize on tonight's debate (and the next one, held one week from today):
1. Don't have that deer-caught-in-the-headlights look that he so often has when he gets asked challenging questions. I certainly hope he has really worked hard on the debate prep for all eventualities.
2. Hammer Cornyn hard on his support for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. Congress may have been sold on it, but the public hasn't. Cornyn has opened up a window of vulnerability.
That said, I'm afraid this really isn't that big an opportunity for Noriega. Unlike the zillions who watch presidential debates (shown on multiple channels), I'm afraid there won't be but about 10 people watching a Senate debate on public television. Which is unfortunate, because getting a veto-proof Democratic majority in the Senate could be crucial to Obama having a successful presidency. (EDIT: Oh, duh, I'm an idiot. What I obviously meant to say is that the Dems would need a veto-proof majority in the event of a McCain presidency.)
Over the airwaves, KLRU is on channel 18. On cable (Time Warner or Grande), it's on channel 9.
U.S. Senate candidates Rick Noriega and John Cornyn spar tonight at 8pm in a televised debate. Austinites may see the debate on KLRU-TV (Cable channel 9, airwaves channel 18). Over the Internet, it may be heard at kut.org.
Noriega is a Democrat and state representative from Houston. Cornyn, a Republican, is a first-term incumbent.
That's right the Hustle is here, Audio ChronCast style, blowin' up the spot like Bill Ayers! Above is the first episode of HUST FM, a political discussion between yours truly, Wells Dunbar, and Hustle co-creator, Mike B. We're hustling on the highway, behind the mighty wheel of Mike's '97 Ford Expedition, on the way to edit the latest edition of Hail to the Hustle. (Hey, if you wanna help HUST FM go green, we'll take a hybrid.) The debate is on our mind, along with the racist, xenophobic, and anti-intellectual agit-prop increasingly gurgling up from the right. Below, links to several of the topics we discuss:
Dan Grant campaigning on primary election day back in May
photo by Lee Nichols
Perhaps moved by the spirit of the Clintons, Dan Grant, a former Democratic candidate for Congressional District 10, has finally broken his silence on endorsing his primary opponent, Larry Joe Doherty.
Trial lawyer Doherty is challenging two-term Republican incumbent Michael McCaul in the district that Tom DeLay's gerrymander sent sprawling all the way from Austin to Houston.
In the midst of the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression, Larry Joe Doherty wants to turn the page and Mike McCaul wants to laminate it," said Grant.
In the May primary, Grant took 33,072 votes (39%) to Doherty's 51,977 (61%).
OHAN's October meeting will be a candidate forum on Wednesday, October 8th at 7pm.
Oak Hill Association of Neighborhoods (OHAN) invites you to attend its 2008 Fall Candidate Forum on Wednesday, October 8, at 7:00 p.m. in the Flamenco Room of Segovia Spanish Restaurant [7010 Hwy 71 W (at the "Y" in Oak Hill), Austin 78735 www.segoviaaustin.com. The Candidate Forum will be preceded by a meet-and-greet opportunity from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. The forum will run from 7:00 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. and be followed by a Mix-and-Mingle that will wrap up at 9 p.m.
Candidates participating in the Forum will be for the offices of State Representative District 47, Travis County Commissioner Precinct 3, and Travis County Constable Precinct 3. All candidates are asked to prepare three minutes of opening. These will be followed by a session in which candidates will be posed with questions collected in advance from the public. A moderator will run the program.
No, it's nothing the longtime Statesman columnist wrote himself. But here's a question: faced with an inbox full of stereotypical, racist drivel, what writer worth his salt would decide to publish the epithets instead of sending them to the trash?
Apparently John Kelso.
Kelso's column today, "Counterpunch to light jabs at Palin: racist responses" hopes to inoculate itself from criticism by calling the quotes he uses "the worst in people," and ostensibly offering it as a heads-up. Well, sorry John, there's ample evidence out there of the growing racial animosity directed at Obama as his lead builds. We don't need any more pathetic examples. Which really leaves no excuse for Kelso and the Statesman to put this anonymous drool in print:
"Let's talk about Obama, and chitlin' and collard greens in every pot. National barbecue pit. And maybe we could have a watermelon thump and seed spitting contest on the South Lawn."
Or this remark, sent to Kelso from a one Timothy Shanley, 48:
"Will there be bar b-q and old Cadillacs on milk crates, with the musical stylings of Tupac or 50 Cent keeping the neighbors up? I would rather have log rolling than blunt rolling on the South Lawn."
The author himself describes the above as "racist." There's absolutely nothing newsworthy about these comments. So why in the world were they published? (One reason that comes to mind: Kelso's a monumentally lazy writer.)
If you hadn't noticed, there's a bit of a presidential debate tonight, so unless you were planning to watch with your shoes off and your hand in your pants, a la Al Bundy, there's a couple of watching party options (not including the Alamo Dratfthouse South Lamar, who'll be having their own bash on multiple screens.)
The big one is the Travis County Democratic Party's big screen presentation at the Long Center. The evening will kick off at 5.45pm with an event for retiring Judges Margaret Cooper and Jeanne Meurer in the Kodosky Lounge. However, expect everyone to bail early to grab some the good seats for the big debate watch in the Michael and Susan Dell Hall. Fancy-schmancy.
Burnt Orange Report-er Matt Glazer explained it would be a nice option, so put your best dress pants on: not least because Jimmie Dale Gilmore will be performing and there'll be a very special guest in the form of LBJ's daughter and Luci Baines Johnson in attendence (sigh. Remember the happy days when Texas produced presidents that believed in signing civi rights legislation?) For the more informally dressed or big fans of brisket, Texans for Obama have booked out Scholz Garten again
For our GOP readers, the Travis County Republican Party will be having their shindig at
Annie's West at 706 W. Sixth.
Austin Police and other public officials will get down with neighbors from across Austin tonight for the 25th National Night Out.
APD Chief Art Acevedo, public officials and community activists want YOU to join them tonight for a Night Out kick-off party at the Turner/Roberts Recreation Center, 7201 Colony Loop Drive, from 5-7pm.
Following the kick-off, city officials will visit Night Out shindigs at the Rosewood Rec Cetner (at 6:45p), 1182 Pleasant Valey Rd.; Austin Community College Riverside Campus, Bldg. A (at 7:15p), 1020 Grove Blvd.; and at 4811 Allison Cover (at 7:45p).
National Night Out (elsewhere held in August, when, in Austin, its really not so much fun hanging with your neighbors out on the street) encourages neighbors to get outside and get together to generate support for and awareness of crime prevention efforts.
It's October, which means that the nine members of the U.S. Supreme Court have dusted off their robes and are heading back to the court room for a few months of work.
First up on the docket today, Oct. 6 the opening day of their October 2008 term was a drug case, but regarding the legal kind, that is: cigarettes. (The question there, in case you're curious, is whether state-law challenges to descriptions of "light" cigarettes that they contain less tar and, thus, are perhaps less damaging, for example that were authorized by the Federal Trade Commission are thus pre-empted by federal law. Sounds technical, sure, and perhaps boring, but the outcome could effect the ability of states to enforce their deceptive trade practices laws.)
But just this first day will pass before the Supremes get down to considering the drug war, with two cases that will ask them to weigh in on the Fourth Amendment and limits of police search powers.
In the first case, Arizona v. Gant, the court will have to decide whether a warrantless search of a car, made after the occupant was arrested and in handcuffs, violates the constitutional protection against unreasonable search and seizure. In the second case, Herring v. U.S., the court will have to decide if it is a violation of a defendant's Fourth Amendment rights to use evidence obtained by one police agency during a search that was based on erroneous information provided by another law enforcement agency.
Stay tuned to Reefer Madness for more on these two cases.
On Friday, City Manager Marc Ott announced the eight finalists for the top job at the Austin Fire Dept., five months after former Chief J.J. Adame resigned the job. (Adame had been in the hot seat since March, when he received a less than stellar job performance evaluation. He came to Austin from Corpus Christi in 2006.)
The list of eight honed from 38 total applicants, according to firefighterhourly.com quickly became a list of seven after Longview Chief Michael Pruitt withdrew his name.
The remaining finalists come from across the country, with just two plucked from Texas departments: Randy Bruegman, Fresno, Calif., chief; Jimmie R. Bryant, chief in Monroe, La.; Niles Ford, chief of Lincoln, Neb., Fire and Rescue; Richard Garcia, deputy chief of Fire and Rescue support services in Las Vegas; Noel Horan, assistant chief in San Antonio; Rhoda Mae Kerr, chief of the Little Rock, Ark., FD; and Raul Reyes, chief of the Greenville, Texas FD.
The remaining candidates will be interviewed by local officials and a group of City Hall-selected community members, and then will host Austin city officials who will visit them on their home turf for a little look-see a process not unlike that which last year brought us our new top cop, APD Chief Art Acevedo.
Publicly, at least, Ott seems rosy about process thus far, and the challenge facing the finalists: "The Austin Fire Department has proven itself one of the leading departments in the nation," he said in a press release. "These candidates know that they will be expected to uphold its traditions of fire safety effectiveness and community responsiveness."
The over-the-weekend announcement from the John McCain campaign that the gloves are off between him and Barack Obama (what, so practically accusing Obama of wanting to molest your kids is just beanbag?) has already reaped odious rewards see the media attention lavished on Sarah Palin's ignominious announcement that Obama's taken to "palling around with terrorists," a reference to his acquaintance with Bill Ayers, former member of the Weather Underground, a radical group that did some bombings back when Obama was eight years old. But Ayers and others, like former pastor Jeremiah Wright, are old hat. These names were gurgling up back during the Dem primary and look how that turned out. But there's one name that hasn't really surfaced yet one that unquestionably speaks to a candidates darkest, most shameful moment in his career. That candidate, however, is John McCain, and that name is Charles Keating.
Keating oversaw the Lincoln Savings and Loan back in the 1980s, and like our current financial crisis, he used his customers' investments to bet on risky financial instruments that ultimately went belly up. The non-FDIC insured deposits were lost, wiping out tens of thousands of accounts, and costing the taxpayers billions. Again, like today, deregulation was responsible for the horrible financial mess and it was John McCain who advocated for less and less oversight of his pal, investment partner, and donor Keating.
Sure, I could lay it out more for you, but Obama can do it better. Over the weekend, he launched KeatingEconomics.com, which witheringly lays out McCain's intervention on Keating's behalf. This is a dark page in McCain's career that he'd prefer to turn. But if McCain's talking about Obama's distant associates, can't Obama talk about Keating, who flew McCain on his private jet nine times, donated $166,000 to his campaign, and whose greed and shoddy accounting directly parallels our current market meltdown?
Here's a trailer for the Keating documentary Obama's assembled:
An quick addenda to the below post about today being last day of voter registration. Our friends at Burnt Orange Report have a handy Google Map displaying locations that are open until midnight tonight to accept your registration. Blockbuster Video and Thundercloud Subs locations are open late until the midnight cutoff, plus Guero's, Freebirds Hancock Center location, Clementine Coffee Bar and other establishments, so you have no excuse to get registered if you aren't already. Whether you're registering to vote for Obama, or to pull the lever against McCain, now's the last chance to register if you haven't already.
