Local Houston Television talks to the first Black Student to attend Rice University... (VIDEO)

He also happens to be my Father. Think I should mention that?

Houston weather, traffic, news | FOX 26 | MyFoxHouston

Carina Castro's stealing the show at the Democratic National Convention (VIDEO)

This is the complete speech, but it's going to be a great thing to see his little girl in the White House one day.

President Obama Speaks to Troops at Fort Bliss, Texas (VIDEO)

President Obama's really gotten into Unit Pride. Just listen to the responses he gets when he names individual units.

How's that "Convention Reset" going, Governor Romney?? (VIDEO)

Oh. That bad.

Jonathan Chait explains the SuperCommittee Jujitsu in a way that most of us will enjoy...

My favorite bit is Hensarling's little warning to his colleagues.  I think this is the first time I've heard a Republican publicly acknowledge that they might not win the White House.

By the way, you know Chait's moved to New York Magazine, right?

Recent coverage of the supercommittee budget negotiations has trumpeted the fact that some Republicans have agreed, in theory, to increase tax revenue. But this isn’t any kind of compromise, and Democrats would be crazy to take this so-called “concession,” even if it came attached to no spending cuts at all.

The Republican offer is a response to the fact that Democrats hold all the leverage. At the end of 2012, the Bush tax cuts are scheduled to expire. If that happens, tax rates would return to Clinton-era levels, and revenue would increase by $3.7 trillion over a decade. That would solve the medium-term deficit problem without cutting a single dollar in spending.

Of course, it would also effectively hike taxes on the middle class, which Democrats oppose, or claim to oppose. But if those tax cuts expire in a way that allows Democrats to avoid the blame, they could have a win-win.

It’s the flip side of the situation they faced at the end of 2010, the last time the tax cuts were set to expire. Democrats couldn’t afford to yank the economy off life support before the 2012 elections, and so agreed to extend the cuts in exchange for extending some stimulative measures like payroll tax breaks and unemployment insurance.

Now that the tax cuts have been extended through 2012, the Democrats can afford to hang tough. They can make the election a choice between the Republican vision of keeping Bush-era tax rates on the rich and slashing retirement programs, and the Democratic vision of higher levels of retirement spending financed by higher taxes on the rich. That’s a very favorable contrast for the Democrats. And if the two parties fail to reach an agreement, the tax cuts disappear automatically. The bottom line: The expiration of the tax cuts poses a huge threat to the GOP.

Republicans understand this problem, and their offer before the supercommittee is a tactical effort to reduce the potential risk. The GOP is offering to increase tax revenue slightly above current levels – about $250 billion over a decade – in return for locking in the Bush tax cuts permanently. And they are only offering this in return for Democrats agreeing to cuts in entitlement spending and privatization of Medicare.

I’d be willing to consider a deal that cut entitlements in return for higher revenue. But the GOP deal wouldn’t produce higher revenue — it’s merely a hedge. Jake Sherman and Manu Raju report that Jeb Hensarling, an arch-conservative on the supercommittee, has made exactly this case to his colleagues:

“In a 20-minute presentation Tuesday, Hensarling told his House Republican colleagues that it was in their interest to cut a deal now since Obama could keep the White House, and Republicans should look at the proposal as avoiding a huge rate hike in 2013, when the Bush tax cuts expire. The usually rambunctious House Republican Conference gave Hensarling a standing ovation.”

Republicans are publicly framing this offer as a concession, in return for which they must get tax reform and entitlement cuts. But if Democrats really want to cut a deal, they need to demand higher tax revenue without locking in the Bush tax cuts.

It is certainly true that many House conservatives are freaking out at the supercommittee Republican offer, insisting that the party can never allow taxes to go even one cent higher under any circumstances. But this is merely the expression of the party’s anti-tax fanaticism – they are so dogmatically committed to the anti-tax cause that they won’t even buy what’s essentially an insurance policy to protect against a huge possible tax hike. The split within the GOP is not a split between anti-tax fanatics and deficit hawks. It’s a split between anti-tax fanatics who understand how to protect their interests and anti-tax fanatics who are too uncompromising to do even that.

Jed Lewinson: Governor Goodhair's not dead yet.

From the Jed Report at Daily Kos:

Rick Perry's fundraising haul for his first six weeks on the campaign trail was $17 million, almost as much as Mitt Romney raised in his first reporting period and significantly more than Romney raised over the past three months. And Maggie Haberman also reports that Perry has $15 million in cash on hand, about $2.5 million more than Mitt Romney had after his first report.

As Haberman points out, Perry's cash on hand is significant: if the campaign ends up becoming a war of attrition between Rick Perry and Mitt Romney.

...

As Kombiz Lavasany points out:

$15 million is a lot of money in IA and NH tv to remind voters that Mitt Romney has no real belief system and flip flops all the time.

TPM: Rick Perry. Ripping Gubmint with one hand. Secret Socialst with the other.

Rick Perry, eternal weasel.  Rips the Government with one hand, goes begging to Uncle Sugar (aka President Obama) with the other.  Now that he's gt his money, it's all smiles.

For about five minutes:

Today the President called Texas Governor Rick Perry to express his concern for citizens of Texas impacted by the unprecedented fires. During the call the President extended his condolences for the lives that have been lost as a result of these events, and made clear that the federal government, through DHS/FEMA and the U.S. Forest Service, will continue to make federal assistance available to state and local officials as they fight the fires. The President also assured the Governor that requests for additional assistance, including as recovery begins, would be quickly assessed. Following the call, the President directed his national security staff to continue to work closely with FEMA, the Forest Service and the State of Texas to ensure we were making all resources available. Over the last several days, at the request of the Governor, the Administration has granted eight Fire Management Assistance Grants, making federal funds available to reimburse eligible costs associated with efforts to combat the fires. FEMA is actively working with state and local officials to conduct damage assessments and to identify areas where additional federal assistance may be warranted.

Let's count the number of times Rick Perry calls President Obama dangerously out of touch and foreign at tonight's GOP Debate.

President Obama vs. Rick Perry boiled down to this 2 minute clip from the West Wing... (VIDEO)

"Oh my God...they'd make him live in Houston..." (VIDEO)

The Colbert Report
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Stephen Colbert goes after my Dad's favorite Governor...Rick Perry! (VIDEO)

...and by "favorite", I mean, my Father will for the first time in his life give a max-out donation to any Presidential Candidate, namely Barack Obama, to make sure Rick Perry is not only defeated, but embarrassed in the coming 2012 election.

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May not be 100% safe for work. View at your discretion.

My Dad, a lifelong Democrat and unapologetic Liberal, is going to see that headline (he gets an Email subscription to this blog, after all), and demand I take it down. He don't want to be confused with a Republican...ever.

Only a local Texas TV Reporter can make President Obama this mad... (VIDEO)

As an RTVF Major, I can tell the cheats and the dodges used in any piece of film. For example, if say...you were a douchebag interviewer from a local TV Station from Texas, who got a seven minute sit down with the President of the freakin' United States, and said reporter were to spend most of the interview paraphrasing what the President said...then you edited the hell out of the interview to a ridiculous degree.

Swear to god, there's more voice-over from the Reporter than back and forth with the Commander in Chief.

You can see it through the course of the interview, the President getting madder and madder. (He tell is that his smile fades away, and his answers get very short and clipped.)

Just watch, at the end there the President quietly asks that next time, he be allowed to finish his answers. And of course, the douchebag makes sure he leaves it in.



It's true the President ummms and aahhs a lot. That's because he doesn't like to speak without thinking through his answer first. Unfortunately, the President will eat up a lot of your allotted time doing that. So I'll admit some editing is necessary, but the degree to which this guy took the scissors to the tape bordered on unprofessional.

TPM: Rep. Ron Paul: "Education is Not a Right" (VIDEO)

You can vote for who you want to, but this is who you're dealing with:

No one has a right to anyone's wealth, I don't have a right to come to you and say my poor kid needs 500 dollars for an education, an education is not a right, medical care is not a right.

-Ron Paul

Today

How Rick Perry is going to let party and ideology screw up an honest-to-God sweetheart deal for Texas...

...as only Rick Perry can.

First off, blogging from Houston, Texas, site of the Family's Thanksgiving celebration. It's hot and its humid, but at least I was patted down by a TSA Agent. (Travel Tip #235: Sweatshirts aren't that good an idea for Air Travel anymore).

Anyway, I get to Houston (euuuhhh), and suddenly Rick Perry, the newly re-elected God-Emperor of Texas, is talking about opting out of Medicaid.

Ezra Klein explains why that's a monumentally stoopid idea:

Consider the case of Texas, which with 25 percent uninsured, leads the nation in not providing for its residents. If the state pulls out of Medicaid, as Gov. Rick Perry (R) is suggesting, that would put it at 40 percent uninsured, as Medicaid covers 15 percent of the state. Texas might try some other form of coverage, but it will have lost hundreds of millions of dollars of federal funding. You can occasionally do less with more, but when you have a lot less, you generally just do less. Whatever the state tried next would cover fewer people with less-comprehensive insurance, and it's a safe bet that the rate of uninsured would ultimately settle above 30 percent. Some legacy.

Conversely, if Perry does nothing, the federal government is going to come in and pick up most of the cost of a massive coverage expansion. Texas, in fact, will be one of the biggest winners from health-care reform, as its huge pool of uninsured residents means the state will get an uncommonly large amount of subsidies to bring that down to manageable levels. Texas "can expect to see Medicaid enrollment rise by 46 percent while state spending on Medicaid rises by about 3 percent.” Pretty good deal.

But remember a little thing about today's Republican Party, this from Andrew Sullivan (but originally caught by Greg Sargent):

We have in the current GOP a truly disturbing and cynical view of politics: there is nothing but party and ideology and the former is a vehicle solely for power to enact the other. The zero GOP votes for a stimulus package in the middle of the fastest downturn since the 1930s that was one-third tax cuts tells you all you need to know. And the Republican adoption of utopian, John Birch fantasies about rolling back the legacy of Woodrow Wilson makes any sane engagement with this party impossible. It is no longer run by anyone in Congress, but directed by talk radio, Fox News, Sarah Palin's Twitter account and Manichean ranters like radio host Mike Levin. If any government action is regarded as tyranny, then there is never any way to compromise. The fundamental problem lies with a deranged, ideological and dangerous opposition in a system designed to forge pragmatic compromise.

Knowing that, what do you think Rick Perry is going to do?

Once again, do you really want to make the argument that the Tea Party isn't racist?!??

Thanks, Houston (via TPM):

A group trying to register voters in Houston received threats and emails containing racist slurs after being targeted by a local tea party group accusing it of "voter fraud."

In emails obtained by TPM, the group Houston Votes was accused of being "a bunch of white guilt ridden assholes, NIGGERS and greasy mexican spics," "fraudulent Marxist pigs," and "American hating A-holes."

"We received a couple of threats and several harassing e-mails," Maureen Haver of Houston Voters told TPMMuckraker. "There have been several efforts, I think, just trying to race-bait and stir racial tension and part of that I think is just based on what we've received in messaging from them."

"It's really had a chilling effect on our office," said Haver, adding that one of the e-mails was reported to the FBI.

I accept the Washington Post's apology.

The Courage Campaign wants to get our thank-yous out to Joel Burns of Fort Worth, Texas

The Courage Campaign is a progressive group out here in California. They're collecting "thank you" notes for Mr. Joel Burns of Fort Worth, Texas, who made a speeech before the City Council, imploring Gay Teens to seek help when they need it, and assuring them "It'll get better".

Anyway, to send Mr. Burns your regards, click here.

Texas. The state where they don't know their own flag. (VIDEO)

Here I was, justifiably praising Joel Burns (from Fort Worth) for his emotional speech at a City Council Meeting last night, when Texas decides to be...well, Texas.



Only Texas, can beat its own chest about how much better they are than every other state, and still not get their own flag right.

Joel Burns of Fort Worth, Texas. We need more Americans like him. (VIDEO)

Too often, we get stuck in a trap that defines heroism in terms that are bigger than life. But most times, heroism is far smaller. It involves someone standing up for his neighbor, speaking out for an unpopular stance, or for an unwanted minority. Sometimes, it even involves laying bare your own painful past, reaching out to someone who's hurting and assuring them it will get better.

The following video is a short speech given at a Fort Worth City Council Meeting (I know, Texas!), and whether you're gay or straight, it's worth 13 minutes of your time.



And that West Texas crowd stood up and applauded him, too. Will wonders never cease.

Hat tip to Andrew Sullivan, who's having a good day today.

My Dad used to keep a card in his office that designated it as a "safe place" for Gay and Lesbian students. I was amazed that a Math Professor need to show a sign like that. But this is why this was important. This is why even small gestures matters.


Update: 11:37am, Pacific: In case you want the 180 degree opposite viewpoint, we have the first part of this interview from The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell:

Did someone in Texas just save a bunch of lives with his skateboard??!?

Well, never mind the fact that Washington beat Dallas 13-7 last night. (I don't care how ugly it was, a win is a win; and a win against the Cowboys is extra sweet!)

But, a Texas Skateboarder in Amarillo just stood up for America in a way that...frankly brings a tear to my eye.

I know, a Texan!

In Amarillo, Texas, David Grisham, director of Repent Amarillo, “which aims to deter promiscuity, homosexuality and non-Christian worship practices through confrontation and prayer,” planned to burn the Islamic holy text at a public gathering. But before he could set the book ablaze, a 23 year-old skateboarder named Jacob Isom swooped in and grabbed it:

A planned Quran burning Saturday in Amarillo was thwarted by a 23-year-old carrying a skateboard and wearing a T-shirt with “I’m in Repent Amarillo No Joke” scrawled by hand on the back.

Jacob Isom, 23, grabbed David Grisham’s Quran when he became distracted while arguing with several residents at Sam Houston Park about the merits of burning the Islamic holy book. “You’re just trying to start Holy Wars,” Isom said of Grisham after he gave the book to a religious leader from the Islamic Center of Amarillo.

A TEXAN!!!!

Good for him. He's one of my nominees for American of the Year.

Unimpressed...Part 3

First Gays, then Blacks, now Latinos:

[Rep. Ciro] Rodriguez's (D-TX, believe it or not) spokesperson, Rebeca Chapa, gets in touch to say that he was slammed as a “wetback” by an anti-reform protestor at a town meeting this week.

And another opponent called Rodriguez’ home and told the family member who answered to “go back to Mexico.”

The Fireside chat for November 14, 2009

The President looks back at a week where we honored those who serve on Veterans Day, and mourned those we lost at Fort Hood. He discusses the review he has ordered into the Fort Hood incident, and pledges to stand by our servicemen and women, as well as our veterans, as his most profound responsibility.