Well whaddya know?

A Federal Judge struck down the ban that that voted into law in 2005 (I believe), that doubly-tripley (Maddow voice) banned same-sex marriages that were already illegal. The dominoes are falling. This thing will be held up in the courts for month, but I really think it's only a matter of time.

The decision prompted this hilarious typo (Tweepo?) by one of the right-wingers running for higher office. It was fun while it lasted, he has since corrected himself. Ha ha!!

Wendy's Theme

Local band Bright Light Social Hour happened to be at the big Citizen's Filibuster event where the awesome Wendy Davis spoke for 11 hours, on-topic, with being allowed food, bathroom breaks, or even leaning on something -- and they made a music video based on the chants.

You can get a free download of the music here on SoundCloud.

Makes me very proud.

Spread it around if you like it.

Sad, sad people

A bad case of the "Mondays" on a Tuesday night. Have a cheery little party. Maybe the Koch Brothers will buy you a drink, even though they were not able to purchase a President.

Together With McGovern

I am very saddened to hear that Senator George McGovern is nearing the end of his life and may be gone by the time I write this. I have always been a great admirer of his. I had lived through the assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy (two of my childhood heroes) in the 1960s, and realized the height of ugliness that politics and power spawns. I opposed the VietNam war and wondered if there was any chance that reason and sanity would ever prevail in this country.

Back in 1972, when I was a young woman/girl I still had idealism and hope when it came to politics. McGovern was intelligent, was not born privileged, and had such a big heart too. He wanted to help the poor and hungry, and wanted to end the war. He was a true liberal.

I was living in southern Illinois at the time, in the college town of Carbondale, and because of the student population there, McGovern was quite popular. I volunteered to help with his campaign, which meant all manner of things, but mostly just calling lists of people on the phone to make a pitch for him and get out the vote. The part of it that was really fun was the comraderie of the group, and the fact that he made a campaign stop in a little, tiny airport in that area. We all got to meet him and get handshakes and autographs. The part of it that was not fun was when they put us on a bus and sent us 80 miles to the west, to Belleville, so that we could call people up there. I know this is hard to imagine now, but that's the only way it could be done with our landline phones to avoid long-distance charges. What a wake-up call it was for me. Belleville was a more typical small midwestern town, very unlike Carbondale. It was actually pretty conservative, and the constant flow of telephone rejection I experienced was unbelievable.

On election night, McGovern was badly defeated by President Richard Nixon, the people chose Nixon, who resigned in disgrace and scandal a couple of years later.

I was soured on politics after that experience. I seriously doubt that a liberal can be elected to President of the United States, or even be the nominee (sorry Kucinich). The Democrats don't want another ass-whupping ala 1972. Obama is not a liberal, never was, and never claimed to be (neither was Hillary, for that matter). He is a solid moderate. I am voting for him and supporting him - not because I agree with all his views or actions, some I do and some I don't - but mainly because voting for Obama is the ONLY way to prevent President Romney (and Vice President Ryan) from becoming the new leaders of the free world. Embrace that little nightmare for a moment or two. It could happen, it really could. President Romney... soak it in...

Everybody please VOTE in November. Vote your conscience, your heart, your head, your attitude... just do it... even if the Presidential candidates don't grab you, vote for your legislators, your school board, propositions, bonds, judges, the dogcatcher. I don't call people on the phone to canvass or campaign, but I put signs in the yard, stickers on my car, and I go to the polls every time there's something to be voted on.

George McGovern wikipedia

DailyShow-worthy headline!!

An actual screen-grab from the Huffington Post today. It was inspired and irresistible for the writers, I'm sure.

And in other news, this actually relating to The Daily Show and Colbert, looks like the satellite/cable wars are going to prevent online streaming of my 2 favorite shows for awhile. That's how I watch them (during my lunch break) so now I guess I'll have to squeeze in more TV time during the evening. Not sure I have that extra hour. Grrrrr. Thankfully it's supposed to be temporary (wonder if hulu will still have them?)

I'm Too Old For This

I'm Too Old For This - Christopher Cross and Van Wilks, a soundtrack very appropriate for this post.


I almost feel as though I should apologize for the almost complete lack of political posts lately here at the Oasis. I'm not out of touch with it, I keep up with the goings-on, but I am so disgusted and tired of it by days-end. The knockout punch came this week when early voting began for the Texas primaries and I discovered that we have been the victim of the redistricting fiasco - and we are not longer living in Rep. Lloyd Doggett's district. For the first time in my life, I had a Congressperson who truly represented my views. The only (D) running against whoever with be the GOP candidate is named Elaine Henderson. I have never heard of her. She does not seem to have a published website yet, and her Facebook presence is very sparse. I ran across this very short bio but so far cannot detect any signs of a campaign. [sigh]

We had a bit of a rough time since the beginning of May. My back was feeling stiff so I tried to stretch it this way and that - obviously I waaaay overdid it because I sprained it. Pain, pain, pain. The doctor gave me some meds, a muscle relaxer and a pain killer, so I wasted quite a few days away in pain and foggy brain. While that was going on, MrB fell off his bicycle and got some bruised ribs and generally very painful midsection - so there we were - both applying ice and heat and swallowing those foggy pills.

On Friday night, we missed a planned concert because of that, but did go out Saturday for a great show. It was Van Wilks birthday party show, with Carson Brock opening, and special guests Eric Johnson, Christopher Cross and Dave Sebree (Dave runs the Austin School of Music and rarely plays solo, but he is one hell of a guitar player). The video at the top of the post is from that show, and so is the following pretty instrumental. We could all use a little beauty, it sure can overwhelm all the ugliness.

Rainy Day in Vancouver - Christopher Cross, Eric Johnson, Van Wilks

A refreshing and unusual campaign ad

That's Lee Leffingwell, our current Mayor, singing in the shower and running for re-election. The guy in bed is our previous Mayor, Will Wynn. Don't you wish all political ads were this much fun?

Leffingwell is pretty liberal (as are the previous Mayor and pretty much the rest of City Council, FWIW) and I like him. He has a challenger, Brigid Shea, who also seems like a good choice to me. I don't know that much about her yet, other than she is a strong environmental activist.

Still deciding...


Ferris Bueller's Day Off seems to be a favorite movie of several famous folks, including Dan Quayle, Justin Timberlake, and Wolf Blitzer.

Booker 2016

Mayor Cory Booker Responds to Question about NJ Marriage Equality Referendum

I love the brain, the heart, and the pure old common sense, tell-it-like-it-is approach of this man.

Marriage equality is a simple civil rights issue. Civil rights shouldn't be left up to a popular vote. That's not how things are supposed to work in this country.

Pink Stink

Boycotting Susan G. Komen for the Cure over this latest dickish political move of ending their partnership with Planned Parenthood? Yeah, same here. I've been boycotting them already for awhile over previous issues.

Pinkwashing
Corporations whose products are unhealthy can participate in a pink ribbon campaign (e.g. KFC and their pink "Buckets for the Cure") and get people to buy their products because of a portion going to Komen, and improve their ethical standing with the public. The charity and their corporate sponsors have a sweet mutual back-washing deal... mega-donations balanced by pinkwashing and increased sales. That is par for the course, but what is a bit more disturbing are the drug controversies that have sprung up. There are quite a few in-depth articles about this, worth checking into for your own benefit or curiosity if nothing else. A few links:

Healthier Talk: Breast Cancer Deception Month: Hiding the Truth Beneath a Sea of Pink - Part I -- Part II
Mother Jones: Is Susan G. Komen Denying the BPA-Breast Cancer Link?
In These Times: Seeing Red About Thinking Pink
Pinkwashing ridiculousness: Pink Fatigue (blog)

Huge non-profit CEO salaries irk me
Although it's very common, and SGK is certainly not unique here, it makes me sick to learn that the CEO of this charity - one that rakes in money from the grassroots where people may not have much to give but they care enough to do it anyway - is paid over $450,000 per year (again, not singling them out... fyi... according to Charity Navigator, the CEO of the American Red Cross pulls in nearly $1 million per year for a salary).

Petty legal action against other charities over colors and names
Susan G. Komen For the Cure has reportedly been spending about $1 Million for year cracking down on smaller charities that use the color pink and the word "cure" in their name - even if the offending charities are not fighting breast cancer. [reference][reference] This is the first thing I heard about SGK that caused me to remove them from my list of preferred charities. The practice of a charity fighting for its 'brand' is, again, not limited to this one - but a $million a year to crack down on hundreds of small charities?

You can pink it but you can't un-stink it.

Arrests at OccupyAustin

The police have arrested 38 people at OccupyAustin on Saturday night. Apparently there is some new rule about not allowing table with food on them to be set up at City Hall between 10pm and 6am. Some of the arrests were over those, and the rest of them... "trespassing" is the charge I've heard, which makes no sense. City Hall is public property. There are things you can and cannot so there, as there are in most public places, but this is all clear as mud right now. Thankfully, there was no violence on the part of either side, and no known injuries.

There is a video stream of the event archived here, along with current live chat and video here, where I am now watching a live stream of at least some of the people being released from jail. This is all going to be hashed out in a public forum. At least that's what I'm hoping. Transparency.

News coverage from the Statesman (our newspaper).

One of the weird things about these arrests is that they happened just a couple of blocks from Sixth Street, which is always closed off on Saturday night so the partiers can stumble freely across the streets, and on a Halloween Saturday night on top of that!! It would have been difficult to find a drunker, rowdier place than that... but get that food table outta here with yer bags of hot dog buns and bottled water - it's a threat to health and safety.

Occupy Austin 10/15 March

The 99% are too big to fail.

I've been in quite a few marches in this town, and this was one of the largest. I really think it had to be at least 1500-2000 people. It was as wide as a lane of traffic and went on for several city blocks, from the middle I could not see the end or the beginning of it. City Hall has been "Occupied" for over going on 2 weeks now in support of Occupy Wall Street. The permanent occupation is rather small, probably a few dozen, but this march was BIG. There was a rally at City Hall, then a march, first to a nearby Chase Bank so that people could close their accounts there as part of the protest, then it continued nearly to the Capital and back to City Hall. The police were great, and there were no arrests (at the march) that I'm aware of.

The Media
Booos and hisses to most of the local media outlets for their coverage or lack of it. I mean, Seems like if 10 Tea Partiers get together on a sidewalk they'd be on everybody's top news and lead story. As for local TV network affiliates, they were piss-poor. The Fox affiliate's top local story was that someone had been caught on hidden cam shoplifting. Astonishing. NBC affiliate KXAN led with the story of the pro-gay marriage event and march held the same day. A cool event (that deserves coverage) where they held about a dozen mock same-sex weddings and about 100 people or so marched to the Capitol. ABC affiliate KVUE had what was worse than no coverage. They claimed that Chase Bank was targeted because earlier this month Chase began charging a $5 fee on debit transactions. WRONG twice. First, that is not why Chase was targeted. Second, it is Bank of America that just added that fee, not Chase. Chase was chosen merely because of proximity. The other unfortunate part of the KVUE thing is that rawstory.com linked to their 'coverage.' Laaaaaame.

YNN (which is a cable-only local news channel) had the best coverage. They have an article AND decent video at the link.

Our one newspaper had a small photo gallery linked on their web-version sidebar (not sure what will be in print as I don't read printed newpapers).

Some notes on a few of the signs.

"$ Millions from schools paid to Valero Oil Company." Here is what that one is about. Valero and other refineries say they are owed around $135 million from Texas in tax refunds, with Valero's share around $92 million, even though all parties are aware that $62.8 million will have to come out of the already-bleeding public school fund. More here. Yes, I know... this one is backwards. The other side says "We Are The People."
"The government of America Libya has a responsibility to respect the universal rights of the people, including the right to free expression and assembly. -- Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. SHAME!!!"
"Hey Top 1%, Yer Killin' Us!!" Nice cleaver.

Coffee Party!
So true.

Here's a video that I shot. It captures just 1:45 minutes of people going by. Chant is "Banks got bailed out, we got sold out."


This movement is not partisan. It encompasses plenty of stuff that has been traditionally lumped in with left or right wing, but there is some commonality. There is a minority of folks (a bit more righty) who could also fit in with Tea Party philosophy. They want to end taxation, and maybe even the government itself. Many worship Ron Paul. They seem to part ways with other TP platforms in that they understand that war must be funded by taxes, and they are not in favor of establishing a theocracy. As we were leaving, there was a guy singing a song about his hero, Joe Stack (the sociopath and terrorist who flew his small plane into a building as an attack on the IRS, killing himself plus one other person inside it (an IRS agent), creating widespread trauma and destroying an office building). I'm sorry, but I am not supporting that. at. all.

The lefties are not against taxation, and want the rich and the corporations to start paying their fair share. They want fair consumer dealings and protection from fraud. They want more regulations on Big Finance, Big Pharma, Big [whatever]. I fall into that category.

Most of the people in this movement, left and right and middle, I believe are in favor of abolishing Corporate Personhood of Citizens United, and unlimited and anonymous political donations that, in effect, buy elections and gut democracy. The Occupy movement is about democracy, no matter how you slice it up.

You can't fight terror with fear

Never Forget

That’s what appears on lots of the 9/11 commemoration merchandise, and will probably be seen more these days than it was earlier, because, like all historical events, memories of it will fade as time passes.

The way the first responders charged into those buildings to save the lives of the people inside, without even considering the danger to themselves, this is something that should never be forgotten. Aboard Flight 93, the passengers sacrificed themselves to prevent the much greater disaster that would certainly have occurred had they allowed the hijackers to remain in control. These people are heroes.

There are things about the events of 9/11/01 that I wish that we would be able to forget as a nation. Remember that whole “United We Stand” theme that held most of the country, and even the world, together for about 24hours or so? We had sympathy and support around the world from practically everybody but Al Qaeda itself. The post-shock reaction was the desire to kill Osama Bin Laden by any means necessary. It's a normal human reaction.

It wasn't long before the "united" part of it became a bunches of like-minded people united against other groups of people. It became US and THEM, Patriot or Terrorist, which one are you? President Bush, addressing to a joint session of Congress on September 20, 2001 actually said, "Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists."This dark period in American history has shown us descending into a pit of hatred, prejudice, bigotry, intolerance, racism, and fear - allowing these elements of our culture (which have been there all but below the surface, as it had been really frowned upon to express openly) to rise up again and proudly show their ugly heads.

There was an excellent news story on NPR last week that you can access at the links below:
Under Suspicion at the Mall of America
Mall Counter-terrorism files ID mostly minorities
Database of Suspicious Activity

It is about private counter-terrorism programs that are working together with law enforcement, the FBI, and the Dept. of Homeland Security (DHS). It sounds very well-intentioned and harmless on the surface, but it has been learned that permanent damage can be and has been done to innocent people through this program. This report is in two parts (text and audio), and I recommend the audio because there is more in it and much of it comes straight from the horse’s mouth.

This focuses on the implementation of this kind of program at the Mall of America in Minnesota, where regular, untrained citizens have been empowered to report what they see as “suspicious” activities, and as a result, many innocent people who have broken no laws (or even mall rules!) (and this is according to the authorities) are ending up with permanent incident files with the FBI and DHS. A disproportionate number of these reports are about people of color. One man was walking around and filming in the mall, making a video to send to his fiancée in another country. Taking photographs or videos could be viewed as suspicious. So can “acting nervous” when questioned as another person was doing. I think that we should all be nervous over this kind of thing.

When I was growing up, there was hardly anything more frightening than the prospect of a totalitarian regime, where you can be arrested or hauled away on a whim. The false accusation of any other person was accepted as reason enough to lock you up and throw away the key. Mass paranoia of the kind we had during the Cold War and now have again Post-9/11 is dangerous and toxic - "terror" is what terrorists want to create, because it's fear itself that will break us down, turn us against each other, and become willing to give up our freedom for what is perceived to be "security."

Many people falsely believe that those who have done nothing wrong should have nothing to fear from this kind of program. That is naïve!! They need to look closer to see what the real enemy is. The existence of these programs is letting the terrorists win. The Bushies like to say that terrorists hate our freedom. If we love our freedom, then why surrender it because of fear? Isn't this why we fight? For freedom?

Don't shove an American flag in my face because you want me to remember 9/11. The people who attacked us were religious zealots, true believers, theocrats. There is nothing more dangerous on the earth. I wish we could observe the day by being tolerant toward fellow humans, to live and let live. And we really need to to be trowing bags of money and plenty of love toward first responders - the people who selflessly charge into harm's way to save the lives of others - without thinking once about the ethnicity, political leanings, or religious beliefs of the ones being rescued and protected.

A great new Aggie joke (sorry, Aggies)

A poke at Perry (a Texas A&M Aggie) from the Rice band at the Longhorns/Owls game on Saturday.

Found via Yellow Dog Granny on FB and Raw Story.

The eyes of the US are on Texas, and should be.

Meet the Real Rick Perry from Texas Democratic Party on Vimeo.

Meet Rick Perry [dot com]. Site just officially launched today. Time for the whole country to get a look at how he really operates. You might be thinking he doesn't have a chance at getting the GOP nom, but I think his chances are good.

Romney's support could disintegrate. As Rachel Maddow pointed out in one of her brilliant pieces from last week, the guy is awkward with people. Witness this PR catastrophe, "corporations are people":
He's not comfortable interactive with regular folks, or the ones among them who are hecklers. Perry also thinks corporations are people, and he will be able to state such things with pride and no hint of embarrassment.

He's got that old folksy charm that will insulate him and disarm his foes (not literally, of course), and by "charm" I am not implying "niceness". No way. And where Romney will try and distance himself as much as he can from the craziest fringe (can't get the GOP nom without a whole lotta that), Perry has that fringe on his saddle and is riding it in the elephant parade.

The response to Rick Prayer-y

There was a whole lotta hoopla over Rick Perry's Fringe Christian prayer meeting, but it should be known that there were protests against it. The Austin March & Rally was themed "Rick Perry: Bad for Texas, Worse for our nation" and was organized by the Travis Co. Dems. The inspiration behind this rally was mainly to start getting the word out about Perry, since it looks highly likely that he will enter the Presidential race soon. People marched and rallied under the beating sun of a day where the temperature got up to 104°F (40°C), and there were a few hundred people there.

I thought that all the speakers, who ranged from clergy to politician, were fantastic. I have long been an admirer of Reverend Jim Rigby, who is known for his activism for civil rights and social welfare. Don't be turned-off by the fact that he's clergy, he hits it out of the park (as usual). All the talks were short.

Also recorded Rep. Lloyd Doggett's talk, we really think a lot of Doggett, and are glad to be represented by him.

Another speaker (who I wished I'd recorded) was Rev. Eliza Galaher, an openly gay Unitarian Universalist minister of Wildflower Church. Her talk kicked ass too. Same for State Reps. Eliott Naishtat and Dawnna Dukes. It's events like this that we have to show the world that not everybody in Texas is a nutjob. There is sanity here, as there is in pockets everywhere.

A small selection of the signs, you will see a lot more in this TV coverage and on FB.

No Theocracy. And no TEAocracy either!!

Links:
Event
Facebook gallery
KXAN TV coverage

Moment of live raccoon zen

I'll tell you what... that Fox News can be funny as hell.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Moment of Zen - Michelle Obama Has a Cheeseburger
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

Person A, do you take Person B to be your lawfully wedded spouse?

Here is the whole thing in a nutshell.

Person A and Person B are both adult human beings and citizens who are not related to each other* and are both allowed to marry another person who is also an adult human being, a citizen who is allowed to be willingly married.

The only objection *possible* to Person A marrying Person B has to be religious. And you can't use religion to make law in the USA. That's how it's supposed to work, and if it's working otherwise then it's a violation of the Separation of Church and State.

Way to go, New York!

*State laws vary when it comes to marrying a relative, such as a cousin. (Probably because of possible birth defects in their children, or some other trumped-up reason for the law, because nobody actually forbids unrelated bio-parents from passing along genetic disorders if they choose to risk it. Something tells me that if two cousins, one of which has been sterilized, wanted to marry in a state where cousins are not allowed to marry, that no exemption would be made for them. I don't know that for sure, though.)

The big Perry question

Someone sent this to me in email, and I'm stealing sharing it.

Sometimes the answer is No

Bill Maher's funny take on lots of stuff, including the current Perry candidate buzz. I personally don't think Perry's going to run for Prez (based on absolutely no facts, just a hunch). I'm thinking he wants to get tapped as VP on the GOP ticket, whoever is at the top. If it's Romney, then they'd have a folksy tea party southerner to balance out whatever they think Mitt lacks. Say your prayers, Perry. See what happens.

Ticker hack

This is pretty damn cool. This is a hack of the news ticker at Foxnews HQ.

The hacktivists managed to get their entire message in.

via Alternet