Bits and Bites
* Old news but news worthy. John Cole's had a major moment of lucid clarity. Warms the soul.
* Can we write off Nader as too long in the tooth and undermedicated to benefit anyone?
* The Canadians are laughing at us... you know they are.
* "Yes, I flew back from vacation to vote for saving Terri Shaivo before I voted against Terri Shaivo". May this haunt his "political capital".
* …well, I can do you god and guns without the gays, and I can do god and gay without the guns, and I can do you all three concurrent or consecutive, but I can't do you guns and gays without the god. God is compulsory – they're all god, you see. .. apologies to Tom Stoppard
* Happy days are here again. The skies above are clear again. So let's sing a song of cheer again. Happy days are here again.
* A solution to some of life's larger issues.
QOTD
Townhall on their "independence" from the Heritage Foundation...
Liberals are engaged in a merciless and unrelenting fight against the conservative agenda, chipping away at the gains we've made and distorting the facts to portray our side as mean-spirited and heartless in order to turn the American public against us. We expect this announcement to bring the liberals out in hoards as they attempt to smother this new baby in its crib. This great news started to leak into the Washington media over this past weekend and already the liberal blogs are trying to spin this to their advantage. They are trying to discredit us with other media operations. They hope to silence us before we’ve uttered a word.
Whatta buncha whiners... pre-emptive martyrdom? Come on kids, without you, some of us would have to work harder to find wankers to taunt.
Texas Governor Race
* Austin American Statesman Q&A with Chris Bell. Man I pray the Perry/Hutchison thing becomes a cat fight and may the press continue to use the phrase "Perry pal, Tom DeLay".
More from Chris Bell below the fold.
BELL DECLARES ‘ETHICS EMERGENCY’
“We need to hold our state government as accountable as it holds our schoolchildren”
AUSTIN - Saying proposed ethics legislation would only encourage Rick Perry’s unethical performance in office, Chris Bell today declared an Ethics Emergency. An “ethics emergency” has admittedly no force of law, just like Rick Perry¹s revolving door policy. Bell also conceded that declaring an “ethics emergency” would be about as effective in stopping ethical transgressions as the Snack Tax would be in making us all skinny.
But it makes a point that Rick Perry just doesn¹t get. Examples of cronyism, conflicts of interest, insider deals, revolving door loopholes, and pay-for-play have become business-as-usual with Rick Perry in the Governor¹s Mansion. In stark contrast is the record of longtime ethics watchdog Chris Bell. In Jun. 2004, then-U.S. Rep. Bell broke a seven-year-long “ethics truce” by filing an ethics complaint against Majority Leader Tom DeLay. Also, as a Houston City Council Member, Bell was responsible for sweeping ethics reform.
“Only in Washington would a truce on ethics make sense to some folks, but here in Texas it looks like Rick Perry is taking ethics lessons from Tom DeLay,” said Bell. “This isn¹t just an ethics truce, this is a wholesale ethics surrender.”
HB 3148 would give blanket civil immunity for “violations of law involving the making, acceptance, or reporting of political contributions and expenditures.” Usually tort reform is aimed at creating a more favorable climate for business. In this case, tort reform would help create a more favorable climate for cheating.
HB 913, sponsored by Mary Denny, would give political appointees veto power over criminal prosecutions of violations of the state election code. In an editorial, the Austin American-Statesman called the Denny Bill “one of the worst pieces of legislation in recent memory.” Mary Denny is the chair of the House Ethics Committee.
“We need to hold our state government as accountable as it holds our schoolchildren, and these ideas would take us in the opposite direction,” said Bell. “These ideas are dangerous for democracy, and the fact that they could become law—let alone the fact that Rick Perry hasn’t denounced them—means we have an ethics emergency on our hands.”
Posted by kerry at March 28, 2005 09:15 AM | TrackBack