If you're anything like The Hustle, you caught some of the Republican National Convention – albeit probably peering between your fingers, eyeing the screen in nauseated disbelief. If you didn't catch it, The Hust' recaps the RNC while recuperating at conservatism's spiritual home – the golf course. Featuring John McCain, Sarah Palin, Mitt Romney and more.
Whose doesn't after this week? Oh, yeah, not just mine. Not just yours, but Ann & Nancy Wilson's.
See, the GOP is playing their song. The song that made Heart – the Wilson sisters' band from Seattle – superstars, and the song that ironically was launched way back in their 70s heyday by Columbia Records after a lawsuit with their original record company, Mushroom, which used specific images of the sisters in a certain context without their permission.
Well, guess what? Apparently, the GOP never asked the Wilson sister's permission to use "Barracuda" (Little Queen, 1977, Columbia Records) as an image booster for their vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin (whose nickname in high school was apparently Sarah "Barracuda").
The Wilson sisters are pissed. They had originally asked their music not be used. But it was used again, so the sisters and their publishing concerns sent the McCain campaign a cease-and-desist letter. The song was originally written as a "scathing rant against the soulless, corporate nature of the music business, particularly for women… There's irony in Republican strategists' choice to make use of it there," according to Nancy's statement to Entertainment Weekly: "I think it's completely unfair to be so misrepresented. I feel completely fucked over."
Everyone knows she was pro-choice, right? Voted for the 1967 UK Abortion Act, which made terminations available on the NHS? Knew that, right?
After it became patently clear that no Clinton supporter fell for the "Hey, if you kinda squint, Sarah Palin looks like Hillary" ruse, there's a new political comparison doing the rounds. The Alaskan governor is the new Margaret Thatcher. Yeah, that should get the base out. After all, everyone loves the former British prime minister, right?
Except those that know her best. Many British people (and let's be very, very, very clear on this) hate Thatcher, aka "Thatcher the Milk Snatcher" (so called because she ended free milk in schools. Apparently calcium deficiency is good for the free market.)
Of course American conservatives love her. On personal responsibility, it was Thatcher who claimed, "There is no such thing as society," then shoved through economic reforms that saw the greatest increase in the divide between rich and poor in a century (so what if she also oversaw two recessions, eh?) She shifted the emphasis in the tax base from a gradated income tax to value added tax, the UK's sales tax, which she shoved up from 8% to 17%. For the first time ever, people had to pay tax on their utilities. And that's just for starters.
… keep beating up on public schools in your campaign, like you're doing right now in your RNC speech. Because that issue has been such a winner for your party here in Texas. It's the main reason the GOP went from complete dominance of the Texas House to barely hanging on over the past two election cycles, currently within five seats of losing control.
Message to Code Pink and Other Protesters Inside the Convention:
You're not helping. Every time the cameras show one of you interrupting McCain and being dragged off screaming, a few more Americans decide to vote for him.
But her yearbook photo? We'll totally attack her for that.
Rudy Giuliani just said something from the podium of the GOP convention that is driving me crazy: "How dare they question whether [Gov. Sarah Palin] can raise her five children and still run for the vice presidency?" Conservatives have been repeating this line all week, pointing the finger at Democrats.
Please tell me: Exactly who is saying that? Please feel free to correct me below in the comments section, and I'll gladly apologize if I'm wrong, but I can't recall Obama or Biden or any Democrat or Democrat ally questioning whether she can be both a mom and a VP.
I found a New York Times story with some (wo)man-on-the-street quotes, but the only party functionary I could find questioning Palin's ability to be dual mom and VP was a Republican.
Seriously, if anyone with the Obama campaign or their allies ever said such a thing, please provide some credible sourcing.
(UPDATE: And there it is again! In her Sept. 3 column (printed in the Sept. 4 Statesman), nationally syndicated columnist Kathleen Parker writes:
"Some also have questioned whether Palin, whose son Trig has Down syndrome, can be both a mother and a vice president? These questions aren't coming from the right – so often accused of wanting to keep women barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen – but from the left."
Parker cited no sources. I e-mailed her at kparker@kparker.com and asked her for some.
Conservatives Love Palin on Camera, Loathe Her Off
MoveOn.org is gleefully sending around this video of John McCain's former campaign chief Mike Murphy and former Reagan speechwriter Peggy Noonan badmouthing GOP vice-president nominee Sarah Palin when they thought the mics were off. And we're gleefully reposting it here. If the audio's too muffled for you, check out the transcript below the fold.
(Little-known fact: An anagram of "Sarah Heath Palin" is "Ha ha Alpine Trash.")
Surprise and shock coursing through Downtown workers, nearby City Hall staffers and Chilaquiles enthusiasts across town: venerable eatery and community hub Las Manitas has closed its doors, apparently "forever," with seating, equipment, and even the floor ripped up.
Texas Monthly (who's Manitas-enthused editor Evan Smith must be crying in his michelada right now) has the details, but the "closed forever" sign up at the establishment seems pretty definitive – and doesn't bode well for the eatery's plans to move up the block into the La Pena art gallery Las Mas proprietors Cynthia and Lidia Perez own.
The Monthly caught up with Cynthia Perez, who was as coy as they come:
For the Chronicle's overview of the Las Manitas saga and its role in the changing face of Downtown, see "My Migas, My City."
Everyone's favorite transport acronym CAMPO (that's the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization to you) is asking for "Environmental Justice Populations" (whatever one of those is) to fill in a new survey about local transport and transit priorities. Here's the press release.
Transportation Needs Survey for Environmental Justice Populations in the CAMPO Area 9 Quick Questions!
Dear Friend:
Do you have transportation needs and wish someone would listen? Got ideas for transportation in Central Texas? Well Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO) wants to hear! It's CAMPO's job to plan and direct funding for transportation in Williamson, Hays and Travis counties. CAMPO needs YOUR ideas and feedback, so please click on the link below and give us two minutes of your time (9 quick questions). IMPORTANT: Help us circulate this survey by forwarding to others who live in this area. Gracias!
Seriously, what's an environmental justice population?
The Texas Supreme Court has announced it will grant a rehearing in the Entergy Gulf States Inc. v. John Summers case. Refer to our previous coverage for a more detailed description of the case, but the basic issue was whether a premises owner who hires an independent contractor and provides workers-compensation insurance for the contractor’s employees can be a “statutory employer” for workers comp purposes. Last August, the court said yes; the decision was immediately met with a barrage of criticism from legislators, labor leaders, and attorneys who said that the Legislature never intended that a premises owner should also be considered a general contractor, and that the court was using a too-literal interpretation of the wording of the law. If the ruling stands, it could create a loophole allowing companies to avoid injury lawsuits that lawmakers did not mean to be written into the law.
The hearing will take place on Oct. 16 at the Southern Methodist University Law School.
Palin: Former member of the Alaskan Independence Party. Now that's really backing states rights.
As news breaks that Gov. Sarah Palin is to become a grandmother, much of the media is scurrying to find her stance on sex education. But there's possibly some other Palin policy positions that need to be looked at: like her seemingly flawed to nonexistent grasp of US constitutional law and history. There were already concerns that, two months ago, she seemingly didn't know what the veep does. But what could become interesting is what she told the Eagle Forum Alaska in their 2006 Gubernatorial Candidate Questionnaire.
11. Are you offended by the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance? Why or why not?
SP: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.
To be fair, the word "under" does appear in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. The word God is in the Declaration (well, the term "Nature's God," so read up on Deism for what that means.) But "Under God"? Not so much.
So, unless Palin thinks Rep. Charles Oakman, R-MI, was a founding father, it's hard to see how the literal constitutionalist wing of the GOP is going to be overly happy about her.
With the confirmation that George Bush will be in Austin on Monday to visit the Emergency Operations Center in advance of Hurricane Gustav making landfall, it seems an appropriate moment to make something clear to the administration.
Gustav is not a do-over for Katrina.
If the administration does its job this time, that just means it's done its job, nothing more. But let's be kind. Let's ignore for a moment that changes to federal regulations since Katrina actually make rebuilding after a disaster more expensive for states.
Let's also ignore the conservative Republican equation that federal funding equals stealth pork (Were the Lake Pontchartrain levees that failed during Katrina pork? Are the new levees, some stuffed with newspapers, that Gov. Bobby Jindal and professional risk managers agree are nowhere near where they need to be structurally, pork? How about the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, or any of the other 75,000 bridges around the US gauged "structurally deficient" by the federal government after decades of under-investment. Pork?)
Instead, let's just remember what conservative darling Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina said when he visited Austin in January. "Katrina did not unearth poverty but something more unsettling, particularly as a conservative, and that's dependency."
The governor's office and Texas Senate candidate Rick Noreiga have each already launched hurricane pages loaded with news and resources. And we are regularly checking NOAA and weather.com for the latest updates.
Palin: Even Alaskan Republicans can't get unified behind her.
Well, at least we can guess what Obama surrogate Sen. Hillary Clinton will be up to for the next two months: Demolishing Alaska's Gov. Sarah Palin.
Democrats are baffled why a 72 year old presidential candidate with a pretty iffy medical history like Sen. John McCain would pick Palin as his running mate, especially since the Anchorage Daily News is reporting she has not been vetted. As Alaskan State Sen. Lyda Green, a fellow Republican and fellow native of Palin's home town of Wasilla, told the ADN, "Look at what she's done to this state. What would she do to the nation?"
It can't just be a desperate and misguided attempt to pick up some disgruntled Clinton primary voters (as one Austin Dem drily put it, "I have met Hillary Clinton, and you are no Hillary Clinton.") Because that would mean that McCain would select a veep just for the knee-jerk repsonse to immediate electoral shifts, not for the job. If that were true, then that really would make him Bush 43 part II, and a true believer in winning for the sake of winning, with no concern for governance.
So it must be her rep as a purger of corruption. Eh. Not so fast.
It's a cruel irony to be commemorating the third anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with preparations for what may be as devastating a storm to the Gulf Coast, Hurricane Gustav. We're watching closely; our own guests, originally slated to visit Central Texas this weekend for fun and frolic, have officially been upgraded to evacuees.
Our friends coming in from Louisiana reported convoys of buses "in the hundreds" headed east as they made their way west across I-10 to Texas on Friday night. By now, contraflow is in effect, and the highways are packed.
We're also experiencing a conflict of emotions over news
of friends and loved ones who have chosen to ride out the storm in New Orleans.
