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Brady and ilk need to put their money where their misguided ideas are

An eye-opener ran into today’s Federaltimes.com, the WWWebbed Gannett federal government version of the franchise that also publishes Navy Times, Army Times, etc., as well as USA Today.

Note: I always give you more information than you need. It’s your decision to do with it what you want.

It seems our Republican congressional members have indulged themselves in a race to destroy the federal government and, while they are at it, put our economy further in shambles.

One of our East Texas congressmen is in that contest. U.S. Rep. Kevin Brady, (a South Dakotan by birth — You decide, I type), has introduced a bill that would freeze federal pay raises for three years instead of the two that our president proposed. Brady, who represents the “deep” in Deep East Texas, also wants to cut the federal work force by 10 percent. That’s about 200,000 in RIFs, “early retirements” and so forth.

Here's a story, about a man named Brady, ... fill in the blanks as long as it includes wrecking the economy

Not be outdone, Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio and Sen. Jim DeMint (with the not so fresh taste), a S.C. Republican, wants to cut the federal rolls by 15 percent and freeze pay increases for five years.

Shouting: “I’ll see your stinking 15 percent and raise  you two weeks without pay in FY 2012 for those lazy no-goods!” is Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Whatelse from Colorado.

Why stop there? Why not just do away with the federal work force altogether? All together: “Why not just do … ”

And the federal government? And the United States of America? And Smokey the Bear? Why don’t we do away with all governments? Yes, let us have anarchy?

It is really difficult to tell how much that all of this is these folks trying to put on a show for their constituents at Fox News.

But if Mr. Brady and his Bunch really wants to impress the Hannitys and the Limburgers and the Palines and get their names and talking heads on the Fox, perhaps they should put their money that they will cause to be in short supply once they are done, where their mouths are.

Mr. Brady, Mr. Breath Mint, and ilk, why not:

*  Serve a single term in Congress for the token sum of $1.

*  Get your health insurance and that of their family elsewhere. No more insurance.

*  No free trips around the World to all those junkets. You want to travel, you pay for it. No local travel either. No staff travel because  you will have no staff!

*  Better figure out how you are going to live after Congress. You will get no pension.

*  No free parking or getting ahead in line. That’s over buster!

* Oh all those things that your constituents think that need to be done, you’ve got to do them. “Cut my lawn. Go invade China. Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.” And if you don’t do what we say the way we like it, we will kick you out on your arse without any justification. Then where will you be, having spent  that big dollar you are paid.

In short, if you take 200,000 to 300,000 out of the federal work force you will take away quite a few dollars from this economy only making the situation worse. I’m not sure how many bucks would be taken away from taxes and money going to merchants and airlines and car companies and banks and insurance, by God, by giving federal workers two weeks unpaid leave. However, I figure you will pretty soon be talking some serious dollars.

Should any of these harebrained ideas be adopted by Congress I hope that the congressional sponsors such as Kevin Brady, University of South Dakota grad and now bringing his “Christian” values to East Texas — they’re running short I’m sure — will take credit for the failure their ideas will produce. But ‘fessin’ up? I don’t see that happening.

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Going, going, going, says Kay

U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, announced today she will not seek a fourth term. That isn’t so surprising since she took a 51-30 percent thrashing by Gov. Rick “Goodhair” Perry in the 2010 Republican Primary. And make no mistake about it, Kay Bailey Hutchison is a Republican, By God! Her people let me know it in a heartbeat once when I mistakenly put a “D” after her name in a newspaper story. That is really kind of petty when you think about it. It was in a small-medium-sized newspaper and the “real” folks outside the Beltway,  with more time on their hands than sense and who always search for that kind of thing in the paper would have been sure to call me up so Kay’s gestapo needn’t have spent the taxpayers money on such bulls**t.

That’s a bit harsh. Kay’s people aren’t gestapo they are just probably so afraid that Kay is going to whack them with a big stick that they leave nothing to chance.

When you make the rounds in Texas newspapers for a number of  years you are bound to see some politicians again and again. Such was the case with George “Gee Dubya” Bush who I watched before my very eyes transform from a Major League Asshole Baseball executive to governor to president. With Kay, I watched her become Texas State Treasurer and later U.S. Senator. Politicians, I’ve seen a few.

Kay has done some good at the local level, delivering the pure pork sausage so ably she must’ve made Jimmy Dean jealous. That’s not a slam on Kay, that’s actually a compliment. I have also seen her not do what she could do to help at the state and local level, until she was pushed. At the national level, she was a bit to the left of George Bush and John Cornyn, but way the hell to the right of Olympia Snowe. I’m not sure what all is going on with her personally. Pro-choice on abortion, the senator and her husband adopted two children in 2001 so that may have influenced some of her political activity.

Republican Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst is called “the 800-pound gorilla in the room” when it comes to replacing Hutchison. We shall see. I would bet on him and half a dozen more Republicans before ponying up on a Democrat. I’m not even sure a Democrat Party exists in Texas anymore. If there is, will you please write? Two of us can be one hell of a force!

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110 years ago today in our town — 110 years later in our world

” … and up from the ground came a bubbling crude, oil that is, Black Gold, Texas Tea.”  From “The Ballad of Jed Clampett” written by Paul Henning

That description of good fortune found by Jed, of “The Beverly Hillbillies” fame, fits to a “tea” what happened in real life about three miles from where I live. The crude began bubbling — exactly 110 years ago today (January 10, 1901) — at place known as “Spindletop.” A very informative article about the history of Spindletop that was written by Robert Wooster and Christine Moor Sanders, and published in Handbook of Texas Online describes the pivotal moment of the World’s most important oil gusher ever:

“The startled roughnecks fled as six tons of four-inch drilling pipe came shooting up out of the ground. After several minutes of quiet, mud, then gas, then oil spurted out. The Lucas geyser, found at a depth of 1,139 feet, blew a stream of oil over 100 feet high until it was capped nine days later and flowed an estimated 100,000 barrels a day.”

It is pretty safe to say nothing of such far-reaching magnitude ever occurred since in Jefferson County, Texas, located on the easternmost Gulf Coast of the Lone Star State. Although I wasn’t around for Spindletop, I bet that not even Janis Joplin’s triumphant return in 1970 to her 10th graduation anniversary at Thomas Jefferson High School in Port Arthur could have matched Spindletop as a colorful and raucous event. And, from what I saw on local TV, Janis coming home freaked out a lot of folks.

The geyser, simply stated, started the modern petroleum industry as we know it. Some of the world’s most important oil companies had their start within a 25-mile radius of Spindletop: The Texas Company, later Texaco; Magnolia, later Mobil and even later ExxonMobil; Humble Oil, later Exxon and ExxonMobil, Gulf Oil, Sun. The companies read like a who’s who list of the petroleum industry.

Some who share my occasional liberal thoughts seem to believe “oil” is a four-letter-word. But the truth is not even those people can with any type of ease live without the fruits of hydrocarbons. While the oil industry made some people filthy rich and others just filthy, many modest livings — read: above average middle class — came from refineries, drilling and other facets of the petrochemical world. Why yours truly has made even a very modest amount of dough off oil and gas wells that I inherited. Certainly not much, albeit the low five-figure range over 25 years.

Most of the folks in the area I grew up in certainly knew the worth of oil as the industry paid for a lot of those people’s pickup trucks, bass boats, nice houses and for the most part a comfortable life. But other than immediate jobs, those who lived in the area I am from and now live in had no clue 110 years ago how Spindletop would transform the worldwide economy.

Those were certainly heady times, back in 1901.

But all was not quiet.

In September at a state fair that year, Vice President Theodore Roosevelt first mouthed his foreign policy mantra: “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” Four days later, President William McKinley was shot at the Pan American Exhibition in Buffalo, N.Y. He died eight days later.

McKinley’s assassin, 28-year-old Leon Czolgosz, was an avowed anarchist although none of the known anarchist groups would claim him as a member and some reportedly thought him to be a spy for the government. Before the month of September was out, a jury convicted Czolgosz. In really swift justice he was executed in the electric chair at New York’s Auburn Prison about a month later, his last words being: “I killed the President because he was the enemy of the good people – the good working people. I am not sorry for my crime.”

The new Republican president, Roosevelt, showed that year that he would not be  easily buttonholed as a politician when it came to his actions. There was  his bully pulpit rhetoric about carrying a big stick, but after becoming president he also told Congress he wanted trusts curbed reasonably and he also invited noted African American Booker T. Washington to the White House. The latter sat off riots and other unrest in the South.

On Saturday, January 8, 2011, almost 110 years to the day Spindletop blew in, Jared Lee Loughner, 22, allegedly shot almost two dozen people at a congressional meet and greet outside a Safeway store in Tucson, Ariz. Six people were killed including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge. The target of the shooting appeared to be U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, a Democrat. Giffords was shot in the head and remains in critical conditions although doctors say she shows encouraging signs that could signal improvement.

Loughner has left a lot of crazy writings behind as he sits in jail. The alleged assassin appears to be anti-government but like Czolgosz  also appears to be a lone nut job.

Perhaps in the days ahead we will learn just what were the motivating factors behind these shootings. Was the act because Giffords is a Democrat, or that she is Jewish, or that she supported President Obama’s health care plan even though she supported tough immigration measures and is pro-gun? Did the relentless cacaphony of political argument that passes for entertainment on cable news and talk radio play a part in driving Loughner over the edge?

We may never know. But just as the world turned 110 years ago today in the town in which I reside, giving rise to the world’s most important — although sometimes exasperating — industry so does our planet keep revolving where it seems no amount of good can ever completely snuff out the anger that lives in mankind.

I am painting broad brush here. But sometimes it does a body good to look at the world through the macro lens inward. Perhaps one must speak softly and carry a big magnifying glass.

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Another lone nut? Inspired by Rush and others?

Another lone nut? If this You Tube is still up by the time you read this, you be the judge.

The rambling statement rails against the government controlling grammar and how the U.S. currency needs to be backed by gold. Jared Lee Loughner, who authorities say is 22, is reportedly in custody for a shooting spree in a Tucson Safeway parking lot this morning that has as of now killed five and wounded more than a dozen. Among those shot, Democratic Rep. Gabby Giffords of Tucson. The dead include federal judge John Roll.

Loughner, on the You Tube posting, begins with “My Final Thoughts: Jared Lee Loughner.” Sounds as if he expected the goofy statement to be his last on Earth. Surprise! He was arrested. If this person committed this heinous act and is convicted, perhaps he will eventually get his wishes.

Loughner writes as if he was or is in the military and is anti-God. Although I am not Atheist, it seems such actions would give Atheists a bad name. One can only wonder if all the craziness spurred by the nastiness in politics contributed to this tragedy, especially with the vile words which flow each day from people such as the extreme right wing radio jerks.

My good thoughts go out to Rep. Giffords, the other injured and the families of those who died.

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The House GOP gives us “Constitution Light”

Constitutions are checks upon the hasty action of the majority. They are the self-imposed restraints of a whole people upon a majority of them to secure sober action and a respect for the rights of the minority — William Howard Taft

The 27th president of the United States, William Howard Taft (1857-1930), who was also the 10th chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court after his stint in the White House would probably not recognize his Republican Party of this day. Of course, the party that just took over the U.S.  House of Representatives would have probably had the same reaction voters had to Taft after his serving a highly active — in the governing sense of the word — presidency. That reaction made Taft and one-term wonder. Big Bill, weighing more than 300 pounds, spent a lot of his time in the White House on issues such as trust busting, civil service reform, creating the Interstate Commerce Commission and, dread upon dread, passage of the 16th Amendment. That constitutional amendment allowed:

“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”

Heresy.

But as a gimmick, the new House majority spent several hours today reading the U.S. Constitution, supposedly wanting to make the point that the nation’s guiding governing document is central to what Congress does. The Republican had redacted some of  the more controversial portions of the Constitution which were later undone by amendments. This included the passage saying slaves were considered “three-fifths” a person when apportioning the population for taxes and congressional representation.

Funny that a party that almost makes taxation hate a religion would allow even a redacted Constitution to state that the great document allows the government to collect taxes.

I don’t know, but if it wasn’t for the fact that the Republican House comes off both holier than thou and so transparent in the most negative sense the reading of our Constitution might be seen as a noble act. In this sense, it wasn’t though. It was cheap political theatrics. It allowed some ignoramus to shout from the House gallery a dig at our “Kenyan-born” president. The birther crap is not only ridiculous, it is plain silly, a silly means of theatrics, and the Republicans can be some of the silliest people alive.

So today we see with the Republican-led Constitution reading that stupid not only is what stupid does, it is alive and well in our new House of Representatives.