Saturday, April 08, 2006

Just Begging for Opinion

I've been busy this week between school and getting that bathroom remodeling job done. I've missed out on all the fun the other bloggers are having. I just have to opine.

Let's start with Earn My Vote, whomever he/she is. There is a post about Ramon Garcia being M.I.A. This isn't cool Judge. Don't be an Al Gore. That guy went looney after losing the election. You lost by such a small margin. You weren't rejected, people just liked JD Salinas better. You need to show up for work or else all your talk about giving full-time results will be just that, all talk. You still have a chance to make things better; I hope you choose to finish your term with dignity.

Regarding the race for Hidalgo County DA. Way to go Rene! Man, I was not very hopeful for Rene. Word on the street is that "the fix is in" to defeat him. Alma Garza and Mauro Reyna have been seen together prior to the primaries (don't forget to tip your waiters). The other day at the COBA student lounge, I saw the famous ad about Alma's husband owing almost half a million bucks to the IRS. My first reaction was, "Goddamn!" I'm afraid it hasn't changed since then. How do you owe that much? In any case. The fact that Rene has come out swinging has renewed my respect for him. If he'd wussed out, he would have deserved to get ousted. Of course, Earn is all over this. Rico Politico also has opined on this. So has South Texas Chisme. Truth be told, I don't know how this will affect the campaign. On the one hand, it probably disgusts half the county that Villareal owes so much and here Garza is running for office. On the other hand, turnout for a runoff probably won't be so high, so it all depends on how many committed voters each candidate can churn out. I was going to skip the runoff, but now I'm convinced to go in. Perhaps others feel the same. This is the sort of thing I love in politics.

On the one hand, perhaps Rene Guerra has become complacent after so many years. On the other hand, you can't jump at every accusation out there. After all, he has a responsibility to prosecute cases he can win. The county's budget and personnel are not unlimited. The DA's office has a responsibility to prosecute slam-dunk cases and to investigate the not-so-easy cases as time and resources permit. So, I'll give him that much credit. After so many years, he may have a feel for what cases will get a conviction and which ones will be a strain. Alma Garza's proposition of bringing a change to the DA's office sounds slightly hollow to me with her being a former employee. Mauro Reyna would have been a change. Replacing an insider with an insider? Better the devil you know...

10 comments:

denise said...

Can you please explain how Al Gore went "loony" after the election in 2000?

It's gotta be hard to accept defeat after winning the popular vote, knowing that eligible voters were scrubbed off of voter lists, and acepting the fact that a recovering alcoholic frat-boy is the new leader of the free world.

The Gore-was-cheated thing is old news, I know, but if people don't keep the truth out there, it'll be another bit of history thrown down the memory-hole.

Shaine Mata said...

I think this is from a podcast back a few weeks ago. Basically, Al Gore, who was born and raised to be POTUS, has gone off the deep end since his loss, but not just him. Perhaps a better description is Al Gore and his supporters. What is really ticking the left off is that not only

" after winning the popular vote, knowing that eligible voters were scrubbed off of voter lists, and acepting the fact that a recovering alcoholic frat-boy is the new leader of the free world.
"

Not once, but twice with the defeat of the John Kerry.

Al has not done anything to pursue a public office. He was ousted in his home state. He has, to his credit, tried creating a television network. Other than that, Gore does everything he can to say that George W. Bush has betrayed his country and is preying on people's fears. Recently in a Middle Eastern university, he made a speech in which he says that the United States is responsible for crimes against Arabs. He basically takes a jab at the administration and the country whenever his opinion is requested. Just recently Gore is quoted as stating that life will cease to exist on earth within a few years due to global warming. Kerry is the same as far as taking swipes at the President whenever he sees a mic. They are very bitter, nutty guys. Just once I'd like to hear them propose something other than taking out the President.

On the left all I hear is how George W. Bush and Rick Perry are taking the nation and Texas to the pits of hell. We are going to hell in a handbasket and running out of baskets. Oh, please.

We have a strong economy. College graduates are getting jobs (I'm not a graduate, so I'm screwed). The Iraqis are on the road to self-government so that we can bring our people home. Despite the high price of oil, inflation is in check. Despite the tax cuts, tax revenues are increasing (unfortunately Congress is spending it faster). Things are going well. Yes, they could be better; but where are the proposals? Al Gore has made up his mind that GW is the anti-christ and our country is the home of evil. Imagine if he'd won. He'd be out there badmouthing us to people that already dislike us. No thank you.

Let me make a distinction, there are Democrats and there is the left. I do this in the same vein as me being conservative first and then a Republican.

The left is making all kinds of noise, Al Gore style, that the United States has elected Satan. Meanwhile level-headed Dems and everything to the right of that are going about their business and living their lives. How else do you explain the growing prosperity of the country. My own poverty? That's my own damn fault. Even if Al Gore were president, I'd be jobless.

In any case, I realize the m.o. after having worked in Austin to "save the environment". Whenever we had a person on the fence about joining the Sierra Club, we'd pull out Phil Gramm card and tell them that he was the cause of the destruction of the Pacific northwest old growth forests. Same thing with Tom Delay, same with Rick Perry, same with GW. Make somebody the devil to get support. This is what Gore does, except he gets extreme (looney). Why not propose ideas and push ideas? Give us something to vote FOR, not somebody to vote against. I bet if Dems nominated somebody with good ideas, rather than slavish support from the left, that the Dem would win by bigger margins. God forbid that somebody who is green, pro-labor, pro-women's rights, pro-big government, and anti-abortion be nominated. You're either 100% on all left ideals or you're nobody. You don't touch the sacred cows of the left if you want a shot at winning the national nomination. The last two candidates supported all of them, although they tried to weasel out a little to appeal to ....drumroll please... The Center. Proof, that the left does NOT represent the majority of the electorate. Yet only the loons like Gore et al get press. You would think that everybody who is Dem is pro-abortion, or anti-global economy, or anti-business, or pro-tax, or whatever. The Al Gores have hijacked the Democratic party and made it a slave of their ideology. Shame on anybody for disagreeing.

The moral of the story, ideologues like Al Gore and company, looney. I'll even go so far as to say that extreme right wingers fall in there too, looney. The rest of the country doesn't live or die by their sacred cows.

denise said...

I’ll respond, even though your post sounded a whole lot like a rehash of Sean Hannity’s tired talking points. How can you honestly say that both Kerry and Gore haven’t proposed anything worthwhile? Deeming them as “bitter” and “nutty” is disingenuous and it’s been said a hundred times by the fine folks over on FOX “News.” I don’t see what’s wrong with the emergence of a true, elder statesman; particularly one who’s finally figured out that the politics of division will only work for so long.

What do you say if the constant “stay the course” message put forth by the current administration? As the reasons for the war changed every time something went wrong, the message was the same old tired one of staying the course, not creating a timetable for withdrawal, and the tried and true “trust us” that no one is buying anymore. The troops have done their job and they have done it honorably and it’s time for the Republicans to come up with a real solution to bring them home.

Where is the plan? What are the benchmarks by which their successes can be measured? Things have changed in the past year and people no longer trust the people they voted into power. They’ve let us down on almost every issue from homeland security, the global war on terror, federal management of emergency situations, and old-fashioned ethics.

Conservatives stick to the same old denounciation of groups like Move-On and “big Hollywood.” It’s getting old. Gore has been campaigning smarter by getting his message out via the new media and it scares the DLC-type Democrats who are used to controlling the party via their right-of-center policies and proposals. Perhaps it’s a curse that people on the left don’t march in lockstep like the righteous Christian soldiers on the right. I’d much rather be part of an inclusive movement that puts human rights ahead of party ideology.

At this particular moment in time where there is a pressing moral and economic need to develop green technologies and curb global warming, Gore has emerged as an authentic, fearless Democrat in the face of inevitable Republican smears. (Can you please point me in the direction of the article where Gore claimed the earth would end within a few years?)

Demonizing the right to promote ideas on the left is hardly a new tactic. You just echoed Bill O’Reilly with your talk of “loony” leftists. How is that any different?

And Tom Delay? Please….we’ve been complaining about that scumbag way before he stepped down from power. By attempting to use religion to explain his personal persecution, he further illustrated just how low certain people will go to curry favor amongst their base.

I love the back-and-forth, by the way. We probably have a lot more in common than we believe.

-denise

denise said...

Oops, I failed to put quotations around the following statement:

"At this particular moment in time where there is a pressing moral and economic need to develop green technologies and curb global warming, Gore has emerged as an authentic, fearless Democrat in the face of inevitable Republican smears."

Source: Ezra Klein of The American Prospect magazine.

Shaine Mata said...

About the whole "rehash of Sean Hannity talking points", that hurts. It's disrespectful of my ability to form an opinion. I started out as a Dem. I voted for Bill Clinton. I campaigned for the environment. It's taken me years to switch from an "open-minded" person to who I am today. Given that you would not engage me unless you truly thought I had a brain cell or two capable of opining, I will reply.

Let's just get off Al Gore and John Kerry. I submit that those two are not elder statesmen. Robert Byrd and Zel Miller. Those are elder statesmen. Gore and Kerry are losers. They could not be themselves on camera in front of the nation during the debates because they know that The Majority of the nation, not republicans, the nation, would not vote for them if they were themselves.

With respect to staying the course. Last week and this week, I've been doing a bathroom remodeling project. I went in and ripped that place up to the studs and bricks. I've been over there almost every day doing a little here, a little there. At times I've been frustrated because no matter what I did and how much I cleaned up, it still looked like crap. I can't just walk out, it's my job to be there and finish what I started. I thought it would take maybe three days. Here I am a week and a half later. Finally, it's beginning to come together. Now, all that is left is to add tile, toilet, sink, fixtures, and whatever wall cover they choose.

If I had set a timeline on this remodeling project, I would have failed miserably. It looks simple. Once you're in, it can seem hopeless at times. Finally, steady and determined work, I can look at my work and smile because I'm almost done.

In Iraq, our troops are not out there to fight the terrorists. The terrorists aren't even fighting our people so much. They're killing Iraqis because they don't stand a chance against our troops. People like my sister, who went to Iraq, are training their police, their army, building schools, teaching the people how to govern themselves and how to keep people like Saddam Hussein out of power. That is the work our troops are doing. You are mistaken to think that they are simply out there with targets on their backs waiting to get killed.

If we set a timetable, the terrorists only have to wait. It's like a ball game where one team is ahead by one point. All they have to do let the time run out to win the game. If we set a timeline, the terrorists only have to wait for us to pull out and then they can jump in.

There are plenty of examples of our troops not pulling out of countries after a conflict. There is Korea, Japan, Germany, Kuwait, Qatar, the Philipines, and others. We maintain a presence there and we will maintain a presence in Iraq. Our troops will finish soon enough and we will all be happy.

If we pull out of Iraq now, before the Iraqis are ready to run their country themselves, they will slide back to the conditions that led to their former dictator. That is a security risk for the U.S.

I guess it depends on how you live your life. I prefer to put systems in place to prevent crap from happening in the first place. And even if that fails, I prefer having something in place to deal with the crap. Other people don't see the value in spending time on prevention and find themselves constantly putting out fires. Both are time-consuming.

I'll look for the article in which Al Gore states that the world is coming to an end. Looney tunes.

Finally, with respect to Tom Delay. Dems were involved too, but none of them had leadership positions, so the press hasn't made a big deal out of their implication. I agree that conservatives use Moveon.org and Hollywood as the poster children of the left. But it's different. Dems used Tom Delay to raise money. They used Phil Gramm to raise money. They use Moveon.org to raise money. They use Hollywood to raise money. Republicans go out and bust their butts at work to raise money. Republicans bitch about those things, but don't go around saying that we need to give to defeat modo and Hollywood. And still, Republicans raise more money.

Shaine Mata said...

Oh, and Dems can't claim to be interested in equality and all rubbish. Notice that in Texas and in Washington, minorities are not in any Democrat positions of power. I don't mean elected office. I mean a minority leader, a whip, DNC chairman, or other position where a minority would eventually be able to influence the party. Nope. Not so open minded. Even Aaron Pena is disappointed that Dems in this state don't seem to be able to get minorities in positions of power. What gives? Open minded? Doesn't seem like it.

That's why I stopped being Dem. I realized it's all show. It makes sense with Hollywood so entrenched in the party.

Maybe you care about people, Denise. I applaud you for that. Dems don't seem to be walking the talk.

I decided that I would rather get rich and personally do something to benefit society rather than wait for the losers in Congress to do something. We can't depend on Washington. Wait, I feel a blog post coming on.

denise said...

My apologies for comparing you to that horrible, horrible man. Changing the subject, you said you went from being open-minded into what you are today. Isn't that sort of like taking steps backward? What's wrong with open-mindedness?

I’ll die happy if I die open-minded. My parents raised me as a liberal Catholic Democrat and I’d not want it any other way. …and I enjoy engaging in a civil debate with a man who doesn't sensationalize his posts just to get readers.

As far as Zell Miller goes, I think it was beyond the pale for him to support GW Bush and badmouth J Kerry during the 2004 election. When he made that ridiculous comment about Kerry wanting to fight the war with “spitballs,” he failed to mention that the weapons and weapn systems he criticized Kerry for not supporting were outdated years ago and planned for termination.

In 2001, Zell introduced Kerry as "one of this nation's authentic heroes, one of this party's best-known and greatest leaders - and a good friend," who had "worked to strengthen our military." He’s an elder statesman in the eyes of the Republican party, I’m sure. He started meeting with the Republican senatorial caucus instead of the Democratic one towards the end of his career. He endorsed Ralph Reed, the slimy, former head of the Christian Coalition who is now deeply entrenched in the Abramoff scandal. I’d probably have more respect for him if he acted like a real man and switched parties. If there was a Republican that decided he was pro-choice, pro-gay, anti-war and pro gun-control, he’d be booted out in a second. As for Robert Byrd….despite his past actions, I heartily agree with your assesment.

I’m not buying the stay-the-course vs. home-remodeling analogy, either. The course we are on in Iraq isn’t sustainable and it’s not making the U.S. more secure. Our military has a job to finish and Bush has yet to make clear what that particular mission might be. Congress can’t hold themselves accountable for getting troops the support they need if they never really defined what the final goal is.

Also, if the insurgents wanted to wait until we withdrew in order to cause REAL terror, why wouldn’t they stop all attacks now and lay low until everyone believed that stability has been achieved? They could spring up once the US presence in Iraq is reduced. Eventually, the day will come when the US will withdraw from that country and I hardly think it’ll be a secret. Do you honestly believe the insurgency will be entirely defeated at this point? If the mission is to train Iraqis to provide for their own security, there should be a clear plan for getting that job done.

A solution proposed by the Iraqis themselves will be the only way to stability, not an indefinite presence of US troops on the ground.

Regarding Tom Delay, I’m sure a few Democrats were involved in some dirty dealings, but do you really think any of them can even come close to the level of corruption of the former Majority Leader? Sure the Dems use Hollywood and Republican corruption to raise funds. It makes perfect sense to do so. At least they don’t use religion to do it. You have to admit that Republicans have a monopoly on a certain version of Christianity that is some sort of evil hybrid of what the bible intended. Jesus spoke about poverty at least 3000 times in the bible, while never mentioning homosexuality. They’ve managed to turn gay people into the ultimate evil, all the while ignoring the least among them.

I’m frustrated at the lack of Hispanics in positions of power within the party as well. However, I will not switch over to the other side just because they elevate worthless, self-loathing Latinos like Alberto Gonzalez and Henry Bonilla.

Here’s a list of Democrats walking the walk:
John Conyers, Ted Kennedy, Barbara Boxer, Bill Richardson, Sheila Jackson Lee, Russ Feingold, Harry Reid… The list really does go on, and I’ll be glad to provide specific examples if you’d like.

On a totally unrelated note, I HATE formatting cells in Excel. My brain hurts and I can't think straight.

Oh, and one more thing concerning privacy on the internet... Do you think it was fair of Earn to post the names/addresses/dates of birth/driver's license#s of 8 people on his/her blog?

Shaine Mata said...

What I am today is actually more pragmatic. When I was open-minded, I'd go with anything that sounded good. The problem is, there are people out there, plenty of them libs, who take advantage of your desire to do good. At least Republicans force you to rely on yourself rather than lead you on with promises of this and that. I came to realize, I'm the one responsible for the outcome of my life. Nobody in Austin or Washington has as much power to determine my fate as I do. It just so happens that conservatism fits very well with that philosophy. Sure, if there is a government grant or program that I can use to my advantage, I will. But if it's not there, I'll find some other way to continue to live my life and raise my family. I don't need politicians to do that. In fact, the more they stay out of my business, the better I can take care of business.

I'm getting ready for job interviews tomorrow, so I can't work up the brainpower to digest your entire comment.

Just to touch on Earn's listing of names and addresses, if it's public information, it's probably a moot point. The information, although not online, would be available to anybody. I used to look up property records too for property values. The reason this is public info is so that you can be contacted for tax collections, code violations, and other legal stuff where somebody may need to find you. Also, it helps contractors put a lien on your property if you refuse to pay something.

denise said...

Open-minded sounds a lot better than close-minded, no?

Best of luck on your interviews. One needn't a college degree to get a good job. I'm still working on mine and I'm doing just fine. As a disclaimer, though...I don't have any dependents, so I really have no point of reference.


I don't get the "liberals take advantage of your desire to do good" argument.

I'll leave you with the most basic of comparisons:

LIBERAL=
Not limited to or by established, traditional, orthodox, or authoritarian attitudes, views, or dogmas; free from bigotry.
Favoring proposals for reform, open to new ideas for progress, and tolerant of the ideas and behavior of others; broad-minded.

CONSERVATIVE=
Favoring traditional views and values; tending to oppose change.
Traditional or restrained in style;
Moderate; cautious

Come back to the light, Shaine...we miss the good guys like you.

**Oh, and I know the info is public, though you have to pay a fee to get it from publicdata.com. I just don't trust that everyone that reads these blogs has the best of intentions. Lurkers have the potential to be crazy.**

denise said...

I like the idea, but I'm soooooooo not a TV person. I'm at my best on paper. It's a blessing and a curse.

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