Monthly Archives: May 2008

(Community Matters) Won’t be long until the most feverent of former states rights advocates once again show their true colors and take up the cause of federal intervention to circumvent New York’s plans to recognize gay marriages and California’s plans to start marrying gays & lesbians.

It’s the logical extension of civil rights. Gay marriage will be legal even in Texas within the next 10, if not 5, years.

(Community Matters) The Economist on Barack Obama’s claim that his uncle helped liberate Auschwitz and on the resulting conservative bloggers’ frothing:

As many have pointed out, it was, of course, the Red Army that liberated Auschwitz. Moreover, Mr Obama’s mother was an only child. An RNC spokesman quickly damned Mr Obama’s “frequent exaggerations and outright distortions”. A blogger at Michelle Malkin’s site suggested he was “spinning Clintonesque lies about Auschwitz to sell his government programs”. Red State ran with the headline “Obama Lies About Holocaust for Political Gain”.

And they’re absolutely right: It was, in fact, Mr Obama’s maternal great-uncle who served in World War II, and the camp he liberated, as a member of the 89th Infantry Division, was Buchenwald. Try to contain your outrage.

This does, however, put a different spin on Mr Obama’s response to learning that he is distantly related to Dick Cheney: “We had been trying to hide that cousin thing for a long time. Everybody’s got a black sheep in the family. A crazy uncle in the attic.”

Buchenwald was also a Nazi concentration camp where nearly 60,000 are estimated to have died. I think Senator Obama’s point is well made and the gaffe can be forgiven.

(Community Matters) Super article on Senator Obama’s body man on the campaign trail, Reggie Love, in today’s NYTimes here

Reggie Love (center)

Austinite Blake Gottesman served as GW Bush’s body man. Went on to Harvard Business School and last time I saw his daddy, I believe Sandy said Blake was now in investment banking (Goldman?).

(Community Matters) The McClellan boys ain’t got a lick of the integrity nor the class of their granddaddy, UT Law School Dean Page Keeton. I’m not a supporter or friend of their mama, Carol Keeton McClellan Rylander Strayhorn, but at least she speaks her mind when it counts and promotes what she considers the interest of constituents. Titty babies Mark McClellan (Bush’s FDA commissioner) and Scott McClellan (Bush’s press officer) punk for their boss, then kiss & tell.

(Community Matters) The fundraiser for Senator Obama featuring campaign strategist David Axelrod has been finalized and will take place:

(Community Matters) I’m spending the week with a friend in Houston at MD Anderson. Blogging about it at SquirrelsInTheAttic.info.

(Community Matters) The article in this morning’s AAS about the Condo Deal to aid East Austin here identified me as a governor on the board of the Austin Community Foundation. This is true, though I clarified that I was speaking as one of three advisors to the ACF fund. UT’s Rudy Green, Winstead partner Mike Cook and I are jointly tasked with recommending grants from the fund created by Tom & Lynn Meredith’s generous contribution of land to ACF, as well as Terry Mitchell’s and David Mahn’s contribution of profits. Tom invited me to participate in the Featherlite project in its beginning; I continue to do so today in my role as CEO of the Entrepreneurs Foundation, which was otherwise represented at the table from the project’s earliest days. Will Meredith now leads the project.

(Community Matters) So, if we wanted special influence with a Texas House member, how many Texans think it ok to give him/her $40k – not his campaign but a contribution to his/her personal checking account? No difference from what Lubbock State Rep. Carl Isett (Republican) is doing, albeit into his wife’s business checking account. here

(Community Matters) Two important pieces on education today: Economist: “Red Ties and Boys’ Pride,” about the Urban Prep Charter Academy and Chicago’s Ren 10, $44 million raised by Chicago community leaders to welcome education entrepreneurs. here

And, Thomas Friedman’s column in today’s NYTimes about the lottery for slots in the SEED School of Maryland, where 300 students competed for 80 slots. The limited slots are considered literal life savers to parents & counselors of inner-city children here

(Community Matters) My friend & I have launched a blog with information about his cancer and The Tour (to beat the hell outta cancer). The blog is open to friends, family and other interested parties. I don’t want to publish the URL but am happy to share with anyone I know, whether you know my friend or not. Sent by the fairy gods, Flat Liberace is helping us navigate The Tour.

(Community Matters) So W-like at times:

I regret that if my referencing that moment of trauma for our entire nation, and particularly for the Kennedy family was in any way offensive.