Monthly Archives: November 2012

(Community Matters) A much more accurate representation of the blue-red mix in the USA

these maps demonstrate that there is not such a huge gap between rural and urban America.

Created by Mark Newman—from the Department of Physics and Center for the Study of Complex Systems, University of Michigan—it mixes blue and red based on popular vote percentage instead of showing a binary representation.

There’s no huge area of red. There is a gradient. A lot of purple. That’s the accurate map that reflects the actual result of the election. It also shows that the divide between the cities and the countryside is not that huge. There are differences of opinion everywhere.

Hat Tip: Stephen Walls

(Community Matters) I knew Paul Ryan & Romney lost the vote in Ryan’s state, I didn’t know they lost the vote by 25 points in Paul Ryan’s home town of Janesville – Ryan lost their vote by 10 points in his Congressional race.

(Community Matters) Thomas Friedman warning that the entire Middle East could explode – Obama’s Nightmare. This should frame our perspective on CIA and Military “sex scandals” and how we must keep perspective on priorities, enforce order and preserve our best capabilities. I wish Secretary Clinton could be persuaded to stay until the region settles down; we need the best & the brightest in this country engaged right now.

Perhaps the reality of the financial, political and military challenges we face can inspire a patriotism that’ll extract us from petty domestic politics – sure, probably not the far fringe but the rest of us can grow up.

(Community Matters) Vince Young Steakhouse – yum! I’d never been. Tommie & Lynn hosted a few of us for dinner after the Castro reception. 3rd and San Jacinto – generously spacious, extremely hospitable staff and good food. It’s not fancy but it’s a homey, Texas elegant – comfortable. I’ll be back

pic: Lynn, Diane Land, Steve Adler, Ben Barnes, Tommie, Tony Martinez, (Kent Caperton had just snuck out)

(Community Matters) Joaquin & Julian Castro really do hold a lot of my hopes for the future of Texas politics. The Congressman-elect and San Antonio mayor don’t only represent the fastest growing demographic in Texas and the US, they represent the demographic of 30-somethings who grew up and are growing up in a multi-cultural world, who excel academically through sheer will & ambition, who worry about rising tides and healing the planet, about opportunities for everyone, and who understand we grew an unprecedented middle class by investing in human and physical infrastructure and growing industries that provided better than living wages.

Yesterday, Lynn & Tommie Meredith, Patsy & Jack Martin, Steven and I hosted a reception to further introduce these guys to friends. Most had met Joaquin from his time campaigning in Austin. For many it was their first time to meet the Mayor. Joaquin is off to Congressional orientation today. Julian’s ballot initiative won; San Antonians have just agreed to a tax increase to fund early childhood education – talk about investing in economic development

(Community Matters)

here: 1423638

(Community Matters) “Ms. Warren raised a stunning $39 million, the most of any Senate candidate this year, proving that it was possible to run against the big banks without Wall Street money and still win.”  – holy heck. i had no idea

NYTimes

(Community Matters) Mystery Unraveled: How a white, moderate, churchgoing, middle-class, middle-aged woman could vote for Obama

(Community Matters) There is a culture war underway. The war is not among everyone on either side, but it is underway. Extreme fundamentalist Christians want to impose their beliefs on the rest of us and have stooped to lies, trickery and threats. Roman Catholic Bishops, priests, too many evangelical leaders including Rev Billy Graham, Ralph Reed’s Faith & Freedom Coalition and other members of the so-called Christian Coalition organized, cajoled and threatened as never before. And, they lost – lost big, lost every single swing state except for North Carolina – lost by 126 out of 538 electoral votes –  332 to 206 votes, that’s a 61% margin.

and . . . they lost four same sex marriage ballot initiatives, plus senate seats because of male idiots who opine on what a woman experiences during rape and how men should decide what she can and can’t do in the case of pregnancy.

And, yes, there is a coalition of us forcing the government to treat LGBT Americans as full citizens with access to every right offered any other American, preventing governments from telling women what they can and can’t do with their bodies, and who insist on a fair & equitable tax system, compassion & services for those in need, & investments in physical & human infrastructure.

I’m sorry for my friends with more laudable objectives who supported the candidate who didn’t win. That was a bad political alliance. Dump the fundamentalists who’d impose their beliefs on others or start a third party.

Romney declared he would suspend my right to visit Steven in a hospital. You can’t be my friend and support this; you can’t overlook it for some other goal.

written in response to a FB post declaring there is no such culture war

(Community Matters) “The country has a larger problem—’intellectual nihilism'”

hey, not to deny Ds have their own issues, and acknowledging the probabilities were otherwise very low for any president in this economy to win reelection  . . .

“Given that Romney had about as much of a human touch with voters as an ATM, it sometimes seemed as if a hologram were running for president. . . The blogger Steve Benen, who painstakingly curated and documented Mitt’s false statements during 2012, clocked a total of 917 as Election Day arrived – “we’re not going to let our campaign be dictated by fact-checkers”

All politicians lie, and some of them, as Bob Kerrey famously said of Bill Clinton in 1996, are “unusually good” at it. Every campaign (certainly including Obama’s) puts up ads that stretch or obliterate the truth. But Romney’s record was exceptional by any standard.

At the policy level, this is the GOP that denies climate change, that believes low tax rates drive economic growth, and that identifies voter fraud where there is none. At the loony-tunes level, this is the GOP that has given us the birthers, websites purporting that Obama was lying about Osama bin Laden’s death, and not one but two (failed) senatorial candidates who redefined rape in defiance of medical science and simple common sense.

you can’t alienate every minority group in the country (blacks, Latinos, Asian-Americans, gays)—not to mention the majority group, women—and hope to win a national election.

Frank Rich: Fantasyland:Denial has poisoned the GOP and threatens the rest of the country too.

playing so loose with the truth is epidemic. yes, yes, yes . . . there’s lots of it in all politics. but, not as brazen and brash as we just saw by the defeated party. What’s interesting, I think many of the supporters know it and embraced it. One told me, he did and that I should acknowledge I’d do the same for my side. He assumed I already was. I don’t, won’t and didn’t.

no one had any idea how strikingly and unashamedly Romney-Ryan would bring out the etch-a-sketch. what’s interesting, this wasn’t part of one party’s evolution or even a new trend for the country. In the 1994 Kennedy-Romney debate, Romney did the same thing, tacking so far to the left that Kennedy said the next thing we know Romney’s going to announce he’s voting for me

(Community Matters) Axelrod in Politico’s Playbook about the campaign:

CHICAGO – On its final official day of operation, Obama for America headquarters had a last-day-of-school feel as young staffers traded Gmails and hugs during the “offboarding” process of checking out and returning their gear. Then, they walked one last time past the lobby banner: “Respect. Empower. Include. Win.” David Axelrod , the weight of the world off his shoulders after six years on the national stage, had his feet up on his desk. “It’s like the end of M*A*S*H,” he said. “We went through the war together, we had a good time, and now it’s time for us all to go back to civilian life.”

The night before, 800 state and national campaign staffers and significant others had jammed a ballroom at the nearby Fairmont Chicago hotel, a favorite of the Obama traveling press corps. Campaign manager Jim Messina gave one final pep talk. In a private bet on Election Day, the ever-cautious Messina had gone slightly under on President’s Obama’s final electoral-vote count of 332. The ever-optimistic Axelrod was over by North Carolina, which went to Mitt Romney. And the ever-metrics-obsessed White House senior adviser David Plouffe had nailed the total.

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(Community Matters) A 1930’s opulent West Texas hotel being restored in Big Springs, Tx  by Jeff Trigger and team – Hotel Settles.  Steven and I had dinner at Congress Restaurant last night and Jeff was telling us about restoring this hotel, ballroom and bar just 30 minutes east of Midland. Of course, I’ll be staying there and commuting into Midland & Odessa during some of my future trips.