Monthly Archives: February 2013

(Community Matters) A National Intelligence Estimate — a report summarizing the consensus views of U.S. spy agencies — has concluded that the United States faces a sustained cyber-espionage effort undertaken largely by China and aimed at stealing commercial secrets. Much of the Chinese effort has been directed at U.S. companies — including finance, information technology, and aerospace firms — and the report concludes that the hacking constitutes a threat to U.S. competitiveness. Washington Post

HT: Foreign Policy Magazine

(Community Matters) We are one of the fastest growing metropolitan areas in the country, and we’ve prioritized density of development over sprawl. I’m sympathetic to neighborhoods’ nostalgia about quiet, slow traffic, lazy streets, and we shouldn’t expect quiet major thoroughfares – or even ones safe for 3 year olds to cross on their bikes. I’m glad we’re moving to council districts so neighborhoods will have representation with greater accountability while other members will act in the broadest, greatest interest for the entire city.  AAS: Burst of Growth Raises Hackles in Brentwood.

sorry, but I don’t at all get letting a 3-yo  cross Koenig on a bike (w/ or w/0 training wheels). We’ve had to install lighted pedestrian crosswalk on Guadalupe. We probably should do so in many other neighborhoods. And, we should better enforce vehicle speeds.

(Community Matters) Original Sin Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people, I had a chance to read and have extracted several summarizing quotations.

. . . the Calhoun revival, based on his complex theories of constitutional democracy, became the justification for conservative politicians to resist, ignore, or even overturn the will of the electoral majority.

There is a strong sectionalist bias in these efforts. They flourish in just the places Kevin Phillips identified as Republican strongholds—Plains, Mountain, but mainly Southern states, where change invites suspicion, especially when it seems invasive, and government is seen as an intrusive force.

Continue reading →

(Community Matters) Surprised Austin isn’t on the favorable list. Texas has three cities on the least literate list.

HT: Huffington Post

(Community Matters) The Nation: Judith Butler’s Remarks to Brooklyn College on BDS

Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement is a non-violent movement, the largest Palestinian civic movement.

So the first critical and normative claim that follows is that the state of Israel should be representing the diversity of its own population. Indeed, nearly 25 percent of Israel’s population is not Jewish, and most of those are Palestinian, although some of them are Bedouins and Druze. If Israel is to be considered a democracy, the non-Jewish population deserves equal rights under the law, as do the Mizrachim (Arab Jews) who represent over 30 percent of the population. Presently, there are at least twenty laws that privilege Jews over Arabs within the Israeli legal system.

Judith Butler is a Jewish American post-structuralist philosopher, contributing mostly in the fields of feminist philosophy, queer theory, political philosophy and ethics.

(Community Matters) The New Republic: Original Sin Why the GOP is and will continue to be the party of white people.

Playbook: “History, with its repeated instances of racialist political strategy dating back many decades, only partially accounts for the party’s electoral woes. The true problem, as yet unaddressed by any Republican standard-bearer, originates in the ideology of modern conservatism. When the intellectual authors of the modern right created its doctrines in the 1950s, they drew on nineteenth-century political thought, borrowing explicitly from the great apologists for slavery, above all, the intellectually fierce South Carolinian John C. Calhoun. This is not to say conservatives today share Calhoun’s ideas about race. It is to say instead that the Calhoun revival, based on his complex theories of constitutional democracy, became the justification for conservative politicians to resist, ignore, or even overturn the will of the electoral majority.

“This is the politics of nullification , the doctrine, nearly as old as the republic itself, which holds that the states, singly or in concert, can defy federal actions by declaring them invalid or simply ignoring them. We hear the echoes of nullification in the venting of anti-government passions and also in campaigns to ‘starve government,’ curtail voter registration, repeal legislation, delegitimize presidents. There is a strong sectionalist bias in these efforts. They flourish in just the places Kevin Phillips identified as Republican strongholds-Plains, Mountain, but mainly Southern states, where change invites suspicion, especially when it seems invasive, and government is seen as an intrusive force.”

Admittedly, I’ve not yet had a chance to read more than Playbook’s summary. But, I will on the drive home – comments to follow.

(Community Matters) A speech focused on restoring economic prosperity to the middle class, with investments in education, infrastructure, clean energy and manufacturing.

I wish he’d talk to the American public and simplify some of the information w/ charts & graphs such as

………

…..

Americans have to understand, we’ve never been able to fund our national obligations at a revenue yield of 16.9%, the lowest since 1959, which was before Medicare & Medicaid. We’re not talking about irresponsible spending, we’re talking about irresponsible funding – even with 35% corp tax rates and 40% personal rates, too many pay zero or less than 20%, respectively.  I was unsuccessful in finding a revenue yield chart.

We should show the deficit against a proportional representation for 1) revenues lost from the Bush tax cuts, 2) unfunded medicare prescription program, 3) unfunded war on Iraq, 4) unfunded war on Afghanistan, and 5) monies used to bail out banks & insurance companies.

(Community Matters) Charles Blow on suicide conservatives in the New York Times

(Community Matters) Internet sensation, hacking of Bush family email accounts. The pics obtained and now circulating are rather interesting – it’s another side. I sorta like the the self portrait in the tub.

(Community Matters) Steven and I are wrapping up my 52nd birthday week with friends celebrating Mardi Gras in Fredericksburg. My dear friends Joe Cloud & John Wallace are chairing the Fasching Ball, that starts tonight at Boot Ranch and culminates tomorrow night with a roaring, cabaret celebration at the Hangar Hotel. Amy Rudy and I are driving out early to play in Fredericksburg. Diane Land & Steve Adler, Kim & Kyle Hughes and Sandi & Bob Tomlinson are joining us for the weekend and all festivities.

(Community Matters) Enjoyed meeting HRC’s new Pres & CEO, Chad Griffin, last night at Walter & Sandra Wilkie’s super luxurious abode over dinner for potential major donors. The event was co-hosted by Lynn & Tommie Meredith, Steven & me, Jeff Eller, Heather Luecke, Todd Canon and Meghan Stabler.

Chad & Paul Begala were the main speakers. Super attendance by many major donors and HRC prospects. Steven and I joined Melba & Ted Whatley and Mark Strama at a table for dinner. Compelling (even if elongated & circuitous) stories and pitch. Chad’s an impressive young man. I’ll bet he’s taking HRC to new heights.

(Community Matters) Bishops Reject Contraception Rule Change – rejecting a women’s right to contraceptives – not surprised this is coming from a group of old men w/ no accountability to anyone but other old men

update: I might stay out of the Catholic Church’s politics if it stayed out of my bedroom. They politically lobby, advocate and organize against my constitutional equality. And, even now, I’m not saying impose these rules on the church itself but the hospitals and universities are primarily public and non-Catholic funded.