Category Archives: Uncategorized

(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.

(Community Matters) Appears there’s increasing consensus about the need to invest in Texas’ physical & human infrastructure. Bill Hammond and the Texas Association of Business’ calls for a regressive tax increase targeted at consumers. Will Perry oversee the most regressive tax increase in the history of Texas or find a better way to pay for these investments?  One thought – individual property owners are negotiating up to 25% royalties on oil & gas leases while the State Texas is still accepting only 12.5%, and not always collecting even that.

(Community Matters) no one has to do anything for tax rates to return to Clinton-era levels  . . . let it be.

If the GOP House & Senate minority refuse a tax cut for America’s middle class, that’ll be their albatross in the 2014 elections

(Community Matters) It appears our church has a new leader, Bishop Justin Welby has been appointed the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual head  of 77 million Anglicans.

Given his engagement in British corporate and financial ethics, I’ve had a flash in parallel with Pope John Paul II and Eastern Europe. The world can use divine spiritual intervention in corporate governance at this time in history.While concerned by his conservative stance on same sex marriage, I so like what else I read about his politics and spiritual compass, I’ll trust in his evolution as he prays over equality.

update: changed elected to appointed

(Community Matters) They lost the four statewide, anti-gay marriage initiatives and their top 5 candidates were defeated . . . this on top of failing to unseat the four Republican NY state house members who voted for marriage. I think I hear NOM’s founder, Maggie Gallagher, singing . . .

(Community Matters) Every year Austin entrepreneurs, investors and their friends come together to raise money for Entrepreneur Foundation (AmpilfyAustin.org) member company programs and another nonprofit. Last night 200 friends gathered at the Driskill, raising nearly $150k. Matt Briggs won the tournament and designated LifeWorks as recipient of the night’s grant.

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thanks to our co-chairs: Amy Chronis, Brett Hurt & Kevin Lalande . . . as well as to our sponsors: Deloitte, Mercedes-Benz and Square One Bank. Blue Lapis Light performed at the event.

(Community Matters) It was wrong to cut taxes during two wars and it’s wrong to extend the tax cuts. I agree w/ Nobel Prize-winning economist, Paul Krugman and with a majority of Americans that we should let the GW Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans expire. The President should not be blackmailed by 233 House members, though I hope he’s able to find a compromise that doesn’t involve their extension.

Arguments that allowing rates to return to Clinton-era levels will decimate job creation have been debunked.

(Community Matters) Reading blogs, newspapers and Facebook postings, I’m reminded that our country is served well by at least two strong political parties. I take no comfort in the decimation of one, except admittedly to the extent one party stands united in denying me constitutional equality, or united in financing even more tax cuts for the rich at the expense of social and other services for those in need, or united in denying women the right to make their own medical & contraception decisions. Fortunately, the party that lost last night is not united about these objectives. Unfortunately for them, their primary system forced too many candidates into Faustian bargins and the American people remember. Our country is better served by debates and compromises between two parties.

To those at either political extreme, you are in the minority and will increasingly lose elections promoting extremist agendas. This country is no longer single culture dominant. We embrace the richness of our diversity, equality of opportunity, fiscal & personal responsibility, and attention to what ails our planet.

I could be wrong and maybe a Republican will again win the presidency in my life time, but I don’t think so – unless (& I hope they do) current party activists and elected leaders compromise and contribute to solutions dealing with immigration, a revenue model which reestablishes at least Clinton era tax rates & fairness between earned & investment income, and a spending plan which further eliminates waste and invests in physical and human infrastructure.