Unconventional women

Conventional blogging — (8/22/08) A New York Times headline* (in the Fashion and Style section) reads: “The Year of the Political Blogger Has Arrived.” Many bloggers raised money for the trip to Denver on their websites. But getting credentials has been a big challenge for less well known, less well-off political blogs, such as Pam’s House Blend and Phillip Anderson’s the Albany Project. But both of them managed somehow to do so because of generous readers. Others with more clout, such as Matt Stoller of Open Left, fared better.

There are two kinds of blog credentials, says the NYT. “The first is a national credential, which offers the same access granted to members of traditional news media organizations. The second, more coveted credential is the state blogger credential. It allows one blogger per state to cover the convention alongside its state delegation, with unlimited floor access.” Or they can hang out at The Big Tent. To quote further:

This year, both parties understand the need to have greater numbers of bloggers attend. While many Americans may watch only prime-time television broadcasts of the convention speeches, party officials also recognize the ability of bloggers to deliver minute-by-minute coverage of each day’s events to a niche online audience.

. . . But some bloggers see the procurement of credentials as less of a privilege and more of a right, in recognition of their grass-roots influence.

. . . One perk that bloggers will have access to in Denver is the Big Tent, an 8,000-square-foot two-story structure adjacent to where the convention is being held. For a $100 entrance fee, 400 credentialed bloggers will be allowed to enter the air-conditioned space, hosted by a coalition of progressive blogs and organizations and sponsored by the Web sites Google and Digg, where they can eat meals and find work spaces with Wi-Fi.

. . . Among the devoted readers who believe Mr. Odum deserves their donations is Nate Freeman, one of two Democratic candidates for lieutenant governor of Vermont. Mr. Freeman, 40, gave about $100 to Mr. Odum’s laptop fund, and said he would contribute $50 for Mr. Odum’s convention trip. “Barack doesn’t need my 50 bucks, Mr. Freeman said, but John does.”

Texas Politics reported that a “San Antonio lawmaker has a prime convention spot. Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, a co-chair of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, said she just found out she’ll be chairing the gathering on Wednesday.” But the entire Texas delegation did not fare as well. They got snubbed in the general seating. “When it comes to seating at the Democratic convention, Texas is no Idaho,” according to Trail Blazer’s blog at the Dallas Morning News. Perhaps it will help that Governor Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas was to have been the speaker at the Texas delegation’s breakfast meeting Monday, according to DemConWatch.

My blog friend Fayrouz In Dallas wants us to know this. Her path is “The Pursuit of Happiness.” She has become a U.S. citizen. Congratulations, Fay!

My blog friend Txsharon at BlueDaze wants this — “Obama/McCain: End America’s Oil Addiction, ” partly because of this: “Big Oil. HUGE Money. ENORMOUS Influence.”

From WE/WeCanSolveIt.org., an 8/4/o8 e-mail from Cathy Zoi also decried the huge Exxon profits. She said:

Last week, Exxon Mobil announced record profits — at the same time that the rest of us were paying record high prices at the gas pump. It doesn’t need to be this way. Our energy prices don’t need to be this high. If we repower America and generate 100% of our electricity from clean sources within ten years, we can bring our energy costs down.

A lot of people are surprised when they find out how quickly we can make this transition. We’ve built a fun quiz to help show the way. How well do you know America’s energy? You might find the answers surprising.

Texas has always had a reputation for gutsy women. We will see some of them at the Democratic National Convention this week. And we will also read about it from some good progressive women bloggers who will give us more of the scoop on what is actually happening. I’ll get back to them as the week progresses.

*link from a gutsy woman from New York, betmo at life’s journey

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics democrats convention texas women bloggers oil

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Progressive Texans are on to the “awl bidness”

Happy Birthday, dear Barack. Senator Barack Obama turns 47 today. He took the initiative and gave a major energy speech in Lansing Michigan. With the following Memeorandum headline, Chicago Sun-Times reporter Lynn Sweet set my blog’s energy agenda for today: “Energy fueling Monday’s agenda. Obama, 47 today, acts, McCain reacts.” To quote:

The Obama campaign jumped in first to try to set the storyline of the day, producing a new spot called “Pocket,” hitting McCain by picturing him with oil man President Bush and for taking contributions from “Big Oil.”

The GOP is giving out tire gauges according to Memorandum’s headline, “GOP won’t let go of its new tire-gauge toy.” They are attempting to make a mocking point against Obama’s suggestion that drivers keep tires properly inflated to save gasoline. Meanwhile Memorandum is also reporting that House Republicans are trying to force Speaker Nancy Pelosi to call a vote on the offshore oil drilling question. Their ploy is not likely to be successful, in my opinion.

Texas progressive Alliance Weekly Round Up Aug 4, 2008, by nytexan who blogs at Bluebloggin. The roundup reports threats from Big Oil against my fellow Texas blogger, Txsharon*; efforts to defeat Blue Dogs; and a possible replacement for Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. Some Alliance exerpts:

Last week on Bluedaze , Big Oil threatened TXsharon*. In “Big Oil” Threatens Harm to My “Lovelies” and Me she calls out the abuser and includes a new PR plan that will save Chesapeake Energy millions of dollars and help clean up Big Oil’s act.

Mike Thomas of Rhetoric & Rhythm is critical of a campaign to knock off Blue Dog Democrats , even if it means electing Republicans, all in an effort to punish Democrats for failing to hew the line on certain progressive issues.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones is going to run for U.S. Senate if and when Kay Bailey Hutchison vacates her seat to run for Governor.

Texas’ fierce opponent against energy corporation exploitation of the oil crisis — Her point is that House Republicans grand stand play is rather easy to penetrate. “Off Shore Drilling: Fool Me Once, Fool Me Again and Again and Again…,” by Txsharon* (8/2/08)at Bluedaze. To quote:

Today, I heard people trying to make the case for off shore drilling because, suddenly oil prices dropped and all it took was Bush calling for off shore drilling.

. . . Maybe if you think real hard, you can remember another time or two when oil suddenly and mysteriously dropped. Hint: Just before the last two elections. . . This is manipulation and speculation.

Another fierce advocate, Firedoglake’s Blue Texanventures snarkily that, “McCain’s Solution To High Gas Prices Is To Obey Those Making Record Profits Off High Gas Prices” (7/23/08). Barack Obama, meanwhile, is talking about reviving the “windfall profits” tax. Quoting the post conclusion:

He’s gonna go with the appeal to authority logical fallacy … to oil executives? That’s like asking child molesters what we should do about kiddie porn. Memo to the McSame campaign: people really, really hate oil companies. Pimping their agenda is politically retarded.

Progressive Texans are all over the corporate greed coming out of the “the awl bidness.” Exxon made record profits this past quarter. At the same time Texan Boone Pickins is looking to make a profit from the wind “bidness.” And the big wind, Hurricane Edouard barrels down on the Texas Gulf Coast. Things are not so quiet in the Lone Star State these days.

*Bonus from Txsharon - fabulous and unusual pictures of a Texas cloud.

Additional References from Propublica:

1. “Expansion of Pipeline Stirs Concerns Over Safety: Natural-Gas Grid Increasingly Reaches Into Sensitive Areas.” By BEN CASSELMAN at the Wall Street Journal, August 4, 2008.
2. “Texas: Report Faults BP on Refinery,” from the AP at The New York Times, 7/29/08.
3. “Government Could Lose Billions to Oil Industry on Royalties,” by Joaquin Sapien - May 28, 2008 original in Propublica.

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

Technorati tags: news news and politics politics obama energy oil prices texas blogs

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Electoral politics in Texas

Texas Elections Explained (again) — With 32 U.S. representatives and 2 U.S. senators, the total of 34 electors makes Texas the second largest electoral vote state (California first) in the nation. Texas is the only state that holds a primary that is a combination of precinct elections, followed by caucuses after the polls close. I voted and then attended my caucus. Senator Barack Obama was my pick. For those who do not understand, try Texas Demystified! Delegate Allocation and Caucus Process Flow Chart, via TXSharon. Also, this from the Texas Observer includes great graphs that show how many Republicans voted in the Texas Democratic primary: “Poll “Positions: How McCain Supporters Skewed the Democratic Primary Results” byLeland Beatty | May 30, 2008 | . To quote:

In the aftermath of the Democrats’ huge primary . . . speculation about whether the results had been tainted by Republicans encouraged by Rush Limbaugh to vote in the Democratic primary for the candidate they hoped would be weakest in the general election.

. . . First-time primary voters and crossover Republicans (those who had previously voted with the GOP) surveyed by the Observer between May 8 and May 19 preferred Barack Obama over Hillary Clinton by small margins. But John McCain also claimed a significant share, and about one of seven remained undecided.

McCain supporters, our poll revealed, made up 9.4 percent of the total vote in the Texas Democratic primary. Clinton’s margin of victory was only 3.5 percent. (The poll has a margin of error of 2.7 percent.) We can’t say that the McCain ringers in the Democratic primary changed the outcome, because we don’t know for whom they actually voted in March. But it is clearly possible.

Texas Democratic Party Convention Covered – I did not go to the convention. So Texas Kaos is the site to find all the latest on the state party’s convention that took place this past weekend, even “Hillary’s Concession Speech,” for those who missed it. For more extended coverage,(6/7/08) BlueBloggin’s “nytexan” has all the latest on “Ann Richards and Ladybird Johnson,” as well as a video that optimistically says Texas will be blue in November. It certainly cannot hurt to dream.
The general election in Texas is the next event – Isiah Carey’s (5/29/08) Insight headlines that “Baseline poll says McCain sixteen points ahead in Texas . . . When matched up with Obama McCain leads 52-36.” DANGER DEMOCRAT, in “By the Numbers” (5/29/08) says,

. . . Jeremy Barlow used a recent Rasmussen poll . . . Unexpected Close Races: Texas 49 to 43 McCain over Clinton 34 Electoral Votes. Senator Clinton loses a point as compared with Senator Obama v. McCain in Texas, but Texas is still a close race at only 6 points.

Texas Republican running mate? There is considerable talk about the value of McCain choosing Texas Rep. Ron Paul as his Vice President. Conservative blogger Tony Phyrillas suggests (6/5/08) a John McCain-Ron Paul ticket would be a winner.

Senator Obama’s chances of winning Texas this fall are not good. But that does not mean we Texas Progressives will give up our fight. There is much about Senator McCain that is worrisome. Here is a small example. There will be more, of course. John McCain’s Texas friend, Phil Gramm is one of his five campaign co-chairs. A post by Cliff Schecter, June 3, 2008, for Firedoglake was titled, “McCain Advisor/Lobbyist pushed” the most macabre investment scheme[s] ever devised by Wall Street” known as “death bonds.” Quoting from his quote:

McCain’s campaign is already distancing itself from some of Gramm’s other work for UBS: his involvement in attempts to sell financial products known as “death bonds,” which BusinessWeek described last summer as one of “the most macabre investment scheme[s] ever devised by Wall Street.” Not long after joining UBS, the Houston Chronicle reported, Gramm helped lobby Texas officials, including Gov. Rick Perry, to sign on to a UBS proposal in which revenue would be generated for a state teachers’ retirement fund by selling bonds, whose proceeds would in turn be used to buy annuities and life-insurance policies on retired teachers. UBS would advance money to the retirement fund, then repay itself, compensate bondholders and pocket profits when insurance companies paid off on retirees who died.

References to other Texas connections:

• Hagee — Pastor distances self from McCain
• Former Texas congressman, lobbyist Tom Loeffler

(Cross-posted at The Reaction.)

My “creativity and dreaming” post today is at Making Good Mondays.

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