GregsOpinion.com

Funny stuff. At 00:18, you literally see Culberson reach for his talking points. Clearly, he's lost without them.

The audio ain't so grand on this, so here's the transcript:

John Culberson (R-TX): ...it contains provisions that have nothing to do with our troop's survival and safety in the field. To burden our troops with pork, with tax increases, with special provisions that have nothing to do with the war, adds to, I think, the obvious misuse of the process and I urge members to vote against the pork and support our troops.

Obey: I yield myself 30 seconds...I'd like the gentleman from Texas to point out a single piece of member pork in this bill.

Culberson: Does the gentleman yield?

Obey: Yes.

Culberson: Mr., Mr. Chairman, there's a number of un-un-unnecessary provisions in this...

Obey: Name one.

Culberson: Well, why are we separating out, sir, why aren't we just passing...

Obey: (nearly yelling) Name one.

Culberson: Why are we...

Obey: (yelling, finger pointing) Can you name one or can't you? The fact is there is not a single piece of member pork in this bill. You ought to...

(pounding gavel, "time expired")

Culberson: (inaudible)...why are we passing provisions in this bill with tax increases?

(pounding gavel)

"The gentlemen will cease their conversation. The time of 30 seconds has expired. All members are asked to address their remarks through the chair."

Obey: I yield myself one additional minute....and through the chair, I would invite the member to name a specific piece of congressional pork in this bill. He cannot because there is none. He's at least had enough time to read the bill to know that.

(h/t - Barb)

» FWST: Granger: Senate 'possibility' if Hutchison runs for governor

This doesn't come as much surprise as I've always felt that Kay Granger was just about the most underrated GOP member of Congress from this state in terms of statewide appeal. It's worth noting that she was recruited to run for congress by both local parties back when she was mayor of Ft. Worth.

On another note, I'm proud to report that things are back to normal between me & Burka. These things happen when he takes the words of his Republican lunchmates too seriously. For my own two cents, I'll be slightly surprised if KBH resigns before running for Governor. Secondly, I think a contest between her & Perry is a tossup. Third, her intrinsic appeal is vastly overstated. The last time she had a serious campaign statewide was in 1993 and that was a special election. You could make the case for 1994 and I might, for the sake of argument, grant you that. But still ... that's 14 years ago. It's a very different Texas now than when Kay was last seen making her case to Texas voters. She might have what it takes to frighten some top-tier Dems from challenging her, but she's not quite into Lloyd Bentsen status by any stretch of the imagination. All that to say ... she's beatable in November. Especially if she comes home to run for Gov.

It's official ... I have GOT to get to an Astros game to check out Matsui. Just my luck, this conclusion hits me as the Astros are on the road and the best date for a game looks like it's the Sunday after next. Granted, it might be more rewarding to work in a Cubs game ... especially if it means taking over first place in the division.

» WSJ: The Republican Panic

I had to stop and make sure I read this part of the column properly ...

One of Tom DeLay's great blunders, among many, was failing to do anything about health care when Republicans controlled Washington in 2005.

Ya know, I'm as well-versed in Tom DeLay's transgressions as any other Texas Democrat. And I think I can state on that authority that Tom DeLay's lack of a health care bill in 2005 doesn't even crack the top 100 of his blunders.

Oddly enough, Karl Rove pretty much echoes this column (birds of a feather and whatnot). In Rove's take, we're told that basically Republicans and Democrats alike are hurting in the eyes of the voters. It's enough to encourage me to contribute to a poll that pits McCain against Joe Biden just to properly demonstrate the fallcy of this argument. Let's see ... which one has to defend the most mismanaged war in American history? ... or the most incompetent administration since, oh, I dunno, the Harding administration?* ... or a President less popular than gay marriage among illegal immigrants who refuse to both speak English-only and wear a US flag lapel pin while waiting in line at the DMV for their New York drivers license?

I think I'd take my chances with Nancy Pelosi compared to that.

------------------

* - Of course, I recognize the harshness of my tone here and realize an apology is in order. So, to the Harding descendants, I apologize.

Extreme ... reunited and hitting Houston on 8/19. I'd slap up some YouTube to celebrate, but my favorite clip is still the Bill & Ted scene with "Play With Me" in the background as Joan of Arc tears up the San Dimas mall.

» DMN: Teen takes his seat on Bedford City Council (Marice Richter)

Another Trinity grad moving up in the world. Chris Brown is the newest city councilmember in Bedford ... at the ripe young age of 19. That would seem to beat out Todd Smith's early start on the Euless City Council.

Despite his determination and dedication, Mr. Brown still had to overcome a lot of skepticism because of his age.

After all, he hasn't yet voted for president, held a full-time job or bought himself a beer. And he still lives in his childhood home with his mom, dad and 15-year-old sister, Katie.

But those familiar with him have looked beyond that.

"As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter how old you are, if you are honest and willing to do what's right for Bedford," Mayor Jim Story said. "He certainly seems to fit that.

"A lot of people maybe didn't take him seriously, but once they got to know him, they started thinking differently," Mr. Story said. "He's mature, intelligent and wise beyond his years."

Mr. Brown worked diligently on his campaign, including spending several days going door-to-door to meet voters. He also raised about $5,000 - much of it in contributions of $5 or $10 from college friends.

"I'm really proud of that because it takes a lot to get a college kid to give up money that could go for food," he said.

The results paid off, with Mr. Brown sweeping to victory in the Place 6 race with 83.7 percent of the vote. Opponent Jim Wallace, a closed-captioning editor, took 16.3 percent.

So, Hillary's WV win supposedly "doesn't count" since Obama didn't pour in his requisite $20M. Does this mean that Obama's caucus wins count less based on the lack of campaigning by Hillary? And if so, who's really ahead of whom at this point?

HuffPo's Hillary Rosen makes a point on Larry King that warrants some reflection - namely that the Democratic primary is essentially a 51-49 race in terms of the outcome that's shaping up. Considering the mantra circa-2005 that 51% didn't represent a mandate, does that same statement now apply just as equally to Obama?

In other news, Travis Childers managed to pull off the upset in Mississippi. That's a district that went 62% for Bush in 2004, with the NRCC putting down the jack to tie Childers, likely to be one of the most conservative Dems in the House once sworn in, to Pelosi & Obama. No doubt about it ... it is one tough year to defend a political affiliation with George Bush and Dick Cheney.

Something's wrong with the world when I have to agree with Burka this frequently ...

I am among those who believe Obama has not transformed anything. My skepticism is not because of Obama; rather, it is because of politics. The imperatives of democratic politics have not changed since Athens engaged in the first experiment of its kind. The best politicians understand this; the rest wish that the world were different.

If it were mathematically possible to agree more than 100%, I'd be in the quadruple digits. The link above references a Howell Raines article that's on my to-read list for the ride home.

» CQ: Mississippi Showdown to Make or Break Democratic Winning Streak

All eyes on MS-1 tonight. And best of luck to campaign manager, Joel Coon, as the team there looks to extend the offseason run by Dems in special elections. It'll be pretty sweet having a Dem representing Elvis' hometown.

Ezra Klein gives precisely the type of review of the Amazon Kindle that I was hoping to read. Not that it helps move me toward purchasing one any sooner. Like Matt, I'm mostly stuck on the initial pricetag. It might be enough if my fallback use for it was for the internet-ish use it offers, but Ezra offers a rather harsh verdict on the beta browser.

Still, the idea has a lot of potential and it's natural to assume the pricepoint will come down eventually. Of course, as a confirmed book-a-holic, it's just as natural for me to wish that that would be sooner rather than later.

» NYT: An Indie Scene That Comes With a Texas Twang in Denton (Lionel Beehner)

Midlake may be the current poster boys for Denton's indie music scene -- with gushy write-ups in Rolling Stone and cameos among its members for trendy causes like Al Gore's We Campaign -- but they are not the only ones vying for that title. The town's lo-fi sound, a mélange of Southern twang and experimental indie-rock that suggests Wilco and Radiohead, has garnered an eclectic following that stretches from alt-country die-hards and college radio listeners to MySpace fanatics and clubbers in Europe.

At last count, more than 100 bands were polishing their sound in the city's dive bars, rooftop spaces and fraternity basements. Even the local record store, a converted opera house called Recycled, has a section devoted to Denton bands. The bin dividers read like a Lollapalooza T-shirt: Lift to Experience, Centro-matic, Jetscreamer, Vortexas, Robert Gomez, Stanton Meadowdale, Mom, Mandarin, and Matthew and the Arrogant Sea, to name just a few.

Not bad for a college town of 110,000, prompting more than a few music industry insiders to call Denton the next Austin.

Trust me, if you're reading about the Denton music scene in the New York Times and Guardian, it's not exactly a well-kept secret. Still, I think the charm that exists for the scene is a direct outgrowth of the town itself - well-populated by the geriatric set, but with a sizable college infusing it. That's not exactly the makings of the next glam rock scene, so it makes sense that you'd get the style you do out of Denton.

Whatever it leads to, I'm not so much worried about the commerciality of Denton music as I am the pretentiousness that seems to have existed in the Austin scene. If they avoid that, more power to 'em ... whatever they're playing. Oh, and I think it's natural to acknowledge Todd Snider as the prophet of telling us when a good thing has officially gone bad. Much in the way he did back in the 90s with this song:

» WaPo: Some Heroes Want to Get Real (Mike Musgrove)

I was curious how this would play out ...

Though real musicians often regard rhythm video games like Guitar Hero with a dose of suspicion, if not contempt, it's tough to ignore a phenomenon that has created $1 billion in sales while getting young people excited about the thrill of hammering out rock-and-roll chords -- even if it's only on a guitar-shaped game controller.

The folks at Middle C aren't the only ones trying to lure video-game fans over the gap between the game and real musical instruments. Earlier this year, the International Music Products Association, a trade group, announced that it was partnering with Guitar Hero's publisher, Activision, in a marketing campaign to promote music lessons. Music instruction company Hal Leonard Publishing even offers a Guitar Hero book featuring transcriptions of the same David Bowie, Aerosmith and Nirvana songs featured in the games.

And some entrepreneurial tinkerers are trying to come up with ways to lighten some of the tedium involved in learning to play an instrument, plugging real guitars into computer games that are similar in spirit to Guitar Hero.

Though I've long since disqualified myself as an active guitarist, I share the disdain for any flipper-based game passing itself off as guitar-related. Oddly enough, I've got too many sour memories of how throwing a tennis ball around as a kid ruined whatever faint glimmer I might have had of playing baseball into high school. Likewise, the thought of flipping to "Crazy Train" doesn't exactly strike me as a serious refresher course for getting my chops back on that song. I'd rather work my way up with a quick reminder of some Ramones/Bouncing Souls material.

Now THAT makes me want to pick up a guitar!

» Media Matters: So now the press tells candidates when to quit? (Eric Boehlert)

I'm not the biggest Eric Boehlert fan in the world, but dang if this isn't just the best read of the day. And even though Boehlert uses his trademark (too-)broad brushstrokes, there is something to be said for the suddenly applied standard that the media is attempting to game the system and make the same demand of Hillary that the fictional Amityville house made of it's famous inhabitants.

Mind you, we've seen this before with the Florida recount ... another instance in which the MSM almost universally accepted the GOP premise. But I'm sure that since both of these instances involve media bias that operated against Democrats, it somehow won't fit into any of the propaganda that perpetuates the myth of a liberal media.

» NYT Mag: Vote Like Thy Neighbor (Bill Galston, Pietro Nivola)

Reading this article serves as my reminder to pick up Bill Bishop's long-anticipated book on political self-segregation. I'm a sceptic of his thesis (you can review the Statesman's archives for some detail on this), but I'm curious enough to see what there may be to the research that's gone into this. For the diehard enough, there's also the Brookings variation that the authors of this article allude to (Part 1, Part II) ... to which, I've only found time to review but a small part of this work.

The question marks I take into this idea is that if you look at some examples in this great state of Texas, there are some curious datapoints that aren't immediately answered by Bishop's theory that we're all moving next door to folks who vote like us.

One, is Dallas County. In reviewing the precinct-level data for the 2006 outcomes, I was a bit surprised at how Democratic the northern part of the county has grown. Part of that culminated in the election of Allen Vaught as State Rep. But you've also seen the Irving/Dallas seat formerly held by Steve Wolens now represented by Rafael Anchia - a sign that the Hispanic migration in the area is now culminating in strength at the ballot box. These showings have yet to migrate all the way north into Collin County, but even if you look at parts of Plano, the pattern is there. Now, there may be something to Bishop's thesis in that the pattern seems geographically continuous. Put another way, a precinct seems more likely to grow Democratic or Republican if it is situated next to a precinct that has a supermajority of same.

Another is Williamson County. The conventional wisdom - as captured by Burka (who else?) - is that this is all due to Austinites moving to the 'burbs and securely packing their "liberal values" with them. I think that's entirely too reductionist to be accepted. Yes, there is some migration of this pattern, and there's no doubt that it accounts for a part of this. But the plural of anecdote isn't data. The drivers for population movement to the suburbs seems to get overlooked in that shorthand. For instance - among the reasons you commonly hear of people that move to the suburbs are the schools. Last I checked, that's a critical role of government ... and one that is presently driving a wedge between GOP activists who disapprove of public education in greater numbers than traditional Democrats. Fort Bend County is another instance of this, albeit one behind the curve witnessed in Williamson. Still ... again, the patterns are relatively contiguous in terms of geography. Sugar Land extends from Missouri City and Houston ... WilCo extends from Austin.

The final question is Travis County. The county that voted for Bush over Gore and Kerry over Bush. There's a part of me that hates to view this trend in terms of county-level data, but it tends to be the most consistent over time. As one who's had recent fun with precinct-level data, it'd be a major pain to try and do a more extensive job ... at least out of this one-man data shop.

So with those questions, there isn't exactly a complete refutation of Bishop's argument. But it's enough in my mind to go in as a skeptic. Brookings covers numerous examples of societal forces that drive polarization - forces that operate relatively independently of geography. I'll be interested to see how that gets incorporated into Bishop's book.

But as one who's looked at Harris County on a precinct-basis from 1990 on, what strikes me about Harris County is that there is what might be categorized as a wave pattern that responds to the political cycle at any given time. For instance, the area that goes up Highway 290 and southwest along 59 are areas I've highlighted in the past as areas that recede and regroup as Democratic precincts. That indicates an inate level of Democratic strength in those areas (which may support Bishop), but it also demonstrates that geography is by no means destiny (and therefore refute Bishop).

ADD-ON: Forgot to add this as a Harris County question. But, on a broader scale, it would be curious to see how Bishop handles the question of Harris County being a one-time Democratic county at the local level (say, 1972-1990), only to flip to a one-party Republican county, and now back to a resurgence as a possible swing back to the Democratic column over the coming few years. I guess, in part, that's no different than the swing precincts that wax and wane red or blue. But the forces that drive this are maybe easier to distill at a county level - migration, immigration, economic growth varying by region, etc ....

This may be the saddest minute in media coverage of this entire Presidential campaign. It bears pointing out that with this bit of evidence, the media are now - literally - riding Obama's jock.

One more datapoint that shows Texas as being in play at the Senate level.

The most troubling sign in all of this for Cornyn is that his own number is hovering below 50 in both recent +4 showings. He's still got a sizable money advantage and I'd expect him to start showing some signs of genuine concern. It'll be interesting if he goes up on TV during the summer, when voters aren't paying much attention to campaigns.

As for Rick, I say just chip in a dime or two and see how far it goes.

Not certain yet, but I believe I may be headed out of town for most of the day. So, instead of offering up some well-formulated pithy thoughts, I'll simply offer up a short list of must-reads and some tunage to get through the day.

» NYT: For the Democrats, Signs of a Possible Changing of the Guard (Adam Nagourney)

» Chron/NYT: Amputee goat finds a friend in amputee animal activist

» Prospect: The Elusive Politics of Reform (Ezra Klein)

» Newsweek: The Rise of the Rest (Fareed Zakaria)

Sadly, no summer dates for Patty Smyth/Scandal in this area. Bummer.

A little more digging and here's two important updates, which I think warrant massive blog attention:

1. Lynam ... apparently the Dio/Stevie Nicks thing? Bogus. To which I say "Well played." Darkness should have been this effective at starting rumors about the band. Still, the band looks and sounds good. So I'll show up early.

2. Lynch Mob ... apparently they ARE touring with Oni Logan on vocals. To which I say "AWESOME!!!" I guess the weirdo-rock phase he's been in is now on hiatus.

Not a bad deal if you ask me.

I wonder if this is what they mean by running on hope. 0% in in NC and they're calling it for Obama. Clinton up by 14 (19% in) ... "too early to call." Yeah, the MSM sure does love them some Clintons.

UPDATE: Heh ... Crowley posits one theory as to how the early NC call helps Hillary.

UPDATE 2.0: Rutenberg covers some of the drama inside the media bubble on calling Indiana.