Tag: Texas

Apr 09 2008

A PT Classic: The Republic of Texas, Sort of

* This is from roughly 1996 to early 1997. *

Texas, Our Texas

  As I stumble through life, I have found very few things that I actually believe in, and of those few things, I feel passionate about   even less. But there is one thing that burns in my chest like  border town chili, and that’s the thought of Texas succeeding from the lesser 49 states and becoming the “Shaft” of countries as it was always meant to be. So when I saw that the defacto government of the Republic of Texas” was having their “national” conference, I was eager as a beaver to go. What I was wanting was a spiritual awakening, a cause to fight for, a reason to blow shit up.

  Unfortunately, I received something quite different. Jay accompanied me to this convention. We were gonna cast our votes for war on the “man” that keeps Texas down. The flyer we had said that the entire state of Texas was invited, so we decided to leave early and get a good parking spot. This is the point in the story where things start to take that funny course of events in which I always seem to find myself. The convention was being held at the huge and spacious coffee room of the God damn Best Western. We strolled in to find 28 seats. If everybody from Texas shows up, I think we might need some more chairs. I got this strange  feeling in the ol’ guliver that this was not gonna be pretty.

  The guy in front of me was enthusiastically talking to his comrade in arms. Like any good writer I started eavesdropping and heard some honey of some lines. The first of which was “I don’t like the term militia, it takes all the professionalism out of it.” Out of what??!?

  If you’re gonna start a war, you had better be some form of army. Then he said that some guy in the ranks had promoted himself up a couple of ranks and he felt that he had no power to do this. That’s when it hit me like a jean claude van damme swing kick. These people, all of them, have no basis for their power. Who is he to say who can and cannot be promoted, he has no platform or origin for his rank. I know I wasn’t asked who I thought should be the president of Texas. It reminds me of a high school club gone bad, real bad. The other guy discussed with the eager little fellow how the courts are getting him for mail fraud, and how they have no jurisdiction over him because he is in the Republic of Texas, and that it is a federal court. So basically sir, you can do whatever the hell you want, and if you get caught just proclaim yourself a new nation? Huh?

  I knew the meeting was about to begin when the “real” Texas flag was ceremonially unraveled and taped to a projection screen. Now that’s class. These guys weren’t just being silly, they were being extremely silly. The meeting stalled for a while, not at two o’clock like they said. I guess they were waiting for the roughly 25 million other Texans to show.

  I hit the coffee table. These guys might not know how to throw a revolution, but they make a damn  fine cup of coffee. Then I heard a commotion in the back. Some old man was in the face of a fellow reporter, and thank God not Jay. The elder was using his own brand of logic to try and belittle the reporter. Something to this effect, “You don’t have to have a  press pass and be taking notes and doing interviews to be a reporter. You threatened me. You tricked and then threatened me.”

  The reporter had the classic what-the-hell-are-the-voices inthis-guy’s-head-telling-him look, and she was escorted out of the room. Jay leaned over and said maybe they took her out and executed her. I laughed and said I think these guys are basically harmless as long as they aren’t armed. I looked around and asked Jay, “They aren’t, are they?”

  That line of thought was interrupted when the Secretary of State said he was now gonna take roll. I thought he meant for the people of Texas who were all supposed to be here. That could take a  while. Hope he brought all the phone books to read out of. The sad part is he was actually taking role of the Council, and only 3 of 6 were there. Gee guys, if you’re not gonna show up for your own revolution, then why should I? You just can’t throw together a  revolution like Jell-O pudding. Get organized.



Best pull quotes from the meeting:

 1. “I do this for my life, my wife, and my double wide…”

 2. ” There is not enough money in this here universe to pay off the fines and court charges I have.” I asked him how much, he had a dead pan on his face and shrugged. Not enough money in the universe? Man the aliens are gonna be so pissed.

 3. “…and when them guys who wear all black and fly in on them helicopters come and try and take me away in the night, I don’t want them to see the first lady in her sleep wear, that’s why I make her wear street clothes to bed”

 4. “I mean it to, as long as you is a good ol’ boy, you’re in.” I think  it would take a small town, real small town, good ol’ boy to follow these fools.

   By now, I had become thoroughly disgusted. These monkeys were going on national television soon and they were not only going reflect badly on themselves, but on any true revolutionary group in Texas. These guys are all going to die if they try to start a  war. Their Secretary of War has no military training. Their battle  plans are on the internet for pete’s sake. Plus, I know no one who  is willing to die for this band of idiots. I really wanted to stay for the Q and A session, but when they invoked the image of the Alamo as the way they wanted to go, I had to leave. But I left a better man.

****

Post Notes: A few weeks later, these yahoos would hole up in the St. Davis Mountains in Texas in a broken down old double wide. There would be a shoot out, people and a few dogs would die. And I would make a mint selling Richard L. McLaren’s cell phone number to CNN:

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/f…



One Texas Secessionist Who Fled Into Mountains Is Killed

By SAM HOWE VERHOVEK

Published: May 6, 1997


A member of the militant secessionist group known as the Republic of Texas was shot and killed today in a gun battle with the Texas authorities in the Davis Mountains here.

The man was one of two group members who fled on foot on Saturday, as the police held their fire and as the republic’s leader and four other followers were surrendering. He was killed after both fugitives fired at a state police helicopter overhead and at several redbone hounds that had been tracking them. The other fugitive was not captured.

At least three of the hounds were shot by the fugitives. One was killed, two were expected to survive, and a fourth was missing late tonight, the authorities said.

In Dallas today, a 25-count Federal indictment was unsealed against the group’s leader, Richard L. McLaren, on charges related to phony Republic of Texas checks.

—-

“This indictment sends a clear message to those who try to rip off residents and then ride off into the sunset by wrapping themselves in militia doublespeak,” said Paul Coggins, the United States District Attorney for the Northern District of Texas. ”Don’t mess with Texas.”

God Bless Texas, actually.

Apr 01 2008

Breaking: 30 laws, for the border fence

I see Magnifico caught this story in Four at Four, but tossing this post out there for depth’s sake.

We have to break the law in order to save it.

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration will use its authority to bypass more than 30 laws and regulations in an effort to finish building 670 miles of fence along the southwest U.S. border by the end of this year, federal officials said Tuesday.

Invoking the two legal waivers – which Congress authorized – will cut through bureaucratic red tape and sidestep environmental laws that currently stand in the way of the Homeland Security Department building 267 miles of fencing in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, according to officials familiar with the plan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly about it.

More below the fold…

Mar 24 2008

Austin TX and The Million Musician March

Last Saturday, we met on the state capital stairs to enjoy some music and a little walk around town.

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“In four short years he has turned our country from a prosperous nation at peace into a desperately indebted nation at war. But so what? He is the President of the United States, and you’re not. Love it or leave it.” -Hunter S Thompson on George W. Bush

Mar 12 2008

Congressional Poverty Scorecard – Anti-Poverty Legislation Blocked

On Monday, the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law released its 2007 Congressional Poverty Scorecard. The President of the Center, John Bouman, noted that in states with the highest poverty rates, their congressional delegations tended to score the worst.

“Poverty is everywhere in America, but it is interesting that in states with the highest concentrations of poverty, the Congressional delegations seem least interested in supporting initiatives that fight poverty,” said John Bouman, president of the Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law, which released the study. “This appears deeper than simply opposing spending. A member could have opposed any of the measures we analyzed that called for new spending and still could have voted to support half of the poverty-fighting measures on our list.”

Former presidential candidate John Edwards was also on the center’s conference call with reporters.

“We can get the national leadership and we can get the congressional leadership we need,” Edwards said. “But first voters need to be educated as to who is doing the work and who is not.”

Feb 29 2008

I just got a phone call from an old-fashioned Texas racist

WARNING:

This essay contains multiple usages of a six-letter racial epithet starting with “N,” all of which are found within quotes.

I was at home this evening calling people in Texas for the Barack Obama campaign.  (I stop a half-hour earlier than the campaign recommends, having gotten reamed out a few times by various people for the sin of calling past 8:30 p.m. when all good people have already gone to sleep; I waited to write this diary until then.)  I was finishing up a message on someone’s machine when my call waiting beeped: I was getting a call from an unfamiliar number.  Because I was expecting a call back from a coordinator with the Obama for Texas campaign, I rushed through the end of the message and picked up the call.

Feb 22 2008

In Our Time

I never thought this would happen, not in our time. Not only is Obama starting to pull away in Texas (Even Now), he is slowly becoming a folk hero. Mythos is very important in Texas, it is what we use to counteract the reality of our insane and chaotic ways. But every once in awhile, Texas will drag itself out of the gutter, dust itself off, and do something great.

Long know as “that bastard ass-backwards redneck fucktard state”, the long lumber giant of Texas progressism and populism is finally awakening. While usually the Lone Star goes for some white hooded off the land hick populist, it appears as if the Big Tex is finally shooting straight again like we did with men like Sam Rayburn.

It appears as if the darkness of East Pine woods is in regression, and the glory of the Hill Country is on the wax. It appears as if the spirit of the Lone Star Republic, who has sent such citizens as Barbara Jordon, Ann Richards and to a lesser extent LBJ, has gone hog wild in the hearts of Texans, turning away from the pity and embracing the hope.

It’s been a long time coming.

As the go to political friend, I have been getting emails from people I had long ago written off as closet nazis, raza nationicalists and jusst your basic garden variety Texas idiot, all telling me about this man, who has done captured their heart and mind.

If Texas is Hillary’s last stand, it will not be the Alamo. It will be the Battle of Gonzales. And when the fighting is done, Obama will lead us to Jacinto, where we will steal McCain’s leg and send him stumbling all the way back to Arizona.

Sometimes, a hero does come dressed in black. Let’s ride cowboy. Let’s ride.

Feb 11 2008

Calling out the dogs for Iraq Moratorium #6

Opponents of the Iraq war will ring church bells in Massachusetts, bring out their dogs in Texas, do “peace walking” in a Wisconsin shopping mall, challenge military recruiters in California, hold a peace concert in Connecticut, and take part in scores of vigils and other actions across the country on Friday, Feb. 15,  Iraq Moratorium #6.

The Iraq Moratorium is a loosely-knit nationwide grassroots movement that asks people to take some action, individually or in a group, on the third Friday of every month to call for an end to the war.  Those actions range from simple gestures like wearing a black armband or button to participating in a large-scale protest.

Since the Moratorium began in September, more than 600 events have been listed with the group’s website, IraqMoratorium.org, which highlights upcoming actions as well as reports, photos and videos from previous month’s events.  A full list of February 15 events, and ideas for individual actions, is available there.

Friday’s Austin, TX canine event is aimed at Sen. John Cornyn for “his tail-wagging support for the Bush administration’s policies on the war, torture, and civil liberties,” one of the sponsors, Movement for a Democratic Society, says.  “His dogged defense of President Bush’s veto of affordable health care to millions of needy children has helped to propel him to an approval rating lower than a weenie dog. “Corn Dog” – Bush’s own nickname for Texas’ junior senator! – is the president’s ever-obedient lap dog.”

“We are inviting progressive groups to develop – through canine-related costume, music, and street theater – their own distinctive messages about Cornyn’s flea-bitten record. We are asking people to bring their dogs and/or to come costumed as dogs. It will be lively and colorful, but the message will be as serious as a riled-up pit bull.”  The event will be outside Cornyn’s Senate office in Austin.

“The fifth anniversary of the invasion of Iraq is a month away, and the death toll of American service members is nearing 4,000.  Two-thirds of the American people want this war to end, but there’s little or no movement from President Bush and not much more from Congress,” said Moratorium organizer Eric See.   “We must turn up the heat, and more people every month see the growing Iraq Moratorium movement as a way to do that.  This war’s got to stop, and we’ve got to stop it.”

Jan 07 2008

What Happened to the Oil Law “Benchmark” for Iraq?

I think you’ll remember the much discussed benchmark, the so-called “Oil Revenue Sharing Law”. President Bush has said that passage of the oil law will result in the sharing of oil revenue among all Iraqis and that its passage will help unify the country. The oil law has broad support in Congress among both democrats and republicans. The Iraq Study Group supports its passage as does the IMF.

The legislation of the new Iraqi Oil & Gas Law by the Iraqi parliament has become the most important benchmark of the US Administration, its oil lobbies, the IOCs, the IMF, and the occupying forces. The Bush administration wants this law to be passed as soon as possible, whatever the cost to the Iraqi people.

Source

A year has passed since the landmark deadline of December 2006, for the Iraqi government to deliver the long awaited Iraqi oil law. The Iraqi Parliament has not passed it. Let’s take a look at what has happened.

Dec 27 2007

Is 2007 The Beginning Of The End Of The Death Penalty?

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As 2007 draws to a close, it’s again time for the annual data about executions in the US.  From my abolitionist’s perspective, this year’s statistics are better than last year’s and are trending in the right direction.  But the numbers are especially troubling because they show a concentration of state killing and a continued enthusiasm for it in Texas.

Join me across the wall for the 2007 wrap up.

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