If you've ever been in downtown Dallas on a Good Friday, you've probably seen people walking silently, some carrying signs bearing Bible verses, others carrying accompanying signs highlighting statistics on the plight of the poor, the sick and the hungry in Dallas and the state of Texas.
That's Dallas Area Christian Progressive Alliance, a group of theologians and laity, calling upon politicians claiming to be Christians to actually enact policies that improve the plight of "the least amongst us."
Today, DACPA has issued an open letter to Rick Perry, calling upon him to repent, a word which means "go a new way."
Well, this is sad. I've been hoping that Pete Sessions would leave Congress "to spend more time with my family," but, apparently, I'm out of luck. Pete Sessions and his wife of 27 years are separating.
The 56-year-old Texas Republican issued a statement Friday:
"After a great deal of thought and discussion, a decision has been made that my wife and I are separating. I am grateful for many years of marriage, and the blessing of two wonderful sons. I ask for respect for my privacy and for that of my family, and I do not intend to comment any further."
Of course, he can't be reached for comment, and he dumped this news on Friday night. So there's no news on what's behind this--maybe she got tired of him running off to fundraisers at strip clubs or just got tired of him being so damned stupid.
Whatever the reason, he's got some splainin' to do--like it or not--to his right-wing followers who've been lapping up his "family values" message all these years.
On Election Day, I turned down the offer to make calls to out of state voters on behalf of Organizing for America. I didn't even make any calls to Bill White supporters reminding them to vote. I figured that if they didn't know by now from all my previous block walks and phone calls that November 2 was Election Day, they were pretty hopeless and it was time to give up on them and concentrate on our important local races.
My husband and I spent Election Day at our precinct's polling place, standing in the cold rain handing out push cards for a candidate you've never heard of, Judge Jeff Rosenfield, Dallas County Criminal Court of Appeals No. 2, reminding people to vote for him and all the Democratic incumbent judges that we worked so hard to sweep into office in 2006.
Would a bunch of Rethuglican't trolls come out from under bridges all over Dallas County in large enough numbers to vote out some excellent incumbents as part of some misguided slap at "Obama Pelosi?" Not if I could help it...
When the GOP picked Pete Sessions to chair the NRCC, residents of the gerrymandered 32nd congressional district wondered, "Has the Republican Party completely lost its mind?" We broke out the popcorn, sat back, and waited for the GOP to implode. Pete Sessions' latest lapse in judgement: backing a candidate who likes to dress up as a Nazi.
Despite repeated campaign promises to always be in the District on weekends, Pete Sessions is working overtime today to kill health care reform.
His latest outburst on the House floor drew "a burst of chatter" in the room, kind of like it does in bi-partisan settings here at home when Sessions gets stuck for an answer and says the first thing that comes to mind, usually a tangent about "socialism" or "Nancy Pelosi."
In his latest gaffe, Pete Sessions defended the insurance industry's practice of charging higher rates to women, comparing the practice to charging higher rates for smokers. Transcript over the jump...
(Really? Huh. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
Pete Sessions was one of the first members of Congress to co-sponsor John Boehner's bill, H.R. 3571, to cut off Federal funding to "Any organization that has filed a fraudulent form with any Federal or State regulatory agency."
The bill was intended as a "de-fund ACORN" measure, but Democrats figured out right away that the broad wording of the bill could also cut funds to a long list of military contractors, effectively defunding the "military industrial complex."
Progressives who don't know Pete Sessions have taken his his statement about disruptive town hall meetings out of context, as if he were challenging the screamers to "bring it on." But those of us in the District know that Pete Sessions is a coward. Re-read the Politico article and you'll meet a man who pines for a fantasy town hall meeting that never existed, where only "15 or 20 of your friends show up." But in today's town hall environment he's in his element. The screamers are his base. In this video, he answers a woman's health care concern by throwing them some red meat:
I'm not an artist--not "that kind" of artist, anyway, the kind who makes makes a statement with brushes and paint. My artwork is pretty much limited to photoshopping our senators heads on sheep and stuff like that to make a few people laugh.
But when Decorazon Gallery announced a call for entries for the Farewell Shoes for Mr. Bush exhibit, I just had to submit these comfy protest/blockwalking shoes, painted with dates and events of rallies, protests, vigils and campaigns. I call it "Off The Couch, Into the Street":
Follow me over the jump for the really creative works...
A version of this diary was cross posted at Daily Kos.
Out here in the lonely boondocks of the gerrymandered 32nd Congressional district, no one does polls, so I have no hard data to back up my optimism about Eric Roberson's chances for winning, but today, I saw yet another hopeful sign that things are going our way--the Dallas Morning News' endorsement of incumbent Pete Sessions.
Their praise of Sessions is almost "dog whistle" politics against him. Follow me over the jump, and let's take a look at what they said, and how this is a win for us...
