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You are here: Home / Archives for Tom in Texas

Tom in Texas

It Takes a Father

by Tom in Texas|  June 15, 200810:27 pm| 89 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Politics

Obama excoriated absentee fathers during his father’s day sermon today in a speech that sounded eerily like Laura Ingraham, minus the batshit lunacy:

“Too many fathers are M.I.A, too many fathers are AWOL, missing from too many lives and too many homes,” Mr. Obama said, to a chorus of approving murmurs from the audience. “They have abandoned their responsibilities, acting like boys instead of men. And the foundations of our families are weaker because of it.”

Accompanied by his wife, Michelle, and his daughters, Malia and Sasha, who sat in the front pew, Mr. Obama laid out his case in stark terms that would be difficult for a white candidate to make, telling the mostly black audience not to “just sit in the house watching SportsCenter,” and to stop praising themselves for mediocre accomplishments.

“Don’t get carried away with that eighth-grade graduation,” he said, bringing many members of the congregation to their feet, applauding. “You’re supposed to graduate from eighth grade.”

“But we also need families to raise our children,” he said. “We need fathers to realize that responsibility doesn’t just end at conception. That doesn’t just make you a father. What makes you a man is not the ability to have a child. Any fool can have a child. That doesn’t make you a father. It’s the courage to raise a child that makes you a father.”

I have long respected Obama’s unhesitating willingness to say what might be a hard truth for some to hear, particularly when he does so directly to that audience (Note: I’m not sure how many absentee fathers were in Apostolic Church of God on Father’s Day). To me this is further evidence he knows his audience reaches larger than to the group he is speaking to. I also think this is another dog whistle to evangelicals. While I don’t think Obama will take this demographic, he may be able to siphon off enough of them to negate their advantage in erasing his huge leads in young voters and other groups.

It Takes a FatherPost + Comments (89)

Straight Talking in Circles

by Tom in Texas|  May 19, 200810:11 am| 46 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008

Ouch:

Robert Greenwald takes McCain to task for a few of his about faces. Maybe Hillary is staying in to take McCain’s spot when he is forced to drop out?

speaking for me only. I am not saying this to be snarky, but merely to point out that I am not John. Well, actually the last sentence is supposed to be snarky, but not the italicized part.

Link whatcha got. Open Thread

Straight Talking in CirclesPost + Comments (46)

No Scruples

by Tom in Texas|  May 16, 20083:35 pm| 157 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Politics, Assholes, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing

No Quarter’s Larry Johnson has it from a few unnamed sources that a juicy, if completely unseen video of Michelle Obama hating whitey exists. Actually, he does imbed a video, a completely unrelated GOP ad featuring Michelle Obama’s “first time in my life” flub. To spare you from increasing his page views:

I now have it from -two- -three- -four- sources (three who are close to senior Republicans) that there is video dynamite–Michelle Obama railing against “whitey” at Jeremiah Wright’s church. Republicans may have a lousy record when it comes to the economy and the management of the war in Iraq, but they are hell on wheels when it comes to opposition research. Someone took the chance and started reviewing the recordings from services at Jeremiah Wright’s United Church of Christ. Holy smoke!! I am told there is a clip that is being held for the fall to drop at the appropriate time. The last thing Barack and Michelle need is a new clip that raises further questions about her judgment and temperament. Here’s what the Republicans are currently using in Tennessee:

When the ugly video tapes about Jeremiah Wright’s racist ravings first broke Barack Obama told us he could no more disown Jeremiah Wright than his own Grandmother. Well, we all know how that turned out. So will Barack stand by Michelle when the tape emerges of her verbally attacking “whitey?” Republicans, who are otherwise gloomy about prospects in November, recognize that this recording will create real problems for Barack and give them a shot at the White House. It is their October surprise.

Does Barack have an obligation to tell the Democrats, super delegates in particular, about this tape? Did Barack and his campaign do their basic homework and identify this tape as a potential problem? And, more importantly, do they have a copy? Probably better to deal with this issue before the convention rather than wait for October. What do you think?

Which half of the man she married does she hate, exactly? And how hard must it be to hate 1/4 of your own two daughters anyway?

If Johnson dared make this swan dive into the loony end of the pool on MSNBC, he would shame himself out of any appearance on a legit TV network again. On the plus side, he could probably get a cushy gig following Shep Smith on FOX.

No ScruplesPost + Comments (157)

Great Moments in Fake Punditry

by Tom in Texas|  May 6, 20084:06 pm| 29 Comments

This post is in: Election 2008, Excellent Links, Media, Politics

Chris: Isn’t this election just like a great FOOTBALL GAME? I mean, like a great knockdown, drag-out football game, where people are hitting each other really hard and really going at it? Don’t you think it’s just like a football game?

Howard: Not really, no.

Chris: I think it’s just like a football game, I really do. It reminds me of, you know, going to the stadium and seeing two teams just BATTLE back and forth. Only now we’re in OVERTIME! Isn’t it just like an OVER TIME FOOTBALL GAME?

Howard: Again, no. Football is an athletic contest played on a field whose outcome is determined by some combination of physical skill and good luck. This is a presidential primary election, whose outcome hinges on grass roots organization and effective if sometimes duplicitous PR and ad campaigns. It’s, you know, totally different.

Chris: Yeah, but can’t you just see Obama as the cocky young quarterback, who isn’t favored to win, but finds himself with a giant lead at the half? Only now he’s just trying to hang onto that lead, while the original favorite storms back and makes him sweat a little? Huh? I think he’s just like that. Don’t you think he’s like a football UNDERDOG here? A football underdog who kinda becomes the favorite, only to slip a little and therefore regain his underdog status? Isn’t he kinda like a slightly favored underdog?

Howard: What?

Thanks Big Daddy Balls.

Big Daddy Drew is a master of the imaginary conversation. Personally I’m a sucker for these fake conversation with real people type posts. If you know of any classics, post ’em below.

Great Moments in Fake PunditryPost + Comments (29)

Open Thread

by Tom in Texas|  May 4, 20085:09 pm| 34 Comments

This post is in: Sports, Blogospheric Navel-Gazing

Take a break from the battlegrounds for 5 minutes and laugh, Mr. Cole:

And on a different topic, one that relates (however tangenitally) to polical bloggers, Buzz Bissinger (author of Friday Night Lights, a superb book) lost his mind on Costas Live last week in a panel with Will Leitch, founder of Deadspin.com. Bissinger reminds me most of Willie Loman, it’s sad and repulsive all at once.

Opinion columnists and investigative journalism will never die. Without them, there would be no blogosphere at all. The newspaper medium is wasting away. Bissinger’s maudlin musings do not change the simple truth.

My favorite sum up of the dustup comes vie Fire Joe Morgan, in an excellent evisceration, my favorite line is this:

Picking a random blog comment and wielding it as a club to bash “blogs” is like picking a random romance novel off an airport bookstore shelf and saying, “This book sucks. Fuck you, Tolstoy — your medium is worthless!”

Open ThreadPost + Comments (34)

School Safety

by Tom in Texas|  April 19, 20083:59 pm| 50 Comments

This post is in: Religion, Assholes

By way of introduction, Wayne Dolcefino is Houston’s scoop investigative journalist, sort of our city’s version of Carl Monday. He does also expose city corruption frequently, something for which I think he does deserve credit.

In this particular expose, he confronts the founder of Parkway Christian School, which boasts “a program based on Christian character, morals, values and integrity” on its website. Lavern Jordan is outside a La Quinta hotel, rendezvousing with the mother of a girl who wants to enroll her daughter in the academy.

Jordan: “For the uh, enrollment fee and stuff like that, maybe you and I can do something, you think?”

Mother: “Yeah, what, I mean what, what, you gonna wipe out all the fees?”

Jordan: “All the enrollment fees.”

Mother: “All the enrollment fees?”

Jordan: “Three hundred dollars.”

Mother: “So you gonna wipe everything if me and you get together?”

Jordan: “The enrollment fee, yeah.”

Mother: “Ok.”

Jordan: “If you and I get together.”

Mother: “What you mean? I mean, what?

Jordan: “Excuse me and I don’t mean to be so blunt but I am talking about f—— you.”

Mother: “You talking about what?”

Jordan: “F—— you.”

Explain to me again why we need private school vouchers to escape the cesspools our centers of public education have become?

And the school responds:

The school’s office is closed on Fridays, but a public statement regarding the KTRK story was posted on the school’s site that challenges Dolcefino’s “story” for taking bits out of context and not offering Jordan’s wife an interview.

“Mr. Jordan’s apology for his inappropriate language and his asking for forgiveness, along with his refusal to take part in any further actions with this woman was not aired,” according to the statement, which also distanced the school from LeVern Jordan. “He is no longer affiliated in any way with Parkway Christian School.”

“The Parkway Christian School staff wants to remind you that we are all sinners saved by Grace, and we have forgiven Mr. Jordan for his wrong action,” the statement said.

School SafetyPost + Comments (50)

Spirits Blogging

by Tom in Texas|  April 19, 20082:38 pm| 37 Comments

This post is in: Beer Blogging

This is Tito Beveridge, carrying a bottle of the beverage that bears his name.

Tito Beveridge has been a fixture on the streets of Austin and Central Texas for years, nearly to the level of Leslie the transsexual mayoral candidate (image not safe for sensitive stomachs). He is a geologist and UT graduate who made flavored vodka as Christmas gifts for his friends. After having no luck finding financing, he leaped off the edge of a cliff in founding Texas’ first legal distillery, to the tune of $80,000 in debt, 12 maxed out credit cards, and two mortgages. In marketing his vodka, he took (and still takes, as far as I know) a very localized approach.

A geophysicist by trade, Beveridge’s idea of market research was to go into the nearest liquor store and ask them if they sold a lot of flavored vodka. “They told me they couldn’t give it away. They were going to throw rocks at the next guy who came in trying to sell them some.”

What Beveridge learned was that a high-quality vodka would sell much better than some candy-flavored knockoff.

He also learned to trust a woman’s taste:

“They told me that women are much more discriminating than men and that I should make something that would appeal to women.”

He began to see the wisdom in the advice when he noticed his female friends all drank either white wine or high-end vodka. “Women care more about quality than men. They don’t want to drink something that’s going to burn all the way down.”

Beveridge calls on his background as a geologist to explain the difference between men and women’s tastes. “I used to work in the oil fields and I’ve seen lots of guys sleeping on concrete. I’ve never seen a woman sleeping on concrete. Women will complain about the thread count in sheets. Guys are glad just to have sheets. So I thought there must be something to that. I decided that if I could make a vodka good enough for women, then it would certainly be good enough for men. That’s what I set out to do.”

Full disclosure. I have met Tito. I have toured his distillery and done a shot with him on separate occasions. That does nothing to discount the quality of his vodka. It is incredibly smooth, and one of the only vodkas I will drink straight. The advantage is it is about half the price of the other vodkas I consider in its class. If you don’t believe me, another (assumedly) impartial observer opines:

We’re going to go out on a limb and say Tito’s vodka is the smoothest we’ve ever tasted. That’s not to say there’s no better vodka out there, but between the taste and the price, which is an added bonus of a small company with low overhead and no importing costs, we’re Tito’s converts. We can’t think of any reason, barring two broken legs and a restraining order from the liquor store, why we won’t always have a bottle of Tito’s in our cabinet.

Tito’s won the double gold medal at the World Spirits Competition over 71 other vodkas after merely mailing a few bottles to the contest. A double gold is only presented when the spirit in question is the unanimous judges’ choice.

Texans love to support our own. Sometimes this stubbornness flies in the face of taste buds or common sense, but other times we get it right. When it comes to libations, we are doubly likely to prefer local. If you are in Texas, drink Tito’s with pride; if you hail from elsewhere and may have a couple of issues with Texans as a group, try not to hold that against Tito.

Spirits BloggingPost + Comments (37)

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