The Progressive Puppy

Should Amber Alerts be broadened?

The Nuts and Bolts: A note found in the 11-year-old girl's backpack said that she was going to Mexico and would rather be dead than living at home.  So she ran off with her 23-year-old boyfriend Enrique Vasquez, a convicted felon. The fifth-grader's mother said she was surprised to discover that her daughter's boyfriend was an adult rather than a classmate, a fact she learned from school friends.  Police were told that Vasquez played soccer with the girl's father, but her family was unaware of any relationship between the two and he didn't have permission to take the child.  An arrest warrant was issued for Vasquez on kidnapping and probation violation charges.  About a week after the girl left home she phoned her mother (who was at the police station at the time) and told her that she was safe and in Mexico.

Although TPD issued a local Amber Alert, the Texas Department of Public Safety refused to do so.  From the Houston Chronicle:  DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said the case did not meet the agency's statewide Amber Alert criteria because a person must be unwillingly taken or abducted.  "It's one of those things where we have to be very stringent because we don't want to wear out the welcome through the public or news media," she said.  Although the alert was picked up by news outlets and Web sites statewide, it was not carried on any billboards or electronic signs operated by the state.  Tyler police, who issued their alert through a nonprofit contracted by the governor's office to assist with Amber Alert logistics, disagreed with the state agency's characterization.  "Our thinking is this is an 11-year-old girl and he's a convicted felon," said Tyler police spokesman Don Martin. "Yes, we think she's in danger. I wish I could say it was a full-fledged Amber Alert through the state, but we can't get it."

This is tragic story, and I sincerely hope the girl is returned safely and her "boyfriend," if he's ever caught, faces prosecution.  But I tend to agree with the TDPS on this one issue.  Seven thousand people are reported missing each year in Texas, most of them runaways.  If the public becomes overwhelmed with Amber Alerts where a child's life is not immediately threatened, then those children who are in immediate danger might receive less attention than they deserve.  Either way, it's a tough call.    

And the GOP's "New Image" is off and running!

The Republican Party, fresh off its Barack-the-Magic-Negro whistle-stop tour and minstrel show, has selected its first African-American as National Committee chairman. Michael Steele, a former Maryland lieutenant governor, defeated South Carolina GOP Chairman Katon Dawson, 91-77, in the final round of voting among the RNC's 168 members.  From CNN:  For the duration of his campaign, Steele fought perceptions that he was too moderate to lead the party because of his blue-state roots and his former membership in the Republican Leadership Council, a group that sought to curb the influence of social conservatives in the party... With Republicans out of the White House and in the minority in both houses of Congress for the first time since 1994, the new chairman will have an uncommonly powerful role in revitalizing the beleaguered party. "What counts now, quite frankly, is competence more than change," said Massachusetts committee member Ron Kaufman, who backed Duncan's re-election bid. "People want a chairman who can run the building, raise the money and spend it wisely, and that becomes more important to folks than just change for change's sake."  (Kaufman's coded message to The Base:  Don't worry, fundies.  Steele is just here to, y'know, raise money, improve our image with black voters, and [pretend to] sweep up the mess Bush left behind. But we'll still be the same anti-women's health, anti-gun control, anti-science, anti-health care reform, homo-hating party that you've come to love and admire.)

Although some political pundits are saying that Steele's victory indicates a decline in the shrill influence of social conservatives, I am telling you now - and you can mark this down with a Red Crayola - That. Is. Not. The. Case.  Think Progress sees through the veneer:  It’s unclear, however, how much influence Steele will actually have in influencing Republican lawmakers who are proud to be Rush Limbaugh’s ditto heads. Last month, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney told CNN that "the most powerful voices of the party are going to be elected officials in the Senate, in the House, and in governors’ offices."  Those powerful voices are still embracing the hate radio host - who has called Obama a "little black man-child" - as a spokesman for their movement.  And Pam Spaulding writes:  Well, lookee here - the Republicans did decide to go with some leadership color for window dressing - Michael Steele - to try to rebuild a party with a base of aging, white, undereducated bigots. 

From TPM:  Steele's Senate campaign, you may recall, has twice bamboozled homeless people to campaign for him. The first time the "volunteers" never got paid; the second time they were told to hand out literature so misleading, the men were verbally assaulted by the voters they interacted with.  In that literature and elsewhere, Steele has repeatedly portrayed himself as a Democrat. Not by adopting Democratic stances - but by literally labeling himself "Democrat" in the material. That's a curious habit for a guy who's set to run the Republican party, don't you think?

But hey, maybe Steele is just an oblivious sort of fella.  After all, this is a man who defended former Republican Governor Bob Ehrlich's decision to hold a $100,000 fundraiser at a country club that only allowed white members, saying that the club's membership's policies were "not an issue" because "I don't play golf."  This is a man who initially flunked out of John Hopkins University and couldn't pass the bar exam in Maryland.  This is a man who told the Maryland Gazette, "Unless you're gay, you could care less about gay rights. Unless you're a homosexual or a lesbian, it's not going to rise up on your radar screen."   And science?  Steele once compared stem cell research to Nazi experiments during the Holocaust. 

Yep, he's the right-wing man for the job.

Related Post:  Trembling Before the Awe and Majesty of Limbaugh

Related Post:  Sore Losers With Too Many Causes 

Related Post:  Dr. GOPer's Remedy for a Sick Economy

The Agony Column Reviews

It is an irony of human nature that the people who most often seek advice are the ones least likely to take it.  Nevertheless, advice columns have been dispensing wisdom since the middle of the 19th century when they were commonly called ‘agony’ columns (as reading them often proved to be).  People have always been drawn to these gossipy screeds because they provide a fascinating (and blessedly brief) window into the lives of strangers.  Ann Landers and Dear Abby are probably the two most recognized advice givers on the planet, appearing in thousands of newspapers daily - but advice columns in general have enjoyed a resurgence in popularity ever since the Internet broadcast that first bare breast to millions of mesmerized teenagers.

Below we’ve reviewed seven of these online fonts of profundity so that now you’ll know where to find a disinterested opinion on that unfaithful lover, overbearing boss, or nosy neighbor. (Rated one out of five stars.)

Dear Prudence - Emily Yoffe’s columns can be addicting. Her advice on ‘manners and morals’ is both clever and perceptive. I wish I could say the same for the animated videos that occasionally accompany them. Lose the vids, Slate, or hire better animators. ****

Dear Judy - From CheckoutLine.org, this rather macabre offering bills itself as the first online advice column for the terminally ill (and their friends and relatives).  These aren't the most uplifting letters you'll ever read - but the questions posed and the replies given are thoughtful and inspiring. *****  

Dear Mrs. Web - Dreary and provincial, Mrs. Webb offers unimaginative advice to equally unimaginative questioners. There’s a ‘clippings’ section where her website is praised by the right-wing nuts at  World Net Daily. That alone should tell you where her buns are buttered. Progressives beware. **

Since You Asked - Cary Tennis at Salon is probably the most reflective advice giver of the bunch. The letters he receives are long and published without any apparent editing - and his responses can be even longer - but Tennis always tackles readers’ queries in an insightful and amusing manner. *****  

Savage Love - Rude, crude and often hysterical (in both senses of the word), Dan Savage counsels folks with sexual problems and hang-ups. Although the probers’ questions would make a Portuguese sailor blush, Dan’s responses - equally raw - contain enough humor to render them compelling.  (Also, Dan is a devilishly handsome.)  **** 

Dear Uncle Ezra - This column is part of the Cornell Information Network. Although the questioners are mainly attendees of that university, Ezra’s levelheaded advice should appeal to students everywhere. ***

Ask Dog - While ‘Dog’s’ advice isn’t absolutely meritless, his attempts at humor feel strained and sophomoric, which is probably appropriate since his fan base seems comprised of middle schoolers. (And the cadence of their sentences is suspiciously like the columnist’s.)  **

(There's more, including Dear Abby's first letter, after the jump...)

Nashville Sheriff Gets Cozy with White Supremacists

A Nashville law enforcement officer who is often criticized for his heavy-handed tactics against undocumented immigrants recently addressed a gathering of white supremacists in his home state.  Davidson County Sheriff Daron Hall spoke at the Middle Tennessee chapter of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC), a white nationalist hate group that describes blacks as a "retrograde species of humanity" and "genetically inferior."

And guess what?  Hall claims he didn't know that they were racists.  From the Southern Poverty Law Center:  Karla Weikal, spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said the Middle Tennessee CCC asked Hall to talk to the group about his immigration enforcement program. She said Hall often speaks to private groups about issues related to the sheriff’s office and was not aware of the CCC’s racist beliefs...  (Yeah, right.)  But critics of the sheriff’s handling of immigration enforcement said Hall should have known better. "I am shocked that he would appear before such a group," said Nashville immigration lawyer Elliott Ozment... Fellow Nashville immigration attorney Mario Ramos agreed. "For Sheriff Hall to be speaking in front of a hate group shows a severe lack of judgment," he said. "I think the citizens of Nashville will be outraged that he spoke before this kind of group."

In 2007 Davidson County began participating in 287G, a program that gives local agencies the authority to enforce federal immigration law.  Hall took to that like a possum on a crapper, saying it would help him go after undocumented immigrants who are "dangerous offenders."  But that was just Hall's hot air.  Of the nearly 3,000 people arrested during the program’s first year, half were nabbed for minor traffic violations such as driving without a license, according to an analysis conducted by The Tennessean. 

So what kind of a gung-ho badass is this guy?  Last July a pregnant Mexican woman was arrested by the Sheriff's department and charged with careless driving.  Juana Villegas gave birth to her child while chained to the hospital bed.  From the New York Times:  By the time Mrs. Villegas was released from the county jail six days later, she had gone through labor with a sheriff’s officer standing guard in her hospital room, where one of her feet was cuffed to the bed... County officers barred her from seeing or speaking with her husband.  After she was discharged from the hospital, Mrs. Villegas was separated from her nursing infant for two days and barred from taking a breast pump into the jail.

What a stellar example of law enforcement.  It's not surprising that Sheriff Hall has a soft spot for white supremacists.  I wonder if there are other hate groups beside CCC to whom he offers words of encouragement.

Zina Saunders takes on the CEOs

ProPup pal Zina Saunders kindly allows us to use her illustrations to accompany some of our stories - and when it comes to political illustrations, nobody - nobody - does it better. You may not know that Zina is not only a talented artist, she also maintains a blog that we highly recommend. Below are two of her recent works, Piggy Banker and Miracle on Wall Street, dealing with the greed and arrogance of America's financial barons.

From Zina's blog:  What's happened to the $350 billion of our money that Bush handed out to the banks back in the fall? That bank bailout costs $1,100 for every man, woman, and child in the country...  If we’re going to throw this much money — remember, $350 billion is half the bailout — if we’re going to put that kind of money into the banking system, we should get much more leverage. And the one other thing I think is really important, you’ll notice that in the entire debate over the bailout, nobody has really tried to make the point or ask the question: is spending $700 billion, a trillion dollars, giving it to the banks, is that the best way to improve our economy?  And for the second image Zina writes:  A reprehensible miracle occurred on December 29th when John Thain, top dog at Merrill Lynch, conjured up $4 billion in bonuses for all his little elves. It was their reward for leading the powerful brokerage to the brink of bankruptcy: the company had lost more than $27 billion last year. Thain made sure his busy little helpers got their due by rushing the bonuses through a few days before he turned the company over to Bank of America.

Zina's illustrations have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, The Progressive, ESPN magazine, Hemispheres, and The Utne Reader.  Her client list includes Chronicle Books, Simon & Schuster, Random House, Scholastic, Oxford University Press, and Nickelodeon.  So you can see why The Progressive Puppy is thrilled to be associated with her - even if only tangentially.  The woman has The Gift.   (images courtesy Zina Saunders © 2008)

Starfish Memories

My partner and I have decided we won't be rebuilding our home that was destroyed by Hurricane Ike.  It's just too expensive an undertaking.  We'll always have fond memories of Bolivar Peninsula - but it's time to let that part of our life go and move on.

This is one in a series of videos I made during our ten years on the beach: