no rich white person who shoots a minority person will go to prison in the gun-loving states.

I don't know the details of the Walmart shooting in Arizona yet, but it leads me on in my obsession about open carry laws. The video currently tied to the story on Huffington Post says the police are trying to figure out what led to the shooting. At least there will be video, one would suspect, from Walmart security cameras. What if there is no clear evidence that the victim in any way could have physically threatened the perpetrator? What if the perpetrator only says, "I thought s/he had a gun so I used mine." Will this stand up in an Arizona court as similar shootings have stood up in Florida?
And in Wendy Davis' dream of open carry in Texas, what could go wrong? One thing I'd predict is that there will be instances of unarmed people standing up to people who are armed. I mean expressing a political or religious point of view that offends a gun-toter. Gun-toter says something along the lines of 'take it back.' Unarmed says 'hell no, it's my right.' Blam.
If the perpetrator is white, especially if they're rich and the victim is Hispanic or black, especially if they are poor - well who the hell is going to jail? The police might not be able to "figure it out." The prosecutor, not able to interview the dead victim, says 'it's too cloudy - no charges.' Is this the world a Democrat will bring to Texas? Is this the world that Republicans will be emboldened to bring, especially now that a Democrat raises the issue? Wendy Davis is a nightmare. I'm sorry she won the spotlight.

I just emailed Lloyd Doggett, a progressive Democrat running for U.S. Congress:

I was saddened to go to your website and not see a stand against open carry laws as Wendy Davis supports. I think it is a tragedy waiting to happen and an issue that most Democrats do not want. You can ignore my disgust since I am not currently a Texas resident, but I think all support of expanding gun rights will hurt the party in the long run and a Davis governorship will inspire other Democrats in other states to use this wedge issue. In my lifetime, at least before the 1980s, I associated Democrats with large, overarching, brave stances on social issues. For Democrats to support the NRA mentality is a tragedy.

Michael Dunn joins George Zimmerman as harbingers of Wendy Davis' gun-toting America.

So Michael Dunn is not guilty of first degree murder? Now we add listening to loud music to walking at night as potential invitations to getting killed, not ignoring the two young men's main crime - being black.
What cause do you most accept that Democrats as a party do not embrace - the environment, economic justice, free elections, gun control? It makes no difference, Democrats as a party are not there for you. There is some wiggle room, I suppose for both the jurors in the trials I refer to and the Democratic Party. Jurors are charged to apply laws as they exist at this time. They may not have approved of Michael Dunn's actions, but they might have felt he acted in some sense within a law of which they disapprove. Democrats may, in their hearts, want gun control, living wages, etc., but, I suspect, they believe that their own personal re-election is the most immediate issue, so that they can eventually support what their hearts say is right. It is this belief we must prove wrong.
The descent of this nation from Jimmy Carter's presidency to today is all the proof we need that the Democratic Party is as much the enemy of progress as the Republicans are the engine of destruction. Democrats actively worked for the defeat of Carter and thus, they worked for Reagan. Democrats were not blind-sided by Supreme Court decisions that are geared to make it ever more difficult for democracy to come to the USA. Republican think tanks signal their long-term goals. There are no surprises. Democrats were as timid as the American People were bold in 2008 and 2012. Obama's election was a watershed moment of Populist potential and Democrats let it go down the drain.
To hell with them. I feel strongly that only in the election of a President should we vote for a Democrat. In ALL other races I feel we must send a strong message - vote third party until Democrats wake up! It is for this reason I accept the seemingly inevitability of Hillary and for this reason I hope to God the Democrats of Texas reject Wendy Davis. No Democrat should cross the line. Gun rights cannot be expanded in the United States and Democrats simply cannot be given a successful candidate on that issue as a role model. Please, Texans, chastise Wendy Davis!

Robert Reich is a national treasure.

Here is a link to robertreich.org
a link that will open in a new page.
Right now at the top of this page is his historically correct and common sense essay "Why The Three Biggest Economic Lessons Were Forgotten." I first read it on Salon.

Update on 2/15/'14
I am thinking how strange it is that I call Robert Reich a national treasure for writing and saying the things that once were accepted truth or, at least, accepted realities - the idea of paying for war with taxes, the idea that the super-rich must pay more in taxes, the concept of a living wage so high that only one parent need work outside the home ...
Perhaps this is one thing that speaks to how far the US has fallen - common sense is so rare that it has become a national treasure!

The Beating Heart of Texas, part three

Present Day, Austin, Texas

“Dad? Yes, Sissy.”

“This is Emily, the friend I told you about.”

“Oh, yes. Emily, are you enjoying UT? Political Science major, right?”

“Yes Sir. I like UT a lot. It’s such a welcoming place. There’s so much more diversity than I expected to find down here.”

“Yes, you’re a Yankee from Hudson River country, I hear.”

“Yes Sir. From Beacon, New York.”

“Pete Seeger country.”

“Oh yes, he was my neighbor. You know about Pete then?”

“He’s no less than my number one American hero. He stood up to the most insidious threat our nation has faced – the McCarthy-era House Un-American Activities. Committee.”

“Have you read what he said to them? I read the transcript again for a paper.”

“Oh yeah. I remember he told them that to ask him about his politics or his religion was wrong. He wouldn’t tell them who was present when he gave concerts, and he refused to verify that he may have sung at Communist Party meetings. Instead he offered to sing the same songs then and there.”

“That’s sure the gist of it.”

“I grew up listening to my Dad sing union songs.”

“She sure did. Sissy could sing along with “Hold the Fort” and “We Shall Not Be Moved” while she was still in kindergarten.”

“I got in trouble in Junior High singing class for telling the teacher about Woody Guthrie after we sang “This Land Is Your Land.”

“Ha. She sure did. Her mom and I faced down our own little Un-American Activities Committee on Parent-Teacher Conference Night.”

“I didn’t say the Pledge of Allegiance for two years in Junior High.”

“Really?”

“Oh she sure didn’t. Another conference. I pointed out that she had always said it before her teacher questioned her family’s patriotism. And, I informed them that I wouldn’t stand for anyone forcing her to say it either. Her teacher’s ignorance temporarily robbed her of the feeling she used to get from saying the pledge. If a Junior High can’t teach reasons why a girl should love her country and instead try to bully her into saying it, they can go to hell.”

“Dad.”

“Well.”

“Ha Ha. You guys are sure not what I think of as Texans.”

“Well, there are more free-thinkers in Texas than you’d think. I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church, First Baptist in Amarillo, and our preacher Winfred Moore stood up to the Southern Baptist Convention when they started to change the free- thinking Baptist style to the dictatorship they are today.”

“Sissy said you’re still a Baptist.”

“Yes, I am. We are affiliated with a group that still believes in Baptist tradition. We have an unfortunate name, Texas Baptists Committed.”

“That’s funny.”

“I’m afraid so, but the beliefs are right-on. And here we are in conservative Texas standing up to the big corporate style of the Southern Baptist Convention Baptist fascists. We intend to “surround hate” and force “it to surrender,” just like Pete Seeger’s banjo.”

The Beating Heart of Texas, a short story, parts one and two

Lampasas County, Texas, 1875

“Where are you goin’ Daddy?”

“I’m goin’ to a meeting, Sissy.”

“That meeting like the one you go to late at night?”

“How you know about that, girl?”

“Oh, Daddy, I lay in bed awake when the dogs carry on, and I hear you leavin’.”

“How you know it’s me then?”

“Oh, Daddy you think Mama’s goin’ sneakin’ out? Or Bubba and “Charley? You sayin’ that?”

“No, honey they wouldn’t sneak out. Your Mama’s too good a woman and your brothers know I’d tan their hides and hang ‘em in the smokehouse with the other hams.”

“Oh, Daddy, go on.”

“I’m goin’. And honey, I won’t be goin’ to those late meetings any more. They got too silly for me. Anyway, this meeting’s way more important. We farmers are going to ban together into one great Union.”

“But we’re Rebels, Daddy.”

“ ‘Course we are. No, all us white farmers are goin’ to fight the big boys who don’t work, but sit around all day thinkin’ a ways to steal our money.”

“You mean the banks, Daddy?”

“That’s good Sissy. Yes, banks, railroads, combinations, and those ranchers with their gun-totin’ killers they pretend are cowboys.”

“I know, Daddy. I’m more scared a them than I am your n…ers.”

“Sissy, I’ve done changed my mind about them boys and I’m through usin’ that word and you are too.”

“Why, Daddy?”

“There’s no use in stirrin’ up the hornet’s nest, Sissy. We lost the damn war. Old Sam Houston warned us and we didn’t listen. Now the Republicans and their government paid boot-lickers are the enemy.”

“I heard you say the other night you’d vote for a yaller dog before you’d vote for a Republican.”

“That’s right, honey. They don’t work. They just use our taxes to pay for the army and railroads and banks. They let the ranchers use thousands of acres of land that ain’t theirs. And the damn ranchers own the water. Water put on this earth by God Himself! And they think they can own in and kill us for bein’ thirsty. I’d like to take their big war hero General Grant and stick him down here in Texas on a dry land farm.”

“He’d try to grow tobacco for his cigars. Cigars make people sick.”

“I hope they make him sick, Sissy. I surely do.”

And Daddy went out into the clean air of Texas, the beating heart of Texas where people work for their money and stand by their beliefs. And, by God, did not their beliefs make eternal sense? That night he and his neighbors formed the Texas Alliance, the first of the Southern Alliances, the precursors of the National Farmers’ and Laborers’ Union of America. In 1889 a convention in St. Louis formed that one great Union which, in turn, evolved into the Populist Party.

                                                     ...

The present day, Austin, Texas

“What are you readin’, Daddy?”

“Why, Sissy, I’m reading the Cross of Gold Speech.”

“What’s that?”

“It’s a famous speech in American history, Sissy. We studied it in high school back in my day, but it’s probably illegal to teach it now in Texas.”

“Are you kidding?”

“Only a little. You don’t know it, probably, but Texas has outlawed a lot of history. At least the teaching of that history. It’s like they passed laws against ideas the damn Republicans don’t believe in. It’s not just like that; that’s exactly what they did. They passed laws against the teaching of the truth!”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes. The truth. Just like in China or the old Soviet Union or Cambodia. Texas is not the same place I grew up in. It’s not a free country anymore.”

“My teacher says Texas should be a country again. Could we drop out of the United States?”

“It feels like we already have. But, seriously, no Texas would be crazy to try it. This country fought a Civil War the last time. And Texas lost that war just like Sam Houston warned we would.”

Sam Houston was against the Civil War?”

“Oh yeah. Your granddaddy taught me that.”

“The one who named his daughter Sissy?”

“Yep, you know. That’s why we call you Sissy.”

“You loved your granddaddy.”

“You better believe it. Why I grew up thinking all old Texans were like him. There’s so many things he believed in that have changed since George W. was governor. The old Texas died is what it feels like. You know, Granddaddy was against carrying guns around. He didn’t like gun racks in pickups and he’d never believe that a Democrat, a woman, a mother, no less wants to bring back the Wild West days and let people walk around with guns.”

“You mean Wendy Davis?”

“Yep. She is for something that your granddaddy once bragged was a sign of Texas’ growin’ up – that a man could walk anywhere in the state without facing down some gun-toting thug.”

“But I thought she was the great hope of Democrats winning back the state.”

“Honey, if that’s what Democrats want to do, I’m through voting for Democrats.”

“Who would you vote for?”

“Hell, I guess I’ll have to write in names, probably Jim Hightower.”

He’s funny.”

“Yeah, and he’s right on, too. No, it’s another thing your granddaddy wouldn’t believe. That I could not bring myself to vote for a Democrat. He was a yellow-dog Democrat.”

“What’s that?”

“Someone who would vote for a yellow dog before even thinking about voting for a damn Republican.”

“That’s pretty funny.”

“Thing of the past. There ain’t a dimes bit of difference between a damn Republican and a Democrat like Wendy Davis. Sure she’ll get votes from some folks because of some things she says she's for, but she’ll sell us all down the river just to win an election.” 

it's time for a new short story - the birth of the Texas Alliance for power to the people. Part One.

Lampasas County, Texas, 1875

“Where are you goin’ Daddy?”

“I’m goin’ to a meeting, Sissy.”

“That meeting like the one you go to late at night?”

“How you know about that, girl?”

“Oh, Daddy, I lay in bed awake when the dogs carry on, and I hear you leavin’.”

“How you know it’s me then?”

“Oh, Daddy you think Mama’s goin’ sneakin’ out? Or Bubba and “Charley? You sayin’ that?”

“No, honey they wouldn’t sneak out. Your Mama’s too good a woman and your brothers know I’d tan their hides and hang ‘em in the smokehouse with the other hams.”

“Oh, Daddy, go on.”

“I’m goin’. And honey, I won’t be goin’ to those late meetings any more. They got too silly for me. Anyway, this meeting’s way more important. We farmers are going to ban together into one great Union.”

“But we’re Rebels, Daddy.”

“ ‘Course we are. No, all us white farmers are goin’ to fight the big boys who don’t work, but sit around all day thinkin’ a ways to steal our money.”

“You mean the banks, Daddy?”

“That’s good Sissy. Yes, banks, railroads, combinations, and those ranchers with their gun-totin’ killers they pretend are cowboys.”

“I know, Daddy. I’m more scared a them than I am your n…ers.”

“Sissy, I’ve done changed my mind about them boys and I’m through usin’ that word and you are too.”

“Why, Daddy?”

“There’s no use in stirrin’ up the hornet’s nest, Sissy. We lost the damn war. Old Sam Houston warned us and we didn’t listen. Now the Republicans and their government paid boot-lickers are the enemy.”

“I heard you say the other night you’d vote for a yaller dog before you’d vote for a Republican.”

“That’s right, honey. They don’t work. They just use our taxes to pay for the army and railroads and banks. They let the ranchers use thousands of acres of land that ain’t theirs. And the damn ranchers own the water. Water put on this earth by God Himself! And they think they can own in and kill us for bein’ thirsty. I’d like to take their big war hero General Grant and stick him down here in Texas on a dry land farm.”

“He’d try to grow tobacco for his cigars. Cigars make people sick.”

“I hope they make him sick, Sissy. I surely do.”

And Daddy went out into the clean air of Texas, the real Texas where people work for their money and stand by their beliefs. And, by God, did not their beliefs make eternal sense? That night he and his neighbors formed the Texas Alliance, the first of the Southern Alliances, the precursors of the National Farmers’ and Laborers’ Union of America. In 1889 a convention in St. Louis formed that one great Union which, in turn, evolved into the Populist Party.

this article from the "Guardian" tells the Wendy Davis tale well

Here is a link to the Guardian story. Yes, the story set me off to write the blog immediately below this. I clouded how I might actually feel about abortion as a women's health care right. Abortions, if pursued from the point of view of a health issue could be rare and safe if they were legal and incorporated into hospitals and not these stand-alone clinics which are the targets of phony "Christians."