http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/cgi-bin/blogs/voices.php/2007/12/10/treason_on_the_high_seas

In Texas, Kennedy’s 46,000-vote margin was the closest statewide race there since 1948, when Kennedy’s running mate, Lyndon B. Johnson, won a Senate seat by 87 votes (the origin of the nickname “Landslide Lyndon”). Morton’s operatives, aided by local Republicans, uncovered plenty of political chicanery. For instance: In Fannin County, which had 4,895 registered voters, 6,138 votes were cast, three-quarters of them for Kennedy. In one precinct of Angelia County, 86 people voted and the final tally was 147 for Kennedy, 24 for Nixon.

On and on it went. The Republicans demanded a recount, claiming that it would give them 100,000 votes and victory. John Connally, the state Democratic chairman, said the Republicans were just “haggling for headlines” and predicted that a recount would give Kennedy another 50,000 votes.

But there was no recount. The Texas Election Board, composed entirely of Democrats, had already certified Kennedy as the winner.

Meanwhile, on the BBC ticker:

Israeli minister threatens Iran:
If Iran continues its nuclear weapons program, we will attack it, says
Shaul Mofaz,
Israeli transport minister.

And: Crude in NY hits 139/barrel. Biggest one-day rise in history. The system is working!!

Although I’m increasing less sanguine about Obama picking Elizabeth Holtzman for veep, even if she stops calling for his impeachment, if elected.

Now that the ruling Brahmans of the East Coast–whose patriotism and loyalty were beyond reproach–have lost their exclusive hold on levers of power and some folks from previously powerless ethnic minorities are “working toward whiteness” (which has increasingly little to do with one’s skin pigment), we can expect more instances of eager beavers from a minority community attempting to “out-Herod Herod” with such sentiments.

Mention of Corpus Christi reminded me of a constant factor in politics of South Texas since the days of the Felix Longoria affair which is adoption of a superpatriot mantle by some in the minority community who are trying to hustle their way past unmarked power-lines. John Sayles’s Lone Star has a revealing take on this phenomenon in South Texas, including the psychic costs that go with it.

Sad to see, though, descendants of those who once took pride in Zapata and Villa are now willing spear carriers of what Hannah Arendt once called “the most evil forces of our time”, i.e. “imperialistic interests”. This applies to Neoconservatives as well, whose parents’ generation–mostly working class–was rock-solid in opposition to Imperialism, even if other strands of politics in that milieu were less than ideal.

Going forward, it may increasingly be the case that a dissident scion from a secure, long-established ruling class family such as Gore Vidal will come across as a refreshing bearer of truth while a product of the “embourgeoisment” of ethnic minorities such as Sanchez (with others in tow, including some from minorities many haven’t even heard of) will be perfectly happy to mouth–and enforce–verities of the Washington Consensus du jour with a convert’s zeal.