‘Splainin’ East Texas
Customer John lives in the gnawing belly of East Texas and sends us some insight into the pits of hell.
When you can’t understand why people in East Texas keep electing Louie Gohmert, Steve Stockman, and other assorted fools, here’s a bit of a hint: sometimes they just don’t know any better.
Take the local newspapers for example. Click the little one to get the big one or open it in a PDF because we are technologically sassy at The World’s Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.
This is the Tyler Morning Telegraph. It’s an AP story which includes information that there is no evidence that President Obama ordered or even knew about the IRS targeting groups wanting tax exempt status. You would not guess that from the headline, now would you?
And while the story includes the fact that other Presidents may have used the IRS for punishment of their political enemies, the headline indicates that President Obama is familiar to scandals.
When the AP files a story, local newspapers can and do write their own headlines. The same story appeared in the Boston Globe except “Scandal” was replaced with “Allegations” in the headline as did the Fresno Bee, NBC News, and even KTUV. Every other replay of the AP story used the word “allegation.” The East Texas newspaper used “Scandal.”
And they put the story in the “FAITH” section. Yes, they do still have freedom of religion in East Texas: you can belong to any kind of Baptist Church you want to. Why would political news headline the FAITH section of the local newspaper, you ask? Because you have to accept on faith that Barack Obama has cloven hooves.
John promises to keep an eye out for more of this crapola.
Thanks to John for the heads up.
There was an editorial in the Beaumont Enterprise today that used Nixon references and implied it seemed to me other references to real scandals that were much more serious than the current controversies.
1My wife grew up in Palestine. She got the hell out of there as soon as she could. Whenever we had to go there for a visit we called it “Making our annual pilgrimage to the Holy Land”
2Must be the same folks that own the Austin American Statesman. Any challenging facts go in the last paragraph, like the article that said that global climate change really wasn’t such a big deal after all.
3I am an old (very old) newspaper editor of the old school and I can say that headline would never have appeared in any newspaper I was at. Very poor headline writing. At least 3 errors that I see. Well, maybe not errors but definitely very bad style. Now-a-days, quality seems to have gone into the toilet.
4I asked the question about why Gohmert keeps being re-elected on Sat. at a mtg. One of the guys, who publishes a periodical, said that Gohmert is representative of his constituents. Period.
5And it gets my goat….that the TEEVEE media follows the same thing!!! Even CBS…..it’s not ” the alleged IRS targeting” …..they go right ahead and USE RW talking appoints and words, thereby giving CREDENCE to the claims.
I want to tear my hair out!!!!! Frank Luntz should be proud……
6Gohmert definitely knows his audience.
7I think the basest of the Republican base don’t read newspapers. They get their “news” from right-wing radio and fellow true believers.
8Gohmert, Stockman et al. voters = insufficient diversification. And yes, I too believe that these voters rely more on radio and TV than anything in print except when using the local paper for the bottom of the birdcage.
9A friend who is a small business owner was lamenting how bad business is up there. We talked about the atmosphere of fear there & how it has become a self-fulfilling prophesy on the local economy. Pretty sad.
10Of course Obama is familiar with scandals. He was alive while Shrub was in office. Not to mention the TV show…..
11‘splainin’ East Texas: Forget it, Jake. It’s Chinatown.
12As a former ink stained wretch, I agree with mb’s comments. However, the headline is (perhaps unintentionally) accurate. It is a familiar path – this is just another one of the scandals that is a) blown up way bigger than justified, b) by the Other Side, and c) as it turns out, Obama had nothing to do with it. I’d say that’s familiar territory.
I was also quite taken on Sunday by Peggy Noonan doing her best to channel Pat Robertson with her facial scrunches.
13I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am however deeply ashamed of some of the folks that call themselves Christian.
One of the Top Ten Rules (The Commandments) is about bearing false witness…lying. Folks seems to gloss over that one and the one about coveting too.
The problem to me is less about scandal and more about the failure to read, the inability to decode words and the laziness about searching for answers from documents. If folks cared to read they would know that the IRS scandal is one the 1959 IRS agency created when they change the meaning of exclusively to primarily.
A big deal in our Citizens United World of payoffs/political donations is the social welfare organizations that do no social welfare work but hand over hunks of cash to promote the likes of a Rick Perry or Mitt. What a real working legislature would do would be to insist that the IRS refrain from interpreting the law as written by the US Congress and judge the applying agencies or organizations a tax exempt status based solely on the law.
14My name is Sheri, and I live in East Texas. (Everyone say, “Hi, Sheri” and pass the near beer)
15I moved here almost 20 years ago from Wisconsin and was promptly told that being Lutheran was a cult.
So I’m no longer Lutheran. East Texas has turned me full-out atheist.
I love the beauty and the climate. I’ve been asked why most of our friends here local are in the gay community and I say because they’re the only ones not batshit crazy.
We homeschool our son (old hippie homeschoolers, not fundamentalist homeschoolers) and we drive 3 hours each way every Friday to be in a secular home school group so my son can have friends who believe in EVILution.
LynnN:
16East Texans get their news from deacons at the First Baptist Church.
Louie is one.
Hi, Sheri.
17DH grew up in Rusk county. Back in the early 70’s we brought our bi-racial foster baby home for Thanksgiving. The relatives down at the Baptist Church still shun us. The Methodists treated him just like they treated all the other babies in the family.
Get yourself some early Michelle Shock to listen to. It will help you on the days you think you can no longer stand it.
Hi Sheri…I have lived in Tyler long enough to switch from near beer and tea to straight vodka. I didn’t drink much ’til I moved to this area. It is fun sneaking my bottle past the two churches on the corner of my street…but I see the parisioners doing the same thing every Friday. We just smile and wave.
18I’m a storm spotter for the National Weather Service, and when I’m out in East Texas I do find myself wondering how one survives in East Texas if one is gay, or an Episcopalian (or a Lutheran) or worse — an atheist, an intellectual or a liberal!
East Texas can be very pretty. Still, when I’m out spotting storms in East Texas, I keep a handgun in the glove compartment (registered, with a concealed weapon permit). I do NOT feel safe in places like Jasper, Henderson, Palestine, etc.
19I had never spent any time in the ‘real’ backwoods East Texas (from South Texas, but spent years in and around Houston and Galveston, a few pit stops in Vidor/Orange) until a project took me to the Brazos and Grimes county areas. I’m aware of the history.
20A little time in Navasota, it’s alright, different, food’s OK. Moved up the road to Anderson, pulled into ‘downtown’ one morning and thought maybe I was driving onto an old Hollywood movie set.
There was a freakin’ B/W striped-shirted chaingang (all black) moving stuff in and out of an old business building on the main drag across from the county courthouse, complete with shotgun toting deputies (all Anglo) watching over things.
No wonder Chuck Norris lives nearby, probably has Sh!tpants Nugent over for a beer once in a while.
Thought to myself: this is going to be interesting for a while, learned a lot (good people everywhere).
The plantation mentality was pretty strong though (as it can be everywhere, like Lake Jackson, etc.), even went to Plantersville once.