Originally designed to promote the columns of anonymous Republican and Democratic writers, this page is now the home of a variety of columnists which currently include former Republican Party political director Royal Masset, environmental reporter Duggan Flanakin, former San Antonio Light Capitol reporter Ed Sills, and general all-around curmudgeon Edd O'Donnell. Each columnist brings decades of experience to the table.

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R & D By Date

September 5, 2008 1:13 PM

ED SILLS: GOP GUFFAWS OVER ‘COMMUNITY ORGANIZING’ DISPLAY IGNORANCE

Community organizing by evangelicals helped propel Bush to White House

The GOP convention speeches by vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani and former Masschusetts Gov. Mitt Romney threw in snarky references to Barack Obama’s career as a community organizer.

“I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a ‘community organizer,’ except that you have actual responsibilities,” Palin said in a planned laugh line. Giuliani pretended he had no idea what a community organizer does, though he sat across the table from many of them at City Hall. He rolled his eyes and elicited roaring laughter from delegates.

Most of what’s said at conventions falls into the “in one ear, out the other” category in which listeners are fed the lines they want to hear, a collection of current best-sellers, golden oldies and greatest hits. The convention speechwriters have offered a good summary of the 10 or 12 micro-issues that Rush Limbaugh has beaten to death in the last six months. Those who see the backdrop of Obama’s speech in Denver as a linchpin of this campaign – if anything, it ought to draw plagiarism complaints from the folks who designed the one George W. Bush used in 2004 – are too far gone for rational discussion at this point anyway.

But the sight and sound of the delegates laughing at “community organizing” betrayed a tone-deafness that may come back to haunt the Republicans in November.

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ã Copyright September 5, 2008 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

August 25, 2008 5:12 PM

EDD O’DONNELL: NEITHER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE HAS A PRAYER OF MOVING THE 'FAITHFUL' OUT WEST

A cultural dispatch from God's Country.

I’ve just spent weeks touring God’s country – the central states of the American West. When I say God’s country I mean it literally not figuratively. Yeah, there’s plenty of divine handiwork still evident and as yet unsullied by growth and commerce. Purple mountains’ majesty and amber waves of grain are around every bend but that’s not the “God’s country” I’m talking about here.

From Washington east to central Montana and from northern Idaho south into central Colorado, fundamental forms of Christianity are very much entrenched. These are communities where governmental meetings will always open and close with a prayer and no one thinks twice about it. This used to be Bush territory – a general lock for GOP campaigns. Now? Not so much.

Given the seeming far left bent of the current Democratic party campaign one would assume these folks would stand by the GOP and John McCain and view Barack Obama as anathema. Lots of conversations and interviews I’ve had over the miles add up to some attitudes among the “faithful” – both religious and secular – that reflect the nation’s anger, fear and general political ennui. Here are some examples.

Pastor Bob of Coeur d‘Alene, Idaho, (once home to the White Peoples’ Party and church) didn’t want his full name in print. His flock of 700-plus families is a congregation that believes in “manifest” Christianity – if you are a good Christian you will be materially affluent. He took time from making a film about his life to talk.

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ã Copyright August 25, 2008 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

July 16, 2008 4:24 PM

EDD O;'DONNELL: T. BOONE PICKENS WIND, SOLAR SHOW MASKS REAL GOAL

Mark our resident curmudgeon as a decided skeptic when it comes to Pickens'noble goals. After all, O'Donnell reflects, he wants to control our water too

Thank God ol’ T. Boone Pickens has decided to dedicate the rest of his days to the altruistic goal of freeing the nation from the grip of dependence on foreign oil!

The 80-year-old oilman has launched a media campaign designed to sell him as the savior of these great states by leadin’ us out of the wilderness of fossil fuel addiction to the promised land of windmills and sunny salvation. Can I get an “Amen,” Billy Sol Estes?

Apparently while ol’ Al Gore was messin’ around inventin’ the internet, T. Boone was busy discoverin’ that windmills could be harnessed to generators and that sunlight could generate electricity, too. It’s a damn shame us rubes had to wait for T. Boone to make these astonishin’ discoveries until way into the first decade of the 21^st century.

Now, T. Boone’s got us a plan to cover the nation with windmills enough to wear out 10,000 Don Quixotes and solar panels the size of Rhode Island. He probably figures Rhode Island ain’t likely contributin’ much to the GNP. Maybe it would be more useful glassed over.

I haven’t seen television commercials so uniquely laden with unspoken patriotism, selflessness and entre-manure since a 20^th century jug-eared Texas wingnut, Ross Perot, vowed to lead us to national solvency with promises, pie charts and a hearty “Here’s the deal!” He was sidetracked with concerns such as the Klan disruption’ his family’s social events, as I recall.

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ã Copyright July 16, 2008 by Harvey Kronberg, www.quorumreport.com, All rights are reserved

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