Pre-Lobby Day postpourri

-- Don't worry; Dick's OK. Apparently he set a world record in the 100-meter dash, but nobody was injured in his escape.

-- The stock market had a meltdown today. It was the worst single-day retreat since 9/11, and it was due to a belief that Chinese economic growth will be limited by an inability to secure raw material (as well as the lemming-like fear that stocks are over-valued). Since my business is driven by stock-market contrarians, if this trend continues I'll have another good year.

-- Robert Eckels is being threatened by the king of all Republicans in Houston:

"This decision (selecting the next judge of Harris County) is extremely important to whether the base will get behind Eckels if he runs for higher office," said County GOP Chairman Jared Woodfill.

Pop some corn. This ought to be a hoot. More:

Alice Rekeweg, a precinct chair from Kingwood, said some GOP activists are so upset that Eckels appears to be backing Emmett as his successor that they would not support the county judge in a run for statewide office. "It's a possibility some people will hold a grudge," she said.

No, it's not, Alice. You're all as full of shit as a Christmas turkey; you'll fall in line behind whoever is the standard-bearer just like you did when Shelley Sekula-Gibbs ran for Tom DeLay's -- nevermind.

Is that popcorn ready yet?

Update: Houston Consigliere has more.

-- Jon Matthews goes to jail. Once one of the most rabid right-wing talkers in Houston, even his longtime sycophants locally have finally been forced to abandon him.

-- We are raising an entire generation of narcissists. What a shock.

-- Tomorrow I'm in the state capital for Planned Parenthood's Lobby Day. Here's our report from two years ago (the last time the Lege was in session). Update: Sam Jones has more on the "Prevention First!" legislation filed by Rep. Mark Strama and Sen. Kirk Watson.

Breaking: Supreme Court awards Gore's Oscar to Bush

... and one more toon for Monday ...

Sunday Funnies

There's a new sheriff in town

Stetson tip to the Texas Observer.

What to do in Houston this weekend

-- See all of the Oscar-nominated films tomorrow on a $30 AMC pass. Babel is first at 11 a.m., and Little Miss Sunshine wraps up the marathon at 9:45 p.m. Since that's more than 12 hours of movie-viewing, the theater chain will throw in a large popcorn and soft drink, with free unlimited refills all day. Passes are available at amctheatres.com or the box office of any of the AMC multiplexes around Houston.

-- Go to the MoFA and see French masters Picasso and Degas, on loan to the only gallery outside of New York for a very limited time.

-- Support one of the bars and restaurants in the downtown entertainment district. They're having a rough go of it.

-- Take in the touring production of Twelve Angry Men, with John Boy Walton and Norm from Cheers, at the Hobby Center. The Houston Press even liked it.

Update (6 pm): To those of you have inquired about my father-in-law's surgery, it was successful. He's out of recovery and in ICU.

The Kos cattle call: Clinton, Obama, Edwards

My own thoughts after hearing Obama last night is that there is a slight little something missing -- I don't know, call it 'gravitas', without the negative connotation the word has always had for the current White House occupant, who remains a lightweight to this day. The senator from Illinois is a very good speaker but not a powerful one; his "rock star" reputation precedes his actual onstage presence IMHO, but he has the competence and quiet confidence to be the man. In any case, Markos has the cogent insight:

... (his) take on where these candidates sit in the race today. My long-term prognostication remains -- I think Obama will win this all by the time votes are counted. But what do I know?

Last month's rankings: 1) Obama, 2) Edwards, 3) Clinton, 4) Richardson, 5) Clark, 6) Kerry, and then everyone else.

THE TOP TIER

1. Hillary Clinton

Her announcement rollout was masterful. She leads in the national polls which, while not indicative of much, is helpful for fundraising and media buzz purposes. She leads all early New Hampshire polls and several of the Iowa ones (though numbers are all over the place suggesting that no one knows how to poll these early states, this far out).

Iraq is already giving her fits, and will present a long-term problem for her campaign. But for now, most people are blissfully unaware of her Iraq record.

2. Barack Obama

He has parried off the early attacks skillfully and is getting a great deal of traction on Iraq. He's drawing thousands to his rallies, hinting at a Dean-like popular phenomenon in the makings. He's got huge support in the Facebook world, and is he's neck and neck with Edwards in the Daily Kos straw poll showing strong and growing netroots support.

Oh, and the money will be there. Lots of it.

3. John Edwards

Boy, that blogger stuff wasn't his campaign's finest hour. They betrayed a lack of preparation, foresight, and basic vetting. They were pushed into "bunker" mode by the rantings of Bill Donahue, giving little confidence they'd be able to withstand a serious attack from the VRWC. Then, the campaign leaked like a sieve -- were the bloggers fired or not? Then, the campaign did the right thing and held tight on the bloggers, but didn't tell them they shouldn't blog elsewhere. A couple of days later, the bloggers resign anyway, giving the right wingers a scalp.

The good thing is that this happened so early that it won't register as even a blip in a few months. And hopefully the campaign learned some good lessons out of this.

Otherwise, the Edwards campaign appears to have been overshadowed by the battle of titans between Hillary and Barack. It's not a bad thing for Edwards to see the two front runners beat the shit out of each other while he safely stays out of the fray.

THE SECOND TIER

4. Bill Richardson

Put aside his hokey desire to have the candidates make a pledge to campaign only positively (those things never survive the heat of battle), Richardson is quietly building up support and raising money. In the dKos straw poll, he's the only candidate to gain every one of the last five polls. (Of course, when you start at 1 percent, that's easier to do...)

Of all the announced candidates, Richardson has the greatest potential to break into the top tier.

THE REST

5. Tom Vilsack

Coming out in favor of social security price indexing was rather odd for a Democratic candidate.

But he's the former governor of Iowa, so that might count for something.

6. Joe Biden

His announcement week was a nightmare.

7. Chris Dodd

His remarks at the DNC and AFSCME cattle calls were generally well received.

8. Dennis Kucinich

Ugh.

9. Mike Gravel

I'm not sure what Gravel thinks he's bringing to the table that isn't being covered by other, viable candidates.

10. Wesley Clark

He's not even in the race, has no operation, and his public profile is fading as the rest of the field takes center stage. This is the last time I include him in either the straw poll or cattle call unless he announces. He's bleeding support in the Daily Kos straw poll as people lose interest and move to other candidates. Given that his big mistake in 2003 was waiting too long before entering the race, it's crazy to think that he's going to make the same mistake again (and the race is definitely accelerated this year). So I'm starting to assume he's not going to run.

Some of this I agree with wholeheartedly, some -- as with his dismissal of Kucinich -- is just typically arrogant Kos. I'm not as certain as he that Obama will be the nominee as I write today. Biden ought to be the first one to drop out, even ahead of Gravel. Vilsack will quit after his home state loss and endorse Hillary (surprise). Update (10 am): LOL --or maybe a bit sooner.

At this point I don't know what General Clark could be waiting for, either.

Update II (3 pm): Chris Cillizza's line is nearly identical. He places Dodd in fifth, and ranks the Repubs McCain, Guiliani/Romney tied for second, then Brownback and Huckabee.

Update III (4 pm): Kos explains his "ugh".

Remembering DJ

Dennis Johnson skywalking in 1979, with the Seattle SuperSonics.

He passed away yesterday outside a basketball court in Austin, stricken by an imponderable illness for an athlete who spent most of his life in top aerobic condition.

In 1987, against the Detroit Pistons in game 5 of the conference finals, "Bird stole the ball!" but it was DJ who took the feed and put in the layup that won the game and broke the Pistons' backs.

He won three rings, one with Seattle and two in Boston, and was the MVP of the Finals in '79. Larry Bird said he was the best he'd ever played with.

Considering Bird played with HoFers McHale, Parrish, and Walton, that's a pretty high compliment.

Following his playing days he became a coach, for a short time with the Clippers in Los Angeles but with the Austin Toros of the Developmental League when he suddenly collapsed following the team's practice. The Statesman has more on the life of Dennis Johnson.

Rest in peace, DJ.

Yes, it's a pretty crappy picture

And how close did you get to Barack Obama this evening?

John and Martha got just as close and with better cameras. When they post one of their pictures, I'll link ya. Until then ...

Update: Here's Martha's. Hal was there, too.

Ash Wednesday bloggerhea

My father-in-law will have spinal surgery this afternoon. Say a little (whatever you say in this case). Update -- 4:30 pm: Surgery rescheduled for Friday morning.

--These are the photos of ABC News anchor Bob Woodruff's injuries and rehabilitation. Not too graphic.

-- Texans can contact their state representatives through this link and call for a moratorium on the death penalty. I believe even those who support capital punishment would not be in favor of executing innocent men, as Texas has probably done at least three times (their names were Cameron Willingham, Ruben Cantu, and Carlos de Luna).

-- Like Joe Wilson and FBI translator Sybil Edmonds, Jesselyn Radack was targeted by the Bush administration as an enemy of the state. Her offense was that she advised the Justice Department about the ethical restraints that applied to their pursuit of "the bad guys". Bush (and conservatives) like to say they're fighting the "war on terror" there, so we don't have to fight it here. The reality, as Radack makes clear, is that they actually are conducting a war of terror against American citizens here.

-- Senator Tim Johnson has left the hospital and entered a rehabilitation facility, where he will continue his recovery from a brain hemorrhage. My mother Jean, who had her knee replaced last Thursday, has likewise made the same transition from hospital to rehab this week. Now with both a bionic knee and hip, she will soon be able to kick Lindsay Wagner's ass.

Let's go for a walk soon, Mom.

Fat Tuesday postpourri

Tony Soprano, King of Bacchus.

Since I'm an XM subscriber, I hope this is good news.

How dare they expect justice?

D.C. news: A Fort Worth girl makes good. Meanwhile, net neutrality continues to be high-profile. And a military amputee was purposely left off the invitation list to an event with the president because he might have been photographed by the media.

Even John McCain thinks Don Rumsfeld sucked. Of course, McCain is a confirmed flip-flopper, so who knows how long he'll believe this.

Another reason why I'm glad I never had children:

In 2005, when government scientists tested 60 soft, vinyl lunchboxes, they found that one in five contained amounts of lead that medical experts consider unsafe — and several had more than 10 times hazardous levels.

But that's not what they told the public.

Instead, the Consumer Product Safety Commission released a statement that they found "no instances of hazardous levels." And they refused to release their actual test results, citing regulations that protect manufacturers from having their information released to the public.

That data was not made public until the Associated Press received a box of about 1,500 pages of lab reports, in-house e-mails and other records in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed a year ago.

Which of these things is not like the other?


Fucking moron.

Obama, Edwards, Richardson/Clark, Other (probably Gore)

Hillary waaay behind. Biden in last, behind Gravel (LMAO). Clark needs to hurry up and declare before Democrats get enamored with another choice.

Differences between the MyDD and Daily Kos straw polls include a much weaker showing for Clark, a much better showing for Obama, a slightly weaker showing for Kucinich, and a slightly better showing for Edwards. How much of that is due to random error, taking the poll one week later, or the differences in our readerships is difficult to tell.

Four candidates have more last place votes than they have first and second place votes combined: Biden (-30.3), Gravel (-27.7), Kucinich (-11.7) and Clinton (-2.7). Two other candidates, Vilsack (+0.2) and Dodd (+0.9), are just barely positive. Clark comes in at a healthy +19.5, and Richardson is slightly better at +21.1. Edwards finishes in second at +53.2, while Obama places first with +57.2.

Edwards and Obama have such large leads in both first place and second place votes, that it appears either would become the clear netroots frontrunner if the other were to drop out. This certainly makes one wonder if the so-called "anti-Hillary" vote is being split, both online and offline.

Obamarama coming to H-Town