Sunday, January 17, 2010

Bloggateering with the Mayor

A few of us local online pundits celebrated with Mayor Annise Parker at La Griglia last evening.



Attorneys Roland Garcia and Neil Thomas sponsored the event, and several of the mayor's staff joined in paying tribute to the Houston progressive blogging contingent who supported Parker's mayoral victory last month.

More photos here.

Update: Join Charles and Stace and David this Tuesday for a post-mortem on Houston's municipal elections at the Houston Area Table lunchtime meet-up.

Sunday Funnies







Friday, January 15, 2010

An open letter to Pat Robertson, from Lucifer

Dear Pat,

I know that you know that all press is good press, so I appreciate the shout-out. And you make God look like a big mean bully who kicks people when they are down, so I'm all over that action. But when you say that Haiti has made a pact with me, it is totally humiliating.

I may be evil incarnate, but I'm no welsher.

The way you put it, making a deal with me leaves folks desperate and impoverished. Sure, in the afterlife, but when I strike bargains with people they first get something here on Earth -- glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake.

Haven't you seen "Crossroads"? Or "Damn Yankees"? If I had a thing going with Haiti, there'd be lots of banks, skyscrapers, SUVs, exclusive night clubs, Botox -- that kind of thing. An 80 percent poverty rate is so not my style. Nothing against it -- I'm just saying: Not how I roll.

You're doing great work, Pat, and I don't want to clip your wings -- just, come on, you're making me look bad. And not the good kind of bad. Keep blaming God. That's working. But leave me out of it, please. Or we may need to renegotiate your own contract.

Best,

Satan

Update: God's presser ...

In the wake of his comments about the earthquake in Haiti, televangelist Pat Robertson has become a "public relations nightmare" and a "gynormous embarrassment to me, personally," God said today.

In a rare press conference at the Grand Hyatt in New York City, the usually reclusive Almighty said that He was taking the unusual step of airing His feelings in public because "enough is enough."

"I pray that his TV show would just go away, but of course, when you're Me there's no one to pray to," God said, to the laughter of the packed room of reporters.

While God held out no hope that Rev. Robertson's "700 Club" would be cancelled any time soon, He did say, somewhat ruefully, "If Pat Robertson were on NBC he'd be replaced by Jay Leno by now."

Some post-debate punditry *updates*

(Hutchison) came out swinging with a smile, repeatedly challenging (Perry's) leadership. He didn't hold back on criticizing her, hard, and defending his record.

As often as they could, the two took the fight directly to each other on issues important to all Texans, including the budget and taxes.

Activist Debra Medina didn't fade into the background, as she well might have, sharing a stage with two powerhouses. She stood her ground and presented her limited-government point of view staunchly, winning kudos from a Hutchison staffer afterward for her command of the facts.

More detail on budget fixes from Perry and Hutchision would have been good. Cut where? How much can you really scrub from the budget without hurting vulnerable Texans.

-- Peggy Fikac of Texas Politics

I agree with Senator Hutchison that Texas future is at risk because we are failing to educate so many Texans. Dropout rates are among the highest in the nation and college tuition has been skyrocketing. ... And yet, in a one hour debate, Governor Perry never accepted accountability for the failures of public education or described how we could improve it and bring down skyrocketing college tuition rates. Our state deserves better than that.

Much of the debate consisted of complaints about the federal government, rather than solutions for Texas.

-- Bill White

(Last night's debate was) a childish squabbling match to see who can be the most far right reactionary candidate. ... Things in Texas are heading in the wrong direction. The cost of health care and health insurance are out of control, the quality of basic public education is falling, and our air, land and water are under constant threat from polluters. We simply can't settle for more business as usual.

It is more important than ever for the other Democratic candidates for Governor to have the opportunity for meaningful dialogue. I hope Bill White will rethink his decision to not debate the other candidates in a public forum.

-- Farouk Shami

Senator Hutchison walks away with a pretty clear win tonight, with a powerful assist by Debra Medina, who now becomes the credible third option in this race in the eyes of everyone watching tonight. And Democrats, of course, walk away from the debate happy -- the incumbent got pounded, the dark horse got a huge boost in credibility, and enough slime got thrown around to make us look forward to the rest of the Republican primary race.

-- George Nasser at The Texas Blue

Governor Perry looked tired and irritated. Senator Hutchison remained calm and collected, while smiling, as she responded to Perry's attacks. Hutchison used a debate style move of posing a question to Medina that was a direct swipe at Perry. Medina made mention several times that the other two would respond as typical politicians to questions. ...

While Hutchison was grilled on her abortion stance, Medina was not asked about her decision to home school her children and only teach creationism to them while ignoring evolution. She believes the age of earth is not settled and that it must only be about 4,000 years old, as biblical teachings direct her. She was asked about her practice of carrying a gun without a conceal carry license, which is legal in Texas. You may be interested in knowing she does not take it into the grocery store.

-- moderate conservative blogger Pondering Penguin

And some non-partisan reporting from Aman Batheja at Poli-Tex. More updates to this post later today.

Update: Burka, excerpted in easy-to-digest small bites.

Maybe the question is: Was there a winner? Well, the format was a winner. ...

... But televised debates are as much about images as about words, and I thought (Perry) looked terrible, even creepy at times. He really looked uncomfortable. Sometimes he wore a frozen grin, sometimes it was a smirk; whatever it was, it transmitted, “I don’t want to be here.” He was constantly on the defensive. When he said how well Texas is doing (in job creation) Medina shot back, You’re using 07 figures. Perry is not very good when he is on the defensive. He is very good when he is on the attack....

Hutchison had one terrible moment. It came when David Montgomery asked about her support for Roe v. Wade. She sidestepped the issue. Other panelists tried to get her to give a straight answer. She handled it so badly that the audience laughed. That is never good. ... If it had not been for the abortion question, I would have said that Hutchison won the debate, but that was a disaster for Hutchison. ...

I was hoping for more from Debra Medina, but I don’t think she made a case for herself as a major candidate for governor. Medina marginalized herself by concentrating on fringe issues, such as open carry (guns), legalization of drugs, and other libertarian positions. ... It seemed evident that she and Perry are fighting over the same constituency on the right.

The campaign will now move to the airwaves. Perry so far has had a huge advantage. His TV is so much better than Hutchison’s, his messages so much clearer. Thirty-three days to go before the start of early voting.

Wayne Slater at the DMN, also noticing the pointlessness of KBH's nuanced position on abortion among GOP primary lunatics voters:

Kay Bailey Hutchison had to convince Republican primary voters of two things in Thursday's debate: why they should boot Rick Perry out of the governor's office and why they should put her in.

The veteran senator offered plenty of ammunition for the first: toll roads, new taxes, school dropouts under Perry's tenure and the dark warning of creeping cronyism in Austin.

But for the voters she needs – the conservative, small-government, anti-abortion party activists who will dominate turnout in March – the reason to pick her seemed a less convincing case.

No issue animates social conservatives like abortion. And for anti-abortion forces in the GOP, Hutchison's views on that always have been a problem.

When a panelist asked Hutchison about her vote against overturning the Roe vs. Wade court decision legalizing abortion, Hutchison rolled out her conservative credentials. ...

The answer – nuanced and reasoned – probably isn't what many in the GOP primary electorate wanted to hear. And those are the voters she, Perry and Debra Medina will be vying for in the primary.

Also check out the "heat index" veracity-checking of some of the claims made by last night's participants at TrailBlazers (Ryan Rusak gets the credit). Lastly, Jason Embry from the Statesman, followed by satirist Ken Herman with the zombie video.

The debate was notable for the themes it didn't hit. There was hardly any discussion of public education or state transportation policies, and the candidates laid out few specific ideas about what they want to do in office. ...

There were no major gaffes, although each candidate mangled a line or two. And no candidate was particularly specific when asked how to solve the state's looming budget shortfall, which the state is facing in large part because Perry and lawmakers have committed billions of dollars every year to hold down property taxes.

===================

Well, now you've heard it straight from the GOP gubernatorial candidates. The decision is in: Texas, our Texas, is the greatest state in the land.

And if you tuned into Thursday night's GOP gubernatorial debate, you'd have reason to believe that Gov. Rick Perry and challenger Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison each are individually responsible for our wonderfulness.

Both were certain in praising Texas' near-perfection. Neither, somehow, had much to say about any current problems, much less offering a solution to any current problems.

The short version: no runs, no hits, no errors and nary a word about solutions.



Update II: More on those zombies -- the ones outside the hall, not inside -- from Aman Batheja.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

Perry, Hutchison, Medina debate tonight

The first contested Republican primary debate for Texas governor in 20 years is scheduled to occur on statewide television tonight as Gov. Rick Perry tries to fend off challenges from U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and activist Debra Medina.

The debate will be broadcast live locally in Houston at 7 p.m. on KUHT Channel 8, KTRK-DT Channel 13.2 and at 10 a.m. Saturday on KXLN Channel 45 (Univision in Spanish), as well as airing on radio on KSEV, 700 AM; KTRH, 740 AM; and KUHF, 88.7 FM.

An Internet live stream of the debate can be obtained from www.TexasDebates.org.

That Medina won the right to be in tonight's debate means she can already claim probably as much victory as she will see in this primary. She is popular with the TeaBaggers and Libertarians but so far that translates into 5% in the polling. She should do much better than this; Larry Kilgore managed 7.58% four years ago (he dropped out of this contest last month and endorsed Medina) and further, the sum of the "not-Rick-Perry" faction earned almost 16%. If that happens again this March -- and Kay can pull 35% -- then you're looking at a run-off. One that Perry likely still wins, but ...

Update: Peggy Fikac ...

GOP consultant Mark Sanders (who managed Carole Strayhorn's 2006 gubernatorial campaign) said the candidate to watch is Medina.

“She is the wild card. If she performs well, she could throw the gubernatorial election into a runoff ... It'll take more than just the debate, but she could be the anti-Washington, anti-incumbent candidate that many voters are looking for.”

Suggested reading:

The Pre-Game Show (the Texas Tribune's advance story)

Medina at the Ramparts (about her border policy)

Perry rakes in the money (but Kay actually has more)

Perry won't let Texas bid for federal education dollars (expect this to be a topic in tonight's debate)

Right Place, Right Time (Texas Monthly's Paul Burka on the governor's secret 2012 bid for the White House)

Perry for President: Conjuring the Apocalypse (a response to Burka from the Texas Observer's Bob Moser)

Charles Kuffner's summary (which includes the two links above)

Perry lacks trust in Texas voters (the Chron's Rick Casey)