Rick Perry catches two-count felony indictment

A grand jury indicted Gov. Rick Perry on two counts Friday, accusing him of abusing his veto power by threatening to withhold funding from the Travis County's public corruption unit if the district attorney did not resign following her drunken driving arrest.

The Travis County grand jury, led by special prosecutor Mike McCrum, indicted Perry on one count of abuse of official capacity, a first-degree felony, and coercion of a public servant, a third-degree felony.

There's legal precedent.

The indictment is the first of its kind since 1917, when James "Pa" Ferguson was indicted on charges stemming from his veto of state funding to the University of Texas in an effort to unseat faculty and staff members he objected to. Ferguson was eventually impeached, then resigned before being convicted, allowing his wife, Miriam "Ma" Ferguson, to take over the governorship.

Almost a hundred years later, almost precisely the same crime.

Will the radiation burn the governor's longtime consigliere, Greg Abbott?  Time will tell, I suppose.  Texans who vote regularly don't seem to mind electing corrupt-as-hell Republicans.  It's the ones that haven't been voting in off-presidential years whose motivations will be under suspicion until we observe them changing their habits.

Tough break for Rick and his rebudding presidential aspirations, but on the bright side, Tom DeLay will eventually need a cellmate.

Update: Read more at Progress Texas about the $40,000 in taxpayer money he's already spent defending himself from these charges, and more from Truthyism tying everything together on Texas pay-to-play politics.

Since the veto, Perry’s office attempted to bribe Lehmberg out of office after failing to coerce her.   A message seems to be clear coming from the governor’s office that Lehmberg’s dismissal (was) more than just a matter of principle.  The desperation in which their tactics have led them seems to imply that Perry is less concerned about the drunk driving from Lehmberg and more worried over the success of the anti-corruption agency’s ability to police the current mid-term elections.

This would explain why gubernatorial candidate and current Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was barely even acknowledged by Texas regulators when he took money from the Koch brothers immediately prior to hiding the location of possible explosive chemical storage sites from Texans.  Only a handful of media outlets were critical of Abbott during that exchange of election funds for possible favors, and it seems that the veto from Perry might have been a move to protect Greg Abbot’s election campaign from scrutiny that it does seem to merit.

And Harvey Kronberg asks the right question: Is Ken Paxton next?

At last, a Texas lieutenant governor debate

Republican state Sen. Dan Patrick has agreed to participate in a September debate with his Democratic opponent for lieutenant governor, Leticia Van de Putte.

Patrick's campaign announced Wednesday that he'll debate his Senate colleague Sept. 27 Sept. 29 for an hour-long event to be broadcast by KLRU-TV in Austin. It will be moderated by Texas Tribune Executive Editor Ross Ramsey.

But Van de Putte released a statement Wednesday calling Patrick a "coward" for agreeing to just one debate out of five she's proposed. She said a single debate "in front of a bunch of Austin insiders" isn't enough.

Patrick's campaign says he participated in numerous debates during the Republican primary and is working to establish a debate schedule in the coming months that doesn't conflict with ones involving the candidates for governor.

Sounds as if there might be more than one debate.  Van de Putte has already built momentum this week with her initiative on free community college tuition for Texas high school graduates.

In a higher education proposal announced Thursday, Van de Putte called for amending the state constitution to create the “Texas Promise Scholarship Program” by pulling $2 billion from the state’s Rainy Day Fund to underwrite scholarships for some high school graduates who are planning to attend a community college, technical college or a two-year state institution.

Add that to the fact that she is winning over the Texas business community, very much a new development for a statewide Democrat.

...Van de Putte pointed out that several prominent business leaders were helping her fill her campaign coffers.

Her list of fundraisers includes one to be hosted by Edward E. Whitacre Jr., former chairman and chief executive of General Motors and AT&T, and Henry Bartell Zachry Jr., who heads the H.B. Zachry Company.

The San Antonio business leaders have contributed to several Republican and Democratic candidates in the past, according to campaign filings, but they have chosen to raise money for Van de Putte in this election cycle.

But as to debates, and as Wayne has already said, kind of a BFD.

This is huge news for the state of Texas, which hasn’t seen a true general election debate in over a decade for the office of Lieutenant Governor.  There also hasn’t been a general election Gubernatorial debate since 2006.  Many people may downplay that a general election debate is really all that important, but it serves an important purpose in presenting both sides of the political argument, especially to low-information voters or those that don’t pay attention to the election until the last minute.  For a very long time in Texas, voters have been trained to believe that there is only one main viewpoint in this state…. Republican. 

Unlike Wayne, I'm not going to trumpet the greatness of this development in terms of how much it helps Texas Democrats.  The next (good) step would be to have all of the LG candidates included.

But in case that does not happen, you should avail yourself of the handy tool the TexTrib has provided to see everyone listed on your ballot for November.  For the state's most powerful legislative post, the names include Green Party nominee Chandra Courtney and Libertarian challenger Robert Butler.  The TexTrib still lists independent candidate (and previously 2006 lite guv Dem nominee) Maria Luisa Alvarado as running, but an unnamed source told me in June at the Texas Democratic Party convention that she was out.  Alvarado indicated she would make a bid against LVDP as a Dem last fall, but declined to do that, then early this year stated her intention to compete as an indy.  By all appearances, that has also been abandoned. 

As I mentioned back in January, a run by Alvarado -- and the same goes for Brandon de Hoyos had he emerged as the Lib nominee -- would have dented Van de Putte's chances simply by virtue of a Spanish surname appearing on the statewide ticket.  That neither de Hoyos nor Alvarado made the cut helps Van de Putte significantly.  So her luck is holding, too.

Here's a brief message from Courtney:



Kuff has more.

Calm in Ferguson, and why their government is so white

Cooler heads and all that.

County police in riot gear and armored tanks gave way to state troopers walking side-by-side with thousands of protesters, as the St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black teen was shot by a city police officer overwhelmingly avoided violence Thursday after nearly a week of unrest and mounting public tension.

The dramatic shift came after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon assigned oversight of the protests to the state Highway Patrol -- stripping local police from the St. Louis County Police Department of their authority -- after four days of clashes with furious crowds protesting the weekend death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

"All they did was look at us and shoot tear gas," said Pedro Smith, 41, who has participated in the nightly protests. "This is totally different. Now we're being treated with respect."

Obama did step up, but more importantly so did Governor Nixon (who, it is worth noting, is a Democratic governor in a red state).

But the latest protests had a light, almost jubilant atmosphere among the racially mixed crowd, more akin to a parade or block party. The streets were filled with music, free food and even laughter. When darkness fell —the point at which previous protests have grown tense — no uniformed officers were in sight outside the burned-out QuikTrip convenience store that had become a flashpoint for standoffs between police and protesters.

"You can feel it. You can see it," protester Cleo Willis said of the change. "Now it's up to us to ride that feeling."

Nixon appointed Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson, who is black, to lead the police effort. Johnson, who grew up near Ferguson and commands a region that includes St. Louis County, marched alongside protesters Thursday, joined by other high-ranking brass from the Highway Patrol as well as the county department. The marchers also had a police escort.

"We're here to serve and protect," Johnson said. "We're not here to instill fear."

Several people stopped to shake hands and even hug Johnson and other officers, thanking them by name. At one point, Johnson spoke to several young men wearing red bandanas around their necks and faces. After the discussion, one of the men reached out and embraced him.

Race crisis averted.  For the time being, anyway.  (By the way, the tense local situation with regard to Open Carry Texas in the Fifth Ward has also been back-burnered.)

Now about that Ferguson government: we already knew that part of the underlying problem was a 94% white police force in a 67% black suburb of St. Louis -- which is, shockingly, average for the US --  but what about the elected officials?  Why is it that five out of six city council members, and mayor, are Caucasian?

Is it gerrymandering?  Voter suppression, perhaps?

Why no.  It's abysmally low voter turnout, of course.

Ferguson, Missouri, is 67 percent black, but only one of six council members is black and the mayor is white. So is the chief of police. This demographic discrepancy is one of the reasons the black community in the St. Louis suburb has felt misrepresented by its local government.

But how is that disparity possible? If two-thirds of the city is black, shouldn't there at least be more black council members?

The problem, MSNBC reports, is low voter turnout. "No one collects data on turnout by race in municipal elections. But the overall turnout numbers for Ferguson's mayoral and city council election are discouraging," writes MSNBC's Zachary Roth. "This year, just 12.3 percent of eligible voters cast a ballot, according to numbers provided by the county. In 2013 and 2012, those figures were even lower: 11.7 percent and 8.9 percent respectively. As a rule, the lower the turnout, the more the electorate skews white and conservative."

This is your wakeup call for November 2014, people.  And by 'people', I mean every single person in Houston, in all of Texas, in Ferguson and Missouri, and the thousands of towns and cities in the remaining 48 states who typically vote in presidential years and -- for reasons understood only by them -- do not in midterm elections.

Also known as Democrats, but other assumed names include 'liberals' and 'progressives'.  A whole lot of shit in this state and nation -- not all of it certainly, but a lot -- could be fixed if just a small percentage of the vast number of MIAs would simply show up at the polls.  Why, we might even avoid having to watch Barack Obama endure an impeachment proceeding.  Could possibly still have a Democratic US Senate.  Hope beyond that, a statewide official elected in Texas who is not an extremist Republican.  One would be a blessing, more than one would be cause for rejoicing.

If you're already planning on voting, then it's your neighbors who need to be reminded.

There's still time to fix things.  But everybody has to pitch in.

More from Slate and the Field Negro.

It don't matter if you're black or white

Rest in peace, Michael Jackson.  I'm afraid it still does.

Police in Ferguson, Missouri fired tear gas, stun grenades and smoke bombs to disperse some 350 protesters late Wednesday, the fourth night of racially charged demonstrations after police shot to death an unarmed black teen.

Some demonstrators hurled rocks at police as others scattered, while smoke engulfed the area. A Reuters reporter saw two young men preparing what looked like petrol bombs in a bus-stop shelter, their faces covered by bandanas. Police said protesters had thrown petrol bombs at officers.

Protesters have gathered every night since Saturday when 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot to death in the mostly black suburb of St. Louis, during what authorities said was a struggle over a gun in a police car. Some witnesses say he was outside the car with his hands up.

Police have deployed camouflage-clad officers in body armor, including one manning a rifle on a tripod atop an armored car, to Ferguson.

"I've had enough of being pushed around because of the color of my skin. I'm sick of this police brutality," said one protester, who gave only his first name, Terrell, 18. "I'm going to keep coming back here night after night until we get justice."

Yeah, that's pretty much the story now.  Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Jordan Davis, and this week, Michael Brown.  Next week it will be another black man, dead fairly quickly at the hands of police officers or vigilantes who are not, in questionable circumstances.

Racism is over in America, say conservatives.  Their children aren't the ones, of course, being carried to the cemetery week in and week out.  But the most important thing to keep in mind is that the riots in Ferguson aren't only about these dead black men.

It's also about the ones still with us -- not 'living' so much as just trying to stay alive.

...(I)t is about the bitter sense of siege that lives in African-American men, a sense that it is perpetually open season on (them).

And that too few people outside of African America really notice, much less care. People who look like you are every day deprived of health, wealth, freedom, opportunity, education, the benefit of the doubt, the presumption of innocence, life itself -- and when you try to say this, even when you document it with academic studies and buttress it with witness testimony, people don't want to hear it, people dismiss you, deny you, lecture you about white victimhood, chastise you for playing a so-called "race card."

They choke off avenues of protest, prizing silence over justice, mistaking silence for peace. And never mind that sometimes, silence simmers like water in a closed pot on a high flame.

One can never condone a riot. It is a self-defeating act that sells some fleeting illusion of satisfaction at a high cost in property and life.

But understanding this does not preclude recognizing that the anger we see in Ferguson did not spring from nowhere, nor arrive, fully-formed, when Michael Brown was shot. It is the anger of people who are, as Fannie Lou Hamer famously said, sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Silence imposed on pain cannot indefinitely endure. People who are hurting will always, eventually, make themselves heard.

So maybe you have heard about the rally in Houston's Fifth Ward this weekend being held by the supporters of Open Carry Texas. 

The event on Saturday afternoon is set to be located at the corner of Lyons Avenue and Lockwood, and scheduled to last about two hours, with two guest speakers included. It will not be a march, as past Open Carry Texas appearance have been, but a static event.

On Wednesday night members of the local Open Carry Texas group and (leader CJ) Grisham will be meeting with members of the community and the Houston Police Department to discuss what's coming up. Grisham says that he will not subject his members to an unsafe environment.

Maybe we'll hear today they called it off.  Because maybe Grisham took note of Quanell X's response.  Update: First it was no, then it was yes.

Meanwhile community activist Quanell X has had some terse words for the Open Carry people. He told KPRC-TV that if the group shows up armed that people from the community will show up with weapons too to counter them.

"Coming like this is totally unacceptable. So if you do come, I guarantee you we will not bring a butter knife to a gun fight," Quanell X told KPRC-TV.

Gun rights activists, overwhelmingly Caucasian and conservative, travel to Houston's most predominant African American neighborhood with their rifles slung across their backs in order to stage a rally.  What could possibly go wrong?

Sure does feel like the '60's all over again to me.  The race cauldron is boiling once more across America, which means it's coming to a neighborhood near you.

We desperately need some leadership on the various issues of social justice, and we need it most -- right now -- from some of our leaders who don't look like Barack Obama.  Has anyone checked in with Hillary Clinton lately?

Update: The treatment of the media covering the developments -- while important -- is the secondary story.

Final Update (to this post):

County police in riot gear and armored tanks gave way to state troopers walking side-by-side with thousands of protesters as the St. Louis suburb where an unarmed black teen was shot by a city police officer overwhelmingly avoided violence Thursday after nearly a week of unrest and mounting public tension.

The dramatic shift came after Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon assigned oversight of the protests to the state Highway Patrol, stripping local police from the St. Louis County Police Department of their authority after four days of clashes with furious crowds protesting the weekend death of 18-year-old Michael Brown.

"All they did was look at us and shoot tear gas," said Pedro Smith, 41, who has participated in the nightly protests. "This is totally different. Now we're being treated with respect."

Payday loansharks again

John Oliver -- fast becoming a must-watch -- with the assist from Sarah Silverman (NSFW).

Comedian John Oliver had some fun at Texas’ expense Sunday night, devoting three minutes of a television segment on the payday-loan industry to conflicts of interest in Lone Star State efforts to regulate lenders.

The segment, which circled the Internet on Monday, continued a trend of ”Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” segments going in-depth on policy issues.

Oliver is the "60 Minutes" version of Jon Stewart, and he is just knocking it out of the park.

After providing an overview of the industry, which gives high-interest, short-term loans to poor people between paychecks, Oliver turned to a 2011 debate in the Texas Legislature as an example of the lobbying power the industry has nationally.

Oliver showed video of state Rep. Gary Elkins, R-Houston, who owns a company with 12 payday-lending locations, speaking against a bill to regulate the industry from former state Rep. Vicki Truitt, R-Keller.

“Isn’t it true that you stand to add to your personal wealth considerably by killing these bills?” Truitt asked Elkins at one point, prompted a mumbling response. “Mr. Elkins, do you know the meaning of the term conflict of interest?” Truitt piled on.

Oliver then cut in.

“You might be thinking that that woman, Vicki Truitt, is awesome — fearlessly calling out how the payday loan industry influences politicians,” he said. “Which is why it’s going to be so hard to tell you that just 17 days after leaving office, she signed on as a lobbyist for ACE Cash Express.”

If you want to see it, skip to about the 7-minute mark.  Moneyshot (around 11 minutes in): "Even clusterfucks are bigger in Texas."

Oliver then focused on the chairman of the Finance Commission of Texas, which oversees payday lenders: William J. White, who also happens to be a vice president at Cash America International, Inc.

“So let’s just quickly break all of that down,” Oliver said. “If you were hoping to protect Texans from the payday loan industry, you would need to approach a commission overseen by the vice president of a payday loan company, and then introduce a bill into the state Legislature where the owner of 12 payday loan stores will debate the merits of the payday loan industry with one of the payday loan’s future (expletive) lobbyists.”

Proverbs 22:22 says: "Do not rob the poor because they are poor".  Keep in mind that I am the atheist here.  Also keep in mind that Greg Abbott -- that fine Christian man -- is the one who held the door open for the payday loansharks to set up their money-changing tables inside the temple of Texas, our Texas.  See, if I believed there was a Hell, I would also have to believe that Abbott, Elkins, Truitt, White, and everyone else making money by robbing the poor were going to it.

I am made to understand that military personnel can be court-martialed simply for walking in the front door of these places.  Is that accurate, anyone?

Why does Greg Abbott hate our troops?

Update: John got up ahead of me.  And, celebrating Shark Week, Public Justice.  And still more: "The reign of payday lenders may soon be over".  I wouldn't go that far; they'll always have Texas.

Greg Abbott and the EPA

It doesn't matter whether it's cleaner air for Texans to breathe or cleaner water for them to drink; Greg Abbott, his corporate overlords, and even the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality are going to fight against it.  Charles has the definitive response to the Texas Public Policy Foundation's little confab on the topic of the EPA's new carbon emission guidelines, and while you should read his full post, here's the takeaway courtesy the TexTrib, and straight from the head of the TCEQ, Bryan "Lickspittle" Shaw.

"I’m concerned that if this is not contested, if we don’t dispute this, if we don’t win, the implications … are only the camel’s nose under the tent..."

That is the state's top environmental regulation compliance officer speaking.  Not 'how do we comply', but 'how do we fight -- and defeat -- compliance with' federal environmental protection regulations.  He's turned his job description completely inside out.

This is just one of the many reasons why people outside Texas laugh and then shake their heads in disgust.   And also this reason.

About 150 people attended the event Thursday to hear Shaw and two other panelists speak about the proposal from the Obama administration, which could require Texas to reduce its carbon emissions from power plants by close to 200 billion pounds in the next two decades.

The general consensus among both the panelists and the audience was that the state should sue the Environmental Protection Agency over the rules if they are finalized, and should refuse to follow them. Karen Lugo, director of TPPF’s Center for Tenth Amendment Action, said she is working with state lawmakers on legislation affirming that Texas should ignore the rules unless Congress acts on climate change legislation, which it has never done.

TPPF has a department devoted to "Tenth Amendment action".   Probably a large responsibility.

The last time Texas regulators refused to implement federal environmental rules, lawmakers ended up reversing the decision. In 2010, the Obama administration started requiring companies that wanted to build new industrial plants to get “greenhouse gas permits” before beginning construction. When the TCEQ refused, the EPA had to take over, causing delays for some companies that lasted up to two years.

The result was legislation — supported by Koch Industries and the Texas Conservative Coalition, among others — that explicitly gave the TCEQ authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions so that companies could get their permits quicker.

It's like a merry-go-round inside the House of Horrors.  And you're belted in.

But like I said at the top... you're not just breathing this shit, you're also going to have to drink it.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is poised for another clash with federal environmental regulators, this time over proposed water protections.

The Austin American-Statesman reports that Abbott wants the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to scrap a proposal to expand the definition of federal waterways. The Republican gubernatorial candidate submitted a written public comment to the federal agency Monday. He threatened to sue if the proposal isn't withdrawn.

The EPA proposed expanding the definition of federal waters to include seasonal and rain-dependent waterways. The agency said the move would stiffen penalties for polluting those waterways that supply drinking water to more than 11 million Texans.

With his track record, I just don't think anybody needs to be worried about Greg Abbott suing.

The proposal "is without adequate scientific and economic justification and, if finalized, would erode private property rights and have devastating effects on the landowners of Texas," Abbott wrote.

Texas Commission on Environmental Quality spokesman Terry Clawson said the regulatory agency is "concerned that EPA's proposed rule expands its jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act without Congressional approval."

David Foster, who heads the Texas office of the advocacy group Clean Water Action, said the TCEQ has shown little appetite for regulating the waterways.

"We need a federal backstop," Foster said. "I shudder to think how the political leadership in this state would regulate these waterways."

A roller coaster inside the freak show that you can't get off of.  But still, a couple of things here: first, a Republican used the word 'scientific'.  True, it was after the word 'without' and before the word 'justification' but since it was Greg Abbott who used that word, we should be accommodating and give him some credit.  How many other Republicans just on the statewide ballot with him even know or understand what science means?

This is some (infinitesimal, I grant) progress.  See, if he had left out 'scientific', the sentence would just contain the modifier 'economic'.  Which as we know is the only actual consideration, but he's at least making a pretense of acknowledging science.  This is closer to the reality-based world than is typical for Texas Republicans.

Second, we are reinforced in our belief that the TCEQ is not actually in charge of environmental quality, except as it pertains to how bad the quality of the environment can be made by the oil and gas giants that actually run it.  So with their mission properly defined, they're doing a heckuva job, Brownie.

'Brownie', in this case, is the color of your air and water.

We all have our once-every-four-years opportunity to change this coming up shortly.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is glad to live in an age where political ads on TV can be zapped as it brings you this week's roundup of the best Lone Star lefty blog posts from last week.

Many of his fellow Texans worry Neil -- as he posts at his new "Blog About Our Failing Money Owned American Political System" -- more than do the migrant Central American children coming across the Rio Grande border. BAOFMOAPS is just one of many parts of NeilAquino.com.

Off the Kuff wonders why AG Greg Abbott didn't just have his own lawyers testify in the latest lawsuit against HB2 given how much they coached their witnesses.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos is very disturbed to learn that Abbott's rulings and decisions demonstrate a pattern of his support for abusers vs. their victims. Corporate marionette Greg Abbott seems to enjoy punishing victims.

Glenn Hegar, Tea Party candidate for Texas Comptroller, was caught in the act. Bay Area Houston has the video.

After being told all summer that "nobody pays attention until Labor Day", PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had to wonder if we had suddenly jumped ahead a month on the calendar.

What's this about voter fraud? CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants all of the reality-based people to know that voter photo ID does nothing to stop fraudulent absentee ballot procedures.

Texas Leftist shares the truth about Medicaid expansion. Right now, Texas taxpayers are subsidizing healthcare benefits for other states while millions of our people suffer without health insurance. Also make sure to check out Wayne's guest column in CultureMap discussing the Houston equal rights ordinance.

Egberto Willies made the shameful observation that black men holding toy guns -- or no guns at all -- are routinely shot down, while white men flaunt their firearms openly.

In opening this cycle's interviews with all political candidates on the 2014 ballot, Texpatriate began by publishing questionnaires from Whitney Bilyeu, Libertarian for Texas Senate District 7, and Laura Nicol, Democrat for State Representative, District 133.

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

And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Socratic Gadfly's suggestion this week for a word to text to Greg Abbott -- which the attorney general asks you to do in his movie trailers ads -- is "Kirby".

Hair Balls made note of Harris County's first confirmed case of chickungunya.

Better Texas Blog wants parents to contact their local school districts about opting in for free breakfast and lunches for students.  The deadline is August 31.

State Impact Texas reports that forecasters are lowering their predictions for the number of Atlantic Ocean hurricanes this season.

Juanita Jean finds a bad use of tatas.

Texas Watch points you to a resource to tell how safe your hospital is.

LGBTQ Insider calls the 2014 elections "imperative" for the LGBT community.

TransGriot and HOUEquality have news roundups on the Houston equal rights ordinance and the so-far-failed effort to put an item on the ballot to repeal it.

Lone Star Q lists the 63 Texas legislators that signed on to the Texas Conservative Coalition brief in the same-sex marriage appeal, in which they drag out more insulting and discredited arguments to support those made by AG Greg Abbott.

Grits for Breakfast still thinks the driver responsibility surcharge should be scrapped.

Lone Star Ma celebrated World Breastfeeding Week.

SciGuy showed us what happens when a spaceship gets close to a comet.

The Highwayman and Unfair Park examine the link between poverty and fatal auto/pedestrian accidents.

Last, Fascist Dyke Motors provides a list of nine mistakes everyone should not make if they are going to experience a cerebrovascular insult (i.e., stroke).

Sunday Funnies

Is it Labor Day already?

After my early-morning rant yesterday and then the afternoon's developments, it seems as if we've jumped ahead a month on the calendar.

-- Wendy Davis made a TV advertising purchase across the state -- in English and in Spanish -- for this ad.



Now THAT's how you punch back.

Update: For the record, I put even less faith in Rasmussen polling than I do everybody else's because of their distinct Republican bias.  This poll shows Davis' support among women has decreased while Abbott's has increased, which is almost as laughable as the 40% of those polled saying they support Rick Perry for president in 2016; a number ten times -- more or less -- the size of what other polls have shown.  Charles digs a little deeper but doesn't give me any greater confidence in whatever it is Rasmussen is trying to tell us.  And then there's this, from the Austin Chronic.

Digging down into the questions raises some other issues. The poll only asks about likelihood to vote for Abbott or Davis by name. What happens when Libertarian Kathie Glass or the Green Party's Brandon Parmer is added to the mix?

I would answer 'not much more than their historical 3% and 1% respectively', but again... this is Rasmussen.  Given such severe rightward tilt, you'd almost expect Davis to be leading Abbott in a poll this weird (which is obviously not the case, either).  Any poll we see in the next couple of weeks will be taking into account the effectiveness of this new air war, and if any of them show some tightening, then I'll let myself be encouraged.

-- Greg Abbott also has a Spanish language ad on teevee.  His mother-in-law is singing his praises.  I have to say that I hope he keeps pouring a lot more money down that hole.  I also hope he has a high-dollar internal pollster who's telling him exactly what he wants to hear: that it's working.

-- LVDP busted Dan Patrick, too.

Democratic lieutenant governor nominee Leticia Van de Putte said Thursday that her Republican opponent, Dan Patrick, has yet to respond to a series of debates she has proposed ahead of the Nov. 4 election.

Van de Putte and Patrick spoke separately at the Texas Association of Broadcasters annual convention, in what amounted to a rare opportunity to see the two candidates address the same audience back to back.

[...]

She has challenged Patrick to five in all — part of an aggressive plan to pit the candidates head-to-head in the state’s four largest markets and in the Rio Grande Valley — and has left the door open to three more.

But since she laid out the proposal more than a week ago, Van de Putte said Patrick, a senator from Houston who is a tea party favorite, and his team have yet to get back with a solid answer — or any answer, for that matter.

“He’s not responded to our request for debates,” Van de Putte said, adding that she’s not sure if Patrick is dodging the debate issue or just can’t make up his mind. “This is a race where there’s a big difference in candidates … and the people of the state need to hear the candidates.”

She added: “He knows my phone number. I’m waiting.”

She is such a nice lady.  I just love her.

-- Mike Collier, Comptroller (pronounced "controller") is pounding away as well.  This ad is running right now in the DFW market.

“While Texans enjoy this tax-free weekend, they should know my opponent Glenn Hegar’s plan would triple the state’s sales tax. Hegar refuses to back away from his plan that would hurt the very same people who are benefiting the most from the tax-free weekend. Hegar’s plan is not only wrong for Texas, it’s dumb.

Texas taxpayers need a Watchdog, which is precisely why I’m running for Comptroller. As a Certified Public Accountant I’m committed to getting the numbers right for our Texas students, teachers, and their families.”

If elected, Collier would be the first comptroller in Texas history who is a CPA.  Hegar, as we have recently learned, is the reincarnation of Jethro Bodine.

Update: Collier cracks Hegar again for bragging to some TeaBaggers about how proud he was to vote for cuts in public education.  (Hegar, like Jethro, is planning to be a brain surgeon one day.)



I would swear it feels just like September.

What might this mean?

Three months before the midterm elections a record number of Americans in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll disapprove of their own representative in Congress – a potentially chilling signal for incumbents that marks the depths of the public’s political discontent.

Could it mean something less in Texas than it does in other states?  My feeling is that much of the effect this data might -- underscore might -- foretell depends on the successful efforts and execution of Battleground Texas.

Just 41 percent in this national survey approve of the way their own representative in the U.S. House is handling his or her job, the lowest in ABC/Post polls dating back a quarter century, to May 1989. Fifty-one percent disapprove – more than half for the first time.

The result, extending a drop from last October, turns on its head the old chestnut that Americans hate Congress but love their Congress member. It also recalls an ABC/Post poll result in April, in which just 22 percent said they were inclined to re-elect their representative, a low also dating back to 1989. Were it not for gerrymandering, these are the kind of results that could portend a serious shakeup come Nov. 4.

The actual impact remains to be seen, given both the few competitive House districts and the low esteem in which both parties are held.

Yes, that.

The grimmest score is the GOP’s: A mere 35 percent express a favorable impression of the Republican Party, a number that’s been lower just twice in polls since 1984 – 32 percent last October, just after the partial government shutdown in a Washington budget dispute; and 31 percent in December 1998, immediately after the impeachment of Bill Clinton.

The Democratic Party is seen favorably by more Americans, 49 percent in this poll, produced for ABC by Langer Research Associates. But that, similarly, is one of the party’s lowest popularity ratings on record in 30 years.

The Democrats’ 14-point advantage in favorability may look like an edge in the midterms, and indeed it may make them less vulnerable than they’d be otherwise. But other elements factor into election math, including turnout, which customarily favors the Republicans; the number of open Senate seats each party has to defend, higher this year for the Democrats; competitive House seats, which as noted are few; the quality of individual candidates; and the presence or absence of an overarching theme that can galvanize voters in one party’s favor, which has yet to emerge.

What it does mean, undoubtedly, is that the public is in an extended political snit.

No.  Really?  More things we did not know (sarcasm)...

Disapproval of “your own representative” peaks, at 58 percent, among Hispanics, perhaps expressing dissatisfaction with the stalled overhaul of immigration policy. Hispanics are particularly negative toward the Republican Party – 65 percent see it unfavorably, while 61 percent of Hispanics express a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party.

Blacks tilt even more heavily pro-Democratic (82 percent) and anti-Republican (81 percent). Indeed, whatever occurs in this year’s midterms, the results among nonwhites overall underscore the GOP’s challenges as whites’ share of the nation’s population shrinks. Seventy percent of nonwhites see the Republican Party unfavorably overall, while about as many, 68 percent, have a favorable opinion of the Democratic Party. Whites, for their part, are equally negative about both parties.

Among other groups, as long has been the case, the Democrats are more popular with women than with men. The gap between favorable ratings of the Democratic Party and the Republican Party among men is just 6 percentage points (44 vs. 38 percent). Among women it’s 21 points (54 vs. 33 percent).

Combining race, sex and education shows a longstanding difference in one particular group: college-educated white women, who are much more favorably inclined toward the Democratic than the Republican Party. White women who lack a college degree see both parties equally, and white men are more favorable toward the GOP, regardless of education.

Single women also are a markedly more Democratic-inclined group. But married men tilt heavily in the opposite direction – toward the GOP – and there’s twice as many of them. Of such threads are election strategies woven.

Twice as many married (conservative ) men as single (liberal) women.  That whole War on Women thing?  Guess who's winning.

So my questions are...

-- Does anybody really think that their Republican Congressbeast (mine happens to be the odious John Culberson) is in danger from his challenger -- again in CD-7, the lamest of asses, James Cargas?

-- How about John Cornyn getting knocked off by David Alameel?  Anybody think that stands a chance in hell of happening?

None of these potential upsets seem to be registering in the Texas polling.  Our statewide candidates and their campaigns are enthused, and draw enthusiastic crowds, but data still shows them farther behind than they were four years ago, and eight years ago.

Oh well.  As media mavens, talking heads, and chattering pundits -- not to mention paid political consultants -- keep telling us, "nobody pays attention until after Labor Day".  And what, pray tell, will they suddenly be paying attention to?  Greg Abbott's record-breaking crony capitalism?  Ken Paxton's criminal case?  Mr. Invisible himself, Dan Maddafracking Patrick?  As the seasons turn, is there going to be a mass awakening -- a renaissance of progressive populism -- that suddenly springs forth from the souls of the historically apathetic Texas electorate?  Or maybe an extinction; a massive die-off of conservative freaks in the boondocks?  An unpredicted surge of alternate party voters all across the state, perhaps?

There's a reason why the wealthiest Texans take off the entire month of August and go on vacation in Monaco, or Maine, or Lake Louise.  And it's not just because of the heat or the hurricanes: it's because they've already paid the tab for the November outcome.  They could take the rest of the year off if they felt like it.  But they need to come back to town just to be ready to write another five- or six-figure check at the last minute.

Meanwhile, the unwashed masses are lined up in the 97-degree heat at the Houston Texans practice field, or body-surfing in the flesh-eating bacteria off the coast in Galveston, or just relaxing indoors in front of their 72-inch television watching 'Naked and Afraid'.

You know, to see how the other half lives.  Those poor bastards.  It's good for one's self-esteem to have someone to look down on while you shop on tax-free weekend (stickin' that 8% discount to The Man!) for back-to-school, or pick up that new 84" plasma TV before the college football season kicks off, or even help those high school cheerleaders make prayer banners for the team to run through.

Seems like Texans (not the football team, the regular folks) are going to be awfully busy this fall.  Are we sure they are going to have time to pay attention to the elections after Labor Day?

Update: Prairie Weather with the reasons Democrats should win, but won't.  See?  It's not just me that's a little pessimistic. But Gadfly dismisses the poll's findings almost entirely, which might have been what I should have done to avoid being so sarcastic.

Unfinished business

-- First, the proposal before Space City's council today for Uber and Lyft to finally begin operating in lawful manner in the city, with rules and regulations designed especially for them.

In Houston, officials have addressed some of the cab companies' concerns, though not to the satisfaction of taxi drivers and industry leaders. For example, city regulators wrote provisions requiring the companies to have insurance that's effective from the moment drivers log on to accept rides.

Other concerns raised by the cab companies remain unresolved. The rules as proposed allow the new companies to charge when someone doesn't show up or declines their ride, a right cab companies do not have, said Cindy Clifford, spokeswoman for Houston Transportation Company, the city's largest taxi business and parent of Yellow Cab.

Taxi companies also pay property taxes on their vehicles, and Councilman Michael Kubosh has filed an amendment requiring the drivers and dispatch companies to pay taxes as cab companies do.

[...]

After delays of a month and a week for additional study and debate, city regulators made minor tweaks, mostly to address concerns from the disabled community by mandating that 2 percent of vehicles for hire be capable of transporting passengers who are in a wheelchair or who require a lift to get into a car.

The city's delays did not soften the opposition from local taxi companies.

"We are happy to compete in a marketplace with a level playing field," said Clifford. "This is not a level playing field and it is widely unfair."

I really can't identify a single other instance in which a company entered several major US markets, openly flaunted their breaking of the laws by operating without being authorized, and were then approved with a new set of rules created especially for them that were less restrictive than the existing companies they came to compete with.

Can you think of any comparison in American business today?  Because I can't.

Update: Business finished, 10-5 in favor-- with Jerry Davis, Mike Laster, C.O. Bradford, Michael Kubosh and Jack Christie voting no -- and two CMs (one of whom was Dave Martin, opposed to the ordinance) absent.

Update II: Dug Begley, on the morning after, says it's not the end of the discussion.  I agree.

-- Rand Paul didn't finish his hamburger.  He didn't even finish chewing the mouthful he bit off before bolting the Iowa restaurant where he was having lunch with Steve King.  All because of the word "DREAMer".  King stuck around for the conversation though and humiliated himself repeatedly, grabbing the young woman's wrist and saying, "You're very good at English".



Just when you think these wads have gone as low as they can... they dig themselves deeper.

-- Greg Sargent at the WaPo's Plum Line has the stunning development that the GOP has collapsed in terms of its support among women, younger voters, and everybody that isn't Caucasian.  The unfinished business here is this: does it even matter if those folks don't turn out to vote in 90 days?

-- Walgreens knuckled under to the 45,000+ Americans who told them not to relocate their company's headquarters from Illinois to Switzerland to avoid paying taxes.  After that announcement, and for the remaining two hours the American stock market was open... Walgreens' stock got pummeled.

Wall Street just doesn't give a rip about Main Street, people.  Greed is NOT good, Gordon Gekko.  When the top 25 hedge fund managers in America make over $24 billion dollars -- enough to pay the salaries of 425,000 teachers -- something is wrong in America. 

When the wealthiest American family (the Waltons, whose $148 billion net worth is greater than the lowest 40% of the rest of America's) pays their workers subsistence wages and actively encourages them to apply for governmental assistance, something is quite obviously wrong in America.

When the second-wealthiest family in America (Charles and David Koch) contribute vast sums of money to hundreds of American politicians to persuade them to cut public pensions -- the only kind that are left -- and Medicare, Social Security, and Medicaid... something is very wrong in the Land of the Somewhat Free and the Home of the Not So Brave.

(Thanks to both Bernie Sanders and jobsanger for the above stats.)

That is not sustainable.  Economically, politically, or morally.

Americans have some business to finish at the voting booth in November.  Whether they are up to the very necessary task of putting the trash out on the curbside remains to be seen.

Yes Texas, you executed an innocent man

And his name was, as we all know by now, Cameron Todd Willingham.  It has been said repeatedly before.  And most recently now, as a jailhouse stooge confesses -- again -- that he was coerced by the prosecutor in the case to frame Willingham.

A blockbuster report Monday from The Washington Post reveals prosecutors got a jailhouse informant to lie about a capital murder case in exchange for a lighter sentence.

In 1992, Cameron Todd Willingham of Texas was convicted of killing his three daughters by lighting their house on fire. Key to the prosecution’s case was testimony from Johnny E. Webb, who testified in court that Willingham told him how he started the fires. In 2004, Willingham was executed despite serious doubts about forensic evidence. Now, Webb says his testimony was coerced by prosecutor John H. Jackson, who arranged for Webb’s sentence to be lightened and to secure funds for him from a wealthy rancher.

If this behavior had been exposed before Willingham’s execution, he may have been entitled to a new trial. The Innocence Project, a New York-based advocacy group, called for an investigation into Jackson’s conduct, charging he “violated core principles of the legal profession, and did so with terrible consequences ... the execution of an innocent man.”

From the WaPo article.

In taped interviews, Webb, who has previously both recanted and affirmed his testimony, gives his first detailed account of how he lied on the witness stand in return for efforts by the former prosecutor, John H. Jackson, to reduce Webb’s prison sentence for robbery and to arrange thousands of dollars in support from a wealthy Corsicana rancher. Newly uncovered letters and court files show that Jackson worked diligently to intercede for Webb after his testimony and to coordinate with the rancher, Charles S. Pearce Jr., to keep the mercurial informer in line.

Please go read the entire article, complete with an image of Jackson's letter to Webb detailing the efforts to ease his incarceration because of his compliance in the fix.

Along with Webb’s account, the letters and documents expose a determined, years-long effort by the prosecutor to alter Webb’s conviction, speed his parole, get him clemency and move him from a tough state prison back to his hometown jail.

Some more.

...(T)he letters and court files show that Webb threatened to renounce his testimony against Willingham at least twice before. In 2000, he sent a formal motion to recant to the Navarro County District Attorney’s Office that was forwarded to Jackson, but never put in Willingham’s court file or shared with his lawyers.

Jackson — who was elected as a Navarro County judge in November 1996 and retired in 2012 — does not deny going out of his way to help Webb. But in a recent interview he said he did so only because he thought Webb was threatened by other inmates for cooperating with the prosecution. He has described allegations that he coaxed false testimony from Webb as a “complete fabrication.”

In response to a detailed list of questions about his dealings with Webb and Pearce, Jackson last week refused to comment further. Pearce died in 2008.

Oh, and this last part.

Webb’s latest allegations and the other new evidence in the matter could also have implications for the Texas governor, Rick Perry, a strong supporter of the death penalty and a possible Republican presidential candidate.

In 2004, Perry refused to temporarily stay Willingham’s execution despite the report of a leading forensic expert that sharply disputed the finding of arson by a Texas deputy fire marshal. Perry’s administration has also repeatedly undercut the authority of a state Forensic Science Commission, which agreed that the arson finding relied on flawed analysis. Defending his handling of the case in 2009, the governor declared that Willingham “was a monster.”

The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, the members of which were all appointed by Perry, voted in March to deny Willingham a posthumous full pardon.

The day of reckoning is surely coming, and not just for John H. Jackson, Rick Perry, and all the rest. The day is fast approaching when we must, by all moral responsibility, abolish the penalty in Texas and throughout this nation.  And it can't come soon enough.