Fear the Vote Wrangle

Early voting in-person across the state of Texas for the 2014 midterm elections concludes this Friday... on Halloween.  The Texas Progressive Alliance reminds you that -- no matter how scary it is -- if you want to complain about politics for the next two years, then you have to vote.  Here's the roundup of the best of the Texas lefty blogs from last week.

Off the Kuff published an index to all his interviews and judicial Q&As for the 2014 cycle.

Libby Shaw, writing for Texas Kaos and Daily Kos, is not going to be quiet about the blatantly discriminatory ID poll tax law: Texas voter photo ID Law disenfranchises 600,000 to 744,980 American citizens.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson: Proposition 1 will do little if anything to address the neglect of Texas roads for last 20-plus years. Is it worth voting for? Probably not, but it's likely to pass anyway. Proposition 1: The Least They Could Do.  And in similar fashion, Bay Area Houston says you're voting for continued incompetence if you vote yes on Prop. 1.

A very powerful statute designed to short-circuit the anti-First Amendment SLAPP suits filed in Texas is explained in this post at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme urges you to vote and support not just women's health, but the health care of all Texans.

Neil at All People Have Value offered his 2014 ballot for elections in Texas and Harris County.  APHV is one of many interesting pages to see at NeilAquino.com.

Texpatriate reminds you not to be stupid; don't vote a straight ticket.

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And here's some more great Texas blog posts.

Grits for Breakfast wants to know how Greg Abbott and Joe Straus plan to pay for both highway repair and border security without raising taxes or siphoning more money from the Rainy Day Fund.

Socratic Gadfly shares some thoughts on the Texas high-speed rail line planned near his Central Texas neighborhood, and Hair Balls has more about the public meetings taking place this week along the proposed routes.

Trail Blazers spotted Ken Paxton on the campaign trail -- an oddity all by itself -- but it was the joke about Wendy Davis going to hell that got the headline... and had 'em rolling at the GOP event in Frisco.  Video here.

Lone Star Q asks: how should the LGBTQ community respond to the massive hate rally planned this Sunday in Houston?

After dumping a bunch of money into a dozen Iowa Congressional races last week, Texas Politics reports that Rick Perry's PAC has moved on to New Hampshire to make it rain for Republicans there.  You don't think he's scratching any backs and hoping for some payback in 2016, do you?

New York is better prepared to handle an Ebola outbreak and Dallas is the reason, according to the Dallas Morning Views.

Fascist Dyke Motors confessed her sins to the Thing in the Tree.

Last, FiveThirtyEight.com -- not a Texas blog but we're making an exception here -- has a review of all the teams and divisions in the NBA as the professional basketball season tips off Tuesday night.  Oh, and something a little hedgey about their US Senate prognostication also.