Russ Feingold, Cindy Sheehan, Jim Hightower and David Van Os are all in Austin next week

Austin is the epicenter for Democratic and progressive activists next week.

David Van Os' "Citizens' Filibuster for a Fair and Constitutional Education" begins Monday April 17 at high noon for 24 hours straight on the Capitol grounds -- the same day that the Lege goes back into session for the fifth time (or is it the sixth?) in order to solve the pressing dilemma of funding public education in Texas.

You can catch Cindy Sheehan at the UT east mall (near the statue of MLK) between 11 and 12:15 on Monday the 17th for a rally with the Cameo anti-war folks.

And Senator Russ Feingold will have a listening session with CD-21 candidate John Courage at the UT Student Union Quadrangle on Tuesday, April 18 at 12:30 pm, and a rally beginning at 7:30 pm for Courage supporters at Jovita's, 1619 S. First Street, where Jim Hightower as well as Feingold and Courage will speak.

All these are open to the public and free of charge. I'll see you at all three events next week. Stop by and say hi to me.

Update: A correction to the "free" notice above... The evening rally with Feingold, Courage, and Hightower is a fundraiser, includes musical entertainment South Austin Jug Band, The Grassy Knoll Boys and Texas Youth Word Collective and costs $25.

Update II (4/13/06) : sonia in the comments notes Senator Barack Obama's event on Tuesday the 18th as well.

Victory is sweet.

Just returned from the parties for Barbara Radnofsky and Borris Miles, and I have to tell you, as sweet as March 7 was, tonight was even better.

Lyn and I were on the BAR live webcast tonight again, joined this time by Mrs. Diddie (it will be archived tomorrow for viewing; I'll update this post then) and even before it began, the AP had called the race for Barbara. So it's on to November, and some reckoning with Senator Perjury Technicality. Kay Bailey Rubberstamp hasn't had much in the way of a respectable challenger in her time in the Senate, but all that changes now.

As the webcast continued and Lyn got some returns fed into her Treo, we rushed over to the Sheraton by the Astrodome to party with the Miles crew and the rest of District 146's elated constituents. Borris had pulled ahead as the returns closed on the finish line, and within the ten o'clock hour Rep. Edwards conceded. When the Representative-elect finally made an appearance, he was something I haven't seen before: humbled. And a little bit awed by the incredible dedication and hard work of his supporters.

A special shout-out to my blog podnah Greg Wythe, who poured everything he had into this race and looked as worn out and happy as Borris' mother did. And there's a thousand others, and I hope their enthusiasm can carry over to all the other races we must win in November, from Chris Bell to BAR to my man David, and Hank Gilbert and Fred Head and Maria Luisa Alvarado (congratulations to her on her victory today as well) and Ellen Cohen and Kristi Thibaut and Hubert Vo and all the rest.

I salute Rep. Al Edwards for his 28 years of service to the district and the state of Texas. But I am thrilled that I will have a real Democrat representing me in Austin.

Ten thousand marched for justice in Houston today.

That's about ten thousand people who filled the streets of downtown H-town this afternoon to make a statement about justicia para todos, like the pledge says. Even I-45 ground to a standstill with cars trying to get to the march and cars stopping to watch. I saw the flags of the United States, Mexico, Pakistan, Palestine, Honduras, and El Salvador. I saw signs that said "Outlaw Ignorance" and "We're workers, not terrorists". I saw mariachis and Uncle Sam on stilts and Lady Liberty and palenta and taleta and chicharron vendors.

Here's a photo from Austin also worth sharing:

The Republicans are getting nauseous about the genie they've let out of the bottle, but the local conservatives remain angry and bitter. This is going to end badly for them, they know it, and it's only going to make them more insufferable to live with (as if that was imaginable).

Today. In Houston.

This is yesterday in Dallas. That's 350,000 -- no, wait, maybe half a million people -- marching for the rights of immigrants in the United States. Not immigration reform, mind you, and certainly not in favor of a penalty-laden piece of racist, classist legislation that not even Box Turtle Cornyn or Kay Bailey Perjury Technicality thinks goes far enough.

Immigrants' rights. Because there's no such thing as an illegal person.

St. Louis, also yesterday.

Today, in Houston, beginning at 1 p.m. at Guadalupe Plaza at the corner of Navigation and Jensen, and proceeding to Allen's Landing at Commerce and Main.

Join us.

Another really bad week for Republicans

Because I was under the weather most of this past week, I didn't really get to blog about all this:

The Hammer hammered himself, a "breakthrough" immigration bill broke down at the last minute, the House budget blew up, Bush hit another low in the polls, and the President was revealed as the Plame leak in the White House.

Some are calling it "a staggering collection of misfortunes and failures", but I think I'll just consider it a good start toward the end of our long national nightmare.

Once I don't have to watch that jaunty little jerk swinging his arms as he walks, and instead shows a little humility -- like he has suddenly become aware of what a mess he's made of the entire world -- then I'll really feel like we're getting somewhere.

Immigration? Minimum wage? No, poverty

Yes, quite a bit went on this week and I didn't feel good enough to document it until now, so I'll play some catchup.

DeLay cut and run, his goons are acting like bitter-enders in their death throes, and apparently no special election will be held. Republicans and the rest of us (well, Kuffner) are trying to figure out what it means.

Turns out the President is the leaker. Imagine that. Will he fire himself now?

But to get back to the headline of this post, I attended a breakfast meeting Friday morning hosted by councilman Peter Brown on poverty (defined by a family of three with an annual income of $16,000) in Houston. Here, his statistics speak for themselves:

• Of the 2.1 million people living in the city of Houston, over 500,000 -- one quarter -- live at or below the poverty level. That is is the highest among Texas cities.
• There are 14,000 documented homeless person in Houston, but the actual number is probably twice that.
• The poverty rate among Houston's Hispanic immigrants affects over 150,000 people; poverty among African-Americans numbers nearly 200,000.
• 49% of those Houstonians who receive food stamp assistance are Af-Am and 34% are Hispanic.
• 34% of Houston families whose head of household is a single female live below the poverty line. That number is 41% if that family has a child under the age of 18. And 29.5 % of Houston children under 18 live in poverty.
• 27% of Houstonians who live below the poverty line never graduated from high school and 32% are unemployed.

And some Texas statistics (so that we don't need Rick Perry to remind us again how proud he is):

• 28% of Texas workers between 18 and 64 are without health insurance. Texas is 50th -- that would be dead-ass last -- with regard to the number of its residents without health care insurance. Maybe Governor MoFo can follow the example of his good-haired comrade and get a law passed making this illegal. Oh yeah, 200,000 children in Houston have no health insurance either.
• Texas has the highest number of minimum wage workers in the nation. That's not first place either, Governor. One out of every nine minimum wage earners in America lives inTexas.

So there's this little issue -- you'll see some more protesting about it tomorrow -- about why people -- and let's be clear: no human being is illegal -- come here, and that's so that they can almost make it to the poverty level, which is waaay better than they can do in their own countries.

Immigration? Minimum wage? No health insurance? I see a wholesale dismantlement of the American middle class. A destruction executed by Republicans in Washington and Austin but advocated and funded by the real culprits in New York and Houston: big business, middle-sized business, and small business. Corporations of every size, run for the most part by the good folks who "need" cheap labor, whether it's in their factories or their shops or their backyards. And who vote straight-ticket Republican, of course.

Is there a quick answer to all of this? Of course not. But there is a relatively easy task for those of us who are alarmed by these statistics can get started on, and that's organize, join, or enable the rebirth of the labor movement in this country.

A collective bargaining agent empowered by its members would, in comparatively short order, acquire a living wage and health benefits for its members, making decent housing more affordable, lifting even people of limited education above the poverty line and increase everyone's standard of living (except those who don't scrub their own toilets or wash their own clothes... unless they go into rehab, as Bill Maher noted Friday night).

The Service Employees International Union organized janitors in Houston, who have -- soon to be 'had' -- the lowest wages and benefits of similar workers in the United States. This isn't something I'm trying to get started; it's already happening. It's gathering momentum, and it will change my city and state and return this nation to a prosperity which began with the Industrial Age but was decimated by the simultaneous metastases of Big Bidness and the Republican Party that bega in the '80s. (Which was enabled by the fundamentalist Christian Right, of course, but even those poor fools can't continue to delude themselves much longer about the Samaritan intentions of the GOP.)

A revitalized union movement will change things for the better for most all of us quickly, but it's going to terrify that association of rich and powerful currently in charge.

The corporate executives will quake. The silk-stocking set will grit their teeth and then starting writing five- and six-figure checks to the PACs. (Follow the money and you'll eventually find Tom DeLay in his new career. He won't be the first but he WILL be the fattest pig at this trough, mark my words.) The small businessmen, through their own collectives, will whine and bitch and grouse and then bribe and intimidate the Republicans to protect their way of life.

That alone is reason enough for me to help a Wal-Mart employee contact a union representative.

Good riddance to bad rubbish.

It seems like a dream, but it's real: Tom DeLay is quitting the race for Congress and changing his residence to Alexandria, VA in order to trigger a special election for his seat. That appears the only way to utilize arcane Texas election laws to the GOP's advantage.

"Even though I thought I could win, it was a little too risky," DeLay said.

How noble. How gallant.

Kuffner summarizes and links extensively so I don't have to. Sugar Land mayor David Wallace has all but announced for the coming special.

There'll be more to say about this later; for now, that DeLay has chosen to suddenly cut and run speaks volumes about the true character of this so-called Christian. He's been plotting this withdrawal for quite some time now, obviously, and took this action not just to try to keep his seat Republican but to have a (typically heavy) hand in anointing his successor. Apparently he had no use for those who dared challenge him in the primary less than thirty days ago.

La Cucaracha Grande is nothing if not a master manipulator. He will no doubt transition seamlessly into a lucrative career lobbying Congress on behalf of various corporate and Christian causes, losing none of his influence while quintupling his income.

And he may accomplish his goal of staunching the GOP bleeding and lessening the November losses in the House -- beginning at home with TX-22 -- but that fate now lies more with Democratic efforts that it did yesterday.

Go back to work, people.

In honor of Opening Day

The first Monday in April is one of my favorite evenings to be at a sports bar; it's when the NCAA men's basketball championship is decided, and also the beginning of the professional baseball season. In honor of the tipoff to the boys of summer's season, some excerpts from Frederic J. Frommer's "The Washington Nationals: 1859 to Today" on the presidential tradition of throwing out the first pitch:

For most of the last century, when Washington was home to a baseball team known as the Senators, presidents typically took center stage on opening day.

Starting with William Howard Taft in 1910 and continuing through Richard Nixon in 1969, every president threw out at least one opening-day pitch. After the Senators left town, presidents headed north to Baltimore for the duty.

...

At the beginning, the president threw the ball to the starting pitcher or even the umpire.

Later, from his box in the stands, the chief executive tossed the ball over a scrum of photographers into a crowd of players from both teams. Whoever caught the ball brought it over to the president for an autograph.

In 1961, President John F. Kennedy signed for White Sox outfielder Jim Rivera. According to a report years later by Chicago Tribune writer David Condon, "Jungle Jim" immediately demanded a more legible signature.

"Do you think I can go into any tavern on Chicago's South Side and really say the president of the United States signed this baseball for me?" Rivera said. "I'd be run off."

Laughing, the young president agreed to sign the ball more legibly. "You know," Rivera replied, "you're all right."

In the days before luxury boxes, Senators' owner Clark Griffith arranged for Woodrow Wilson to watch the game from his car parked in foul territory, outside the right field line. Griffith made the arrangements because Wilson had been partially paralyzed by a stroke. Griffith even stationed a player in front of Wilson's car to protect it from getting hit by foul balls.

Sometimes, the star power of a president would lead to mishaps on the field. In the 1910 opener, Washington outfielder Doc Gessler was daydreaming about hitting a grand slam and talking to Taft about it. A fly ball quickly brought Gessler back to earth. Backing up, Gessler tripped over a fan (spectators could stand on the field behind a rope back then) and the ball dropped for a double. It was the only hit that pitcher Walter Johnson surrendered that day.

At the 1936 opener, Senators pitcher Bobo Newsom and third baseman Ossie Bluege converged on a bunt. As Bluege fielded the ball, Newsom took his eye off the play to glance at President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the stands. Bluege's throw to first nailed his distracted pitcher in the face, leading to a broken jaw.

Roosevelt threw out a record eight opening-day pitches — and made one crucial at-bat on behalf of baseball during World War II. On Jan. 15, 1942, little over a month after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt told the baseball commissioner, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, that the season should go on despite the war.

"There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before," FDR wrote in what became known as the "Green Light Letter."

FDR's successor, Harry Truman, had one of the worst receptions ever. His appearance at the Senators' home opener on April 20, 1951, came shortly after he had fired General Douglas MacArthur as Far East commander — and just one day after MacArthur went before Congress and uttered his famous line, "Old soldiers never die, they just fade away."

The crowd at Griffith Stadium booed Truman loudly. The Air Force Band tried to drown out the jeers with "Ruffles and Flourishes" and "Hail to the Chief."

Richard Nixon was probably the greatest baseball fan to occupy the Oval Office — with the possible exception of Bush, a former owner of the Texas Rangers, who had originally played in Washington.

In 1972, just a few weeks after the Watergate break-in that ultimately led to his resignation, Nixon wrote an article for The Associated Press that listed his all-time All Star teams.

In 1959, on the eve of then-Vice President Nixon's opening day pitch, Truman sent Griffith this telegram: "BEST OF LUCK TO YOU ON OPENING DAY AND EVERY DAY. WATCH OUT FOR THAT NIXON. DON'T LET HIM THROW YOU A CURVE. YOUR FRIEND, HARRY TRUMAN."

...

After the Senators announced they would move to Texas following the 1971 season, Nixon met with Washington Mayor Walter E. Washington to discuss prospects of a new team.

In a taped Oval Office conversation on October 13, 1971, the president mentioned the Chicago White Sox and Cleveland Indians as possible replacements. Nixon also teed off on the Senators owner, Bob Short, who had been a chief fundraiser for Nixon's 1968 opponent, Democrat Hubert H. Humphrey.

"Short is a jerk," Nixon declares. "... I sat behind him at games, and I can tell you — moaning and bitching all the time."

You know, I forgot to mention...

... that there's been this little immigration thing going on lately, involving a bill in the Senate and some protests by high school students all around the nation.

Stace and Charles have been covering it well, and Dos Centavos in particular explains the Mexican flag thing for the unreasonable gringos among us.

And all I have to say about this is 'fuck it'. There's already a syndrome identified that accounts for the rise: B.I.T.S.

Maybe if we would ITMFA, we could curb the pandemic.

While I was away...

My "spring break" is over. Let's catch up with some (in cybertime) old news:

-- special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will likely seek additional indictments in the Plame leak case sometime in the next month, and their names might (finally) be Rove or Hadley. Herr Rove is said to be cooperating with Fitzgerald's office, and has been described lately as "jaunty" by observers. Does he have reason to think he's slipped the noose ... again?

-- Antonin Scalia had a good week; first he discussed publicly the Guantanamo case pending before the Supreme Court, has so far declined to recuse himself from it, and then made the "bafangu" gesture at reporters. As he came out of church.

-- Pastafarians rejoice! You made the mainstream media.

-- the best news in Bloglandia concerned the FEC ruling that online political discussion remains a First Amendment right. So blogs that discuss candidates and campaigns, like this one, will not be considered political advertisements. So you'll probably begin to see me mention the campaign I am working on here more often.

I'll try to be more frequent here, health permitting. Thanks as always for stopping by.

Update: Forgive my wretched Italian. It's "vaffanculo", and both Sean-Paul and Atrios have a photo of the Justice flipping us off. Why couldn't Dick Cheney have shot this bastard in the face?

The top ten reasons Cheney won't ever resign

We had some chat about this topic a while back, and Letterman has now cleared things up:

Top Ten Reasons Dick Cheney Won't EVER Resign...

10. Trying to fix up Condi Rice with his daughter

9. Turns out when you shoot somebody, if you're not vice president, you gotta do time

8. Bush leaves at two every day and then it's margaritas and Fritos

7. Set the solitare high score on his office computer

6. Wants to see if he can help Bush get his approval rating under ten

5. Too hard to give up Vice Presidential Discount at D.C. area Sam Goody stores

4. Wants to stay on the job until every country in the world hates us

3. Extra-zappy White House defibrillators

2. Undisclosed location has foosball and whores

1. Why quit when things are going so well?

Bell and Soechting on Radnofsky, Radnofsky on Kelly

OK stop thinking that.

"Barbara Radnofsky isn't just the best choice, she's the only choice. As I go forward with a real opportunity to beat Rick Perry, I need this tough lady campaigning for the U.S. Senate, making an aggressive case for the New Mainstream. She's fighting the tough fight for veterans, for teachers and for all Texans, and I know as a longtime friend of Barbara's that she has the sharp mind and moral courage needed to carry our banner high."

That's the Democratic nominee for Texas Governor talking, of course.

TDP chairman Charles Soechting:

“I believe this man is a Republican plant. It's no coincidence that, for more than a decade, Gene Kelly reaches the general election, rolls over, and plays dead for his Republican opponent."

And Radnofsky on Kelly:

“I’ve challenged my opponent to a debate, but he hasn’t responded. Perhaps I should challenge him to a dance.”

You can meet Barbara Radnofsky and Chris Bell and Charles Soechting and a host of other Democrats at the opening of her campaign headquarters Friday, March 24, at 1:30 p.m., here.