Thursday, July 27, 2006

Over 1500 Texans at a TTC meeting

... in Temple this week, and a grand total of eleven of those present were brave enough to raise their hands in favor of Rick Perry's massive toll road. Yet there are those on the right of Blogistan who don't yet know where they stand on the issue.

Displays of political tone-deafness such as this please me greatly.

Somervell County Salon has links to the video of some of the speakers, including Mary Beth Harrell, who is challenging "Exxon John" Carter in CD-31. Carter not long ago visited Iraq and posed for a photo shaking hands with Harrell's son, a soldier there, without knowing who it was. Carter was also in the news more recently, you may recall, for his opposition to extending the Voting Rights Act because, and I quote the Congressman directly here ...

“I don’t think we have racial bias in Texas any more.”


These are what wedge issues for Democrats look like (but don't tell the Republicans).

My ActBlue page is live, and some linkapalooza

Bad and statewide, to paraphrase a little ol' band from Texas. Kindly give a few clicks, and a few bucks to those with whom you agree are worthy.

On a related fundraising note, my man David is trying to raise $30,000 in thirty days, with an August 15 deadline. That's about how much he raised in the entire last reporting period. No Texas Democrat has been a greater inspiration to others. Please show him a little love.

There will be a debate among the candidates for Texas Governor on Thursday October 5, televised live and all over Deep-In-The-Hearta, in Spanish and English. (Take that, you anti-immigrant assbites.) Incumbent Mofo hasn't committed to attending yet. Yes, I'm sure he'd rather be clipping his toenails or even sharing something plastic with Geoffrey Connor, but he won't dare not show up.

Finally, Judge Susan Criss posted at Grits for Breakfast -- ahead of the Yates verdict -- about the failure of of our state to adequately fund programs that might prevent a similar tragedy:

What frightens me the most is knowing how many other severely mentally ill persons there are in Texas who are not getting treatment. The Texas legislature has consistently cut funding to MHMR resulting in eliminating treatment options for thousands of mentally ill Texans. There are countless other tragedies of the magnitude of this case that could be prevented but will not be.


That's what I think of every time I make the mistake of clicking on this shit. This guy's just about to lose his last marble. One more week of run-of-the-mill frustrations, a few slightly larger upsets, maybe a cat dying or something, and he's going to start shooting people.

Get some real professional help, pal.

Wednesday, July 26, 2006

The two new Democratic primaries are great news for one 2008 candidate

Actually Nevada is a caucus like Iowa and South Carolina is a primary, as is New Hampshire, but it's still excellent news for John Edwards:

They've got to be celebrating over at Edwards' HQ, because this map is designed to give him a huge boost.

Caucuses, unlike primaries, really are exercises in organization. Witness Kerry's victory in Iowa in 2004. And Nevada is a serious labor state. In fact, labor is essentially the organizing arm of the Nevada Democratic Party, especially UNITE-HERE's Local 226 of the Culinary Union. It's 60,000 strong, and firmly behind John Edward's candidacy.

The serious competition in Nevada will come from Richardson, who pushed hard for a southwestern state that wasn't NM to help his bid. People underestimate Richardson at their peril, and he has huge appeal in a Latino community that is growing like wildfire in Nevada. Can he build an organization to rival Edwards' allies at Local 226? Who knows, but let's hope he makes huge progress. Activating the state's Latino voters, in addition to a motivated an invigorated labor operation could mean trouble for Republicans in Purple Nevada.

Edwards pulled off his surprise 2nd place finish in Iowa in 2004, and he and his organization never left the state. It wouldn't be far fetched to see Edwards 2-0 going into NH. (Though Iowa will be fiercely contested by everyone -- Feingold is local to the region, Hillary has money and organization, Warner will want to make the early splash, Kerry will try to replicate his 2004 success, etc.)

Next is NH, with Kerry, Hillary, and Feingold fighting for supremacy. Edwards makes the required cursory efforts, but instead focuses on South Carolina, which is close to being home-field advantage. And for all Edwards knows, NH may follow suit as in 2004 and rubber-stamp the Iowa decision. The media boost for the winner of Iowa will be HUGE, with the media essentially coronating the winner. It's the problem with the 24-7 media environment.


Who is perceived as the loser in this reconfigured primary/caucus schedule?


Hillary, whose point person at the DNC, Harold Ickes, fought scheduling SC because it would give Edwards too big of a boost. She seems squeezed in this calendar.

There is another possibility -- that everyone except for Edwards and Richardson ignores Nevada to focus on New Hampshire. The political press, which is East Coast-based, won't want to travel to Nevada when New Hampshire, and its wealth of candidates, is just a short flight away.


My take is that HRC would concentrate on a win in NH, though she's got the dough to do everything at once. Where do Clark and Warner, other moderate Southerners, focus their efforts? It might be too late if they pick SC to do so.

Yeah, yeah, it's still too early to speculate, and I prefer to think of the Gregorian calendar as suspended, at least until we get some Democrats elected in about 100 days.

Not guilty, thank God.

Andrea Yates will likely spend the rest of her life in the state facility at Rusk.

Some of us are relieved that the jury reached this verdict, and some are not. Dwight has aggregated the cogent and the not-so (particularly this fellow, whose blog -- nay, his entire worldview -- is so obviously full of shit that he can no longer think clearly).

Click on the Dwight's link to read an excerpt of the insanity of the two that follow, and let's hope they can get some good mental health care just like Mrs. Yates.

One other thing: if anyone should have been found guilty of murder, it should have been Rusty Yates.