Dale Henry for the Texas Railroad Commission

In more favorite candidate news today, one of mine from the 2006 cycle announced his bid for the TRC: Dale Henry.

“The (Texas Railroad) Commissioners have just stuck their head in the sand when it comes to public safety and our environment. As a result of their failure to use their statutory authority to require gas companies to replace faulty couplings in the Dallas area, two elderly Texans have died. And, the commission has simply looked the other way as saltwater injection wells have polluted the water supply up and down the Barnett Shale region in North Texas and in other areas of the state,” Henry said.

My blog hermana TxSharon has covered the topic Barnett Shale pollution extensively. More on the oil and gas man who's concerned about the environment:

“It is pretty hard to properly regulate the oil and gas industry when you are taking hundreds of thousands of dollars from their political action committees and executives,” Henry said. “The Railroad Commission doesn’t rule for the public anymore, they rule for the people lining their campaign warchests. I will work to get legislation passed to prohibit Railroad Commissioners from taking money from the industries the Commission is supposed to regulate,” he said.

Here's Dale speaking at the Texas Democratic Party's 2006 convention:



Henry is by far the best choice for progressives in the March 2008 Democratic primary for the Texas Railroad Commission.

Michael Skelly for Congress, 7th District

My district.

Ever since Mrs. Diddie and I moved into CD-07 earlier this year, we've searched for the candidate to to take on John Cumbersome. I asked Barbara Radnofsky at a meeting of Cy-Fair Democrats if she was was going to run, and she said, "No. Are you?"

Very funny, Bar.

I kept hearing that Jim Henley, the challenger in '06, was in, then out. I took a lunch meeting just last month with a fellow who said he was running; he still is, just not as a Dem. And I had heard something about an executive with a wind energy company who was born in Ireland, who served in the Peace Corps and spoke fluent Spanish, and who was capable of self-funding a run for Congress, but I couldn't figure out who it was.

Today, in my inbox (and in the Chronicle) I got my answer:

Skelly, of West University Place, is chief development officer for Horizon Wind, which investor Michael Zilkha of Houston and his father, Selim, bought about seven years ago for $6 million. This year a Portuguese utility company bought the firm for about $2.2 billion.

Brought to the United States as a child after being born to Irish parents in England, Skelly would not discuss how much money he will put into his campaign. Candidates can spend an unlimited amount on their own behalf, and in past Houston-area campaigns some have laid out more than $3 million to get elected.

He obviously is familiar with his opponent:

Culberson, he said, has "never met a problem he couldn't make worse." Skelly said the congressman has failed to work with local government officials to help solve mass transit problems, for example.

Which naturally can't be said of the incumbent:

"Who?" Culberson said today when asked by telephone about Skelly's candidacy for the November general election. Moments later he said Skelly's remarks are "pretty standard boilerplate Nancy Pelosi liberal Democratic spin."

Culberson, 49, said he never takes an election victory for granted, but "will continue to stay focused on doing the job I have done for the people of District 7 which they clearly approve of."

Clearly not. Just read the comments at the Chron link. Then again, Congressman Culberson is molded in the image of his idol, Tom DeLay; he's ignorant, ideological, and built to stay that way.

It sure will be nice to have some actual representation in DC in about a year. Charles Kuffner's post from last year is instructive as regards the math associated with a successful Democratic challenge in the district. I'll let Skelly finish the introduction of himself:

Ron Paul quotes Sinclair Lewis

Faux news anchors' heads explode:



His response to Mike Huckabee's ad portraying the former Arkansas governor as the Chosen One was to employ the phrase that used to be this blog's signature: "When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying the cross."

I speak from personal experience, Dr. No: calling it fascism exposes you to backlash. Too many Americans don't know what fascism is and wouldn't recognize it if they did. It's right in front of their eyes but they just cannot see it. The fact that George W Bush refers to 'the terrists' as "Islamofascists" is one big clue to the depth of American ignorance on the topic.

It doesn't matter how much money you raise, Mr. Paul, you're never going to get the Republican nomination telling them the brutal truth. Oh yeah, your crossover appeal, what with that abolishing Social Security/free trade/life begins at conception thingie: that's not gonna fly either.

The Libertarians need you badly, though. It's where you belong.

Presidents' Heads in Pearland

There's an online presidential poll that needs your input, please. Somewhat outside the mainstream for this time of the year.

(Pearland, regular readers here may recall, is nestled in the gumbo mud of the Texas coastal plain five miles to the south of Houston, and is also the home of Bobby Eberle, he of Talon News/Jeff Gannon fame (in addition to serving as the vice-chairman of the Republican Party of Texas). Pearland also claims as city councilman one Kevin Cole, who defended Tom DeLay in a rather humorous e-mail to DroptheHammer.org back when DeLay was still defensible to many Republicans. Cole was a deacon of the First Baptist Church of Pearland, which was the launching pad for Pastor Rick Scarborough of Vision America, a man of God working hard to inherit the mantle vacated by Jerry Falwell.)

My Five were Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, FDR and LBJ, and in the comments I added that the only bushes that needed to be on display were the tightly trimmed shrubs lining the entrance to the park.

John Edwards and Iowa.

For months, Edwards has been rounding up support in the state's rural precincts where the front runners have paid less attention. While Obama and Clinton have drawn crowds in the thousands in places like Des Moines and Ames, Edwards has been winning over people in tiny towns like Sac City (population: 2,189). That's important, the strategists say, because under Iowa's arcane caucus rules, a precinct where 25 people show up to vote gets the same number of delegates as a place that packs in 2,500. In other words, even if he loses to Obama and Clinton in the state's bigger cities, he can still win by wrapping up smaller, far-flung precincts that other candidates have ignored. "The bulk of our support is in small and medium counties," says Jennifer O'Malley, Edwards's Iowa state director. O'Malley says Edwards has visited all 99 counties in the state; the campaign has so far trained captains covering 90 percent of all 1,781 precincts.

Tonight I participated in a conference call with Edwards supporters across the state of Texas; Fred Baron, David Bonior, Chris Bell and others gave updates and asked for (and volunteered to) help. Perhaps the most revealing thing to me is that the campaign is so encouraged by the momentum building in the Hawkeye State that their foremost request was for volunteers to spend any available time in New Hampshire.

Edwards is going to win the Iowa caucuses. Mark it.

Reid backs down, pulls FISA bill

Thanks to everyone who budged the machinery of democracy today:

Harry Reid just announced on the floor that he intends to table debate on the FISA overhaul legislation until January.

This is an important development and will hopefully allow the opposition to telco amnesty to convince enough Senators that providing blanket immunity to these companies who broke the law really doesn't do much to keep us safe.

Earlier, our Liberal Lion noted:

The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retro-active immunity. No immunity, no FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he's willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies.

Update: the video of the above ...



And while their offices indicated they opposed the bill and supported Senator Dodd's filibuster, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden, (and John McCain too, for that matter) were nowhere near the Senate chamber today. All of them stayed on the campaign trail -- the Democrats in Iowa.

Chris Dodd -- by his actions and his words -- deserves fresh consideration from those who remain undecided about whom to support for President.

Update: here's his message, recorded shortly after the end of the session ...

FISA-with-immunity bill update

"Good morning, I'm calling Senator Obama/Clinton/Biden to ask him/her to represent the hundred of thousands of Texas Democrats like myself who have no representation in the United States Senate to oppose the FISA bill containing retroactive immunity for the telecommunications companies, to be considered today."

"Thank you."

T'was-the-week-before Wrangle

And all through the 'sphere
Not a blogger was stirring
(They drank too much beer.)

Vince does me one better:

It's beginning to look a lot like Monday
every where you go,
Take a look at the blogs and posts glistening once mo',
with threads and comments beaming all aglow.

It's beginning to look a lot like Monday
Round-ups on ev'ry blog
but the prettiest sight to see is the posting that will be
from your fave-rite blog....

Enjoy this week's Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Fred Thompson couldn't make the ballot in Delaware because of FIVE HUNDRED SIGNATURES. Mayor McSleaze at McBlogger thinks that's pretty pathetic. You will as well.

Eddie at Burnt Orange Report writes about a precedent-setting case in the Sixth District Court of Appeals which gives helps a Paris, Texas blogger preserve his or her anonymity.

How I became a "far-left-radical with a socialist agenda" etc. On Bluedaze by TXsharon.

While Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News had a sick mouse, the world moved on.

Choo choo!! That's the sound of cleaner air at The Texas Cloverleaf. Ninety-eight new and more environmentally friendly trains are running in Texas. But did taxpayers really have to front the money?

Bay Area Houston wonders why NASA contractors are limiting their employees' constitutional rights while receiving billions of dollars of government funding.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that AG Greg Abbott has handed Speaker Tom Craddick an early Christmas present in the form of an opinion that gives him carte blanche -- and even emasculates impeachment.

Muse discovers a list of 300+ women political bloggers! Female bloggers are playing a powerful role in this presidential election cycle -- and are increasingly recognized for this. Texas bloggers are on the list. Check it out!

In his piece titled John Cornyn Files for Senate, Hal at Half Empty entertains the notion that the junior senator is really looking for an elusive seat on the US Supreme Court.

Stace at DosCentavos tells us about the newest Pew Center poll! It's no wonder many Citizen-Latinos (and especially undocumented folks) are feeling like people without a country.

Eye on Williamson posts on Brian Ruiz, Rep. John Carter's opponent in TX-31, and two of Carter's recent votes in Ruiz and Carter's (R-Exxon Mobil) Circle .

An activist action plan for the FISA-with-telecom immunity bill, coming up on Monday in the Senate, is posted by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

And, last but not least, don't forget about Dan Barrett in House District 97, who has been endorsed by the Texas Progressive Alliance in his special election runoff. Matt at Burnt Orange Report has a great post about the race here.

Sunday Evening Funnies

Retroactive immunity for whatever crimes you (may) have committed.

I'll take it. How about you?

Do the American people deserve to know, not every specific, but the extent to which their rights were violated? Do they have a right to know what the legal basis was that the telecommunications corporations relied upon when they decided to help the government violate the law?

Do we have to ask the non-thinking conservative's question of AT&T et. al. : "Whaddaya got to hide?"

And did you know that Chris Dodd, the only Senator who has consistently fought against FISA-with-telecom-immunity, lost the race for Senate majority leader by one vote to Harry Reid? (I didn't.)

Do something about this bill today. And tomorrow. This is a moment for leadership on the part of the people running for president who get to vote in the Senate on this bill tomorrow. And a test of their loyalty to the oath they took to support and defend the Constitution, which carries a fourth amendment they would do well to refresh themselves with:

Privacy apart, this president's defiance of statutes by the dozens is constitutionally alarming. But the matter goes deeper still. Even if Congress were to repeal the laws securing telephone privacy, or if phone companies found loopholes to slip through when pressured by government, the Constitution's Fourth Amendment shield for ''the right of the people to be secure" from ''unreasonable searches" is a shield for all seasons, one that a lawless president, a spineless Congress, and a complacent majority of citizens -- who are conditioned to a government operating under a shroud of secrecy while individuals live out their lives in fishbowls -- cannot be permitted to destroy, for the rest of us and our children.