Spectacular sky scene tonight

Be sure and look up at the moon this evening:

Every once in a while, something will appear in the night sky that will attract the attention of even those who normally don't bother looking up. It's likely to be that way on Monday evening, Dec. 1.

A slender crescent moon, just 15-percent illuminated, will appear in very close proximity to the two brightest planets in our sky, Venus and Jupiter.

People who are unaware or have no advance notice will almost certainly wonder, as they cast a casual glance toward the moon on that night, what those two "large silvery stars" happen to be? Sometimes, such an occasion brings with it a sudden spike of phone calls to local planetariums, weather offices and even police precincts. Not a few of these calls excitedly inquire about "the UFOs" that are hovering in the vicinity of our natural satellite.

More.

Monday Funnies: The Clintons are back

I think Hillary as SoS is an inspired selection, but that won't keep me from having some fun with her (and her husband) ...

Weekly Wrangle: Tryptophan the light fantastic

Turkey has been eaten, holiday decorations are up -- or at least out of the garage -- and it's time for the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly round-up.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the large donors from DFW who supported Prop 8. Over $335,000 went to California from 59 individuals. Time to consider the DFW Black List!

John Coby at Bay Area Houston is giving thanks to the GOP .

jobsanger looks at the $7.5 million of sales tax money that Wal-Mart gets to keep every year here in Texas, and says it is time to cap the amount of tax money a business may keep to cover the cost of collecting the tax in I Learned Something New & I Don't Like It.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme wonders how hard can it be to elect someone other than Tom Craddick Speaker of the House? Geeez!

Stace Medellin at DosCentavos reminds us why guest worker programs will fail with a story on Braceros still trying to collect monies owed themby Mexico after decades.

Toni at WhosPlayin took some time off from political work to take in a bilingual performance of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in Fort Worth by Teatro De La Rosa and offers her review.

North Texas Liberal wonders why Democrats are so anxious to throw former President Bill Clinton under the bus.

The Burnt Orange Report takes a look at Austin activism and the Austin Prop 8 Blacklist.

If sometimes you feel like a nut, McBlogger reports you'll be right at home on the State Board of Education.

BossKitty at TruthHugger reflects how Bush tried and failed to show the world a morally superior nation, instead, he showed the world what hypocritical horse's asses we really are, and Why America Is No Longer THE Role Model - Op Ed

Off the Kuff continues his analysis of Harris County precinct data with a look at HD-133, the microcosm of the county.

Neil at Texas Liberal is a big time player who drinks expensive scotch and gambles at first-class casinos.

Dembones at Eye On Williamson takes Rick Perry to task for defending Texas polluters.

PDiddie gave thanks for illegal immigrants, the inanity of Jared Woodfill, and the life and memory of Jim Mattox at Brains and Eggs.

Over at TexasKaos, Txsharon explains how Cheney Helped Halliburton Hide Secrets About Dangerous Chemicals in YOUR Drinking Water. As she reports:

The oil and gas industry is the only industry in America that is allowed by EPA to inject KNOWN hazardous material-unchecked-directly into or adjacent to underground drinking water supplies.

EARTHWORKS-Hydraulic Fracturing of Oil and Gas Wells

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that a state district judge has ruled that he does not have jurisdiction to rule on a case related to the House District 105 recount.

Chris Bell for Senate update

While I was out working my precinct this afternoon for Chris Bell, a nice young man from the Bell campaign knocked on my door (spoke with Mrs. Diddie). We're leaving no stone unturned in this runoff, believe me.

One of my concerns is the lack of a nearby polling place for early voting; the nearest one to this most Democratic portion of the district is Bayland Park Community Center at 6400 Bissonnet near Hillcroft). Our usual EV location -- the Fiesta Mart on Main near OST -- is not being provided. The CCO isn't appropriate for anyone except district residents who also work on the north side of downtown. Here's a Google map of polls throughout the district:


View Larger Map

I take that as a intention to suppress Democratic turnout by geographic location, particularly since other Harris County EV polls are even farther west into the Republican territory.

No matter; we will overcome.

Update:

Bell out-polled Huffman 3-2 on election day, but a December runoff election is a daunting proposition. The Republicans have done everything in their power to suppress support for Chris Bell. They recruited, got on the ballot at the very last minute, and even funded a stalking horse, carpetbagging, pretend-to-be Democrat candidate in the November 4 general election in order to siphon off enough Democratic votes to require a runoff. The governor purposely scheduled the runoff on a Tuesday in mid-December, when it will be hardest for many Democrats to vote AND to eliminate any weekend early voting, which typically provides the greatest opportunity for Democratic, working-class voters to cast their ballots.

So it is crucial that all Democrats participate actively in this runoff election. If every single Democrat who voted in the November 4 election will return to the polls on December 16, Chris Bell will win and become the State Senator from Senate District 17. If Democrats can just turn out our core, base voters in the district, we will have one more Democrat –- and a great one at that –- representing us in the Texas Senate.

Please urge every Democrat you know in Senate District 17 to vote in this runoff election -- and be sure to do so yourself if you live in the district.

Sunday Funnies (leftover turkeys edition)

And don't miss the ten best Bush photos ...

No Turkey Day

We'll be having la comida Mexicana -- enchilada casserole, guacamole, sopa de frijole negro -- to honor the illegal immigrants of Texas.

Giving thanks for illegal aliens, Jared Woodfill, and Jim Mattox

-- Rick Casey with the wish-I'd-said-that:

This year, as we gather for the feast, I am giving thanks for illegal immigrants.

I have a particular group of illegals in mind, but I confess that my gratitude to them does color my view of most other illegals.

I refer to the liars, debtors, opportunists and criminals who flooded into Texas in the first half of the 19th century, and then wrested the land from Mexico.

Their story is told in A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States.

...

These immigrants not only entered illegally or violated the terms of their legal entry, but rather than keep their heads down and try to fit in, they lived in active defiance of the law.

So much so that the Mexican government in 1830 passed a law barring all new American immigrants from entering Texas.

Among the illegals violating that particular law were David Crockett, William B. Travis and Sam Houston.

For the fact that tomorrow we celebrate the particularly American holiday of Thanksgiving in Texas, we owe them and the thousands of other illegals whom they joined our enthusiastic gratitude.

I also give thanks for those illegals who have worked hard to clean up the Galveston area in the past weeks, and have shown no interest in importing slaves or overthrowing our government.

Our history shows that immigrants — even illegal ones, especially when laws are out of whack — often make things better.

-- Via blogHouston, this little slice of hilarity from Mark Bennett regarding the latest Harris County Republican e-mail scandal, this one involving Judge Larry Standley and the county chair, Jared "Butthead" Woodfill (a brouhaha two years old, but coming back into the light; go here if you need the backstory):

Woodfill, unless he’s even more clueless about Harris County politics than I am, knew about these emails, including their specific content, in October 2006. If that content justifies calling for his resignation now, it has called for it every day for the last two years.

Woodfill pitches this as the party acting, but it turns out that party leadership met recently in executive session and did not decide to act against Standley. What Woodfill is doing is trying to give the idea of ousting Standley some legs before the party has to make a decision on it.

It’s a hatchet job. Not only is it a hatchet job, but it’s a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge. Not only is it a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge, but it’s a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge against one of the fairest, most just misdemeanor judges in the courthouse.

And that’s what makes Jared Woodfill today’s Asshat Lawyer of the Day.

Do go read the piece in its entirety. Without an ability to pass judgment on Standley's jurisprudence -- his regular prudence being another matter entirely -- it's just entertaining to continue observing Republicans cannibalize themselves.

-- Lastly, Elise Hu has some photos from Jim Mattox's memorial service yesterday, and this recollection from a eulogist:

(Mattox) checked out a lot available at the (Texas State) cemetery a few months ago. He joked, "Let me try it out first" -- before lying down on the grass. He decided it felt right, and that spot is where he will be buried.

And don't miss Dave McNeely's historical retrospective of Mattox's time in the political limelight.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

Obama and Noriega

Great news if he aced the interview and gets the job, whatever it happens to be:

State Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston, the unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate who served in Afghanistan and on the Mexican border as a Texas Army National Guard officer, met with President-elect Barack Obama today as Obama worked on filling leadership positions in his administration, according to confidential sources.

Democrat Noriega, who lost the Nov. 4 election to Republican incumbent John Cornyn, declined to discuss the meeting in Chicago. Obama's transition team spokesmen also declined to comment.

The meeting appeared to be a potential first step toward consideration of Noriega, 50, for appointment to an administration position, and no specific job was mentioned, according to people close to the process who spoke on the condition of not being identified.

I'd like to see Rick Noriega in Washington in January, though I'd still wish he were replacing a Box Turtle. And who knows? Perhaps we could still see him serving us in the Senate a couple of years from now.

Give Thanks: Coulter's jaw broken, mouth wired shut

She was probably getting a drink of water when someone slammed the toilet seat down. Since the news comes from deep inside the New York Post, we're forced to take it with a few grains of salt:

WE HEAR...THAT although we didn't think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reactionary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut...

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Why we're bailing out Chitigroup and not the Big 3

No unions to bust.

It's also important, of course, to prop up the make-believe economy (the one that pushes paper around and talks on the phone) as opposed to the real one. You remember that economy, right? The one that actually manufactures things.

That''s what we all went to college for, right? So we could wear white-collar shirts and not blue ones, like our dads? Not get our hands dirty?

And just to put another miserable conservative talking point to bed: the reason the auto manufacturers are in trouble IS NOT because their employees get too generous a benefits package. It's because their overpaid management (GM $20 million, Honda $1 million) keeps turning out a product that no one wants to buy. There's also that little-known fact that cars built in the US have built-in health insurance costs, while cars built in countries like Japan or Germany provide health insurance to all citizens, or they're built in places like Mexico or Brazil where the workforces are non-union and don't receive any health care at all.

Which model will we move toward?