LeBron James splits ...

... the baby:


“I’VE DECIDED I’M GOING TO PLAY FOR … MIAMI OF OHIO!”

(Thanks to Satirical Political.)

Why Voter ID won't fly in Texas

John Tanner cuts to the nut.

Let's be clear. The pro-ID requirement crowd has relied on hot air rather than facts. Its case rests on the myth that crowds of people are going to the polls and pretending to be someone else. The fact is that cases of voter impersonation are as rare as hens' teeth. But when neither side has had evidence, the courts have upheld ID laws out of deference to the legislatures.

The Supreme Court has made clear that anti-ID forces can and will prevail if they can produce actual individuals whose right to vote will be denied or abridged by an ID requirement.

Welcome to Texas.

Texas is a unique state with a unique population mix, unique size and unique geography — among other unique characteristics. What might be true in Indianapolis will not be true in the Rio Grande Valley.

Tanner -- former head of the voting division of the USDOJ's Civil Rights department -- led this piece with the recent case law associated with Voter ID wins in the states of Indiana and Georgia, so go to the original article if you need to catch up.

In Indiana and Georgia, county seats are local business, commercial and community hubs. Local residents visit them often in the normal course of their daily lives. Those without cars catch a ride with a friend or relative, as they can in much of East Texas.

But so much of Texas is different. Take Presidio County. Marfa, the county seat, is a tiny town of 2,121 souls notable mainly as an oasis of minimalist art. It sits at the northern end of the county, while most county residents live 89 miles away over rough mountain roads in the town of Presidio.

Minimalist art is not on the front burner in Presidio. More than 40 percent of the residents live in poverty. More than 70 percent of those older than 65 have a disability. More than 94 percent are Hispanic.

Marfa doesn't offer much reason for Presidio residents to visit, at least for those who don't crave some grilled radicchio with gorgonzola or need a giant metal sculpture. For people without cars, it takes a lot to persuade a neighbor to fill the pickup truck with gas and drive you 120 miles from Presidio to Marfa and back.

For those down the road in the 88 percent Hispanic community of Redford, the round trip is more than 150 miles. In a neighbor's old truck, that might be 20 gallons of gas plus wear and tear — more than $100 by current government reimbursement rates — plus a day gone and wages lost for both of you. That is the sort of unreasonable burden on voters that will persuade a court.

If voter ID opponents need victims, citizens who will face unconscionable burdens under a voter ID regime, they can find them in Presidio. And Presidio County is part of a pattern.

Texas counties are big, especially along the Rio Grande. A dozen Texas counties are twice as large as the entire state of Rhode Island. Ten of the 12 are more than 50 percent minority. Of the 32 counties over 55 percent Hispanic, 27 are larger than Rhode Island.

Tanner winds up and hurls the payoff pitch, which David Dewhurst and every single Republican in the state legislature needs to clearly understand.

Voter ID proponents think that when they face the inevitable court challenge to any law they manage to pass, they'll have a slam dunk. They might find that they are the ones who'll get slammed and dunked. And that they have wasted another legislative session chasing wild geese while the real problems of Texas remain unaddressed.

Texas Republicans and their attorneys are happy taking their chances with a 100% GOP state Supreme Court which favors defendants 87% of the time (usually corporations sued by little guys).  And they will keep doing it until we elect some Democrats to the state Supreme Court, and to the appellate court.

But more to Tanner's point here: Texas Republican legislators only waste time with Voter ID because it lathers up their paranoid, racist, TeaBagger base, while the damage associated with an $18 billion dollar budget shortfall keep festering.

The way we stop that is to elect just three more Democrats to the Texas House.

Green means go; Dems drop SCOTX challenge

The right course of action.

The Texas Democratic Party today cleared the way for Green Party candidates to remain on the ballot this year by dropping its state Supreme Court challenge to the legality of the Green's ballot access petition drive.

However, the Democrats indicated the party will continue its lawsuit at a lower court level in an effort to obtain civil penalties in the case.

"Although the motion we filed today means it is almost certain that Green Party candidates will remain on the ballot in 2010, the facts demonstrate that the participants in this petition gathering scam acted improperly and we continue to seek penalties allowed by law," said Democratic Chairman Boyd Richie.

Silencing the whine that Democrats aren't interested in democratic principles was a significant step in the right direction. More from News8Austin, courtesy Half Empty...

Officials with the Democratic Party said they didn't want to be accused of obstructing voters from choosing their candidate of choice, but encourage Green Party candidates to consider their campaigns.

“Green Party leaders should remember that actions speak louder than words. It is up to the Green Party candidates to decide whether they want to continue candidacies that were bought and paid for by Republicans who hold the Green Party in contempt," Richie said.

The truth for this writer is that I am sympathetic to the Green Party issues and efforts. They deserve to be heard  by the voters of Texas. But they were worked like week-old laundry by Rick Perry's henchmen in this regard, and when they learned about it they decided that was all right with them.

If there is any new news here, it is that Rick Perry is quite obviously pursuing another 39% strategy in the 2010 election.

Update: Burnt Orange's comprehensive aggre-post includes video from last Friday's press conference that Green Party coordinator kat swift and others held following the Supreme's decision to set aside the lower court's block of their ballot effort.

Update II: there's a good back-and-forth going on between Democratic activist and my friend Stan Merriman at his blog Torches and Pitchforks and my friend and former Democrat/current Green currently unaligned Kris Graham and Green candidate for Harris County clerk Don Cook.

Michael Steele's greatest hits (and his real problem: the truth)

I'm so old I remember when conservatives would point and laugh at things Howard Dean said. Then he kicked their asses and they had to sit  down and shut up, of course.

GOP chair Michael Steele's words and deeds have been referred to as "screw-ups" and "gaffes" -- and some of them, like the expense report for the nights out at the lesbian bondage club, certainly are -- but the main reason the dude is in hot water is because he's the head of a political party based fundamentally upon hypocrisy. So he gets in trouble every time he lets slip a brutal truth.

For example, "Obama's war of choosing" is blindingly false and even ridiculous.  "Afghanistan is unwinnable", on the other hand, is quite true, yet it obviously contradicts the tough-guy facade the GOP has invested decades constructing, thus cannot be spoken aloud (by a Republican). More truth that penalizes Steele:

In a March 2009 interview with CNN, Steele was asked about the White House’s position that Rush Limbaugh was the leader of the GOP. He strongly denied that claim, insisting that he was the party’s top leader. “Rush Limbaugh is an entertainer. Rush Limbaugh's whole thing is entertainment,” Steele said. And he trashed Limbaugh’s over-the-top remarks about Obama. “Yes, it is incendiary. Yes, it is ugly,” Steele said, prompting Limbaugh to declare Steele as unfit to lead the party. Steele later apologized to Limbaugh, insisting he did not want to “diminish his voice.” Later, he strangely suggested the Limbaugh flap had been “strategic” on his part. “It may look like a mistake, a gaffe. (But) there is a rationale, there’s a logic behind it,” he said.

And more, the kind that the hypocrites in the Republican party just cannot tolerate:

In an interview with GQ’s Lisa DePaulo, Steele said abortion is “absolutely … an individual choice” and said the question of legality should be settled by the states. The comments prompted criticism from several top social conservatives, including Gov. Mike Huckabee. Steele, who is pro-life, later said his words had been taken out of context.

And still more:

Perhaps the most important role of a party chairman is to be a cheerleader for candidates and their campaigns, even in the most dire circumstances. But in January, Steele told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that not only was he not sure if the GOP would regain control of Congress, he wasn’t sure if Republicans were ready to govern. “Are we ready? I don’t know,” Steele said. Candidates “looking to run” have to hew to the GOP's core principles, he added. “If they don’t, they’ll get to Washington, and they’ll start drinking that Potomac River water and they’ll get drunk with power.”

Beyond Steele, however, there is the simple cognitive dissonance associated with being an African-American Republican. Or a Hispanic Republican. Or a Log Cabin Republican.  These things exist in nature (as rare as they may be) and, stranger still, these creatures appear comfortable in their environment. They do not thrive, but they do survive.

A more current strain of this cerebral dichotomy can be found in the deficit hawks peacocks that spawned the Tea Party fringe movement of the GOP; "no" to all government spending -- even the extension of jobless benefits -- except for the wars and police actions around the globe.  Olbermann had a segment just last night on our now-unbelievable defense budget, the dawning pragmatism that it must be reduced coming from Ron Paul and a few more TeaBaggers -- and more carping about that, combined with a call to keep increasing it, from no less than the likes of Sarah Palin.

See? More truth larded up and turned rancid with conservative hypocrisy. Michael Steele just makes this mistake more often than the rest of the Republicans. They call that "lack of message discipline".

A beatdown

"Rick Perry will see how many times he can say 'Obama' and 'liberal' in slick T.V. commercials and see if that will get him by with 51 percent of the vote," (Bill) White said. "In prior elections, he attacks his opponents with negative campaigns, takes credit for what's good and accepts no responsibility for a lot of mismanagement."

White said Perry should not be allowed to avoid forums where the questions come from citizens in the audience. "If you don't have the guts to get up here on stage and answer to the taxpayers who pay your salary, then you shouldn't be re-elected governor," White said.

It wasn't just White who got in some shots, either.

(Libertarian Kathie) Glass, who opposes national healthcare and believes the state should block its implementation, was equally hard on Perry. She said Perry has talked a good game in opposing federal policies, but she said talk is all he is.

"Our governor may have said some things that sound comforting, but everyone knows ... he doesn't mean it, and he won't do it," Glass said. "You know you're voting for the man you wish he were."

It was vicious and kind of ugly on the MIA governor. I came close to feeling sorry for him once or twice. But that passed every time one of his minions in the chat sidebar to the video -- "defeattxlibs" or "liberalbill" were two of their handles -- would post some ridiculous Carney-inspired propaganda.

It reminded me of one of those UFC fights where the guy on the mat can't cover up the blows raining down on his head, but has a couple of ringside handlers yelling "You got him, Ace!" and "He's about to give out!"

Barbara Radnofsky and Jon Roland were no less relentless on Greg Abbott, either, in the second round on the card for attorney general candidates.

Burnt Orange has a live blog of the play-by-play.

Fourth on the Fifth Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes America a Happy 234th Birthday as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

TXsharon is not the only one who thinks CHK shareholders are getting drilled by the Shale Gas Shell Game. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Off the Kuff talks about how to really put the unemployed back to work.

"You knew you were at the Texas Democratic Party Convention when ..." at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs.

The Texas Cloverleaf shows you the difference between good and evil in Texas.

South Texas Chisme sees a clear difference between the Democrats who want to solve problems and republicans who want to visit their idea of the 1700s.

Neil at Texas Liberal spent the week in Cincinnati, and offer a post with a picture of a retaining wall in a Cincinnati park that was built by the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration in 1940. Sarah Palin can't serve a full term as governor, but the work of government-sponsored jobs programs lasts across the decades.

Left of College Station returns after a June hiatus, and Teddy writes about the mainstream media and the culture of underexposure, and also covers the week in headlines.

Gubernatorial debate tonight (without the guber)

The first debate in the Texas governor's race will be between a pair of Houstonians in the Hill Country on Monday, minus Gov. Rick Perry.

Democratic nominee Bill White and Libertarian Kathie Glass, both lawyers, are scheduled to face off in a Kerrville Area League of Women Voters debate at 7 p.m. at the Cailloux Theatre in Kerrville.

The debate will be carried live on Kerrville's KVHC-TV and will be streamed live on the station's website.

Kerrville Area League President Donna Robinson said Perry was invited to attend but turned it down. Robinson said Perry remains invited to show up Monday if he wishes.

The governor still has an unhealthy obsession with his challenger's tax returns.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said the governor will not debate White until White releases his personal income tax returns for the years he was assistant U.S. secretary of energy and Texas Democratic Party chairman, a period covering the mid-to-late 1990s. White has released his returns for the years he was Houston's mayor.

"We will discuss debates when Bill White comes clean with the people of Texas and releases his tax returns for his years on public service," Miner said.

White spokeswoman Katy Bacon said Perry is just playing games to avoid a debate.

"Next he'll be asking for Bill's tax returns when he was running concession stands as a teenager, or saying he'll only debate if Glenn Beck is the moderator," Bacon said. "If he doesn't want to debate, he should just say so instead of playing games like a typical career politician."

Okay then. Let's turn our attention to the people who will be there.

Glass favors states' rights, nullification of federal laws by the states if they consider them unconstitutional, an elimination of the public school property tax and state payments for Medicaid. Glass said Perry talks about states' rights and less government spending, but "he really doesn't believe in it."

Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson called White's decision to debate Glass a "mixed bag."

The debate gives White the opportunity to promote a candidate who may draw votes from Perry in the general election and highlight the fact that Perry will not debate. But Jillson said it also gives White's campaign an air of desperation.

"It caters to the idea that they are a little frantic and are taking the eye off the ball, which is Rick Perry," Jillson said.

Jillson vastly overstates the governor's only hope to get something out of a no-show. There is lots to be gained for both Glass and White, and it all comes at Perry's expense. He will again serve as a punching bag -- I prefer pinata -- and once the polls show him losing more ground, he'll get his summer attack ads campaign in gear.

I'll be watching to see if the two on stage this evening score much beyond but added name rec and a few style points, though. There's plenty of Debra Messina-ish crazy for the TeaBaggers and less sensible conservatives to like about Glass, and whatever she says tonight will raise her stock a bit. But the Republicans who stuck with Kay Bailey in March can find plenty to like about White as well, so it will be interesting to see if he makes an appeal directly to them.  I want to see if White gets asked about the Greens, and also about the Barnett Shale (scroll to nearly the end of Dave Mann's article in the Texas Observer and begin at the paragraph that starts with "In March" in bold if you need the backstory). Those would be the toughest questions he could get asked IMO, not the Perry-campaign-fed questions about BTEC nor the inevitable and tired "can Democrats win anything this year?" crap.

Update: Kuffner's take, this excerpt...

Perry’s spokesbot claimed (the reason the governor wasn't going to debate) was because White hasn’t yet released a detailed accounting of the allowance he received as a kid, but we all know the real reason.

Fourth Funnies

Greens get to go

As I predicted here, the Texas Green Party's candidates get a green a light from the Supremes...

The Texas Supreme Court today stayed a district judge's order blocking the Green Party of Texas from certifying its candidates for the general election ballot.

The order allows the Green Party to legally establish a list of candidates for the general election. But the court also set a series of deadlines for lawyers for the Texas Democratic Party and the Green Party to argue whether a ballot petition drive illegally used corporate money. The Supreme Court still could knock the party off the ballot.

Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn said he does not believe the fight is over.

"The effect of the order is to give the Supreme Court time before they open up an enormous loophole for potential election fraud," Dunn said.

Green Party lawyer David Rogers said, "We get to put our candidates on the ballot today. We don't know if we get to keep them there."

More from Burnt Orange, Texas Kaos, Texas Politics, Trail Blazers, Bay Area Houston, and shortly more, which when posted will be updated here. There's a debate between Bill White and Libertarian Kathie Glass coming up Monday; I wonder if the Green's Deb Shafto will get invited to future ones. Her name should be included in all future polling also in order to get a true reading of the governor's (and other statewide) races going forward.

Update: The TexTrib talks to Jeff Weems, the Democratic railroad commission candidate (my italic emphasis)...

Weems says he isn’t worried about the possibility of facing Art Browning, the Green Party candidate. He says he’s been expecting to face a Green Party candidate all along. Also, while he’s working on the Democratic vote, Weems says he’s more focused on picking up independent and Republican votes, which aren’t likely to break to the Green Party anyway.

“I heard that Art was throwing his hat in early, early on — heck, I think even before David Porter did,” Weems says. “I’m truly not concerned with it because, on the railroad commission race, if you look at past races with Green Party candidates you don’t see a draw down on the Democratic vote total.”

Weems has, without question, the smartest attitude about how to run a statewide race with a Green in it.

How many Libertarians does it take to screw in a light bulb?

None. The darkness will compel the light bulb to change itself.

As we wait for the Texas Supreme Court to weigh in -- or maybe not -- on the Green Party's GOP-financed ballot bid, let's enjoy some humor at the expense of the party which could be the Republicans' Trojan horse, if only conservatives weren't such low-information voters. And if the Libs weren't so ... ah ... self-righteous. Click on the pic (and then "full screen") for a more readable version. Or go to Ampersand.

TexTrib: state mulls more nukes

Are we fixin' to mull them with cider, or wine maybe? 'Cause Imo needa drink if we're fixin' to build more nukular reactors.

Seventeen years ago, Texas turned on its last nuclear reactor, about 50 miles southwest of Fort Worth. In another decade, several more reactors could get built here — if events in Washington go the power companies' way.

Nuclear power now accounts for 14 percent of Texas's electricity usage (below the national average, 20 percent). The case for adding more reactors rests on a rising appetite for electricity sparked by a growing population and ever-proliferating gadgetry. And proponents point out that nuclear power, unlike coal or natural gas, is virtually free of the greenhouse gas emissions associated with global warming during its operations, although environmentalists strongly dispute the merits of the plants.

The federal government is moving ahead with a program that provides loan guarantees for the plants — a crucial step to placate financiers nervous about the economic risk of building them. Earlier this month, the Department of Energy agreed to a $3.4 billion guarantee for the expansion of a nuclear facility in Georgia, and the Obama administration recently asked Congress for more funds to help out more plants. Two proposed nuclear projects in Texas are high on the list of potential recipients.

"We're very serious about moving ahead," says Jeff Simmons, who is leading the development efforts to add two new reactors to the Comanche Peak plant in Glen Rose, near Fort Worth. The project is a joint venture between subsidiaries of Luminant, a big Texas power generator, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. The companies are hoping to get a license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission by the end of 2012 — a crucial green light for the plant.

Like deepwater oil wells in the Gulf of Mexico, all it takes is one (screw-up) and you're done. And so are the rest of us.

But hey, there's lotsa jobs that need creatin', and more braggin' by Governor KieYoat to be done about the wunnerful Texas economy ...

“Like all Jews, I was probably in a Chinese restaurant.”