Sunday Funnies

The Gay Marriage Headlines

-- First let's acknowledge that while the conservatives have won Duck Dynasty, the progressives won New Jersey, Rhode Island, Illinois, New Hampshire, Hawaii, New Mexico... and Utah.

I suppose we can live with that record.  So while there are many fronts across the country in the War on Marriage Traditional Family Values Bigotry, let's see what developed in Houston over the past week.

-- Annise Parker busted two moves: she filed to transfer the lawsuit against her decree to provide benefits to same-sex spouses of city employees out of that family court...

City Attorney David Feldman filed a “Notice of Removal” on Friday saying the lawsuit belongs in U.S. district court instead of state court because it raises federal questions, including the guarantees of equal protection and due process under the U.S. Constitution. The notice of removal says (GOP Judge Lisa) Millard, who presides over the 310th State District Family Court, failed to notify Parker and the city before holding a hearing at 5 p.m. on Dec. 17 — the same day the lawsuit was filed — and issuing an order halting the benefits.

... and she asked her partner, Kathy Hubbard, to marry her next month.

The source, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Parker and Hubbard plan to wed in Palm Springs, Calif., in January. "I heard it from her own lips," the source said.

The mayor's wedding plans were reported earlier Friday by the website CultureMap.

Congrats to the happy couple.

-- Texpate notes that city employees have already filed suit over benefits they are paying for that the family court judge blocked.

KPRC reports that a local couple has sued the City of Houston after their full spousal benefits have been revoked. As the astute may recall, last month Mayor Parker announced that all legally married couples (includes those of the same-sex) could provide full spousal benefits from the City if one member of the couple worked for the municipality. Only three couples initially signed up for these benefits, including Noel Freeman (a City employee) and Brad Pritchett. Many will probably remember Freeman, the President of the Houston GLBT Caucus and previous candidate for the City Council, and Pritchett, an official with the Harris County Democratic Party. Shortly thereafter, officials with the Harris County GOP sued the City of Houston in attempt to enjoin the offering of these benefits; they were successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order to this effect until mid-January.

Here's the News2Houston video.



Charles has more on lawsuits and such.

-- The 1993 Houston Oilers, subjects of an NFL documentary and some more recent extended play in the Chronic, had at least two gay players.  Their teammates knew, and it wasn't a big deal.

See, acceptance and tolerance isn't something new and progressive.  It also isn't 'in anybody's face' or 'crammed down their throat'.

Greg Abbott is soooo going to hate it when this becomes an issue in the 2014 governor's race.

Regulators axe Texas super PAC that lived up to its name

Secretive Politics.

In a letter dated Dec. 4, the Federal Election Commission tells Secretive Politics that it faces "administrative termination" for what amounts to its refusal to file mandatory financial disclosures.

Since registering with the FEC in August 2012, Secretive Politics has lived up to its name. It's been incommunicado with federal regulators. Repeated calls and emails by the Center for Public Integrity to its only known official, treasurer June Walton, have likewise gone unreturned.

The super PAC also uses a "virtual office" in Sugar Land, Texas, a Houston suburb. There, operators charge clients $350 a month for a mailing address, live receptionist and access to a conference room — but no physical office space. Its listed website and email address don't work.

Sugar Land.  Home of Tom DeLay and Kesha Rodgers.  The most diverse MSA in the nation, on the verge of turning blue, is also the home of King Street Patriots and True the Vote founder Catherine Englebrecht.

It's unclear whether Secretive Politics has engaged in political activity. It may have been raising and spending money, flouting federal regulators all the while. Or, just as likely, it existed in name only — like several hundred effectively dormant super PACs that have materialized since 2010, when the Citizens United v. FEC and SpeechNow.org v. FEC federal court decisions gave rise to such political committees.

I'm sure it's nothing. They probably only wanted to gauge the swiftness and harshness of the regulatory response. "Secretive Politics" is likely just another conservative pile of crap in a cow pasture that sprouts psychedelic mushrooms after a hard rain.

Malala Yousafzai and Jon Stewart

Worth revisiting.

Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani advocate for womens rights and access to education, appeared on the Daily Show (in October), ahead of Friday's announcement for the 2013 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize.

Her answer to one of Jon Stewart's questions left him speechless.

The Daily Show
Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,The Daily Show on Facebook

Christmas Morning News of the World

-- In light of yesterday's Christmas card from Banksy, this.

Israeli military forces launched a series of attacks in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in response to suspected Palestinian sniper fire that killed an Israeli civilian doing repair work on the border fence, military authorities said.

A 3-year-old Palestinian girl was killed and members of her family were injured in an airstrike on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza, according to local reports.

They were some of the heaviest strikes in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip since a weeklong Israeli military campaign ended with a November 2012 cease-fire.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and As-Salamu alaykum to everyone in the Middle East.

-- Three Wise Women:

-- Remember that the reason for the season is that on or around the shortest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere, people decorated trees, gave each other gifts, and had a feast... which eventually morphed into Christians celebrating the birth of a poverty-stricken Jewish boy who grew up to become a carpenter.  Or a fisher of men.  Or something.

-- Last, Merry Christmas from Edward Snowden.

O Little Wall of Bethlehem

"Dammit Mary, I'm not lost! Get off your ass and lead us somewhere else, then. Maybe you can ask the Father of the child for some guidance ..."

"You putz! I'm having labor pains here. Jesus CHRIST, this kid is going to be born in a barn at the rate we're going ..."

The Christmas Eve Eve Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes its readers a very Merry Christmas. Here's the roundup of blog posts from TPA members as we prepare to celebrate the holiday with friends and family.

Off the Kuff wants to know why no one is taking responsibility for enforcing voting rights in Texas.

Eye On Williamson digs deeper into how the Democrats in Texas must move the policy discussion back to the left, so it can get to where it needs to be. More on Democratic message strategy in Texas in The Overton Window.

After the blogosphere's sudden realization that next year's Houston City Council will have just two female members, Texas Leftist decided it was time for a more in-depth look at diversity in the Bayou City's municipal government, with some invaluable help from Charles Kuffner. And surprisingly, we're not as diverse as we appear to be.

"What the Duck?!" asked PDiddie at Brains and Eggs. The reality show quacks opened a new front in the culture wars, and just in time for Christmas! While everyone quarreled about it on Facebook and Twitter, the US Senate quietly re-authorized the federal government to continue detaining Americans indefinitely. The real outrages again get supplanted by the fake ones, as the USA! USA! hurtles toward Idiocracy.

The Republican war on women continues with voter ID cards. Who wouldn't love to see their ex-husband's name branded on their voter ID. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to you imagine the horror.

Neil at All People Have Value said resistance to a wicked culture is an everyday thing and is hopeful.  All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

Texpatriate releases a list of Best and Worst members of the Houston City Council.

And here's some more of the best of the left of Texas from last week.

=================

Progress Texas released their Ten Best List, and Bay Area Houston posts his Christmas Wish List.

The Salon of Somervell County notices that Obama and the Democrats in Washington are moving on immigration reform.

Socratic Gadfly observed that Rick Perry crony Phil Wilson, the former head of TXDoT, got appointed to another post in the final year of the Goodhair administration.

This payday lending post is for you, Greg Abbott, says nonsequiteuse.

New Media Texas has Beyonce's Guide to Increasing Civic Engagement.

And finally, the TFN Insider has 2013's War on Science year in quotes.

Sunday Holiday Funnies

I pity the fool who shows this to Megyn Kelly.

While you were quarreling about Duck Dynasty, the Senate passed NDAA

It still includes the indefinite-detention-for-Americans provision, and omits Sen. Gillibrand's clause on prosecutions of military sexual assaults.

Yesterday the 2014 National Defense Authorization Act was fast-tracked through the Senate, with no time for discussion or amendments. And you know, it's Christmastime, so they just passed it so that they could recess for the holidays. The new version of the NDAA has already been quietly passed by the House of Representatives.

It authorizes massive spending, including $527 billion in base defense spending for the current fiscal year, funding for the war in Afghanistan, and funding for nuclear weapons programs.

The indefinite detention allowed by the original NDAA is still there, and it’s actually worse now, because there are provisions that will make it easier for the government to target those who disagree. Section 1071 outlines the creation of the “Conflict Records Research Center”, where the unconstitutionally obtained information that the NSA has collected is compiled and shared with the Department of Defense. The information, called in the wording “captured records,” can be anything from your phone records, emails, browsing history or posts on social media sites.

I see on my Facebook wall this morning that people are still staking claims to righteousness, for and against the Duck Commander and his God-fearing brood.

Personally, I have had my fill of that "controversy".  If Americans left and right cannot pull their heads out of their asses and start talking -- and doing something -- about the things that will make an actual difference in their lives, then there's no hope for this nation.

None.  It's only Idiocracy that lies ahead.

Texas Greens release full 2014 candidate list

The statewide top-of-the-ballot was previously revealed; this latest list contains statewide judicials and downballot Congressional and local races.  A press release is forthcoming, but for now the spreadsheet has the names, offices, and contact data.  Some of the highlights...

-- As surmised, the Greens filed for three statewide judicial slots left unfilled by the Texas Democratic Party. Those are...

• Jim Chisholm of Houston, for Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, Place 8.
• Judith Sanders-Castro of San Antonio, for Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 4.
• George Joseph Altgelt of Laredo, for Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 9.

In addition, Charles E. Waterbury of Dallas is running for Place 7 on the Texas Supreme Court.  Waterbury and Chisholm stood for office in 2012; I wrote about them both, and those SCOTX races, in this post.

-- The Congressional Greens include -- as I was tipped -- Remington Alessi, who is challenging Sheila Jackson Lee in CD-18.  (Jackson-Lee has also drawn a repeat Democratic  primary foe.  Update: He's not actually a Democrat, which you can verify if you click that link and listen to him being interviewed by Michael Berry.)  Mark Roberts will again run against Ted Poe in CD-2.  George Reiter, the co-chair of the Harris County Green Party and a UH professor (he also has a radio show on KPFT) will take on Congressman Al Green.  Don Cook, fresh off his bid for Houston mayor, submits his name in CD-13, where the incumbent Mac Thornberry has two Republican primary challengers, and then a Democrat and a Libertarian in the fall of 2014.  And kat swift of San Antonio, the GPTX's matriarch, filed against Lloyd Doggett in CD-35.  The Greens will also have a candidate in the race to replace Steve Stockman in CD-36; he is Hal J. Ridley Jr. of Bridge City.

-- Austin legislative candidates include, for District 10 of the Texas state Senate (the one being vacated by Wendy Davis), John Tunmire of Fort Worth.  David Courtney, the husband of the Green Party's lieutenant governor nominee, will run once more against Joan Huffman in SD-17.

State representative challengers are eight in number across the state and include Art Browning, again challenging Republican Allen Fletcher  in HD-130, and Morgan Bradford, the only opponent to Rep. Borris Miles in HD-146.

-- There are four Green candidates for County Judge across the state: David Collins in Harris (Ed Emmett, incumbent), Paul Pipkin in Bexar (Nelson Wolff, inc.); Jeff Questad in Travis (Samuel Biscoe, inc., retiring) and Frank Cortez in Webb (Danny Valdez, inc.).

There are also four Greens running for County Clerk: Earl Lyons in Bexar (Gerry Rickhoff, incumbent); Bill Stout in Travis (Dana DeBeauvoir, inc.); Matthew Hanson in Comal (Joy Streater, inc.); and Schyler Butler in Denton (Cynthia Mitchell, inc.).

-- Houston attorney Clint Davidson is a candidate for for Harris County Court of Criminal Law #13.  He has a blog titled "Trouble is My Business".

-- All of the 51 Texas Green Party candidates on the 2014 ballot can be found here.

What the Duck?

-- As far as Phil Robertson of Duck Dynasty goes... well, God has spoken.

The Duck Dynasty guy who likened homosexuality to bestiality makes a living helping people trick ducks into thinking they want to fuck them.
— God (@TheTweetOfGod) December 19, 2013

Robertson is a run-of-the-mill, dime-a-dozen Southern fried bigot and Bible thumper, but he also has a master's degree in education.  If you don't think he is manipulating the gulliblemics who watch his show in order to get more money from whichever broadcast outfit picks it up when they all quit A&E... then you might not have all the facts.

Republicans slobber all over themselves when these culture "wars" break out.  It's yet another opportunity to distract their base from the screwing they're being given by the likes of Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal, and all the rest.  The best thing that can be said about this latest eruption is that there will be fewer Fox News "exposayz" on the "War on Christmas".

The best thing the rest of us can do is to stop responding with anything but ridicule to these obvious distractions.  If it's not handshakes, it's selfies.  Last week it was Megyn Kelly, this week it's Robertson.  There will be something and someone new next week too, because stubborn ignorance never takes a holiday.

Republicans won't have a chance of winning any contested elections next year unless they can sustain the Tea Party outrage for the next twelve months.  Let's stop letting the morons and bigots set the ground rules for 'discussion'.  And the best way to do that is to just laugh at them.

Really.

When some conservative brags about how strong Fox News' ratings are, remind them that a great deal of that audience is liberals tuning in for the comedic value.  When they post pictures of Obama bowing, remind them that it was W who kissed the Saudi leader, King Abdullah, on the mouth and held his hand.  (Sure, W is gay, everybody knows it except him, but the King isn't.  You can bank that.)

And when they scream that suspending Robertson is a violation of his First Amendment rights, just remind them that A&E -- and parent companies Hearst and Disney -- are not the federal government. Tell them to pull out their pocket copy of the US Constitution and read it, for God's sake.

And last, when they call Robertson a God-fearing Christian, show them this.

Mrs. Michael Berry now Texas Secretary of State

Congratulations on the appointment, and let's expect things to work out for the best.

Gov. Rick Perry on Thursday appointed Houston lawyer Nandita Berry to be secretary of state, succeeding John Steen Jr. of San Antonio, who announced his resignation this month.

Berry's appointment, effective Jan. 7, will make her the first Indian-American to hold the position of chief elections officer for Texas, Perry said.

"Nandita Berry personifies what is possible through hard work and dedication in the state of Texas," Perry said in a statement announcing the appointment. She was 21 when she arrived from India "with nothing but $200 to her name" and has become "one of the most accomplished attorneys in the state."

"I am truly humbled to follow in the footsteps of Stephen F. Austin, Texas' first secretary of state," Berry said in a statement. "Like him, I came to Texas in search of a better life and the limitless opportunities to be found across our great state."

Berry has been on the University of Houston board of regents as a Perry appointee but resigned that post to become secretary of state, according to the governor's office. She is senior counsel at Locke Lord LLP, a position the firm said she also will resign.

Mrs. Berry will be the state's 107th SoS.  In years past it was a springboard to statewide elective office, with people like John Hill, Martin Dies, Bob Bullock, and Mark White serving in the post.  George W. Bush's appointees included Alberto Gonzales.  Rick Perry has appointed eight different men and women to the position in his 13 years as governor; they have been less than stellar individuals, as he has used the office -- like all the rest of his appointments -- to reward loyal cronies.  Perry's most infamous SoS to date was his first: Geoff Connor, a man around whom the governor's own homosexuality controversy has swirled.

The problem with all the turnover is that it is a tough and controversial job, and those who serve in the position seem to tire quickly of it and quit.

As secretary of state, Nandita Berry will be the state's chief elections officer as well as the governor's liaison on border and Mexican affairs and the state's chief protocol officer for state and international matters. The secretary of state's office also is the repository for business records, among other responsibilities.

Yeah, that elections oversight thing.  Kind of a biggie.  Mrs. Berry will be working with county elections officials like Harris County tax assessor/collector Mike Sullivan next year on things like interpreting and applying the photo ID statutes, a contentious enough task in its execution in 2013.  That probably won't be her biggest immediate kerfuffle, however.

She is married to radio talk-show host and former Houston City Councilman Michael Berry, who drew attention in 2010 for saying on his show he hoped that if a mosque were built near the New York City site of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that it would be blown up. He later apologized for his words but maintained that the mosque should not be built. He also has referred to Houston Mayor Annise Parker as Annise "Porker," and refers to liberals as "libtards."

In 2012, Berry -- a one-time candidate for mayor of Houston -- struck another vehicle as he was leaving a gay bar.  HPD investigated the incident as a hit-and-run, but the Harris County DA's office declined to press a charge.  Video cameras in the bar caught Berry on his way in to watch a drag show.  (I blogged about the incident here; that post is among the top ten most-clicked in Brains' ten-plus-year history.)

That's not the only dirt one can find on Mr. and Mrs. Berry, however.  Here's a link from 1992 and the archives of the Daily Cougar, the University of Houston's newspaper, about Michael and Nandy when they were students there.  (The formatting on the web page has all but collapsed; scroll to the end and then up to the headline "SA CANDIDATES TRADE BARBS, CLAIM 1991 ISSUES FORGOTTEN", written by Frank San Miguel.)  I'll just excerpt the relevant portion; you can click over if you want the full context.

Last summer, (SA Vice President Andrew) Monzon accused (SA President Michael) Berry of overpaying executive secretary and girlfriend Nandita Venkateswaran and causing problems with former Administrative Secretary Doris Ayyubi. Monzon told senators that he had written a letter to Dean of Students Willie Munson, SA advisor, that the organization was being "split into two factions of untrusting parties."

Michael Berry is the kind of fellow who creates controversy everywhere he goes.  Has all his life. He thrives on it, in fact.  Will his spouse allow his reputation for antagonism, dissension, strife, and poor judgment affect her administration of one of Texas' most important offices?

We'll just have to wait and see.  Nandita Berry seems to be an accomplished person in her own right; whether she allows or enables her husband to influence her work in the Office of Secretary of State remains to be seen.  If she wants to be in the headlines for something other than running a good, clean election next year... well, some of us will be waiting to write about that.