The death panel will be embalmed

Rep. Ted Poe will hold a town hall meeting at Brookside Funeral Home on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 10 a.m. with the primary focus being health care reform.

Can the GOP finally be laid to rest?

Texas Supreme Court candidates wanted

One of the most odious results of fifteen years' worth of 100% lockstep Republican rulership in Deep-In-The-Hearta is the 9-0 "majority" of corporate lackeys serving on the Texas Supreme Court. Thanks once again to Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report for reporting the apparent second vacancy on the state's highest bench:

QR learned today that Justice Scott Brister has submitted a resignation letter and will be off the Texas Supreme Court in the not too distant future.

Brister’s resignation follows Justice Harriet O’Neill’s announcement that she would not seek re-election when her term expires.

Brister was appointed to the Court by Governor Rick Perry in 2003 and won an election in his own right in 2004. His term expires at the end of next year. By resigning, he gives the Governor an opportunity to appoint a replacement who would then run as an incumbent.

Republicans are lining up to fill those slots. Where are the Democratic judicial candidates?

Justice Rebecca Simmons, currently serving on the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals, announced today she is seeking election to place 3 on the Texas Supreme Court, a position held by Justice Harriet O’Neill who recently announced that she will not seek re-election to the court when her term expires at the end of 2010. Justice Rebecca Simmons was appointed to the Fourth Court of Appeals in May 2005 and subsequently elected in 2006. Prior to her appointment, she served as district judge of the 408th Judicial District Court in Bexar County.

Tex Parte also has this news:

Two other Republicans, Dallas’ 5th Court of Appeals Justice Jim Moseley and Eastland’s 11th Court of Appeals Justice Rick Strange, also have said they plan to run for O’Neill’s seat.

Let's see, do Democrats have anyone who could run for the Fourth Court of Appeals slot Simmons is vacating? I wonder, wonder who ...