Disregard MoveOn's ballot (and Peter Brown's endorsement)

Today is your last opportunity to cast an early vote in Houston's municipal elections. You have until 7 p.m this evening to do so, and then you have to wait until Election Day, next Tuesday.

MoveOn has distributed their "Progressive Ballot Guide", and for the most part it is a joke. That's because the ballot has been infiltrated with Republican disruptors. It's just "Operation Chaos" up to its usual tricks. For example ...

-- District A lists a split vote, but click in and you'll see several recommendations for incumbent Brenda Stardig -- Republican, incumbent, possible alcoholic -- as the 'progressive' choice. That would be laughably false.

-- At Large #4's recommendation is Chief Crime Labford -- who happens to be the least progressive choice.

-- Similarly, in a race with three Republicans and one Green candidate, the incumbent Republican-masquerading-as-a-Democrat is the leader.

MoveOn's clickers got it right a time or two, but overall this is a list you should avoid. I have made all of the recommendations you need to cast a progressive ballot this year. You may not agree with all of my picks, but if you use MoveOn's ballot for anything but lining the litter box, you're making a mistake.

And you're too smart for that.

The same goes for anyone who pays attention to anything Mr. Schlumberger says. I'm convinced that if Peter Brown and Bill White plan on running for office again, it won't be as Democrats. You just can't piss down the back of the African-American voting bloc and expect to get away with it.

Neither man is smart enough or devious enough to be playing three-dimensional chess/jiu-jitsu here, either. Conservatives are interpreting this move as a reason for them NOT to vote for Jack Christie, which is certainly reason enough. And they have a perfectly good 'B' option in At Large #5. What I said over two weeks ago:

Conservatives who seriously think that White's endorsement damns Christie with faint praise have another option in AL5: Bob Ryan. Bob's a longtime friend of my family, and earned some renown as the Harris County grand jury foreman that in 2008 indicted Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina on arson charges (that former DA Chuck Rosenthal refused to pursue). Ryan's about as principled a Republican as they come.

If Republicans are smart enough to figure this one out ... well, so is everybody else.

Bank Transfer Day November 5

(This post first appeared on October 11, and is reposted to reflect the growth of the movement, which has seen 650,000 credit union accounts opened in the past four weeks -- as many as in all of 2010. Mine is one of them. Make yours one tomorrow or Saturday.)

Now this would be a statement.

Even with most credit unions closed for Columbus Day there was plenty of online buzz, and uncertainty, about what the credit union industry role might be on “Bank Transfer Day,” the latest event surfacing from the “Occupy Wall Street” protests.

Industry sources, speaking off the record, suggested any wholesale switch from large banks to CUs on Nov. 5, the day designated by one Californian and carried aTwitter Monday, could conceivably put net worth ratios out of whack.

The balance sheet problem was raised by several industry officials as a potential hazard as online articles focused on what “Occupy” supporters are calling now for a specific action to underscore their complaints against big banks and corporate greed.

For the record, Mark Wolff, CUNA senior vice president-communications, said only that the trade group welcomes the idea of “a viral 'Bank Transfer Day'” since it shows “just how angry consumers are becoming with their treatment by big banks” and will now look at CUs.

CUNA said its Facebook posts have already witnessed big jumps in traffic on www.asmarterchoice.org. There also have been big gains on www.findacreditunion.org.

I first saw this as a movement at least a year ago at the Move Your Money Project.

Wire service reports Monday identified the ringleader of “Bank Transfer Day” as Kristen Christian, a 27-year-old Los Angeles art gallery owner who said she is not affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street protest, but that demonstration organizers had reached out to her to express support.

Christian reportedly chose Nov. 5 because of its association with 17^th century British folk hero Guy Fawkes, who tried to blow up the British House of Lords but was captured on that day.

A Facebook page for the event states that "together we can ensure that these banking institutions will ALWAYS remember the 5th of November! If the 99% removes our funds from the major banking institutions on or by this date, we will send a clear message and give the 1% a taste of the fear that we experience every day when we aren't able to pay for our rent, food, medication, utilities, student loans, etc."

I'm in. How about you?