Things I would rather not blog about

-- Ted Cruz ruining my Green Eggs and Ham, because the moral of the story zoomed over his head.  If this putz is the smartest TeaBagger in the country, then what's the real problem?  Why, it's that all the rest of them are so much more stupid than him, of course.

-- Greg Abbott filing his thirtieth lawsuit against the Obama administration, this time over a UN treaty.  Another guy who panders to the worst elements in society -- conservatives clinging and crapping their pants in fear of 'the other' -- because he understands that these morons can be manipulated so easily that he can ride that wave right into higher office.

-- Meanwhile, in a nation where Democratic base voters are yet to be fully convinced that voting in every election could, you know, change things like this... Republicans brag about the fact that they won't.  (This also factors into the reasons why elected officials think the people who elected them are more conservative than they actually are.)

Republicans are literally daring us to vote them out of office at this point.  Because they don't think it will happen.

-- I'd also rather not blog about Ben Hall's latest teevee commercial, because while it's less weird and more on target than his previous efforts -- a politician who became a millionaire while in office is a legitimate, populist, and effective argument against career politicians -- Ben Hall is just the wrong messenger.  It doesn't matter how hard his tail hit the ground when it fell off, either.

It does make me want to vote for the Socialist or the Green, however.  Somebody who's actually not capable of being bought off.

But keep in mind that Parker and Hall are sitting on fat wads of cash, they don't like each other a lot, and your television and mailbox are on the verge of being inundated with their focus-grouped, consultant-produced slime.

You want to know the worst part?  People will still be led to believe that the best way to evaluate a politico's electoral prospects is to see how much money they can raise.

Now do you see why I didn't want to write any of that?

Dome vote, like Parker's re-election, slouches toward approval

I'll just excerpt and you tell me if you see any similarities.

Two polls released this week show a majority of likely Harris County voters have decided whether or not they want to preserve the iconic Astrodome by paying to turn it into a convention and center and exhibit space.

A $217 million bond initiative to fund the re-purposing of the now-vacant stadium, which county officials have said would require an increase to the property tax rate, will appear on the ballot this November.

A KUHF/KHOU poll, conducted by Rice University political scientist Bob Stein, shows 45 percent of likely county voters would support the bond issue and 35 percent would oppose it, while 20 percent are undecided. The poll surveyed 650 likely county voters and has a 3.8 percentage point margin of error.

Another poll, conducted for the campaign working to drum up support for the dome project, shows a tie: 43 percent in favor and 43 percent opposed, with the rest undecided. The group's poll surveyed 500 likely county voters and has a 4.5 percentage point margin of error.

While the results are "not spectacular" for proponents of the initiative, Stein said he gets the sense that the initiative will end up passing simply because there is no organized opposition, meaning the campaign will get to "control the message."

I nodded off a little in the middle of reading that.  Swamplot posted one of the commercials that the referendum's support captains have authorized, and noticed that something got left out.

Part of the so-called “New Dome Experience” devised by the Harris County Sports and Convention Corp. proposes that the space-age icon be slimmed down — and, if this new promo video (at link) is any indication, that means more than just removing ramps and staircases from the stadium’s unwashed exterior, but also chopping its name in half. You’ll see in this new commercial, produced by the recently formed committee to persuade voters in advance of this November’s this-or-nothing bond election, that the Astrodome is referred to throughout solely as “the Dome,” whether it’s hosting technology conferences, Ferris wheel demonstrations, or generic swimming championships.

The commenters over there get it right -- its name never actually was 'Astrodome' except in the public vernacular, and the powers-that-be can sell the naming rights and call it "Blimpie" as long as they don't implode it like Macy's/Foley's.

I'm back to being bored to tears about this election season.