Sunday Funnies

The Progressive Coalition slate

Neil and Charles have both posted about the three Green Party Houston council candidates running as the Progressive Coalition. I was unable to attend their events here this past weekend -- a fundraiser on Friday and a film screening of Robert Greenwald's "Rethinking Afghanistan" on Saturday, both hosted by 2008 Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney.

(l-r) Don Cook, Deborah Shafto, and Alfred Molison

It's notable that Houston has an active community of liberals and progressives that refuse to be aligned with the corporate conservatives that too often represent the Democratic party.

So if you are also one of those, consider supporting these candidates with your vote (and volunteer support and pocketbook, if you can manage it). Note that while Cook and Shafto are on the ballot, Molison is a write-in candidate, and there are specific instructions for how to do that in e-Slate (.pdf, page 2 of 4).

Houston also has a Socialist Party mayoral candidate, Amanda Ullman. Though I am a strong supporter of Annise Parker, it would have been valuable to Ms. Ullman's alternative campaign -- as Neil has also noted -- to have at least put up a website.

I'll follow with interest these candidates' vote tally.

Minority on Houston council wants to play Nail the Ill Eagles

(A busy week plus another touch of the vertigo kept me away. Let's play ketchup with this local flash ...)

A rare special council meeting scheduled for Wednesday (October 28) comes as a direct response to last week's announcement by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that Houston no longer was in consideration for the 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to assist ICE agents in identifying illegal immigrants in the jails.

But the effort to revive the city's chances is likely to bump up against stiff resistance on council, as many members are planning to skip the meeting, a step that effectively would kill any chance of forcing a vote on the matter.

Houston city council members were previously scheduled off next week, it's the middle of early voting, and the three who want to play hot potato with a political football are all mad-dog Republicans.

Easy to see how this meeting gets denied a quorum.

Political machinations potentially could raise the stakes of the meeting, as several council members are just days away from an election. (Mayor Bill) White, who made an urgent request to join the program in the spring before backing away after negotiations with immigration officials broke down, is actively campaigning for a not-yet-vacated U.S. Senate seat. Councilwoman Toni Lawrence, the leader of the three that called for the special meeting, has begun campaigning to become the next Harris County Precinct 4 commissioner. One of her potential opponents has been running advertising on conservative radio attacking the city for backing away from the program.

Lawrence said she decided to call the meeting after feeling unsatisfied with plans White proposed to her that included further studying the matter. White instead favors having the city participate in another ICE program, dubbed Secure Communities, that gives local law enforcement access to a massive immigration database.

The other two ...

Council members Anne Clutterbuck and Mike Sullivan, who also signed the petition to schedule the special meeting, said the policy should be openly discussed and debated by council, not set by mayoral edict. The procedural move is the first in the history of White's administration, which was marked by rosy relationships among council members for the first five years, but has met with more resistance this year.

Clutterbuck, who supports the 287(g) program, said she plans to attend Wednesday's meeting, but is not optimistic about seeing the issue come to a vote. In addition to Lawrence, Clutterbuck and Sullivan, mayoral hopeful and Councilman Peter Brown plans to attend.

More covering of his right haunch by Brown. Early polling and other circumstantial evidence suggests that Brown is capturing a majority of conservative municipal voters due to his playing both sides of the street and calling it 'independent'. (Or it may be because he's the white guy.) Seriously, this demonstration of solidarity with the one conservative issue responsible for the loudest screaming likely puts him in the run-off with Annise Parker.

Democrats and liberals supporting Peter Brown are in for a very rude awakening.