HERO haters fumble, lose

Nobody could have predicted this *snicker*.

Opponents of Houston's new non-discrimination ordinance did not get enough valid signatures to force a November repeal referendum, Mayor Annise Parker and City Attorney David Feldman announced Monday.

"With respect to the referendum petition filed to repeal the 'HERO' ordinance, there are simply too many documents with irregularities and problems to overlook," Feldman said. "The petition is simply invalid. There is no other conclusion."

[...]

Less than half of the more than 5,000 pages opponents submitted were valid, Feldman said, leaving the final valid tally at 15,249 signatures.

The 50,000 sigs the haters bragged about turning in fairly quickly became 35,000 upon cursory inspection, and when examined further it seems that many of the people who signed and collected signatures were neither Houston residents nor registered voters. Just over 15,000 made the cut, which was about 2,000 less than they needed.

Now that's just hilarious, I don't care who ya are.

The response from the haters was typical.

Dave Welch of the Houston Area Pastor Council helped lead the repeal petition effort. He pledged to fight the Parker's decision in court.

"We were well aware we were dealing with an administration that's willing to bend the rules," Welch said. "Courts typically uphold the rights of the voters. We feel very confident in how that will go. Frankly, there was no respect for the rights of the voters in this process."

Welll, he's almost correct on that last part.  The petition's opponents completely disrespected the process of validly presenting their opposition, the process of democratically redressing one's grievances, and by extension, all Houstonians who are registered to vote.  Everybody that is legal, in other words.

So it gives me great pleasure to be able to scream in the faces of the illegals: "Get out of my city!"

Special acknowledgements go to Noel Freeman of the HGLBT and Brad Pritchett of Equal Rights Houston -- and several others -- for their efforts in mobilizing and coordinating the signature verification.  This is what political activism looks like, y'all.  And this is what the city's report, complete with images of the various pages of petitions, looks like.  There's legal action to come without a doubt, but nothing that can happen in time for this November.  Kind of a shame really, because I was expecting this vote to motivate liberals and progressives to turn out.

Social media blew up with the news, Wayne ran first, and TFN, Lone Star Q, Culturemap Houston, BOR, and Charles all have something additional on the development.

Back to your regularly scheduled outrages over nothing, conservatives.

Update: A consqueeracy?

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance wouldn't mind if Congress stayed in recess all the way to November as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff marveled at the warmed-over banality of Greg Abbott's appellate brief in the same sex marriage lawsuit.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston wonders: "If a tree falls on you, would Gregg Abbott defend the tree?"  If it were incorporated AND made a large contribution to his political campaign, the answer would be easy, as Eye on Williamson expansively points out.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos discloses the cynical and deceptive efforts by Ted Cruz and other radical conservative extremists to sabotage the people’'s business in the U.S. House of Representatives. Only cowards would scapegoat children: Ted Cruz: The Texas Republican Anti-Government Demagogue Strikes Again.

The Democrat on the ballot for Harris County judge abruptly quit the race last week, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs saw that as a pity for one candidate and his party and an opportunity for another.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme isn't surprised that for-profit, low oversight schools -- aka charter schools -- have severe performance problems.

Neil at NeilAquino.com started a new blog called Blog About Our Failing Money-Owned American Political System. This blog joins All People Have Value as the two blogs on the site. NeilAquino.com has nine pages total and is well worth your time.

Frustrating as it may be to see abject failure from state political leadership to address ongoing border challenges, Texas Leftist Is still heartened and inspired to witness such an extraordinary response from Texas faith communities. I wish someone would remind Austin and Washington that basic humanity should ALWAYS come first.

TexPatriate wants to make sure that every single candidate on the ballot gets an opportunity to answer their questionnaire and get it published on the blog.  So then; candidates, campaigns, consultants, get in touch via e-mail.

McBlogger wishes Wendy Davis well, and Dos Centavos thinks it's time for the talk.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Socratic Gadfly notes that Southwest Airlines doesn't seem to get it.

Fascist Dyke Motors says that even if she told you the truth, you wouldn't believe her.

Keep Austin Wonky proposes a better way to spend a billion infrastructure dollars in the capital city.

Better Texas Blog ruefully reports that Texas is a tough place to be a kid or a parent.

Lone Star Q reminds us that it is still perfectly legal in 32 states to fire someone for being gay.

Greg Wythe wonders how Republicans will react to truly free market pricing of new medications.

Concerned Citizens calls for a comprehensive transit solution in San Antonio.

Offcite reports on Plant It Forward, an ambitious vision for urban farming in Houston.

Scott Braddock details Michael Quinn Sullivan's bad week.

BOR has a suggestion for how Stop Patriarchy can do some actual good in Texas.

Grits for Breakfast knows that border surges don't actually work for anyone except for incumbent politicians.

Finally, State Impact Texas observes that the Lone Star State's wind and solar power generation have pulled ahead of hydroelectric, and TexasVox has the news that the sheep are doing their part to help out.

Sunday Funnies