Cornyn betrays us

Senator Box Turtle has had an exceptionally poor week representing Texas.

First, he voted no on habeas corpus. Then he voted no on the Webb dwell-time amendment (requiring active-duty troops to have as much down time as the length of their service time overseas).

Then he introduced a resolution condemning the "General Betray Us" advertisement by MoveOn.org. Which his fellow turtles helped him pass, 72-25. Pat Leahy, Dianne Feinstein, Jon Tester, Jim Webb, and every Blue Dog in the Senate joined the warmongering Republicans in supporting it. Joe Biden and Barack Obama courageously ducked the vote. (More on the impotence of Senate Democrats here.)

And to cap his week, he voted no -- with 69 others, including former Army Ranger Jack Reed and former Vietnam veteran Chuck Hagel, both outspoken critics of the Iraq war -- on Reid-Feingold (designed to cut off war funding) .

John Cornyn has now officially assumed ownership of the war in Iraq. He also owns the war on the 70% of Americans who support our troops by calling for the end to the war in Iraq.

John Cornyn owns the war on the Constitution by opposing one of the "most efficient safeguards on liberty". John Cornyn owns the war on Americans by supporting the wiretapping of Americans.

John Cornyn is no longer a disgrace just to Texas. He's now a national disgrace.

Please help us end this national disgrace by helping us elect a senator from Texas who will respond to our e-mail and phone calls, who believes in the Bill of Rights, and who will support the soldiers and not their endless deaths and maiming.

Thank you.

Update (9/22): Let's be sure to thank Junior Senator for the half-million bucks he helped MoveOn raise in the 24-hour period following his betrayal of U.S.

Taser-free, OJ-free, postpourri

-- Yesterday I spent some time on a conference call with legal and election activists around the country regarding the concern about provisional ballots. The Fair Elections Legal Network sponsored the call, and the conversation was deep in the minutia of HAVA, the myriad of methods provisional ballots are distributed, assembled, assessed and counted, the necessity for effective poll worker training, even the political culture from state to state (some places -- Texas and Harris County not so much -- actually believe that citizens have an ironclad right not just to vote, but to have their votes counted accurately).

I'll spare the details: it's too late to change much for 2008. Voters whose names are purged from the rolls, whose registrations will appear "in suspense" will only be allowed to vote provisionally, and most of those ballots won't be counted. Greg Palast says we're already six million votes in the hole, between voter caging lists, voter purging, suspense lists, and voter ID legislation.

Still not sure what we can do about it, either.

-- On a happier note, a Republican legislator in the Texas House became a Democrat yesterday. Welcome, Rep. Kirk England.

-- The Chron.com's stories on the coming $800 million HISD bond election, its effects on the property tax cut, the undervaluation by the Harris County Appraisal District of both commercial and residential property for tax purposes, and other stories elsewhere have the local wild-eyed, red-assed conservatives in a froth. They scream with one voice: "VOTE NO".

Since there's so much caysh in the form of commissions for the bond lawyers at stake in the election six weeks from now, would it be too conspiracy-theorist of me to wonder if it would be worthwhile for them to hire someone to hack the vote?

-- A blogger is being sued by a hospital conglomerate in Paris, Texas. For libel. Are corporations people? Can a corporation be called to the witness stand and testify?

Can a company feel injured by the loss of esteem, reputation, or revenue?

I bet I can guess how the Texas Supreme Court will vote if the case ever reaches them: 9-0. Unless we can get Susan Criss elected in 2008, and then it will be 8-1.

-- How about a toon to tide us over until Sunday?

Two kinds of hogs. And Clinton.

I'll be making my way up to Arkansas next month to see the twice-already tournament MVP for the volleyball Ladybacks versus Georgia and Auburn, and while close by will be paying a visit to the Clinton Library.



Staying at some rustic yet comfortable accommodations on Beaver Lake. May get to see Heisman candidate Darren McFadden and the Razorbacks play (Tennessee-Chattanooga) in person. We appear to be sharing Fayetteville that weekend with the Banditos, Hell's Angels, and ZZ Top, so as long as I can get online I should have some interesting things to blog about.

St. Arnold's needs a new home (this is a good thing)

When last we looked in on Brock Wagner and his St. Arnold's microbrewery, he was seeking some legislative assistance. He didn't get that, but his little brewery still thrives, so much so that he needs a new and bigger location. Nancy Sarnoff at the Chron has the Q&A, I'll emphasis the important things:

Q: How's your search coming along?

A: We're on a beer budget, and Houston real estate has run up so high that it's very difficult for us to really be able to justify a lot of the prices. My first choice would be to find an existing building that we could move into that's in a good area.

But with our rapid growth, suddenly it's economic for us to potentially build. I'm still looking at one building north of downtown that would be a home run if it works.

It's an old building. It's functionally less than perfect, but location-wise it would be great.

If we can pull it off, it would be great, but I'm very concerned it could be a white elephant. No business wants a money pit.

Q: The company has grown a lot recently, but you don't really advertise. How have you gotten to where you are?

A: We've focused much more on grass-roots marketing where people come out to the brewery for a tour and we build a connection.

We've done events around town, and we donate to a lot to charities. I think every elementary school PTO in this city and almost every church has gotten donations from us. I think what we've created is a community. That organic growth is in and of itself satisfying, but the people are also very loyal consumers. They're not trendy.

It's almost like we've become part of their lives.

Q: Was it your goal to create, as you say, a community?

A: I don't think you can set out to create a kind of community like ours on purpose.

If you do that, it's going to always seem contrived. You can foster that community once it already exists by being aware of what expectations people have.

I try to do the things I enjoy doing, and then I try to see if I can rationalize a business purpose for them. We do the MS 150. We have a giant team. We have 300 riders, and we could easily have 1,000 riders if we kept it open.

We have a '57 Bentley we've tie-dyed for the art car community. I thought it was something that would be fun. The art car parade is such a part of Houston.

We did that not because we were looking at it as a way we could cash in on it, but more that we wanted to be part of it. And I've been very careful we don't try to commercialize it.

Q: Do you ever worry that a move might in some way alter the sense of community you've established?

A: Constantly. This is a big deal. This is who Saint Arnold's is. To our customers, it's their brewery, and that's something we have to be very mindful of.

There's a way to do it where you can make people part of the process, and they'll continue to feel ownership.

The biggest thing is keeping it in town and just making sure people feel invited to come there.

Q: It seems like the popularity of wine would cut into your business. Has it?

A: The editor of Food & Wine said beer is the new wine.

To me that sounds somehow weak — like we want to be the new wine. I think what is actually happening is that people are discovering this wide array of beers that are out there. I'd argue that there's a greater spectrum of flavor in beer than in wine. People are also discovering that beer goes great with food, and that you can pair beer with food often better than wine. Two weeks ago we did a beer and cheese tasting. It was an incredible event. A majority of the crowd was predominantly craft beer drinkers, but there were wine drinkers along with their beer-drinking friends. At the end, they were the ones who were the biggest proponents of how wonderful it was.

Brock has done a great job cultivating the local blogging community also. All the best to this Houston icon.