Ted Cruz, Tom DeLay, and rapper M.I.A.

-- Here's Why Ted Cruz's Plan To Defund Obamacare Was Always Doomed.

The House bill that continues funding for the government is expected to pass on Friday. It will go to the Senate, where Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) will face two potential filibusters of the legislation.

One is on the vote to begin debate — which is not likely to produce a fight. The language will enter the Senate with the House language, so there's no reason for conservatives in the Senate to vote against opening debate on the bill.

The key procedural movement will come next. A Democratic Senate aide said that it's likely Democrats will introduce an amendment to strip the House language defunding Obamacare after the vote to end debate occurs. Because of Senate rules, they can do so by a simple majority vote.

That makes the second cloture vote the one to watch. That's when Cruz, along with Sens. Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), can argue that voting to end debate will enable Reid to get rid of the House language that defunds Obamacare — "which is true," the Democratic aide said.

Here's why that's a problem: Reid needs 60 votes to end debate. He can count on all 52 Democrats (including himself), as well as the Senate's two Independents, to vote to end debate and strip the language defunding Obamacare.

That means he needs only six Republicans to vote to end debate. And 14 Senate Republicans have already expressed their dismay with the strategy — mostly because doing so involves the possibility of shutting down the government.

Even the cartoonists have grown tired of lampooing Cruz, when there are others just like him (only lacking some of his talent at bombast).

For his part, "Poop" has already worn out his welcome in Washington, and in less than a year.  You have to admit that's quite an accomplishment.

The truth is that defunding Obamacare -- just like ending abortion -- is a fundraising mechanism for the GOP.  They use the issue to fleece conservatives who have more money than sense.  It's always been this way.

There are Republicans who are starting to see through Cruz, they're just not the poor saps who sent him to DC in the first place.  These folks who vote in the Texas Republican primary are probably not redeemable at this point after so many errors in judgment (Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, David Dewhurst, Dan Patrick,John Culberson, Louie Gohmert, Steve Stockman, blahblahblah).

We have to stop allowing deranged, delusional people create the reality that the rest of us have to live in.  How's Battleground Texas coming along, anyway?

-- La Cucaracha takes a victory lap.

Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, reveling in victory Thursday against Texas prosecutors in a money-laundering case, said his political career is over but he’s eager to return to the courthouse.

If he can find a lawyer “with a backbone,” DeLay said, he’ll considering suing the Travis County district attorney for the eight-year legal clash that ended with an appeals court tossing his conviction.

“I cannot take this laying down. For the welfare of the people that serve in the future, I can’t just let this go,” he said.

The threat was vintage DeLay.

Let's allow him to get comfortable, then let's squash his guts all over the floor.  Again.

-- The NFL wages war on another halftime performer, and she's fighting back.

On Feb. 5, 2012, nearly 167 million TV viewers tuned in to Super Bowl XLVI to watch a matchup between the New York Giants and New England Patriots. Besides the football action, what had people talking that day was a halftime performance by M.I.A. and, specifically, how she extended her middle finger during a performance of "Give Me All Your Luvin' " while mouthing, "I don't give a shit."

But the NFL did care. One month after the performance, the league initiated legal proceedings against the English-Sri Lankan rapper-singer. In a March 13, 2012, filing at the American Arbitration Association, obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, the league demanded $1.5 million from M.I.A. for allegedly breaching her performance contract and tarnishing its goodwill and reputation.

In the 18 months since, the 38-year-old M.I.A. (born Mathangi "Maya" Arulpragasam) has been waging a secret legal war with the NFL over what happened at Super Bowl XLVI. Last week, league lawyers continued their push to have her deemed liable for her actions on summary judgment before moving to a trial for damages.

This is not going over too well with M.I.A, best known for her catchy agitpop music including the hit song "Paper Planes," which includes the repeated sound of gunfire. She's also used her fame to spotlight human rights abuses in her war-torn South Asian homeland. Now her lawyer Howard King tells THR that his client plans to launch a public war on the mega-powerful football league.

Moneyshot, from her barrister...

"Of course, the NFL's claimed reputation for wholesomeness is hilarious," King tells THR, "in light of the weekly felonies committed by its stars, the bounties placed by coaches on opposing players, the homophobic and racist comments uttered by its players, the complete disregard for the health of players and the premature deaths that have resulted from same, and the raping of public entities ready to sacrifice public funds to attract teams."

What, you forgot the NFL was a big bunch of socialists?

The most boring municipal election season ever

Yes, it's this one.

Ben Hall's team has been arrested for burglary (of thunder).  Eric Dick hasn't even put out any signs, for chrissakes.  Helena Brown and Brenda Stardig -- and Amy Peck and the rest of that Tea Pee gang out in Oak Forest -- are as quiet as churchmice.

Michael Kubosh has apparently put the kibosh on his own campaign. (Turn the cameras back on, buddy! Please!)  Jenifer Rene Pool and Rogene Calvert and all the rest of AL3 are similarly flying well under the radar. Even Big Jolly's post about the candidate forum held at the Pachyderm Club last week put my feet to sleep.

This is a wretched development.  I have never been so bored in my decade-plus of blogging.

To be clear, I like the stealth campaign of Don Cook for mayor.  He's had four LTEs published by the Chronicle.  I suppose I could link to them, if I could find them.  And James Horwitz, the challenger to Jack "You Don't Die from the Flu" Christie, is a great candidate in need of a little more exposure, just like everybody else.

I remember when city council campaigns had some electricity around them.  Even Ben Mendez and Graci Garces seem to have shot their wads early.  (I really thought that nasty "fat" joke was going to be a running battle.  Alas, no.)

And please don't suggest that I read whatever drivel Campos is writing.  The lights aren't on and nobody's home, folks.  It's an empty house.  Nobody wants to break into it, either.  Not even the hungry, homeless people want to crash there.

For today's example, he seems completely unaware of the fact that deathcare monopolist SCI, owner of Forest Park Lawndale cemetery (and every other boneyard in Houston), has a standing offer to purchase the adjacent Gus Wortham golf course whenever the city is ready to sell.  The price has only been going in one direction for years now, and it's not up.  Even the developers won't get interested in bidding for that very prime property, because the neighborhood hasn't gentrified enough for them.  And it probably never will.

I bet if he ever spoke to James Rodriguez once in awhile, he might have become aware of this.

Maybe this will have some fireworks.  Perhaps there will be a poll released on the mayor's race, or someone will sling some piece of mud that's larger than a crawfish mound.

But I gotta say that so far, it's been really lame.

Update: District I to the rescue!

Eastside city council candidate Ben Mendez’s campaign claims he  is being smeared by rumors and innuendos, and denied Mendez  blamed a gang rape of an 11-year-old girl on the clothes she was wearing.

Campaign manager Joaquin Martinez  confirmed  community leader  Bill Lawson has withdrawn his support for Mendez in the District I race. Lawson, a respected former pastor, wrote a letter saying he had “serious problems” with Mendez remarks on the sexual attack, as well as what he called negative campaigning against candidate Graci Garces.

“There have been people saying Ben made insensitive remarks, but Ben didn’t make any,” said Martinez. 

Martinez, you may recall, was a candidate in the SD-6 special last winter.

“Throughout the campaign we’ve had several people who have tried to smear Ben Mendez as a candidate, because he is the frontrunner right now.”

There's no polling of any significance that reflects who is leading in this race; that's just bravado on the part of Martinez.  Personally I don't see how Mendez could possibly have ever been ahead at any time.  And trust me, my opinion carries as much weight as Martinez's and everybody else's (except for the one belonging to Marc Campos, which is worth less than zero as usual).

This development has significance due to Lawson's high standing in the African American community (and the likelihood that black turnout in this year's election might be somewhat higher than in years past).

In the letter, Lawson wrote that he admired Mendez as a civic leader, businessman and a friend, adding he would make a good city representative for  the council district.

“I simply cannot continue to take a stand for underclasses and give public endorsement for someone who would ignore them,” Lawson wrote.

Pretty harsh.  After taking the summer off, it looks like there might be a resumption of hostilities between the Mendez and Garces teams.

I'll pop the corn.

Update: Texpate digs deeper into the details.

Update II (Friday, 9/20): Big Jolly has another kerfuffle involving involving Kubosh and a "racist" e-mail.  My feet are wide awake now.

Women, Wendy, and waiting

A popular topic lately among the chattering class in recent days seems to be that Texas women -- more specifically, suburban Texas women -- might have some role to play in Wendy Davis' political future. 

Ignore Dr. Murray's contention that Chris Bell got 43.3 percent of the 2006 vote.  (He gets the rest correct and I chalk that error up to him needing another intern for fact-checking.)  I just thought I had cleared up this deal a couple of months ago.

Update: it has been pointed out to me that by "major party vote", Dr. Murray accurately pushed up Bell's tally from 29.79% to the 43.3 he cites in the above link.  In other words, he excluded everybody who voted for Kinky Friedman and Carole Strayhorn in 2006 and then called the remainder whole.

I don't believe anyone -- no matter their pedigree -- can simply delegitimize the ballots of over 1.3 million Texans in order to reinforce a premise.

This is what is meant by the adage 'figures don't lie, but liars can figure'.  It is partisan and duopolistic at best -- and duplicitous and disingenuous at worst -- to manipulate data to reach your desired conclusion.  And it strains credibility to its breaking point for any reasonable person to call that 'accurate'.

It's helpful that Republicans -- from "Too Stupid" Robbie Cooper (I have been following this douchebag for years, so that you didn't have to) and "Retard Barbie" Jeff Rutledge all the way to Dave Carney and Greg Abbott himself -- keep pounding home the misogyny.  Conservo-scumbags Tweeting and blogging aren't ever going to be as influential as the experiences of exurban and rural Texas women like these, however. This is what's actually helping turn the worm faster.

A Texas woman who was shamed by her doctor for having a hickey and wanting birth control says she is now forced to drive four hours to a Planned Parenthood clinic for health care due to the state’s new anti-abortion laws.

Athena Mason told KUT that her first visit to the doctor as a student at Texas A&M was awkward.

“I had a hickey and the doctor was just like, you shouldn’t be doing that,” she recalled. “I’m like, ‘It’s a hickey, it’s nothing major.’ But I got a big lecture. [He said] my boyfriend was abusive and all of these things. And then I asked for birth control. I did not hear the end of that. So I said never mind, I’ll go somewhere else.”

Mason started using the Planned Parenthood clinic in Bryan. But that facility is one of four women’s health service providers that closed in August after the state passed new regulations restricting abortions.

So Mason now drives four hours to the Planned Parenthood clinic in Austin for health care.

Shamed by her doctor because she had a hickey. That's not The Onion, but it should be.

If we could just make Republicans understand that birth control provided to women prevents as many as 71% of all abortions, we might make some progress. Then we could say, "If you cut family planning clinics out of the state budget, you will have more abortions", and perhaps that fact would start to make some moral sense to the pro-birth crowd.

Nah; these are Republicans and this is logic. Who am I kidding?

As Ana Kasparian says, "If you vote Republican, and you have a vagina, you are a moron."  That is sadly and particularly true in Texas.  But as we wait for Wendy Davis to decide to run for governor, that message is already being received -- and understood -- by women everywhere.

Update: The waiting will be over on October 3rd.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is happy about the non-developments in the Caribbean tropics this past summer -- but is still wondering when that first cool snap is going to get here -- as it brings you the best of the left of Texas blogs from last week.

Off the Kuff suggests a way to measure the effect of the voter ID law in the November elections.

Horwitz at Texpatriate discusses the renewed efforts to bring a comprehensive non-discrimination ordinance to the City of Houston.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson points out that the ridiculous has become reality in Texas, thanks to ignorance and lies, in Absurd?

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that the batsh*t crazies on the Texas State Board of Education textbook review board are still pushing creationism in and science out.

Texas is home to two of the top five dirtiest power generation facilities in the United States, and a new report suggests that they are "the elephant in the room" when it comes to climate change. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs thinks he has identified the main culprit, and it's not what you may have first thought.

Neil at All People Have Value said that with the proper balancing of internal life and external life,  the right calculation exists to make sense of life. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

Even with a barrage of annoying mailers, emails and kissing babies, elections are very important. Besides being the way we choose new leaders, they are also important to ensure that our currently elected officials listen to the public, and sometimes the only way to hold them accountable for what they do. For all these reasons, Texas Leftist has decided to "take the plunge" with an official candidate questionnaire and endorsement process.

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Here's some other great posts from around the Texas lefty blogosphere.

Grits for Breakfast observes that there are now Lexus lanes at the airport security checkpoints, and that TSA groping is becoming something that only happens to poor people.

Hal at Half Empty documents the conservative argument that their Fourteenth Amendment rights trump your First Amendment ones.

Prairie Weather thinks that suburban Texas women are finally wising up.

Socratic Gadfly wonders if Wendy Davis might have a Tony Sanchez problem, and updates his extensive post about the prospects of a Blue Texas.

Dos Centavos posts the speaking engagement details of Episcopalian bishop Gene Robinson's appearance in Houston. Robinson is the first openly gay priest to be consecrated as bishop in a major Christian denomination.

TFN Insider notes that Barbara Cargill, the chair of the Texas SBOE, outed herself again as a creationist, as if the effort to write intelligent design into biology books wasn't enough of a clue for us.

State Impact Texas reminds that the shale oil boom is a bust for Texas roads.

And finally, Txsharon at BlueDaze points out all the fun they're having in Colorado that Dallas missed out on when it denied drilling permits in flood plains.