Radnofsky for Attorney General announcement tour

BAR gets ready to crank up her campaign ...

Barbara Radnofsky will formally announce her candidacy for Texas Attorney General and her December 3 filing for the March 2010 primary election in a five-city tour.

The kick-off event will be a meet and greet for Republicans, independents and Democrats at the home of Ed and Marie Malouf in Dallas on Tuesday, November 17 at 6:00 p.m. On Wednesday, November 18, Barbara Ann will attend and make a short announcement prior to the Democratic Gubernatorial Forum at Texas Christian University. To conclude her week-long trip and meetings in the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex, Barbara Ann will announce at the Mid-Cities Democrats Birthday Bash on Friday, November 20 at 6:30 p.m.

The announcement tour continues in Austin on December 1, 2009 and will conclude in her home city of Houston (December 4, 2009). She will file for election the first day on December 3, 2009. Details regarding the Houston and Austin announcements will follow.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009
6:00 p.m.
Home of Ed and Marie Malouf
Dallas, Texas

Wednesday, November 18, 2009
6:30 p.m.
Tarrant County Young Democrats Gubernatorial Forum
Texas Christian University, Student Center
The Horned Frog Ballroom, 3rd Floor
2901 Stadium Drive
Fort Worth, Texas 76129

Friday, November 20, 2009
6:30 p.m.
Mid-Cities Democrats Birthday Bash
Sheet Metal Workers Union Hall
1020 South Industrial Blvd
Euless, Texas 76040

Radnofsky -- assuming the Democratic primary for AG remains uncontested -- will square off against incumbent Greg Abbott, one of the lousiest Republicans ever to hold office in this state. Radnofsky has detailed his positions against women, as well the legal cover he provided to Tom Delay's mid-'90's redistricting escapade. The Lone Star Project has archived the dozens and dozens of abuses of power foisted on Texans by his hyper-partisan, fundamentalist, demagogic interpretations.

Abbott wants to be lieutenant governor but is stalled from seeking higher office -- just like incumbent LtG David Dewhurst and several other aspiring Texas Republican politicos -- by Kay Bailey Hutchison's dithering. Radnofsky, like the rest of us, has observed the kabuki dance and notes: "Texas Republicans in disarray show they are more concerned about their political ambitions than the people of Texas."

Radnofsky previously took on the Kay Bailey monolith in 2006 and understands the uphill battle she has, facing off against a well-funded and entrenched Republican incumbent where a statewide Democrat hasn't been elected in the past 16 years. She also understands that the Texas GOP is at a tipping point, fearing intra-party assaults from their right flank and losing Texas voters who self-identify as Republicans.

Radnofsky will have to be a warrior, and a lot of things outside her control have to break her way in order to win. One thing I know about Barbara from personal experience: she has the intestinal fortitude for the fight.

She said it

"She is not here. She is campaigning all over Texas. But she is taking her pay from the taxpayers ... I don’t consider that integrity, and I don’t consider it leadership."

-- Kay Bailey Hutchison, about her opponent, Harris County treasurer Nikki Van Hightower, in their 1990 run for state treasurer

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In her book "Going Rogue", Sara Palin says she made frugality a point when traveling on state business as Alaska governor, asking "only" for reasonably priced rooms and not "often" going for the "high-end, robe-and-slippers".

Fact-check: Although travel records indicate she usually opted for less-pricey hotels while governor, Palin and daughter Bristol stayed five days and four nights at the $707.29-per-night Essex House luxury hotel (robes and slippers come standard) overlooking New York City's Central Park for a five-hour women's leadership conference in October 2007. With air fare, the cost to Alaska was well over $3,000. Event organizers said Palin asked if she could bring her daughter. The governor billed her state more than $20,000 for her children's travel, including to events where they had not been invited, and in some cases later amended expense reports to specify that they had been on official business.

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"I went to sleep, and when I woke up people were mad at Obama. And I thought, 'Did I miss something? Did Obama start an illegal war? Did he fly over a flood zone and just wave? Did he torture detainees in a secret prison? Did he start illegally tapping phones? Did he alienate the world and squander a surplus? Because if he did any of that, we need to impeach that jackass.' ...

Carrie Prejean, the former Miss California, made a triple-X movie of herself. So now we know why she was stripped of her title --not for being anti-gay, but for being pro-stupid. She actually thought it wouldn’t get out? C'mon! It always gets out. That's the first 'Law of Pornodynamics': A pair of fake boobs in motion stays in motion."

"I hereby appoint myself the president's Tell-People-Where-to-Go-and-What-to-Kiss Czar. Fox News, if you want an exclusive: pucker up!"

-- Wanda Sykes

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is starting to feel an odd craving for can-shaped servings of cranberry sauce as it brings you this week's highlights from the blogs.

TXsharon continues to follow the abuses of Aruba Petroleum in a Barnett Shale backyard and Wednesday the Wise County Messenger picked up the story. It's all on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is really p*ssed that some South Texas Democrats voted against women's health care.

WhosPlayin posted an interview with Neil Durrance, the Democratic candidate seeking to unseat Michael Burgess in Congressional District 26.

A guest post from the ReEnergize Texas blog is the pick of the week over at Texas Vox, where we were quite disappointed that the Georgetown city council snubbed students over nuclear power.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on some of the talk this past week about raising the statewide gas tax. All that being said there are only two options to pay for transportation in Texas. Which will we choose: taxes or tolls?.

McBlogger takes a look at Sen. Hutchison's decision not to resign from her Senate seat.

Off the Kuff looks at a threatened outbreak of homophobic behavior in the Houston mayor's race.

The War on Christmas starts early at The Texas Cloverleaf, complete with a beach landing at Walmart.

Sue Schechter announced for Harris County Clerk last week and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs caught the press release.

With Thanksgiving almost here, Neil at Texas Liberal ran a picture of a sultry pilgrim holding a turkey, and included in this post information about the status of women in colonial New England.

Sunday Not Very Funnies

Pacquiao - Cotto not quite one for the ages

Thrilling but one-sided.

(Manny) Pacquiao knocked (Miguel) Cotto down once in the third round and again in the fourth, pummeled him repeatedly and easily lifted the World Boxing Organization welterweight belt from the Puerto Rican with a 12th-round stoppage. The time was 55 seconds into the final round, as referee Kenny Bayless leaped between the fighters to save Cotto a more savage beating and ignominious end.

Some observers thought Cotto would defeat Pac-man late because of his size advantage (10 pounds), reach, and equivalent quickness and defenses.

Not so much.

My friend Waterman was quite a bit closer ...

Still, although no outcome will surprise me, I tend to favor Manny by TKO somewhere around the 8th or 9th round. The biggest factor, in my opinion, will be his advantage in hand speed. Pacquiao is a crisp puncher at welterweight, and Cotto’s eyebrows will not hold up. The reduction in his field of vision will make it easier for Pacquiao to deliver punches that Miguel does not see coming. And Cotto has a history of being hurt by fast punches that he doesn’t see coming – not only in the Ricardo Torres fight, but more importantly, even against Malignaggi.

Pacquiao owned Cotto from about the thrid round on and the fight was nearly stopped at the end of the ninth by Cotto's corner. It should have been. I have prepared tenderized skirt steaks that weren't as rough as Cotto's face by the twelfth, when it finally and mercifully was.

I followed the fight on Twitter and blow-by-blow online at Yahoo and ESPN simultaneously. Twitter was by far the lousiest way to do this; besides there being fifteen morons feeding the stream -- some calling action in Round 6 at the same time others were giving the Round 4 decision -- a couple of comedians would post lame jokes like "I beat Manny at Pac-Man" and such. The stream being too full, too slow, and too many repetitive tweets occurring out of chronological sequence makes this medium impossible for me to enjoy. (This same stew of fact, conjecture and rumor rushes out like a firehouse at times like the Ft. Hood shooting and the "Balloon Boy" caper. I would rather be locked in a room with fifty people all talking at me at once. Twitter is excellent for a blogger or two reporting details from a meeting, speech, dinner or some such, but not at all for breaking news.)

The Yahoo guys live-chatting the fight were way too slow on the uptake. Minutes behind the action most of the time, and that's useless when you're "live-blogging" three-minute fight rounds and one minute in-between. ESPN was by far the best. Their punch-by-punch updates were right on time, and they snapped out good summaries between the rounds.