OK. I suppose I'm a little encouraged

by this:

Harris County Democratic and Republican officials have looked at Tuesday's local election results and they agree: The GOP-dominated county government could be recaptured by Democrats as soon as 2008.

"Believe me, it's being discussed," said Republican Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, a conservative leader. "It's an amazing wake-up call," said Republican County Commissioner Steve Radack.

In an election when many ethnic minority voters didn't vote, Republican judicial candidates on the bottom half of the Harris County ballot won by an average of fewer than four percentage points — 52 percent to 48 percent.

The average margin four years ago was more than nine points.

If minority voters had been energized, as they might be in the 2008 presidential year, it could have been a Democratic sweep, some analysts said. They point to Dallas County, long a GOP stronghold, where Democrats claimed every countywide seat elected Tuesday.

Here's what political analysts and party officials are seeing:

Countywide judicial races are considered a good indicator of party feelings. There are so many of them that voters tend to choose based on party affiliation rather than knowledge of individual candidates or issues. The Houston Chronicle calculated the combined GOP margin of victory for all contested races for state district courts, which are elected countywide.

It was 3.9 percentage points, the smallest since at least 1998.

Some Republicans evaluating Tuesday's results said conservatives didn't get out to vote. Others said the problem might be that fewer Republicans voted straight-party tickets because the governor's race included two independent candidates. Those lost straight-ticket votes might have benefited down-ballot judicial races that voters otherwise didn't bother with, Radack theorized.

Democrats noted that the margin in the judicial races was close even though ethnic minorities who generally vote Democratic skipped the election, which featured few Hispanic or non-Hispanic black candidates in showcase races. In the 11 state House districts within Harris County that have Anglo majorities, voter turnout Tuesday was 36 percent. In the 12 with non-Hispanic black and Hispanic majorities, the turnout was 26 percent. Local Republicans faced a national political current Tuesday that they hope is temporary -- congressional scandals and wide dissatisfaction with the war in Iraq.

But the demographic trends are long-term: The Hispanic population is booming and the Anglo population is not.

"The Republican Party is not attracting minority voters the way it should. I've been saying this for 10 years," Radack said. Former Harris County Democratic Chairwoman Sue Schechter said she regrets the party didn't put more money into the judicial races this time. It might have made a difference, she said. Rice University political science professor Bob Stein said an immediate effect of Tuesday's local and national results could be interest from talented Democrats who realize they have a legitimate chance to be elected next time around.

Radack predicted trial lawyers, stung by lawsuit limitations enacted by Republicans, will pour money into the races.

When state District Judge Katie Kennedy stepped down in 1999, she was the last countywide Democratic officeholder. In the closest Harris County judicial race Tuesday, Democrat Mary Kay Green got 49.4 percent of the votes against Republican incumbent Annette Galik for a family-court bench. The margin of victory was 6,800 votes, but the "under vote" — the number of people who voted in other races on the ballot but not that one — was 51,000. There's no way to tell which candidate would have benefited most had those 51,000 voters made a choice for the 245th District Court.

But the demographic and political trends seem clear.

"Doomsday is coming," said UH political science professor Richard Murray.

Radack said factors such as the independent gubernatorial candidates and national scandals made things worse this year. But the handwriting was on the wall for anyone who cared to read it, he said.

Many of the minority/majority precincts in Harris County (one of which I chair) had, to be kind, an under-representation at the polls on Tuesday. But from a Texas perspective, it also appears that our Democratic base in El Paso and the Valley sat this one out in large measure.

That cost the Democratic Party some judges, county-wide and statewide.

Was it the fault of the candidates? The TDP, and Boyd Richie specifically? The voter registration effort, or the GOTV one? How about the media? Or should the voters themselves take some blame for being blase' ?

Everybody catches a little bit, I suppose, but it may be something we can improve on next go-round.

I must say however that I believe this incremental strategy is bullshit. There was constant repetition from the party machinery in Austin that this was a rebuilding year, that we should only focus on a few select races, that the efforts of fund-raising and spending would be on infrastructure and rebuilding for 2008 and not on candidates and races in 2006, because there was really no hope of achieving anything any grander like capturing a statewide office.

Congratulations, Mr. Richie. Your strategy was executed flawlessly.

A closing thought from my man David:

I must add that despite the results in Texas, I'm ecstatic about the Democratic takeover of the Congress. These midterm results may have saved the country from dictatorship and civil war.

The Bushite arctic freeze is thawing nationally but in Texas we're still iced in. Fight 'em on the ice.

More Pat Tillman death coverup details

Keeping the truth hidden about what really happened to this American hero is one of Bob Gates' first orders of business:

One of the four shooters, Staff Sgt. Trevor Alders, had recently had PRK laser eye surgery. Although he could see two sets of hands "straight up," his vision was "hazy," he said. In the absence of "friendly identifying signals," he assumed Tillman and an allied Afghan who also was killed were enemy.

Another, Spc. Steve Elliott, said he was "excited" by the sight of rifles, muzzle flashes and "shapes." A third, Spc. Stephen Ashpole, said he saw two figures, and just aimed where everyone else was shooting.

Squad leader Sgt. Greg Baker had 20-20 eyesight, but claimed he had "tunnel vision." Amid the chaos and pumping adrenaline, Baker said he hammered what he thought was the enemy but was actually the allied Afghan fighter next to Tillman who was trying to give the Americans cover: "I zoned in on him because I could see the AK-47. I focused only on him."

All four failed to identify their targets before firing, a direct violation of the fire discipline techniques drilled into every soldier.

There's more.

Cold comfort

I'm still not as thrilled as I ought to be about Tuesday's election returns flipping the Congress from red to blue. There's much that is historic about what occurred: 28 House seats, six in the Senate, six new Democratic governors, lots of new faces in state legislatures -- even including the ones I personally know going to Austin in January -- and no incumbent Democrats having lost, provided Rep. William "My freezer is my bank" Jefferson in Louisiana survives his runoff, a hopefully unlikely occurrence. (To that end, I have renamed my ActBlue page "The Jefferson/Bonilla Retirement Fund".)

But Texas, and particularly Houston and surrounding Harris County, built a red levee strong enough to withstand the blue tsunami that washed across the land.

I have a lingering taste of quinine over that.

But the cold comfort part of this posting regards the political epitaph of one Donald Rumsfeld, the architect of military failure in the Middle East, whom President Warmongerer sacrificed on the rubble of his two-year-old political capital just before lunchtime yesterday.

Rumsfeld wasn't just one of the sorriest men Bush brought back to Washington six years ago, he was probably THE sorriest. His contempt for the military -- "people are fungible", "you go to war with the army you have, not the one you wish you had", and on and on like that were verbals displays of it.

The physical display of his contempt can easily be found lying in beds at Walter Reed, and in eternal rest in Arlington National and many more cemeteries around the country.

His contempt for those who who dared question him in the media room at the Pentagon was legendary and obvious. Last week it had moved from "Henny Penny the sky is falling" to "Back off". Well Rummy, this week it's "back your ass out the back door and don't come back". And take that goddamned PNAC manual with you.

And from the Decider-in-Chief last week it was "Rumsfeld will stay until the end of my term"; this week it was "fresh assessment". The president now simply mocks the White House press corps with every lie that falls out of his mouth.

I don't expect a McNamara-like change of heart from old Don in a few years regarding his Iraq/Afghanistan folly. I do expect him to land not on his front porch in a wooden rocking chair but in a plush leather seat in a defense contractor's boardroom, in short order.

Where he can no doubt continue his good work for America.

And don't expect any revealing truths to be told by his replacement, Bob Gates, who as deputy chief spook in Ronald Reagan's government and the top one in Poppy Bush's, kept the dirty details of Iran/contra covered up. Gates has been an efficient trucker of smiling insincerity throughout his life.

When Dick Cheney comes back from his Wyoming hunting trip he'll find another old pal in the Pentagon, one with plenty of secrets to tell but also with a lifetime of of CIA discipline meant to enforce their secrecy. Gates isn't at Defense to win the war on terror; he's there to keep the mess Rumsfeld made safely under wraps from a Democratic congressional investigation.

See, Big Daddy Bush dispatched Gates to Arlington from College Station and his post at Texas A&M where's he's been zealously guarding the Bush library's papers, raising money from Republicans for the university, visiting with Governor MoFo about reigniting the Aggie bonfire tradition and other important tasks like that.

James Baker says he's perfect for the job.

Not really cheery over here

Ugh. Kuffner may be happy, but me? Not so much.

On a night when Democrats nationally seized the House and possibly the Senate, Texas Republicans suffered barely any losses, re-electing incumbents in wide margins.

No statewide offices, no Harris County-wide officeholders were upset -- yet. Oh, Nick Lampson's win is sweet, and so is Ellen Cohen's, and Hubert Vo put old Talmadge out to pasture again. Locally, we may yet pull out a county judgeship (Jim Sharp, Mary Kay Green). Across the Lone Star, our dear friend Valinda Bolton over in Austin is to be heartily congratulated. And a special tip o' the chapeau to the good folks in Hays County, who managed to sweep their trash out.

But for that to be all the change Texans demanded in a year like the last one -- to quote an obnoxious chain of Mexican restaurants -- ees preety pathetic.

Here's some quoteworthies:

"I feel like the Republican Party is not my party anymore," Joan Domek, 75, said after voting in Parma Heights, near Cleveland.

Way to go, lady. I'm glad y'all killed 'em in Ohio. They've dug their little claws into the upholstery down here.

"It's time for a change. That's the buzzword," said Cindy Mushrush, 54, a stay-at-home mom from suburban Columbus.

Not in Deep-In-the-Hearta, honey. Some of us like one-party rule.

On a night that began with promise and after a long day at the polls, we couldn't find parking at Jim Henley's party just down the road from our house, so we went on to see my birthday buddy Barbara Radnofsky. She took a call about 9:30 from someone who told her Chris Bell had already conceded. So we headed over to the Sheraton Brookhollow to drown some sorrows and got encouraged by the national returns. But not nearly enough so.

Governor MoFo now goes back to Austin for a total of ten years (unless the 2008 GOP presidential nominee is stupid enough to give him another job). Kay Bailey Sock Puppet glides back to DC and a seat in the Senate she can have until she dies. Lite Guv Dewhurst might have been the only underperformer on the GOP side of the slate, as Maria Luisa Alvarado held him under 59% (big whoop). Greg Abbott's millions in campaign contributions from the state's largest companies, and the video production department he bought with taxpayer money, enabled him to run TV commercials non-stop for the three weeks before Election Day and swamp my man David. (WFAA-TV in Dallas, the recipient of a good portion of the Attorney General's largesse, sat on the followup to the story they originally aired three years ago regarding Abbott's malfeasance. This is what neofascism looks like, people.)

Judge Bill Moody's endorsements and experience went for 44%+. Our other judicials across Texas came closer, in the high forties. Hank Gilbert fared a few percentage points better than the other statewide executive candidates, at 41.7%. But Valinda Hathcox and Dale Henry, two statewides who had the least money and exposure, actually pulled a little better than most of those upticket Democrats. This left me with the distinct impression that our candidates could have -- in the spirit of the nearly-immortal Gene Kelly -- stayed home and done nothing and fared better.

I'm proud of Texas, how 'bout you?

So then, let me count the ways this pisses ...

1. To the winners go the gloating. Congratulations Chris E and Matty B, your Texas Fascists spent millions of bucks on TV advertising and ran up the score. That caysh bought a lot of political power, leaving the Republicans once again at the mercy of their corporate masters. And now several of them need to start raising money for their next step up, repeating the cycle of money breeding corruption.

Dewhurst for Governor in 2010? or Kay Bailey? or Abbott? Or maybe Mr. Wheelchair Molester Protector for Lt. Governor? Or maybe that's Susan Combs' next rung on the ladder, or Todd Staples.

My God they just reproduce like rats, don't they. Or javelinas in heat (thanks for nothing, Kinky).

2. Harris County remains the belly of the GOP beast in Texas. Dallas is doing better than us. *retch* A lot better.

3. Down in Corpus, the Seaman-Garcia race remains too close to call. That will be a nice victory for Democrats if the current numbers hold. And out in West Texas, Henry Bonilla was forced into a runoff with Ciro Rodriguez (hey, didn't he quit earlier though? I forget). Bonilla may still get kicked out of the US House, and in any event can kiss his Senate dreams goodbye. This contest may yet prove to be a win for redistricting (the court-ordered kind).

4. I'm going to be blogging a lot less about politics here for a good long while. I need a break. OK, a bit more about the future:

5. Where does the Texas Democratic Party go from here? The Dream Team choked in 2002; and when our merry band of populists stood up when no one else would in 2006, they were similarly drummed by the electorate.

Whither Void Richie? He was AWOL during this campaign. I'd like to see who he can recruit to run for office besides himself. I don't think Fred Baron is going to be a candidate. And who's going to take on Senator Box Turtle? Christ, he's not going to get a free pass too, is he Boyd?

OK, I'm going back to bed now. It's time for my nap. Maybe this afternoon I'll go see my massage therapist. This weekend is a big birthday bash for a couple of my friends, and the Veterans Day parade is Saturday. I'll be marching with the Veterans for Peace.

There's a couple more weekends of the Renaissance Festival, and the Civil War Weekend in Hempstead. I'll also be in the Diabetes Walk for Life this month.

And hey, the holidays are coming up; that means Dickens on the Strand, one of my favorite festivals. Fall is the best time of year -- I used to say 'October', but global warming moved it into November. I might even drag the sticks out and go golfing.

But no more politics for awhile. Or maybe I'll just quit worrying about Texas politics. Don't fret; I'll think of something to bitch about.

Off to party now

The wife took tomorrow off, so we're going to be late making the rounds at all these locations.

First stop: Henley, then Radnofsky, then Bell, then the big one at the Sheraton Brookhollow, then the nightcap at the Red Hat with Goodwille.

By 3:30 pm my precinct had

... only 298 votes cast, but there's been close to that number since. We're voting this year at the Holiday Inn at Reliant.

I'm not worried about turnout; it seems like a presidential year, judging from my vantage point outside the hotel pushing cards. And in 2004 my precinct went 79% for John Kerry.

I just hope I squeezed all of the juice out of it this time.

Not you, Elam

I have some extra invitations, but none with your name on them. You're an "outside" dog, anyway:

You are invited to spend the evening of November 7, 2006
with David and Rachel Van Os
in their suite at the Stephen F. Austin Hotel
Austin, Texas

After David wins the election,
we will all march to the Capitol
where he will make his acceptance speech
and take back Texas for the People.

Sounds elitist, doesn't it Chris? It won't be (except for excluding people like you).

Cheer up though, little buddy. I won't make it either. I'm working my precinct all day.

Hey, why don't you crash it? I'll bet you've never had your ass kicked by a couple of pipefitters...

Top Ten Reasons to Vote Republican

... but only if you're an idiot, of course:

10. Vote Republican if you think it's a good idea to post detailed nuclear bomb-making instructions -- in Arabic -- on the Internet.

9. Vote Republican if you want to stay the course in Iraq.

8. Vote Republican if you think the President should get advice on gay-bashing from a fundamentalist pastor who secretly bangs gay prostitutes.

7. Vote Republican if you think the best way to deal with a child predator is to cover your own ass.

6. Vote Republican if you hate the military.

5. Vote Republican if you like people who will literally say anything to get elected.

4. Vote Republican if you think the best way to answer a tough question is to have your questioner beaten up.

3. Vote Republican if you think laws are for other people -- particularly brown, Democratic people.

2. Vote Republican if you think it's cool for Congressmen to pay their mistresses to keep quiet until after Election Day.

and 1. Vote Republican if you think this bunch is NOT the most corrupt, hypocritical, worthless bunch of asshats you have ever seen in your life.

In the past six years Republicans have had total control of the US and state government. They have held onto that power by literally terrorizing their constituents, fooling them into believing that if the GOP isn't running the show then Uncle Sam will be blown up by terrorists, buggered by a homosexual and lose his job to a Mexican.

The politics of fear have allowed Republicans in Washington and Austin to wipe themselves with the Constitution, redistrict themselves into semi-permanent majorities, take away rights that human beings have relied on for centuries, devastate our children's healthcare and education, abandon their responsibility to check the power of the presidency, enrich themselves and their corporate clients while assaulting the middle class, and ruin the lives of countless thousands of people from Baghdad to New Orleans and East Texas. They've done all this by following a strict doctrine of "divide and conquer," turning American against American and Texan against Texan while their cronies sit back, laugh, and rake in the cash.

If you have friends, family, neighbors, or co-workers who are as disgusted by the modern Republican party as I am, make sure you get them to the polls on the day after tomorrow. The GOP has spent the last six years telling us what cannot be done. There remains a long road ahead, but many Democratic victories on Tuesday can be the first step toward repairing the damage these idiots have done, and making the USA -- and Texas -- great again.

God's Own Party: Screw the poor

During the early voting period just completed, the city of Houston offered free flu shots to people at selected locations. This was challenged by the Harris County Republican Party, which claimed through their chairman Jared Woodfill that it was a "scheme" to get Democrats to the polls. Mayor Bill White promptly ceased the program.

One of our vile local conservative blogs -- this is the only hint I'm giving -- quoted Jesus out of context from Matthew 26:11: "the poor be with ye always".

This rankles me on several levels:

1. I could simply note that the Harris County branch of US Hezbollah, also known as the Republican Party, is as sorry as Satan regarding this matter and leave it at that, but I won't.

2. Bill White is a bigger coward than John Kerry for rolling over on this. I hereby declare my support for whomever happens to be White's Democratic primary opponent when he runs for higher office.

3. The biblical quotation is not only out of context but incomplete as well. Anyone with a passing familiarity with the Holy Scriptures -- that barely describes me, incidentally -- can easily figure out that Jesus wasn't contradicting his many statements about the poor being blessed, the meek inheriting the Earth, that people should not covet earthly possessions and in fact should sell them, that the moneychangers were sinful, that the wealthy have almost no chance of entering heaven, and so on. Michael Dawson does a much better job of dissembling this atrocious rationale.

As previously noted many times in this space: I don't go to church, I hardly even believe in a higher authority, but I sure know an Elmer Gantry when I hear him.

What the Harris County Republican Party managed to pull off this week is absolutely NOT what Jesus would have done. But that won't stop them from wallowing happily in the stench of their hypocrisy like pigs in shit.

Support the Troops: Vote Democratic

-- "Donald Rumsfeld must go". That's the subject of an editorial which will appear in Monday's Army Times, Air Force Times, Marine Corps Times, and Navy Times, the military service's newspapers of record.

I'm careful wishing for this: he will likely be replaced by Joe Lieberman, who will resign the Senate seat he is probably going to be re-elected to, which means that the Republican governor of Connecticut will appoint a Republican to replace him. Then again, what really is the difference between Lieberman and any another shit-eating conservative?

-- November is off to a bloody start in Iraq. And I do mean bloody.

Republicans are chanting "taxes, taxes, John Kerry, taxes, what's their plan, taxes, taxes, taxes", but the truth about what issue Tuesday's vote turns on is flowing down that Baghdad street.

-- Tammy Duckworth, the Democratic candidate for Illinois' 6th congressional district who lost both legs in Iraq when her helicopter was shot down, was passed over for endorsement by the VFW. They instead picked the Republican who has had no military service. Why? Because a member of the national board lives in the district. He's a right-wing freak, of course.

The VFW overlooked sending a questionnaire to Duckworth -- as they typically do all candidates considered for endorsement -- and relied solely on the word of Ray Soden, said freak.

This is, as you might be guessing, backfiring on both the VFW and the Republican.

-- In this Vanity Fair interview with Richard Perle, Kenneth Adelman, David Frum and others, author David Rose reveals that even the hearts of neoconservative darkness have turned against the Bushies for their failures in Iraq.

Who's had enough?

Even more GOP scandals erupt

How could Karl Rove let all this happen so close to Election Day?

-- the Bush administration posted online the guidelines for constructing a nuclear weapon, and left it up for several months. In Arabic. When the New York Times asked them about it, they took it down.

Do you feel safer?

-- someone from the campaign of state representative John "Dufus" Davis flushed grease from a fish fry down a commode in the community center where the event was held. It clogged a lift station, which is how it got traced back to Davis. (Two questions I don't really want answered: what is a lift station, and how does one 'trace grease'.)

You simply cannot make this shit up. Go see Bay Area Houston and Musings (for the Fox26 video).

-- Pastor Ted Haggard, the president of the National Association of Evangelicals -- a group that claims thirty million members -- resigned yesterday after a male prostitute alleged that the minister had paid him for sex for three years and used drugs with him.

-- Don Sherwood, R-Allentown Pa., paid an ex-mistress nearly $500,000 to keep the affair quiet until after Election Day. Oops.

And this man wants to invest your Social Security money. Pshaw.

-- the mad-dog Republicans in Fort Bend County, led by Commissioner Andy Meyers, are terrorizing their neighbors with signs and direct mail. Since scaring them regarding terrorist attacks isn't working, they have resorted to scaring them about brown people in general. I wonder if the conservatives in Fort Bend are stupid enough to fall for this ...

-- Greg Abbott got chastised by the Austin American-Statesman editorial board, and made fun of by John Kelso for his videotaping crimes, but that's all. Damned liberal media.

I'm sure I missed some of yesterday's news, since I have been busy working get-out-the-vote efforts in my precinct. Would you please add the ones I've overlooked in the comments? The myriad electronic voting-machine irregularities, for example...

Power to the people

About a dozen supporters of striking Houston janitors blocked the intersection of Westheimer and Post Oak, in the Galleria, this afternoon. They sat down in the middle of the road and handcuffed themselves to trash cans in order to call attention to the strike by the recently organized SEIU janitors for better wages and benefits.

WFAA continues the beatdown on Abbott

Byron Harris of News8 Investigates piles on:

Last week, we revealed Attorney General Greg Abbott is using video shot at taxpayers' expense in his commercials.

Tonight we report that the video is evidence of a sweeping change in the way his communications office is run.

Wearing jackets labeled 'Texas Attorney General,' armed law enforcement officers sweep into an apartment house. The video, shot by an attorney general videographer at taxpayers' expense, now shows up in Abbott's television commercial.

One critic says it blurs public service and self promotion.

“It's disgusting. And that's why I took early retirement. It's just blatant misuse of state funds to promote Greg Abbott's name recognition,” said Bill Barnes, who worked for 18 years in the video departments of four Texas attorney generals, both Republican and Democrat.

He retired after Abbott took office. He says he saw the video department change from supporting the attorney general to promoting him.

“To increase general Abbott’s name recognition, there was nothing more important to the press office than that. That was what they were going to do,” Barnes said.

Salaries of press office staff increased to what amounts to more than $380,000 a year. A videographer was hired at $70,000 a year, just $22,000 less than the attorney general himself made at the time. Videos, such as one depicting busts being made by the attorney general's staff, were produced. Burns says he recognizes the videotape now being used in the attorney general's commercials.

The attorney general also built himself a TV studio. He says the world has changed with the internet and his beefed up operation is just trying to keep up.

Press secretary Jerry Strickland showed us the studio known as "the bat cave," which used to be a storage room. He says the attorney general did spend money for equipment here, but he doesn't know exactly how much. He says the studio produces videos on open government which are distributed to state officials.

The office also produces edited versions of the attorney general's press conferences and legal activities, which are distributed to television stations. We checked with attorney general offices in New York and California. Neither have a department like the one in Texas.

The attorney general's videos are edited for content. How is that not propaganda?

“It is a way for us to convey what people need to know in the state of Texas. We are providing information to the taxpayers and if the taxpayers would like more information we can provide that as well,” Strickland explained.

Strickland says unedited video shot by his office can be obtained by any citizen by filing a public information request. That's where all this material now on the website run by Abbott's political campaign came from. And how the campaign got the video now used in Abbott's commercial. The campaign says it's all totally legal.

The Abbott campaign is wrong. But -- as I asked previously -- who will charge the Attorney General with this felony?

Bush's latest strategery for victory in Iraq

Abbott rocked by scandals

The Austin American-Statesman finally reports on Greg Abbott's misuse of state resources with an appropriately misleading headline. They manage to get the story right, however (bold emphasis mine throughout):

It looks like a scene from TV's "Cops."

Instead, the arrest video highlighted in a campaign commercial for Attorney General Greg Abbott was shot by a state employee at taxpayer expense. In fact, video of everything from Abbott's news conferences to the latest bust of suspected child predators can be found on his campaign and official state Web sites — all shot by his $70,000-a-year state-paid videographer.

In essence, candidate Abbott filed an open records request to Attorney General Abbott for the videos produced by the state. ...

As legal rationale, (Abbott campaign staffer Daniel) Hodge cited one line from a Texas Ethics Commission advisory opinion: "Any candidate may use publicly available government information for campaign purposes and an inherent advantage of incumbency is knowledge of what kind of government information is available to the public."

But the opinion continued, "The lawful advantages of incumbency do not, however, extend to the use of work time of government employees or other government resources to gather or otherwise prepare information for campaign purposes."

The legal fine line would be intent: Was the video shot to inform the public or further Abbott's political career?

The attorney general's office has a communications department with six employees, including videographer Neftali Gonzalez. It spends more than $500,000 a year informing the public about the office's activities. ...

Wow. Is this sort of thing ... unusual?

Bill Burns, a retired state employee who was a videographer for four attorneys general, including Abbott, said the job changed when Abbott took over four years ago. It became more about promoting Abbott, he said, as opposed to doing the legal, internal work.

"There is nothing more important to the Abbott administration than his name identification," Burns said. "It's all about him."

No, I mean, do other Republican incumbents do this?

Representatives of Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn said Monday that they have not mingled video paid for by taxpayers with their campaign work.

OK. So what exactly is going on here?

"It's stealing the taxpayers' money," said David Van Os, Abbott's Democratic opponent. "Greg Abbott is so sure of his entitlement to public office, he thinks he has a special privilege to steal public equipment and resources to promote himself."

So with the millions of dollars Abbott has raised --and spent on TV -- in contributions from "Swift Boat" Bob Perry and the state's largest corporations, with the apparent violation of the Texas Penal Code regarding abuse of office, this is the article's moneyshot:

He said it's inexplicable why Abbott, who has a $7 million campaign bank account, would rely on state video for his campaigns. ...

Last week, as his commercial aired, Abbott wrote his supporters, complaining about the high cost of campaigning and urging them to donate more.

All-righty then.

Why is Greg Abbott so worried? What is so worrisome about his name recognition as an incumbent that he has to spend millions of his own money -- as well hundreds of thousands of the taxpayers' dollars -- on television commercials showing his armed agents busting into a house and arresting someone? Or surrounding himself with laughing children?

Another question: why isn't Abbott's wheelchair visible in any of his commercials?

And a third question: Have you seen any polling in the election for Attorney General? Considering what a publicity whore he is, do you think that if the polling were favorable to Abbott you would have heard about it in the media by now?

Fund-raising and electoral troubles aside, we're not even close to the end of Abbott's legal woes. From The Lone Star Project:

Judge Blocks AG Abbott's Vote Suppression Scheme

A short while ago, US District Court Judge T. John Ward granted a preliminary injunction stopping Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams from enforcing a Texas Law that makes it a crime to simply mail or posses a sealed ballot. This year, Abbott has aggressively prosecuted at least 13 individuals, most of whom had done nothing more then help senior citizens vote by mail. Virtually all of those prosecuted are minority senior citizens and all are Democrats. Judge Ward's order says:

For the reasons set forth in the court's findings of fact and conclusions of law, the court orders Defendants, Greg Abbott, in his official capacity as the Attorney General for the State of Texas and Roger Williams, in his official capacity as Secretary of State for the State of Texas, their employees, agents, representatives, attorneys, and servants, and all other persons acting in concert, privity, or participation with the defendants, immediately to:

1. cease enforcing, pending a trial on the merits, Tex. Elec. Code § 86.006(f) under circumstances in which a person, other than the voter, has merely possessed the official ballot or official carrier envelope and such possession is with the actual consent of the voter"
(Source: Preliminary Injunction, Willie Ray v Texas)

Read the Preliminary Injunction Here
Read the Findings of Fact Here

Over the past several months, the Lone Star Project has issued a series of investigative reports highlighting Greg Abbott's abuse of the flawed statute. Read the reports here. The Lone Star Project called for legal action against Abbott's efforts and has supported the legal challenge mounted by the six citizen plaintiffs and the Texas Democratic Party.

The Lone Star Project Director Matt Angle said, "Greg Abbott was not only improperly enforcing a flawed statute, but creating an atmosphere of intimidation and fear. Abbott has acted in a shameless manor, and Judge Ward's order is welcome protection for voters in Texas."

And from Boyd Richie:

The Texas Democratic Party has won a preliminary injunction stopping Attorney General Greg Abbott and Secretary of State Roger Williams from prosecuting voters who are trying to help seniors exercise their right to vote. Texas Republicans know that they would lose fair and free elections. That’s why they’ve done everything they can to stack the deck … even if it means willfully ignoring the law and abusing the power of their office. The examples of Republican misdeeds are numerous:

· Republicans blatantly broke the law when they pushed through an illegal redistricting plan that disenfranchised thousands of Hispanic and African American voters.

· They broke a long standing state law when they illegally used corporate money to fund state house elections.

· And, most recently, they tried to override the results of a legally held primary by attempting to remove Tom DeLay from the ballot when he decided to quit, instead of facing certain defeat at the ballot box.

It seems clear that the current Attorney General of Texas has created numerous problems for himself through misapplication of several laws, to put it as kindly as possible.

(Strangely, this message from the TDP chairman trumpeting his efforts never once mentions the Democratic candidate for Texas Attorney General. There could be a posting about whatever this means at a later time.)

Trick or treat?

You have the power.

The incredible shrinking senior senator from Texas

Some initial observations:

--If this is what is happening to her body, imagine what's going on with her brain.

-- Do we really need another preening, fawning harridan in Washington?

-- Most Republicans running for Congress are cutting and running from Bush as fast as they can. Not in Sugar Land, though. They eat this up like a dog eating another dog's vomit.

Three suggestions:

-- Turn off your TV so you won't be subjected to any more of the GOP's incessant attempts to control the minds of the poor fools like those gathered around the people you see in the picture above.

-- Ignore the Houston Chronicle, the Dallas News and the urban daily newspapers throughout the state. They have all veered hard to the right -- through the weeds and into the ditch -- trying to get their Republican friends re-elected. Update (11/1): This is what I'm talkin' about. It's so shameless I almost feel sorry for them, except when I note their plummeting circulation figures. I'm sure they're all sitting together in their respective boardrooms wondering why.

-- Vote.

More postpourri

-- the WaPo has an excellent contest called Midterm Madness utilizing an interactive Flash graphic where you can pick the seats in the Senate and House that you think will flip -- or not -- on November 7. Make your picks and submit for a chance at an AmEx gift certificate.

-- the poor mistreated corporations of America are banding together to fight back against the enormous and unrelenting legal persecution they have endured of late. See also Tom's blog for frequent commentary on this subject, usually focusing on the "harassment" of corporate executives accused of wrongdoing.

This is just about the most miserably obnoxious commentary proffered by conservatives of late (ever since they managed to take immigration nationwide, that is).

-- CNN's 'Broken Government' has been excellent; even the hit piece by Candy "Butterqueen" Crowley on the Democrats wasn't unwatchable, but the other parts of the series were examples of good solid political reporting. And among Houston media, KPRC's political page stands head and shoulders above the Chronicle and the other two broadcast outlets. Their on-demand video and coverage of local and state races is simply the best, by far. I rarely if ever watch their news, but the online resources they have assembled blow away the competition. Yesterday they televised "Straight Talk from the Candidates", where state- and county-wide party representatives were given 2.5 minutes uninterrupted to make their case directly to the voters. (This program will re-air on November 5, and is well worth watching.) Even for a political junkie like me, there are people running for office whom I have not seen nor heard speak, and this was an opportunity to gauge that intangible , emotional response to their face and voice.

Honorable mention goes to the Chronic's opinion and politics pages, and particularly cartoonist Nick Anderson's blog, deserving of special recognition for their interactive ease. The op page regularly links to local blogs, including this one, on topics not necessarily political.

-- the Republican television advertisements here are non-stop and nausea-inducing. Greg Abbott's commercial featuring his misuse of state resources just aired again. According to the Texas Penal Code Section 39.02, the state's top law enforcement officer may have committed at least a second-degree felony.

Who exactly is responsible for arresting, charging, and prosecuting the Attorney General when he commits a crime?

-- and don't miss the double edition of Sunday Funnies: Limbaughtomy and Election Day Countdown.

Postpourri

-- In the "Blind-Hog-Occasionally-Finds-an-Acorn" department, the Houston Chronicle endorsed three of my very favorite people for the Texas Legislature: Chad Khan, Dr. Diane Trautman, and Dot Nelson-Turnier. Still they managed to blow it by endorsing Sherrie Matula's opponent. In fact almost all of the rest of their endorsements were, frankly, ones you should disregard.

-- The following two links are an example of the dichotomy that currently exists in my fair city. While janitors strike for $8.50 an hour and health insurance, the Tony-est restaurants in Houston are packed full of Republicans eating truffles at $300 a plate.

Seventy-dollar-a-barrel oil (even sixty, on its way up and down) and a 12,000 point Dow don't seem to have trickled down very far.

-- Early voting is way up across the state, but e-voting issues in predominantly Democratic Jefferson County remain a source of concern. Update (10/30): Dos Centavos links to this KFDM video detailing the notorious ES&S vote-switching machines, which had problems during the primary earlier this year.

-- Crime in Houston has not increased as much as conservatives would like you to believe. And it is not due to Katrina evacuees, either.

-- Karl Rove is apparently marshaling the goonbats in order to save the GOP from certain defeat. The last mystery left for this cycle -- besides, of course, whether our votes have been counted accurately or not -- is whether he will be successful. Fear just doesn't seem to be as effective a motivation this time.

-- The Saint Louis Cardinals defeated the Detroit Tigers to win the World Series, and the nation yawned. I didn't even see much gloating by Cards fans in the places I usually look.

-- The Houston Rockets could win the NBA champeenship this season. No, really.

-- Vaya con Dios, Joe Niekro and Red Auerbach.

Abbott spends taxpayer dollars on his TV ads

Which is a big fat violation of the law.

WFAA in Dallas reports, and pulls no punches.

For those of you unable to view the video, here's the summary:

Three years ago and shortly after he was elected attorney general, Greg Abbott ordered the OAG to purchase video equipment worth $66,000, and hired a videographer at a salary of $70,000 -- all at taxpayer expense -- to record, among other things, arrests of alleged child predators (the tapes show armed agents invading a home and subduing a suspect) . These videos have been seen in his recent barrage of television commercials.

They are also available for viewing at his campaign website.

Tom Smith of Public Citizen is quoted in the WFAA report saying that the law is clear in these cases, and that what the Attorney General has done is illegal. Abbott refused comment, but his campaign chairman responded with an e-mail statement indicating the videos were "obtained" through the FOI act.

David Van Os had this to say:

"I'm not surprised. It is representative of how Abbott has used his office for four years, and that is to promote himself."

I can't really add any outrage to this except to ask, "Have you had enough?"

Update: The Associated Press picks up on the story, and the Fort Worth Startle-Gram runs with it.

"These frivolous affidavits"

Last Wednesday afternoon Robb Zipp and I met David and Rachel Van Os as they were completing a round of radio interviews at KPFT. Art Browning of Greenwatch decided to join us for the train trip in (since this was a Whistlestop Tour we thought it apropos to take the Metro light rail) and so we caravaned down to the Fannin South Park and Ride, met Richard Morrison and boarded the Preston Street Limited for the Old County Courthouse at 301 Franklin.

Richard and David fanned out to each end of the train and spoke to commuters all the way into downtown. At least a couple of hundred voters got to personally meet the next Attorney General of Texas and appeared thrilled at the prospect.

We met John Behrman and some of the early arrivals for the Whistlestop speech and then we all walked over to 201 Caroline and Beverly Kaufman's office so that David could file his affidavit. Robb and I were carrying so much gear that we chose not to run the gauntlet of security at the courthouse, including the airport-style metal detector and baggage screening.

Well, we missed one of the highlights of David's visit to the belly of the Texas Republican beast, because after he completed the paperwork and prepared to pay the fee, a clerk's office employee named Gregory Bousse' (this name is spelled phonetically and thus may not be accurate) indicated that the clerk would not be filing his affidavit, and further added the following editorial comment: "You people come around here every two years and file these frivolous affidavits ..." When David demanded to see the clerk, he was told she was not in the department, and a supervisory person named Ms. Contreras greeted him with the same caustic contempt. When he asked to speak to the person who had made the decision not to enter his affidavit into the public records of the county, Ms. Contreras indicated that it had been the county attorney who had done so. That of course was a lie, as the county attorney could not have been consulted on such a decision given the time frame, and in any event was not present to meet with David either.

So while 253 Texas counties will have these words on file as a public record, Harris County has chosen to deny them. How impressive is that?

About sixty supporters from Houston, Galveston, Wharton and even Angelina counties greeted David back at the old courthouse, and among the dignitaries were Judge Bill Moody and family, Melissa Taylor of the HCDP, and CD-02 challenger Gary Binderim and Stace Medellin. The humidity that day was stifling -- this must have been what kept the Chronicle away -- so we quickly adjourned to Chatters in the Heights and met about a hundred or so supporters, including Gerry Birnberg and Hank Gilbert and Jim Sharp and Mary Kay Green and Bill Connolly and Mark McDavid. As the evening grew late much of the group adjourned to one of the other fundraisers (James Pierre, Scott Hochberg, and Richard Garcia all had events going on).

I personally collapsed from exhaustion.

Robb and Stace have their accounts up with pictures, which you may have already read, since I'm a week late in posting this.

Images from 254 Counties

I still owe a posting on Harris last Wednesday, but Snarko (David's webmistress) has been busy with the slideshows you see above and below, so I will let those do for now and deliver the tardy post later still.

A rapid update

... as I prepare to leave for a long business day in Beaumont:

-- pictures from the 252nd Courthouse Whistlestop are waiting in the inbox. A full report, including the details of the affidavit's rejection by the Harris County clerk's office will appear in this space tomorrow. Simply too much offline to do after taking Wednesday afternoon off.

-- my friend John Behrman, who has an excellent blog (that I wish he would update more frequently), is quoted in today's Chronic regarding his oversight of the voting technology we will use locally in the coming elections.

John was also on the scene at Beverly Kaufman's office, and when I commented that it was modern-day fascism running not only our country but also the county government, he was quick to point out that the fascists had better fashion sense than these people. I nearly passed out from laughing so hard.

-- a merciless whipping by Barbara Radnofsky of the senior Senator from Texas (and by 'senior' I mean 'dotty') last night. About eighty of us gathered in Bellaire to watch it live. Even the Libertarian made sense more often than Kay Bailey. She actually said "cut and run" six times. I believe Karl Rove must have been her personal debate coach.

-- Denny Hastert takes credit on behalf of the GOP for lower gasoline prices. Heckuva job as always, Mr. Nearly-Former Speaker.

That's all I have time for today. More coming over the weekend.

Austin Chronicle:"Strongly spined"

Now this is how a candidate gets endorsed:

The race for attorney general's office hasn't garnered one-umpteenth the attention of the tragi-comic governor's draw, despite the Texas-sized personality fighting for the public interest. With an omnipresent Stetson and bolo tie, Van Os is a striking figure, even before he opens his mouth. A specialist in constitutional and labor law, Van Os has targeted Texas oil barons and insurance and pharmaceutical giants, in his populist, anti-corporate, whistlestop campaign. The implicit contrast is that incumbent Greg Abbott has let such corporate wrongdoers run roughshod over the state – as indeed he has. Despite several splashy "cyber crime" initiatives (remember getting tough on MySpace?), Abbott has done little to make Texans safer, especially from the pollutant-spewing, scofflaw conglomerations drawing Van Os' ire. Abbott has also been a complicit servant to Tom Delay and Gov. Perry in the disastrous redistricting saga, never hesitant to defend another gerrymandered map on behalf of his bosses. Partisanship and hoary headline-hogging have defined Abbott's tenure, and we'd be happy to see him go; we're even happier his challenger is as strongly spined as David Van Os.

Surely it's just a coincidence

Once again from the Houston Chronicle, unintended irony.

This story:

Information on builders getting tough to nail down

Used to be, diligent consumers would check out complaints against builders at the attorney general's office, look for major lawsuits at the courthouse, and investigate credentials.

But now that's getting harder to do because the Texas Attorney General's Office stopped processing all consumer complaints three years ago, and there are fewer homeowner lawsuits at the courthouse because of binding arbitration clauses in contracts.

And, a new state-mandated credential — a registration with the Texas Residential Construction Commission — doesn't carry as much weight as some consumers may think, consumer advocates say.

And this story:

Builder's $8 million tops GOP donor list

Which -- despite the misdirection in the Chronicle's reporting suggesting that he isn't involved in Texas races -- reminds us that Bob Perry has contributed over a million dollars each to both Greg Abbott and Rick Perry, the two fellows who have been slightly involved regarding the creation and oversight of the Texas Residential Construction Commission, a payola sham if ever there was one.

Johncoby has written extensively about the TRCC (pronounced "trick").

Had enough of this kind of government?

Statewide elections finally get some reportage

The election for Commissioner of the General Land Office of Texas broke into the MSM this past week with this Chronic posting. I've excerpted most of it following, since this contest has gotten nearly no attention:

The Texas Land Commissioner race between Republican Jerry Patterson and Democrat VaLinda Hathcox could hinge on who voters think can squeeze the most money out of 20 million acres of public lands.

The answer directly affects taxpayers and Texas schoolchildren because the millions in revenues generated by the General Land Office help fund public education.

For nearly a century, the land office has generated $9 billion for public education by funneling oil and gas royalties from state lands into the Permanent School Fund. The school fund, through stock investments, now holds $22 billion. Last year the land office generated another $500 million for the fund.

"That's been a tremendous benefit for Texas schoolchildren. However, oil and gas production peaked 20-something years ago," said Patterson, the incumbent seeking another four years in office. His No. 1 goal is to boost money for the Permanent School Fund by investing oil and gas royalties into lucrative real estate deals and by developing wind energy.

"Diversify, diversify, diversify," he said. "That's part of what we've done in the first four years. We're going to ramp it up substantially."

During the first five years of the diversification program, the land office generated more than $1.3 billion from oil and gas revenues, of which $566 million went directly into the school fund, according to the land office. Of the remainder, the land office invested $500 million directly in real estate and another $250 million into real estate investment funds.

"We're investing in income-producing real estate," Patterson said, explaining the idea is to leverage petroleum royalties long before the oil and gas spigots run dry. "You have to look at the Permanent School Fund as a trust fund for education. We were far behind the time in getting into real estate investments," he added.

Hathcox, of Sulfur Springs, said she decided to run for land commissioner because the state said it had no money for new textbooks even as the price of oil soared to $70 per barrel.

"When (the late Bob) Bullock was comptroller, every time the price of oil would go up you would hear what that meant for children in the state," she said. "You never hear that anymore."

She said that when the price of oil plunged to $17 a barrel in the early 1980s, the land office was still collecting $300 million in royalties for the school fund.

With oil prices more recently at $60 to $70 per barrel, the state collected only $500 million in royalties.

"I don't think we are getting the proper amount of money on our oil and gas leases," she said. Hathcox said she'd direct the land office's audit division to aggressively scrutinize oil and gas companies "to see we're getting the proper royalties we should be."

Patterson said Hathcox is fixated on the price of oil while ignoring two decades of production declines. Hathcox disagrees with the direction of the land office that began under Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and has been embraced by Patterson.

"This is a trust," she said. "I'm a trustee for all Texans. I do feel it's being operated more like a private real estate company where they're selling things for a quick buck and not looking at things for the long haul."

You don't suppose Patterson has managed the lease royalties to the favor of Big Oil and the detriment of public education and our children, do you?

Jerry Patterson has been one of Dubya's Good Ole Boys for a long time now. When Max Cleland, the former Georgia senator and Vietnam vet/quadriplegic, rolled out to Bush's ranch in August of 2004 to talk to the president about the baseless attacks on John Kerry's war record by the Swift Boat Liars, it was Patterson whom Bush dispatched to meet him.

(Of course, since George W Bush is too afraid to meet Cindy Sheehan, I'm not surprised he's scared of Cleland, who could kick his ass with no legs and his only arm tied behind his back.)

In the electoral battle for Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, the Republican incumbent has decided she'd better start spending some of her campaign millions on TV ads:

Republican comptroller candidate Susan Combs' Democratic opponent has no money, but Combs has bought $3.2 million of television advertising for the final three weeks of the campaign. ...

Combs' Democratic opponent, Fred Head, said he believes her advertising is either meant to help Perry by attacking Strayhorn or to "save" her own campaign from voter doubts raised by a steamy romance novel Combs once wrote. ...

"She may be going to spend the $3 million on T.V. to help Perry and hurt Strayhorn, but she's not going to be able to save her own campaign," Head said. ...

"I would imagine Mrs. Combs is trying to advertise enough to avoid having her pornographic novel stick to her campaign," Head said. "She's not who she says she is, and that's what Mark Foley wanted people to believe, too."

Fred Head has been exposing corruption in state government since 1971, when as one of the "Dirty Thirty" he revealed the dealings of Texas House speaker Gus Mutscher and what came to be known as the Sharpstown Scandal. As a result of Head's efforts in the Lege in 1972, the Deceptive Trade Practices Act -- one of the most powerful consumer protection statutes ever enacted -- was signed into law. Texas also has an Open Records Act and an Open Meetings Act because of Fred Head.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram adds:

"I'm all for the First Amendment [but] this book is 180 degrees in the other direction from the Republican Party, which during their last state convention told the people of Texas that they were the party of God," Head said. "I think it's the hypocrisy -- that's what's relevant."

The two candidates for Agriculture Commissioner, Hank Gilbert and "Big Head" Todd Staples, have highlighted their differences regarding the Trans-Texas Corridor and RFID for livestock in this joint interview on News8Austin. Here's a transcript if you can't watch the video. And the Startle-Gram points out the distinctions between the two on the Texas State Railroad, which runs close to where both men grew up in East Texas.

And David Dewhurst, a man of immense wealth, has already hit the airwaves hard to defend his miserable record as Lt. Governor against the Latina towering over him, Democratic challenger Maria Luisa Alvarado.

What are these Republicans so fearful of? Besides losing, that is?

This Thursday evening, US Senator Perjury Technicality has finally deigned to debate Barbara Ann Radnofsky (it will be broadcast live on your PBS station). Don't miss it.

Oh yeah, my man David is appearing at a courthouse near you this week, and is scheduled to appear in Houston tomorrow, Wednesday afternoon the 18th of October with several Harris County Democratic candidates and office-holders, including the man walking for Texas Supreme Court, Bill Moody. Don't miss that, either.

Republican incumbent Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott was invited but I don't expect he will be there. More about Abbott, the Texas Residential Construction Commission -- a consumer protection organization owned lock, stock, and barrel by Bob "Swift Boat" Perry -- and the overflowing bayous of money surging in and out of these Republicans, in the post above.

Elephantiasis of the Hubris

No, that's not a picture of Speaker Hastert.

It's not even Karl Rove -- though he does have some shoes like that.

This of course is actually a person with a disfiguring ailment used as a symbol of what the Republican Party has become. And it's not their legs or even their genitalia (if the picture here makes you squeamish, then don't click here) but their egos that have swollen so hideously large that you will recoil in horror upon gazing at them.

Behold ...

David Kuo, who will be on "60 Minutes" tomorrow evening, describes how the GOP has used the religious right as a fob in his book Tempting Faith, here on Keith Olbermann recently:



ThinkProgress has posted another excerpt from the book, setting the scene just prior to Bush's 2001 inuguration:

Every other White House office was up and running. The faith-based initiative still operated out of the nearly vacant transition offices.

Three days later, a Tuesday, Karl Rove summoned (Don) Willett (a former Bush aide from Texas who initially shepharded the program) to his office to announce that the entire faith-based initiative would be rolled out the following Monday. Willett asked just how — without a director, staff, office, or plan — the president could do that. Rove looked at him, took a deep breath, and said, “I don’t know. Just get me a f—ing faith-based thing. Got it?” Willett was shown the door.

Don Willett was appointed to the Texas Supreme Court, by Governor Rick Perry, in 2005 with nearly no courtroom -- much less judicial -- experience. (His opponent, Judge William Moody, was the only Democratic statewide candidate endorsed by the Dallas Morning News.)

Got the stomach for following the thread a little further?

Rick Perry has released a television ad portraying Chris Bell as the recipient of special interest money, while at the same time accepting even larger contributions from Bob "Swift Boat" Perry and James "Death to Public Schools" Leininger, a couple of guys with no hidden agenda.

Bob Perry has also contributed over a million dollars to former Texas Supreme Court justice and current Texas attorney general Greg Abbott, whose own faith-based intiatives as well as his moral failings and ethical lapses have been well-documented.

Greg Abbott, a man who was paralyzed when a tree fell on him, who then sued to collect millions from insurance, then also succeeded in changing the laws by which he collected that money by advocating for tort reform in Texas, is a darling of the religious right in Deep-In-The-Hearta. The fundamentalists and evangelical Christians long ago joined forces with the Texas Republican Party to take over not just the legislative and judicial branches of state government but also the state board of education in order to re-write school textbooks -- performing edits such as deleting scientific theories of evolution and replacing them with creationist views. The Texas Freedom Network details how this came about; here's a summary:

• The religious right has tightened its grip on the Republican Party of Texas and now completely controls the party leadership. In fact, it has become increasingly difficult to distinguish between the movement and the party in leadership, political goals and tactics.

• Having spent $10 million since 1997 to help the Texas GOP take control of state government, wealthy San Antonio businessman James Leininger is now working to purge from office those Republicans who fail to support fully the religious right’s public policy agenda. In fact, with Leininger’s financial support, the religious right is on the verge of finally winning a majority of seats on the State Board of Education.

• The new model in the religious right’s political strategy relies on recruiting conservative evangelical pastors who will use their positions as church leaders to advance the movement’s policy agenda. In fact, the state’s newest far-right pressure group, the Texas Restoration Project, has been recruiting thousands of pastors to support (successfully) a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage and to back conservative candidates for office, including Gov. Rick Perry.

• David Barton, vice chair of the state GOP and president of the Christian advocacy group WallBuilders, has become a key part of efforts to recruit conservative evangelicals into the Republican Party. Using questionable research, Barton appeals to Christian conservatives with the dubious argument that the separation of church and state is a myth created by activist judges.

Karl Rove, Don Willett, Rick Perry, James Leininger, Bob Perry, and Greg Abbott. Six degrees of barely any separation, and bookended by Jesus. Men who have waved the flag, carried the cross, made millions of dollars and used it to ruin other men, destroy public institutions, re-write laws to serve their means, spread lies and disinformation and done it all not in the name of God or even in defense of liberty but for power and ever more money.

Praise God.

And pass the ammunition.

Update (10/17): More about David Barton, Republican Jesus freak, at this Kos diary.

Christie Elam is stalking me again.

You know where to find him. He's always good for a few horse laughs, and then you suddenly realize his obsession with me is probably unhealthy.

Chris, honey: get a life.

And some mighty fine blogging elsewhere

Easter Lemming has a link-heavy post about Houston's largest church and its unrelenting efforts to influence the neoconservative social agenda.

The Agonist reminds us of a pop quiz on foreign leaders' names that then-Governor George W. Bush failed six years ago. Take heart, Grandmaw.

Lake Jackson Dem excerpts The Nation's "Cultural Famine" article.

Half Empty announces that Paul Begala is coming to Missouri City to boost the Fort Bend Democrats next week.

Lots of David Van Os around the blogosphere.

Grits for Breakfast has a theory about why Houston hasn't been attacked by terrorists.

The San Antonio Current singled out Pink Dome, In the Pink Texas, and Burnt Orange Report for some snarky blogging jealousy. They had better things to say about the Blogging Rep and Little Pollyanna and Burkablog. They do seem to like pretty colors and pictures over at the Current. The reading? Not so much.

Everybody go wish Karl-Thomas Happy Birthday.

Capitol Annex has more on the humiliation that is Todd Staples. Elect Hank Gilbert.

Bay Area Houston keeps up the heat on the Texas Residential Construction Commission.

Dos Centavos points us toward Judge Mary Kay Green's new website. Judge Green is one of the best persons -- not just one of the best Democrats or best candidates -- on the ballot this year. Her opponent is the abysmal Annette Galik. Harris County needs more judges like Mary Kay Green.

And from across the Sabine, People Get Ready reminds us why parental notification requirements are inhumane.

Republicans really shouldn't be debating

... particularly if they aren't capable of doing any better than Martha Wong performed last night in her tete-a-tete (that's French, Martha) with Ellen Cohen and Mhair Dekmezian last night at Rice.

Really. That Wong tapes over the word "Republicans" on her lawn signs starts to make sense when she says things like"The Trans-Texas Corridor will only cost $2 million dollars." I can't really blame her for doing that, though; if I were still a Republican, I wouldn't want anyone to know it either.

This woman isn't even my representative and I'm embarrassed. The same kind of embarrassment that wells up when Carole Strayhorn, who has been endorsed by Texas teachers' unions but can't name the newly-elected Mexican president, or when Kinky Friedman opens his mouth to say anything at all.

Wong also has an extraordinarily unsettling manner of viciously denouncing her opponents, and inappropriately grinning at the conclusion of her rabid attack. Disconcerting.

Pollyanna posted her lengthy summary (sorry we weren't introduced, Kim; next time let's do a kaffeklatsch --that's German, Martha -- afterwards) and she notes some of my highlighted moments:

-- Libertarian Dekmezian offered more than a few moments of Kinky-style comic relief. Visibly nervous all the way to the end, with no apparent rehearsal or even prepared remarks for opening or closing, Dekmezian still made points that the mostly progressive audience nodded and applauded and laughed at (in a good way). As hilarious as it is watching a 14-year-old trying to play with grown-ups, he ought to be excused from the third scheduled debate, despite the fact that he was better at understanding and communicating the issues than the Republican incumbent.

-- Wong is a little too redundant with phrases like "plaintiff's attorneys" and "tort reform", especially for an audience that is not the River Oaks Republicans.

We sat in the mezzanine, behind a row of seating reserved for the Wong campaign, and who should plop his fat ass down in front of us than Tom DeLay's Cabana Boy and two of his minions. Culberson acted just like the rest of the partisans in the audience, applauding after the moderator asked us not to, nodding his big fat head at the moronic pronouncements Wong made seemingly every 60 seconds, and so on. A special shout-out to John NoRailonRichmond: my mother-in-law and father-in-law, Republican voters since they came to the United States in 1962, are voting for Jim Henley. It's easy to see why you don't want to debate, either.

Enjoy your lobbying career, you miserable ass.

Ellen Cohen handled this affair the way Chris Bell managed his competition last Friday night: if it had been a prizefight, the referee would have stopped it at the halfway mark.

New, real, effective representation for the 134th. That fresh air you feel this morning inside the Loop isn't just a cool front.

Drive-by linking

A few quick shots for your reading pleasure:

-- The Statesman has drawn an analogy between my man David and Dorothy Gale of The Wizard of Oz. It's a proper analogy, when you take it in full context. David is wrapping up the last of the Whistlestop Courthouse Tours this week and next, in Fort Worth and Dallas, then Houston, and completing in San Antonio and Austin.

-- Tonight's debate between HD-134 candidates Ellen Cohen, Martha Wong, and Libertarian Mhair Dekmezian at Rice University promises to be fun. Ryan has the particulars if you want to attend, or if you'd rather stream it live online. I'll be on hand and post a report late tonight or tomorrow.

-- Chris Bell's call for Kinky to pull out of the gubernatorial race was met with sputtering indignation from the former Texas Jewboy, and even more vinegar-laced invective from his supporters, including -- natch -- the Repugnants who are praying Governor MoFo can manage to get re-elected.

Snap, goons: this is about Kinky's supporters, not Kinky. They're the ones who are desperate for an out, and Friedman keeps giving it to them every time he opens his mouth. I think most of them are smart enough not to waste a vote on possibly the worst candidate the state of Texas has even seen, but unless their boy does the smart thing and quits the race, we'll have to test that intelligence theory on Election Day.

A vote for Kinky is a vote for Rick Perry, that's why the hell not.

-- Mark Warner is not going to run for the Democratic nomination for President. Eileen and Greg are sad. Me? Not so much. Warner is too conservative for my taste. He'll be kingmaker of a sort this presidential cycle with his obvious fundraising talents, but I don't look for him to even take the #2 slot on a presidential ticket (if one accepts the rationale for not running for President is to save the wear-and-tear on his wife and kids).

I like Warner as a Senator or even as Governor again, and we 'll let the future sort itself out. And I agree with kos relative to how the 2008 Sweepstakes shifts with Warner out now.

See how easy that was, Kinky? Oh wait, you don't have any family, just a bunch of stray dogs. GTF out of the race anyway, dude. The joke is over.

Pull out, Kinky.

The overnight news from the Dallas paper has Chris Bell asking Kinky Friedman to get out of the race. Kinky's response is to dig in his bootheels.

Here's my message:

Pull out, Kinky. You know you want to.

You're not having fun any longer. All this running around all over Hell's half-acre, having to talk to reporters who keep asking the same damn questions (like 'why do you say "n----r" all the time'), lousy food and weak coffee and hard hotel beds and shitty pillows and everything else about life on the road that you quit years ago when you stopped making music and started writing cheap detective novels.

It's time to go back to the ranch, to your stray dogs, to the cigar-smell infested bunkhouse you call home, take off that nasty hat, brush your slimy teeth and lay it down.

Texas needs you to quit, Kinky. Now.

It's no longer about Mark Foley, Part II

The Grand Old Pederast Party has closed ranks around their rotund Speaker, ensuring his continued leadership all the way to January (when he will likely be replaced by Nancy Pelosi anyway).

I noted the first calls for him to step down, but never advocated his doing so myself. My feeling from the outset was: meh, let him stick around if he chooses. Hastert is a much heavier albatross around the necks of the GOP than even Tom DeLay would have been at this point, and as a result becomes the icon of a Congressional scandal entering its second week as a top news story.

See, among the reasons it stays in the news -- besides the MSM's sexual obsession -- is that the history of Foley's child predation has been extended once again; it now goes back as far as 2000. Which means that when the Republicans say 9/11 changed everything... well, they didn't mean "everything."

Here's a talking point:

More protection was given to a sexual predator among their ranks by Republican leaders than to our soldiers in Iraq (body armor), than to our national security (ports, nukes in North Korea), than even to our childrens' health care (millions -- in Texas alone the number is 1.4 million -- abandoned, uninsured).

Pretty sweet if you're one of the elite, that conservative agenda.

The Congressional page-sex scandal, as of this moment, rightfully deserves to be pushed from the headlines. And it needs to be replaced with the threat of a nuclear showdown looming with Kim Jong Il, or the second weakness exposed in our national food supply in a month (this news suggests that the terrorists understand that they could terrorize us with it), or even -- God forbid -- the 32 soldiers killed in the first eight days of October in an increasingly unstable Iraq and Afghanistan.

Yet, perhaps the so-called liberal media still take their cue from the White House in a perverse way. What would Our Dear Leader be most upset about lately?

Disloyalty.

There's a lot of very important things that the Bush administration simply doesn't give a shit about, North Korea being only the latest example of the consequences of electing (sic) a moron President.

And I have to think that a Democratic Congress in 2007 is going to be able to help him focus on a few of the real issues.

(thanks to ThinkProgress, one of the very best places on the Internets, for the leads)

Blogger scoops traditional media (again)

Rep. John Davis, a Republican representing the Clear Lake area in the Texas Lege for the past eight years, has been revealed to be woefully inept at best -- and criminally negligent at worst -- regarding his expense report filings. One hundred thousand dollars' worth of campaign expenses lack sufficient documentation. That's a violation of Texas election law.

So reports KHOU today.

But Muse is the one who broke this story weeks ago; her painstaking gumshoe investigation revealed the ethical lapses that finally drew the attention of the Texas Ethics Commission and the so-called liberal media.

John Davis is so incompetent that he was declared a piece of "used furniture" by Texas Monthly in 2003.

Though the results of the TEC investigation into Davis' finances will not be made public until after November 7, the voters of District 129 can cast a vote for good government by electing Sherrie Matula to the Texas House.

They deserve it. Hell, we all deserve it.