Noriega, Ratcliffe, blogs and politics

Geez I hate having to skip a good blogswarm.

RG Ratcliffe wrote this, and several of my blog brethren responded to it (some of us pretty irritated, some of us less so). A couple on our side even shot their pots at us (but one of them apologized for reacting in haste).

Then Rick Noriega got on the phone with us -- not me, again -- and also got online over here and explained the context of the remarks. And apologized for making them.

Oh, and RG responded to our response. All the while -- over the past 36 hours or so -- I was busy with business and preparing for our fall vacation. So all I managed to do was dash off a note to the Noriega campaign Sunday afternoon, to which I received an almost immediate and satisfactory response. So I missed the whole thing, dammit.

But I do have time for a condensed version of the brouhaha, so here's the abridged Ratcliffe:

I allowed my good name and respected reputation to be used like a dishrag by an operative of the Mikal Watts campaign, but if I were to admit that, then I would lose the remaining shredded tatters of my credibility .... therefore, I'll laugh the whole thing off by accusing bloggers of being thin-skinned while reframing my article as a service to the readers of the the Chronic and the Express-Snooze, which are legion compared to those DFHs who blog in their underwear.

Oh yes, and also in dedicated service to the unwashed masses who haven't yet grasped the intricacies of the "Internets" and how it is used for political organizing.

Don't be prickly about the criticism, RG. It's just part of the game.

The Weekly Wrangle

Time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's Blog Round Up, brought to us once again by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Do You Ever Feel Like Cassandra? Gary Denton at Easter Lemming Liberal News is beginning to feel like Cassandra again over Iran: condemned to know the future but unable to convince others to prevent it.

Port Arthur gets shipped several hundred thousand gallons of a waste byproduct of the chemical nerve agent VX for incineration, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs reveals that neither a federal judge nor the TCEQ nor Rick Perry did anything to stop it.

Over at Three Wise Men, Nat-Wu notes that whether or homosexuality is a choice or not, everyone deserves the same rights.

Blogging at the University of North Texas Democrats' site, Adam Silva of Three Wise Men notes that pundits are over-analyzing polls in the 2008 presidential race.

Hal at Half Empty blogs about some hot water Mikal Watts got into over a letter he wrote to another attorney talking about contributions to judges.

Stace Medellin at Dos Centavos reports on a recent Democratic event held in Kingwood. Along with several candidates running in the 2007 Houston city council election, the event attracted several judicial office-seekers running in 2008, including Texas Supreme Court Place 8 candidate Judge Susan Criss.

In one of his information-packed open threads on Texas Kaos, lightseeker notes that T Boone Pickens is stacking the deck in Roberts County to suck up water rights.

McBlogger has an update on the toll roads in the Austin area and urges those on CAMPO to think about what they are doing carefully, advising them to not burden taxpayers with the most expensive method of financing road construction.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson wonders if the "conservative" WCGOP and Craddick are going soft. Will they let Rep. Mike Krusee go without a primary challenge from the right, in Will Craddick Let Krusee Go Unpunished?

At Bluedaze, TXsharon tell us about yet Another Republican Sexual Pervert.

Off the Kuff takes a look at the upcoming battle for Harris County DA between incumbent Chuck Rosenthal and former HPD Chief C.O. Bradford.

Bradley Bowen of North Texas Liberal tells us about the excitement at a Hillary Clinton event in DC -- the crowd was moved and motivated.

Could Be True at South Texas Chisme notes that a polluting refiner gets only a teeny, teeny, tiny slap on wrist. Oh, why did they even bother. Just taking the time of a minimum wage clerk to file the darn thing would cost more than the fine does.

Vince at Capitol Annex discusses the race of a "Craddick D" down in HD-40 (Aaron Pena) and offers his opinions on the blogging legislator's chances in a contested primary.

Sunday Funnies (late edition)

Meet Noriega, Jaworski, Criss and others in Clear Lake next week

I'll be in Lake Tahoe and will miss this event. But you should still go:


Update: Melissa Noriega will be standing in for her husband, who'll be out of town at another event.

What do you think Lou Dobbs will be wailing about tomorrow?

Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said illegal immigration is not a crime, prompting rival Mitt Romney to accuse him of not taking the problem seriously. The two have clashed for weeks over illegal immigration, an issue that inflames GOP conservatives who influence primary elections. The irony is that both candidates have in the past taken more liberal stands on the issue.

"It's not a crime," Giuliani said Friday. "I know that's very hard for people to understand, but it's not a federal crime."

Not just Dobbs of course but all the conservative mouths on Houston's radio, the xenophobes who post at Chron.com (even in the previously-linked story about kolaches), this moron -- in short about 30% of the Republican party's rapidly-eroding base. Because the story broke late Friday they've all had plenty of time for their hatred soup to bubble and fester.

Giuliani has really done it this time. If this doesn't ruin him then I suppose nothing can. But I still don't see the Republicans nominating a Mormon.

No, despite his ties to the Libyan bombers of Pan Am Flight 103, notwithstanding his statement yesterday that al-Qaeda's ban on smoking turned Iraqi public sentiment against them and to the US, I believe it's going to be Frederick of Hollywood.

Sunday Funnies (Working Surge edition)

VX (nerve gas) in Port Arthur

I've blogged previously about the environmental challenges in Southeast Texas, as well as the efforts of local activists (scroll to the end) to push back against the corporations and their lackeys in local government. Two developments in the past few weeks merit updating; first, the soon-to-be-terminated manager of the BP facility in Texas City was shocked to learn how many people had been killed in the plant over the years, and how few people even knew about it. Don Parus, still on BP's payroll at $279K annually, also told the court in the trial of the fifteen BP workers killed in the 2005 explosion at the facility, that a flaring system costing $150,000 was rejected by corporate management as too expensive. Be sure and read the comments at the end.

Secondly, from CLEAN, a waste byproduct of the chemical nerve agent VX is -- without community hearings and in the dead of night -- being transferred to and incinerated in Port Arthur, Texas:

To date, more than 350,000 gallons of VXH have been shipped and incinerated in Port Arthur. Has Veolia Environmental Services, the company receiving at least $49 million from the U.S. Army for incinerated VXH, offered to monitor emissions or conduct soil testing to make sure there is no nerve gas or other toxin being emitted in the process? Has any federal, state or local authority called for this testing? What does a community have to do to get the protection it deserves?

Judge Larry J. McKinney of Indiana's Southern (federal) district court ruled that the shipments from Indiana to Port Arthur should continue despite two rather frightening facts:

1. The neutralization process of VX nerve gas does not destroy all of the VX, some of the nerve gas remains in layers of organic matter. Pure VX nerve gas is in the shipments now traveling across eight states and being incinerated in Port Arthur, Texas.

2. The Army’s method to demonstrate that no nerve gas was present in the VXH was inept and failed to prove the absence of nerve gas in the waste produce as verified in testimony of the Army’s own 3rd party expert and a forensic chemist’s testimony at the hearing.

The TCEQ signed off on both the shipment and the incineration, and though the governors of both Ohio and New Jersey refused to take the shipments, naturally Governor 39% took no action to safeguard the health of Texans. He was busy in California this weekend saying stupid shit like this:

"Since when did the field of science become the sole purview of left-wing politicians?" Perry said. He added, to loud applause and laughter, that he has heard Al Gore talk about global warming so often, "I'm starting to think his mouth may be the lead cause."

I'll let Jane Dale Owen, a Blaffer/Humble Oil heir, ask the closing question:

... where are our elected officials and the governmental agencies whose job it is to protect us when we need them?

Sunday Funnies (if Larry Craig had only gone away quietly...)

Seven hundred, and fifty-four thousand

There's only ninety-nine seats remaining -- as of this posting -- on the Noriega Express. Are you on board yet?

See the endorsement by the Texas Democratic Party's stalwarts, including Sens. Rodney Ellis, John Whitmire, and Mario Gallegos here:



And see Rick's remarks on Senator Box Turtle here:

DOJ opposes net neutrality

Bad news:

The Justice Department said today that Internet service providers should be allowed to charge a fee for priority Web traffic.

The agency told the Federal Communications Commission, which is reviewing high-speed Internet practices, that it is opposed to "Net neutrality," the principle that all Internet sites should be equally accessible to any Web user.

This is another example of how our pervasive the neo-fascism has grown: government has again taken the side of the corporations over the people.

It's mobilization time.

Update: From the comments section of the Chron link above ...

How does this threat to Internet freedom affect you?

Small businesses — The little guy will be left in the "slow lane" with inferior Internet service, unable to compete.

Innovators with the next big idea — Startups and entrepreneurs will be muscled out of the marketplace by big corporations that pay Internet providers for the top spots on the Web.

Bloggers — Costs will skyrocket to post and share video and audio clips—silencing citizen journalists and putting more power in the hands of a few corporate-owned media outlets.

Google users — Another search engine could pay dominant Internet providers like AT&T to guarantee another search engine opens faster than Google on your computer.

I-pod listeners — A company like Comcast could slow access to iTunes, steering you to a higher-priced music service it owns.

Online shoppers — Companies could pay Internet providers to guarantee their online sales process faster than competitors with lower prices—distorting your choices as a consumer.

Telecommuters — When Internet companies like AT&T favor their own services, you won't be able to choose more affordable providers for online video, teleconferencing, Internet phone calls, and software that connects your home computer to your office.

Parents and retirees — Your choices as a consumer could be controlled by your Internet provider, steering you to their preferred services for online banking, health care information, sending photos, planning vacations, etc.

Political groups — Political organizing could be slowed by a handful of dominant Internet providers who ask advocacy groups to pay "protection money" for their Web sites and online features to work correctly.

Nonprofits — A charity's website could open at snail-like speeds, and online contributions could grind to a halt if nonprofits don't pay Internet providers for access to "the fast lane."
What They've Got Planned

The threat to an open internet isn't just speculation -- we've seen what happens when the Internet's gatekeepers get too much control. These companies, even, have said as much about their plans to discriminate online. According to the Washington Post:

William L. Smith, chief technology officer for Atlanta-based BellSouth Corp., told reporters and analysts that an Internet service provider such as his firm should be able, for example, to charge Yahoo Inc. for the opportunity to have its search site load faster than that of Google Inc.

He's not alone. Ed Whitacre of AT&T told BusinessWeek in late 2005:

Now what they would like to do is use my pipes free, but I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it. So there's going to have to be some mechanism for these people who use these pipes to pay for the portion they're using. Why should they be allowed to use my pipes?

By far the most significant evidence regarding the network owners' plans to discriminate is their stated intent to do so. As Verizon's Ivan Seidenberg told the Wall Street Journal:

We have to make sure they don't sit on our network and chew up our capacity. We need to pay for the pipe.

Network Neutrality advocates are not imagining a doomsday scenario. We are taking the telecom execs at their word.

Such corporate control of the Web would reduce your choices and stifle the spread of innovative and independent ideas that we've come to expect online. It would throw the digital revolution into reverse. Internet gatekeepers are already discriminating against Web sites and services they don't like:

In 2004, North Carolina ISP Madison River blocked their DSL customers from using any rival Web-based phone service.

In 2005, Canada's telephone giant Telus blocked customers from visiting a Web site sympathetic to the Telecommunications Workers Union during a contentious labor dispute.

Shaw, a major Canadian cable, internet, and telephone service company, intentionally downgrades the "quality and reliability" of competing Internet-phone services that their customers might choose -- driving customers to their own phone services not through better services, but by rigging the marketplace.

In April, Time Warner's AOL blocked all emails that mentioned www.dearaol.com -- an advocacy campaign opposing the company's pay-to-send e-mail scheme.

This is just the beginning. Cable and telco giants want to eliminate the Internet's open road in favor of a tollway that protects their status quo while stifling new ideas and innovation. If they get their way, they'll shut down the free flow of information and dictate how you use the Internet.

Who wants kolaches? Czech it out

Clearing the weekend schedule so we can go to Caldwell:

(I)n an age of kolache innovation that has resulted in the jalapeño cheese sausage - a taste that might have been as foreign as text messaging to the Czech immigrants who introduced the doughy pastry to the farmlands of Burleson County - tradition remains important.

It is a guiding principle of the annual Kolache Festival, which will be held for the 23rd year Saturday. In Caldwell, the Kolache Capital of Texas by act of the Legislature, the kolache has become a symbol of tradition.

As Caldwell Mayor Bernard Rychlik sees it, the kolache is a gift from the Czech immigrants who settled in the Burleson County area, bringing with them the pastry and a sense of hospitality that provided ample chance to offer them by the dozens to visitors.

For many in the Houston area, the doughy pastry topped with fruit or stuffed with sausage comes courtesy of chain stores. But in Caldwell and the Fausts' hometown of nearby Snook, a call remains for homemade.

"I'm 68 years old, and I haven't met a bad one,'' said Rychlik, the festival chairman. "I've met some that weren't as good as others, but I haven't turned down any.''

The pastry is part of a tradition that Rychlik inherited from grandparents who immigrated in 1883-85. His first language was the Czech spoken in his childhood home five miles outside Caldwell. He maintains a collection of Czech polka music in his GMC Yukon.

For 15 years he has served as the mayor of the city of about 4,000 that many might recognize as they pass the intersection of Texas 21 and Texas 36 on the way over the Brazos River, along cotton and corn fields, to Bryan or College Station.

Although the Legislature dubbed Caldwell the state's "kolache capital," lawmakers have been generous with their recognition of the pastry's role in other former Czech communities. West, for example, home to three bakeries that serve kolaches to its 2,750 residents, was bestowed the title of "home of the official Kolache of the Texas Legislature."

The 23rd annual Kolache Festival will be held this Saturday in Caldwell.

• Where: The main county courthouse square of Caldwell, a city at the intersection of Texas 21 and Texas 36 (directions from Houston, about a two-hour drive).

• When: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Highlights:

• 11:30 a.m.: Kolache-eating contest

• 12:15 p.m.: The Czech Heritage Singers of Houston

• 3 p.m.: Mark Halata and Texavia, a Houston-based Czech polka band

• 4 p.m.: Bake Show competition awards ceremony

• 8 a.m.-3 p.m.: Car show

• Information: www.burlesoncountytx.com or 979-567-0000

Texas justice isn't for sale -- because it's already been paid for

Two revealing reports about the state of Texas jurisprudence this week. First, from RG Ratcliffe of the Chron, it seems that Mikal Watts has been spreading more than just his money around:

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Mikal Watts of San Antonio once tried to pressure a legal opponent into a $60 million personal injury lawsuit settlement by claiming he would have an advantage on appeal because of his firm's "heavy" campaign financial support to an appellate court's justices, "all of whom are good Democrats."

More:

"This letter seems to confirm what everybody thinks about Texas justice. Very seldom is it this well-articulated," said Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, an organization that advocates for campaign finance reform. "It confirms the fact Texas courts are filled with politics."

Naw. Ya think?

Watts said Tuesday he noted his contributions in the letter because defense lawyers always tell trial lawyers they cannot win their cases ultimately because the Texas Supreme Court consists of all Republican justices.

"It was in response to the garbage we hear from defense lawyers every day," Watts said.

Opposing counsel, he noted, typically will say, "It doesn't matter what a jury is going to do because we've got nine angry Republicans on the Texas Supreme Court who will take away whatever a jury does."

Oh. So it was just "aggressive negotiations". I get it now.

The only qualification Mikal Watts seems to have in standing for public office is that he has millions of dollars to spend getting himself elected. I just can't see much difference between him and John "Bush's Box Turtle" Cornyn.

Pretty hideous if that's our two choices in 2008.

You knew where I stood on this race sometime ago, but really there's no underscore I can add about the differences between Watts and Rick Noriega. If you see this as your opportunity to personally Change the Equation, then here's your link.

Update: Markos has more.

And from the Lone Star Project:

Study Shows Harris County Republican Judges are Financial Conduits to Non-Judicial Candidates and GOP Party Efforts

A detailed review of campaign finance reports filed by Harris County Judges shows that the Harris County Republican Party and its allied partisan Republican organizations received a surprisingly large level of support from Harris County GOP Judges. Over the last 6 years, Harris County partisan Republican political efforts received nearly one half million dollars from Republican judges.

Harris County Republican Judge Donations
Donations to Harris County Republican Party	$349,567
Donations to GOP Allied Republican Groups	$56,468
Total Donations to GOP Causes and Candidates	$450,308
Source: The Texas Ethics Commission

Donors to judicial candidates generally contribute because they support the individual candidate and do not take into account partisan considerations. In light of this, many Harris County donors might be surprised to learn that their contributions to Harris County incumbent Republican Judges are often quickly cycled through judicial campaign accounts and into the coffers of the Republican Party itself and to non-judicial Republican candidates.

Sitting judges usually try to avoid appearances of overt partisanship. Their campaign funds are typically used to support their own election efforts or activity not related to campaigns. Texas election law includes many specific restrictions on how judges can raise and spend money in order to a avoid conflict between partisanship and public service. (Source: Texas Election Code - Section 253.151)

Judge Sharolyn Wood Source: Harris County Website

Harris County’s Republican Judges who have been especially generous to the Harris County Republican party include Judge Sharolyn Wood, who donated $19,500, and Judge Ken Wise, who donated $6,700 over the last three and a half years. On average, Harris County Republican causes have received more than $5,000 per GOP Judge.

Harris County Republican Judge Donations
Judge Sharolyn Wood	$19,500
Judge Ken Wise	$6,700
Average Donation from all Harris Ct. GOP Judges	$5,003
Source: The Texas Ethics Commission

We're going to have an excellent slate of Democratic judicial candidates in Harris County, and one of the ancillary benefits will be the end of this practice.

John Edwards for President

"We cannot replace a group of corporate Republicans with a group of corporate Democrats, just swapping the Washington insiders of one party for the Washington insiders of the other."

And there you have it.

The entire speech is worth reading, but that one sentence above is what separates the former senator from North Carolina from all of the other very fine Democratic candidates for president. For me.

Yes, Edwards has the most aggressive environmental platform (here's more about that), and yes, he's the only candidate who is talking about poverty in America by going to the most poverty-stricken areas in America and talking to impoverished Americans. And yes, he's got deep grassroots and netroots support.

Today he receives the endorsement of two of the nation's largest unions of working men and women, indicative of his strong support for and from American labor.

There have been many brighter minds than mine who have written about the choice we have. Stirling Newberry is one. Derek Larsson is another. Julie Kornack is a third.

Republicans, conservatives and assorted ankle-biters have whined about his haircut, the size of his home, even his wife's frank comments. Ann Coulter called him a "faggot", employing the unique Republican definition that is only a gay slur secondarily. (It's the same way "bleeding heart" and "tree-hugger" are derogatory, in case you were wondering.) There have been screeds written about his investments, about his SUV, about whether Karl Rove is terrified of an Edwards nomination. Their latest insane ranting is about his health care proposals.

There have been far more attacks from the right on John Edwards than there have been on the seemingly inevitable front-runner. (This is a a subjective quantification by yours truly, to be sure.)

If you need to know whether you agree or not with any of his positions, the entire listing from ontheissues.com for Edwards is here.

There's a bottom line and here it is: There's nobody else who comes close to the progressive, populists ideals than John Edwards. This blog happily and proudly endorses his candidacy.

Update (9/4): Texas bloggers TXsharon and refinish69 join me in the endorsement. Also Vince and Hal. My dear friend Prairie Weather is almost there. David Mizner of MyDD also endorses, and has the collection of blogs around the nation who do likewise. Neil Aquino at Texas Liberal and The Texas Cloverleaf add Rick Noriega to an Edwards endorsement.

Edwards also is the current leader in the Texas Democratic Party's e-Primary poll.

The Weekly Wrangle

Even though it's Labor Day, Texas progressive bloggers are still hard at work, and so the Texas Progressive Alliance is proud to present the TPA Blog Round-Up for September 3, 2007. This Labor Day edition was compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

In the opening part of his in-depth series on the policies of the Democratic presidential candidates, Phillip Martin at Burnt Orange Report examines where the candidates fall on issues concerning energy and the environment. From their stance on CAFE standards to new coal plants, to renewable energy and greenhouse emissions, the post provides a well-sourced comparison of all eight of the candidates' platforms.

Texas Toad at North Texas Liberal lets us know that, even after the resignation of embattled attorney general Alberto Gonzales, Texas' unpopular Sen. John Cornyn is still defending Bush's crony.

As Bush prepares to ask Congress for $200 billion in supplemental spending, TXsharon at Bluedaze tells us just who the Iraq War Profiteers are.

Muse at Musings live-blogs NASA administrator Michael Griffin's press conference about astronauts and alcohol use and finds his "sensationalism" and "urban legend" accusations of the independent commission's report a little tiresome. Not to mention defensive.

Over at Texas Kaos, in "Clinton Did Nothing to Stop Bin Laden" Is a GOP Lie, Krazypuppy takes on the Republican frame that Democrats are soft on terror with some of them facts we in the Reality-Based Community are always on about. As one commenter notes, Dems aren't weak on terror, they're weak on Republicans. Time for that to change -- for America's sake, Iran's sake, and the entire world's sake.

Someone shoved a press release under Hal at Half Empty's nose: Ron E. Reynolds will challenge Dora Olivo for state Representative in HD 27.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on TxDOT's plan to buy back interstate highways from the federal government and put tolls on them and asks Will TxDOT' Plan To Toll Interstates Be the Tipping Point?

The last public hearing prior to METRO choosing a route for its Universities light rail line was this past Tuesday. Alexandria Ragsdale attended the hearing, made her statement in favor of a Richmond Avenue alignment, and blogged all about it at Off The Kuff.

Whosplayin.com shares correspondence with his congressman urging the avoidance of pre-emptive war against Iran and shares a study regarding the administration's probable plans on the matter.

John at Bay Area Houston claims the recent changes to the Texas Residential Construction Commission makes it the most expensively worthless commission in Texas.

Vince at Capitol Annex examines some interesting questions raised by the lawsuit against the changes to the pledge to the Texas flag made by the 80th Legislature.

Unchecked development in Texas now threatens the continued long-term existence of an iconic bird species, the whooping crane, notes Peter at B & B.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme shows how El Paso women are taking a stand against NAFTA. These courageous women staged a hunger strike for the Labor Day weekend to bring attention to the loss of American jobs due to NAFTA.

And, McBlogger will be celebrating a birthday soon and has some conveniet gift ideas for everyone.

Be sure to check out these other great Texas Progressive Alliance blogs, too: Brains & Eggs, Casual Soap Box, Common Sense, Dos Centavos, Easter Lemming Liberal News, Feet To Fire, In The Pink Texas, Marc's Miscellany, People's Republic of Seabrook, Rhetoric & Rhythm, Three Wise Men, Truth Serum Blog, Winding Road In Urban Area, and Wyld Card.

The Texas Democratic Party's e-Primary

The TDP wants you to cast an e-ballot for your favorite Democratic presidential candidate. They appear to be attempting to control the freeping of it -- usually a questionable endeavour -- and the Lone Star Project points out the considerable differences between the e-Primary and the recently conducted GOP straw poll.

I voted, but I really agree more with this, from my inbox (author anonymous, for now):

The Dallas Morning News correctly describes the "Democratic e-Primary" as an attempt to get in on the Presidential "sweepstakes". Indeed, this is an artifact of money-driven politics. One problem is that, if one accepts the logic of money-driven politics -- an auction instead of a primary -- we should have stopped months ago and fallen in behind ... Hillary CLINTON!

But these fools are trying desperately to deliver Texas for John EDWARDS! He is a good man, still a contender, but very poorly served in Texas by flunkies of "Politico" Martin FROST.

Of course, the party elite also want to protect incumbents like the "Craddick Democrats" and "Bush-Dogs" in and around the party by subverting primary election participation generally and creating a "bandwagon" effect within the precinct, county/district, and state conventions.

The underlying logic of all this is "that's the way we have always done it!" Actually, "always" is simply during a few recent decades of decline presided over by a self-perpetuating party establishment in Austin. Still, superficially, this is a "high-tech innovation".

So maybe the fools running this party will find a "pony" some day. But by mocking the GOP publicly while laying-up baskets for them to tip-in, the Weimar Democrats -- no offense to Colorado County intended -- have done nothing for decades but help keep a fundamentally blue state red.

In any case …

• The e-Primary is wide open to GOP participation and thus runs counter to Texas' "closed primary" statutes.
• The e-Primary is open to persons ineligible to vote in Texas but having access to computers in Belarus, thus running counter to even the Texas Constitution.
The e-Primary is closed to Democrats who lack access to private digital network facilities, usually by virtue of economic circumstances, and thus violates state and national party "inclusiveness" rules.

• The e-Primary uses primitive internet technology and thus violates state and national party strictures against insecure electronic voting.

• The e-Primary plainly violates Article XII of the state party rules incorporating the ban on a "straw vote" in Robert's Rules of Order, Newly Revised.

Once again, caught flat-footed by the secretive staff and worn out by the Chair's usual time-wasting and diversions, nobody on the poorly-attended SDEC raised the least objection to this ridiculous move. It is not clear that it has the sanction of any national candidate authority.

So, what to do?

• Submission
• Temporary restraining order
• Boycott and ridicule
• "Gaming”
• Hacking and sabotage

I guess I am a moderate or centrist, so personally I will settle for boycott and ridicule. Hopefully, Ron PAUL will swamp the GOP "Straw Poll" event and grab the headlines.

Nonetheless, it is increasingly evident that the fools running this party are wasting Fred BARON's money and doing John EDWARDS no good at all by attempting to manipulate Democratic voters only to play into the hands of the GOP with stupid stunts.

Ouch. That's going to leave a mark, Boyd.

"We're going to hit Iran. Big time."

I have a friend who is an LSO on a carrier attack group that is planning and staging a strike group deployment into the Gulf of Hormuz. (LSO: Landing Signal Officer- she directs carrier aircraft while landing) She told me we are going to attack Iran. She said that all the Air Operation Planning and Asset Tasking are finished. That means that all the targets have been chosen, prioritized, and tasked to specific aircraft, bases, carriers, missile cruisers and so forth.

I asked her why she is telling me this.

Her answer was really amazing.

Try not to let this ruin your weekend.

Update (9/4): The diary linked above has -- according to one of the site's administrators -- been taken down by the author. (You can read an expanded, yet still incomplete, excerpt here.) This development appeared to follow some ridicule by a right wing blog, and some upbraiding by the Great Orange Satan himself.

Duncan Hunter surges to victory in Texas

It is to laugh. Heartily.

Via STC, two corporate media blogs (well, one's a blog, anyway) in the Metroplex have the play-by-play of yesterday's Texas GOP straw poll. Choicest excerpts:

As we eagerly await announcement of the straw poll results, the delegates are watching a video tribute to Ronald Reagan. It started with Dick Cheney talking about the former president, but before he said a word, boos erupted at the mere sight of the vice president. Then, other Republicans starting cheering to drown them out. And then, of course, the boos got louder, and one particularly boom-voiced Republican shouted: "National shame!"

With two police escorts on bicycles, Ron Paul's supporters finished their march to the Convention Center and are now rallying outside the delegates' entrance. Several buses and RVs passed by covered in Ron Paul signs.

According to one of our correspondents, a live monkey could clearly be seen in the window of one of the Ron Paul RVs.

No comment.

The Biggest Losers: Duncan Hunter, 534 votes for 41%. Frederick of Hollywood, 266 votes, 20.5%. Ron Paul, 217 votes, 16.7%. 1300 total votes cast.

I just peed a little from laughing so hard.

IVR Polls has a better snapshot of who Texas Republicans favor, and it likewise appears to be the almost-about-to-declare elderly actor. The math of the timing of his announcement is most revealing.

Here's a video of Ron Paul's supporters being turned away from the Fort Worth convention center, where the poll was being conducted:



And just to put the last loony cherry on top, apparently Cindy Sheehan is a Ron Paul supporter.

Sunday Funnies

No-Labor Day Weekend Bloggerhea

-- Governor 39% commuted the death sentence of Kenneth Foster. Truly amazing. The vile postings of some of the Houston Chronicle's online readers notwithstanding, yesterday was something to be celebrated.

-- Gay people can marry in Iowa -- at least for now.

-- Rick Noriega was endorsed by several Texas icons this week, and would like you to sign his ballot petition (scroll to the bottom of this link, click on the .pdf file and print it using legal-sized paper). And as we near the goal for Changing the Equation, time's running out for you to be one of the Great Eight Hundred.

-- Poor Larry Craig. He sincerely believes he's not gay. Certainly a 62-year-old man who's been having clandestine homosexual relationships going all the way back to the House page scandal of 1982 is never going to be psychologically capable of admitting his homosexuality, that's for sure:

"He may very well not think of himself as being gay, and these are just urges that he has," said Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It's the tragedy of homophobia. People create these walls that separate themselves from who they really are."

This is precisely what Pastor Ted Haggard believes (according to Alexandra Pelosi). That he just has a *ahem* "drinking problem". And note also the distinction between how the Washington Republicans have reacted to Craig compared to David "I don't use hookers" Vitter.

The GOP wants to kick Craig out of politics because he's gay (and because they can easily replace him with another right-wing freak). Who's the hypocrite now?

-- This week marked two sad anniversaries: two years since Katrina wiped out New Orleans, and ten years since Princess Di was killed in a terrible auto accident.

-- comically care-free actor Owen Wilson apparently tried to kill himself.

-- Ted Nugent threatened to kill Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. He was not arrested nor was he charged with the felony. Let's be reminded that when Ted's duty called, he shat his pants rather than serve his country:

Except when it was time to register for the draft during the Vietnam era. By his own admission, Nugent stopped all forms of personal hygiene for a month and showed up for his draft board physical in pants caked with his own urine and feces, winning a deferment. Creative!

-- Iraq has failed to meet all but three of the 18 guidelines for progress, according to the General Accounting Office. So the Bush administration charged that the benchmarks for success were "set too high", and sent the GAO additional "information" in order to make their case that progress was, indeed, being made:

Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell said Thursday that after reviewing a draft of the GAO report, policy officials "made some factual corrections" and "offered some suggestions on a few of the actual grades" assigned by the GAO.

"We have provided the GAO with information which we believe will lead them to conclude that a few of the benchmark grades should be upgraded from 'not met' to 'met,'" Morrell said.

I believe this is the same grading curve that was used to get George W. Bush through Harvard with a gentleman's C.

-- And on that note, have a good Labor Day weekend. Don't do anything more strenuous than turn the steaks over on your grill -- and thank a union member, whose forebearers provided this holiday, along with a 40-hour work week and health care and retirement benefits among many other things, for you to enjoy.

Who's next at Justice?

Chertoff? Ted Olson? Some lesser conservative star?

I say it could be Orrin Hatch, for these reasons:

1. He can continue to provide cover for the Bushies as the investigations move forward, maintaining that year-and-a-half-head start the criminals still need. Hatch is a loyalist and Bush won't name anything but.

2. A tenure as AG, even a caretaker one, could be considered a capstone to his lengthy career in public service.

3. He can rest easy knowing another ultra-conservative will replace him in the Senate, by appointment and/or special election. Hatch is too old to give a damn about sticking around, hoping for a GOP majority comeback now quite unlikely in his remaining lifetime (and hopefully, for that matter, his children's).

4. No chance of him achieving his greatest ambition -- getting to the Supreme Court -- with a Democratic presidency coming in 2008.

5. A Hatch appointment avoids a bruising confirmation battle; something Bush has never shied from before, but may no longer have the stomach to fight. A Chertoff confirmation is guaranteed to keep stirring the turd, to say nothing of whomever might be named to replace him at DHS.

He has a "wide stance" when he goes to the toilet

That's why his foot slid all the way into the next bathroom stall, touching the foot of a plainclothes officer at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

That is seriously what Senator Larry Craig of Idaho is claiming.

Sen. Craig, a conservative Republican from a very conservative state and one of Mitt Romney's most prominent supporters, was arrested for lewd conduct in June as a result of this incident. He pleaded guilty to the charge on August 8 but the report was made public only today. Craig now regrets the guilty plea, thus the "wide stance" defense. He previously claimed that his outing as a homosexual had "no basis in fact".

And so another Black Monday for Republicans comes to a close. (I don't know about Mike Vick's politics, but Phil Garner's were never in doubt.)

Update (8/28): The Pink Lady channels me, for once.

Uncle Drayton cans Scrap Iron and Poo-Poo

I could have just as easily typed "FINALLY" twice.

This has been an interesting Monday so far (and I'm not even counting Michael Vick going to the dogs -- err, court to plead guilty).

Phil Garner was a weak manager -- this reputation preceded him long before he arrived in 2004 -- but the real mercy killing today was GM Tim Purpura, who despite fourteen years in the Astros organization didn't have a clue how to do his job and never had half the authority needed to do it anyway. The last straw was probably his inability to sign the team's most recent draft picks, but his fate was sealed with the disastrous results of the Jason Jennings trade during the last offseason. Scratch that: the last straw was probably the boos rained down on Poopura when he was recognized at Jeff Bagwell's retirement ceremony yesterday.

I'm with Justice: Coop is a good choice not just to finish out the year but deserves at least a one-year contract to show what he can do. McLane's heavy-handedness, not to mention his penny-pinching ways, may well preclude the Astros from getting a savvy talent in the front office.

Hope I'm wrong about that last, because we may be in for a disappointing several few years with the local nine if I am not.

Update: You just can't top this. Caption, please.


"Nobody could have predicted this, could they, Phil?"

Update (8/28): Tom Kirkendall, with whom I agree on almost all sporting matters and almost nothing else, delves deeper into these themes. (He calls it 'due diligence', I call it 'tedious detail'.)

FINALLY.

Allah be praised, Alberto is Gone-zo at last.

My only wish is that, as with John Ashcroft, the replacement isn't worse.

I'll update this thread today with new developments (speculation, some rich creamy schadenfreude, and so on).

Update:

"So paste a tail upon my nose and point me toward the grass. I'm going back to Texas to be one more horse's ass." -- Shel Siverstein

When an army withdraws from a battlefield, it doesn't just turn and run. It slips away one or two units at a time, leaving other units in place to cover the exit. It's called strategic withdrawal.

Like Rove's, Gonzales' departure from Washington should be seen as part of the greater Bush administration strategic withdrawal from Washington. He is, in Shel Siverstein's words, "Going back to Texas to be one more horse's ass."

Better a strategic withdrawal now than a wholesale retreat in January of 2009. A trickle of departures, followed by presidential pardons on the way out of town, will be smoother and more historically graceful somehow.

(For pure symmetry, it would be fun to see the Bushies conclude the whole sorry show with one last James Baker and Theodore Olson appearance in front of the Supreme Court. Then Baker could leave D.C. for Texas aboard the Enron plane the Bush's lawyers took from Texas to Florida in November of 2000.)

LMAO

For an administration known for its cronyism, and alas for an alarmingly incompetent group of cronies, Gonzales was the granddaddy of them all. He lacked the integrity, the intellect and the independence to perform his duties in a manner befitting the job for which he was chosen. And when he and his colleagues got caught in the act, his rationales and explanations for the purge of the U.S. Attorneys were so empty and shallow and incoherent that even the staunchest Republicans could not turn them into steeled spin. Devoid of any credibility, Gonzales in the end was a sad joke when he came to Capitol Hill.

And the last lie (we all hope) was told to his own spokesperson:

As late as Sunday afternoon, Mr. Gonzales himself was denying through his spokesman that he was quitting. The spokesman, Brian Rohrekasse, said Sunday that he telephoned the attorney general about the reports of his imminent resignation “and he said it wasn’t true — so I don’t know what more I can say.”

Update (8/28): The powerful dishonesty of Alberto Gonzales includes this Top Six list of his most brazen lies. And from Nora Ephron:

I hope (Gonzales is) not worried about his legacy, because he will have one, and it will be not unlike what awaits almost all the members of this administration: they will be fodder for art. Yes, art. Dick Cheney said a couple of months ago that history would be his judge, but I beg to differ: history will be nothing compared to the plays. This administration will be the subject of hundreds of plays; the playwrights will be drawn again and again to the astonishing, amazing panoply of evil and complicity the Bush Administration has provided. Gonzales will be a hilarious comic foil in most of these productions -- a jack-in-the-box who will pop out, say he has no recollection whatsoever of anything, and pop back in. Short actors will kill to play him.

By the way, I have a pet theory about Alberto Gonzales: I've always believed that the reason the President called Gonzales Fredo was that when they first met, Bush incorrectly believed that Gonzales' first name was Alfredo, and Gonzales was too much of a toady to correct him.

I meant to download that theory before it was too late, and the good news is, where this administration is concerned, it's never going to be too late.

I'd like to add a personal admonition to the once and future Houstonian: you may now remove the American flag lapel pin. You goddamned traitor.

The Weekly TexProgBlog Wrangle

It's time once again for the weekly Texas Progressive Alliance blog round-up, again brought to us by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Getting this week off to a great start, we want to thank our friends over at the 50 State Blog Network for taking note of us and mentioning our round-up in theirs.

To the rafters with #5

''I can truly say I've made so many great friends because of this game,'' Bagwell said. ''You guys have made me better. I've had so much fun over the years.''

He was joined by Craig Biggio and Brad Ausmus and a distinguished list of former Astros, including Larry Dierker, Jimmy Wynn and Mike Scott.