Media lockout in hardest-hit areas?

Burnt Orange has the initial report -- with links to both Think Progress and Capitol Annex -- regarding Houston media's virtual lockout of certain areas of Galveston's west end and the Bolivar Peninsula, areas where the most severe devastation have been seen in some overhead aerials and video but little on-the-ground. Because there are less than ten deaths announced from Galveston -- fewer than in the Midwest -- there are some speculative and mostly unattributed sources trickling in, in absence of eyeball verification.

Today I got the infamous text-message-from-a-friend's-brother, someone who was allegedly part of the helicopter crew and emergency management team that ferried Gov. Perry from Beaumont to Galveston and then across to Bolivar, and then on to Port Arthur, Orange, and Bridge City, Texas. Perry viewed Galveston from the air, he reports, then peeled off while the rest of the helicopter convoy proceeded. The crew aboard the copters saw many bodies floating in the waters on both sides of the peninsula; they stopped counting them at 160. The sheriff on BP -- it is unclear to me whether this would be Galveston or Chambers County -- who lost his home at Gilchrist Beach wants state and local media to come in and view the calamity but state and federal officials are continuing to enforce the media blackout of the area.

I really have no idea whether this account could be accurate. Since there is no nearby morgue, medical examiner's office or even decent funeral home left standing to process so much as a fourth of this number of corpses, it seems implausible that some staging area could have been rapidly constructed to do. The logistics of transporting a hundred or more bodies off the peninsula without anyone knowing are exceptionally problematic as well: vehicles could only traverse west back to Galveston via a fifteen-minute ferry ride, or east up the peninsula and then north through High Island to Winnie, a trip of thirty minutes in the best of conditions. Those areas suffered severe hurricane destruction themselves, of course.

In addition there is some video at KFDM.com (I am unable to effectively access it) as well as the BeaumontEnterprise.com site. That's as local as media gets if it's not from Houston or Galveston, and if they saw any bodies floating, they didn't include it in their reports.

Still, we have a nonsensical number of deaths reported in Galveston so far, and I cannot find a report of even one fatality in Houston directly attributable to Ike:

The Galveston death toll brings the local total from Hurricane Ike to at least 11, including three unrelated deaths from apparent carbon monoxide poisoning from generator use, officials said.

The Harris County Medical Examiner's office said today that three people - a 4-year-old boy and two men, ages 18 and 34 - died when generators were being used without proper ventilation. The three are unrelated and their identities are not being released.

The storm and its fallout are also believed responsible for several other deaths in Montgomery, Chambers and Walker counties from fires and fallen trees.

I suppose "generator asphyxiation" is Ike-related, but the story confuses Galveston with Harris County unless that is two separate trios of dead people in both places. Ike has fried my reading comprehension a little.

HPD pulls a body out of Braes Bayou near my house once a week, and the same for Buffalo Bayou and others around town when there is barely a decent rainfall. Concealing a large number of deaths would demonstrate extraordinary coordination and secrecy in the best of times, and that's not an accurate description of what's going on here right now.

Any evidence of bodies being "hidden" from the media, and thus the public, is a story far too large for this little blog to break anyway.

So what's the story? Anyone?

Update (9/16): Burnt Orange has another eyewitness report of many bodies, and Houston media reported from Bolivar Peninsula today (specifically Art Rascon of KTRK). He didn't see any bodies. One "official" pronouncement claimed the "floaters" were from cemeteries, but there aren't too many cemeteries on BP and besides, it's caskets that pop out of the ground during severe flooding, not bodies.

Wrangling Ike

I can't find any gas for my chainsaw to remove these damned tree limbs, but I can post a Texas Progressive Alliance weekly roundup.

Please consider making a donation to the Red Cross to help relief efforts.

Why does Sarah Palin hate wolves? The Texas Cloverleaf clues us in.

Everybody knows that this year's wedge'em and hate'em issue is Hispanics immigration. CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme says Texas leads the way with banning rents in Farmers Branch, denying passports to citizens in the Valley and threatening document checks during an evacuation.

During the preparations for Hurricane Ike, Off the Kuff noted yet another lawsuit filed against Farmers Branch for its ongoing war against immigrants and apartment renters.

Sen. John Cornyn claims to be voting "Texas values" when he consistently rubber-stamps Bush in the U. S. Senate. Eye On Williamson asks: since when have torture, spying on Americans and misleading the country on matters of war and peace been Texas values?

PDiddie survived Ike almost exactly as he predicted.

BossKitty at TruthHugger wonders if disaster lessons recently learned, will be used as we watch Hurricane Ike Recovery, Texas Style.

Colloquialisms are a wonderful rhetorical device to create an instant sense of commonality within the minds of the voting public. However they can be misconstrued at ties (right, Governor Swift?) which is why McBlogger took some time to offer Sen. Obama (The BEST!) a phrase he could use that can't possibly be interpreted as anything other than an attack on John McCain and his worthless ideas, proposals and suggestions.

North Texas Liberal examines in depth the Palin pick, comparing and contrasting her with Obama's VP pick of Joe Biden, and dissecting the media's coverage of her.

jobsanger writes about how United States interference into Bolivia's internal affairs have gotten American ambassadors kicked out of two countries in South America, and how some politicians can't refuse even a bad photo op.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that state rep. Phil King (R-Waxahachie), chair of the House Regulated Industries Committee, is having a fund-raiser at the home of a lobbyist for telecom giant AT&T. King's committee just happens to regulate telecommunications in Texas.

Blackouts in Cincy, Black Monday for the banks

America's stockbrokers are folding:

In one of the most dramatic days in Wall Street’s history, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell itself on Sunday to Bank of America for roughly $50 billion to avert a deepening financial crisis, while another prominent securities firm, Lehman Brothers, filed for bankruptcy protection and hurtled toward liquidation after it failed to find a buyer.

The humbling moves, which reshape the landscape of American finance, mark the latest chapter in a tumultuous year in which once-proud financial institutions have been brought to their knees as a result of hundreds of billions of dollars in losses because of bad mortgage finance and real estate investments.

The crisis is still rippling out, and may swallow AIG and Washington Mutual this week. Meanwhile there's good news about the price of oil:

Oil plunged $7 on Monday as investors fled to safer havens, due to turmoil in the U.S. financial system, and on early signs Hurricane Ike had spared key U.S. energy infrastructure. ...

U.S. crude dropped $7 to $94.18 barrel at 1135 GMT, the lowest level in seven months. U.S. oil dropped below $100 briefly on Friday for the first time since early April, and trade was open for a special session on Sunday due to Hurricane Ike.

... but the gasoline retailers in Tennessee haven't heard about it yet:

Gas has already shot up over $4 in a lot of places, even close to home. In Gatlinburg, one gas station is currently selling a gallon of regular for $4.15, though surrounding stations are charging 20 cents less.

Price-gouging like that was rampant across the country as it was feared that the US would lose 20% of its refining capacity -- that's our part down here -- from Ike's wrath. Not the case. Cars were lined up ten deep to pay $3.59 a gallon at the Chevron on Hwy. 6 and 290 in northwest Houston yesterday afternoon.

They probably wanted to leave because they didn't have a/c:

As night fell only one in four Houston-area electric customers had power.

Mercifully, temperatures forecast to dip into the upper 60s overnight helped with the heat, but did nothing for those with dwindling cell phone batteries, melting ice, spoiling food and restless children. As of 8 p.m. CenterPoint Energy had restored power to 380,000 customers, but 1.72 million were still without power.

And from the Buckeye State, as well as other Midwest locales, Ike is still beating US up:

Power outages darkened more than a million homes and businesses in Ohio and Kentucky.

More than 680,000 Duke Energy customers were without power Sunday night in southwest Ohio and northern Kentucky in the biggest outage in the company's history, said Duke Energy spokeswoman Kathy Meinke.

"It's going to be quite extensive," Meinke said. "Over 90 percent of our customers are without service."

Neil is still hoping to post something when he can make it out to the library, so I'll defer the belated Ohio report to him.

I'll find out later today what my place smells like.

EV 9/14: McPain at 270

Let's flip NV, NM, ND, FL and Montana to red, and Minnesota to grey. Only NH goes from grey to blue. Sing Hail to the Chief to President POW.

<p><strong>><a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/">Electoral College Prediction Map</a></strong> - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.</p>

Sunday Funnies (Oink Oink Baby edition)

Domestic battery jokes aside ...

... that Ike has been a real bastard. Especially coming on the heels of Rita three years ago.

Mom's still stuck in her house in Orange County, uncomfortable without air conditioning and a little scared from the storm's fury, but safe otherwise. My brother in Fort Worth is headed to get her -- he's the only one with a cell phone that can reach hers.

I'm posting from the NW Houston-area home of my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, where power has been mostly on. Saved all the meat from the freezer. We lost neither a shingle nor a window screen, but Reliant Stadium -- which I can see clearly to the south from my own bedroom window, when I'm there to look out of it, that is -- did not fare as well. Eric Berger the Sci Guy explains that and a few more reasons why we skated through relatively safely in Houston. Damaged windows in downtown skyscrapers are reminiscent of Alicia 25 years ago.

Wife's first hurricane terrified her, but she's sound asleep and her puppy is likewise, beside her. May not have electricity at my house for a few more days. May not have it in poor SE TX for a month.

Among the more significant property losses: the Balinese Room, which was washed away. RIP.

Sunday Funnies, the electoral vote projection from statewide polls during the past week, and more regular posting resuming in short order.

Chillin' with Ike

Until the power goes out. Maybe late this evening.

Doing some laundry. Surfing the Toobs. Not watching the hysteria on the teevee. (That shit'll drive ya nuts.)

Wind forecast here 81 mph. That's not too bad, unless a tree branch or piece of gravel breaks a window. We're on the fifth story, but with large windows facing both south and east, so waking up tomorrow morning without a/c and a broken window likely is a worst-case scenario for us. Unless a tornado gets spawned and does worse.

By noon tomorrow we may go ahead and leave for Austin if necessary, as Ike will have blown on through. And by Monday my guess is we should have power restored -- since I live near the Texas Medical Center and and in a part of town (West U) where a few wealthy, influential types live, I doubt we will be without electricity for very long.

Did you see the Pig's interview with Charlie Gibson last night? She didn't know what the Bush Doctrine was. She dared him to point out where she had said that global warming wasn't made-made. She still blames Iraq for 9/11 (even Bush doesn't say that any more).

And this after two weeks of cramming for the interview.

Does McCain owe America an Alzeimer's test?

When Bob Fertik broke this off last week, even I -- in my snarkiest self-indulgent moment -- thought it was a little harsh on the old POW. But I don't think that any more:

... McCain's age is no joke. He (turned) 72 (last) Friday and would be halfway to 73 if elected and sworn in on January 20. That would make him the oldest first-term President ever, two years older than Ronald Reagan. He has survived four skin cancers (melanomas), including one in 2000 that was classified as Stage IIa.

McCain is two years older than his father was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at 70. He is 11 years older than his grandfather was when he died suddenly of a heart attack at age 61.

The United States cannot afford the risk that McCain would die suddenly in the middle of an international crisis.

Nor can we afford the risk of dementia. 22% of Americans over 70 are affected by mild cognitive impairment, while 13% of Americans over 65 have Alzheimer's. Ronald Reagan was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 83, but early signs were evident during his first term. Britain's "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher developed dementia at age 75.

Prescriptions can also adversely affect mental function. McCain takes Simvastatin, a cholestoral drug that can cause memory loss. McCain also takes Ambien to sleep, which can cause amnesia and "fugue states" like the one that caused Rep. Patrick Kennedy's late-night car crash. If the phone rang at 3 a.m., would McCain even wake up?

McCain's medical records are not available to physicians. He did not "release" them for the campaign; he only allowed hand-picked reporters to examine them quickly without making copies. And there were no results of an Alzheimer's test, because McCain has never had one -- even though he has 6 of the 10 warning signs, including his inability to remember facts like the number of homes he owns or the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The question has been gently raised a few times before:

But I'm hardly the first McCain critic to raise this question. Frank Rich and Josh Marshall have previously written about how the media is ignoring McCain's frequent "senior moments," signs of possible impairment that look awfully familiar to many who have seen a family member or loved one in the early stages of senility. Back in April, MSNBC's Keith Olbermann aired a commentary on "McCain's Memory" featuring similarly disturbing video. Last Friday, Paul Begala wrote an op-ed for CNN ("Is John McCain Out of His Mind?") that questioned his "shockingly irresponsible" judgment over the Sarah Palin pick.)

How is a timid media -- already cowed by an aggressive McCain campaign determined to attack like snarling pit bulls any reporter or question they don't like -- going to do their job and try to get an answer on this?

Answer: They aren't. As with any senile person who gradually starts to lose it, there are deniers, enablers, and co-dependents all the way to the point that the condition is painfully obvious to everyone.

If McCain can manage to keep his drooling to a minimum in the debates, then the issues will be the same ones they are today: the vast differences in policy, the value of the politics of "values", and the lies.

A Pig to Nowhere

Seven years ago this morning

Today, a show of unity among rivals:

The two candidates, who were on their way to work in Chicago and Washington when the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center seven years ago, will meet for the first time as the presidential nominees of their parties as they lay a wreath together at Ground Zero.

This evening, Obama and McCain will meet at Columbia University, where they will speak separately at a nationally televised forum, laying out their personal visions on civic engagement and service.

"All of us came together on 9/11 - not as Democrats or Republicans - but as Americans," the candidates said in a joint statement. "... On Thursday, we will put aside politics and come together to renew that unity, to honor the memory of each and every American who died, and to grieve with families and friends who lost loved ones."

That's nice and all, but John McCain and Sarah Palin are still two lying POS, and there's just no taking a break from that.

Ike, old boy ...

...you're givin' me a headache. Or maybe that pain is a little lower:

The official forecast for Hurricane Ike maintains a landfall centered upon Brazoria County, near Freeport.

What's been surprising overnight is that the storm's maximum winds have not increased, remaining at 100 mph this morning. The central pressure, after falling Wednesday evening, has settled at 945 millibars. The official forecast now brings a strong category 3 hurricane to Texas. There is considerable uncertainty in both the track and intensity forecast, even less than two days before landfall.

We have a hotel reservation in Austin, but only for Saturday night. Don't think it does us much good to wake up in the middle of a storm and then get in the car and follow it inland. Looks like we're riding this one out.

I'm going to hope -- and not for all of my family, friends, and clients' sake in the Golden Triangle -- that Ike continues doing what Rita did three years ago, which is bend a little more to the east.

Bad for them but good for us.

EV 9/10: There's that Palin bounce

Put OH and VA into McCain's column and sure enough, now we got ourselves a horse race:

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;strong&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/'&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Electoral College Prediction Map&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/strong&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

There's been lots of squealing by Republican stuck pigs already this week, and polling being done as this posts will reveal if the trend is for real or just the same short-lived convention bounce that Obama enjoyed for a few days.

In barely-related news, you have to love Harvey Kronberg, both for his occasional scoops and his Drudge-like screaming:

THIRD PARTY PRESIDENTIAL STUNNER: BARR ASKS PAUL TO BE HIS RUNNING MATE

If Paul, a former Libertarian presidential candidate, accepts the offer, it could have electoral implications in Texas and several other states.

Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr is asking Texas GOP Congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul to join his ticket as his running mate.

Barr, a former Congressman from suburban Atlanta, said in a press release that Paul is one of the "few American patriots" and asked that Paul "seriously consider this final offer as an opportunity to show true, lasting leadership beyond party politics."

Should Paul take Barr up on his offer, it's safe to say that the electoral calculations in Texas and in several other states could be upset.

Is that really your final offer, Bob? It probably won't happen, but just a couple of days ago I didn't think Ike was coming to Houston, either.

Put it with the news that Paul made the ballot in Montana as a member of the Constitution Party, and the conservatives' squealing may start sounding like the whimpering from a four-year-old under the bed.

Harris GOP judges circumvent the will of the voters

I'll just emphasize the egregious parts:

Three Republican jurists in Harris County resigned at the end of August, just late enough so that their successors will be chosen by the governor and not the voters.

To Gerry Birnberg, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Party, this means the Republicans don't respect the voters and fear the Democrats in the county's November election.

"This is a signal they are running scared," Birnberg said Tuesday.

But to the three judges who resigned, this is just the way it played out. All three said they knew about the deadline for their vacant seats to make the November ballot.

Resigning in late August were David Bernal, former judge of the civil Harris County 281st District Court; John Wooldridge, ex-judge of the civil Harris County 269th District Court; and Wanda Fowler, who sat on the Houston-based 14th Court of Appeals, which serves 10 counties including Harris.

According to the secretary of state's office, a judicial vacancy had to be effective by Aug. 22, for the voters to have a chance to fill it in November. Bernal and Fowler resigned the Monday after the deadline, and Wooldridge's was effective Sept. 1. The next judicial election is in 2010, so Gov. Rick Perry's appointees won't stand for election until then.

All three ex-judges have gone into private law practice at higher salaries. They had varying reasons for the timing of their resignation, but said it was not inspired by fear of the Democrats. In legal circles there is much conjecture about the possibility, even likelihood, that in November, Democrats will make inroads into the local all-Republican judiciary as has already happened in Dallas.

"The Republican platform says they believe in the right of the voters to elect judges. I'm not saying they did anything illegal, but if they are concerned, why undermine voters' ability to elect judges?" Birnberg said. "The answer is: They are pretty damn afraid of what the Democrats will do in '08."

Birnberg characterized it as a "manipulation of the system." He said he was especially bothered by Fowler's resignation because he heard she was leaving the bench in May.

Fowler said Tuesday that she contemplated leaving the appellate bench in the spring but changed her mind after word got out. She said she was informed by other Republicans that if she stayed until after Aug. 22, the governor could appoint her successor.

Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.

Palintology: A Lie to Nowhere

"Repeat a lie often enough, and eventually enough people will believe it so that it becomes the truth." -- Joseph Goebbels

McPOW is running the teevee ad on CBS's Early Show this morning where Ms. Mooselini contends she passed on the Bridge to Nowhere in Ketchikan. That claim -- unlike Mrs. Palin herself -- has been thoroughly vetted as a falsehood.

So why do they continue to repeat it?

No, really. What is the point of repeating a lie when people know you're lying? Do they really think Americans are this stupid? That's a rhetorical question.

Will enough voters be deluded by these lies for the Republicans to get elected to the White House again? That's an open question.

There's STILL only one D in SD-17

And that's despite the judge in the case calling Stephanie Elaine Fridia Simmons Cougar Mellencamp a liar about her residency and voting predilections ...

After hearing testimony from Simmons herself that she voted in the wrong county for 14 years, District Judge Scott Jenkins was the picture of disbelief. She explained that she thought it was OK to vote in her parents’ voting precinct in Harris County even though she and her husband lived in Fort Bend County. She said it never crossed her mind that she was doing anything wrong and that no one at a polling place for those 14 years asked her if she resided in the precinct.

“It’s straining my credulity,” Jenkins said in response. He used even stronger language while denying the other Democrat in the race, Chris Bell, an injunction that would have removed Simmons from the ballot. He marveled that an intelligent woman and an “officer of the court” -- Simmons is an attorney-- could have believed that what she was doing was legal.

“It saddens me that I do not believe you,” Jenkins said.

It saddens me even more that you could not figure out how to do the right and legal thing and disqualify her from the ballot, Judge Jenkins. But, as Kuffner notes, "Viva Democracy".

Still, the evidence that Chris Bell remains the only Democratic candidate in the contest is found in the large, deep hooftracks of one Ron "Water Buffalo" Wilson.

I hereby petition Sarah Palin to remove the beasts from the endangered species list.

Ike will miss us, but ...

... may follow the path of Hurricane Dolly, which (who?) hit South Texas two months ago:

This is because a weakness forecast to develop in the high-pressure ridge that's steering Ike westward, which would have allowed a northwestern turn, now may only appear briefly.

If no such weakness develops Ike will continue a largely due west, or just north of west, movement.

Valley residents will quite obviously be happier to welcome another visitor the following week.

Let's hear it for fair and balanced!

"Olbermann, Matthews removed from anchoring political event coverage at MSNBC"

Just a week ago, Keith Olbermann opened a two-hour report from New York on Hurricane Gustav, far away from where the Republican National Convention was (not quite) getting underway. The tone of his revised responsibility in the anchor chair struck me as a little solemn -- even a little chastened. Today the announcement leaks out that he and Tweety will give way to the odious Dancing David Gregory in the lead seat for the debates, as well as election eve and other notable political reporting at the cable arm of NBC/Universal/General Electric/K-Mart (I love that joke; it was on the Alec Baldwin profile on 60 Minutes again last night).

This was due in no small part to the caterwauling from every single conservative corner about "Bias" in the media. Both the White House and John McCain's campaign have been whining about it for months now. But when heavydeadweights Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams started piling on, the corporate fatcats decided they had to do something.

Glenn Greenwald makes all the salient points about how and why NBC knuckled under, that MSNBC has always knuckled under -- going back to Phil Donahue's show, their highest-rated at the time getting suddenly canceled at the start of the Iraq War -- and much more. Or, as Barb notes:

Translation: NBC bent over and took one for the GE team because of complaints from Republicans. So kudos to NBC ... America can't have too much fair and balanced news coverage.

Update: kos has the "nail, meet hammer" on why NBC caved: because McCain threatened to pull out of the debate to be monitored by Brokaw.

The Weekly Wrangle

Ah, the first Monday after Labor Day ... the air finally feels a little cooler, the shadows are definitely a little longer, the excitement and sense of urgency associated with the approaching elections -- or maybe that's football season -- is as welcome as the first frost on the pumpkin. Actually here in Houston frost is months off; we'd settle for Ike staying away.

Here's this week's edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance weekly round-up, compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Two Bartonville (or is it Argyle?) Republicans are indicted for voter fraud, a 3rd degree felony. The Texas Cloverleaf follows the story.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that right-wing Republican, anti-immigrant, 14th Amendment-hating state rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler) is taking steps to launch a campaign for governor in 2010.

jobsanger points out that McCain may not want to use the "P" word but still wants to privatize Social Security, and tells us the investigation into Palin's ethics is getting messy (and weird).

Harry Balczak has another Reminder to You People over at McBlogger. In this edition: Joementum Loserman, disrespectful Republicans and their hatred of veterans.

Off the Kuff looks at some polling data and suggests there isn't much room for a Palin bounce, especially in Texas.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees Republican love/hate over the Hispanic vote. Meanwhile, some Hispanics say a pox on both your houses.

Texas Liberal asks just how is it the government could come and take your gun.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is suspicious, What Is Condeleeza Rice REALLY Doing Over There?, and why the media puts this on the back page.

nytexan at BlueBloggin points out the recent activity with the McCain Palin team in Alaska is the continuation of the Bush administration corruption in McCain-Palin Troopergate Stonewall Is Bush-Cheney 2.0

dembones at Eye On Williamson posts a synopsis of this week's candidate forum in HD-52: Maldonado and Daniel make their case before Hutto EDC.

Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole declares himself a dead man walking, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs notes his pending exit with a heartfelt "so long, and thanks for all the fish".

refinish69 at Doing My Part For The Left tells everyone who is who's fired up.

North Texas Liberal listens in on Republican commentators Peggy Noonan and Mike Murphy as they tell us how they really feel about McCain's VP pick Sarah Palin when they think the cameras are off.

EV 9/7: Obama still bouncing upward

The most recent ND and OH polling gives Obama two-point leads in both states, so they flip (North Dakota goes from red to blue with no pause at grey). No sign yet of anything resembling a GOP convention bounce, though in fairness it's still too early to tell.

For the record, I place no emphasis whatsoever on the national media-sponsored head-to-head horse race polls. Just ask Al Gore if that 500,000-vote lead nationally in 2000 made any difference to his White House hopes.

The most interesting rumor overheard this past week was that Ron Paul would assume the mantle of both the Libertarian and Constitution Parties, by mutual acquiescence of their respective nominees Bob Barr and Chuck Baldwin. Far-fetched, but intriguing nonetheless. I would rate the chances of this happening as greater -- much greater -- than Barr succeeding in having both Obama and McCain disqualified from the Texas ballot.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;strong&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;a href='http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/politics/interactives/campaign08/electoral-college/'&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Electoral College Prediction Map&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/strong&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt; - Predict the winner of the general election. Use the map to experiment with winning combinations of states. Save your prediction and send it to friends.&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Sunday Funnies (Mooselini edition)

There's so many people doing toons lately that it's difficult for this weekly post to be original. Still going to do my best to supply you with the ones you may not find on those other blogs. RJ Matson at the St. Louis Post-Dispatch has done some good ones ...





And then there's the wickedness of Steve Bell, and the best of the
rest ...

"These are your cousins Freddie and Fannie. They're going to be living with us now."

Those words were common among a previous generation's children, when hard times meant that families had to double up. There are many Americans of late who have taken in a family member (or five) in light of more recent troubles. But the cousins whom we're ALL taking in very shortly are, of course, the mortgage giants Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, the multi-billion dollar failure of which is going to dwarf the S&L crisis of the '80's:

Senior officials from the Bush administration and the Federal Reserve on Friday informed top executives of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that the government was preparing to seize the two companies and place them in a conservatorship, officials and company executives briefed on the discussions said.

The plan, effectively a government bailout, was outlined in separate meetings that the chief executives were summoned to attend on Friday at the office of the companies' new regulator. The executives were told that, under the plan, they and their boards would be replaced, shareholders would be virtually wiped out, but the companies would be able to continue functioning with the government generally standing behind their debt, people briefed on the discussions said.

It is not possible to calculate the cost of any government bailout, but the huge potential liabilities of the companies could cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars and make any rescue among the nation's largest ever.

It's likewise impossible to calculate what the long-term effects beyond the simple cost of the initial taxpayer bailout are going to be. With America's automakers teetering on the verge of collapse as well, the United States is entering dangerous economic territory (and it's not as if any of this this was an unexpected development). Take a look at two of the most recommended comments in that link above:

... Privatize the profits, and socialize the loss ...Welfare state for coroprations (sic) and tough love for middle class and below . This bailout is nothing but a massive transfer of wealth from the US taxpayers to astronomically rich private investors and foreign governments. The biggest foreign holders of Freddie and Fannie's debts are China, Japan, the Cayman Islands, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Do you want to bail them out with your tax dollars? Think this needs to change?

... all other news will pale in comparison in terms of something that will impact our lives. This decision, so rife with moral hazard, will shake the very foundations of our financial system and add even more debt for our children to pay off.....what a sad farce...

This, and the adverse financial developments that will ripple from it, make considerably weaker our credit markets, our currency, our economy and our national security. Do we really need to consider what John McCain and Sarah Palin and top economic adviser Phil Gramm -- who still insists some people are just whining about a recession -- might do about the crises to come?

That would be nothing, in case you were wondering. Absolutely nothing.

The Republican party is going to own this failure for generations to come.

We don't like Ike

Eric Berger:

2 p.m. UPDATE: The early afternoon model runs have come out and they're increasingly clustered around a track that could bring Ike (now back up to 115-mph) into the central Gulf of Mexico.

I sure hope the evacuations we rehearsed for Gustav don't have to be reprised. If there's one thing I have learned it's that people tend to make a decision about how they will respond to the threat of a hurricane based on whether their reaction the last time was justified. Many people who left last week -- particularly in SE Texas -- will be thus disinclined to do so again.

Palinpalooza: the gift that keeps on giving

--- "So Sambo beat the bitch!" Shocktisayshocked to discover she's Rick Santorum Dick Cheney David Duke in a skirt.

-- Do you think anyone will get to question her about this, or the now fast-tracked abuse of power investigation known as Troopergate, or her ties to the fringe Alaskan secessionist political party before the debates? Even FOX? Doesn't seem likely.

My suggestion for the first question regarding that last: "Nice flag lapel pin, Mrs. Palin, but why does it only have 49 stars on it? And which 'Country First' is it you advocate -- the United States or Alaska?"

The more information that trickles out about this woman, the more horrifying it is to consider her presence a heartbeat away. So in the absence of the McCain campaign's ability to shape her narrative beyond "Miss Mooseburger" -- this will prove to be a critical failure in the post-November 4th analysis, I believe -- the more the rest of us are forced to do so. Howard Fineman:

On the floor and in the hallways of the GOP convention, the sentiment was a combination of aggressive defensiveness about her -- from evangelicals and other cultural conservatives -- to a cautious wait-and-see hopefulness from delegates who found it hard to believe that McCain had chosen Palin with what appeared to be a hurried-up, last-minute vetting process last week.

It was as if the skeptics were saying: OK McCain, we didn't like you that much to begin with, so you had better be right about Sarah Palin. But for the time being, until we hear her speak, we will give you the benefit of the doubt.

Friends of former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, speaking not for attribution, were caustic. "She is unqualified for the job and everyone knows it," said one.

Whether or not that is true, it's hard to imagine anyone who would be qualified for the raft of personal and political challenges Palin faces. Over the next months, and all at once, a list of the things she'll need to deal with:

• her continuing duties as governor of Alaska
• a legislature-funded investigation into questions of whether she has abused her office in a vendetta against her former brother-in-law, a probe that prompted her to hire a personal attorney
• the care of her fifth child, Trig, born this spring with Down syndrome -- a condition that requires close parental attention and care, especially in the first year of the child's life
• the pregnancy and pending marriage of her teenage daughter Bristol, who is planning to wed the father before Election Day
• learning the routines and rituals of the national campaign trail, which she will be required to traverse on her own plane, with her own staff
• getting a sense of the Lower 48 states, most of which she has never visited
• figuring out how to deal with McCain, whom she barely knows
• handling whatever national press interviews the McCain campaign allows her to do -- and she will have to do some to prepare herself for later events
• prep for the nationally televised vice-presidential debate with Sen. Joe Biden, a legislator with 36 years of seniority, who is personally acquainted with the rulers of nations Palin may never have even heard of

-- Then again, as long as the Corporate Media keep regurgitating the lies she tells, the better off the Republicans will be. Have to watch and see if the Gestapo tactics being used -- which they began implementing in Minnesota this past week -- bully the talking heads into cowering submission.

NSFW Update: Seriously though, how far from reality could this be? We're living Idiocracy. (H/T to that nasty bastard McBlogger for the "Something Awful".)

"My days are numbered"

Harris County Commissioner Jerry Eversole said Thursday that he expects to be forced from office by an FBI investigation into corruption allegations that appears to be centering on the design of his home by a prominent retired architect.

The Precinct 4 commissioner said FBI agents have interviewed many of his friends, some as recently as this week. He said he expects to be called in for questioning soon and would not be surprised to be indicted, though he insists he is innocent.

"I guarantee they can take that information that they've got and the friends that they've talked to and they can make a case on me," said Eversole, who volunteered the update regarding the investigation when asked about recommended ethics changes at the county. "That's why I say my days are numbered. There's no doubt about it."

As the feds close in on him, let's reminisce:

The Harris County District Attorney's office is investigating Eversole's use of campaign funds to pay for collector-quality firearms and a trip to Florida. George Flynn, the office's spokesman, said he could not comment on the probe beyond confirming it was still under way.

The commissioner's $680,000 house in the Heights was designed by Leroy Hermes, whose former firm has been involved with county projects such as the Reliant Stadium complex and a new jail facility. The Republican commissioner said he had the home built in 2003 so he and his wife, who has cancer, would be closer to the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center.

Eversole also was criticized for labeling hundreds of campaign expenses with vague descriptions such as "public relations" and "misc," offering little clue as to what was purchased or who benefited from those purchases. Among his "public relations" expenses was the $6,850 trip to Florida.

After acknowledging long-running problems with his campaign finance reports, the commissioner began explaining his expenses in greater detail this year. He also asked former County Judge Robert Eckels to review his current and past filings to ensure compliance with state disclosure laws.

Eversole's money management problems began early on in his 17-year career as county commissioner. Fourteen years ago, when his questionable expense reports first earned him attention and then legal scrutiny, a Democrat named Jim Lindeman running against him tried to link Republican Eversole to ... Ted Kennedy and former House speaker Tom Foley. That gives you an idea how red Precinct 4 was gerrymandered. First, the Chronic with the executive summary, from the previous link:

Eversole was indicted in 1993 on charges of perjury and unlawful record-keeping related to nearly $90,000 in campaign expenses.

And all the way from October of '94 and the Houston Press, with the details:

(D)espite a counseling session early in his term from the district attorney's office on Election Code rules regarding contributions and gifts, Eversole spent his lavishly endowed campaign account wildly on golf clothes, gifts and even several firearms. He justified the clothing purchases as items to be auctioned off. Asked to explain why the clothes all seemed to be in his own sizes, he allowed that by wearing them he made them more valuable items at the charity events. He regularly submitted monthly credit card tabs to be paid from the campaign account, and included billings for golf greens fees that were paid by others. The spending spree and questionable documentation earned him eight indictments for perjury and false campaign reporting.

Wayne Dolcefino at KTRK deserves most of the credit for digging up the recent dirt on Eversole, and now burying him with it ...

In the last year and a half, Eversole has spent nearly $15,000 just at golf courses and golf stores using campaign funds. On his sworn campaign finance report, he usually calls it simply 'public relations.' "I don't think he bought public relations at a golf shop," said campaign finance expert Fred Lewis.

Lewis has seen lots of campaign reports.

" When you start spending it on things like clothes, books, and Internet at your house, an exercise club, and meal after meal, you're starting to get where you're either on the line or over it," he said.

Jerry Eversole had no opponent last year and isn't up for reelection until 2010. Yet he's spent a whopping $750,000 in campaign money in just 18 months.

Most of it on golf, golf-related apparel and items, and even coffee. So he skated through the thin ice once early on, has never had a respectable challenger since, and now over a decade later has been discovered doing the same thing. Makes you wonder what happened during the years between investigations, doesn't it? More on this from the Harris County Republican Rap Sheet.

So long, Jerry. You had a good run. Sorry about your wife.

Jesus of Nazareth was a community organizer

... while Pontius Pilate was a governor. Other notable community organizers would include Susan B. Anthony, Martin Luther King Jr., Cesar Chavez, Mohandas Ghandhi ...



And then there's Joe Klein with the body-slam:

Slowly, slowly, I am recovering from the extremely effective bilge festival staged by the Republicans last night. And while there is much to discuss, there was one item, in particular, that has to be considered infuriating: the attack on Barack Obama's service as a community organizer by the odious Rudy Giuliani -- he's come to look like a villain in a Frank Capra movie, hasn't he? -- and Sarah Palin.

This morning, I received a press release from a group called Catholic Democrats about the work -- the mission, the witness -- that Obama performed after he got out of college. Here's the first paragraph:

Catholic Democrats is expressing surprise and shock that Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech tonight mocked her opponent's work in the 1980s for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development. She belittled Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama's experience as a community organizer in Catholic parishes on the South Side of Chicago, work he undertook instead of pursuing a lucrative career on Wall Street. In her acceptance speech, Ms. Palin said, "I guess a small-town mayor is sort of like a community organizer, except that you have actual responsibilities." Community organizing is at the heart of Catholic Social Teaching to end poverty and promote social justice.

So here is what Giuliani and Palin didn't know: Obama was working for a group of churches that were concerned about their parishioners, many of whom had been laid off when the steel mills closed on the south side of Chicago. They hired Obama to help those stunned people recover and get the services they needed -- job training, help with housing and so forth -- from the local government. It was, dare I say it, the Lord's work -- the sort of mission Jesus preached (as opposed to the war in Iraq, which Palin described as a "task from God.")

This is what Palin and Giuliani were mocking. They were making fun of a young man's decision "to serve a cause greater than himself," in the words of John McCain. They were, therefore, mocking one of their candidate's favorite messages. Obama served the poor for three years, then went to law school. To describe this service -- the first thing he did out of college, the sort of service every college-educated American should perform, in some form or other -- as anything other than noble is cheap and tawdry and cynical in the extreme.

Perhaps La Pasionaria of the Northern Slope didn't know this when she read the words they gave her. But Giuliani -- a profoundly lapsed Catholic, who must have met more than a few religious folk toiling in the inner cities -- should have known. ("I don't even know what that is," he sneered.") What a shameful performance.

Prayer will "smite" McCain and make Palin president

There simply isn't anything that bothers me more than the Radical Religious Right co-opting God for their twisted political ends:

The more theocratic elements of the Religious Right have a disturbing habit, (more like a practice) of invoking "imprecatory prayer" -- a call for God to literally pour his wrath down on those they consider to be his enemies. Last year, for example, Rev. Wiley Drake, then a Second Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention made news when he called on his followers to pray for God to smite members of the staff of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. (Drake was angry that the organization had reported Drake to the IRS for endorsing Mike Huckabee on church stationary, among other apparent abuses of his church's 501(c) tax-exemption.)

The most recent target of theoractic imprecations is none other than Republican presidential candidate John McCain. They hope that an act of God will make Sarah Palin president.

Antiabortion militant and all-round theocratic activist Jay Rogers of Florida, whose blog is called The Forerunner, writes:

Pray for John McCain's salvation and speedy death. (Google The Forerunner's articles on Imprecatory Prayer if you think this is harsh.)

And then there is this guy, a self-described Christian Reconstructionist whose blog handle is Ixion, and is apparently from Tennessee:

McCain's VP choice, Sarah Palin, suddenly made me want to vote for him, as long as the LORD smites him while he's in office. She's consistently conservative on all the issues, and if she's good enough for The Forerunner, she's good enough for me. The Forerunner agrees with me that McCain must be smitten, as well, so I'm obviously not alone in my viewpoints.

If you find this as disturbing as I do, just know that the cure is to go to work to elect Barack Obama and Joe Biden. And every other Democratic candidate on your ballot.

As white as rice-and-cream milquetoast

It doesn't matter how many times the teevee cameras show us "Uncle Tom" Williams, he's nothing but a fly in the oatmeal:

Organizers conceived of this convention as a means to inspire, but some African American Republicans have found the Xcel Energy Center depressing this week. Everywhere they look, they see evidence of what they consider one of their party's biggest shortcomings.

As the country rapidly diversifies, Republicans are presenting a convention that is almost entirely white.

Only 36 of the 2,380 delegates seated on the convention floor are black, the lowest number since the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies began tracking diversity at political conventions 40 years ago. Each night, the overwhelmingly white audience watches a series of white politicians step to the lectern — a visual reminder that no black Republican has served as a governor, U.S. senator or U.S. House member in the past six years.

Shocked, you say. Shocked.

The lack of diversity is out of sync with the demographic changes in the United States. The Census Bureau reported last month that racial and ethnic minorities will make up a majority of the country's population by 2042 -- almost a decade earlier than what the bureau predicted just four years ago. Two-thirds of Americans are non-Hispanic whites, 12.4 percent are black and 14.8 percent are Hispanic, according to 2006 census numbers.

What has helped Republicans is that working-class whites, a bloc they rely on, are more likely to vote than other groups. "But if there is a loss this time, and it is attributed to a smaller and smaller base of white voters, there might be a rethinking" of GOP strategy, said Robert E. Lang, co-director of Virginia Tech's Metropolitan Institute, which studies demographics and other development patterns.

"If we don't get better at reaching out, we're in big trouble," agreed Michael Williams, a black Republican who chairs the Texas Railroad Commission and who spoke Wednesday night. "It doesn't take much to see that this is not what America looks like. . . . We're trying, but we're not there yet."

I don't think you're ever going to get there in my lifetime or yours either, Mike.

Of Lipstick and Pigs -- err, Pit Bulls

I don't think anything I can write could be more sexist than that joke, Sarah.

And we don't want to hear any whining about how "the boys are being mean to you" since you've taken the gloves off. Community organizers have to be ready to defend themselves against hostile neighborhood bullies, after all ...

(Following is a summary of what others are saying. Essentially the divide is continental; their side is positively orgasmic, our side is repulsed. Oh, and Matt in the comments in the prior posts is looking for a quarrel. Does anyone wish to accomodate him? I won't have time for that today. Or tomorrow. Maybe on the weekend ...)

Virtually all of the conservative commentariat, and a greater-than-would-care-to-admit-it share of the liberal commentariat think that Sarah Palin hit a home run tonight. I guess I'm just going to have to stick my neck out (along with Josh Marshall) and disagree. ...

I think some of you are underestimating the percentage of voters for whom Sarah Palin lacks the standing to make this critique of Barack Obama. To many voters, she is either entirely unknown, or is known as an US Weekly caricature of a woman who eats mooseburgers and has a pregnant daughter. To change someone's opinion, you have to do one of two things. Either, you have to be a trusted voice of authority, or you have to persuade them. Palin is not a trusted voice of authority -- she's much too new. But neither was this a persuasive speech. It was staccato, insistent, a little corny. It preached to the proverbial choir. It was also, as one of my commentors astutely noted, a speech written by a man and for a man, but delivered by a woman, which produces a certain amount of cognitive dissonance.

In exceedingly plain English, I think there's a pretty big who the fuck does she think she is? factor. And not just among us Daily Kos reading, merlot-drinking liberals. I think Palin's speech will be instinctively unappealing to other whole demographics of voters, including particuarly working-class men (among whom there may be a misogyny factor) and professional post-menopausal women.

The irony here, of course, is that hers was a purely political speech. No issues were actually addressed... none. A catalog of Republican talking points was delivered, very well I must admit (to the extent that crap can be presented artfully). It was red meat for the base, but it is very difficult for me to see how it was in any way intended to address, say, independents. Nothing at all was said about Palin's social conservative views... opposition to abortion even in cases of rape or incest, her introduction of religious cant into discussions of war, her attempts to remove library books because their content did not suit her "Christian" views, etc. There is a lot more to say about Gov. Palin than was revealed in this speech... and I am depending on Obama's campaign staff to say at least some of it. (For the record, none of what I am thinking of has anything to do with her family life. However, her possible abuse of power as governor in "troopergate" does come to mind...)

And honestly... any former Hillary supporter who flipped to McCain/Palin in response to this speech must not have thought things through very thoroughly. People do not, by and large, vote their gonads, and that's about all Palin has in common with Hillary.

I am at a wonderful age. I am young enough to appreciate a woman's pleasant packaging (Stella's, for instance) when it is relevant to her relationship to me, and old enough mostly to ignore such good looks when her role in my life is that of potential commander-in-chief. In the world of government, as the old saying goes, form follows function. I am more convinced than ever that Gov. Palin could not function effectively as president any more than could the much older top of the GOP ticket. Indeed... I believe she would be a disaster as president.

Now, we know Palin to be a fringe member of the Republican right. We know her to be a petty, small-town dictator bent on settling small scores, banning books, and generally operating in a manner beneath the dignity of an already insignificant office. We know that she carried that attitude to Juneau when she became governor 18 short months ago, and that she's under investigation for abuse of that office. We know that she was either a member of, or a fellow traveler with, the secessionist Alaska Independence Party as late as the mid-Nineties. We know that she believes that God wants her to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

But she won't be a fringe character tonight.

She won't admit to corruption, or champion Alaskan secession, or proclaim that God gives her personal advice on infrastructure policy. She won't list books that she wants banned, or name US Marshals that she'd want fired if elected Vice-President. Nope. She's going to come across as a mainstream American soccer hockey mom, who can't understand why people are being so mean to her. She'll speak in vague generalities about the problems that face the nation, and will wrap herself in the flag and in motherhood. She's going to read a good speech, written by professionals, off of a teleprompter, and she'll do so with a smile. She's going to appear distressingly normal. And as such, she's going to, at least in some small measure, succeed -- at least for tonight.

Thanks to the soft bigotry of really low expectations.

(T)he media coverage of the Palin story has been well within the bounds of responsibility. (McCain campaign advisor Steve) Schmidt is trying to make it seem otherwise, a desperate tactic.

There is a tendency in the media to kick ourselves, cringe and withdraw, when we are criticized. But I hope my colleagues stand strong in this case: it is important for the public to know that Palin raised taxes as governor, supported the Bridge to Nowhere before she opposed it, pursued pork-barrel projects as mayor, tried to ban books at the local library and thinks the war in Iraq is "a task from God." The attempts by the McCain campaign to bully us into not reporting such things are not only stupidly aggressive, but unprofessional in the extreme.

American Taliban reignites culture wars

The hate rhetoric hit screechy last night:

"Democrats present a history-making nominee for president. History making in that he is the most liberal, most inexperienced nominee ever to run for president," Thompson said as delegates roared their agreement.

Yes, 'liberal' is defamatory and we all know how much experience matters by now, especially to John McSame's selection of a soul running mate. But Lazy Fred glossed over the beleaguered Sarah Palin's lack thereof ...

Thompson delivered a particularly sharp defense of the Alaska governor. She is "from a small town, with small-town values, but that's not good enough for those folks who are attacking her and her family."

And one more from the old actor, with feeling:

He said McCain's decision to place her on the ticket "has the other side and their friends in the media in a state of panic."

Well played, Fred. You get the Emmy. Only one line worth noting from Holy Joe, though: "Country matters more than party," said Lieberman, oblivious to Palin's enthusiastic participation in a secessionist third party in Alaska.

I'm at a loss to understand the cognitive dissonance associated with the Republican rationale for attracting disaffected Hillary supporters, who would have to abandon their pro-choice position in order to support the "small-town" Sarah Palin -- who doesn't believe a woman deserves a choice even if her pregnancy is the result of rape or incest.

Seems a bit hypocritical to me, I don't know. What is clear to me is that even Republican women who support a right to reproductive freedom for their daughters have a crystal clear choice in this election.

But most clearly, everyone gets that John McCain's a war hero. Hooray for him. John McCain also got the shit kicked out of him by the Vietnamese. Sorry for him.

Those simply aren't qualifications for the highest office in the land.

Update: The bookmaker's odds on Sarah Palin being dropped from the ticket have plummeted, just as Barack Obama's lead in the polls over McSame has soared. Though let's not disturb the GOP as they rejoice in the "land of make-believe", as Jack Cafferty noted. It's really all they have left.

Bell still the only D in SD-17

A few days ago the lineup for the special election was finalized:

Four Republicans and two Democrats got places on the Nov. 4 ballot for the vacancy created by the resignation of District 17 state Sen. Kyle Janek. ...

Republican candidates are Houston businessman Austen Furse, Houston lawyer Grant Harpold, former Harris County felony court Judge Joan Huffman and Lake Jackson engineer Ken Sherman.

The Democrats are former U.S. Rep. Chris Bell of Houston and Stephanie E. Simmons, who could not be reached for information about her candidacy.

As Kuffner suggests, Ms. Simmons appears to be a stooge for the Republicans. She is mentioned here as an attorney in Missouri City but save for the those two articles, has no Google hit even for her professional listing. Occasional Republican blogger Chris Elam (in Kuffner's comments) says he doesn't know her either, however.

So I suppose she could be a ghost, but most likely she's a tool. She's actually on the ballot in any event to draw one or two percent off Bell's tally to force a runoff -- where the GOP thinks they can prevail.

There's only one Democrat running for SD-17, and he's still the best and most qualified of the six candidates.

Of Palin and hurricanes

The tropical disturbances swirling in the Atlantic -- not just those around Sarah Palin -- may still upset the GOP's applecart in Minnesota this week. Thursday evening, the night that John McCain is to give his acceptance speech to the assembled delegates, is also about the same time that Hannah may be hitting the southeastern US coastline:

The computer models have come into strikingly good accord for the 75-mph Hurricane Hanna today, and it's now with some confidence that we can predict a moderate hurricane will strike the southeastern U.S. late this week, probably along the Georgia or South Carolina coasts or possibly Florida.

So Bush is set to address the convention by satellite tonight -- along with Turncoat Joe Lieberman and, in a surprise, Lazy Fred Thompson -- bumping Rudy 9u11iani out of his keynote slot:

The revamped schedule suggested that convention planners were easing back into partisan politics with an appeal to independent-minded voters. Thompson is known by most voters for his portrayal of a gruff district attorney on NBC's Law & Order.

It was unclear whether Thompson had replaced former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani as the convention keynoter and, if so, why. Convention planners said Giuliani would address the gathering in prime-time Wednesday or Thursday, though they did not know whether he would remain the keynote speaker as planned.

The real Mystery, however, is where the Alaska governor is ...

So far, Palin has not conducted a formal news conference or taken questions from reporters, and no such sessions were scheduled today. Her only statement Monday disclosed that her daughter Bristol was pregnant and planned to marry the baby's father.

That news was followed by the announcement that a private lawyer had been hired to represent Palin in a state investigation into the dismissal of the state's public safety commissioner.

We can be thankful, while Pastor Dobson's prayers for rains of biblical proportion were answered a week late, that the trouble was limited mostly to the 2 million Louisiana and Southeast Texas evacuees from Gustav, and not to their homes or property left behind. New Orleans lives to party again.

The GOP? Not so much.

Change We Can Secede With

I prefer "Sedation and Sedition '08", but most voters may not be aware that John McCain was an Ambien junkie. Likewise I'm sure very few know that Sarah Palin was recently a member of a third political party in Alaska whose purpose for being was to withdraw the state from the Union:

The campaign of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., likes to herald the independence of its new running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Officials of the Alaskan Independence Party say that Palin was once so independent, she was once a member of their party, which, since the 1970s, has been pushing for a legal vote for Alaskans to decide whether or not residents of the 49th state can secede from the United States.

And while McCain's motto -- as seen in a new TV ad -- is "Country First," the AIP's motto is the exact opposite -- "Alaska First - Alaska Always."

Lynette Clark, the chairman of the AIP, tells ABC News that Palin and her husband Todd were members in 1994, even attending the 1994 statewide convention in Wasilla. Clark was AIP secretary at the time.

"We are a state's rights party," says Clark, a self-employed goldminer. The AIP has "a plank that challenges the legality of the Alaskan statehood vote as illegal and in violation of United Nations charter and international law."

But if you're one of those 'low-information' voters that believes, for example, Barack Obama is unpatriotic for not wearing a flag lapel pin, how do you feel about someone a heartbeat away from the Oval Office who advocates sedition?

We fought a Civil War over such a thing, I believe. IIRC John McCain crashed his bi-plane and was taken POW during it (yeah, that's the ticket).

Really, maybe it's just best for everyone if this woman goes on home and focuses on taking care of her 4-month-old with Down's and her 17-year-old with child and without husband.

Update: All you could ever want to know about Palin's Secession Scandal. One tiny excerpt (emphasis mine):

• In 2007, the Vice Chairman of the AIP, Dexter Clark, not only referenced Palin's membership, but also said that since she joined the GOP, "she is pretty well sympathetic to her former membership." Clark also goes on to discuss the need to "infiltrate" the major parties.
• In 2008, Palin recorded a message for the AIP's annual convention, stating that Alaska has "a great promise to be a self-sufficient state" and encouraging them to "keep up the good work."

Half-baked Alaska (or, Cheney in a skirt)

The right-wing freaks had little to rejoice about during the past week, but the selection of one of their own by a befuddled John McLame sent them into a tizzy. Denied by the Religious Right his first choice, turncoat Joe Lieberman, Senator Maverick chose instead to pander to them. And despite their entire Monday lineup of speakers canceling on them -- the Governator has a budget battle he would rather fight, W and Dick want to appear as if they are doing something about Gustav -- the RNC delegates go right on partying with the fabulous hookers in the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport stalls proceed with the solemn business of their convention today.

There's about a thousand controversies swirling around Sarah Palin, the gun-totin', beauty-queenin', rapidly-breedin', earmark-lovin', polar-bear-hatin' governor of a state with just about the same number of people as Fort Worth (and just as backward and conservative).

Personally, I do think she squeezed out that puppy herself. That's not much of a scandal anyway, in my book. But she's got so much baggage that she could probably save Alaska Airlines from bankruptcy just on the extra suitcase charges alone. And let's not even get started on that Neanderthal husband of hers, a piece of neocon work his own self.

Among the things Sarah has already learned in the past week: it's warm in Ohio this time of year.

Can't wait for the debates.