TexTrib poll blows up in their face again

Remember what I said yesterday about polls? It's particularly true of the Texas Tribune's Republican half of their most recent gubernatorial poll -- released today but conducted before the Medina truther kerfuffle, which will surely alter the numbers severely.

So disregard that right away. Let's take a quick look at what they have on the Democratic side, however.

White 50
Shami 11
Everybody else 9

Among Democratic voters, 30 percent were undecided, and of those, 48 percent, when pressed, said they lean toward White. With White already at 50 percent, that means Shami would have to strip votes away from him in order to force a runoff or to claim a win.

That's now two three polls showing pretty much the same result, and both all were conducted in the week prior to their debate on February 7. So with the previous advice about polling value in mind, White may improve on his position. And if these are numbers are accurate I have to eat crow served by Dr. Murray.

Democratic primary voters have a couple of other statewide races to decide. In the contest for lieutenant governor — the winner will face Republican incumbent David Dewhurst in November — labor leader Linda Chavez-Thompson took 18 percent of those polled, former Travis County District Attorney Earle got 16 percent, and restaurateur Marc Katz had 3 percent. Five percent of voters said they wanted "somebody else," and a whopping 58 percent remain undecided on the eve of early voting, which begins on Tuesday.

Recall that the TCUL's numbers from February 3,4, and 6 were Earle 25, Chavez-Thompson 18, and Katz 5. Ms. Chavez-Thompson's is the only campaign with any visibility to me in this contest.

Friedman and Gilbert — two refugees from the governor's race now running for agriculture commissioner — are locked in a tight race, 32 percent to 27 percent. While Friedman's ahead, the difference is within the poll's margin of error. And, as with the Lite Guv race, “undecided” is actually leading, at 41 percent.

These two are going at each other hammer and tong. After the DMN disguised a slap at Gilbert with a lukewarm endorsement of Friedman, Gilbert shoved back with this:

Kinky told the El Paso Times Tuesday, among other nonsensical things, that Governor Perry could win re-election and "will probably be President".  This despite running four years ago in the governor's race as a spoiler and taking votes from the actual Democrat.

"We knew that Kinky's baggage would be used to damage the Democratic ticket by suppressing minority turnout," said Gilbert campaign consultant Mike Lavigne referring to questionable comments in the candidate's recent past.  "But we didn't expect him to dismiss the Democratic gubernatorial nominee before there even was one."

Kinky then countered with an endorsement of Bill White. Stay tuned for more headlines today from these two, and probably every day until Election Day.

Last interesting bit from the TexTrib's poll ...

How strong is the Tea Party movement, and who does it steal votes from? Asked the generic congressional question with that movement included as a third organized party, 21 percent said they would choose the Republican, 36 percent would choose the Democrat, and 16 percent would vote for the Tea Party candidate. More than a fourth — 27 percent — said they were undecided. So the Democratic numbers held, while Republicans lost 16 points to the Tea Party and the rest to undecided.

"The electorate is responding to whatever it is they're associating with the Tea Party — at the expense of the Republicans," Henson said. While that's not necessarily to the advantage of the Democrats, he said it will have an effect on the majority party: "The tea party is going on in the Republicans' house."

Take that with a grain of salt, and now toss it out.

Update: Katherine at Burnt Orange adds the results of the Research 2000 poll conducted by the Daily Kos, and rounds up all of the February polls in pretty side-by-side graphs. That view makes it seem likely that Governor MoFo doesn't clear a run-off -- but again, the Medina gaffe's effect is reflected in none of them.

So hit the reset button ... or the flush handle.

Of the kooks, by the kooks, and for the kooks

And she was doing so well, with everybody on that side thinking she was only a closet secessionist...

Anti-Washington activist Debra Medina was on the brink of knocking U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison out of a likely Republican gubernatorial runoff, but she may have spoiled her chances Thursday with her remarks on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A series of public opinion polls of likely Republican primary voters this past week had indicated that Hutchison was dangerously close to losing second place to Medina in the contest to oust incumbent Gov. Rick Perry.

Medina has benefited from a pair of solid debate appearances, and millions of dollars in attack television advertising by Hutchison and Perry has made her the none-of-the-above candidate for conservative voters.

But Medina may have stumbled Thursday when talk show host Glenn Beck asked whether she believed the government was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Medina said people raising that question were slinging “mud” at her but went on to say:

“I don't have all of the evidence there, Glenn, so I don't, I'm not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that. I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard. There are some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all of the evidence there so I have not taken a position on that.”

Where exactly is the line drawn on the Right between crazy and sane? Beck is a birther, and he's calling Medina crazy for being a truther?!?

These are people who think climate change isn't happening, that evolution isn't happening, that Barack Obama isn't a US citizen, that the Earth is only 6000 years old ...

Some on our side want to suggest that this a plot executed by the Perry campaign. I think that has the potential of being as big a conspiracy theory as MIHOP itself. The only real story here is that Medina pulled a Clayton Williams -- which is a big enough (and funny enough) story all by itself.

Really, all you need to do is just sit back and watch the lunatics set fire to each others' hair for the next few days.

Texas Right aflame with Medina "truther" insanity

Get your corn popped and watch the lunatics fall down and spin around. I'm serious; these people are ALL batshit crazy.

There are fifty blog posts and dozens of comments on the mainstream websites arguing about how much damage Debra Medina did to her campaign today.

In an interview with the certifiable Glenn Beck -- that would be the same Glenn Beck who calls Rick Perry a "progressive" -- she couldn't say with certainty whether the federal government was in some way responsible for the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

You could not dream up stuff this wacky if you were smoking rocks.

The normally breathless Eric Dondero at Libertarian Republican -- a near-daily source of laugh-out-loud amusement for yours truly -- is hyperventilating over the news. Go ahead, click on over. You won't get any slime on ya. Read also the HouChron's Texas Politics blog for the direct quotes and especially the comments.

Perry lovers are giddy with excitement. Medina's minions are outraged.

Todd Gillman at TrailBlazers sums up the moral of the story in "At last, something Perry and Hutchison can agree on".  And this comment there is pure comedy gold:

Hutchinson's campaign headqurters (sic) is probably delirious with joy. What an earthquake! This comment is even dumber than Clayton Williams' "rape" blunder. It cost him the election and this is even bigger than that. I was seriously considering voting for Medina. I'm not sure which one of us that exposes as the bigger idiot. Well, I'm not a big enough idiot to stay with her, now. Kay, I'm back in the fold.

Can I get you more popcorn while I'm in the kitchen?

Update: Rhymes with Hate rounds up more links (if you can stand any more) and slams the door on Medina's foot.

Bi-poll-er disorder

One says there were almost certainly be a run-off in the GOP primary and one does not ...

A new Texas Credit Union League poll in Texas finds Gov. Rick Perry (R) leading the Republican race for governor with 49%, followed by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) at 27% and Debra Medina at 19%.

============

 A new Public Policy Polling survey finds the Republican primary for Texas governor on a path to a runoff. Surprisingly, however, the runoff could be between Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Debra Medina (R), leaving Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) as the odd-woman out.

Perry currently leads with 39%, followed by Hutchison at 28% and Medina at 24%.

This is why pollng will drive you nuts. When you see blog entries -- or for that matter, Traditional Media reports -- along with the pundit class quoting the poll's results, just dismiss it (and them). Any poll you can come up with always has nearly immediate diminishing marginal return. In layman's terms, the instant-and-then-instantly-useless value of toilet paper freshly used.

Yes, it's very important to have for a brief moment, and then it's worth shit.

Having said that -- and noting particularly that both polls show Bill White being thisclose to avoiding a run-off --  I will skooch a little farther out on the limb I crawled a few weeks ago and say that if Rick Perry is as wily a political raccoon as I believe he is, he will start laying off the attacks on Kay Bailey. Because if he should find himself in a run-off with Debra Medina on March 3, he will lose.

The most interesting information in these polls IMHO are the TCUL's numbers associated with the Democratic lieutenant governor candidates -- Ronnie Earle, Linda Chavez-Thompson, and Marc Katz -- who show 25, 18, and 8 respectively. That leaves 49% undecided.

I'd say that's exactly right. Now throw that nasty thing down the toilet, would you?

Charles Wilson 1933 -2010, and John Murtha 1932 - 2010

One week, two Congressional titans.

Former U.S. representative Charlie Wilson, a flamboyant 12-term East Texas Democrat who used his control of CIA purse strings to finance and arm an Afghan insurgency that drove out the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, died Feb. 10 at a hospital in Lufkin, Tex. He was 76 and had a history of heart ailments.

Wilson's epic overseas engagements outlive him. The power vacuum left in Afghanistan when the Soviets exited in 1989 contributed to the rise of the Taliban, and the weapons that Wilson helped bring to that country were probably in use when the United States went to war there in 2001.

Rep. John Murtha, a Pennsylvania powerhouse in Congress for 36 years and an early ally for Speaker Nancy Pelosi in her rise to the top of the House, died Monday afternoon as a result of complications from recent surgery. ...

A Marine veteran of the Vietnam War, the 77-year-old Democrat won national fame for standing up against U.S. military involvement in Iraq. But in Congress itself, he also symbolized an old-school generation going back to Tip O’Neill and the Democratic heyday of the ’70s, when the House was less divided by partisan ideology than by often regional interests.

Wilson came and spoke in my high school gymnasium on a campaign trip in 1972, the first year he ran for Congress. He was of course tall and charismatic but especially so to this 15-year-old freshman. He was running to represent the Texas 2nd, replacing John V. Dowdy -- whom my older brother had served as a Congressional page a few years before, and who was forced into retirement from Congress earlier that year. Dowdy was under federal indictment for bribery, conspiracy, and perjury (he was later convicted and sent to prison on the perjury charge, but the other counts were overturned on appeal).

It's safe to say that Charlie Wilson was my first exposure to politics.

Much has already been written about Wilson's colorful legacy, personal as well as professional. Here's the best excerpt I found of stories I hadn't already heard:

Pretty much everyone else who ever met him developed a fondness for Charlie Wilson. They just couldn't help it. The columnist Molly Ivins once pondered how it was that a liberal feminist such as herself could love such an unreconstructed chauvinist so very, very much. "I've been worrying about my fitness to write for Ms. Magazine on account of I like Charlie Wilson," she wrote in that magazine in 1988. "Good Lord, that is embarrassing. Congressman Wilson is the Hunter Thompson of the House of Representatives; a gonzo politician. He's a sexist and has made war a spectator sport. By way of redeeming social value, he's funny, a good congressman for his district, and hasn't an ounce of hypocrisy. ... I called Wilson to ask him why we like him, thinking he might know. He said: `Feminists like me because I am an unapologetic sexist, chauvinist redneck ... who ... votes with 'em every time. I have proven that I can vote with 'em without kissing their ass. I try not to let 'em know I vote with 'em; it's more fun to have 'em mad at me.' "

Wilson and Murtha (and Dowdy, before and with them) served in Congress when business was conducted in a certain way, as you likely already know. Murtha replaced Clarence "Doc" Long (portrayed by Ned Beatty in "Charlie Wilson's War"), the chair of the subcommittee on Foreign Operations of the House Appropriations Committee when Long was defeated in his re-election bid in 1984. Murtha and Wilson thus were more tightly conjoined in the covert war-by-proxy on the USSR, of which Wilson famously said: "we f--ked up the endgame".

Earlier in their careers, Wilson had narrowly turned back an ethics charge against Murtha. Carl Hulse at the NYT relays:

As recounted in the book, “Charlie Wilson’s War”, then Speaker Thomas P. “Tip” O’Neill asked the colorful Mr. Wilson to take a spot on the House ethics committee to help shut down an inquiry into Murtha, who had gotten caught up in the Abscam bribery investigation. Murtha wasn’t prosecuted for his role, but the internal watchdog committee was looking into whether he broke House rules by not reporting a bribery attempt.

In the book written with Wilson’s cooperation by investigative journalist George Crile, Wilson agreed to take the seat on the ethics panel in return for appointment to the board of the Kennedy Center, which would provide him with plenty of access to exclusive entertainment events. The inquiry was quickly derailed, leading the chief investigator to resign.

“It was the best deal I ever made,” Wilson told Crile. “I only had to be on Ethics for a year, and I get to stay on the Kennedy Center for life.”

Wilson and Murtha will be laid to rest in the heart of their mostly rural Congressional districts. Additional recommended reading:

The Hill's Pundits blog: John Murtha

Politico: Charlie Wilson's Way

Texas on the Potomac: Where are they now? -- Joanne Herring

Update: JR Behrman had this take, and sent it to me with these comments ...

Making “progressive” and “populist” coexist within anything as complex as a federal union with two written, overlapping constitutions which actually failed the challenges of (a) slavery and (b) segregation is hard, maybe impossible.

Nonetheless, Charlie Wilson and John Murtha are pretty much what I expect of representative democracy.

To be specific, I think they and a few other Democrats of their generation actually defeated the Soviet Union, where the GOP would have eventually taken us to something nuclear that they read about in the Book of Revelations.

... and Melissa Roddy at HuffPo added hers on Wilson, Herring, and another Houstonian who always seemed to have a hand in everything, James Baker III.

The Snooze can't work out the Kinks in their endorsement

It is truly a remarkable day for the New Media when my friend Neil at Texas Liberal trumps the Dallas Morning News in the logic associated with their respective endorsements for Texas commissioner of agriculture.

But don't take my word for it...

In the contested Democratic primary for Agriculture Commissioner, the Dallas Morning News has endorsed Kinky Friedman over Hank Gilbert. Well, maybe we should say: The News has opposed Gilbert over Friedman, since the editorial is more of a knock on the former than an attaboy to the latter.

I don't know who over at the Kingdom of Belo wrote that endorsement, but they have lost their f'ing minds. Essentially the DMN doesn't care about details. They just like cigars.

The Dallas Morning News Editorial Board must be smoking crack for endorsing Kinky Friedman in the Democratic Primary for Agriculture Commissioner. One thing the DMN didn't remember is that Friedman is not a Democrat. Never has been. Never will be. You would think if you were going to endorse a Democrat, endorse one that is actually a Democrat and one that knows something about what he is running for.

Forget, for a moment, the mischaracterization of Hank's position on global trade (he's for FAIR not FREE trade... I think we can all agree that the effect of free trade has been detrimental on balance to this country as we've seen GDP go up and wage growth stagnate). The issue is Hank's opposition to impounding, under water, 72,000 acres of productive land in East Texas. And what the DMN failed to mention is that the water district that covers Dallas is the most wasteful in the state.

Hank's position, which he made clear, was to enhance conservation and begin building desalinization plants capable of producing the water that Texas needs. For one thing, desertification is becoming a problem in Texas and rainfall more and more erratic. In point of fact, reservoirs are just not going to cut it. We need a better solution and pressure exchange desalinization is very cheap and very easy. Who knows, maybe our good buddy on the Ed Board William McKenzie just hasn't been keeping up with changes in technology.

There's only one person who deserves to be the Democratic nominee for ag commissioner, and it's not Kinky Friedman.

White: no moratoria on death penalty, drilling in Barnett Shale

And for this Democratic primary voter (and soon-to-be precinct chair), that means 'no' on Bill White.

Asked whether there should be a moratorium imposed, Shami said, "Yes ma'am. We need to be 110 percent" certain that a person is guilty. "We can't be just executing people without being sure," Shami said. "We cannot be bragging how many people we execute."

"No," said White to the same question about a death-penalty moratorium, "not in all cases." White said an absolute moratorium would "disrespect" juries, victims and the justice system, but he said there should be extensive investigation in cases in which there are questions about guilt.

"I will never introduce politics into questions of life or death," added White, citing in an indirect slap at GOP Gov. Rick Perry the Forensic Science Commission. ... "By and large, this is a just system ... We also need to look after the rights of those victims."

"We need an immediate moratorium on drilling in the Barnett Shale until the natural gas companies can conclusively show their drilling will not have a negative impact on the public health of those people living in the area. We can always drill later, but you cannot cure the cancer these chemicals can cause."

... The Fort Worth Star Telegram Reported on January 19th that White said, "Companies ought to be able to conduct fracturing operations and completions of gas wells in responsible fashions that don't lead to emissions," he said. "If there are elevated levels of benzene, there ought to be actions taken at the wellhead ... and technology does allow that to be done."

Burnt Orange carried the liveblog again and duplicated the feed on the White site, while Shami's crew did the same.  (Watching both simultaneously was a dizzying experince in twin campaign spin from opposite directions.) The Texas Blue didn't try that again but did get their take up first.

More reactions as they roll in.

Update: Texas Cloverleaf ...

I just watched an utter disaster of a Democratic TX Governor's candidate debate between Bill White and Farouk Shami. It pretty much determined my vote will be for White, though be it with some reservations still. Shami may be a good guy and a good businessman, but he isn't ready to lead Texas. Although the Shami campaign already claimed a win, I think it was on Planet CHI that he won anything. That debate went hands down to Bill White for being prepared, knowing what the Governor does, and being able to answer the questions (though he didn't have to answer whether he would repeal the gay marriage ban or not- what's up with that??).

Harvey Kronberg:

Bill White and Farouk Shami shared a stage in Fort Worth tonight but, truth be told, the men weren’t in the same debate.

And that’s OK. They had different bars to clear and for the most part they cleared them.

As the Houston Chronicle’s Rick Casey pointed out in his column this morning, White won simply by having a debate at which to show up. An hour on statewide TV where he was sharp and hit his marks was probably worth millions that he otherwise would have had to spend on paid TV.

Texas Liberal:

I’ll offer two thoughts—

1. The person you see in the picture above is quite rude and condescending. Her name is Shelley Kofler and she was one of the panelists this evening for the debate.

She was abrasive and condescending to candidate Farouk Shami many times during the debate. Ms. Kofler appears to have an extensive resume in television reporting and I’m sure she is quite well-informed about Texas politics. Yet at the same time, she is abrasive for no clear reason.

2. The debate tonight was the second time I’ve heard Mr. Shami speak and I find him more coherent than I think he comes off to many voters. There is an underlying theme of decency and fair-play in his campaign message. Maybe it is all an act, but I’d be open to the guy if he’d not go on about stuff like jobs for all and free electricity. That kind of talk is simply not credible.

"Who Dat?" Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance congratulates the city of New Orleans for the Saints' stirring Super Bowl victory, and reminds them that the "hair of the dog" trick doesn't really help with the hangover.

The Texas Cloverleaf highlights the sentencing of GOP Denton County Constable Ken Jannereth. Probation, anger management, laying off the bottle, and maybe more to come for the disgraced lawman.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is watching two Texas Counties fight it out with their district attorneys over legal duties.

Bay Area Houston says Teabaggers claim illiterate Blacks elected Obama.

Is your gas wet or dry? Despite industry spin, it seems to not matter. TCEQ testing shows Barnett Shale "Dry Gas" health hazard. TXsharon thanks state representative Lon Burnam for wading through the recent TCEQ testing report to find the truth, in Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker connects Obama's big picture with our big picture in Obama's Problem is Our Problem In a Nutshell. Is our future Sarah Palin, Tea Baggers, and failure?

This week at Left of College Station, Teddy interviews several members of the GLBTcommunity at Texas A&M while investigating what it is like to be gay in Aggieland. LoCS also takes a look at American's ignorance of current events and the political process and has a report on the local campaign spending and donations. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

McBlogger notes that the Nuge was campaigning for 39% over the weekend. Can't you just feel the greasy, smelly excitement?

WCNews at Eye On Williamson looks at how the legislature is already laying the groundwork for adding sales taxes to items currently excluded like bottled water, basic internet service, and coin operated services in House Ways and Means Committee to look at "Certain Sales Tax Exemptions & Exclusions.

Off the Kuff looks at the effect of the "Citizens United" ruling on judicial elections in Texas.

WhosPlayin is neck-deep in local issues in North Texas, having spent the weekend with the Lewisville City Council at their retreat, and noting that the local school district is discouraging candidates from running for school board.

This week at Texas Vox Citizen Sarah geeked out on the new energy generation plan presented to Austin City Council. May not sound too snazzy but there's enormous potential there to reduce carbon emissions, build up our local economy, and improve public health with this plan, so she thinks it is pretty cool.

Neil at Texas Liberal commented that office building janitors in Houston have set up a Facebook page as they prepare for a new round of contract negotiations in 2010. All work has merit and all people should be paid a living wage.

Yesterday was huge for New Orleans but it was also TeaBagger Rally Day in northwest Harris County, as PDiddie at Brains and Eggs recounted in "Rick and Ted's (and Sarah's) Excellent Super Bowl Sunday Venture".

Bill vs. Farouk

Tonight, live and in person, on your teevee. And lately also in the news and in the blogs.

Here's Red White and Blue's video interview with Shami (it goes 26 minutes plus). And the TexTrib has compiled several links and video in "The More You Know ... About Bill White". Charles Kuffner has audio interviews with both men.

The Texas Observer's The Mayor and The Mogul has some good Q&A. Here's a bit from both fellows ...

TO: Can you elaborate a little on your plans for stimulating the economy? you said you want to start at the bottom. What does that mean?

Shami: I’ve been to El Paso, and I visited the colonias. I understand there are thousands of these. In Houston, I see the Fifth Ward, Third Ward, Sunnyside, Acres Homes. Such poor people. As long as those people are poor and having no jobs ... so my concept is to start with these people and create jobs. Bring factories to these communities.

I’ve been working for the last few months with engineers and experts on solar panels. Soon we will be building the first solar panels in El Paso and hiring hundreds of people and working there with the community for people to do installing of those solar panels. [Shami has been a major investor in a solar panel project in El Paso.] I’m hoping we can do that in all poor communities and create approximately 150,000 jobs in the next couple of years.

So that’s where I say stimulate the economy starting from the bottom. Those people, when they get a check, they spend it the next day. It goes back to the economy. And that keeps the money in the state. That’s how you stimulate the economy.
We need green jobs. They would serve many purposes—working with the solar panels, using the sun, which is the cheapest form of energy and the cleanest form of energy, and it’s creating jobs.

TO: We’re in a time when there’s a lot of anti-Obama backlash and a lot of antigovernment sentiment. Clearly you are running on a good-government message, which hasn’t always worked in Texas, to say the least. How are you going to sell people on competent governance?

White: You know, Texas will be a poorer state without an economic future that’s as much as it can be. We lead the nation in the percentage of adults without a high school diploma. Texas is unusual among American states and countries on Earth of having the younger generations having a lower percentage of college degrees than older Texans. We will not have a solid economic future unless we invest in the people of this state and have people who are productive, that can save and invest in small businesses, that can purchase consumer goods. And I think Texans understand this.

We need to move our state forward. We’ve had too much of the wedge politics issues in the past. And I think that most Texans are ready for somebody just to work for the people of Texas on solutions.

I think what you’re seeing a backlash against is what people consider to be a lot of political theater in Washington. There’s a lot of hype and rhetoric. When you have two wars going on, when you’re in a global and economic recession, and we’re in a state that is last in a lot of things we ought to be first in, then people are ready for some new leadership.

Despite being the house organ for the Texas Democratic establishment, Burnt Orange Report breaks with the party line in their aggregate of the Austin Statesman's reporting. The AAS's PolitiFact breaks down Shami's racism allegations against White. And Dr. Richard Murray of the University of Houston and ABC13 predicts that White will get 60% of the primary vote on March 2 (a contention I dispute in the comments there and in this post as well).

Hal levels a critique on the Shami campaign and specifically campaign manager Vince Leibowitz, who is the president of the Texas Progressive Alliance, in which the three of us of are members. Muse posted about Shami's "beefy aides", and compared statements between White and Kay Bailey (personally, I can't tell the difference).

I posted about the exclusion of the other five candidates for governor from tonight's debate here, an entreaty that fell on completely deaf ears. I also had a compilation of news and blog articles on Shami last month, and my 2007 meeting on e-Slate issues with White, before and after.

Hank versus Kinky

Lots and lots of news about the Democratic primary contest for commissioner of agriculture. What follows is a selection of excerpts and links to the source, which I recommended following and reading entirely.

Democratic agriculture commissioner candidates Kinky Friedman and Hank Gilbert met for their first, and likely only, editorial board meeting together late Friday afternoon at The Dallas Morning News.

Friedman balked when he arrived and heard Gilbert was attending. He said he had not been told of the joint session. Editorial board staff told him it was written in a letter he had received.

But Friedman need not have worried. His counterpart showed up half an hour late. This left Friedman time to talk about following the "Hightower model," throw in some jabs at Gov. Rick Perry and use his latest line, "putting the culture back in agriculture." ...

Gilbert talked about his agricultural background and his desire to build reservoirs and develop desalination plants across the state.

At one point, Friedman looked over at Gilbert and said, "Taken together, we'd probably make up an adequate human being."

He got a smirk from Gilbert who responded, "I'm gonna have to dispute that."

More from Trail Blazers, including these ...

Kinky: Longhorns to Haiti

Gilbert: Campaign cash for clothes

Kinky: Jason Stanford and Chris Bell (and a dog)

And from the DMN a couple of weeks ago ...Friedman, Gibert butt hat brims in tense stand-off:

When Friedman took a break, during the speeches, Gilbert followed him. The showdown took place outside the conference room, the brim of Gilbert's white cowboy hat up against Friedman's black one.

"There is no reason to bring up things that are not relevant to this campaign," Gilbert said. "That's old-time politics that have long passed by."

Friedman pulled his trademark cigar out of his mouth and denied leaking any information.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, shaking his head. Gilbert backed off, and Friedman suggested to his campaign manager that they go outside to defuse the situation.

As you might imagine, the Texas left blogosphere has been lively about all of this.

The World's Most Dangerous Beauty Salon, Inc.:

Juanita Jean likes cowboys. So, when Hank Gilbert decided to re-enter politics, she was pleased. But then Hank couldn’t decide what horse to ride, who was in charge of paying the band, or who his dance partner is. It was a goat rodeo. ...

“It’s gonna take a faith healer, a voodoo doll, and a 20 car prayer meeting to get this guy’s campaign back on track ...”

“He’s throwing us into Kinky Friedman’s arms,” Juanita moans, “and, Honey, there have been some things in Kinky’s arms that require an environmental impact study just to move across the room. I’m not overly anxious to be there, but at least he seems to know what he’s doing most the time.” I suspect she heard me snort. “I said MOST!” she reiterated.

jobsanger:

A few days ago, the campaign again blundered. After meeting with National Farmer's Union president Roger Johnson, Gilbert announced that Johnson had endorsed him to be Texas Agriculture Commissioner. The only problem with that is Mr. Johnson said he had NOT made any endorsement in the race.

Again the campaign came up with a rather weak excuse for the error. They said they'd been getting so many endorsements that they just made a mistake. That sounds like a pretty egregious mistake. Is the campaign so disorganized that it can't even keep something as simple as an endorsement straight?

Gilbert ran a pretty good campaign in 2006. Even though he didn't win, he actually got more votes than the Democratic candidate for governor did. But his 2010 campaign seems to be a comedy of errors.

McBlogger:

The interview was little more than a careening mess with Friedman clearly not cognizant that the position really involves more than just name dropping and asking Hightower what he'd do. And, of course, it gave Friedman a chance to misrepresent the DMN for calling him the safe, sane choice (which they did, but only when it comes to driving habits) ...

But what really got me what was him dropping out there that he'll increase Democratic vote by 7%, according to a good pollster. Which is cool except for one thing... now one knows how much of the Democratic electorate, made up of a large number of the same racial minorities Kinky has used for his insipid comedy routine for years, will decide to come out because he's on the ballot.

On the other side is Hank Gilbert. He can actually say he's done what Kinky claims he can do. He pulled 7% over the Democratic base vote in 2006 and he's only gotten stronger with Independents and moderate Republicans since through his work to kill the TTC. And, as an added bonus, he doesn't anger the Democratic base.

Texas Cloverleaf:

Both Hank and Kinky do have good ideas. They both hate toll roads. They both like ranches. Both really like animals. But what bothers me the most is the character of the man that we are about to elect. Sure, the recent news on Hank not wearing his seatbelt or driving on a revoked license is not the best thing out there, but it sure doesn't beat nigger eggs. Oh, you are wondering why I used that term? Well, it is because the Kinkster did, so it must be cool, right? No, it isn't cool. ...

We can not have an "entertainer" who has spent more time on a tour selling books, cigars, and salsa running a serious commission in the state. Remember the last slew of actors we elected to office? Ronald Reagan. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Jesse Ventura. Jerry Springer. How did those work out? I would rather have the guy who was a school teacher and a rancher deciding how our agriculture is promoted in Texas. That would be Hank Gilbert.

Super Sunday Funnies

NFL = socialism

As we all prepare -- well, most of us; well ... a lot of us -- to spend another late-winter Sunday afternoon sharing in a little social networking experiment called the Super Bowl, let's be reminded that the National Football League is not only the most wildly successful but also the most socialistic of all professional sports organizations. Let's count the ways ...

Revenue sharing (all money from the television contracts signed with the networks and cable stations gets split evenly among teams) guarantees that the Pittsburghs and Green Bays can compete with the New Yorks and Chicagos. In comparison, major league baseball owners have long eschewed the revenue-sharing model, enabling teams like the Yankees to earn and spend higher mountains of cash than their relatively poverty-stricken counterparts in Tampa Bay and Seattle.

Name me any other industry in this country where the franchisees share equally in the largest stream of revenue.

The taxpayers in each city subsidize the initial construction cost of the respective team owners' largest manufacturing facility (stadiums). The municipalities share in the expense but not in the income, unless you count tax revenue collected from the restaurants and sports bars near the stadium on game days.

When it comes to selecting the most talented and experienced workers -- the draft --  the worst is always first and the champion last. Even the scheduling takes into effect that the lousiest teams get to play one another the following season, while the best ones get to beat up on each other.

"Parity", and not 'just winning', to paraphrase Oakland-then-Los Angeles-and-back-to-Oakland Raiders owner Al Davis, is the name of the NFL game, baby.

And then there's the player salary cap, where each team's payroll is frozen at an equal sum across the league, as well as the fact that the NFL has never had any investment in a minor league farm system like baseball and basketball (the colleges and universities take care of that expense for them).

This quasi-socialist business model has paid off handsomely; billions of dollars (almost $7B in 2008 alone) for its 32 owners, making the NFL far and away one of the most profitable operations ever invented. The brand is so strong that the Houston Texans secured the second largest debt-refinance contract in team sports history (through 2003, that is) and that was before they ever played their first game. Professional football is in fact so lucrative that American multi-millionaires -- and billionaires -- have to make their millions and billions in other industries before they can get accepted into the exclusive private club of NFL ownership.

There's just one place where these titans of commerce show their true colors: like most other capitalist pigs, they blame the "fact" that they still aren't making enough money on their employees.

Rick and Ted's (and Sarah's) Excellent Super Bowl Sunday Venture

It won't be retarded, but it will be crazy ... because you couldn't pile the nuts any higher if you used a steamshovel:

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is coming to Texas on Sunday, February 7, 2010 to headline a rally for Governor Perry's re-election campaign. We invite you to join Sarah Palin, Rick Perry, and your fellow conservatives in Houston for this exciting event. ...


Due to the enthusiastic response and to ensure everyone has a chance to see Governor Palin, Ted Nugent, Governor Perry and others, they have agreed to have two events at the Berry complex, and both will be simulcast together.

Lock up the women and children, get your dogs inside the house, tie down your valuables and stay the hell away from 290 at Barker-Cypress at all cost. 

This is a private event. No trespassing is allowed, it is for Perry supporters. No signs, sticks, or glass bottles or cans allowed. Please bring your cameras, cell phones, and PDA’s, your voices, your enthusiasm, your patience and your conservative spirit. This is going to be a liberty-lovin, freedom-singin', blow the doors down, good ole' fashioned rally. 

They didn't say nuttin' about no guns, though. Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.

Nuge is doin' the Anthem. Ain't that great? A brave American who defecated on himself and wore the pants for several days before showing up at his Vietnam draft board hearing.

They didn't take Ted into the US Army, but that's OK; now he's Rick Perry's boy all day long.

Obama suggests healthcare reform is nearly dead

After insisting for a year that failure was not an option, President Barack Obama is now acknowledging his health care overhaul may die in Congress.

His remarks at a Democratic National Committee fundraiser Thursday night sounded contradictory at times, complicating congressional leaders' effort to revive health care legislation as Democrats hunger for guidance from the White House. Even while saying he still wanted to get the job done, Obama counseled going slow, and bowed to new political realities. Democrats no longer command a filibuster-proof Senate majority, and voters and lawmakers are far more concerned with jobs and the economy than with enacting sweeping and expensive changes to the health system.

Not exactly bold leadership on the issue.

Sweeping health legislation to extend medical coverage to more than 30 million uninsured Americans passed both chambers of Congress last year and was on the verge of completion before Republican Scott Brown's upset victory in a Massachusetts special U.S. Senate election last month. Brown was sworn in Thursday, giving Republicans 41 votes, enough to block the initiatives of the Democratic majority.

Now the health legislation hangs in limbo. Lawmakers are looking to Obama for a path forward, but he has not publicly offered specifics. His signals have been mixed. At the DNC event he said Republicans should be part of the process — something they've shown little interest in and that would doubtlessly drag out a legislative effort that many rank-and-file Democrats want to end quickly. The health care bill has become unpopular with the public and a political drag for lawmakers.

As usual he's not tipping his hand, again so as to avoid catching the blame:

"And it may be that ... if Congress decides we're not going to do it, even after all the facts are laid out, all the options are clear, then the American people can make a judgment as to whether this Congress has done the right thing for them or not," the president said. "And that's how democracy works. There will be elections coming up and they'll be able to make a determination and register their concerns one way or the other during election time."

Don't let the moment pass, but be deliberate. Move forward to a vote while at the same time have meetings, listen to the Republicans' ideas (sic), take your time, make a decision.

Remember when this was going to be done by Christmas?

I was a proponent some time ago of letting HCR pass away, but it should have been done so that its death was clearly the fault of the GOP. Responsibility for the failure -- whether the inept Dems could make it so, or not -- belongs squarely at their feet.

But once again the president has managed to kowtow to the intransigent minority and piss off his base while looking weak, all at the same time. That's an award-winning recipe for failure.

39% and Kay Bailey headed to run-off

As I previously predicted, Rasmussen shows the GOP goobers primary as a MoFo's to lose:

Incumbent Rick Perry's lead over Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison has grown a little bigger in the race for this year's Republican gubernatorial nomination in Texas. Tea Party activist Debra Medina also has gained ground, and her gains appear to come at the expense of Hutchison.

The latest Rasmussen Reports survey of likely Republican Primary voters in Texas finds Perry leading Hutchison 44% to 29%, with Medina at 16%.

Medina has gained four points since the previous survey while Hutchison has lost four points. Perry's support is little changed from a month ago.

Harvey observes that this is the first time Kay Bailey has polled below 30%.

Now that first link above -- here it is again -- also contains my prediction for the Democratic primary, a prediction I reposted today on Dr. Richard Murray's blog... where he thinks Bill White is going to get 60% on March 2.

I will certainly look forward to comparing the outcomes with our predictions on Election Night.

The Weekly Wrangle

Dr. Stephen L. Klineberg of Rice University and the Houston Area Survey notes:

In 2009, 25% of the respondents said that "buying the groceries to feed their family" was either a "very serious" or " somewhat serious" problem for them during the past year, up from 19% in 2002.

Other highlights from the 2009 survey at the link (in .pdf form).

The Texas Progressive Alliance brings you the following blog highlights from the past week.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks that the Houston Chronicle caught the essence of the GOP with this headline: 'Many attacks, but few suggestions'.

WhosPlayin is tired of hearing obstructionist Republicans whining about not having a seat at the table for health care insurance reform, after they make it clear they'll vote against any attempt to harm their Big Pharma and Big Insurance benefactors.

Off the Kuff notes that the Texas ParentPAC has endorsed Thomas Ratliff in his GOP primary fight against uber-SBOE wingnut Don McLeroy.

Bay Area Houston watched as the Texas Association of Builders got kicked in the nuts at a hearing in Austin over the abuse of mandatory binding arbitration.

It's been such an amazing news week in the Barnett Shale that it's hard to pick one topic for the round-up. One item that should be of interest to anyone in the DFW area who drinks water: Argyle Disposal Well in Denton Creek Flood Plain. No kidding! It's for real on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

The Texas Cloverleaf looks at the taxing TAKS becoming the pretty STAAR that school children will have to shoot past in order to graduate.

Has the so-called nuclear renaissance been dealt a blow by the South Texas Project's troubles? Learn more at Texas Vox.

If you missed the GOP governor's debate, check out McBlogger's rather insightful analysis of the three players' performances, along with a mercifully brief comment on the sexual desirability of Rep. Louie Gohmert.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the latest Texans for Public Justice "Watching Your Assets" report, this one about the Texas Enterprise Fund: Perry's corporate welfare not paying off for Texas.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw puts a local spin on young James O'Keefe's foiled attempt to tamper with Mary Landrieu's phones. The roll call of Texas Republican admirers is quite long. Of equal interest was the discussion that followed the outing of these Republicans. See it all at Texas Republican Lawmakers Honor James O'Keefe.

It's a travesty that only Bill White and Farouk Shami are participating in the Texas Democratic gubernatorial debate on February 8 because the other five candidates don't meet the "standards". PDiddie at Brains and Eggs believes it's impossible to reconcile that KERA, a public broadcasting station, together with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Univision and other corporate and media industry sponsors, would conspire to preclude candidates for the state's highest public office.

Neil at Texas Liberal is glad that Houston city councilmember Jarvis Johnson is talking about poverty in his 18th U.S. House District primary fight with incumbent Sheila Jackson Lee. However, it will take some solid ideas and not just talk to feel that Mr. Johnson is really serious about the issue.

White and Shami only

This is wrong, and not good for democracy:

Texas’ two leading Democratic gubernatorial candidates will square off in the televised debate next month but the five other candidates on the ballot won't be joining them.

Former Houston Mayor Bill White and hair-care magnate Farouk Shami will face off in their first debate on Feb. 8 in Fort Worth.

The debate will be hosted by public TV station KERA/Channel 13. As with KERA's Republican gubernatorial debate earlier this month, the Star-Telegram is a co-sponsor.

Along with White and Shami, five other candidates are running for the DemocraticBill White nomination: educator Felix Alvarado, doctor Alma Aguado, private investigator Bill Dear, professor Clement Glenn and home builder Star Locke.

You may recall that Belo pulled this same crap on Debra Medina with the GOP gubernatorial debates. Only a outpouring of protest made the debate sponsors relent and include her.

I simply don't like the idea of a  collection of corporations and trade groups (comprised of a handful of "very important people") deciding who gets to participate in democracy based on shit criteria like this:

3. Polls are a measure of voter interest. If a candidate receives a minimum of a 6% rating in an established, nonpartisan poll or an average of established, nonpartisan polls, the candidate will be presumed to be newsworthy. Voter interest may also be measured by the amount of votes cast for a candidate, and so a candidate would have to receive a minimum of 6% of votes in a previous election for the same office or a comparable office.

And if you agree with me, then contact KERA and their co-sponsor the Startlegram, and perhaps the other sponsors including KTVT and Univision and the Texas Association of Broadcasters and the Texas State Radio Networks and the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas and tell them so.

jobsanger observes that KERA ia a public broadcasting station:

I would have expected this kind of slanted-opinion behavior from a privately-owned television station or network (like Fox News), but it is very disappointing when it comes from a station supposedly owned by the people. After all, KERA is supported by federal funds (that is, taxes paid by all of us) and donations from ordinary citizens. It seems traitorous for them to only allow the rich candidates to debate on their station (the candidates who already have the money to buy all the publicity they need).

Public television advertises itself as the station and network that brings the people programming they can't get on other privately-owned networks and stations -- quality programming that may appeal to only a minority of television viewers. Why then, do they change that mission when it comes to politics? Why do they allow in their debate only the rich candidates declared to be frontrunners by the privately-owned media?

It may be true that the other five candidates don't have nearly the funds of the two rich candidates, but does that mean they would have nothing to offer the people of Texas? In fact, their lack of funds makes it even more important for the people's public television to give them the opportunity to show they are (or aren't) a quality candidate, possibly with more to offer the voters than the rich "anointed" or self-funded candidates.

Felix Alvarado, one of the untouchables, points out ...

Apparently, money is the only driving force in the democratic arena…

For the past few months, we have read over and over again the need for recruiting well-qualified democratic candidates to run for statewide office.  Few can deny that the objective was to recruit a Latino to run against Perry, but anyone would do, anyone that is …that the democratic establishment felt was well – qualified.

And Dr. Alma Aguado noted in the comments there that minorities and the poor lack the resources and the literacy -- technological as well as information sifting (ie, "the ability to interpret the reliability and accuracy of information") -- in order to fully participate online. Which is where the action, as we all know, is.

This circumstance is particularly odious for an organization like the FOIFT to go along with. And since there are two Hispanic candidates in the race being frozen out of the debate, it would be interesting to know how the folks at Univision feel about their participation.

Obviously this is about the ease of moderating a two-person debate than a seven-person one, and the 'dangerous precedent' set by having anyone who pays the filing fee getting to be on teevee with the VIPs. What, pray tell, would happen if twenty people filed for governor four years from now? However would they be able to control that?

Limiting participation limits choices and restricts the democratic process. It allows for greater control by already-too-powerful sources. We can stop this but it requires taking action to do so.

The Medina supporters got it done. Can we?

Sunday Funnies

Who won? Depends.

Which probably means Governor 39% won by not losing ... even if he really didn't do anything to win.

First: Why doesn't anybody who covers these ever write about what a supreme ass Rick Perry is?  His conduct is mostly obnoxious and occasionally reprehensible. He's rude, condescending, snide, boorish and basically a jerk and that's only when he's not acting like Dick Cheney. As a matter of fact he's almost a blend of the preceding governor and the former vice-president/domestic-terrorist understudy; a snarl with a smirk.

Good ol' Burka thinks he won going away...

So, who won? I think Perry was the clear winner. He got all of his messages out, anti-Washington on highway funding and securing the border, proud of having a vision on transportation. He took a big hit on the Enterprise Fund, but he didn’t yield, insisted it would work out. He didn’t ever say Everybody wants to move to Texas or engage in a lot of braggadocio. It was pretty clear that he wasn’t excited about being there, but every time they took a shot at him he would just grin a little more. I’m sure that he was gritting his teeth behind that grin. When he was asked for information, he knew his stuff cold. He came across as a serious politician. Hutchison had no energy. She was very weak on the issue of how to fund TxDOT. It’s like that beer commercial where the guy can’t say he loves the girl. Can’t get the word out. Ttttaxes. Ttttolls. BBBonds. She wants to audit TxDot. Perry killed her. TxDOT gets audited every two years, he said.

Medina came across as more of an amateur this time. Last time she was spunky. This time she was old news. I was impressed that she nailed the question about how much starting school teachers made. The questions weren’t really good for her. She didn’t have a lot of opportunity to score points with the tea party crowd. Her issues are pretty esoteric. Property tax versus consumption tax. Nullification. I think this debate was really set up to be a fight between Hutchison and Perry for the GOP base vote, not the crazies. It was her last chance to win them over, and she didn’t come close to doing it. Perry by a mile.

Mmmmmmnnnot quite, Paul.

If he won, it was only because Kay Bailey was pathetic (he's dead solid about that) and Medina was not the kid-that-nobody-expected-to-be-in-the-finals this time (she had a higher bar to clear and missed it).

Medina's backtracking on secession after they showed tape of her calling for it  on the south steps of the Capitol was her Waterloo. She did get a few good shots in and she aced a pop quiz answer or two, but she's really just a flash in the pan.  The ultra-loonies will stick with her but the movement will be toward Rick Perry because they all hate Kay so much.  Her nuance on Roe crushes her with these people.

Rick Perry lied through those grinning, gritted teeth so many times, advanced his BS talking points ('"I always stand on the side of life"... and I'll kill ya if ya don't get outta my way') until the mods and panelists cut him off, determinedly ignored his opponents while they spoke, and generally acted like the petulant frat boy Medina called him in the WSJ (but backed away from when grilled about it) until the clock ran out.

Winning by not screwing up, and by having the lamest opposition ever.  Yeah, he's on a winning streak, all right.  Other reactions:

Peggy Fikac: Well, it was a debate

KHOU: Mobile text poll results give edge to Medina (has links to the debate video)

RG Ratcliffe (and Peggy Fikac): Many attacks, few suggestions

John Cobarruvias:  Wayne Slater won

Texas Tribune: No knockout in final round (audio analysis of the debate going forward to March 2) and Watching the Focus Group (I'll spare you the click-over: all but one of a group of GOP undecideds thinks Perry won)

Burnt Orange and Texas Blue also live-blogged. (Sorry fellas, but with Facebook and Twitter also offering all the instant analysis anybody could ever want, live-blogging anything has become more boring than being alive.)

Following up two recent posts *make that three*

-- "TeaBuggin'" drew an enormous amount of unique visitors and click-throughs this week. The post connected the escapades of filmographer/"pimp"/"telephone repairman" James O'Keefe, his employer/contractor Andrew Breitbart, and Governor Rick Perry, who hosted Breitbart and other right-wing bloggers in an Austin get-together just this past weekend. Perry praised the "New Media" which Brietbart advocates and O'Keefe creates.  Maybe some enterprising journalist will ask the governor how proud he is of their most recent work in tonight's debate.  Meanwhile, you can view Brietbart (who demonstrates the same unhinged rage in person that he does in his writing on his blog) and MSNBC's David Shuster squaring off -- loudly and rudely -- in this video:



... and Perry and Brietbart and the other conservo-bloggers worshipping their weapons and each other in this video (Pajamas Media will allow you to watch it a limited number of times before they force you to register).

-- The snickering and implied sexism noted in "iPad: Mini or maxi?" also made several rounds elsewhere throughout the online world. Here are some pictures of the, ah, "hybrid product" introduced by Apple and Steve Jobs earlier in the week, courtesy Freetechie. And Feministing piled on, observing the probable lack of women's input on the name. But Apple has endured snark before about its branding and seems poised, as usual, to capitalize on the power of its product (and not its marketing).

Update: And Obama's State of the Union address, advanced here in cartoons and reacted to here by our Alliance, drew only a muttered 'you lie' instead of a shouted one, this time from Justice Samuel Alito. Demonstrating his remarkable judicial temperance, Alito scowled, shook his head, and said "not true" in response to the president's criticism of the Citizens United v. FEC decision handed down last week. Republican reaction -- led in ever-embarrassing fashion by our very own John Cornyn -- was proto-typically hypocritical. It conveniently overlooked GOP presidents' own harsh criticisms of Supreme Court decisions such as Roe v. Wade. And as the world comes around once more, we recall that Alito, as a Reagan DOJ attorney, had a hand in crafting legal strategies to overturn Roe as well.

Say no to activist judges? Republicans lie.

Howard Zinn and J.D. Salinger

I note their passings this week with greater woe in admitting that I have read neither A People's History of the United States nor Catcher in the Rye.

Proudly, unabashedly radical, with a mop of white hair and bushy eyebrows and an impish smile, Mr. Zinn, who retired from the history faculty at Boston University two decades ago, delighted in debating ideological foes, not the least his own college president, and in lancing what he considered platitudes, not the least that American history was a heroic march toward democracy.

Democracy Now! collects his appearances on their program, which you may select, watch, and listen. In November 2008, Zinn was in Houston to give the keynote address at the National Council for the Social Studies annual conference.  You may watch that speech here.

==================

Mr. Salinger’s literary reputation rests on a slender but enormously influential body of published work: the novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” the collection “Nine Stories” and two compilations, each with two long stories about the fictional Glass family: “Franny and Zooey” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.”

“Catcher” was published in 1951, and its very first sentence, distantly echoing Mark Twain, struck a brash new note in American literature: “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”

Though not everyone, teachers and librarians especially, was sure what to make of it, “Catcher” became an almost immediate best seller, and its narrator and main character, Holden Caulfield, a teenager newly expelled from prep school, became America’s best-known literary truant since Huckleberry Finn.

With its cynical, slangy vernacular voice (Holden’s two favorite expressions are “phony” and “goddam”), its sympathetic understanding of adolescence and its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world, the novel struck a nerve in cold war America and quickly attained cult status, especially among the young. Reading “Catcher” used to be an essential rite of passage, almost as important as getting your learner’s permit.

The novel’s allure persists to this day, even if some of Holden’s preoccupations now seem a bit dated, and it continues to sell more than 250,000 copies a year in paperback. Mark David Chapman, who killed John Lennon in 1980, even said the explanation for his act could be found in the pages of “The Catcher in the Rye.” In 1974 Philip Roth wrote, “The response of college students to the work of J. D. Salinger indicates that he, more than anyone else, has not turned his back on the times but, instead, has managed to put his finger on whatever struggle of significance is going on today between self and culture.”

Many critics were more admiring of “Nine Stories,” which came out in 1953 and helped shape writers like Mr. Roth, John Updike and Harold Brodkey. The stories were remarkable for their sharp social observation, their pitch-perfect dialogue (Mr. Salinger, who used italics almost as a form of musical notation, was a master not of literary speech but of speech as people actually spoke it) and the way they demolished whatever was left of the traditional architecture of the short story — the old structure of beginning, middle, end — for an architecture of emotion, in which a story could turn on a tiny alteration of mood or irony. Mr. Updike said he admired “that open-ended Zen quality they have, the way they don’t snap shut.”

Mr. Salinger also perfected the great trick of literary irony — of validating what you mean by saying less than, or even the opposite of, what you intend. Orville Prescott wrote in The New York Times in 1963, “Rarely if ever in literary history has a handful of stories aroused so much discussion, controversy, praise, denunciation, mystification and interpretation.” 

So many people I know well -- and more just in passing -- were so moved by both men's words that I felt compelled to mark their deaths, and I hope I can make acquaintance with those words in the very near future.

Repugs debate tonight (and Dems next week)

TeaBagger darling Debra Medina tries to catapult her propaganda from the last tussle with Kay and Rick to even higher political fortunes in the second face-off between GOP gubernatorial contenders in Dallas this evening.

As the Republican candidates for governor prepare for what likely is their last debate tonight on statewide television, the first debate between Democrats Bill White and Farouk Shami has been set for Feb. 8 in Fort Worth. ...

Hutchison and Medina both benefited from the first debate, the former because of her energetic assault on Perry's record. Medina, as an unknown candidate, gained credibility through her knowledge of the issues.

Perry again will be the target in tonight's debate, hosted by Belo Corp., its affiliated newspapers and TV stations. Perry said he felt confident.

“I've been preparing for this debate for about 25 years. So nothing's different,” the incumbent said Thursday.

He sounds terrified to me.

“The economy is the No. 1 issue that is out there and I'm going to argue that Texas is in better shape than just about any other state,” Perry said. “Texans want a leader who is confident. Texans want a leader who knows exactly where he wants to take this state and has the record to back it up.”

Hutchison spokeswoman Jennifer Baker said the senator, who was in Washington on Thursday, plans to focus her debate on Texas' future and challenge Perry to explain how he would use another term in office.

Medina, meanwhile ...

(...) acknowledges that voters and political observers wonder whether Perry and Hutchison were just caught off-guard at the first debate, and whether she will prove to be a credible candidate.

"It’s important to see whether I can take the heat" in the second debate, she says. "We deserve as Texans to know whether someone we’re putting in leadership can handle herself under pressure. This is the only chance for all Texans to be able to see that."

We'll be watching. As will Bill White and Farouk Shami and the rest of the Democratic field, who may not make the Belo cut to appear. More on that outcome today from the Dallas News.

Texas Progressive Alliance rejects Obama's spending freeze

*Note: I missed the deadline to include my statement in this release, so my thoughts appear at the end of this post.

Top progressive bloggers from across Texas issued a statement today in response to President Obama's State of the Union address cautioning the President to avoid implementing a federal spending freeze.  While these bloggers maintain their support of their President and their Democratic candidates, they reject the notion that a spending freeze is a valid solution for working Americans in this time of economic crisis.

"A spending freeze is foolish," said Trey McAtee, an Austin-based blogger who writes under the pseudonym of  'McBlogger.'  "It is not in line with the ideals of President Obama's supporters, and as progressive bloggers we're here to make sure he knows that."

These members of the Texas Progressive Alliance, a coalition of progressive Texas bloggers formed in 2007, call on President Obama to reconsider his plans for a spending freeze and instead focus on restoring the confidence that businesses have in the future.

The following individual statements were issued:

"The economy is still in a precarious and fragile state, even today.  The deficit hawks in Congress have decided to willfully ignore reality and opted instead to play politics on the issue of the deficit.  They're making demands that, if the President accedes, will lead to a long lasting economic malaise."

-- Trey McAtee of McBlogger (http://www.mcblogger.com)

"The spending freeze will likely affect those who need it the most during this difficult time in our economy.  Throughout his campaign, Obama criticized his opponent's calls for a spending freeze, calling it a 'hatchet when we need a scalpel.'  The only difference progressives see now between Obama and McCain's platform is that Sarah Palin isn't standing next to him."

-- Rachel Farris of MeanRachel (http://www.meanrachel.com)

"During his candidacy, President Obama promised to overhaul immigration early in his first term. However, many immigrant rights advocates fear Obama's spending freeze will put a halt to any type of immigration reform. Any further delay to fix the broken immigration system and this nation will continue to see the devastation of thousands of families and neighborhoods."

-- Edmundo Rocha of Para Justicia y Libertad (http://xicanopwr.com/)

"The spending freeze is both bad policy and bad politics. The last thing we need to hear about right now are ideas for what the government won't do to get us out of the economic crisis that has crippled many American families. What we need instead is bold leadership, not efforts to satisfy the whims of obstructionist Republicans and cowardly Blue Dog Democrats."

-- "Xanthippas" of Three Wise Men (http://threewismenblog.com.)

"A spending freeze is a passing gimmick that does not address the long-term problems facing the American people. Instead of offering up a stunt, President Obama needs to discuss the realities of a changing global economy in an adult manner with the American people. Instead of retreating, government has a part to play in helping Americans with jobs, health care and education."

-- Neil Aquino of Texas Liberal (http://texasliberal.wordpress.com)

"President Obama is struggling because he's allowing his political enemies to drive the public discourse, delay his agenda in Congress and slow-walk his nominees. By refusing to fight for the issues he campaigned on, his electoral majority from 2008 is disillusioned and unmotivated. Perhaps once we have a Speaker Boehner and a Leader McConnell, Obama will realize that abandoning his base in search of approbation from the right was a mistake."

-- Editors of Eye On Williamson (http://eyeonwilliamson.org/)

"Americans need to be reminded that Obama did not create this financial mess, he inherited it! The Republican attempt to erase the George Bush presidency is astonishing. Obama needs to remember that this time the mandate is his, given to him by the very people who will suffer most under his proposed spending freeze."

-- Sharon Wilson of BLUEDAZE: Drilling Reform for Texas ( http://txsharon.blogspot.com)

"Irresponsible leadership by George W. Bush and Congressional enablers left Americans on the brink of complete economic meltdown and we are far from out of the woods on that score. Why adopt the failures of  the minority party, or pretend to for political cover? There is a very small window of opportunity  before voters decide whether to let Democrats keep their majorities.  Time to turn on the gas, not put on the freeze."

--  "Boadicea," Managing Editor of Texas Kaos (http://www.texaskaos.com)

"Although deficits and debt are a undoubtedly a long-term concern, we will have little ability to fix them and reverse course until our economy is fully back on track and unemployment comes down to a reasonable number.  To that extent, the federal government ought to be looking at continued investment that will inspire confidence and leverage private investment. Any across-the-board spending freeze is counter-productive."

-- Steve Southwell of WhosPlayin.com (http://www.whosplayin.com)

==========

I think a federal spending freeze is the worst possible thing that could be done at this moment. And while I don't completely share the expressions of support for the President expressed in the above statement's opening, 'Democrat' is my default setting.  I will vote for Obama in November 2012 if he is the Democratic nominee but I prefer to see a strong primary challenger from his left -- far left (relatively speaking).

But to the freeze: I am of the mind that the stimulus did not go far enough nor was aggressive enough; that too much was packaged as tax relief than actual spending; in short I am in complete agreement with Krugman and consider myself a full-bore Keynesian in economic philosophy (as simply as it can be expressed, that it is government's responsibility to spend its way out of a recession).

This freeze might be the greatest mistake yet made by this President ... if he should actually follow through on it (no sure thing given his record on broken promises like closing Guantanamo). It strikes me as a unilateral capitulation to the screaming of conservatives whose eardrum-pained caterwauling about deficits and debt were as AWOL during George W. Bush's terms as he was during the Vietnam war.

Obama has gone too far already in trying to entice Republicans to join him and his party to participate in governing the country. If he does not begin instituting the policies that motivated Americans to elect him to the White House, he could be ejected in 2012 -- depending in large part on who his competition is.

And yet ...

And thus - while anything's possible, of course - I am hard pressed to see how the Obama administration is anything but finished. ...

The obvious solution, of course, would be a sharp turn to the left.  Go where the real solutions are.  Fight the good fight.  Call liars ‘liars' and thieves ‘thieves'.  Do the people's business.  Become their advocate against the monsters bleeding them dry.  Create jobs.  Build infrastructure.  Do real national health care.  End the wars.  Dramatically slash military spending.  Produce actual educational reform.  Launch a massive green energy/jobs program.  Get serious about global warming.  Kick ass on campaign finance reform.  Fight for gay rights.  Restore the New Deal era regulatory framework and expand it.  Restore a fair taxation structure.  Rewrite trade agreements that undermine American jobs.  Rebuild unions.  Fill the spate of vacancies in the federal judiciary, and load those seats up with progressives.  Rally the public to demand that Congress act on your agenda.  Humiliate the regressives in and out of the GOP for their abysmal sell-out policies.

 

All of this could be done, and most of it would be very popular, especially if it was backed by an aggressive and righteously angry Oval Office advocate for the people who knew how to use the bully pulpit to shape the narrative, to market ideas, and to mobilize public support.

Obama has just nine months to get some of the things done that he spoke about tonight that will quickly put Americans back to work, the most important and valuable thing he can do. Otherwise the electorate will spill his party's blood in the midterm elections. He's blown this first year but to analogize it to football, it's halftime; he can still make the necessary adjustments and come out slinging.

And swinging.

iPad. Mini or maxi?

"Dude, you're NOT gettin' a Dell, you're gettin' a ... feminine hygiene product that resembles a Kindle. Or maybe a giant iPhone."