Councilman Kevin Cole of Pearland, Tom DeLay supporter...

sent the following e-mail to DroptheHammer.org:

Hey ass hole (sic). Tom Delay happens to be my congresman (sic) and I am happy with the job he does for me and my district. Why don’t you get the F@&* out of our district and leave us alone. Better yet, come speak to me personally and I will show you what I think of you.
Kevin Cole
Pealrand (sic), TX
(Cell Phone # Redacted)

The City of Pearland subsequently scrubbed their website of references to Councilman Cole, but this screenshot contains the missing biographical data, among which is listed his position as Deacon of First Baptist Church.

Go read the whole hilarious thing.

Update: I forgot to mention that Councilman Cole shares certain ethical characteristics with his Lord and Master (and I ain't talkin' 'bout Jesus).

Update (4/16): Councilmember Cole's bio has been returned to the City of Pearland's website, but quite a bit of editing has been performed on it. And according to a commenter at the Think Progress site (where this escapade began), Cole has disavowed to his pastor and others sending the obscenity-laced e-tirade. And Banjo Jones reports his own first-hand experiences with "Banty Rooster" Cole.

Tom DeLay's cabana boy

Ted over at Crooked Timber has an excellent post on the town hall meeting with Rep. John Culberson of the 7th Congressional district of Texas.

Now for those of you who haven't been introduced, Culberson has been carrying BugMan's water -- make that chlorine and hot towels -- for as long as he's been in the U.S House. He's spent the requisite terms in anonymity, and with the increased media attention his mentor's been getting, has been summoned from the shadows to help his master in these times of trouble.

Barbara also has some thoughts on Culberson's recent MSNBC appearance.

This is the sort of Texas Republican who might rise up in place of a fallen Sugar Land Sith Lord.

Sleep well.

Houston Activism and Events for April

There's some really special items on this latest mark-your-calendar edition:

Sen. John Edwards will speak at the South Texas College of Law, 1303 San Jacinto, on Wednesday, April 27th at 5 pm. The event is free and open to the public, but you must reserve space by sending an e-mail (one ticket per e-address) to events@txdemocrats.org .

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Tom DeLay will give the keynote address at an NRA banquet being held at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston this Saturday, April 16 at 8 pm. BAND (Bay Area New Democrats) is leading the charge to plan a peaceful protest aimed at DeLay (NOT the NRA). They want to be sure to give Delay the big welcome he deserves. Protestors will gather at 6:00 pm at the Hilton Americas, 1600 Lamar (adjacent to the GRB), to be in place by 6:30, and protest until 8:30 pm or so, then go out to celebrate. Most local media will be present. For more see the DU Meetup board.

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The Harris County Democratic Party's Brown Bag Lunch is Tuesday, April 12 from noon to 1 pm at party HQ, 1445 North Loop West, #110 (exit Ella Blvd). The topic is "TRAFFIC!" Ned Levine, PhD., safety coordinator for the Houston-Galveston Area Council will discuss red-light cameras, Safe Clear and regional transportation issues. Bring your lunch; HCDP provides the soft drinks.

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The Progressive Action Alliance (PAA) will hold its monthly meeting at Leisure Learning Unlimited bldg., 2990 Richmond, 6th floor on Thursday, April 14 from 7 to 9 pm. PAA promotes progressive candidates, ideas, and issues through action, advocacy, education, and networking. Come early -- 6:30 to 7 -- to socialize and network; bring something to eat if you wish.

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Tariq Ali and Laura Flanders will appear at Rice University on Tuesday April 19th at 7:30 PM in the Grand Hall in the Student Center. Ali, radical icon and charismatic polemicist, is the author of Street Fighting Years: An Autobiography of the Sixties and Speaking of Empire and Resistance. His startlingly prescient observations turn a sharp eye on the American and British invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. His provocative ideas explain not only Anglo-American motivations, but the sense of betrayal and powerlessness that has led to the international surge of terrorism that Americans now claim to fight.

"In order to justify infinite war, they have invented this enemy, which -- I'm almost tired of pointing this out -- they created themselves at the height of the Cold War..."

Flanders is the host of "The Laura Flanders Show", heard weekends, 7-10 pm on the Air America Radio network. Bushwomen, her new book, is an investigation into the women in George W. Bush's Cabinet. Publisher's Weekly called Flanders' best-selling book "fierce, funny and intelligent." Flanders writes regularly for TomPaine.com, the Nation, Ms. Magazine and Znet.

A small donation is appreciated. Funds raised by this event will go to support Houston Indy Media, KPFT Pacifica Radio, Houston Global Awareness, Houston Peace and Justice Center, and the University of Houston’s Young Democrats.

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Alison and Chris Bell will host a Happy Hour and Update on his exploratory gubernatorial campaign on Thursday, April 28, from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the State Bar (on the balcony), 909 Texas Avenue at Travis. Valet parking is available at the adjacent Rice Hotel. RSVP at the Chris Bell for Governor website.

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And the Houston Democratic Forum will host a reception and discussion with candidates Chris Bell and Barbara Radnofsky on Thursday, April 21 from 6:30 to 8 pm at the Houston City Club, One City Club Drive in Greenway Plaza. There will be a cash bar and validated parking. For more information, contact Mark Yzaguirre: yzaguirre@hotmail.com

Weekend of the long knives

Jack Abramoff, Rick Santorum, and Christopher Shays all ditch the USS Tom DeLay in the past 48 hours.

(I hope there are enough tiny little rat-sized life preservers on hand for the coming week...)

Et tu, Bushe'?

More quick hits

...because there's more springtime golf to play.

This is the best update on the Texas Governor's race, from all angles, and it's from the perspective of Tim McCann, who is the operations manager for Chris Bell's exploratory committee.

The House Majority Leader is assaulting the judiciary again this morning.

The junior Senator from our Great State joined in, then backed off, but still doesn't understand what he did wrong.

And the Whiskey Bar (damn I'm glad that place is open again) has the last word on the Schiavo "GOP talking points" memo. But some folks are having trouble getting that also.

Richard Morrison, Tom DeLay, and TX-22

Tonight I was on a conference call, organized by Charlie Kuffner, with Richard Morrison and about a dozen other progressive bloggers talking about his campaign -- the one that did not stop with his defeat last November -- to represent the people of the 22nd Congressional district of Texas.

There was the occasional whiff of insecticide in the air.

But we didn't spend a lot of the time stepping on cockroaches.

Morrison spent an hour with us answering questions about how he can win in 2006, against DeLay or some other Republican, and assuming he advances from a potentially strong field of Democrats in the primary, possibly including another former Congressman. Besides the obvious (getting more votes, raising more money) he must do a couple of things much better in order to win: he must take on Tom DeLay in his own backyard, Fort Bend county, where the Majority Leader ran an appallingly low 52%; and he must not just run against the Bugman but he must run on some core issues important to the voters in the 22nd, which he identified as health care, mass transit -- specifically light rail -- and the environment.

He talked about the Catch-22 struggles he had last year ... that in the beginning, because his name recognition was nil, the Democratic power brokers wouldn't take or return his calls, and when he got them on the phone they wouldn't donate to his campaign because they had never heard of him or were waiting for a bigger name to jump in the race, and so on. But those are hurdles Morrison has already cleared for 2006. Thanks to his own hard work and the contributions of the Left Blogosphere and lots and lots of committed people, Morrison has name recognition and money starting to flow and the attention and the respect of the movers and shakers who make the difference in this early going. And because of his success -- and of course, the ongoing meltdown of La Cucaracha Grande -- there have been murmurings that another Democrat is going to take advantage of the water he has carried, jump in the fray and challenge a now-obviously weakened DeLay. Be that Gordon Quan or Nick Lampson or someone else, Morrison intends to run hard against any primary opponent. "I'm not 'considering' (the race)", he said.

(In the interests of full disclosure, I worked on Richard's campaign last fall; I donated money, made phone calls and handed out push cards for him at a Pasadena polling place on Election Day. And at least half a dozen voters at that precinct sought me out and recited some variation of: "You know, I voted for Bush and mostly all the other Republicans, but I couldn't vote for that a**hole DeLay, so I voted for your guy." The numbers bear out this diminished enthusiasm among the GOP, as Kuffner has more exhaustively detailed.)

I've spent a lot of space railing against Tom DeLay, and many others do it deeper and better, so in the months ahead I'll probably link to them and spend my time talking about Richard Morrison's news, views and issues.

One is the "birth tax". More on that later.

Update: Gary Beason at Southpaw has more.