Samuel Alito as "Diamond Jim" Brady

Overcowded Texas prisons put us at greater risk

Scott at Grits (hey, he likes carbs, I prefer protein) has an excellent post up about the crisis of overcowded prisons in Texas, and why that is a bad thing particularly for our safety. Go read the piece; here's an excerpt:

From the time Texas revolted against Mexico in 1836 until Ronald Reagan became president, the number of Texas prison beds grew from zero to a little less than 30,000. In the next 25 years, that number increased five-fold to more than 150,000, and the majority of new inmates were non-violent offenders. Even that rate of increase, though, can't keep up with new prison entries stemming from the Legislature's penchant for passing so-called penalty "enhancements" that don't take into account financial costs. We are at a crisis point -- the status quo is untenable.

The best way out of this imbroglio would be to follow the advice of one of my past campaign clients, former House Corrections Committee Chairman Ray Allen (R-Grand Prairie - he's sadly retiring from the Lege this year), who is fond of saying Texas should imprison only people "who we're afraid of, not those we're only mad at."

Update (1/14): Scott adds to his discussion by linking and commenting on a post at Houston Strategies.

Bell and Gammage and choice

Quite the brouhaha has broken out over Chris Bell's release of an endorsement letter from prominent Texans who support a woman's unfettered right to choose. The campaign blog also has posted Bob Gammage's voting record, to which the letter refers.

Burnt Orange Report has had the most to say about it so far; there's a conversation going on here as well.

I've made my thoughts pretty clear already at both of those places, so no need to repeat them here. Suffice it to say that you'll be reading and hearing more about this today.

Maybe my contributions and linkage will finally convince Karl-T to add me to his blogroll.

Update (1/15): Gammage clarifies:

(Gammage) reaffirmed his support for abortion rights and raising the minimum wage, despite what the Bell campaign said were contradictions in Gammage's voting record while in Congress in the 1970s.

"I've cast a lot of votes ... over the 25 years I was in public service. I wish I could look back on that record of service and say, 'I never made a mistake,' " he told reporters.

Gammage, who last held office in 1995, also is a former state legislator and a former Texas Supreme Court justice.

He said he strongly supports a woman's right to an abortion and always has, despite several votes in 1977 and 1978 against federal funding of abortions. "The question as we saw it at the time was not whether a woman should have the right to choose but who should pay once that choice was made. Today, I wouldn't vote that way," he said.

Samuel Alito as Eddie Haskell

I participated in a conference call on the Alito hearings last night with Ralph Neas of PFAW and Nancy Keenan of NARAL and Chris Bowers of MyDD and Armando from Kos (It wasn’t that I am so important; there were a few hundred other bloggers of significantly higher profile than yours truly). Much was cussed and discussed, but the gist of it was that we couldn’t decide if the Supreme Court justice nominee was a Robert Bork lover, or Bork reincarnated, or just a run-of-the-mill FReeper.

I have come to the conclusion that Samuel Alito is actually Eddie Haskell.

He’ll say anything to get what he wants, especially a job; he'll suck up to the boss like it’s going out of style, and he'll act innocent, pretend it never happened or deny it all when he’s caught (sucking up or lying, whichever it is).

A conflicted, insecure, ass-kissing nerd and total creep. Alito is the kind of guy who was afraid of having women at Princeton, a guy so misogynistic and intoxicated with authority that he ruled that a ten-year-old girl could be stripsearched without a warrant. The kinda guy on record as saying Bork was the greatest, a guy who says he’ll recuse himself from cases where he has a conflict of interest and then doesn’t, a guy who favors unlimited dictatorial powers for Bush -- a bitter, confused, misguided, frustrated failure who will have a chip on his shoulder and an axe to grind for the rest of his life if he gets on the Supreme Court.

"It's all about character" -- and as Digby's post above shows, Alito's character is a pile of steaming horseshit.

If there ever was a time for Democratic (and moderate Republican) Senators to stand up and speak up, it is now. Alito must be filibustered. The GOP is reeling right now, barely hanging onto the ropes from the repeated barrage of all their scandals and crimes. All their so-called "wins" are turning out to be losses, where they rigged the game and bribed the refs in order to make it look like they won. And it's all starting to crumble now. They're weak and on the run and they're making one last-ditch attempt to move their lackey into place for life.

Senators: you can stop Alito. If you filibuster and Congress shuts down, most Americans will support you. Rove is going to be indicted, Abramoff is going to sing like a canary, and six months from now half the Republicans in Washington could be in court or in jail.

Drag this confirmation out until the fall when we just might have a legitimate government again -- instead of this dictatorship of desperate delinquents.

You have the power. Use it.

"Arlen, move him more to the left."

"Damn, I hate it when Rove sedates these guys..."

Thanks, Needlenose.

Van Os in Johnson County: "We have to fight back"

Democrat David Van Os, candidate for Texas Attorney General, spoke to local Democrats at the Johnson County Democratic Party headquarters Tuesday night. Van Os intends to challenge current attorney general, Republican Greg Abbott, in the November election.

The San Antonio attorney’s exhortations to reclaim political power from what he termed the corporate elite met with an enthusiastic response from those in attendance. Van Os, a self-proclaimed “true Texas populist,” vented as much ire toward what he calls “silk-stocking Democrats” as he did Republicans throughout the night.

“What gives despots and tyrants power is people running away from them. We have to fight back,” Van Os said. “I’m the most loyal yellow-dog, true-blue Democrat, but what gets me are scaredy cats always running from the Republican clique.”

Van Os said he is nonetheless heartened to see so many Democrats filing at all levels throughout the state. “It’s all over the state everywhere, and these aren’t top-down deals coming from the business elite. These are grassroots campaigns,” Van Os said.

He went on to predict an upcoming political earthquake in Texas and the United States. “The Democrats coming out to file are not Republican-lite Dems, they are the real fighting Democrats and the people need fighting Democrats to come back to life and return Texas to them.”

From the Cleburne Times-Review.

David is correct: the people of Texas have filed for office to take their country back. There are soldiers and teachers and small businessmen and women up and down the Democratic ballot.

The earthquake has happened, and the blue tsunami is rolling toward Texas. And it's going to wash all across this state; inland to Dallas and Fort Worth and through the Hill Country over San Antone and Austin, up to the Panhandle and on past Amarillo, and all the way out to the mountains of El Paso.

It's going to wash quite a few red folks away with it, but if you heed my warning all you'll have to do is get on your surfboard and ride the wave.