Pitchers and catchers reported today

... in Kissimmee and elsewhere. WOO HOO

Hair Balls share eleven things to ponder regarding the Astros as they open spring training.

When I lived in Florida in 1992, I went to about a half a dozen different games -- St. Pete (then it was the Cardinals), Dunedin (Blue Jays), Clearwater (Phillies). When I moved back to Texas in '93 -- and my mother still owned her condo in Clearwater -- I went back a couple of times in March for a few days, catching the Yankees in Tampa and the Phillies in their then-brand-new Grapefruit League home. Also jumped over to Osceola County Stadium one afternoon and saw the 'Stros.

There is positively nothing finer than a spring training game in Florida during the first week of March. You can watch the seagulls circle lazily overhead while ballplayers jog in the outfield during the game (they don't do that in late March, when position battles and roster cuts get serious).  I haven't made it down in quite a few years but believe me, it's always on my mind. Go here if you want to see what's going on. Or here. Or here. Or here.

Who besides me wishes ...

... that Joseph Stack had been in therapy for the past month, and Tiger Woods had flown a light plane into a building?

-- More TeaBaggers conferencing this week in Washington. Last year that conclave produced hilarious video of an obese Rush Limbaugh bouncing up and down like a circus elephant. This year so far, only TelePrompter hypocrisy.

-- The History Channel will air a "documentary" on the Kennedy family that will allegedly focus on any variety of family peccadilloes. The producer, Joel Surnow ...

... smokes cigars with Rush Limbaugh, can "hardly think" of Ronald Reagan without "breaking into tears," and believed that "America [was] in its glory days" under President Bush.

-- "The Flintstones" is not a documentary, but far too many of our neighbors think it is ...

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

-- Roger Ebert, the film critic who was the co-host of a popular movie review show some time ago, is finally reaching the end of the line in his long battle with oral cancer. He writes a moving essay about dying in this month's Esquire. Warning: clicking the link reveals an unsettling photo of Ebert's physical appearance as a result of his many surgeries.

-- Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, and Todd Staples rolled out their opposition to climate change this past week, and were greeted with the appropriate scorn and derision.

-- The BAE truck facility in Sealy finally did lose, after appealing the decision to the Pentagon, their federal contract this week. Thousands of Texas jobs will be lost as a result.

-- Doug Fieger, The Knack's lead singer, passed this week.  I played that album until the diamond needle cut all the way through to the other side of the record.  'My Sharona' was a huge song in the '80's at my fraternity parties.

-- Early voting continues in Texas this weekend. The turnout in Harris County has been massive.

Shami campaign staffers resign

Farouk Shami's campaign has imploded in the past few days. First there was an internal e-mail sent to media (including me) revealing inner turmoil over who was responsible for communications, and now this ...

Several top campaign aides to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami resigned today, said Charlie Ray, who had been the campaign’s press secretary.

Five staff members stepped down, including Ray, campaign director Vince Leibowitz, and communications director Kelly Love Johnson, Ray said.

The resignations come a day after the campaign’s internal chaos spilled into public when a bizarre e-mail exchange was, apparently inadvertently, sent to reporters.

On Tuesday, Ray and Shami gave out conflicting information about the roles of aides David Diaz and Jessica Gutierrez, both of whom had been sending out press releases on behalf of the campaign. Ray said that neither were authorized to speak for the campaign, but Shami said late Tuesday night that both had permission to give such statements.

More from Vince Leibowitz ...

“Clearly, (Shami) will not accept political strategy from the people who are there to provide it,” Leibowitz said.

Leibowitz and Ray, you may recall, had earlier replaced Jason Stanford, who ran Chris Bell's 2006 gubernatorial campaign and is now working for Kinky Friedman.

Bill White ought to be able to cruise to a run-off-free win in the primary and look forward to taking on Rick Perry in November (whether or not the governor clears the primary without a run-off).

Update: More from TrailBlazers and Texas Politics, including this ...

"Too many cooks in the kitchen," Ray said today.

Ray said it made it too difficult to "manage the message" when the campaign staff and staff from Shami's hair care company were both doing messaging.

Leibowitz said there was a difference over whether the professional campaign staff was going to run the show or Shami's corporate staff.

"You can see who won," Leibowitz said.

Abbott: Divorce is only between a man and a woman

The hypocrisy is strong with this one.

Attorney General Greg Abbott is trying to halt the divorce of two women in Austin on grounds their Massachusetts marriage is not recognized in Texas.

A Travis County state district judge on Feb. 10 granted a divorce in court to Sabina Daly, 41, of San Antonio, and Angelique Naylor, 39, of Austin. Abbott's aides went to court the following day to block the divorce before the written decree was entered.

“A divorce is an ending or a termination of a valid legal marriage,” Abbott said Tuesday. “In this instance there was no valid legal marriage recognized by the state of Texas. Texas can't have a faulty precedent on the books that validates an illegal law.”

The United States Constitution says you're wrong, "General" Abbott.

Article IV, Section 1: "Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof."

There's also the common-law marriages that are recognized Texas courts, under § 2.401 of the Texas Family Code:

(A)n informal marriage can be established either by declaration (registering at the county courthouse without having a ceremony), or by meeting a 3-prong test showing evidence of (1) an agreement to be married; (2) cohabitation in Texas; and (3) representation to others that the parties are married. A 1995 update adds an evidentiary presumption that there was no marriage if no suit for proof of marriage is filed within two years of the date the parties separated and ceased living together.

But I'm no lawyer; surely this has been previously argued and a conservative judge has tossed it (you go do the FindLaw; I'm already tired of Googling this morning). Abbott has tried to to stop gay people from divorcing before and is still appealing the previous case...

It was not the first time Abbott's office has sought to halt a same-sex divorce. He intervened last October in a Dallas case when two men were granted a divorce.

Luther said in that case Abbott intervened before the divorce was decreed in open court. The judge in that case rejected Abbott's arguments and the state has appealed to try to overturn the divorce.

There are states where people can legally marry their first cousins -- such as Texas -- and there are states which do not, and those states still recognize those unions. "Moral objection" out the window.

But-but-but Article I, Sec. 32 of the Texas Constitution says marriage can only be between one man and one woman. And it was approved by 76% of Texas voters in 2005. (What that tells you, incidentally, is that a whole lot of Texas Democrats voted in favor of it.  Just so you know.)

That, as you may recall, was challenged recently by both Dallas civil court Judge Tena Callahan and the presumptive Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General, Barbara Radnofsky. As I mentioned here, this matter of Texas voters codifying discrimination into the state constitution is ripe for legal challenge.

Just a cursory review of the case law exposes the attorney general of Texas as a rank hypocrite and willing tool of the social ultraconservatives.

Greg Abbott is nothing more than Pat Robertson with a law degree, and he only uses his legal education if he can con the Talibaptists and other Christianists in Texas into believing that he fights the Good Lord's battles here on Earth.

Early voting reminder (and two Nick Anderson toons)

Early voting in Texas for party primaries began this morning; check this list (.pdf) for an early voting location near you in Harris County. If you would like to see a sample ballot specific to you then go here, click on "find your election day poll and view voter specific ballot" at the top and enter the necessary personal data.

My recommendations for statewide office include ...

Governor: Alma Ludivina Aguado

Lt. Governor: Ronnie Earle or Linda Chavez-Thompson

Attorney General: Barbara Ann Radnofsky

Commissioner of the General Land Office: Hector Uribe

Agriculture commissioner: Hank Gilbert

Railroad commissioner: Jeff Weems

Justice, Texas Supreme Court: Jim Sharp (Place 3), Bill Moody (Place 5), Blake Bailey (Place 9)

Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 6: Keith Hampton

Will provide more of these down the county ballot later. 

Update: Texas House representatives ...

HD-134: Ellen Cohen (my representative)

HD-146: Borris Miles (my former representative)

HD-133:  Kristi Thibaut

HD-47: Valinda Bolton 

Congress ... (contested races only)

CD-18: Sheila Jackson-Lee

CD-22: Doug Blatt

Harris County administration (contested only) ...

County Judge: Gordon Quan

County Clerk: Sue Smith Schechter

I followed the recommendations of a handful of organizations who represent my views and did the heavy lifting of candidate vetting of local judicial candidates. They included the Harris County Democrats, the AFL-CIO, and Democracy for Houston. Charles Kuffner has also interviewed candidates and collected endorsements on a Google spreadsheet.

Update: Stace Medellin at Dos Centavos has his endorsements and the H-Chron published their judicial candidates yesterday also.

Get-your-ashes-on-Wednesday Wrangle

It's also post-Valentine's and pre-Fat Tuesday.  Did they ever stop partying in N'awlins since the Super Bowl?

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes you all a happy Lunar New Year, and brings you the first Year of the Tiger blog roundup.

Update: Oh yeah ... Happy Presidents Day.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog notes that Houston is the first locale President Obama named in his Lunar New Year Greeting. Could there be a political meaning behind it?

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme marvels at the jackassery presented to voters on the Republican ballot. No, we're not talking about the candidates. It's the propositions that disenfranchise voters, turn Texas into Colorado Springs or California, and humiliate pregnant women.

Fake Consultant, over at TexasKaos, gives us a tale from the health care frontier. He points out that even in the little things the present system is fundamentally broken. Check it out here.

From TXsharon: How the oil and gas industry bullies turned an ordinary, honest man into a modern day hero. Read it on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

WhosPlayin is watching candidates file for the 2010 Lewisville ISD School board election.

Contrary to what the Star-Telegram keeps repeating, the Texas Cloverleaf reminds everyone that there is a Democrat running in CD-26.

"Why I'm supporting Dr. Alma Aguado for Texas governor" is PDiddie's endorsement in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Read more at Brains and Eggs.

MeanRachel endorses Bill White and Linda Chavez-Thompson in the two top spots on the Democratic primary ticket.

Adam at Three Wise Men lays out the blog's endorsements for the 2010 Texas Democratic Primary.

Off the Kuff says there's a smart way to do budget cuts and a dumb way to do budget cuts, and we need to do it the smart way.

Neil at Texas Liberal endorsed Hank Gilbert in the Democratic Primary for Texas Commissioner of Agriculture. The post includes a picture of a Longhorn steer, a watermelon, and a channel catfish.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the coming Texas budget woes and that we can't make it balance on the backs of the poor again in his post entitled 2011 budget cannot be balanced like in 2003, not this time.

This week at McBlogger, Mojito takes a look at a Travis County JP race and finds the challenger lacking.