Today is the day.

As the Chron notes.

Though it has scarcely been mentioned anywhere except this little shop -- the Chronicle mostly ignored the race, except for a pathetic e-board endorsement written in full by one of the candidates himself; the other blogs in Houston did also, one a recent Houston Press award-winner; heck, even the mighty Kuffner and the Great Orange Satan -- the contest for the Democratic nod for US Representative, Seventh District of Texas has great significance.

I'll let Lissa Squiers, yesterday's birthday girl, finish.

Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes.  It's been a long time since 1964 and things have changed a lot in Houston since then.  Back then my father was working at Champion Paper Mill and my grandfather worked at Armco Steel until the day it closed.  We weren't a 'consumer society' then.  There was no such thing as 'bling'.  People had a savings account and a pension fund and your average person had no money connected with Wall Street.

More recently, the 1% told us that our pensions and savings belonged on Wall Street and convinced us that corporate politicians could be trusted to do what was right for America.  As we know, that hasn't worked out!  Now we have a choice.  We can continue to try and replace John Culberson's tea party vote with a moderate guy in a suit, or we can actually replace him with a progressive voice.  The Chronicle E-board says that if you want someone who will support the Democratic Party platform and take on the powers that be, then you should vote for me.  They say if you want someone who will support the dirty fossil approach, the status quo, then you should vote for my opponent.

For the last several years I have been hosting events at places like TSU and local churches, speaking at city council and serving on local community boards.  While my opponent was sitting on the Board of the Energy Lawyers and the Gas Standards, and was busy buying and selling utilities wherever a profit could be made, I was helping to find alternatives to usurious payday lending companies and the cradle to prison pipeline that ramrods our children into private for-profit prisons, working with women's groups and supporting Democratic causes. Representing Houston in Congress is more than talking about the energy corridor and being a member of the oil patch.  As an accountant with an MBA, I have worked in some of the oil company offices on I-10 and know what they pay people, how they treat their vendors, and how they do business.  My opponent only knows the Mitt Romney end of the business -- where you buy and sell it at a profit for yourself -- he's never actually worked in these buildings he speaks so often of.

Does it matter who wins tomorrow?  I think it does matter whether a progressive Houstonian, a community Democrat, or a moderate oil and gas corporate politician from Michigan represents District 7.  What do you think?  Plus, we won once already!  In the May primary we won the mail-in vote, the early vote, and on election day.  Let's do it again on Tuesday.

Right now 2175 people have voted in Congressional District 7 -- 1600 early voters and 575 mailed-in ballots.  That's out of the 8500 that voted in May.  (Tuesday) DOES MATTER.  Literally thousands of Democrats in Congressional District 7 will go vote (on Election Day).  Has your neighbor voted?  Do you have a coworker in CD07?  Please call or go knock on your friend's or neighbor's door and ask them to come vote with you.  If  you know Democrats in CD07, please call or email them and tell them that WE CAN TAKE JOHN CULBERSON'S JOB THIS YEAR.  Polls close at 7 tonight.  There is plenty of time!  Reach out now to CD07 voters and let's make a difference today: Community Democrat or Corporate Politician.  We are deciding that now, not in November.  I know how to beat a moderate and how to beat a Republican.  I've done it once already.  Now I need your help to do it again.

Here's one link that pulls together everything I have written on the race. If you follow the links within, you will find every claim sourced, every fact verified. That as opposed to nothing but the indignant, spitting responses of the Cargas campaign... with the exception of a photo of a postcard I signed, paid the postage on, and sent out on behalf of the Squiers campaign. Cargas whined something about Citizens United in response. As if a postcard is evidence of something besides my full-throated (and previously-and-repeatedly-disclosed) support.

The Cargas campaign consistently misinterpreted what I wrote and what Ms. Squiers said so many times I went from surprised to bemused to picking myself off the floor from laughing so hard. They got the numbers wrong many times, once declaring victory after a straw poll at a pre-primary event. He even got the district's boundaries wrong, and the Chron e-board didn't bother to correct him, just repeating his claim that he "would bring federal grants to the Texas Medical Center".

They complained to the Harris County chair and his associate and even the state party chair about so many inconsequential slights that the officials cringed every time the phone rang. They bitched about missing financial disclosure reports which weren't missing; they just couldn't find them. They wrote "Formal letters of Complaint" that objected to Ms. Squiers' holding a strategy session on how to beat Culberson. As if she should have the temerity to suggest she might get the opportunity to do so. For that joke, they had their events removed from the HCDP calendar (along with the Squiers campaign's, which was likely their hope all along). I got e-mail from their communications director threatening to publish additional obscure public records about me and directions to "take down my hateful blog". They made asses of themselves over and over again, once even with the Houston Police Department's Threat Investigation Unit.

I may yet blog about that. What I will say about it now is that I am still laughing about it.

Later on this evening we'll find out whom the voters chose to carry the Democratic banner against John Culberson. I've got plans either way; I'll go right to work helping Ms. Squiers defeat the incumbent... or, paraphrasing Harry Truman, I'll keep telling the truth about James Cargas and he will keep thinking it's hell.

Honestly, I'll be fine no matter the outcome.

Find your polling place today and a sample ballot -- who you get to vote for -- here. Everybody in Harris County gets to pick the US Senate nominee and the disputed Board of Education  representative. And if you also get a vote in CD07, you get to decide...

Community Democrat, or Corporate? Oil and Gas Attorney or Single Mother? Progressive... or conservative?

The choice is ours.

The Weekly pre-Election Day Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is overloading on the Olympics as it brings you this week's roundup.  The TPA also reminds you to cast your ballot at your precinct poll tomorrow in the runoff elections happening throughout the state.

Off the Kuff notes that for a guy who claims to hate the federal government, Rick Perry sure gives them a lot of opportunities to get involved in Texas' business.  

BossKitty at TruthHugger was on a roll this week. In America and Collateral Damage and Double Jeopardy, the NCAA went overboard when they punished past, present and future Penn State students. Too many Americans have been tricked into believing that the government can no longer help them and their families. Until enough people realize that as a lie, take back the government, and use it to bring economic equality back we will continue in this depression.  

WCNews at Eye on Williamson says it's the inequality, stupid.

As long as Mitt Romney didn't bring bacon-wrapped shrimp to the Knesset after leaving London, then last Thursday was the worst day of his European vacation, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.  

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know that Republicans at Texas A&M are thrilled to give our money to North Carolina while screwing Texas workers.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about an interesting and expansive definition of life that he read about in New Scientist magazine.

Sunday Funnies

Three pips for Anglo-Saxon heritage

Not Mitt Romney's version, mind you, but that as presented by the Anglo-Saxons in charge of last night's Olympic opening ceremonies.

True, much of the talk inspired by NBC's tape-delayed broadcast Friday night probably hovers somewhere between "well, that was just nuts" to "what the …?" But as long as it shoves the Olympics to the front of the national conversation, NBC will take it.

Granted, "strange" seems to be the Opening Ceremony stock in trade these days, as each organizer tries to out-do, and out-shock, the last. But even when you apply the 1992 Albertville opener-as-Cirque du Soleil standard, London's show, designed by Oscar-winning Slumdog Millionaire director Danny Boyle— with its grassy knoll and light-board hospital beds — was boisterously, Britishly odd.

It was delightful at times, to be sure. But just as often, it was trying so hard to create magic and impart meaning that it became impenetrable.

The Queen parachuting into the stadium as a Bond girl? Fun. Rowen Atkinson destroying Chariots of Fire? Peculiar, but fun. The flying bicycle dove? Also fun, even if it did look more like a flying monkey.

But the dancing sick-kids salute to the National Health Service, complete with a Mary Poppins air raid and a giant Franken-baby? Much less fun, and more than a bit bizarre. "I don't know if that's cute or creepy," said NBC's Matt Lauer proclaimed about the baby, as if "cute" were actually an option.

There was whole lot of Anglo-Saxon history presented at the opening of the opening that was completely unfamiliar to this Anglo-Saxon. But I had the sound on mute, as I usually do, so that Lauer and Meredith Viera weren't explaining it to me.

The Industrial Revolution without all of the slavery and pollution was interesting, though.

Whitewashed though it may have been, it was the spectacle that Opening Ceremonies always are... as long as you changed channels pretty quick after the Parade of Nations began. That shit puts my feet to sleep.

Now let the Games begin.

As long as he doesn't bring bacon-wrapped shrimp to the Knesset...

... then yesterday might be the worst day of Mitt Romney's European vacation.

I'll leave this one to the experts.

British papers blast Romney:

The Guardian also ran a sidebar entitled, "Oh, Mitt: those Romney gaffes in full." The article dissected Romney's gaffes and rated them all on a scale of one to 10. The "disconcerting" comment received a rating of eight on the gaffe scale. "Take that, Romney! Now get that horse out of my sight," the Guardian wrote in the blog post, in reference to Ann Romney's horse, Rafalca, which will compete in the Olympics.

The Daily Kos could barely keep up with the gaffe-athon, and that's saying something considering their staff puts up a post an an hour from 8am until 11 pm. Here's an excerpt from the day's work:

• Mitt started the day saying he met with the head of MI6, which you are not supposed to do, because MI6 is the British version of Fight Club. Aside from being awkward, it also immediately deflates the Mitt theory that Mitt can be trusted with secrecy more than that nasty Obama fellow.
• Mitt then proceeds to question, in London, to Londoners, whether London will be able to pull off the Olympic Games:
  

  "You know, it's hard to know just how well it will turn out," Romney said. "There are a few things that were disconcerting, the stories about the – private security firm not having enough people – the supposed strike of the immigration and customs officials, that obviously is not something which is encouraging."

• This pissed off the prime minister, David Cameron, who responded by noting of the Romney-headed Salt Lake City games that it must have been "easier if you hold an Olympic Games in the middle of nowhere."
• That in turn pissed off the current mayor of Salt Lake City, who offered to send David Cameron a map of the place.
• And Mitt apologized, which is something he has said a president should never, ever do.
• Mitt apparently forgets the name of the leader of the opposition Labour Party that he's currently meeting with, and has nice things to say about 10 Downing Street's backside, which in addition to being the usual awkward Romney framing is awkward for an entirely different reason:
  

  Firstly, in Britain, "backside" means "ass". As in the part of the body. Secondly, "10 Downing Street" is often used in political reporting as a synonym for a press spokesman for the prime minister, in the same way as "the White House" can say things or have opinions.

  It means "ass" here in America too. As in "I would like to introduce you to Mitt Romney, a very wealthy American backside."

That's only a little over half of the rundown. Before his plane even touched down in the UK, an unnamed campaign adviser had started an "Anglo-Saxon Heritage" society, party of one, last name Romney. And that list doesn't include the bust of Winston Churchill affair.

If you wonder why the Teabaggers have to keep holding rallies every weekend to gin up the rage, it's because Republicans know the only chance they have in November is to make certain the base is capable of hating Obama more than they love their country.

Update: Fox and Friends' Brian Kilmeade wants the British newspapers to "back off" Romney, and Chris Wallace has to set him straight.

...Wallace reminded (Kilmeade) that, yeah, Romney kind of deserved it, likening his Olympic comments to someone you wouldn’t want to go clothes shopping with.

“If you ask me if that suit makes you look fat, I’m not going to tell you it does even if it does, Brian.”

Turnout remains poor, Dems plead with voters

While the TeaBaggers hold two huge rallies this weekend -- one in The Woodlands with Ted Cruz, Sarah Palin, and Jim DeMint, one in DFW with Cruz, Dick Armey, and Glenn Beck -- our local Democratic party is literally begging voters to vote. Sue Mallot, a Spring precinct chair:

I'm working one of only two EV locations in North Harris Co. between Tomball and Kingwood. As of day 3 - Republicans 700+ ...Democrats 22!!!  Really - Yes - Really!!  I don't care that in most precincts there is only 1 election - Senator - it is a pretty darned important one - so Get off your Butt and Vote.  There are no lines...you could drive in vote and drive out in 20 minutes- or less.  And, And all of the voters with Hispanic surnames voted Republican and all of the young people voted Republican...What does that say about our prospects for November???

Yeah Sue, I don't know where enough enthusiasm is going to come from to overcome all the fear, bigotry, and hate these Republicans are fomenting. Maybe this morning's message from Gilberto Hinojosa will stoke a little determination in the hearts of the Dems. Its title: "This is what happens when we lose elections."

Dire. That’s the situation for Texas children. Texas ranks 44th in the nation on the overall well-being for children. More than one in four children in our state lives in poverty. That’s the reality as published by a report from the Annie E. Casey foundation. That’s utter failure.

But it’s also a reminder of what’s at stake. Elections are not just about who wins and who loses. They are about what happens to our loved ones as a result. When we don’t win, the people for whom we fight suffer. And it’s unquestionable that our children are suffering as a result of Republican rule.

These rankings are the results of Perry, Dewhurst, and their Republican buddies turning their back on our children. Republicans betrayed children by shutting down schools and by making it harder for kids to visit a doctor. There’s just too much at stake.

When we don’t win, more than one in four children in our state live in poverty. When we don’t win, neighborhood schools close. When we don’t win, nursing homes are forced to shut their doors leaving seniors with nowhere to go. When we don’t win, women lose access to cancer screenings and other vital health care.

If you didn’t cringe enough by Texas ranking 44 for the well-being of children, read the other shameful statistics and rankings for children in Texas:

• 1.7 million Texas children – or 26 percent - live in poverty. 
• Overall for children: 44 
• Education: 32 
• Economic well-being: 33 
• Health: 42 
• Family and community: 47 

Let's move on from the statistics, and get on with the prognostication.

For the purpose of this posting, let's assume that Ted Cruz and Paul Sadler are the two major party US Senate nominees. Where do moderate Republicans and conservative-leaning independents go? Whom do progressives and liberal independents vote for?

To me this outcome suggests a surge of sorts to the Libertarian and the Green. But how big a surge remains to be determined by the amount of traditional media coverage the two minor party candidates get (probably little to none). Whether they get to participate in the debates, for example.

However many lemmings cast a ballot in November, many will dial in one party and be done with it. What a shame. No election in recent memory cries out for voters to split their tickets than 2012, and that includes the presidential race all the way to the bottom of your ticket.

Downballot races locally will generate similar disgust among Harris County voters. The Republicans have two sheriff candidates in the runoff who have disciplinary records with the HCSO. The GOP lame duck incumbent tax assessor/collector, Don "I was TeaBaggin' Before It was Cool" Sumners, is being sued for the purpose of overturning the ongoing election for school board because he supplied the wrong map. Thus people not eligible to vote in the race did so, and some eligible to didn't have the option on their ballot.

Sumners' conqueror, former city councilman Mike Sullivan, has a worthy challenger, Ann Harris Bennett, opposing him in the fall. But those RWNJ straight-ticket sheep likely won't care. County attorney Vince Ryan has had Wayne Dolcefino broadsides leveled against him, but his opponent is Crazy Bob Talton. That alone should make it possible for Ryan to survive.

Similarly, Democrats who spin the wheel to the D will miss voting in a Texas Supreme Court race that will have either a racist or an arsonist (allegedly) on the Republican side, and an outstanding progressive running as a Green. They'll also miss one of the two Railroad Commission slots, where only an R, an L, and a G are on the ballot -- scroll down at that link to RRC Place 2.

This is both good and bad. By not voting for the Green, they can hold out hope of denying the party ballot access in 2014. Good for Texas Democrats very marginally, very bad for democracy.

It's so much easier to vote your conscience philosophically. Feels better, too. Of course it takes an extra five minutes.

My vote in the ongoing runoff is already in the bank: Grady Yarbrough for US Senate, Lissa Squiers for CD07, Erica Lee for school board trustee. (This last one is the one that will have to be revoted, and it may be in November with a wide open primary according to what I am hearing.) I don't get a vote in HD 137, but either Gene Wu or Jamaal Smith will make a fine representative. There are constable runoffs in the county for which I offer no opinion.

I encourage my readers to do your civic duty, but as you have observed I'm already looking past next Tuesday to November, when the choices don't generate quite so much angst. Or apathy.

Update: Charles Kuffner's case for turnout being fairly good locally in this runoff is well-taken.