Johnson, Stein, Goode, and Anderson debate tonight

The candidates from four political parties – Gary Johnson (Libertarian), Jill Stein (Green), Virgil Goode (Constitution) and Rocky Anderson (Justice) – will meet for a two-hour debate on Sunday, November 4, 6:30 p.m. CDT in Washington, DC.

The debate will be moderated by Ralph Nader, and will focus on subjects and issues that have largely been ignored or avoided, as they are too controversial, by the 2012 Republican and Democratic presidential candidates.

The mere mention of Ralph Nader should set blue partisans to grinding their teeth. You are invited to stop doing that.

Watch this debate tonight on the Green Party's streaming channel, or below.

Watch live streaming video from greenpartyus at livestream.com

You may also watch Stein and Johnson again tomorrow night, Monday November 5, at the Free and Equal.org Debate, beginning at 8 p.m. Central time, at Free and Equal's website, Free Speech TV, Stitcher, Orion Radio Network,Yes Magazine, NextNewsNetwork, RT America’s YouTube channel, American Free Press, and UK-based Reciva Internet Radio. Political correspondents gathered in advance of that debate (7 p.m. Central) for discussion include Thom Hartmann, Sam Seder, and others.

Update: Watch the Stein-Johnson debate from Monday night below.

Closing Argument Funnies

Swingin'

Harris County, you sexy in purple. Charles gets to go first...

I have the in person total at 700,216, the total that was on the daily record of early voting that Kim sends out. In 2008, the in person total was 678,312, so the in person early vote total was 3.2% higher this year. There were also 66,310 mail ballots returned out of 92,290 sent (71.8% return rate) versus 52,502 ballots returned out of 76,187 mailed in 2008 (68.9% return rate).

Remember that Democrats usually perform batter at in-person turnout while Republicans get more mailed ballots.

What does this mean for final turnout? In 2008, a bit less than 62% of all ballots were cast as of the end of early voting. If the exact same percentage of ballots were cast early or via mail this year, final turnout will be over 1.24 million – 1,246,819, to be ridiculously precise. 

That will still be a little higher than 2008. Everyone remembers how 2008 turned out locally, right? Now Greg...

Based on every available metric I’m seeing, the opening bell for Harris County should be as close as close gets. That will take into consideration both Early In-Person and Mail-In ballots. It almost goes without saying that this comes down to how successful each side is on E-Day. Almost, because in 2008, it was over by this time.

[...]

Whether you believe E-Day bodes well for you depends on whether you think the new normal will look like 2008, when Dems banked two-thirds of their vote before Election Day … or just about every year prior to 2008, when Dems typically got a little bit of a boost on E-Day.

By all appearances, the GOP did a better job this cycle of catching up and even surpassing Dems in EV GOTV. But for all that improvement, the game is still essentially tied going into the 9th inning. 

I read this as cautious optimism on the part of these two go-to-guys for this sort of thing. But it's still tight as a tick, and if all of these Obama supporters will stop calling Ohio and start calling their neighbors in their respective precincts and Texas House districts, everyone will be happy on Wednesday morning. Particularly Harris County judicial candidates.

For the past couple of months I have received three e-mails a day from Barack Obama asking me for $3. On Friday I cleaned about eight messages to that effect out of the in-box, and went to dinner. When I got home 2 1/2 hours later, I had four more.

I am more than ready for that pan-handling, stalking bullshit to stop.

Last-day-to-vote-early Funnies

"Broccoli Obama, or Meat Romney?"



"It was as if millions of nerds suddenly cried out in terror..."

World-Series-winning San Francisco Giants pitcher Sergio Romo stating the obvious.

The Peace Pastor endorses Jill Stein for President

Several issues would rise unavoidably to the top of our own agenda: 1. poverty, 2. immigration, 3. health care, and 4. incarceration. And taking the same just posture as God does to these folks, our question would then inevitably need to be: which candidates are most passionate and skilled to get these people what they need, not treat both they and ourselves as we deem deserving? Secondarily, how are they addressing their intersection with racism, climate change, war and militarism, the war on drugs, joblessness due to Free Trade, and the economics of capitalism?

Neither major party candidate exhibits the level of concern that Jesus does for these vulnerable groups of people. And in driving through Houston’s upscale and impoverished neighborhoods it seems increasingly clear which party is viewed as showing more concern for the least of these.

Perhaps its time to consider a third party candidate such as Jill Stein of the Green party for President -- you live in Texas, your vote won’t change the outcome in this overwhelmingly red state. In platform, she more than any other candidate on your ballot exhibits a Matthew 25 (verses 31-46) approach to our community.

I'm not a Christian, as you perhaps already know. In fact I consider Christians much in the spirit of Mohandas Ghandi (disputed as to attribution, but still). I was raised by one devout Christian and one non-, and I have studied plenty of the various strains of Christianity such that while most of the Bible is fairy tale to me... who doesn't enjoy mythology, well-told?

If I were a Christian and still a Democrat or a Republican, then Marty Troyer (the Peace Pastor cited above) would present a compelling case for voting Green. But then we start to slip down that slope of modern-day Christians and hypocrisy and so on.

So just consider this in the spirit in which it is presented. If even Christians and agnostics can agree on some things, then perhaps Democrats and Republicans can as well.

October surprises (and other campaign updates)

-- Republicans who voted a straight ticket in Harris County are waking up this morning with some buyer's remorse.

A $25,000 political contribution from the owner of a strip club being sued by Harris County lawyers found its way, via the Harris County Deputies Organization, into the campaign coffers of the man challenging Sheriff Adrian Garcia in November, according to campaign finance reports.

Ali Davari, who with his brother Hassan Davari owns a handful of prominent local strip clubs, including Treasures, Gold Cup and Trophy Club, gave $25,000 to the deputies union political action committee on Oct. 15. It was the only contribution the organization received during the time period covered by the report, which was filed Thursday. The union donated the same amount, in its only listed expenditure, to Republican Louis Guthrie's campaign a week later, earmarking it for political advertising.

Guthrie reports receiving a $25,000 check from the union on Oct. 9; Guthrie's campaign manager Sara Kinney said the campaign listed that date because that was the date on the check. HCDO Vice President Eric Batton could not explain the discrepancy in the dates. 

You had plenty of opportunities to educate yourself on the candidates in this race, people. Adrian Garcia loves accelerated deportation; that makes him the Republican, even though there's a D behind his name. We have known since before the May primary that Guthrie is corrupt beyond comprehension.

Remington Alessi is the only decent option. Try to fix this with your friends and neighbors in the remaining days.

Update: John, in his inimitable style, has more.

-- Henry Cooper hosted his opponent, Rep. Jessica Farrar, on his KPFT radio show, Proyecto Latino Americano, last night. I can't wait to listen to the archived recording.

-- Keith Hampton has been endorsed by every newspaper in the state. Even the wildly Republican ones like the San Angelo Standard-Times, the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and the Amarillo Globe-News. Hampton was in fact the only Democrat some of these papers endorsed. Yet another reason why Republicans shouldn't vote a straight ticket.

Are you paying attention, Republicans?

-- Max Martin had an interview with Khambrel Marshall of KPRC-TV, and participating in it with them was my friend Aimee Turney of the League of Women Voters. Pay close attention at the 4:50 mark when Martin talks about the Republican who ran in the primary that told him they were voting for him. When your only other option is Steve Stockman, you just have to hope the voters of CD-36 are smart enough to figure it out.

(By the way, you can also download the League's Voter Guides available in English and Spanish for the positions on all candidates on your ballot. The best source of information available anywhere. Much better than anyone's slate card in your mailbox.)

Update: I should have also included this link to the debate/discussion between CD-09 candidates Vanessa Edwards Foster (G),  Libertarian John Weider, and Republican Steve Mueller. No Al Green sighting.

-- The TexTrib's poll revealed a surprise: Green candidate Chris Kennedy with 6% of the vote in the Texas Railroad Commissioner's race.

As you see, that's the one with a Democrat in it; the other TRC race does not. What do you suppose this portends for these races left uncontested by the Democrats, like the Texas Supreme Court?

I have taken great exception to the polling conducted by the Texas Tribune in the past, but these late results seem to have a bit more sanity baked in to them.  Note, though, that projecting the Lite Gov field for 2014 is a waste of effort. Long-range prognostication is typically where this poll fails.

But the question prompted by these numbers: is it possible that the Democratic rank-and-file is getting the message? That is, to send a message to the Democratic insiders?

I'll be very anxious to to see these results next week.

Update: Via Greg, this from KHOU...

The poll shows (President Obama) leading in Harris County with the support of 46 percent of surveyed voters, compared to Romney’s 42 percent.  Libertarian Gary Johnson cracked the survey with 2 percent.

In the U.S. Senate race, Democrat Paul Sadler’s 44 percent leads Republican Ted Cruz with 42 percent in Harris County.  With a 3.5 percent margin of error, that’s a statistical dead heat in the largest county in Texas.

[...]

Nonetheless, the poll revealed that large numbers of voters allied with both parties are breaking away from casting straight-ticket ballots in two high-profile races.  In both campaigns, Republicans and Democrats are eschewing party loyalty to vote against candidates who’ve been hit with waves of bad publicity.

Republican crossover voters are helping push Democratic Sheriff Adrian Garcia to 51 percent in this survey, compared to Republican challenger Louis Guthrie’s 32 percent.  Another 13 percent were undecided.

On the other hand, many Democrats told pollsters they’re voting for Republican district attorney candidate Mike Anderson, who’s polling at 41 percent.  Nonetheless, Democrat Lloyd Oliver is close behind with 35 percent.  Another 19 percent are undecided.   That number is especially striking because Democratic Party leaders were so embarrassed by Oliver’s candidacy they tried to remove him from the ballot.

“What we’re seeing is a much more significant ticket-splitting among Republicans than Democrats,” said Bob Stein, the Rice University political scientist and KHOU analyst who supervised the poll.  “I don’t know if that’s because they’re more bipartisan, or they simply are more capable and more likely to make that choice, which is not easy to do on an e-Slate ballot.”