Showing posts sorted by relevance for query voting machines. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query voting machines. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, January 23, 2012

Judges deciding TX redistricting feel deadline pressure, pass it down

This just has the air of turning out badly for everybody.

Federal redistricting judges in San Antonio want to see if they can get agreement from the parties on political maps in time for an April 3 primary and said they are "giving serious consideration" to split primaries if no agreement can be reached by the first week of February.

The three federal judges said in an order issued this afternoon that they will meet with the parties on Friday instead of waiting until Feb. 1.

The five-page order is full of dates and deadlines:
  • The judges say they will almost certainly move a candidate filing deadline (my emphasis) now set for Feb. 1.
  • They said the parties should confer and submit agreed-upon interim maps for legislative and congressional elections by Feb. 6 if they "wish to maintain the current election schedule." If they can't agree, the judges want a list of districts in the Legislature's maps that each party no longer objects to.
  • The parties are involved in hearings in Washington, D.C., where a separate panel of three federal judges is deciding whether the Legislature's maps violate preclearance provisions of the federal Voting Rights Act. Ideally, the San Antonio judges would have that court's ruling in hand before it approves redistricting maps. It's asking the lawyers to give the Washington court a nudge: "With high respect for the importance of that proceeding and the prerogatives of that court, this Court hereby requests both sides in the San Antonio proceedings to request, on behalf of this Court, that the D.C. Court attempt to rule on the Section 5 issues in time for this court to incorporate those decisions into its ultimate decision on the redistricting plans for the 2012 elections for the Texas House of Representatives, the Texas Senate, and the U.S. Congress."
  • The Texas judges say they are giving "serious consideration to whether a so-called 'split primary' will be required" for this year's elections, and asked the lawyers to be ready to talk about it at the end of the week. They also want lawyers for the state to be ready to say whether the state would be prepared to reimburse counties and the political parties for the "substantial additional expense of a split primary."
  • The judges asked for comments on the idea of a presidential primary on April 3 with most or all other elections held later. The earlier presidential primary would relieve the Republican and Democratic political parties, which hope to have the primary elections well before their state conventions in June. The Republican Party of Texas has suggested the split primary on several occasions; the Democratic Party, in filings this week, said it would prefer a unified primary if possible.

Hustled-up court decisions, rushed maps, split primaries, new voting requirements ... it all adds up to confused voters and poor turnout.

More from Michael Li. Shorter Michael Li, from Facebook:

BREAKING: Court says to keep unified April 3 primary, parties will need to agree on interim maps by 2/6. Otherwise, court giving 'series consideration' to split primary; wants to know if state will commit to reimburse added costs. Court considering presidential only primary on 4/3 or presidential + countywide/whole county on 4/3.

Election officials from your local precinct all the way to the Secretary of State will be pressured to make decisions -- or wait for decisions to be made. Candidates, potential and incumbent, won't know what the districts they intend to represent will look like -- and neither will the voters, until very late in the process. All while Republicans keep doing their dead-level best to gum up the works, disenfranchising even their own voters as they do.

This is what one-party rule looks like, from the bottom up.

Update:

When the San Antonio court set Feb 1st as the candidate filing deadline for a April 3rd election date organizations representing Texas counties told the court in a pleading that they had “serious reservations and concerns” about their ability to comply with the April 3rd election schedule. The county organizations said that compliance would be “extremely difficult and expensive” if even physically possible...” The counties said the Feb 1st — April 3rd timeline wouldn't leave them enough time to prepare an election that usually takes six to seven weeks to prepare. Today, the Republican Party suggests lopping another week off the April 3rd timeline.

County election officials must have election precincts mapped, voter registration cards printed and mailed, ballots prepared, and voting machines programmed and delivered to polling locations not by April 3rd, but a few days before March 19th, the first day of early voting for the April 3rd election date.
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Monday, February 24, 2020

The Weekly Wrangle (and the pens are full)


So much going on across our Great State this week: the conclusion of early primary voting, Fat Tuesday (and then Ash Wednesday for Catholics), and the Houston Rodeo kicking off Thursday with its World Championship Bar-B-Que Contest.  The Texas Progressive Alliance encourages you to get out and do some of everything -- but especially vote -- this week.


To begin, TXElects.

Early voting for the March 3 primary election continues through February 28.

Turnout continues to be brisk for a primary election but dwarfed by a general election. Through Saturday, Republican turnout in the 15 counties with the most registered voters remains at a record pace, running 6% ahead of the 2016 pace. It will likely fall behind the record pace for the first week because last Monday was a holiday, meaning the first week of early voting had just six days.

Democratic turnout in those counties is lagging farther behind the record pace set in 2008, but it remains the second-highest volume in the Top 15 counties for a Democratic primary. It is, however, 55% ahead of the 2016 pace.

The number of Democratic early voters in those counties leads the number of Republicans, 254K to 215K.

Update (Tuesday, 2/25): TXElects also has some analysis of polling results released by UH's Hobby School on Monday.

Bernie Sanders and Joe Biden are tied as the top two choices of “likely Democratic primary voters”, according to a new University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs survey (PDF). Biden (22.5%) and Sanders (22.1%) are followed by Elizabeth Warren (18%), Michael Bloomberg (13%), Pete Buttigieg (12%) and Amy Klobuchar (7%).

Sanders was the top choice for 30% of Hispanic/Latino respondents, his best showing among any ethnic group. Biden was the top choice of 46% of African Americans, more than triple the support of any other candidate. Anglo voters were closely divided among Warren (21%), Sanders (21%), Buttigieg (16%), Biden (15%), Bloomberg (13%) and Klobuchar (11%).

Unsurprisingly, Sanders fared best among voters born after 1996 with 44%, more than double Buttigieg’s 21%. Biden (31%) and Bloomberg (26%) fared the best among voters born before 1946.
Sanders fared best in the border region with 29% but trailed Biden (33%) there. That Sanders is under 30% in the border region is probably good news for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Laredo), who is facing a Sanders-endorsed progressive primary challenger. Sanders received 25% of the vote head-to-head against Hillary Clinton in CD28 in the 2016 primary.

Our beloved Texas felt the Bern all weekend.   From El Paso to San Antonio to Houston to Austin, large crowds gathered and cheered the Democratic front-runner as he proclaimed victory in the Nevada caucuses, predicted a win here, and declared that his progressive populist movement was going all the way to the White House in November.


“This state, maybe more than any other state, has the possibility of transforming this country,” said Sanders, speaking Sunday to more than 6,600 rally-goers in the Fertitta Center (on the campus of the University of Houston).

More Bern in the Weekly 2020 Update, in time for tomorrow night's South Carolina debate.  PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had a pair of pre- and post-Las Vegas debate posts.  Juanita Jean at the Beauty Shop seemed happy about the debate.  And with Yang dropping out and Tulsi taking up the Basic Income drumbeat, SocraticGadfly again looked at libertarian vs non-libertarian versions of BI, and then dove into discussions just how we should define the "gig economy" and at whom different versions of BI might be targeting.

Unfortunately some of our Texas Congresscritters -- mostly those of the Blue-Dog-in-a-swing-district variety -- aren't getting onboard the Bern Train yet.


In response to Bernie's and AOC's bill to ban fracking:


Fletch just lost my vote again.

“Our candidates are going to spend their entire time distancing themselves from the nominee” if it’s Sanders or Sen. Elizabeth Warren, said Colin Strother, a Texas-based Democratic strategist, who sees fracking as one of several issues where progressive and moderate Democrats are divided.

Strother is advising Henry Cuellar, who got fluffed by Nancy Pelosi this past weekend.


Cisneros has been endorsed by Sanders and Warren and Julian Castro and three members of The Squad and the Texas AFL-CIO, SEIU, AFSCME, CWA, AFT, the Texas Organizing Project, Working Families Party, and dozens of others.  TX-28 is far and away the most captivating primary race in the whole state.  Strother lives and dies by polling so don't expect him to mention this one.  The generational (and ideological) divide in the electorate, mentioned there, is showing up in the candidates running for office.  Reform Austin has that story.

There was a debate among the Democrats running for US Senate at the University of North Texas over the weekend ...


... but unlike the debate broadcast by KVUE and other TEGNA stations across the state last Thursday night, several of those on your ballot failed to show up.


Meanwhile the race took a turn for the vicious.


And the idiotic.


This on the heels of Bell bragging about being "certified progressive" (sic) by Progress Texas, a topic previously mauled to death on this site.

In last week's Wrangle, this blogger ranted about misuse of the word 'progressive'.  This week, both Gadfly and Jaime Abeytia picked up on that with rants of their own.   

To be clear: Bell thinks you're so stupid you'll keep falling for this ongoing shtick of his.

This blogger will deliver a promised state-of-the-race post on the D primary scrum to face Cornyn, complete with the latest developments (as soon as the latest developments chill for an instant).

State Sen. Kirk Watson abruptly resigned his seat in the upper chamber of the Texas Legislature in order to become dean of the University of Houston's Hobby School of Public Affairs.  His unexpected departure set Pink Dome tongues wagging about who might jump into a special election to replace him, and so far the biggest news is those who have declined to do so.

Kuff made some predictions about the primaries (that is, if you define "it's really hard to say", "Again, who knows?", and "I'm totally guessing" as predictions).  Paige Weaver at the Dallas Observer questions whether Dallas County is ready for Election Day, with its new voting machines to be implemented.  And Raise Your Hand Texas released its first poll about public education.

D Magazine asked both Governor Abbott and Mayor Johnson to stop sharing that Dallas Morning News wrong-headed editorial about bail reform.

Bail reform is not about freeing violent criminals. No one is saying that. But the Dallas Morning News’ editorial board can’t help but conflate the two. The editorial that ran last week has been shared by our governor and our mayor. And it’s wrong. It puts the rash of violence at the feet of District Attorney John Creuzot, who has advocated for bail reform and pushed for policies that rethink how we try individuals accused of minor crimes.

To the News’ opinion writers, it’s Creuzot’s fault that violent criminals are being given a low bond and released. In reality, Creuzot doesn’t set bond. Magistrates and judges do, and when they let a violent criminal off with a low bond -- which we heard about last week -- that’s their decision, and it has absolutely nothing to do with bail reform. Creuzot even wants a prosecutor present during arraignments to help bring context to inform the judge’s decision about bail. That doesn’t get mentioned in the News’ editorial.

Houston attorney and political gadfly Eric Dick and two others are being threatened with legal action by Spring Branch residents for soliciting lawsuits from victims of the Watson Grinding explosion in their neighborhood last month.

“Tex Christopher, Billy Bray (an insurance agent), and Eric Dick are hosting a series of informational town hall meetings for residents who suffered from the Watson explosion,” the post states. “The previous town hall meetings have been well attended and received.”

In an effort to encourage attendance, Christopher, who doesn’t live in the community, purportedly sent out thousands of unsolicited text messages.

The actions of Christopher, Bray and Dick have sparked a movement of sorts, as a website (protectspringbranch.com) has been launched asking locals to join a lawsuit against the three individuals.

“In order to stop what is a clear abuse of our community, we are preparing to file a class-action lawsuit against Christopher, Dick, and Bray, in order to hold them accountable for their dubious actions and protect vulnerable disaster victims from being potentially taken advantage of by predators,” the site reads.

With a side-eye look at the Right, Sean O'Neal at Texas Monthly sees Ted Cruz's pro-choice side, and the Texas Signal finds the latest contender for Worst (Would-be) Congressman.

Here's a few environmental news developments:

-- The Permian Basin is producing more natural gas and condensate than it is oil and profits for oil companies, writes Justin Mikulka at DeSmogBlog.

As oil prices plummet, oil bankruptcies mount, and investors shun the shale industry, America’s top oil field -- the Permian shale that straddles Texas and New Mexico -- faces many new challenges that make profits appear more elusive than ever for the financially failing shale oil industry.

Many of those problems can be traced to two issues for the Permian Basin: The quality of its oil and the sheer volume of natural gas coming from its oil wells.

The latter issue comes as natural gas fetches record low prices in both U.S. and global markets. Prices for natural gas in Texas are often negative -- meaning oil producers have to pay someone to take their natural gas, or, without any infrastructure to capture and process it, they burn (flare) or vent (directly release) the gas.

As DeSmog has detailed, much of the best oil-producing shale in the Permian already has been drilled and fracked over the past decade. And so operators have moved on to drill in less productive areas, one of which is the Delaware sub-basin of the Permian ... As a Bloomberg Wire story reported in December, “in recent years investments have shifted to the Delaware, where output is much gassier than in the historic Midland portion of the Permian.”

-- Tankers by road and rail from North Carolina are bringing a potentially cancer-causing chemical  named GenX to Deer Park each month.

In picturesque North Carolina, along the seemingly pristine Cape Fear River, a chemical company called Chemours was caught discharging an industrial byproduct called GenX and it showed up in the drinking water. Now, that chemical is being brought to Texas ... GenX is the trade name of perfluoro-2-propoxypropanoic acid, which is used to make Teflon, fast food wrappers and other products. According to the Environmental Protection Agency, animal studies have shown health effects in the kidney, blood, immune system, developing fetuses and especially in the liver following oral exposure. The data are suggestive of cancer.

Since June 2017 Chemours began capturing the wastewater that included the GenX. Then, starting the week of Nov. 13, 2017, the company began arranging to have the wastewater transported by tanker truck and rail for disposal in Deer Park, Texas. Specifically, it’s being sent to Texas Molecular for deep-well injection. Texas Molecular is a Class1 Deep Well. Since 2017, the company has commissioned an average of 10 tanker trucks a day to haul away the wastewater for offsite disposal, according to the Chemours plant manager.

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has spoken numerous times about the dangers of GenX. In August 2017, she appeared at a town hall meeting in North Carolina.

Recently, Brockovich was in Houston for a town hall meeting to discuss a different matter. KPRC 2 asked Brockovich about Chemours’ plan to dispose of the GenX through deep well injection.

“Well that could be a problem... tanks deteriorate, bottoms rust, they break open. We don’t know it and we wind up with another massive groundwater contamination,” Brockovich said.

[...]

“Texas Molecular is not required to have a specific approval or public hearing for deep well disposal of GenX waste, because this waste stream is covered under the listing of industrial wastes authorized to be injected in its three UIC Class I permits,” according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ).


And with some lighter news items, we'll wrap up this week.



Here's ten places in Houston to celebrate Mardi Gras tomorrow, and here's where you can eat fish on Fridays for Lent.  If bluebonnets are more your thing than mudbugs or tilapia, then everything's coming up roses (so to speak).


And the TPA wishes Scott Henson at Grits for Breakfast a fast and full recovery.



Norma Zenteno was one of this blogger's heroes, performing many times for her brother and sister-in-law's canine rescue operation, Barrio Dogs.  Our precious little Holly was saved by them.
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Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Climbing a tree to tell a lie

... rather than standing on the ground and speaking the truth. That's your modern GOP hard at work. Here is Glenn Smith's expose' from HuffPo:

A right-wing group in Houston engaged in a systematic voter suppression and intimidation effort used a doctored photo in its showcase video. Tellingly, a hand-lettered sign carried by an African-American woman at a 2000 Florida, Gore-Lieberman recount rally was changed from, "Don't Mess With Our Vote," to read, "I Only Got to Vote Once."

Huffington Post editors first suspected the photoshopping after I posted "Possible Arson and the Right's Texas Voter Suppression Effort" regarding King Street Patriots' attacks on a nonprofit voter registration effort and the mysterious fire that destroyed all of Harris County's (Houston) voting machines.

In my regular Sunday FireDogLake column, I posted a follow-up piece, "Contempt for Democracy: Attacks on Voting Rights," that included a link to DigitalDupes.org, which had launched an effort to locate the original photo. Within hours, Newshounds found it.

In addition, a Gore/Lieberman sign was altered to read, "I'm With Stupid." Here is the doctored video as presented in King Street Patriots' video, followed by the original photographs.





In the video, King Street leader Catherine Engelbrecht says their effort is all about the truth, that they just want true, fair, honest elections. But if they are so committed to the truth, why did they use doctored photos? Why did they lie?

Because their real intent -- as it has been for similar voter suppression efforts for decades -- is to create barriers between the ballot box and the voters. They want to suppress the vote of people they suspect of opposing their agenda. In this case, as in most, that means assaulting the voting rights of the poor and minorities.

Now why would the Republicans bother with all of this cheating if they were actually as far ahead as the Lamestream Media bleats that they are? No, really; why?

Similar kinds of crap is happening everywhere.

Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk.

Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.

“These are people who are not serious and who were recruited as part of a cynical manipulation of the process,” said Paul Eckstein, a lawyer representing the Democrats. “They don’t know Green from red.”

The GOP has to recruit Greens to draw support away from Democrats in Arizona?!? Why, that's almost as ridiculous as their doing so in Texas. Oh, wait ...

Regarding Mr. Eckstein's quote at the end of the excerpt above, naturally our Greens in Texas sure can tell the difference, and they don't care. But that's a digression.

Why don't the Republicans just refocus their efforts? Why don't they try a little harder and come up with some fresh ideas to move the country forward instead of spending all this time, energy, and money on dirty tricks?

Because they can't help themselves; it's just their nature.

Sadder still, people actually do fall for it.  The Republicans constantly pull dirty tricks because it works.

I suppose if this mass delusion actually does manifest itself in November, then the people will get the kind of government they want. But what are the rest of us going to do?
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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Double the early vote

A total of 39,201 votes were cast Monday in Harris County, a record turnout almost double that of 2004's first day and one that was mirrored across Texas. The precise total of ballots case in the state's 15 most populous counties will not be known until today, but the number certainly will eclipse the 145,000 from four years ago.

I lined up at my usual early voting location, the Fiesta supermarket on South Main -- nearly in the shadow of Reliant Stadium (and next to the old Astrodome) -- at 1:30 p.m yesterday. I guessed that there must have been at least two hundred people ahead of me.

That has never been the case before, not even during the primary in March . I have never waited more than about ten minutes to vote (though when my wife cast her primary ballot on the only Saturday of the early voting period, she had to wait about thirty minutes).

Across Harris County, the scene ranged from subdued to circuslike as thousands of citizens lined up to vote. Some arrived hours before the polls opened, drawn, they said, by national crisis and a sense of history.

"Our ancestors died for us to be in line this day," said Bernadette McWilliams, who joined about 100 others in a largely African-American group waiting for poll doors to open at Palm Center in the 5300 block of Griggs Road.


Read the full piece about the heavy turnout across Texas, as well as the problems reported with voting machines.

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Friday, March 26, 2021

Friday Lone Star Leftist Roundup

-- Texas Democrats are playing defense at the Lege on voting rights, abortion rights, and trans rights; Texas Republicans are on offense in the Valley on ... well, pretty much everything.


Cosplay is fun, won't get the job done.


I am shocked, shockedIsayshocked, that the Pachys are outworking the Donkeys.  Twenty twenty-two is going to be a red wave of epic proportions, and Gilberto Hinojosa will never see it coming.  In the meantime, Lillie Schechter -- chair of the Harris County Democrats -- will be hosting a fundraiser spotlighting Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton for the tenth time.  Not even the Mithoffs have enough money to buy her a clue.

If only there were a political party that was actually for the people ...

Sidebar: To be serious, Greg Abbott has a ridiculous amount of stamina for a guy who has been in a wheelchair for nearly 37 years.  He also keeps himself in remarkably good condition; virtually all of the wheelchair users I know IRL carry some extra weight around the midsection; Abbott does not.  We've seen the campaign videos of his night-time workouts rolling up the ramps of parking garages in Austin, but he also must exercise a lot of discipline in his calorie intake to stay as slim as he is.

See?  I'm capable of the occasional compliment.  His commitment to physical health is commendable, but it doesn't change the fact that he is a self-loathing sociopath.  And mark "Hell No, Beto" as next year's campaign slogan.

-- Abbott's trying to boost the state's economy just in time to get re-elected, but ripping everybody's mask off has convention planners around the country saying, "thanks, but no thanks" to Austin.


If the Guvnah loses, it will only be in the GOP primary.  TexDems should focus on lower-hanging fruit, and to my thinking that would be Ken Paxton, who is simply another one of those cops who thinks he's above the law.  Either Joe Jaworski or Lee Merritt are more than capable enough to eject him.

-- Briscoe Cain, "parliamentary guru", had a super bad day at his bill hearing yesterday.  Thanks to RG Ratcliffe for pointing it out.


I thought you had to be at least 15 years old to run for the statehouse.


-- Winter Storm Uri has officially killed more Texans than Hurricane Harvey.  Damn those evil Russians.  Socratic Gadfly also blogged about the Texas Freeze kabuki theater under the Dome.

-- Harris County's new voting machines have a paper trail!  Too bad they're still shit.


I had lots more for this Roundup but my disgust in documenting the atrocities has again overwhelmed my desire to do so.  Breaking it off here to head into what will hopefully be another glorious weekend of college basketball, spring training baseball, all-I-can-eat crawfish and everything else that makes spring in Houston the best time of the year.

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Monday, August 18, 2014

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance might be a little late to work this morning, after celebrating the Rick Perry indictment all weekend, as it brings you the best lefty blog posts across the Lone Star State from last week.

Off the Kuff reminds us that there's one more special Senate election to go this year, and this one features a Democrat that's worth supporting.

Harold Cook warns us to keep a sense of perspective on the Rick Perry indictment.

Texas Leftist keeps wondering when the national media is going figure out that Texas could be a swing state today if enough people were actually voting. Plus: clarifying Wendy Davis' stance on LGBT equality issues, and what we can expect if she's elected.

WCNews at Eye on Williamson wryly observes that unfortunately in Texas, we have the government that we voted for... or didn't vote for, as the case may be: Avoiding Medicaid, Non-Voting, And Ferguson.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos finds it amusing how Greg Abbott promotes himself as a small government fiscal conservative while he squanders taxpayer dollars on ridiculous lawsuits: Greg Abbott’s Frivolous Fights with the Feds Cost Taxpayers Millions.

CouldBeTrue at South Texas Chisme notes that audit of Hidalgo County voting machines shows no tampering. Of course, without a paper trail, you can't really be sure. Kudos to Travis County for their efforts to provide auditable elections.

After the late Friday afternoon news broke about Rick Perry's felony indictments, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs consumed more adult beverages than he planned. All weekend long.

Egberto Willies thinks that Hillary Clinton should pay attention to the Obama coalition that Rand Paul is trying to assemble.

Neil at Blog About Our Failing Money-Owned American Political System bought a Texas cake to mark the indictment of Rick Perry. NeilAquino.com has many pages and is well worth your time to consider.

===================

And here some great blog posts from elsewhere in the Deep-In-The-Hearta.

jobsanger has the chart that illustrates how Rick Perry's payola scheme has worked so well for him over the years.

Grits for Breakfast notes that the economics of the Rio Grande border surge are not sustainable, while Scott Braddock shows how Rick Perry's border posturing is bad for the people that actually live and work there.

Fascist Dyke Motors seems to have misplaced her father's suicide diaries.  If you find them, could you kindly return them?

State Impact Texas has the news that diesel fuel has been used in hydraulic fracturing, which is illegal.  Bluedaze offers the proof.

nonsequiteuse expands on the report that John Cornyn and Ted Cruz spend more taxpayer money on their office operations that nearly every other US Senator.

In the third installment of a continuing series, Socratic Gadfly's word to text Greg Abbott -- per request in his movie trailer ads -- is not 'freedom' but 'RickPerry'.  Or 'indictment' is good, too.

Juanita Jean disagrees with the calls for Rick Perry to resign.

Lone Star Q decries Rep. Jonathan Stickland's attack on transgender inmates.

The Texas Election Law Blog games out the state's strategy in the redistricting litigation.

Lone Star Ma celebrates National Breastfeeding Month.

And finally, The Bloggess wants us to know that help is always available if you need it.
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Wednesday, July 05, 2017

Russians may be coming again ... but we've larger voting problems

Before we go to war with North Korea, before the unhinged Right starts killing CNN reporters, before acetamenophin destroys what's left of our empathy ...


When last we tuned in to RT while clicking on Sputnik News, we learned that our antagonists Boris and Natasha Fancy Bear and Cozy Bear (see here and here for the Wiki background) had been hard at work scaring the pants off moose and squirrel everybody from Jameses Comey and Clapper to your friendly neighborhood Dem precinct captain about what, precisely, they had been up to in the summer of 2016.  That is to say, beyond humiliating Hillary Clinton, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Donna Brazile, John Podesta, Huma Abedin, and the rest of the DNC hacks that got hacked.

We learned that they hacked into 39 states' voter databases -- or tried to, and succeeded in getting into perhaps just one, Illinois.  Alex Ward at Vox has it, with a link over to the original at Bloomberg, and previously and briefly referenced by yours truly in the second half of this aggrepost.

While this is indeed alarming, I still find voter suppression via photo ID and partisan gerrymandering to be greater threats to our republic.  Paper ballots with verifiable paper trails -- something like the Scantron-style electronic voting machines Denton County has just adopted -- would resolve the  Russian problem, but nothing short of a blue tsunami will fix the other two, and unless they can find something to run on besides "Trump is evil/Russia/Impeach",  2018 isn't going to be the cycle the Donkeys are looking for.


(*Ed note: let me pause here and acknowledge my friend Brad Friedman's lasting concerns about anything machine count-related.  Experts appear to disagree on the hackability, or at least the ease thereof, of scanned ballot counters.)

For the benefit of my conspiratorially-minded Democratic friends, let me point out -- as I have repeatedly in the past -- that the key to cracking the Russian code lies not in tracing election hacking attempts but in Trump's still-concealed tax returns.  Paul Manafort, Carter Page, Felix Sater, and the rest of that ilk are the threads special counsel Mueller should be -- and hopefully is -- pulling on.  And if Trump, or Jeff Sessions, or Devin Nunes, or any Republican in the administration or the Congress is found to be obstructing that investigation, then the walls will come tumbling down.


Focusing on the wrong Russiagate is starting to show up in polling as a loser for Democrats.  It's a winner for the corporate media and ratings, however, especially MSNBC.  Before Mika B's facelift became an atrocious but ultimately distracting Tweet -- even Tucker Carlson thinks so, by Jeebus -- Trump usually didn't give half of one solid shit about the other liberal media news channel; he's mobilized his base to destroy CNN, and now even Julian Assange is piling on.

I would like to also point out that the Democratic Party has bigger fish to fry than continuing to demonize Jill Stein, but I'm convinced that unhealthy obsession has become part of their DNA.

So with all that, plus 1) Kris Kobach, 2) a Texas Legislature poised to over-reach once more with a photo ID law that will require a couple of years for the courts to once again nullify, and 3) gerrymandered congressional and statehouse districts thanks to Tom DeLay almost fifteen years ago, as Lawrence Wright in The New Yorker reminded us in his comprehensive and compelling piece "America's Future is Texas"... why are you more worried about what Russian hackers may or may not be doing in the next election cycle?  Your vote barely counts for anything as it is.

On a more positive note, here's an easily attainable goal for those of us in Harris County: #FireStanStanart and replace him with Diane Trautman, and then push the mostly Republican county commissioners to approve and purchase paper ballots for 2020.  Because if Democrats can actually win some elections -- particularly this one -- in 2018, those GOPers will be forced to do so, due to the caterwauling from their base about Ill Eagles voting.

See how easy this is?  Just requires a little focus on the proper thing.
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Monday, November 12, 2018

The 2018 Post Mortem Wrangle

Everybody's got an opinion the week after the landslide, and the Texas Progressive Alliance rounds up the best (and worst) of them in a ride around the Texblogosphere to celebrate the Democrats' big wins -- and mourn the losses -- from last Tuesday.

It's also the day following the Armistice Centenary, or the celebration of the ending of WWI, a hundred years ago.  As Caitlin Johnstone noted, the best way to thank veterans for their service is to not make any more of them.


This synopsis of the US Senate race -- from January of 2017 to last Tuesday -- by Patrick Svitek and Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune is the best ten-minute read on how the most important election in Texas unfolded.

RG Ratcliffe at Texas Monthly corrected the knobs at Politico about O'Rourke's shunning the use of political consultants as a reason why he lost.  RG also had the best morning-after quick takes.

Beto's extremely long coattails for a losing candidate were the focus of many stories: Tarrant County turning purple, Fort Bend and Hays turning blue, the appellate courts flipping, the sweeps in Harris and Dallas Counties.

And as several media outlets predicted going back to September, the cult of Beto grows larger with his defeat as 'O'Rourke 2020' trial balloons are being floated all over the country.
While early voting was under way, Politico also took the liberty of introducing us to the next Ted Cruz, aka Lamar Smith's successor in TX-21, Chip Roy.

Jeff Balke at the Houston Press wants to know if Lizzie Fletcher will do for METROrail what John Culberson refused to do.

There will be another chance for voters in Harris County's East End to cast a ballot before the end of the year: the special election to fill the state Senate seat relinquished by US Rep.-elect Sylvia Garcia was quickly set by Governor Abbott for December 11.  Two statehouse representatives, Carol Alvarado and Ana Hernandez, announced their intentions to run for SD-6 way back in March (after Garcia won her CD-29 primary).

A handful of old TPA friends were on the ballot last week: Trey Martinez Fischer goes back to the Lege to represent HD-116, but Nick Lampson came up short in his bid to unseat party-switcher Jeff Branick as Jefferson County Judge.  And the Alliance salutes former blogger KT Musselman on his election as Justice of the Peace in Williamson County.

Socratic Gadfly had a three-part election wrap. First, a look at general hot takes, trends, and issues from various races. Second, he observed that conservative writers at centrist political mags were getting out the long knives for Beto, maybe in fear of a 2020 presidential run. Third, noting successful Democratic Socialists of America campaigns, he wondered if they would stay true to ideals once in office and other issues; above all, the use of the word "socialist."

Grits for Breakfast examined the 2018 results through his criminal justice reform lens.  Scott Henson followed that up with a wrangle of more CJ news, leading off with a profile of Harris County's Judge-elect, Lina Hidalgo, and her reform platform.

For more background: Charles Kuffner interviewed Hidalgo before the election, and here's a profile and slideshow the Chronicle ran this week. Also related, from the Texas Observer: "The midterms triggered a seismic shift in Harris County courts."

Law and Crime talked to State District Judge-elect Franklin Bynum, one of three DSA members elected in Harris County.

Harris County's new Clerk, Diane Trautman, has plans to replace the county's antiquated eSlate voting machines with new ones that provide a paper trail.  The problem, as always, will be finding the money to do so.

Even as Texas House Republicans begin to consolidate support for Rep. Dennis Bonnen as Speaker, a larger Democratic minority will hopefully push the lower chamber -- and the Lege overall -- more toward the political center.

David Collins has three posts on the progressive POV of the election results, all linked at Part I, while Sanford Nowlin at the San Antonio Current has a thirty-second take on how Democrats of a progressive bent hope to build on 2018.

Off the Kuff had some fun with the Harris County Republican Party and its ridiculous whining about straight-ticket voting.

Funnier still were the accusations of 'Communist' by HCGOP leaders against a losing county commissioner candidate.  Jef Rouner at the HP:

The idea that Penny Shaw, who ran against (incumbent Republican Jack) Cagle, is a Communist appears to be a right-wing conspiracy theory. There is no evidence that Shaw, a Democrat, is a member of the Communist Party of Texas. The idea seems to be based on Shaw's attendance at events the Houston Communist Party attends, such as the state Democratic convention this past summer. Sources "proving" her link to communism are either broken or do not actually contain the quotes that some alt-wiki authors contend they do.

In the lousiest political take/least progressive category, we have Blue Dog Democrat consultant Colin Strother making the case for Speaker Nancy Pelosi, 2.0.  Sample:

Unlike many politicians, Pelosi doesn’t have an ego.

AHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA

Therese Odell at Foolish Watcher vents about the Saturday Night Live/Dan Crenshaw apology.

Paradise in Hell interprets the presidential appointment-making process.

And Harry Hamid is in a time machine at the end of the hall.
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Thursday, August 21, 2008

"I, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a representative from Ohio..."


Today, Congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, along with Senator Barbara Boxer (CA), entered a formal objection to the certification of the state of Ohio's (2004) electoral votes. Her prepared floor statement, in part, was as follows:

"I, Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a representative from Ohio, and Ms. Boxer, a Senator from California, object to the counting of the electoral votes of the State of Ohio on the ground that they were not, under all of the known circumstances, regularly given.

"I thank God that I have a Senator joining me in this objection. I appreciate Senator Boxer's willingness to listen to the plight of hundreds and even thousands of Ohio voters that for a variety of reasons were denied the right to vote. Unfortunately objecting to the electoral votes from Ohio is the only immediate avenue to bring these issues to light.

"While some have called our cause foolish I can assure you that my parents, Mary and Andrew Tubbs did not raise any fools and as a lawyer, former judge and prosecutor, I am duty bound to follow the law and apply the law to the facts as I find them.

"It is on behalf of those millions of Americans who believe in and value our democratic process and the right to vote that I put forth this objection today. If they are willing stand at the polls for countless hours in the rain as many did in Ohio, then I can surely stand up for them here in the halls of Congress.

"This objection does not have at its root the hope or even the hint of overturning or challenging the victory of the President; but it is a necessary, timely and appropriate opportunity to review and remedy the most precious process in our democracy."

"I raise this objection neither to put the nation in the turmoil of a proposed overturned election nor to provide cannon fodder or partisan demagoguery for my fellow Republican Members of Congress.

"I raise this objection because I am convinced that we as a body must conduct a formal and legitimate debate about election irregularities. I raise this objection to debate the process and protect the integrity of the true will of the people.

"Again, I thank Senator Boxer for joining me in this objection to the counting of Ohio's electoral votes due to the considerable number of voting irregularities that transpired in my home state.

"There are serious allegations in two lawsuits pending in Ohio that debate the constitutionality of the denial of provisional ballots to voters (The Sandusky County Democratic Party v. J. Kenneth Blackwell) and Ohio's vote recount (Yost v. David Cobb, et al.). These legitimate questions brought forward by the lawsuits, which go to the core of our voting and Democratic process, should be resolved before Ohio's electoral votes are certified.

"Moreover, as you are aware, advancing legislative initiatives is more challenging when you are in the minority party in Congress. However, this challenge is multiplied when you are in the minority in the House of Representatives because of House rules, compared to Senate rules.

"Voting irregularities were an issue after the 2000 presidential election, when Democratic House initiatives relating to election reform were not considered.

"Therefore, in order to prevent our voices from being kept silent, it is imperative that we object to the counting of Ohio's electoral votes and debate the issue of Ohio's voting improprieties.

"There are just over 1 million registered voters in Cuyahoga County - which of course includes the Greater Cleveland area and the 11th Congressional District which I represent. Registration increased approximately 10 percent.

"The beauty of the 2004 election was that more people were fully prepared to exercise their right to vote -- however on Election Day hundreds and even thousands of individuals went to the voting polls and were denied the opportunity to have their vote count.

"In my own county where citizen volunteers put forth a Herculean effort to register, educate, mobilize and protect the vote there were people who experienced irregularities.

"Poor and minority communities had disproportionately long waits -- 4 to 5 hour waits were widespread. Election Protection Coalition testified that more than half of the complaints about long lines they received came from Columbus and Cleveland where a huge proportion of the state’s Democratic voters live. One entire polling place in Cuyahoga County (Greater Cleveland) had to “shut down” at 9:25 a.m. on Election Day because there were no working machines.

"Cuyahoga County had an overall provisional ballot rejection rate of 32 percent. Rejection rates for provisional ballots in African American precincts/wards in Cleveland, Ohio averaged 37 percent and ranged as high as 51 percent.

"Thousands of partisan challengers -- concentrated in Cuyahoga County’s minority and Democratic communities -- effectively served to intimidate voters and confuse poll workers. There were both inconsistent and illegal requests for photo identification.

"There were problems with absentee ballots including incorrect information provided to voters by the Secretary of State and, consequently, the Cuyahoga County Board of Elections telling voters they could not vote in their precinct –- effectively disenfranchising hundreds and more likely thousands of voters.

"This objection points out the inadequacy of a great election system which permits 50 Secretary's of State to administer a federal election and impose so many different state laws regulating the election.

"In Ohio, the Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, who served as Co-Chair of the Bush re-election campaign, issued a bizarre series of directives in the days preceding the 2004 Presidential election that created tremendous confusion among voters in Cuyahoga County and across the state of Ohio.

"For example; on September 7, 2004, Secretary Blackwell issued a directive to local boards of elections mandating rejection of voter registration forms based on their paperweight – 80lb text weight. Mr. Blackwell’s issuance of this directive – which he ultimately reversed by September 28, 2004 - resulted in serious confusion and chaos among the counties and voters.

"My objection points to the need to implement across this nation standards that apply to all states. We need to enact legislation that will:

* Allow all voters to vote early - so that obligations of employment and family will not interfere with the ability to cast a vote.
* Establish a national holiday - Election Day - to bring attention to the importance of the vote.
* Require those who work in the voting booth to be fairly compensated, adequately educated and sufficiently supported such that the job importance will be elevated.
* That will provide equipment - whether it is the traditional punch card or the more modern electronic machines - that are properly calibrated, fully tested for accuracy and provide a paper trail to ensure a verifiable audit of every vote.

"What happened in Ohio may well have been repeated in counties across this country. Yet that is no excuse for us to push the irregularities behind us and go on with the business of the day. These incidents are a call for us to clean up, clear up and implement policies and procedures that will protect each citizen's precious right to vote.

"If in fact we see it is our obligation to secure democracy around the world to monitor and oversee free and fair elections in other countries surely we must ensure, protect and guarantee the right to vote right here at home."


Rest in peace, Stephanie. Thanks for fighting for all of us.
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Thursday, June 18, 2020

Race for the White House Update: Trump gets booked

By John Bolton and by his niece, Mary.


President Donald Trump “pleaded” with China’s Xi Jinping during a 2019 summit to help his reelection prospects, according to a scathing new book by former Trump adviser John Bolton that accuses the president of being driven by political calculations when making national security decisions.

Odd how Bolton appears (I've only read an excerpt and some reviews) not to have mentioned some of these things when he was questioned under oath by impeachment managers and attorneys.


Don't know about yours, but my summer reading list is full.

And the hits just keep on comin'.


Now we're in Putin/Kim territory (as if we weren't previously).  With all this depressing news, you can kinda understand why Trump needs a rally right about now.


Masks optional, hand sanitizer available, social distancing not required.

That's the most I've blogged about Shitler in months.  It's been better for my mental health to have muted his Tweets, ignored the most hysterical of Resistance members who lose their minds on a daily basis over him, and generally just avoided getting triggered by his ignorance, his cruelty, his malignant narcissism, his sociopathy, and all the rest.  I spent eight years being mad at Bush Jr., after all, and decided the day after Election Day 2016 that I wasn't going to relive that again.  To be clear: Trump is a symptom of a broken political system.  There are simply no excuses for Hillary Clinton to have lost to him, no matter how many she has made or have been made for her.

And if you should happen to agree that Trump is the product of a dysfunctional America, then you must agree that Joe Biden has been one of the architects of it.



Why can't somebody sneak "I support Medicare for All" onto Joe's teleprompter?


Personally, I blame Obama.


But Joe has had plenty of enablers and gaslighters.


Still he is on his way to a landslide victory.  Not Trump; Biden.




That's Josh Putnam's map.  Here's mine as of today.



Click the map to create your own at 270toWin.com

Yes, I'm of the opinion that Joe is going to make it too close, and that the polling will be as unsound and unpredictable as ever.  There's lots of concerns about voter suppression, faulty voting machines, whether people will be able to vote by mail because of the virus, whether the counties can handle the massive flow of mail ballots regardless, etc.

And if you're voting blue, you're really voting for the person Biden selects as running mate.  That woman is going to be the president of the United States sooner than later.  The public polls remain very favorable to Elizabeth Warren.


Follow the 7-count thread to the link for more.  I'm still thinking Kamala, but reports indicate Val Demings and Keisha Bottoms have moved up into the top four.  Update: Amy pulls the plug, and endorses ... anybody but Warren.  Maybe Joe could still do better.


Doesn't matter to me anyway.  Whoever loses has a base that won't accept the result; Texas won't be close unless it's a landslide, and I'll be voting Green or indy no matter what.


"B-B-B-But the Supreme Court!"


Notoriously bad, Ruth.  "B-B-B-But a vote for ________ is a vote for Trump!"


As it happens, there is but one man standing between Trump and a second term.  And his name is ...

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