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

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

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

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

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

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

From the Cleburne Times-Review.

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

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

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

A Blue Tsunami hit Galveston this past weekend

And it's gonna wash all across Texas, up to Amarillo and out to El Paso.

Over a thousand Democrats met at the Moody Gardens resort on the island on Saturday for some SDEC business, a few party caucuses, and a big rally featuring nearly all of our November candidates, union and party activists and humorist Jim Hightower.

I still can't quite wrap my head around it. Just a few of the personal highlights:

The only one of our candidates whose hand I missed shaking was Ben Grant's. Mrs. Diddie and I spent some quality time with our friends David and Rachel Van Os in the Strand, having lunch on the wharf. I also got some extended face time with Bob Gammage at the banquet's after-party (and got satisfactory answers to all my questions). Met Fred Head for the first time and exchanged business cards. I didn't spend as much time as I have in the past schmoozing with Chris Bell and Barbara Radnofsky and their staffers, as we were all working separate sides of the room. But their speeches at the noon rally were on fire, and Bell followed up enthusiastically at the SDEC meetings with the news of DeLay's demise.

We named our table the Vast Left Wing Conspiracy and rocked the house. Art Sadin, one of the event's sponsors and who was sitting next to Master of the Universe Walter Umphrey at an adjacent table, came over and asked to be admitted into our circle.

Want some news that's not quite ready for publication? One of the leading 2008 Democratic presidential candidates will be in Houston before the end of January to campaign for his friend who's on the ballot.

A wrap-up complete with photo slideshow is here.

But there was news happening while we were celebrating, and I'll summarize it following:

-- La Cucaracha Grande finally gave up on regaining Majority Leadership, leaving House Republicans to choose between a "Boner" and a Blunt.

-- via Vince at BOR, there's more from the AA-S on the Texas Association of Business, John Colyandro and Ben Bentzin, who is in a special election for a vacant Texas House seat in less than two weeks. A commenter there has an interesting POV.

-- Vince also has the Texas Monthly piece (reg. req.) on how the Texas GOP is cannabalizing themselves. Best example yet of why they will lose in November. Too good to excerpt; go read it all.

-- up in CD-06, things have taken a nasty and personal turn for the worse. (Actually, now that I have finally gotten around to commenting about it, it's over and done with.)

-- Oh yeah: that goombah Scalito is going to be making news this week.

Bulldozing the Dead in New Orleans

Joyce Green died on the roof of her Lower 9th Ward home as her New Orleans neighborhood flooded during Hurricane Katrina. Helplessly, her son watched her die as the water rushed dangerously below them. Just last week he was able to return to their collapsed house on Tennessee Street for the first time, and found her skeletal remains amidst the ruins. He was able to identify them because they were wrapped in the clothes she was wearing the day she died.

During Katrina, the Lower 9th Ward was deluged due to breaches in the Industrial Canal levee. Additionally, an enormous barge that was illegally left in the canal was launched into the neighborhood, destroying lives and property during its reckless trajectory. Four months later, many questions remain unanswered regarding the destruction in the Lower 9th Ward, including the question of possible criminal negligence. However, before those questions have been fully investigated, let alone answered, the City of New Orleans is rushing to bulldoze much of the neighborhood--without informing homeowners.

On the eve of the holiday season, Greg Meffert, the city's chief technology officer, revealed that the city would immediately demolish about 2,500 "red-tagged" homes in the Lower 9th Ward. Before Meffert's announcement, a red-tag merely meant that a home was unsafe to enter. The City of New Orleans website specifically states in bold italicized text that "a red sticker does not indicate whether or not a building will be demolished, only that the structure is currently unsafe to enter."

Yet the City decided to bulldoze red-tagged homes without informing homeowners of the new meaning of the red tags or the demolition order. This is a clear violation of due process, guaranteed under federal and state constitutions, which protects property owners from the unlawful destruction of their property. It is also a clear, opportunistic attack on the Lower 9th Ward community, whose historically black roots run deep in the neighborhood. Boasting the highest level of black home ownership in the nation, the area is also where many black New Orleanians have traditionally been able to purchase their first homes.

Much more from Scott Boehm (click the link in the headline), the Rude Pundit, and Schroeder.

The lobbying that dare not speak its name

I'll be in Galveston this weekend for "Turn Texas Blue". Wordier postings to resume shortly.

Who's Number One?