More TDP photos

The Van Os-mobile.

Anna of Annatopia, who organized our Blogger's Caucus at the Flying Saucer, the most successful social event of the convention.

David Van Os and his women: from left daughters, Kay Cee, Leya, and Maya, wife Rachel.

Hank Gilbert and family.

Blogger's Alley inside the convention center.

I, The Media.

Fred Head's statement on public education.

Thanks to TomTech of Daily Kos for these. Here's more.

Why Rove wasn't indicted

Seth Abramson, a criminal attorney who writes the outstanding Suburban Ectstasies blog, has the brain candy. It's an easy three-step explanation showing how prosecutorial trial strategy, and not Rove's innocence, was the reason "Turd Blossom" escaped federal prosecution, but let's skip right to the smackdown:

Conclusion. Any competent lawyer will tell you that Rove got off on Perjury/Obstruction of Justice charges because the case against Scooter Libby was infinitesimally stronger than the case against Rove, and thus Fitzgerald went with the stronger prosecution over the weaker. (For the analysis of an incompetent attorney, see here). This doesn't mean that Rove is innocent, of course. In fact, it doesn't even mean Fitzgerald thinks he couldn't convict Rove. It means only this: that if Fitzgerald thinks he has a 95% or greater chance of convicting Libby, he must, therefore, think that he has a 94% or less chance of convicting Rove. So, it's simple trial strategy at work here, not anything the Porcine Wonder did. Don't let the media mislead you into thinking the lack of a Rove indictment means the case against him was weak. It wasn't. It isn't. It never will be. Which is why Rove will lose his shirt in the civil suit that's coming down the line any day now.

Perhaps I'll save that bottle of bubbly I was chilling for Fitzmas after all ...

Images from the TDP Convention

Yours truly with Senator Barbara Ann Radnofsky.

The Texas Progressive Alliance (well, most of it, anyway).

Bloggers' Caucus at the Flying Saucer. I'm in the middle of this mix, talking to David Van Os.

Hoping BAR doesn't fall (and I have to catch her).

The back of my head. Oh, and Jim Huebner and Mrs. Diddie also.

The next President of the United States.

All images stolen from Anna. Vince has more.

Look at all the live-blogging!

Hey, there's Brian, whom I must've wowed, because I didn't make his list and Kuff -- but he sucks, and Anna, who doesn't suck whatsoever, and over there standing on the rickety bar stool yelling is Vince. He appears to be having the proverbial good time by all. Everyone. Everybody's good time is also being had by Vince.

And hey! I see Muses and Ladies in Pink (no wait, that's not her after all, and it's not Alison Bell either, who was smashing -- particularly her curly coiffure) and some of the fellows from Burnt Orange. Last night I ran into Trey, who had to remind me he wasn't his sister (and then reminded everyone that he sometimes IS a little bitch).

The DU crowd numbered twenty-plus and took over the back of the Flying Saucer. I was stuck mostly up front, playing spotter to Barbara, who jumped up on the sofa arm to say a few words. Picture me catching the next Senator from the Great State falling into my arms as she tumbled backward. It didn't happen, and I wasn't hoping it would, but it would have made a great picture ...

Then Mrs. Diddie and I wrapped the evening at Crystal Ballroom 'C', where J- Lee and J. Goodwille (he's third from the top) and the rest of the exceptionally hip were jammin'.

I have only a small headache.

The Fort Worth Hilton

... which serves as the Texas Democratic Party's convention hotel (and where I am writing this) was formerly the Hotel Texas, the place where President John F. Kennedy and the First Lady slept the night of November 21st, 1963. The next morning, after a speech in the hotel's ballroom and a press conference directly in front of the hotel, the president's motorcade departed for a short flight to Love Field in Dallas, taking with it the final moments of a more innocent America.

In the side foyer of the hotel is a photographic recollection of this bit of history. More on the convention events later.

P.S. : I have a first-edition copy of An Inconvenient Truth, signed by the book's author Al Gore, donated to our statewide candidates as a silent auction item. If you're reading this and attending the convention, come by and place a bid on it.

RIP, Mary Kay Merriman

Mary Kay Merriman, Democratic activist, League of Women Voters member, and wife of Progressive Populist Caucus chair emeritus Stan Merriman, passed away suddenly yesterday.

David Van Os posted these remarks:

The fact that we are going to have a wide open, democratic election for state party chair is in large part a result of Stan Merriman's labors over the past 4 years to re-democratize the Texas Democratic Party. The fact that the Progressive Populist Caucus meeting is going to draw huge interest and will have heavy impact is a direct result of Stan's labors over the past 4 years in building the Caucus. The fact that the State Party Platform of 2004 was one of the most progressive in the history of the Texas Democratic Party is a direct result of Stan's labors. The fact that the 2006 platform will no doubt continue the same spirit is likewise a result of Stan's work. The fact that the face of the Texas Democratic Party in Convention this week will reflect a much more grassroots oriented party than it did 4 years ago is likewise a direct result of Stan's ceaseless labors, much of which are unknown to most but are undeniable to those who know.

Stan Merriman has been one of the most committed progressives that I have ever known. My family's thoughts and prayers go to him now at a time of incalculable loss.