Sunday Funnies (DiCKO, Subpoenas, and the Supremes edition)

(view this last one full screen; it's a classic)

Es un Domingo de Noriega

Noriega moves closer to run for US Senate:

Fresh off his wife's victory onto the Houston City Council, state Rep. Rick Noriega is poised to launch a race for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate to challenge Republican incumbent Sen. John Cornyn. ...

Noriega, 49, began looking at a challenge during this year's legislative session, but he put off any direct action until after his wife, Melissa, won her City Council runoff election last month. ...

But now Melissa Noriega's race is over, and a dozen of the state's most influential left-leaning blogs have begun an Internet "Draft Rick Noriega" movement. Noriega called it "flattering."

Yes, that would be us.

Reading further in the article we find once again the ubiquitous Matt Angle quoted:

Democratic political consultant Matt Angle said a Democratic victory in the Senate race is possible next year because the mood of the state has turned away from Republicans on national issues, and the one-party administration of state government has turned many people off.

"Nobody's under any illusions: A Republican still goes into a statewide race in Texas with an advantage, but it would be irresponsible for Democrats not to make a sincere effort to win a statewide race, especially when you have some quality candidates," Angle said.

Now I hate to take space in a post that contains such good news and say something negative, but that goddamned Matt Angle just has a special talent for getting my goat. Say this for him: he's a clever wordsmith. He managed to tell the bald-ass truth about himself and work in an insult against the 2006 slate of Democrtaic candidates, all in one sentence.

Unwittingly (perhaps), Angle also points to the most glaring deficiency of Noriega's declared primary opponent, Mikal Watts.

Watts, through a now-defunct PAC operating out of Corpus Christi law offices, donated tens of thousands of dollars to both Greg Abbott and David Dewhurst in the 2006 cycle. He did so -- allegedly -- because the Democratic party bosses in Texas told him that the 2006 statewide candidates didn't have a chance of winning.

Angle demonstrated the defeatist attitude of the Texas Democratic Party's elders not only by telling influential donors like Watts that the Democrats nominated in 2006 -- one of which, you may recall, I labored for -- were a lost cause, he made certain no genuine effort was made on their behalf by sending his operatives to work in the TDP's Austin offices.

I've already bitched quite a bit about this previously (type "Angle" in the 'search this blog' box at the top of the page if you want to re-read it; I just don't feel like linking back to it any more). Angle is sending some folks down to Houston to help us take Harris County blue in 2008, so maybe our paths will cross at some point and we can hash this out privately. For now I want everyone to be clear that I have a difficult time considering Matt Angle, TDP chair Boyd Richie, and the Texas Democratic Trust allies in electing progressives. DINOs, yes. Real Democrats, not so much. I hope I get to blog something more encouraging about this shortly.

Enough of that. Back to the encouraging development, and that's Rick Noriega answering the call to run for the Senate.

His record of service in the National Guard, in the Texas House, and to the city of Houston during the Katrina exodus has been nothing short of exemplary. He's a true progressive Democrat and has demonstrated a from-the-heart populism that stands for the people and against the powerful. In these times of creeping fascism throughout our nation, that position is neither expedient nor popular. It is, however, vital to the health of our republican democracy.

Noriega is precisely the kind of candidate, the kind of leader -- and man, and human being -- that Texas desperately needs after too many years of Bush and his lickspittles destroying our Constitution, our economy, our freedoms, our military, our respect in the world ... our country.

There's no one I will work harder to get elected in 2008 than Rick Noriega. He is the real deal.

This week's GOP Screw-up Round-up

If we leave the Bush Monarchy out of it and focus solely on the presidential candidate comedy troupe, we find a pretty funny collection. First up, Fred "The Second Coming of Reagan" Thompson:

Fred Thompson, who is weighing a Republican presidential bid as a social conservative, "has no recollection" of performing lobbying work in 1991 for a family planning group that was seeking to relax an abortion counseling rule, a spokesman said Friday.

Write him off. Getting paid for advocating for reproductive freedom when you're supposed to be a fundamentalist is the kiss of death. Then again, this is just the kind of rank hypocrisy that the last vestiges of the Republican base laps up like thirsty dogs. That he's working the Alberto Gonzales/Sergeant Schultz defense right from the get-go suggests it's his only way out.

Next, Mitt Romney's porno problem:

Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney, who rails against pornography, is being criticized by social conservatives who argue that he should have tried to halt hardcore hotel movie offerings during his near-decade on the Marriott board.

Two conservative activists say the distribution of such graphic adult movies runs counter to the family image cultivated by Romney, the Marriotts and their shared Mormon faith.

"Marriott is a major pornographer. And even though he may have fought it, everyone on that board is a hypocrite for presenting themselves as family values when their hotels offer 70 different types of hardcore pornography," said Phil Burress, president of Citizens for Community Values, an anti-pornography group based in Ohio.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, a leading conservative group in Washington, said: "They have to assume some responsibility. It's their hotels, it's their television sets."

During a recent Associated Press interview, Romney said he did not recall pornography coming up for discussion while he was on the Marriott board from 1992 to 2001. He also said he was unaware of how much revenue pornography may have generated for the hotel chain.

Once again, a Republican presidential candidate cannot recall selling himself out from under conservative val-yews. Who will the fundies turn to now? Newt?

John McCain is going down in flames. Ron Paul has more money than Senator Surge; the Maverick is going to be the first one forced to quit the race. The guy who's been leading in the polls for the Republics the past year, the famously cross-dressing Rudy Giuliani, is also quite stupid relative to historical comparisons. No surprise there. Again, most conservatives are equally ignorant of facts, so they may not hold it against him.

Is there a second-tier candidate who can capitalize on the front-runners' missteps? Duncan "Ann Coulter is a great American" Hunter? Tom "Kill the Illegals" Tancredo? Mike "WTF?" Huckabee? I know I'm leaving out some conservative stalwart ...

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and the Right has got to be feeling mighty queasy these days.

LiveEarth concerts all day

On Bravo now, also MSNBC, CNBC, Telemundo, Sundance and NBC tonight.

Former vice-president's son busted for drugs

I wonder what kind of car he was driving:

A new book by Texas author J.H. Hatfield claims that George W. Bush was arrested for cocaine possession in 1972, but had his record expunged with help from his family's political connections. In an afterword to his book "Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President" (St. Martin's), Hatfield says he took a second look at the Bush cocaine allegations after a story in Salon reporting allegations that Bush did community service for the crime at the Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center in Houston's Third Ward.

The center's executive director, Madgelean Bush (no relation to George W. Bush), had told Salon News and others that Bush did not do community service there, and the Bush campaign likewise denied the allegation. But the Texas governor had admitted to working at Houston's Project P.U.L.L. in 1972, and Hatfield says he began to wonder if that was actually the community service sentence. Hatfield says he confirmed those suspicions with three sources close to the Bush family he had cultivated while writing his biography, which publishes Wednesday.

By contrast, "First Son: George W. Bush and the Family Dynasty," by Dallas Morning News reporter Bill Minutaglio, says George Bush Sr. referred his son to Project P.U.L.L. after an incident in which George W. drove drunk with his younger brother Marvin in the car.

But Hatfield quotes "a high-ranking advisor to Bush" who confirmed that Bush was arrested for cocaine possession in Houston in 1972, and had the record expunged by a judge who was "a fellow Republican and elected official" who helped Bush get off "with a little community service at a minority youth center instead of having to pick cotton on a Texas prison farm."

When you stumble across douchebaggery like this, it always helps to get, you know, a "fair and balanced" perspective.

Victor Rita also deserves to have his sentence commuted

Keeping with the hypocrisy theme (and rather than just decrying the obvious) , my man David points to an American who deserves a commutation:

In a decision announced on June 21, 2007, the US Supreme Court in Rita v. United States upheld as reasonable under federal sentencing law a prison sentence of 33 months for the offense of perjury committed in testimony to a grand jury, which is virtually the same sentence imposed on Scooter Libby for the same offense.

The defendant Victor Rita was a 25-year military veteran with 35 commendations, awards and medals for his military service, and in poor medical condition. He contended that the length of his prison term was unreasonable in light of his exemplary service to the country and his health circumstances. The Supreme Court granted review in order to examine and clarify the issue of how to determine the reasonableness of a prison sentence.

Twelve days after the Supreme Court held as a matter of law that a sentence of 33 months of prison for perjury was reasonable for a decorated veteran in poor health, the president, whose sworn duty is to see that the laws are faithfully executed, commuted Scooter Libby's similar sentence for the same offense as "excessive". The federal Sentencing Guidelines say that 33 months is the recommended minimum sentence for the crime of perjury, with the recommended range being 33-41 months. According to the nation's president, however, the Sentencing Guideline for this is too harsh.

Victor Rita's sentence should be commuted, don't you think?

Indeed we do.