Chris Bell for Senate update

While I was out working my precinct this afternoon for Chris Bell, a nice young man from the Bell campaign knocked on my door (spoke with Mrs. Diddie). We're leaving no stone unturned in this runoff, believe me.

One of my concerns is the lack of a nearby polling place for early voting; the nearest one to this most Democratic portion of the district is Bayland Park Community Center at 6400 Bissonnet near Hillcroft). Our usual EV location -- the Fiesta Mart on Main near OST -- is not being provided. The CCO isn't appropriate for anyone except district residents who also work on the north side of downtown. Here's a Google map of polls throughout the district:


View Larger Map

I take that as a intention to suppress Democratic turnout by geographic location, particularly since other Harris County EV polls are even farther west into the Republican territory.

No matter; we will overcome.

Update:

Bell out-polled Huffman 3-2 on election day, but a December runoff election is a daunting proposition. The Republicans have done everything in their power to suppress support for Chris Bell. They recruited, got on the ballot at the very last minute, and even funded a stalking horse, carpetbagging, pretend-to-be Democrat candidate in the November 4 general election in order to siphon off enough Democratic votes to require a runoff. The governor purposely scheduled the runoff on a Tuesday in mid-December, when it will be hardest for many Democrats to vote AND to eliminate any weekend early voting, which typically provides the greatest opportunity for Democratic, working-class voters to cast their ballots.

So it is crucial that all Democrats participate actively in this runoff election. If every single Democrat who voted in the November 4 election will return to the polls on December 16, Chris Bell will win and become the State Senator from Senate District 17. If Democrats can just turn out our core, base voters in the district, we will have one more Democrat –- and a great one at that –- representing us in the Texas Senate.

Please urge every Democrat you know in Senate District 17 to vote in this runoff election -- and be sure to do so yourself if you live in the district.

Sunday Funnies (leftover turkeys edition)

And don't miss the ten best Bush photos ...

No Turkey Day

We'll be having la comida Mexicana -- enchilada casserole, guacamole, sopa de frijole negro -- to honor the illegal immigrants of Texas.

Giving thanks for illegal aliens, Jared Woodfill, and Jim Mattox

-- Rick Casey with the wish-I'd-said-that:

This year, as we gather for the feast, I am giving thanks for illegal immigrants.

I have a particular group of illegals in mind, but I confess that my gratitude to them does color my view of most other illegals.

I refer to the liars, debtors, opportunists and criminals who flooded into Texas in the first half of the 19th century, and then wrested the land from Mexico.

Their story is told in A Glorious Defeat: Mexico and Its War with the United States.

...

These immigrants not only entered illegally or violated the terms of their legal entry, but rather than keep their heads down and try to fit in, they lived in active defiance of the law.

So much so that the Mexican government in 1830 passed a law barring all new American immigrants from entering Texas.

Among the illegals violating that particular law were David Crockett, William B. Travis and Sam Houston.

For the fact that tomorrow we celebrate the particularly American holiday of Thanksgiving in Texas, we owe them and the thousands of other illegals whom they joined our enthusiastic gratitude.

I also give thanks for those illegals who have worked hard to clean up the Galveston area in the past weeks, and have shown no interest in importing slaves or overthrowing our government.

Our history shows that immigrants — even illegal ones, especially when laws are out of whack — often make things better.

-- Via blogHouston, this little slice of hilarity from Mark Bennett regarding the latest Harris County Republican e-mail scandal, this one involving Judge Larry Standley and the county chair, Jared "Butthead" Woodfill (a brouhaha two years old, but coming back into the light; go here if you need the backstory):

Woodfill, unless he’s even more clueless about Harris County politics than I am, knew about these emails, including their specific content, in October 2006. If that content justifies calling for his resignation now, it has called for it every day for the last two years.

Woodfill pitches this as the party acting, but it turns out that party leadership met recently in executive session and did not decide to act against Standley. What Woodfill is doing is trying to give the idea of ousting Standley some legs before the party has to make a decision on it.

It’s a hatchet job. Not only is it a hatchet job, but it’s a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge. Not only is it a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge, but it’s a hatchet job undertaken for personal revenge against one of the fairest, most just misdemeanor judges in the courthouse.

And that’s what makes Jared Woodfill today’s Asshat Lawyer of the Day.

Do go read the piece in its entirety. Without an ability to pass judgment on Standley's jurisprudence -- his regular prudence being another matter entirely -- it's just entertaining to continue observing Republicans cannibalize themselves.

-- Lastly, Elise Hu has some photos from Jim Mattox's memorial service yesterday, and this recollection from a eulogist:

(Mattox) checked out a lot available at the (Texas State) cemetery a few months ago. He joked, "Let me try it out first" -- before lying down on the grass. He decided it felt right, and that spot is where he will be buried.

And don't miss Dave McNeely's historical retrospective of Mattox's time in the political limelight.

Enjoy your Thanksgiving.

Obama and Noriega

Great news if he aced the interview and gets the job, whatever it happens to be:

State Rep. Rick Noriega of Houston, the unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate who served in Afghanistan and on the Mexican border as a Texas Army National Guard officer, met with President-elect Barack Obama today as Obama worked on filling leadership positions in his administration, according to confidential sources.

Democrat Noriega, who lost the Nov. 4 election to Republican incumbent John Cornyn, declined to discuss the meeting in Chicago. Obama's transition team spokesmen also declined to comment.

The meeting appeared to be a potential first step toward consideration of Noriega, 50, for appointment to an administration position, and no specific job was mentioned, according to people close to the process who spoke on the condition of not being identified.

I'd like to see Rick Noriega in Washington in January, though I'd still wish he were replacing a Box Turtle. And who knows? Perhaps we could still see him serving us in the Senate a couple of years from now.

Give Thanks: Coulter's jaw broken, mouth wired shut

She was probably getting a drink of water when someone slammed the toilet seat down. Since the news comes from deep inside the New York Post, we're forced to take it with a few grains of salt:

WE HEAR...THAT although we didn't think it would be possible to silence Ann Coulter, the leggy reactionary broke her jaw and the mouth that roared has been wired shut...

It's a Christmas Miracle!

Why we're bailing out Chitigroup and not the Big 3

No unions to bust.

It's also important, of course, to prop up the make-believe economy (the one that pushes paper around and talks on the phone) as opposed to the real one. You remember that economy, right? The one that actually manufactures things.

That''s what we all went to college for, right? So we could wear white-collar shirts and not blue ones, like our dads? Not get our hands dirty?

And just to put another miserable conservative talking point to bed: the reason the auto manufacturers are in trouble IS NOT because their employees get too generous a benefits package. It's because their overpaid management (GM $20 million, Honda $1 million) keeps turning out a product that no one wants to buy. There's also that little-known fact that cars built in the US have built-in health insurance costs, while cars built in countries like Japan or Germany provide health insurance to all citizens, or they're built in places like Mexico or Brazil where the workforces are non-union and don't receive any health care at all.

Which model will we move toward?

Turkey Week Wrangle

Here's the pre-Turkey Day edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly blog round-up, to be consumed while you bake your pumpkin pies, stuff your turkey, pack your bags, or perform whatever holiday traditions occupy your time.

jobsanger notes that some racists seem to think this election gives them permission to once again publicly display their sick beliefs, in "Racist reaction to the election".

The Texas Cloverleaf discusses the upcoming study that may result in a mileage based user fee rather than a gas tax for drivers in the US.

John Coby at Bay Area Houston reports the Texas Ethics Commission fines state representative Carl Isett $25,000.

BossKitty at TruthHugger watches, with the rest of the world, America: A Spectator Sport or Soap Opera.

Off the Kuff analyzes the precinct data for Harris County and declares the coordinated effort to get out the Democratic vote there a success, and that the Democratic base was everywhere you looked.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme claims the religious right exposes its dark underbelly with opposition to Prop 8.

McBlogger takes a moment to talk about the deficit, the economy and bailing us out. Because it's, you know, important.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the issues the Texas GOP is grappling with in the aftermath of thier massive defeats in The GOP brand is tarnished in Texas.

Barnett Shale radioactive waste is a bone-seeking carcinogen when airborne and has a 1622 year half-life, writes TXsharon at Bluedaze.

Environment and education have been greatly on the mind of the Texas Kaos community this week. Front pager TxSharon gave us a heads-up on Brett Shipp's expose of the Texas Railroad Commission on Bill Moyers Journal Friday, and diarist liberaltexan kept an eye on a Faith Based Initiative: Fundamentalist Religious Attack on Science in Texas.

Neil at Texas Liberal says that Galveston was a disaster before as well as after Hurricane Ike.

Vince at Capitol Annex poses a couple of questions about Tom Craddick's Secret Police and asks exactly why former state rep. and ex-deputy parliamentarian Ron Wilson is running around the Capitol with parliamentarian Terry Keel and serving as a media escort/hatchet man for the speaker.

The Texas Blue looks at how Tom DeLay's gerrymandering of the state has actually made Texas weaker on the national level than a fair apportionment would have.

The passing of Jim Mattox prompted some reminiscences from Texas bloggers and corporate media. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs assembled a few, ahead of Monday's memorial service.

How my precinct voted

Matt Stiles provides the data link; if you live in Harris County you can enter your precinct number and see how yours performed. As precinct captain I take great pride in these results:

Registered voters: 2,940
Votes: 2,133

72.55% turnout, well above the county average.

PRESIDENT
John McCain (R): 852
Barack Obama (D): 1,235

Forty-six of my neighbors voted for Bob Barr or some write-in candidate (or did not vote at all in the race for the White House). Obama carried my precinct 59-41.

U.S. SENATE
John Cornyn (R): 844
Rick Noriega (D): 1,133
Yvonne Adams Schick (L): 67

Noriega's margin of victory, 55.4%-41.3, almost precisely matches the statewide result in reverse (Cornyn carried Texas 54.82 - 42.83, with 2.34% for Libertarian Schick).

DISTRICT ATTORNEY
Pat Lykos (R): 894
C.O. "Brad" Bradford (D): 1,031

Bradford won 53.55 - 46.45 while losing the county (and the contest) 50.21 - 49.79.

COUNTY JUDGE
Ed Emmett (R): 987
David Mincberg (D): 967

Ah, the ticket-splitters are revealed.

COUNTY ATTORNEY
Mike Stafford (R): 837
Vince Ryan (D): 1,064

DISTRICT CLERK
Theresa Chang (R): 864
Loren Jackson (D): 1,025

SHERIFF
Tommy Thomas (R): 783
Adrian Garcia (D): 1,159

The sheriff-elect got 59.68 % to the incumbent's 40.32, a little better than his overall countywide margin.

TAX ASSESSOR-COLLECTOR
Paul Bettencourt (R): 944
Diane Trautman (D): 949
Jeffrey McGee (L): 73

The only real disappointment among my precinct's results.

It would be interesting to know what the straight-party votes were, as well as the outcome in the SD-17 contest. But I need to stay busy for the next month getting Chris Bell into the Texas Senate.

Sunday Funnies

Jim Mattox, 1943-2008

Former Texas Attorney General Jim Mattox, known as the junkyard dog of Texas politics who also served in Congress and battled Ann Richards in a vicious primary campaign for governor, has died. He was 65.

Mattox, a bare-knuckled political brawler while the state was still fiercely Democratic, died at his Dripping Springs home, his sister, Janice Mattox, said Thursday. She did not know the cause of death.

(Above: Jim Mattox with David Van Os, at the 2006 Texas Democratic Party convention.)

Mattox was remembered for his advocacy of the everyday Texan, a reputation that earned him the nickname the "people's lawyer."

Chuck McDonald, a spokesman for Richards during the infamous 1990 Democratic primary, portrayed Mattox as a populist who knew how to fight.

"Jim was the original maverick. He prided himself on being the voice of the little guy and took on every big money interest group he could find," McDonald said. "As a political rival, he was as tough as they came. He never backed down from a fight and he made all the candidates stronger."

Vince wrote the definitive eulogy.

Here's Mattox speaking at Hillary Clinton's HQ in Austin:



Here's the text of a conversation overheard in Denver at the DNC between Mattox and the late Fred Baron, from August of this year (just weeks before Baron himself passed away).

And Rick Dunham has a fine slideshow of some historical photos of Mattox.

Update: Former Attorney General Jim Mattox will lie in state in the Texas House chamber, Monday, November 24th from 10 AM 3PM to 7 PM. The family will be present from 5-7.

Funeral services will be held at 11 AM, Tuesday, November 25th at the First Baptist Church, 901 Trinity Street in downtown Austin. Burial will follow at the Texas State Cemetery.

The Texas State Bored of Education

A trite headline, true. I'm just so sorry that it fits:

SBOE ALLOWS HIGH SCHOOL ATHLETES TO SUBSTITUTE ATHLETICS CLASSES FOR ACADEMIC ELECTIVES
The move heads off unintended consequences of new math and science requirements but others say the decision runs counter to spirit of state's "no pass, no play" policy.

Sometimes the State Board of Education’s bad policy choices – and by “bad,” we mean votes inconsistent with two decades of education reform in this state – aren’t always the fault of the State Board of Education.

Such was the case this afternoon, as the SBOE’s committee of the whole passed a jaw-dropping measure to elevate athletics to the same stature as curricular courses in the high school catalog and allow students the option to begin substituting athletic classes for virtually all academic elective course requirements.

State law forced the board to the vote. The combination of the 26 credits for the distinguished academic diploma and the impending 4x4 math and science requirements make it impossible for a student athlete to play four years of sports.

To meet new standards, the highest-achieving student athlete – or lowest-achieving, if it means TAKS remediation courses – must quit athletics to pick up the required two academic elective credits to meet diploma requirements.

But hey, it's not their fault they had to lower academic standards; state law made them do it.

Oh well. If you weren't bothered by the fact that the SBOE is packed full of religious extremists who don't believe in evolution, then this probably won't bother you either.