The death panel will be embalmed

Rep. Ted Poe will hold a town hall meeting at Brookside Funeral Home on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 10 a.m. with the primary focus being health care reform.

Can the GOP finally be laid to rest?

Texas Supreme Court candidates wanted

One of the most odious results of fifteen years' worth of 100% lockstep Republican rulership in Deep-In-The-Hearta is the 9-0 "majority" of corporate lackeys serving on the Texas Supreme Court. Thanks once again to Harvey Kronberg's Quorum Report for reporting the apparent second vacancy on the state's highest bench:

QR learned today that Justice Scott Brister has submitted a resignation letter and will be off the Texas Supreme Court in the not too distant future.

Brister’s resignation follows Justice Harriet O’Neill’s announcement that she would not seek re-election when her term expires.

Brister was appointed to the Court by Governor Rick Perry in 2003 and won an election in his own right in 2004. His term expires at the end of next year. By resigning, he gives the Governor an opportunity to appoint a replacement who would then run as an incumbent.

Republicans are lining up to fill those slots. Where are the Democratic judicial candidates?

Justice Rebecca Simmons, currently serving on the Texas Fourth Court of Appeals, announced today she is seeking election to place 3 on the Texas Supreme Court, a position held by Justice Harriet O’Neill who recently announced that she will not seek re-election to the court when her term expires at the end of 2010. Justice Rebecca Simmons was appointed to the Fourth Court of Appeals in May 2005 and subsequently elected in 2006. Prior to her appointment, she served as district judge of the 408th Judicial District Court in Bexar County.

Tex Parte also has this news:

Two other Republicans, Dallas’ 5th Court of Appeals Justice Jim Moseley and Eastland’s 11th Court of Appeals Justice Rick Strange, also have said they plan to run for O’Neill’s seat.

Let's see, do Democrats have anyone who could run for the Fourth Court of Appeals slot Simmons is vacating? I wonder, wonder who ...

Break a leg, Tom

I want to see the baggy-legged pants and hear the chants of "Hammer, Hammer, Hammer" ...

Former Republican Majority Leader Tom DeLay will join 15 celebrities from the worlds of entertainment and sports in kicking up their heels on the new season of Dancing With the Stars.

The jokes will write themselves, of course, so be sure and tune in the late-night comedians for their takes. "Dancing Behind Bars" will likely be heard more than once. (Oh yeah, I almost forgot that there's a very good reason why DeLay isn't in jail yet.) Personally, I suspect he dances exactly like he used to govern -- stomping all over everyone else as he shuffles unceremoniously out the door.

I still won't ever be tuning in this most ridiculous of shlock teevee.

Tropical Storm Watch Wrangle

Keep your eye on the Gulf now that we've entered the high season for possible hurricanes. It's also time to watch preseason NFL football, but the Texas Progressive Alliance is always in midseason form. Here are this week's blog highlights.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why we put up with temper tantrums and intimidation from the far right. Everyone should have their say in our democracy.

Off the Kuff takes a look at the at-large city council races in Houston.

BossKitty at TruthHugger has been awakened from slumber by the nightmare of the health care reform debacle. Look who's causing all the trouble and who's being thrown to the wolves in Without Health Options, Where Is Your Voice?

Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker connects the dots between the fear mongering, health care reform, and history. He throws in the return of the militias for good measure. If armed and frightened groups are reappearing in Iowa, how long before they show up in Texas. You do remember the Republic of Texas movement, don't you? See it all in Fear, Health Care and History: A Reflection Updated! - Return of the militias

Harry Balczak at McBlogger begins a new feature, This Week In Lawyerin', in which he'll take a look at some arcane legal concept and educate you on it. This week, what to do when caught with kiddie porn.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson shows that nothing will change no matter who is the GOP nominee for governor in 201:, Kay, Rick and the Trans-Texas Corridor -- nothing new here.

Rachel Maddow vs. Dick Armey on Press the Meat Sunday morning was previewed and then summarized by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs. It so happens that even Joe Scarborough thinks Armey is a douchebag.

Neil at Texas Liberal is vacationing in Cincinnati. The police department there staged a "blue flu" last week where some members of the force called in sick even though they weren't. They are upset over possible layoffs. Yet they are not so concerned about this prospect that they are willing to make some minor contract concessions in order to help the city of Cincinnati with a budget deficit. It's the same old story with the CPD; they expect you to do what they say, but they have a hard time doing what they are told to do and a hard time caring about fellow city employees.

DosCentavos reports on the happenings in HD-127 now that Joe Crabb is finally retiring. He's also running a poll, so check it out!

Nat-Wu at Three Wise Men is not so impressed with the new Calvinists "manly" Jesus.

Chief Joseph Medicine Crow

A 95-year-old Crow Indian who went into battle wearing war paint under his World War II uniform has been awarded the nation's highest civilian honor.

Wearing a traditional headdress, Joe Medicine Crow on Wednesday received the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House. The award was clasped around his neck by President Barack Obama.

"Dr. Medicine Crow's life reflects not only the warrior spirit of the Crow people, but America's highest ideals," Obama said as he introduced him and called him "a good man" in the Crow language.

Medicine Crow broke tradition and briefly spoke after Obama gave him the medal, telling the president he was "highly honored" to receive it. ...

The president met Medicine Crow during a campaign stop last year when Obama, then a U.S. senator, was adopted as an honorary member of the Crow tribe.

In 1939, Medicine Crow became the first of his tribe to receive a master's degree, in anthropology. He is the oldest member of the Crow and the tribe's sole surviving war chief — an honor bestowed for a series of accomplishments during World War II, including hand-to-hand combat with a German soldier whose life Medicine Crow spared.

After the war, he became tribal historian for the Crow and lectured extensively on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Medicine Crow's grandfather served as a scout for the doomed forces of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer.

Sunday Funnies (Obamanation edition)

Rachel Maddow vs. Dick Armey (even Joe Scarborough thinks he's a scumbag)

On shortly here in H-Town will be a Press the Meat edition featuring Rachel Maddow of MSNBC and Dick Armey, former House majority leader and also formerly of the law firm DLA Piper. Maddow exposed the "grassroot" efforts of the conservative group FreedomWorks and their connections to DLA Piper, Armey's employer until a few days ago. But HuffPo has another side of the story ...

It was one of those ugly Washington stories that everybody knows about but almost nobody talks about. Joe Scarborough, to his credit, went on the record. In his 2004 Washington memoir, Rome Wasn't Burnt in a Day, Scarborough provides a chilling portrait of the man who leads FreedomWorks, the organization now promoting brownshirt disruptions at town halls across America.

Before he headed Freedomworks, Dick Armey was House Majority Leader. According to Scarborough, Armey was bereft of common decency, a shameless liar who betrayed his colleagues. Armey worked hard to destroy the career of a young reporter. After that reporter's suicide, Armey helped spread rumors about a gay affair between the reporter and Bill Paxon, a congressman who angled to replace Armey as House Leader. Paxon immediately retired from politics, while Armey stayed on. It seemed a life-imitates-art reenactment of the 1959 potboiler, Advice and Consent.

If Scarborough was disgusted by Armey, his Republican colleagues seemed unfazed. They kept Armey in his leadership post until 2003. Character is destiny, and Scarborough's portrait of Armey may foreshadow the ugly tactics of the teabagging crowd that attempts to shout down the healthcare debate.

In the book, Scarborough outs himself as the confidential source for Sandy Hume's blockbuster article for The Hill, which recounted the behind-the-scenes drama of an aborted Republican coup. In July 1997, G.O.P House members, including Scarborough, were fed up with House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who proved to be incompetent when it came to working with people or getting things done. The planned putsch by some twenty-odd renegade members failed because of a last-minute betrayal by House Majority Leader Dick Armey, who turned on his colleagues after learning that Bill Paxon, not Armey, was designated to succeed Gingrich.

More on the suicide of Brit Hume's son, Sandy, the gay slur against he and Armey rival Bill Paxon which allegedly resulted in the self-inflicted death of the younger Hume, and the backstory of all this occurring during l'affaire Clinton-Lewinsky.

Meet the Press this morning might get really interesting, don't you think?

Update:

Rachel Maddow appeared on "Meet the Press" for the first time on Sunday, August 16th. On a panel with former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), former House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas), and Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), the MSNBC host more than held her own.

When Armey said he took no responsibility "whatsoever" for the virulent protests against President Obama and compared it to MoveOn.org running an ad comparing President Bush to Hitler, Maddow pointed out that that never actually happened. Later she elaborated, pointing out that major conservative groups had speakers going around the country comparing Obama to Hitler, Pol Pot and Stalin and asking supporters to put the fear of God in their congresspeople. When Armey said that he denounced violence, Maddow pointed out that his organization, FreedomWorks, was in a coalition whose website was promoting the violent fight at a Tampa town hall as a good thing.

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