Minority on Houston council wants to play Nail the Ill Eagles

(A busy week plus another touch of the vertigo kept me away. Let's play ketchup with this local flash ...)

A rare special council meeting scheduled for Wednesday (October 28) comes as a direct response to last week's announcement by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials that Houston no longer was in consideration for the 287(g) program, which deputizes local law enforcement to assist ICE agents in identifying illegal immigrants in the jails.

But the effort to revive the city's chances is likely to bump up against stiff resistance on council, as many members are planning to skip the meeting, a step that effectively would kill any chance of forcing a vote on the matter.

Houston city council members were previously scheduled off next week, it's the middle of early voting, and the three who want to play hot potato with a political football are all mad-dog Republicans.

Easy to see how this meeting gets denied a quorum.

Political machinations potentially could raise the stakes of the meeting, as several council members are just days away from an election. (Mayor Bill) White, who made an urgent request to join the program in the spring before backing away after negotiations with immigration officials broke down, is actively campaigning for a not-yet-vacated U.S. Senate seat. Councilwoman Toni Lawrence, the leader of the three that called for the special meeting, has begun campaigning to become the next Harris County Precinct 4 commissioner. One of her potential opponents has been running advertising on conservative radio attacking the city for backing away from the program.

Lawrence said she decided to call the meeting after feeling unsatisfied with plans White proposed to her that included further studying the matter. White instead favors having the city participate in another ICE program, dubbed Secure Communities, that gives local law enforcement access to a massive immigration database.

The other two ...

Council members Anne Clutterbuck and Mike Sullivan, who also signed the petition to schedule the special meeting, said the policy should be openly discussed and debated by council, not set by mayoral edict. The procedural move is the first in the history of White's administration, which was marked by rosy relationships among council members for the first five years, but has met with more resistance this year.

Clutterbuck, who supports the 287(g) program, said she plans to attend Wednesday's meeting, but is not optimistic about seeing the issue come to a vote. In addition to Lawrence, Clutterbuck and Sullivan, mayoral hopeful and Councilman Peter Brown plans to attend.

More covering of his right haunch by Brown. Early polling and other circumstantial evidence suggests that Brown is capturing a majority of conservative municipal voters due to his playing both sides of the street and calling it 'independent'. (Or it may be because he's the white guy.) Seriously, this demonstration of solidarity with the one conservative issue responsible for the loudest screaming likely puts him in the run-off with Annise Parker.

Democrats and liberals supporting Peter Brown are in for a very rude awakening.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance celebrates the start of early voting for the 2009 elections with its always-on-time blog roundup.

Human tragedies are mounting in the Barnett Shale as study after study shows high levels of toxins in the air. The only ones who can't seem to find anything wrong are the regulators. TXsharon asks, "Will the EPA intervene in Texas?" at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Why did the US forcibly detain a Mexican human rights advocate? CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know.

Bay Area Houston says Tort Reformers in Texas suck.

The Texas Cloverleaf presents the Kay Coward Bailey Hutchison plan for health care mediocrity.

Off the Kuff takes a look at Cameron Todd Willingham's supposed confession, and finds the evidence for it lacking.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson states that no matter what you hear, transportation schemes are continuing, despite "death" of the TTC. EOW also had a guest post this week on the PEC: Pedernales Electric Cooperative: Who's Electing Your Board Representative?

"Other big names" may enter the Republican primary for governor if Perry and Hutchison can't get their acts together, according to a right-wing talker in D-FW and passed along by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

The folks at Texas Vox would like to thank everyone who participated in Blog Action Day on climate change last week. Following that trend, check out our round-up of Texas Blog Action day posts, let us know who we're missing, and read up on the Business of Climate Change.

WhosPlayin posted an update on gas drilling in Lewisville, and also breaks the story that a local group is looking to ban smoking in public places in Lewisville.

refinish69 reopens Doing My Part For The Left with the latest installment of his series Homeless in Austin -- An Insider's View Part 7.

Mean Rachel got to see President Obama speak in College Station on Friday.

We have known for a long time that Governor Perry is a bottom feeder, but letting an innocent man die and then refusing to get at the truth about his execution? Well, I would not want that on my conscience. Let Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos bring you up to speed in his posting: All the Good Hair on the Planet Won't Make the Cover Up Go Away.

Neil at Texas Liberal ran a picture he took this week of the confluence of White Oak Bayou and Buffalo Bayou in Downtown Houston. This spot, important in the founding of Houston, is still a place of connection. If connection could be found in the hot and hellish Houston of 175 years ago, we can find connection today even in tough circumstances.

Sunday Funnies

Obama in College Station this afternoon

There is a long tradition of sitting Presidents courting, relying on and even plotting with their predecessors, and the latest chapter is set to unfold Friday afternoon when former President George Herbert Walker Bush, accompanied by former Secretary of State James Baker, greets Barack Obama as he steps off a Marine Corps helicopter in College Station, Texas.

At Bush's invitation, the 44th Commander in Chief is paying a long-planned visit to the home of Bush's presidential library to mark the 20th anniversary of the voluntarism initiative begun by the former President in 1989.

After being introduced by Bush, Obama will speak on community service before 2,500 people in Rudder Auditorium on the campus of Texas A&M University. Obama is expected to pay tribute to Bush's Points of Light Initiative, a community-service and charitable works program he launched in the early days of his presidency in 1989. Joining the two men on stage will be Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense and former president of the university, who has worked for both Presidents.

(Personal aside: I was sitting in Rudder last Sunday afternoon for an Aggie concert band performance; my nephew is one of the percussionists.)

The meeting has been in the works for months, almost since the earliest days of the Obama Administration, and postponed at least once. It is just the most recent display of bipartisan goodwill between current and past holders of the highest office in the land. These alliances often span vast differences in both ideology and age: Richard Nixon paid a secret visit to Bill Clinton, 33 years his junior, to discuss Russia policy in 1993; Herbert Hoover met with John F. Kennedy, 38 years his junior, before he was inaugurated in 1960. Bush, at 85, is 37 years older than Obama, who is 48.

The two men met for the first time in January when Bush's son, George W. Bush, invited all the former Presidents, as well as Obama, to the White House. Earlier this year, the White House issued a proclamation marking the 20th anniversary of another Bush initiative, the Americans with Disabilities Act - a gesture that did not go unnoticed in Bush country.

The political benefits of this stop are easy to spot - though it would be easy to overestimate them too. It does not hurt Obama to be seen in the Lone Star state with Bush and Baker, two of the state's favorite sons, not to mention Gates, a Kansan who in College Station is something of an iconic figure. And as Republican criticism of his busy legislative program has increased, Obama may benefit from a joint appearance with a popular former Republican President elsewhere in the country.

But it is more likely that Obama, as he considers his options in Afghanistan, would benefit most from any private conversation he can work in on the subject with Bush, who was considered a foreign policy maestro, not to mention Baker, who along with Brent Scowcroft (and Gates), helped Bush chart a solid and centrist foreign policy from 1989 to 1993.

Longtime Bush observers were not surprised that the former President initiated Friday's visit. Bush is the informal leader of the four living ex-Presidents (Carter, Bush, Clinton and Bush) in part because, as President, he paid uncommon attention and courtesy to the four living Presidents who preceded him in office.

Alas, not all Aggies (and others) plan a courteous welcome for Obama.

“President Obama is protested everywhere he goes, so I think it would be odd if he came to one of the most conservative campuses and there wasn't a protest,” said Justin Pulliam, a sophomore at A&M and a member of Young Conservatives of Texas, one of several groups planning protests in conjunction with Obama's visit.

Even the mouth-breathing contingent normally infesting the Chron's comments section appear to be on hiatus.

Teddy at Left Of will have some on-the scene updates. Theo Johnson also links to PointsofLight.org, which will live-stream the event, and The Battalion, the on-campus newspaper which is to have continuous coverage.

"Other big names" may enter primary for Texas GOP governor

D-FW right-wing gasbag Lynn Woolley shares my concern -- expressed at the end of this post -- about the ridiculous state of the Republican gubernatorial tilt:

It is becoming apparent that there is a possibility that neither Rick Perry nor Kay Bailey Hutchison may be the Republican nominee for governor of Texas. Both of them have issues that must be cleared up – and soon – or other big names are going to enter the race.

It is always instructive to observe the conservative mind as it attempts logic. Again, a primer: there's the Right, then the Far Right, then the Far Out Right. Woolley mostly occupies the middle ground of the extreme. First he deconstructs the governor's dilemma:

Perry is smack in the middle of a developing controversy over the 2004 execution of Cameron Todd Willingham – indeed a very bad man, but a man who may not have started the fire that killed his three children. The strange thing is that the question of Willingham's guilt is not central to the governor's problem. Of course, if Willingham did not set the fire – that's huge. But if Rick Perry interfered with the Texas Forensic Science Commission's investigation into the case – that's monumental.

Well, rise and shine the coffee's on; Rick Perry has a problem. And lookie here: so does Kay Bailey.

This sordid affair might prove very useful to Hutchison in her campaign to unseat the governor, except for the fact that she seems to have no fire in the belly to pursue the race. In a radio interview with WBAP's Mark Davis, she said she isn't sure when she will leave the Senate to pursue the governor's race full time. She isn't certain about what Congress will do with health care, and she wants to "stay and fight with every bone in my body against a government takeover."

And we all thought she wanted to be governor.

Pretty good slap, Lynn. There's a bit more.

So she's going to resign unless she doesn't, and she's going stay in the Senate to fight Obama's health care and energy bills unless she returns to Texas full time to run for governor. Are we confused yet?

I could get to liking this guy if he would keep using that cudgel on Kay. He really seems to believe that Perry is damaged goods, and that is a key concession from a Lone Star conservative talker.

Unfortunately Woolley leaves us hanging by not identifying any of the Republicans he suggests are interested in jumping into the race for governor. The moneyshot, though, is at the very end:

Perry needs to clean up his Willingham mess and Hutchison needs to make up her mind. The governor should stop talking about what a monster Willingham was and support a full investigation. And it had better prove Willingham was guilty.

Hutchison should resign soon and trust Dewhurst or someone else to take up the health care fight. If not, the governor's race could go to the Democrats for lack of a Republican candidate.

Well that would be the worst of all possible outcomes, wouldn't it? *snicker*

Anybody hearing any actual names of Republicans thinking about diving into the mosh pit?

Update: Oh hell, of course; Dan Patrick. The wart right in the middle of their face. How could I have missed it? *slap*

Kay Bailey: "Perry's actions give liberals argument to discredit death penalty"

It's just embarrassing watching her trying to squeeze herself into the space between Medina and Kilgore, on Perry's right:

"The only thing Rick Perry’s actions have accomplished is giving liberals an argument to discredit the death penalty. Kay Bailey Hutchison is a steadfast supporter of the death penalty, voted to reinstate it when she served in the Texas House and believes we should never do anything to create a cloud of controversy over it with actions that look like a cover-up."

So the greatest travesty here is not that an innocent man was executed, not even that Rick Perry is a wretched scumbag for allowing it to happen and then actively attempting to conceal it.

The most serious offense is the "cloud of controversy" the governor has created over the death penalty.

Who again are the Democrats who intend to vote for this harridan in the Republican primary in March, 2010?

Update: Medina, not surprisingly, makes considerably more sense than the senior senator. (Inquiring minds want to know: could Kay Bailey actually come in third in the GOP gubernatorial primary?)

Action for Climate Change

(This post is -- obviously -- part of today's Blog Action Day.)

If you're a conservative then you can keep on doing what you do best: deny, delay, obfuscate and avoid. If you're anyone else, you can help educate the ignorant.

Climate change in Google Earth

The human faces and stories of those who already confront climate change in their lives: Climate Orb

Kids vs. Global Warming

Pew Center for Global Climate Change's Facts and Figures (great for those who want the charts and graphics and clear explanations). Even more comprehensive data at their Climate Change 101 series.

Mother Nature Network's 15 Best Carbon (footprint) Calculators

CAP's Top 100 Effects of Global Warming includes “Say Goodbye to Pinot Noir”, “More Bear Attacks”, “Malaria Spreading in South America”, and “More Stray Kitties”.

You're more of the results-oriented type? 10 Solutions for Climate Change

Next week, on October 24, 350.org is organizing the International Day of Climate Action. You can visit their site and see what people all around the world are planning to do to demonstrate their commitment to stopping climate change.

U2 in H-Town last night

(We didn't go, but we can see Reliant Stadium from our house)

Perry's response? "Monster", "bad man" *update*

“Willingham was a monster,” Perry said. “Here's a guy who murdered his three children, who tried to beat his wife into an abortion so he wouldn't have those kids. Person after person has stood up and testified to facts of this case that, quite frankly, you all are not covering.”

“This is a bad man. This is a guy who in the death chamber in his last breath spews an obscenity-laced (tirade) against his wife.”

========

Referring to yesterday's report that former Texas Forensic Science Commission chair Samuel Bassett was replaced because he refused to yield to pressure from the governor's legal advisers to quell the investigation:

“If somebody felt like they got pressured, that's his call, not ours. My folks don't feel that way at all,” Perry said.

========

Back to Willingham and the case:

“He (Willingham's defense lawyer) will tell you that this man was a monster. He has come to clearly believe in his guilt,” Perry said. “He said that study that Mr. Beyler came forward with (that declared the fire was not arson) is nothing more than propaganda by the anti-death penalty people across this country.”

“How many courts looked at this? There were nine federal courts that looked at this case. Nine federal courts. It was before the Supreme Court of the United States four times. Now surely you're not saying the Supreme Court of the United States fouled up four times?”

“We have a system in this state that has followed the procedures and they found this man guilty at every step of the way. You have one piece of study that everyone is glomming onto and saying, ‘Ah-ha!.'”

========

Completely reprehensible, as we have all come to expect from Perry.

This is going to get much worse for the governor if his only defense continues to be to blame "libruls" and "the media".

Update: Glenn Smith at Dog Canyon broke the news earlier today that Perry's general counsel at the time was none other than current Texas Supreme Court Justice David Medina -- who was himself indicted by a Harris County grand jury for arson.

Perry attorneys: Willingham arson probe "waste of money"

The old saw about "it's not the crime, it's the cover-up" means that the governor is desperate to hide the fact that he let an innocent man be executed.

Lawyers representing Gov. Rick Perry on two occasions grilled Austin lawyer Sam Bassett on the activities of his Texas Forensic Science Commission, telling him its probe into a controversial Corsicana arson case was inappropriate and opining that the hiring of a nationally known fire expert was a “waste of state money,” the ousted commission chairman said Tuesday.

Bassett, who served two two-year terms as commission chairman before Perry replaced him on Sept. 30, said he was so concerned about what he considered “pressure” from the lawyers that he conferred with an aide to state Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, who reassured him “the commission was doing what it's supposed to do.” ...

Perry spokeswoman Allison Castle confirmed the lawyers met with Bassett, but only for routine, informational purposes. “They did not ask him to discontinue this review,” she said.

No, I'm sure they didn't. They just told him it was a "waste of state money". And made a few other 'suggestions' that left Bassett with the distinct impression that he was being "pressured" to drop the investigation.

Bassett said he was called to meet with then-General Counsel David Cabrales and Deputy General Counsel Mary Anne Wiley on Feb. 3. Bassett described the session as progressively confrontational.

As Bassett outlined the commission's investigations of the Willingham case and that of Brandon Lee Moon, an El Paso man wrongly convicted of sexual assault, Cabrales told the chairman “he didn't think those kinds of investigations were the kind contemplated by the statute,” Bassett said.

“I think he said something along the lines that we should be more forward-looking, more current rather than examining older cases,” Basset said. Later in the discussion, Bassett said, he was told the Moon investigation was appropriate, but the Willingham case was not.

Bassett later reviewed the statute, and, feeling vindicated, sent a copy to the governor's lawyers along with a copy of the complaint that prompted the Willingham investigation.

At one point, the lawyers asked Bassett how the panel chose Beyler to review the Willingham case. Bassett said he explained state regulations, requiring the soliciting of bids, were followed. When Wiley asked how much Beyler had been paid, Bassett said he responded, “$30,000, maybe a little more.”

Wiley then remarked, “That sounds like a waste of state money,” according to Bassett.

Bassett said he was a novice in the role of commission chairman and was uncertain how to interpret the lawyers' remarks.

“I was surprised at the level of involvement that they wanted to have in commission decision-making,” he said.

After the February meeting, a representative of the governor's office for the first time attended commission meetings.

Bassett was summoned to a second meeting with Wiley on March 19. That session seemed less confrontational, he said, although Wiley mentioned there was concern the Legislature might discontinue the commission's funding.

“She wanted the commission's focus to be more on liaisons with crime labs, oversight of existing facilities and so forth,” he said.

Nice prevarication, Ms. Castle.

The case continues to rise in national profile, but the travesty simply doesn't seem to be sticking to the governor among the Texas electorate. Attitudes about him appear to be hardened.

Can Kay Bailey make this an issue in the primary? Does she dare? It may take her months to decide whether criticizing the governor's decisions regarding the case is worth risking the flak she'll take from the pro-death penalty Republican base.

Furious polling is no doubt currently underway by all sides to determine their POV. Mike Baselice is staying up way too late trying to figure out a way to spin this to Perry's advantage.

Update: Via BOR, the report last night from "AC360"...