US Senate Candidates Forum

Very little mudslinging, a good bit of humor, and plenty of respect for physicians marked the first forum for all six prospective candidates for the 2010 U.S. Senate race in Texas. Hosted by the Texas Medical Association’s political action committee, TEXPAC, and moderated by former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, the forum gave the four men and two women the chance to share their views on health system reform, Washington politics, and other key issues. The race will be to replace Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is expected to resign soon to campaign full-time for governor. All six candidates who have filed campaign committees with the Federal Election Commission participated in the event.

• WHAT: 2010 U.S. Senate candidates’ forum
• WHEN: Saturday, Oct. 24, 2009, 7 pm
• WHERE: Westin Stonebriar Hotel, 1549 Legacy Dr., Frisco, Texas

Each candidate was asked to present his or her qualifications and positions on health care reform and other key federal issues of interest to Texas voters. The six candidates who participated were:

• Texas Railroad Commissioner Elizabeth Ames Jones
• State Sen. Florence Shapiro (R-Plano)
• Former Texas Comptroller John Sharp
• Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams
• Former Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams
• Houston Mayor Bill White

TEXPAC speaks on behalf of more than 44,000 Texas physicians and medical students, and nearly 8,000 alliance members. Organized in 1962, TEXPAC is one of the oldest political action committees in Texas. TEXPAC also is one of the largest bipartisan PACs in the state and ranks first in size among other state medical association PACs.

Go to the link for video in thirteen short segments of the entire forum. Part 13 (at the top) picks up with some jokes by John Sharp.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is ready for the start of the World Series, and it presents to you its weekly highlight reel as we await the first pitch.

quizas of South Texas Chisme wonders about the US detaining a Mexican human rights activist.

WWJD on Carter Avenue? TXsharon wants to know if Chesapeake Energy or anyone in Fort Worth government has stopped to consider the answer to that question. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Bay Area Houston wonders if the Hispanic community will dump their endorsement of Gene Locke.

WhosPlayin lost a fight with the Lewisville ISD, whose board voted unanimously to define media as print and broadcast only and give itself permission to shut out bloggers (includes video of meeting).

Not sure how to green up your life? Lucky for you, there's a whole series of tips to that topic at Texas Vox, the Voice of Public Citizen in Texas. This week's suggestion: Start a compost pile! Even in your freezer ...

The Texas Cloverleaf picks up on the "pay to play" system, alive and well with Rick Perry and the TABC.

Problems for the Democrats in 2010? Harry Balczak at McBlogger uncovers something that says that's exactly where we're headed.

Dembones at Eye On Williamson posts on Rep. John Carter's latest hypocrisy: Carter's income disclosure problem spoils GOP tactic.

Progressive Coalition candidates for Houston city council (and a Socialist running for mayor) are the subject of PDiddie's post at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at Texas Liberal also suggested that voters in Houston consider the Progressive Coalition candidates running for Houston's city council. It is hard to see how voting for Democrats year-after-year in city elections has been of great benefit to the people of Houston.

Over at Texas Kaos, libby shaw provides a public service by providing a Republican hypocrisy scorecard. Check out her Texas GOP Hall of Hypocrites. You can't tell the hyprocrites without a program. Wait, you can. Almost. If there is an "R" beside their names, the odds are better than even ...

Off the Kuff notes that a settlement has been reached in a lawsuit between Democrats and the Harris County tax assessor's office over allegations of voter suppression.

Sunday Funnies

The Progressive Coalition slate

Neil and Charles have both posted about the three Green Party Houston council candidates running as the Progressive Coalition. I was unable to attend their events here this past weekend -- a fundraiser on Friday and a film screening of Robert Greenwald's "Rethinking Afghanistan" on Saturday, both hosted by 2008 Green Party presidential nominee Cynthia McKinney.

(l-r) Don Cook, Deborah Shafto, and Alfred Molison

It's notable that Houston has an active community of liberals and progressives that refuse to be aligned with the corporate conservatives that too often represent the Democratic party.

So if you are also one of those, consider supporting these candidates with your vote (and volunteer support and pocketbook, if you can manage it). Note that while Cook and Shafto are on the ballot, Molison is a write-in candidate, and there are specific instructions for how to do that in e-Slate (.pdf, page 2 of 4).

Houston also has a Socialist Party mayoral candidate, Amanda Ullman. Though I am a strong supporter of Annise Parker, it would have been valuable to Ms. Ullman's alternative campaign -- as Neil has also noted -- to have at least put up a website.

I'll follow with interest these candidates' vote tally.

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)