52% of Texans do NOT favor deportation (and other facts that anger conservatives)

"52%" is probably a higher percentage than what Governor 39% will receive in the GOP primary in two weeks, but math isn't the TeaBaggers' strong suit. (Of course neither is science or history or even spelling.)

More Texas voters think unauthorized immigrants should be allowed to stay in the United States — through either a path to citizenship or work visas — than favor deporting them, according to a new Houston Chronicle/San Antonio Express-News poll.

The poll showed that 38 percent of respondents favoring deportation — drawing the most support of the three options offered. Twenty-nine percent favored a way for unauthorized immigrants to attain citizenship, while 23 percent supported work visas.

Keep in mind that this poll, like all others, is subject to the TP Rule.

Results show a strong partisan split, with 45 percent of Republicans and 28.4 percent of Democrats supporting deportation. Age and race also seemed to factor into participants' responses.

“The young seem to see this as kind of, ‘Yes, just let them have the path to citizenship,' ” Blum said. About 42 percent of those under 30 supported that option, compared to 27 percent of those over 30.

Blacks gave the most support to a pathway to citizenship — 39.6 percent compared to 32.1 percent of Latinos and 26.7 percent of whites.

“There have been times when people have thought that minorities would be in competition with each other or would not be supportive of each other,” Blum said. African Americans “were clearly supportive of that (path to citizenship). They were not looking to say, ‘Oh, wait, that's competition for us and send 'em back.' ... The groups that are in favor of deportation are whites and Republicans.”

No. Kidding.  I think he forgot to say "old".

Rice University political science professor Mark Jones said, the results seem a bit high on deportation. He said, however, there's more support for deportation in Texas than in the country as a whole. Nationally, he said, 67 percent generally support a path to citizenship, depending on how the question is posed and whether qualifiers are put on the idea, such as granting such status to those who don't have criminal records and who pay a fine. ...

“Why would Democrats not want to give 20 million illegal aliens amnesty with a pathway to citizenship? Because if they do ... they will create 20 million instant voters with a tendency to vote for Democrats, because they will continue to need health care and free education in the United States, and the Democrats are more than willing to give it to them,” said Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, who has pushed bills targeting unauthorized immigrants. ...

State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, said, “From a Democratic standpoint, it behooves the Democratic Party to have Republicans like Leo Berman spew their hateful rhetoric. That's (creating) the next generation of Hispanics that will never vote Republican.” 

What can I possibly add to that?

This.

Texas Republican voters will have a chance to give their opinions on such issues as voter identification and federal stimulus spending through five nonbinding resolutions that will appear on the GOP primary ballot.

The resolutions, which include perennial Republican priorities that have failed in the Legislature, were chosen by the State Republican Executive Committee and are designed to send a message to elected leaders in Austin and Washington, D.C.

“These ballot propositions are Texas Republicans' chance to be heard on issues facing our state,” said Republican Party of Texas chairwoman Cathie Adams. “Voters should study the questions and then use their vote to speak directly to their elected officials.” ...

The top resolution would encourage the Legislature to “make it a priority to protect the integrity of our election process by enacting legislation that requires voters to provide valid photo identification in order to cast a ballot in any and all elections” in Texas. ... The second proposition would require government bodies in Texas to limit annual budget increases to “the combined increase of population and inflation unless it first gets voter approval to exceed the allowed annual growth or in the case of an official emergency.” ...

• • Ballot Proposition No. 3: “In addition to aggressively eliminating irresponsible federal spending, Congress should empower American citizens to stimulate the economy by Congress cutting federal income taxes for all federal taxpayers, rather than spending hundreds of billions of dollars on so-called federal economic stimulus.”

• • Ballot Proposition No. 4: “The use of the word ‘God,' prayers and the Ten Commandments should be allowed at public gatherings and public educational institutions, as well as be permitted on government buildings and property.”

• • Ballot Proposition No. 5: “The Texas Legislature should enact legislation requiring a sonogram to be performed and shown to each mother about to undergo a medically unnecessary, elective abortion.”

Extremist rhetoric and unconstitutionality aside, these resolutions aren't even worth the used toilet paper they're printed on. They exist for the same reason that crayons and a coloring page are kept in restaurants: to pacify squalling TeaBaggers.

Update: Voter ID is, pathetically, the most important statewide issue in this TeaBagger's mind. Excerpt following is from the link to the HouChron; only click on the one embedded below if you have plenty of disinfectant close by.

Texas will face a mega billion-dollar budget shortfall next year.

Don't be surprised if schools sue the state again over education funding.

And traffic congestion gets worse by the day.

But the biggest issue facing Texas?

Voter ID, based on a flyer mailed to West Austin voters by Paul Workman, a candidate for the state House.

The entire mail piece focuses on Voter ID and reviews last year's fight that ended without any legislation passing.

"Paul will take our fight to our Capitol and help pass a strong, constitutional Voter ID law... in the last session of the Legislature, House liberals sustained a filibuster for five days just to ensure that Voter ID didn't come up for debate," the Republican candidate says in his mail piece.

Actually, the House does not have a filibuster rule. (ed. note: it is called "chubbing")

Left unsaid is that Democrat leaders were willing to compromise. They would have supported Voter ID if House Republicans went along with a provision that made early voting easier. Any qualified voter could show up - with ID - and register as they voted. The vote would count only if the voter was determined to be qualified. The same-day registration would have applied only for the early voting period.

It would have made voting both easier and more secure. Both sides won have won something. But Republicans balked, leaving Democrats to wonder if the true intent was to suppress voting by making it harder.

Late Sunday Funnies

Presented without editorial comment

Earlier this week, in Buffalo, NY, Kitty Lambert and her longtime partner Cheryl went to the appropriate government institution to obtain a marriage license. Gay marriage, of course, is not legal in that state, so Kitty and Cheryl were denied.

But Kitty wasn't done yet.

With news cameras rolling, Kitty then turned to the crowd and asked for any male who would be willing to get married to her. A gay man named Ed stepped forward and volunteered. They briefly exchanged information and presented the appropriate documents along with $40. City staff verified the information, and proceeded to give them a marriage license.

So you see, gay people can get married. They can even get married to other gay people. Just as long as they're the opposite gender. But gay people can't get married to the ones they love.

Will the children of Buffalo sleep any more soundly this evening now that this loving couple has been denied their rights?

Why I'm supporting Dr. Alma Aguado for Texas governor

Many of my Texas Progressive Alliance colleagues are behind the presumptive nominee, but I am not. I have previously stated my reasons for not supporting Bill White in the primary; if you need to be reminded why I am not, you can go here, here, and here. Ultimately it comes down to my clear understanding that Bill White simply doesn't steadfastly represent anything that I believe important, outside of defeating Rick Perry and cleaning up Houston's air a bit.

Ted also states some of the best reasons for voting for someone else in the Democratic primary. White just isn't representative of what we feel a Democratic candidate should be. He's much too close for my comfort to being a moderate Republican -- here, take the quiz and see for yourself.

I also took a long look at Farouk Shami, who pays for the ad at the top right corner here. While being a successful businessman and displaying what I initially considered a somewhat endearing personality, Shami has -- to put it mildly -- exhibited a remarkable, even amazing, lack of political acumen.

So my attention turned to the group of people that the Texas Tribune referred to as The Unmentionables. And what I found was a true progressive candidate. A San Antonio physician, single mother, and amateur artist who was born into abject poverty in Mexico, Dr. Alma Aguado understands the inexorable trends in Texas. She has a sharp focus on the neglect of the welfare of children, but the acute and critical nature of that neglect on Hispanic children. Here's a brief excerpt from her introduction (I've taken the liberty of fixing some of the troublesome syntax, for clarity's sake):

In the year 2000 under Republican administration, Medicaid and CHIP funds were redirected favoring the Texas Enterprise Fund. In the year 2005 Medicaid and CHIP funds were restored only to have funds diverted towards the $200 million Emerging Technology Fund. In 2009 we have a total of 1.5 million uninsured children in Texas.

The state's own Comptroller of Public Accounts points out that from the 1984-1985 state budget through 2000-2001, the state increased real public safety and corrections spending by 258 percent, but increased real public and higher education spending by only 82 and 39 percent respectively. In 2007, 28 percent of the (Texas) adult population has no high school diploma. Texas only spends $6.8 million for adult education, as opposed to Florida which spends $277 million. Due to budgeting decisions in the best interest of corporate welfare, we now have an uneducated unskilled workforce ... this is what I call "backward vision".

Go on, read for yourself. Read also her very comprehensive stance on the other issues beyond health care and education.

To paraphrase Michael J. Fox's character in The American President, people -- in this case Texas Democrats -- want a winner, and "they're so thirsty for it they'll crawl through the desert toward a mirage, and when they discover there's no water, they'll drink the sand."

Bill White looks like a winner to Texas Democrats because they are mighty thirsty these days. I do not discount the premise that White could very possibly win. But I believe that will occur only if White executes a flawless campaign strategy from March (or April, if he's in a run-off) to November and gets a little help from a circumstance or two outside of his control that knocks Rick Perry down a few notches.

I'll happily support Bill Caucasian Milquetoast White in the general election as the Democratic nominee for governor of Texas. But in the primary, it's about democratic and progressive principles. Dr. Alma Aguado has them.

Lots of Sunday Funnies

There'll be more later today, too ...

Borris Miles versus Al Edwards

My old Texas House district hasn't gone without its share of news, either. Isiah Carey of Houston's Fox 26 and his blog Insight, followed by Elise Hu at the Texas Trib ...

Would you take a drug test live on the radio? Former State Representative Borris Miles did. If you tuned into KCOH radio (Thursday) morning you would've been entertained. Miles took on the challenge put forward by current State Representative Al Edwards. He mad the challenge Wednesday on KCOH. This comes after Miles challenged Edwards for weeks to a debate on the issues in district 146. Around 9 am (Thursday) morning Miles brought in a private drug testing firm, gave a urine sample, and took his screening live on the radio. Miles says he didn't want to ever put the people of the district through what he calls this type of b.s. again. ...

Note: Miles eventually challenged Edwards to take an IQ test!

===========

This whole drug test deal actually got started at a campaign event photographer Justin Dehn and I attended two weeks ago, at a soul food restaurant called Just Oxtails, in the district. Edwards was taking questions from his supporters, and one supporter wanted to know whether Miles is actually drug-free, given past press coverage of his partying. Edwards started challenging Miles to take a drug test within 72 hours. It's a lot more than 72 hours later, but it appears Miles submitted to the test in a most-public way. He's drug free.

These two fellows have entertained us for years. Earlier in this cycle I received e-mail on the day before his campaign kick-off that by all appearances was from Miles' campaign and cited numerous endorsements from elected officials and community leaders from both sides of the aisle.  That turned out to be a dirty trick.

Theatrics aside, there's only one choice in HD-146. Edwards remains a tool for the Republicans in the Texas House; Miles is the one of the strongest progressives I have ever met. I expect that -- with his recent marriage and the legal issues that troubled his brief term behind him -- Miles has conquered his personal demons.



Borris Miles should be returned to Austin and Edwards should be involuntarily retired, again.

Shami and white people, Medina and more truther gaffes

Let's just go to the videotape. Shami first.



WFAA's Brad Watson also posted this at the station's website.

And Medina, in an interview with Victoria's KAVU-TV.



Let's take Shami first.

Of all the bizarre -- I mean truly bizarre -- things he's been saying lately, a little overt racism isn't such a big surprise, now is it? He's telling a brutal truth but a vastly, politically incorrect one nevertheless. The fact that he also won't deny the MIHOP/LIHOP conspiracy theory is just icing on the cake.

Truth to tell, he was done before this interview. Slam the lid shut on this campaign. Maybe his people can find a way to keep him from talking to any other reporters between now and March 2.

The interview Medina did with Beck and the walking-back from those comments -- as well as her claims of a conspiracy among the two against her -- have gotten more attention than the conversation above. She actually said that asking questions about the 9/11 Commission report is as legitimate as asking questions about Obama's birth certificate.

Like Shami, if she keeps on talking she's going to make Sarah Palin start to sound reasonable.

Update: Is it true that Medina worked for the Mexican Mafia and sold so much ecstasy back in the day that she was the inspiration for Funky Cold Medina?

Hey, I'm just a patriot asking questions here.

Update II: Medina has taken to salting campaign staffers into her press conferences, posing as reporters. That's not exactly "non-politician" ...

Friday "Talk to the Hand" Funnies

TexTrib poll blows up in their face again

Remember what I said yesterday about polls? It's particularly true of the Texas Tribune's Republican half of their most recent gubernatorial poll -- released today but conducted before the Medina truther kerfuffle, which will surely alter the numbers severely.

So disregard that right away. Let's take a quick look at what they have on the Democratic side, however.

White 50
Shami 11
Everybody else 9

Among Democratic voters, 30 percent were undecided, and of those, 48 percent, when pressed, said they lean toward White. With White already at 50 percent, that means Shami would have to strip votes away from him in order to force a runoff or to claim a win.

That's now two three polls showing pretty much the same result, and both all were conducted in the week prior to their debate on February 7. So with the previous advice about polling value in mind, White may improve on his position. And if these are numbers are accurate I have to eat crow served by Dr. Murray.

Democratic primary voters have a couple of other statewide races to decide. In the contest for lieutenant governor — the winner will face Republican incumbent David Dewhurst in November — labor leader Linda Chavez-Thompson took 18 percent of those polled, former Travis County District Attorney Earle got 16 percent, and restaurateur Marc Katz had 3 percent. Five percent of voters said they wanted "somebody else," and a whopping 58 percent remain undecided on the eve of early voting, which begins on Tuesday.

Recall that the TCUL's numbers from February 3,4, and 6 were Earle 25, Chavez-Thompson 18, and Katz 5. Ms. Chavez-Thompson's is the only campaign with any visibility to me in this contest.

Friedman and Gilbert — two refugees from the governor's race now running for agriculture commissioner — are locked in a tight race, 32 percent to 27 percent. While Friedman's ahead, the difference is within the poll's margin of error. And, as with the Lite Guv race, “undecided” is actually leading, at 41 percent.

These two are going at each other hammer and tong. After the DMN disguised a slap at Gilbert with a lukewarm endorsement of Friedman, Gilbert shoved back with this:

Kinky told the El Paso Times Tuesday, among other nonsensical things, that Governor Perry could win re-election and "will probably be President".  This despite running four years ago in the governor's race as a spoiler and taking votes from the actual Democrat.

"We knew that Kinky's baggage would be used to damage the Democratic ticket by suppressing minority turnout," said Gilbert campaign consultant Mike Lavigne referring to questionable comments in the candidate's recent past.  "But we didn't expect him to dismiss the Democratic gubernatorial nominee before there even was one."

Kinky then countered with an endorsement of Bill White. Stay tuned for more headlines today from these two, and probably every day until Election Day.

Last interesting bit from the TexTrib's poll ...

How strong is the Tea Party movement, and who does it steal votes from? Asked the generic congressional question with that movement included as a third organized party, 21 percent said they would choose the Republican, 36 percent would choose the Democrat, and 16 percent would vote for the Tea Party candidate. More than a fourth — 27 percent — said they were undecided. So the Democratic numbers held, while Republicans lost 16 points to the Tea Party and the rest to undecided.

"The electorate is responding to whatever it is they're associating with the Tea Party — at the expense of the Republicans," Henson said. While that's not necessarily to the advantage of the Democrats, he said it will have an effect on the majority party: "The tea party is going on in the Republicans' house."

Take that with a grain of salt, and now toss it out.

Update: Katherine at Burnt Orange adds the results of the Research 2000 poll conducted by the Daily Kos, and rounds up all of the February polls in pretty side-by-side graphs. That view makes it seem likely that Governor MoFo doesn't clear a run-off -- but again, the Medina gaffe's effect is reflected in none of them.

So hit the reset button ... or the flush handle.

Of the kooks, by the kooks, and for the kooks

And she was doing so well, with everybody on that side thinking she was only a closet secessionist...

Anti-Washington activist Debra Medina was on the brink of knocking U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison out of a likely Republican gubernatorial runoff, but she may have spoiled her chances Thursday with her remarks on the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

A series of public opinion polls of likely Republican primary voters this past week had indicated that Hutchison was dangerously close to losing second place to Medina in the contest to oust incumbent Gov. Rick Perry.

Medina has benefited from a pair of solid debate appearances, and millions of dollars in attack television advertising by Hutchison and Perry has made her the none-of-the-above candidate for conservative voters.

But Medina may have stumbled Thursday when talk show host Glenn Beck asked whether she believed the government was involved in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Medina said people raising that question were slinging “mud” at her but went on to say:

“I don't have all of the evidence there, Glenn, so I don't, I'm not in a place, I have not been out publicly questioning that. I think some very good questions have been raised in that regard. There are some very good arguments, and I think the American people have not seen all of the evidence there so I have not taken a position on that.”

Where exactly is the line drawn on the Right between crazy and sane? Beck is a birther, and he's calling Medina crazy for being a truther?!?

These are people who think climate change isn't happening, that evolution isn't happening, that Barack Obama isn't a US citizen, that the Earth is only 6000 years old ...

Some on our side want to suggest that this a plot executed by the Perry campaign. I think that has the potential of being as big a conspiracy theory as MIHOP itself. The only real story here is that Medina pulled a Clayton Williams -- which is a big enough (and funny enough) story all by itself.

Really, all you need to do is just sit back and watch the lunatics set fire to each others' hair for the next few days.

Texas Right aflame with Medina "truther" insanity

Get your corn popped and watch the lunatics fall down and spin around. I'm serious; these people are ALL batshit crazy.

There are fifty blog posts and dozens of comments on the mainstream websites arguing about how much damage Debra Medina did to her campaign today.

In an interview with the certifiable Glenn Beck -- that would be the same Glenn Beck who calls Rick Perry a "progressive" -- she couldn't say with certainty whether the federal government was in some way responsible for the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

You could not dream up stuff this wacky if you were smoking rocks.

The normally breathless Eric Dondero at Libertarian Republican -- a near-daily source of laugh-out-loud amusement for yours truly -- is hyperventilating over the news. Go ahead, click on over. You won't get any slime on ya. Read also the HouChron's Texas Politics blog for the direct quotes and especially the comments.

Perry lovers are giddy with excitement. Medina's minions are outraged.

Todd Gillman at TrailBlazers sums up the moral of the story in "At last, something Perry and Hutchison can agree on".  And this comment there is pure comedy gold:

Hutchinson's campaign headqurters (sic) is probably delirious with joy. What an earthquake! This comment is even dumber than Clayton Williams' "rape" blunder. It cost him the election and this is even bigger than that. I was seriously considering voting for Medina. I'm not sure which one of us that exposes as the bigger idiot. Well, I'm not a big enough idiot to stay with her, now. Kay, I'm back in the fold.

Can I get you more popcorn while I'm in the kitchen?

Update: Rhymes with Hate rounds up more links (if you can stand any more) and slams the door on Medina's foot.

Bi-poll-er disorder

One says there were almost certainly be a run-off in the GOP primary and one does not ...

A new Texas Credit Union League poll in Texas finds Gov. Rick Perry (R) leading the Republican race for governor with 49%, followed by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) at 27% and Debra Medina at 19%.

============

 A new Public Policy Polling survey finds the Republican primary for Texas governor on a path to a runoff. Surprisingly, however, the runoff could be between Gov. Rick Perry (R) and Debra Medina (R), leaving Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) as the odd-woman out.

Perry currently leads with 39%, followed by Hutchison at 28% and Medina at 24%.

This is why pollng will drive you nuts. When you see blog entries -- or for that matter, Traditional Media reports -- along with the pundit class quoting the poll's results, just dismiss it (and them). Any poll you can come up with always has nearly immediate diminishing marginal return. In layman's terms, the instant-and-then-instantly-useless value of toilet paper freshly used.

Yes, it's very important to have for a brief moment, and then it's worth shit.

Having said that -- and noting particularly that both polls show Bill White being thisclose to avoiding a run-off --  I will skooch a little farther out on the limb I crawled a few weeks ago and say that if Rick Perry is as wily a political raccoon as I believe he is, he will start laying off the attacks on Kay Bailey. Because if he should find himself in a run-off with Debra Medina on March 3, he will lose.

The most interesting information in these polls IMHO are the TCUL's numbers associated with the Democratic lieutenant governor candidates -- Ronnie Earle, Linda Chavez-Thompson, and Marc Katz -- who show 25, 18, and 8 respectively. That leaves 49% undecided.

I'd say that's exactly right. Now throw that nasty thing down the toilet, would you?