Who besides me wishes ...

... that Joseph Stack had been in therapy for the past month, and Tiger Woods had flown a light plane into a building?

-- More TeaBaggers conferencing this week in Washington. Last year that conclave produced hilarious video of an obese Rush Limbaugh bouncing up and down like a circus elephant. This year so far, only TelePrompter hypocrisy.

-- The History Channel will air a "documentary" on the Kennedy family that will allegedly focus on any variety of family peccadilloes. The producer, Joel Surnow ...

... smokes cigars with Rush Limbaugh, can "hardly think" of Ronald Reagan without "breaking into tears," and believed that "America [was] in its glory days" under President Bush.

-- "The Flintstones" is not a documentary, but far too many of our neighbors think it is ...

Nearly a third of Texans believe humans and dinosaurs roamed the earth at the same time, and more than half disagree with the theory that humans developed from earlier species of animals, according to the University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

-- Roger Ebert, the film critic who was the co-host of a popular movie review show some time ago, is finally reaching the end of the line in his long battle with oral cancer. He writes a moving essay about dying in this month's Esquire. Warning: clicking the link reveals an unsettling photo of Ebert's physical appearance as a result of his many surgeries.

-- Rick Perry, Greg Abbott, and Todd Staples rolled out their opposition to climate change this past week, and were greeted with the appropriate scorn and derision.

-- The BAE truck facility in Sealy finally did lose, after appealing the decision to the Pentagon, their federal contract this week. Thousands of Texas jobs will be lost as a result.

-- Doug Fieger, The Knack's lead singer, passed this week.  I played that album until the diamond needle cut all the way through to the other side of the record.  'My Sharona' was a huge song in the '80's at my fraternity parties.

-- Early voting continues in Texas this weekend. The turnout in Harris County has been massive.

Shami campaign staffers resign

Farouk Shami's campaign has imploded in the past few days. First there was an internal e-mail sent to media (including me) revealing inner turmoil over who was responsible for communications, and now this ...

Several top campaign aides to Democratic gubernatorial candidate Farouk Shami resigned today, said Charlie Ray, who had been the campaign’s press secretary.

Five staff members stepped down, including Ray, campaign director Vince Leibowitz, and communications director Kelly Love Johnson, Ray said.

The resignations come a day after the campaign’s internal chaos spilled into public when a bizarre e-mail exchange was, apparently inadvertently, sent to reporters.

On Tuesday, Ray and Shami gave out conflicting information about the roles of aides David Diaz and Jessica Gutierrez, both of whom had been sending out press releases on behalf of the campaign. Ray said that neither were authorized to speak for the campaign, but Shami said late Tuesday night that both had permission to give such statements.

More from Vince Leibowitz ...

“Clearly, (Shami) will not accept political strategy from the people who are there to provide it,” Leibowitz said.

Leibowitz and Ray, you may recall, had earlier replaced Jason Stanford, who ran Chris Bell's 2006 gubernatorial campaign and is now working for Kinky Friedman.

Bill White ought to be able to cruise to a run-off-free win in the primary and look forward to taking on Rick Perry in November (whether or not the governor clears the primary without a run-off).

Update: More from TrailBlazers and Texas Politics, including this ...

"Too many cooks in the kitchen," Ray said today.

Ray said it made it too difficult to "manage the message" when the campaign staff and staff from Shami's hair care company were both doing messaging.

Leibowitz said there was a difference over whether the professional campaign staff was going to run the show or Shami's corporate staff.

"You can see who won," Leibowitz said.

Abbott: Divorce is only between a man and a woman

The hypocrisy is strong with this one.

Attorney General Greg Abbott is trying to halt the divorce of two women in Austin on grounds their Massachusetts marriage is not recognized in Texas.

A Travis County state district judge on Feb. 10 granted a divorce in court to Sabina Daly, 41, of San Antonio, and Angelique Naylor, 39, of Austin. Abbott's aides went to court the following day to block the divorce before the written decree was entered.

“A divorce is an ending or a termination of a valid legal marriage,” Abbott said Tuesday. “In this instance there was no valid legal marriage recognized by the state of Texas. Texas can't have a faulty precedent on the books that validates an illegal law.”

The United States Constitution says you're wrong, "General" Abbott.

Article IV, Section 1: "Full faith and credit shall be given in each state to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other state. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof."

There's also the common-law marriages that are recognized Texas courts, under § 2.401 of the Texas Family Code:

(A)n informal marriage can be established either by declaration (registering at the county courthouse without having a ceremony), or by meeting a 3-prong test showing evidence of (1) an agreement to be married; (2) cohabitation in Texas; and (3) representation to others that the parties are married. A 1995 update adds an evidentiary presumption that there was no marriage if no suit for proof of marriage is filed within two years of the date the parties separated and ceased living together.

But I'm no lawyer; surely this has been previously argued and a conservative judge has tossed it (you go do the FindLaw; I'm already tired of Googling this morning). Abbott has tried to to stop gay people from divorcing before and is still appealing the previous case...

It was not the first time Abbott's office has sought to halt a same-sex divorce. He intervened last October in a Dallas case when two men were granted a divorce.

Luther said in that case Abbott intervened before the divorce was decreed in open court. The judge in that case rejected Abbott's arguments and the state has appealed to try to overturn the divorce.

There are states where people can legally marry their first cousins -- such as Texas -- and there are states which do not, and those states still recognize those unions. "Moral objection" out the window.

But-but-but Article I, Sec. 32 of the Texas Constitution says marriage can only be between one man and one woman. And it was approved by 76% of Texas voters in 2005. (What that tells you, incidentally, is that a whole lot of Texas Democrats voted in favor of it.  Just so you know.)

That, as you may recall, was challenged recently by both Dallas civil court Judge Tena Callahan and the presumptive Democratic nominee for Texas Attorney General, Barbara Radnofsky. As I mentioned here, this matter of Texas voters codifying discrimination into the state constitution is ripe for legal challenge.

Just a cursory review of the case law exposes the attorney general of Texas as a rank hypocrite and willing tool of the social ultraconservatives.

Greg Abbott is nothing more than Pat Robertson with a law degree, and he only uses his legal education if he can con the Talibaptists and other Christianists in Texas into believing that he fights the Good Lord's battles here on Earth.

Early voting reminder (and two Nick Anderson toons)

Early voting in Texas for party primaries began this morning; check this list (.pdf) for an early voting location near you in Harris County. If you would like to see a sample ballot specific to you then go here, click on "find your election day poll and view voter specific ballot" at the top and enter the necessary personal data.

My recommendations for statewide office include ...

Governor: Alma Ludivina Aguado

Lt. Governor: Ronnie Earle or Linda Chavez-Thompson

Attorney General: Barbara Ann Radnofsky

Commissioner of the General Land Office: Hector Uribe

Agriculture commissioner: Hank Gilbert

Railroad commissioner: Jeff Weems

Justice, Texas Supreme Court: Jim Sharp (Place 3), Bill Moody (Place 5), Blake Bailey (Place 9)

Judge, Court of Criminal Appeals, Place 6: Keith Hampton

Will provide more of these down the county ballot later. 

Update: Texas House representatives ...

HD-134: Ellen Cohen (my representative)

HD-146: Borris Miles (my former representative)

HD-133:  Kristi Thibaut

HD-47: Valinda Bolton 

Congress ... (contested races only)

CD-18: Sheila Jackson-Lee

CD-22: Doug Blatt

Harris County administration (contested only) ...

County Judge: Gordon Quan

County Clerk: Sue Smith Schechter

I followed the recommendations of a handful of organizations who represent my views and did the heavy lifting of candidate vetting of local judicial candidates. They included the Harris County Democrats, the AFL-CIO, and Democracy for Houston. Charles Kuffner has also interviewed candidates and collected endorsements on a Google spreadsheet.

Update: Stace Medellin at Dos Centavos has his endorsements and the H-Chron published their judicial candidates yesterday also.

Get-your-ashes-on-Wednesday Wrangle

It's also post-Valentine's and pre-Fat Tuesday.  Did they ever stop partying in N'awlins since the Super Bowl?

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes you all a happy Lunar New Year, and brings you the first Year of the Tiger blog roundup.

Update: Oh yeah ... Happy Presidents Day.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog notes that Houston is the first locale President Obama named in his Lunar New Year Greeting. Could there be a political meaning behind it?

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme marvels at the jackassery presented to voters on the Republican ballot. No, we're not talking about the candidates. It's the propositions that disenfranchise voters, turn Texas into Colorado Springs or California, and humiliate pregnant women.

Fake Consultant, over at TexasKaos, gives us a tale from the health care frontier. He points out that even in the little things the present system is fundamentally broken. Check it out here.

From TXsharon: How the oil and gas industry bullies turned an ordinary, honest man into a modern day hero. Read it on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

WhosPlayin is watching candidates file for the 2010 Lewisville ISD School board election.

Contrary to what the Star-Telegram keeps repeating, the Texas Cloverleaf reminds everyone that there is a Democrat running in CD-26.

"Why I'm supporting Dr. Alma Aguado for Texas governor" is PDiddie's endorsement in the Democratic gubernatorial primary. Read more at Brains and Eggs.

MeanRachel endorses Bill White and Linda Chavez-Thompson in the two top spots on the Democratic primary ticket.

Adam at Three Wise Men lays out the blog's endorsements for the 2010 Texas Democratic Primary.

Off the Kuff says there's a smart way to do budget cuts and a dumb way to do budget cuts, and we need to do it the smart way.

Neil at Texas Liberal endorsed Hank Gilbert in the Democratic Primary for Texas Commissioner of Agriculture. The post includes a picture of a Longhorn steer, a watermelon, and a channel catfish.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the coming Texas budget woes and that we can't make it balance on the backs of the poor again in his post entitled 2011 budget cannot be balanced like in 2003, not this time.

This week at McBlogger, Mojito takes a look at a Travis County JP race and finds the challenger lacking.

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" ...