Hampton gets DMN endorsement

Newspaper endorsements aren't this blog's usual beat, but this appellate court race will get few opportunities to make news between now and November. This recommendation is also significant for the fact that the Dallas News continues to endorse a 100% Republican state Supreme Court.

Among his other many outstanding qualifications, Keith Hampton is -- according to Scott Cobb -- the attorney who persuaded Rick Perry to commute the capital punishment of Kenneth Foster.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has developed a reputation as a court that turns its back on verdicts that need a second or third look.

It's easy to see why. Seven of the nine judges have backgrounds as prosecutors, and the presiding judge once campaigned as "pro-prosecutor." Court-watchers recite a list of marquee cases of failed justice. The court's tilt is a concern, considering that Texas leads the nation in executions and has far more DNA-proven miscarriages of justice than any other state.

The Nov. 2 election for Place 6 on the court is an opportunity for a rebalancing. Austin defense attorney Keith Hampton, running against veteran Judge Michael Keasler, has the legal credentials and a perspective now missing on the court: If elected, he would be the only member to have involvement in a capital murder case from indictment all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Hampton, 49, a Democrat, has pushed for important legal reforms in Austin as legislative director for the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association. One effort led to a law giving juries the option of life without parole for murderers. An unsuccessful effort last year would have improved police photo lineups – an overdue reform in light of widespread cases of documented witness misidentification.

I posted this in June...

Without any Democrats on the CCA for the past twelve years, the ideological spectrum of the Court has shifted dramatically to the right. One Republican judge on the Court, Lawrence Meyers, recently toured newspaper editorial boards promoting the state’s fairness, prompting Dallas Morning News Editor Michael Landauer to write, “Try not to laugh.” (Source: Dallas Morning News, June 2009). Scott Henson, an award-winning blogger who writes for the non-partisan criminal justice site Grits for Breakfast, wrote the following about the political nature of the CCA:

There is no liberal wing on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. There’s a conservative wing, to which Judge Johnson belongs, and a more or less totalitarian wing, in which Keasler and Meyers reside along with Presiding Judge Sharon Keller. (Source: Grits for Breakfast, June 2009)

The “totalitarian wing” of the Court has a well-documented and thoroughly perplexing history of unprofessional actions. From the “sleeping lawyer” case in October 2000, to investigations into the judicial conduct of Sharon Keller in 2007, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals is in desperate need of professional, accountable judges on its bench.

Here's Hampton in his own words:



Let's get Hampton on the bench.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone has a pleasant fall equinox as it brings you this week's roundup.

This week on Left of College Station Teddy analyzes the positions Chet Edwards and Bill Flores take on American foreign policy, and looks at the polls as the primaries end and the general election begins. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that Texas remains 6th in the nation as poverty levels soar. What are Republicans doing about it? Defunding education and health care, two of the most important pillars of success for Texans.

It's been a terrible week for Todd Staples. McBlogger notes that it's rare for the failure of a public official to be so glaringly obvious. It's exceedingly rare for the coverup of that failure to be bungled quite so badly. Then again, it's not often that said public official is facing Hank Gilbert.

Off the Kuff commented on the proposal to create an elections administrator in Harris County.

Both Rick Perry and Todd Staples committed their own comedies of errors, preserved forever on video. See PDiddie's Brains and Eggs and LYAO.

Dembones at Eye On Williamson highlights the less-than-truthful attack of Diana Maldonado's opponents in Maldonado fires back over debate flap.

At TexasKaos, lightseeker takes on the overblown conventional wisdom of a Republican landslide in November. Give a read: Self-fulfilling Prophecy and Midterms.

Neil at Texas Liberal used a picture he took this week of an unattended lifeguard station in Galveston to show how the Tea Party/Republican Party would govern America.

Sunday Funnies (Call Some Conservative Who Cares edition)

LWV's I-Day Houston, with 150 candidates and 2 debates

The League of Women Voters' Infrastructure Day is tomorrow afternoon, with townhall meetings and more than one hundred fifty candidates -- D's, R's, L's, and G's -- on the Harris County November ballot meeting and greeting the attendees, followed that evening by two debates. Details below from the press release, and at their site.

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

The League of Women Voters of the Houston Area and the American Society of Civil Engineers are set to host two debates, a candidate meet-and-greet, and infrastructure townhall meetings during the Infrastructure Day Houston (I-Day) event at the George R. Brown Convention Center (Entrance C, 3rd Floor) on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2010.  The first of two debates will begin at 6:00 pm.  Candidate meet-and-greet opportunities and infrastructure townhall meetings will begin as early as at 3:00 pm.  The event is free and open to the public.

The League is hosting and facilitating two debates for the offices of the Harris County Judge and Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector.  Elisabeth MacNamara, National President of the League of Women Voters of the United States, is introducing the candidates.  Laurie Johnson, host of NPR’s All Things Considered, is moderating the debates.  The Tax Assessor-Collector debate with Don Sumners and Diane Trautman is from 6:00 to 7:00 pm.  The County Judge Debate with Ed Emmett and Gordon Quan is from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Prior to the debates, the candidate meet-and-greet and the infrastructure-related townhall meetings will run from 3:00 to 5:30 pm.  Voters will be able to meet over 150 candidates running for public office in Harris County for the election being held on November 2, 2010.  The townhall meetings will focus on topics including: Transportation, Energy, Ports and Airports, and Storm and Waste Water.  Experts, including Dr. John Lienhard, host of the Engines of Our Ingenuity program on National Public Radio, will lead the discussions and information sessions.

Free t-shirts will be given at the door for the first 100 attendees.

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

Town Hall Meetings on Infrastructure

Co-sponsored with American Society of Civil Engineers
Talk about problems and solutions with experts, such as Dr. John Lienhard,
host of The Engines of Our Ingenuity
Session One: 3:00–4:00 pm
1a. Transportation
1b. Energy
Session Two: 4:30–5:30 pm
2a. Storm & Waste Water
2b. Ports & Airports

Candidate Meet and Greet

Brought to you by the League of Women Voters
of the Houston Area Education Fund
Talk to candidates seeking federal, state, and county offices. Ask them why they deserve your vote.
Open to the public at 3:00–5:30 pm

Candidate Debates

Co-sponsored with KUHF and the American Society of Civil Engineers.
See the candidates for Tax Assessor and County Judge debate live.

HARRIS COUNTY TAX ASSESSOR
Don Sumners and Diane Trautman: 6pm–7 pm

HARRIS COUNTY JUDGE
Ed Emmett and Gordon Quan: 7 pm–8 pm

Not-quite-Indian-summer postpourri

It's still too early, since nobody's leaves down here are turning.

-- Rick Perry is hosting a sausage fest. No, really. "Assorted Wild Game Sausages" are one of the items on the men-only menu. I'm guessing there won't be cocktail weenies. But I wouldn't be surprised if Bilderburgers with a side of minced poor people is an option.

-- Remember the $1 million donation to the Republican Governors' Association made by FOX News' parent, News Corp.? They finally deigned to allow Media Matters to respond with an ad on their network. It will air tonight during Bill O'Reilly's show.

-- The organization formerly known as Renew Houston  (they still go by that name, but their .org domain now redirects to VoteFORProp1.com) released news about a survey showing their charter amendment on Harris County's November ballot is favored by about 60% of likely voters.

In the new poll, which was conducted from September 6–9, 61 percent of voters said they would vote for the measure after hearing the question that will appear on the November ballot. After learning about the costs of the measure, voters continued their strong support, with 58 percent voting for the measure and 31 percent voting against it.

On the same day, KHOU released news about a survey showing 53% against, 42% in favor.

A majority of Houston voters do not support a $5 monthly fee to improve the city’s drainage and streets, according to an 11 News/KUHF-Houston Public Radio poll released Monday.

Rice University’s Center for Civic Engagement conducted the poll, which surveyed 500 registered voters in the city of Houston earlier this month. It had a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. ...

When asked whether they would "allow the city of Houston to charge each household a $5 monthly fee to maintain and improve Houston’s drainage and streets," just 42 percent of respondents said they favored the idea.

Fifty-three percent said they opposed it and just five percent were undecided or refused to answer.

Which poll do you believe?

"(I)t all depends on how you ask the question," said Keith Wade, a consultant for (Renew Houston).

-- Speaking of re-names, "high fructose corn syrup" now wants to be called "corn sugar".

-- Boeing is dismantling the facility which housed the construction of B-17s and B-29s and B-52s during WWII at its sprawling plant in Seattle. The massive assembly line was staffed by thousands of workers, almost half of them female, and the term "Rosie the Riveter" was coined for them. Some great old photos and a video at the link.

-- The last Boy Scout camp in Southeast Texas -- the one I went to for half a dozen summers was sold long ago to logging interests -- is going to have a wood waste facility built right next door. All in the name of economic progress.

-- Speaking of Southeast Texas, my alma mater won its first home football game in 21 years, the week after narrowly losing their first game in 21 years (on the road at McNeese State). There were a few hours of tailgating before kickoff, and a promenade to the stadium of players, coaches, band, mascot, cheerleaders, and fans.

Perry and Staples create comedies of errors *with video updates*

Rick Perry's first TV ad failed to secure the permission of two of the businesses that appeared in it. And they would not have given their support if the campaign had asked, because they don't support the governor's re-election.

"I didn't know he was going to use our store in an ad. No, I don't support Governor Perry or his views."
--Peg McCoy, owner of Farm to Market Grocery in South Austin

Phillip Martin: Did you know they were going to be using your store in a television ad?

Max Berendt (owner of Austin's Avenue Barber Shop): Not at all, no.

PM: Did you sign any paper work saying that it’s okay for them to use this in an ad?

MB: Absolutely not.

PM: Do you support Governor Perry at all?

MB: I do not.

Even the Wall Street Journal has reported on the story. This is just a classic fuck-up on the part of the Perry campaign (read: dunderhead Mark Miner).

Not quite as historical as having "Rick Perry, Commissioner of Agriculture" inspection stickers on a Tyler gas pump, however. Those are 1997 vintage, by the way. And that's not even the best of it.

The regional inspector from the Texas Department of Agriculture, having been alerted by Todd Staples -- who was obviously paying attention to Hank Gilbert's press conference during their joint appearance at the DMN editorial board interview last Friday, when Gilbert announced he would have a presser today to video the 13-year-old-stickers -- showed up to inspect the pumps during Gilbert's press conference.





Update:



And KYTX CBS-19, in Tyler, with this report (video at link):

Are you getting your money's worth at the gas pump?

Well, the Democratic contender for agricultural commissioner says ‘no.'

He says nearly half of Smith County gas stations are out of date on inspections, and that could be affecting you when you fill up.

Hank Gilbert cited 16 different gas stations in Tyler, and 10 in Smith County he says are out of date for inspections, and he's not blaming the owners.

Before you fill up, the Democratic candidate for agriculture commissioner says you should take a look at the sticker next to the pump.

"Across the street from us is a gas station with inspection stickers from July 1997," says Gilbert.

And more still from KETK, the NBC affiliate (with even better video).

How is it that a plurality of Texas voters can continue to support this kind of Republican ignorance? Oh wait; I answered my own question.

OSD: A fine piece of work

Open Source Dem ("OSD" in the header) sent this along last week for posting here. Be warned; he's a bit pessimistic.

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

This joint project discounts the very possibility in Texas of what Bill Galston calls a "wave" election, like 1994 or 2002. I truly wish I could discount that dreary prospect, instead of praying for intervention by von Blücher or Obama.

Curiously, I think that logistics is more important in politics and even war than strategy. But I do not think that pimp-consultants fathom either. Even half-baked poseurs like Newt Gingrich or Dick Armey can stomp all our mercenaries.

Both state party establishments are artifacts today of the bipartisan concession-tending that dominates (i) Congressional campaign committees out of DC, (ii) the state legislature in Austin, and (iii) local government in cities other than Austin. These, today, are artifacts of what James K. Galbraith calls the Predator State. It is funny how we can be so self-aware yet robotically stupid. We can proclaim republican democracy but practice only collusive bargaining.

Austin is a lovely theme park propped up by the River Authorities, the legislative extraction industry, and of course the University plantations, not a cosmopolitan city like Bexar, a national hub like Dallas, much less a world-class city like Houston-Galveston. In any case, neither Texas party does "waves". Those sweep into Texas from other states despite the reactionary liberals and “left behind” conservatives in Austin.

Still, this may not be a wave election. We just do not know yet. Even if it is, the particulars of local races detailed in this meticulous report by the younger Martin will still have a marginal effect.

All I can add is ...

1. The Frost/Baron/Angle (2005) plan to Turn Texas Blue and thereby to control redistricting is probably dead -- no pun intended and all apologies to those who survive Fred -- even under the best of circumstances. (That Obama thing? Never happened. John Edwards was elected President, Hilary Clinton Vice-President.)

The reason is, simply, that to do anything that radical the TDP has to be competitive rather than collaborative and innovative rather than emulative. That is not rocket science, but it is not the Grisham novel we still live in here, either.

2.  Two of the Houston statehouse races, HDs 133 (Thibaut vs. Murphy a third time, one win apiece) and 138 (Dwayne Bohac vs. Kendra Yarbrough Camarena) are very tight, as concisely described in the scholarly triumph mentioned above, with one exception: both will likely be influenced decisively by a charter amendment on the City of Houston ballot involving roads and drainage, also a new tax. This has both bi-partisan opposition (populist) and non-partisan support (establishment).

Since the GOP is able to raise money as the ruling party in Harris County and run as the opposition party in the City -- leaving Democrats looking hapless and clueless -- the net effect of right-wing activism and left-wing neutralism may be to knock off the Democratic incumbent and challenger.

3. The catastrophic fire which destroyed the DRE voting plant is like "weather", including "fog", in battle. It adversely affects both sides. In government, the GOP has a recovery plan and the Democrats support it. The most prominent feature of that plan is not doing anything -- like extending hours or days -- that might help Bill White.

The effect of the fire, in all events, is to make the election process very complex technically and confusing logistically.

With their superior mobilization technology and anti-tax pseudo-populism, the GOP may be able to better exploit the fire in Harris County. In any case, the effective vote-suppression campaign they run out of the Tax Office is still intact. So between those two advantages, they may be able to keep the already dismal political participation rate here low, thereby sinking Bill White statewide and sweeping the county.

But I wish it were not so.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance salutes the changing of the guard in Lone Star professional football prowess -- watching the Houston Texans vanquish their nemesis, the Indianapolis Colts, as the Dallas Cowboys folded like a cheap card table against their longtime rival, the Washington D.C. Native Americans -- as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff concluded his legislative interviews with state representatives Carol Alvarado and Ana Hernandez, and candidates Kendra Yarbrough Camarena and Brad Neal.

Bay Area Houston believes Rick Perry is the insurance industry's bitch.

John Cornyn, best known as a rapist enabler, is busy throwing cold water on the GOP's Senate takeover chances. Just the other day, Cornyn pooh-poohed on Lisa Murkowski's race. South Texas Chisme thinks Cornyn is just a cold, cold guy.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson reminds us that in this election season, the Republican candidates don't want to talk about the most serious issues and we can't let them run and hide from the ones that matter the most.

The GOP would rather climb a tree to tell a lie than stand on the ground and speak the truth. Leo Vasquez and King Street Patriots: PDiddie at Brains and Eggs is looking at YOU.

Justin at Asian American Action Fund Blog points out that Houston Chronicle reporter Chris Moran is a racist for questioning Harris County Judge candidate Gordon Quan's lifelong residence in Harris County.

McBlogger takes a look at the debate over a Debate and concludes that it's time to stop asking Perry to debate and instead ask him to answer for his failure.

Neil at Texas Liberal "likes" Republican Senator John Cornyn on Facebook. Here is what people on Senator Cornyn's Facebook page wrote when the senator said he would be addressing a group of Hispanic lawyers. Many of the comments were not encouraging.

Libby Shaw tells the tale of Rick Perry's efforts to "spin" the unspinnable -- a $19 billion dollar hole in the state budget. Read the details over at TexasKaos: Watch Rick Perry spin his $18 billion budget deficit.

WhosPlayin encourages voters in Lewisville ISD to vote FOR the two-cent tax increase this Tuesday.

Sunday Funnies (Low Information Nation edition)

Nine years ago now

(This post repeats today from a year ago. It's getting quite a lot of search engine traffic, yesterday and this morning. Be sure and read the text in the lower photo.)



And the recollection is still a little raw. Let's continue to remember and mark the day, and not in that Glenn Beck distorted way, either.

Pastor Qu'ranBurn has exceeded his fifteen minutes

And I hope everyone just tunes him out.

When Pastor Terry Jones lights his proverbial match on Saturday’s scheduled ‘Burn a Qur’an Day’ (or as his ignorance would suggest, ‘Burn a Koran Day’), in Gainesville, Florida, he may as well hurl copies of the Bible and Torah right along into his bonfire.

Unbeknownst to the ‘intellectually astute’ and ‘well-read’ (yes, sarcasm intended) Jones, the Qur’an was built upon the Torah and Bible in many ways, and even contains some of the exact same epic stories as the other two Holy Scriptures. But in a post-9/11 age of fear mongering and hatred, how can someone like Pastor Jones even begin to comprehend that he will in effect be burning chapters on his very own Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ?

For the past few months, we as a nation have witnessed an alarming and shocking rise in vitriolic rhetoric and actions against Muslims both domestically and abroad. Juxtaposing a diverse body of over 1.5 billion people with the actions of a few cowards on September 11th, 2001, those that fan the flames of abhorrence have upped the ante more often than not for their own political gain. The result? An innocent cab driver gets stabbed in NY, a proposed mosque site in Tennessee gets burned down, another in California is attacked and left with signs that read ‘No Temple for the God of Terrorism at Ground Zero’, protests ensue around existing and future mosque sites around the country -- including of course lower Manhattan. And now, as a symbolic gesture of solidifying intolerance and plain stupidity, Pastor Jones will hold "suspend" a Medieval-like fire this Saturday at the expense of all who appreciate religious freedom and our place in the world.

Everyone from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, to General David Petraeus and now even President Obama have condemned Pastor Jones’ scheduled burning. But where are the voices from the right? Instead of quelling the animosity, their blatant silence and hesitation (can anyone say John Boehner) only reaffirms the notion that they are on Jones’ side.

To their credit FOX will not cover this "news" tomorrow, if it still happens. But the Republicans in Congress ought to be making their objections much louder.

This is, after all, their base.

Update: Silly me. I gave the GOP far too much credit for being reasonable. They are busy creating false equivalencies like "burning a Qu'ran is wrong, so is building a mosque at Ground Zero (sic)" and diverting attention again from the real issues, as well as the real extremists.

The month leading up to the ninth anniversary of the September 11 attacks has been dominated by a callow and opportunistic debate. This debate -- ostensibly about the rights of American Muslims to build a community center a few blocks from Ground Zero -- is really about the rights of Muslim Americans to be just that: both Muslim and American. And it's ultimately about the strength of our allegiance to one of the best, and sometimes the most difficult, of our American values: the conviction that this country belongs equally to all its citizens, not just those in the ethnic, religious, or political majority.

The campaign against the Park51 community center has succeeded in taking strains of extremist Islamophobia and making them mainstream. The "controversy" was concocted by virulently anti-Islamic blogger Pamela Geller and brought to national attention by mainstream conservatives, most notably Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin, hoping to ride the scandal to November. Dozens of political leaders jumped on the anti-Islam bandwagon; the complete silence of many others spoke volumes.

[...]

Some anti-Park51 crusaders, even Palin, denounced Jones' dangerous publicity stunt. But the fact is that his actions would attract little attention, and do little harm, if they weren't taking place in the context of widespread and loud Islamophobia encouraged and implicitly condoned by prominent political leaders. Leaders such as Palin could pretend to be tolerant by denouncing Jones' clear extremism, while all the while continuing to push subtler, more pervasive strains of Islamophobia. The suggestion, made by Palin, John Boehner, and by Jones himself that the Koran-burning event and the building of the Islamic Community Center had some moral equivalence is treacherous indeed, implying that somehow the practice of Islam is itself an offensive act. It's this sort of insidious notion -- passed off as a legitimate argument -- that creates the growing level of distrust of Muslims in our society.

While Jones' event has been called off, Geller still plans to insult the memory of Sept. 11 by holding an anti-Islam march near Ground Zero. Like Jones, she deserves to be marginalized and ignored. Yet instead, her rally has attracted prominent national figures including former UN Ambassador John Bolton and omnipresent blogger Andrew Breitbart -- and, of course, plenty of media attention.

The national leaders who have fueled this zealous mistrust of Muslims, and worked toward making Islamophobia a legitimate political position, have put our troops in harm's way, irreparably injured the war effort that many of them were eager to start, and twisted American values into something very ugly.

Climbing a tree to tell a lie

... rather than standing on the ground and speaking the truth. That's your modern GOP hard at work. Here is Glenn Smith's expose' from HuffPo:

A right-wing group in Houston engaged in a systematic voter suppression and intimidation effort used a doctored photo in its showcase video. Tellingly, a hand-lettered sign carried by an African-American woman at a 2000 Florida, Gore-Lieberman recount rally was changed from, "Don't Mess With Our Vote," to read, "I Only Got to Vote Once."

Huffington Post editors first suspected the photoshopping after I posted "Possible Arson and the Right's Texas Voter Suppression Effort" regarding King Street Patriots' attacks on a nonprofit voter registration effort and the mysterious fire that destroyed all of Harris County's (Houston) voting machines.

In my regular Sunday FireDogLake column, I posted a follow-up piece, "Contempt for Democracy: Attacks on Voting Rights," that included a link to DigitalDupes.org, which had launched an effort to locate the original photo. Within hours, Newshounds found it.

In addition, a Gore/Lieberman sign was altered to read, "I'm With Stupid." Here is the doctored video as presented in King Street Patriots' video, followed by the original photographs.

In the video, King Street leader Catherine Engelbrecht says their effort is all about the truth, that they just want true, fair, honest elections. But if they are so committed to the truth, why did they use doctored photos? Why did they lie?

Because their real intent -- as it has been for similar voter suppression efforts for decades -- is to create barriers between the ballot box and the voters. They want to suppress the vote of people they suspect of opposing their agenda. In this case, as in most, that means assaulting the voting rights of the poor and minorities.

Now why would the Republicans bother with all of this cheating if they were actually as far ahead as the Lamestream Media bleats that they are? No, really; why?

Similar kinds of crap is happening everywhere.

Benjamin Pearcy, a candidate for statewide office in Arizona, lists his campaign office as a Starbucks. The small business he refers to in his campaign statement is him strumming his guitar on the street. The internal debate he is having in advance of his coming televised debate is whether he ought to gel his hair into his trademark faux Mohawk.

Pearcy, 20, is running for a seat on the Arizona Corporation Commission, which oversees public utilities, railroad safety and securities regulation. Although Mr. Pearcy says he is taking his first run for public office seriously, the political establishment here views him as nothing more than a political dirty trick.

Mr. Pearcy and other drifters and homeless people were recruited onto the Green Party ballot by a Republican political operative who freely admits that their candidacies may siphon some support from the Democrats. Arizona’s Democratic Party has filed a formal complaint with local, state and federal prosecutors in an effort to have the candidates removed from the ballot, and the Green Party has urged its supporters to steer clear of the rogue candidates.

“These are people who are not serious and who were recruited as part of a cynical manipulation of the process,” said Paul Eckstein, a lawyer representing the Democrats. “They don’t know Green from red.”

The GOP has to recruit Greens to draw support away from Democrats in Arizona?!? Why, that's almost as ridiculous as their doing so in Texas. Oh, wait ...

Regarding Mr. Eckstein's quote at the end of the excerpt above, naturally our Greens in Texas sure can tell the difference, and they don't care. But that's a digression.

Why don't the Republicans just refocus their efforts? Why don't they try a little harder and come up with some fresh ideas to move the country forward instead of spending all this time, energy, and money on dirty tricks?

Because they can't help themselves; it's just their nature.

Sadder still, people actually do fall for it.  The Republicans constantly pull dirty tricks because it works.

I suppose if this mass delusion actually does manifest itself in November, then the people will get the kind of government they want. But what are the rest of us going to do?