2010 Texas Gubernatorial Debate, Sunday October 3, Houston *update*

Bill White and Deb Shafto and Kathie Glass will be there, but All Hat and No Cattle will be off somewhere shooting conservative bloggers and sucking up to coyotes. Or is it the other way around?

Go here to register, as only 350 are allowed. Since the Republican candidate will be MIA -- Neil is taking suggestions on empty chairs to be displayed -- Fat Jolly may not be able to give you an on-the-scene report. Then again, he may think that he's being excluded because he is not one of Houston's Top Political Bloggers (heck, he may be a 'bottom', for all that I know). But present or no, you can certainly count on his whining about it afterward, and that those whines will be echoed by his sycophants.

Because they really have nothing of consequence to say, I suppose.

There will be another debate just like this one October 19 in Austin.

Update: The press release indicates they can accommodate 650 (though the registration website above still says 350).

The 2010 Texas Gubernatorial Debate on Oct. 3 will feature KTRK Channel 13 news anchor Melanie Lawson as debate moderator, with three candidates committed to date. The debate is scheduled from 6-8 p.m. at Harris County Department of Education, 6300 Irvington Blvd. in Houston.

With a focus on education topics, the debate is co-hosted by HCDE and The League of Women Voters of Texas and the Houston Area. All four gubernatorial candidates have been invited to participate. Candidates committed to debating to date are Democrat Bill White, Libertarian Kathie Glass and Green Party candidate Deb Shafto.

“Education is a hot topic in the November election,” said Harris County School Superintendent John E. Sawyer. “We look forward to co-hosting this historical debate and anticipate keen interest from the education public. Of course, all citizens are invited and urged to attend.”

An audience of 650 can be accommodated in the HCDE Conference Center located in northeast Houston off the North Loop near the Hardy Toll Road. Participants must register for the debate online at www.hcde-texas.org . Go to “register now,” create a user account, search for the workshop by date or title and complete the form. Registration confirmation must be presented for admission. Doors will open at 5:45 p.m. There will be no late seating.

The Weekly (cool snap) Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is no longer in wait for that first nip of fall in the air as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

This week on Left of College Station Teddy writes about why the Tea Party has an expiration date. Also, as the semiannual protest against reproductive rights 40 Days for Life begins, a guest blogger writes about being a pro-choice feminist Christian, and Teddy has a post about how the Coalition for Life lies to women. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

Off the Kuff interviewed Harris County Judge Ed Emmett, County Commissioner Sylvia Garcia, and Democratic candidate for County Judge Gordon Quan.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme knows that deregulation means more tainted food and more BP disasters like this one.

Bay Area Houston lists some alternatives to white-wing wadio in Houston.

Nat-Wu at Three Wise Men examines the situation in Somalia, coverage of which has mostly ceased in the American press.

Jeff Weems, the Democratic candidate for Texas Railroad Commission, earned the endorsement of both the Dallas Morning News and the Houston Chronicle. Keith Hampton, our man for the Court of Appeals, got the DMN endorsement. Bill Moody (Texas Supreme Court),Wally Kronzer (14th Court of Appeals), and Robert Ray (1st Court of Appeals) also got endorsed by the Houston newspaper.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has a question for you: did you know Texas' public education finance system is hopelessly broken?

WhosPlayin calls BS on GOP Congressman Michael Burgess' taxpayer-funded "survey" over extending the Bush tax cuts. The only options were a dishonest choice of all or nothing, so WhosPlayin posted its own survey with the third option of "extend for the middle class".

This week at McBlogger we take a look at Sleazy Todd Staples and his johnny-come-lately advocacy for tougher eminent domain restrictions.

Neil at Texas Liberal noted this week that the party holding the White House has lost seats in the U.S. House of Reps. in 33 of 36 midterms since the Civil War. Neil is not pleased that Democrats may lose some seats in the upcoming election, but these things do happen.

Libby Shaw at TexasKaos explains how one of our smirking Republican friends claim that "The American People Wrote the Pledge" when it was actually written by lobbyists. Check it out.

More Funnies (less funny)

A True Tale from Texas

The Texas State Board of Education is a laughingstock. Rebecca Bell Metereau and Judy Jennings, along with Michael Soto, will change that.

Sunday Funnies

Weems captures DMN endorsement

The Dallas News got it completely wrong in the agriculture commissioner's race (after all, they endorsed Kinky in the March primary, so what could you expect?) but they got it right in the railroad commissioner's contest.

Seldom do we run into a first-time candidate for any office and wonder why that person hasn't already been elected to the job. But that's how impressed this newspaper is with Democrat Jeff Weems, who is seeking election to the Texas Railroad Commission.

The 52-year-old Houston attorney would be ready on Day One to make a significant contribution, which is why we strongly recommend him for the three-member panel.

His understanding of the industry shows. He can talk chapter and verse about energy issues, which the oddly named Railroad Commission oversees. And he is a sharp contrast to some candidates who shoot for the commission on their way to a higher post.

This newspaper also supports Weems because of the balanced view he articulates. He understands the importance of oil and gas production to the state's economy and, for example, doesn't favor a moratorium on Barnett Shale natural gas production.

We also agree with him that the Railroad Commission can't leave a void for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to fill when it comes to monitoring the practices of natural gas extraction. As an example, he wants producers to tell the commission what chemicals are in the fluids they use to unlock the gas from the Barnett Shale geological formation. Those trade secrets would be sealed but would still allow the commission to know, for environmental reasons, what goes into the hydraulic fracturing that companies use to extract the gas.

Weems wants the commission to be more aggressive in lobbying the Legislature about its goals. We particularly like his idea of limiting fundraising for this quasi-judicial post to selected times during a commissioner's six-year term. He would curtail fundraising shortly after a commissioner's election until essentially the member's next election cycle.

These are just some of the many examples of Weems' smart and thoughtful views. His opponent, Republican David Porter of Midland, filled out our questionnaire, but the 54-year-old CPA neither showed up for an interview alongside Weems nor returned a call seeking a phone interview. Roger Gary is running as a Libertarian, and Art Browning is running as a Green Party candidate.

Weems and Porter are competing for an open seat, so voters would be well-served to take the time to distinguish between these candidates and dig deeper than sound bites. Weems clearly has the qualifications – and then some – to bring common-sense leadership to this influential commission.

Weems' Republican challenger really is just as weird and unqualified as the DMN discovered. Weems is the only sensible choice for the Texas Railroad Commission.

Update: The Houston Chronic follows suit.

Can you pick out the gay soldier?

Antediluvian

I always appreciate a piece of writing that sends me to the dictionary.

extremely primitive or outmoded <an antediluvian prejudice>

... Rachel Maddow has it exactly right. It was confirmed today for all to see. The Republicans absolutely will not allow a vote to get rid of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. We know why. Here's an example from what passes for a U.S. Senator in Georgia:

[The armed forces should] exclude persons whose presence in the armed forces would create unacceptable risk to the armed forces' high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion. In my opinion, the presence in the armed forces of persons who demonstrate a propensity or intent to engage in homosexual acts would very likely create an unacceptable risk to those high standards. [It will lead to] alcohol use, adultery, fraternization, and body art. If we change this rule of 'Don't Ask, Dont Tell,' what are we going to do with these other rules?

The homophobic Senate dinosaurs like Chambliss who cling to these pathetic antediluvian views are, as Maddow so perfectly showed, out of step with the majority of rank-and-file Democrats, Independents and Republicans, who all want an end to this harmful policy that endangers our national security, ruins careers and violates civil rights of Americans as surely as the segregated military of 1948 and earlier violated civil rights.

Yes, DADT endangers our national security by -- among other reasons --  expelling Arabic-speaking specialists from the ranks of the service.

Who's anti-American now? Who's not supporting the troops now? And the best objection the Republican senators can come up with is "we didn't get to add all of our amendments"?!?

That year, President Harry Truman, having been prodded into action by the vicious 1946 murder of two African-American veterans and their wives in Monroe, Georgia -- the last public lynching in the country --  chose to desegregate the military by executive order instead of waiting for legislation from Congress.

Even as the Pentagon works on its study of a possible change in Don't Ask, Don't Tell, it discharges gays and lesbians, including men and women for whom the military is a career, as part of its continuing witch-hunt. This will continue until somebody commands it to stop. There is a commander who can do that, a man who now sits where Harry Truman once did, a man who has said repeatedly in the clearest possible language that he opposes DADT and wants to see it ended.

After the Senate's inaction today, Maddow said:

The White House could decide right now -- tonight -- to stop implementation of this policy pending the military's review.  The right wants a culture war against gay people?  In 2010, that's a war anti-gay politicians lose and pro-civil rights politicians win.

Does the White House leave that on the table and walk away?  Or do they try to win?  Do they do well politically by doing what they say is right for the country?  Do they do it?  What happens next?

This would constitute no end run around the military's review of DADT. It would not violate the separation of powers. It would merely do the right thing until Congress makes it official: stopping the discharge of women and men who have signed up to serve our country by wearing the uniforms of our armed forces. Men and women with talent and skills and millions of dollars in specialized training who willingly risk their lives in the name of America. Some call such people patriots. Not, of course, chickenhawks like Saxby Chambliss, who launched his Senate career with cowardly disses of another patriot, Max Cleland.

Republicans proved once again Tuesday that they have no intention of working with their counterparts across the aisle. They do not believe, as Joint Chiefs Chairman Admiral Mike McMullen believes, as President Obama believes, and as most of the American people believe, that civil rights should apply to everyone equally. And they never will. Eventually, they will lose their retrograde attempts to keep the old rules and their twisted prejudices in place. In the meantime, the President has the authority to end a discharge policy that weakens national security and divides people between those who have full civil rights and those who do not. It's the right decision.

All of your Republican senators -- and the two so-called Democrats from Arkansas (Harry Reid voted 'no' so that he may recall the vote later) -- voted in favor of denying the military funding authorization, against the DREAM Act, against DADT -- because they (falsely) claimed they weren't allowed to participate to their fullest happiness in a procedural matter involving the legislation.

All. of the Republicans. in the Senate.

You want more of this? Vote Republican.

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.

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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