Sunday Funnies

Koch Suckers

It's been making news elsewhere, I'm just playing catch-up here.



Via Palingates, the ThinkProgress reveal:

In 2006, Koch Industries owner Charles Koch revealed to the Wall Street Journal’s Stephen Moore that he coordinates the funding of the conservative infrastructure of front groups, political campaigns, think tanks, media outlets and other anti-government efforts through a twice annual meeting of wealthy right-wing donors. He also confided to Moore, who is funded through several of Koch’s ventures, that his true goal is to strengthen the “culture of prosperity” by eliminating “90%” of all laws and government regulations.

Ninety percent of all? Hmmm.

ThinkProgress has obtained a memo outlining the details of the last Koch gathering held in June of this year. The memo, along with an attendee list of about 210 people, shows the titans of industry — from health insurance companies, oil executives, Wall Street investors, and real estate tycoons — working together with conservative journalists and Republican operatives to plan the 2010 election, as well as ongoing conservative efforts through 2012. According to the memo, David Chavern, the number two at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Fox News hate-talker Glenn Beck also met with these representatives of the corporate elite. In an election season with the most undisclosed secret corporate giving since the Watergate-era, the memo sheds light on the symbiotic relationship between extremely profitable, multi-billion dollar corporations and much of the conservative infrastructure. The memo describes the prospective corporate donors as “investors,” and it makes clear that many of the Republican operatives managing shadowy, undisclosed fronts running attack ads against Democrats were involved in the Koch’s election-planning event ...

More from Salon:

According to that document, the Palm Springs meeting attracted such corporate and financial titans as Stephen Schwartzman of the Blackstone Group, Philip Anschutz of Anschutz Industries, and Steve Bechtel of Bechtel Corp., as well as representatives of Bank of America, Allied Capital, Citadel Investment, among many others – all of whom gathered to learn how to “elect leaders who are more strongly committed to liberty and prosperity” with a “strategic plan to educate voters on the importance of economic freedom.”

More from HuffPo:

(T)he New York Times reported that an upcoming meeting in Palm Springs of "a secretive network of Republican donors" that was being organized by Koch Industries, "the longtime underwriter of libertarian causes." Buried in the third to last graph was a note that previous guests at such meetings included Supreme Court Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas, two of the more conservative members of the bench.

And from that article in the NYT, more on the inclusion of Supreme Court Justices Thomas and Scalia in the conspiracy:

To encourage new participants, Mr. Koch offers to waive the $1,500 registration fee. And he notes that previous guests have included Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas of the Supreme Court, Gov. Haley Barbour and Gov. Bobby Jindal, Senators Jim DeMint and Tom Coburn, and Representatives Mike Pence, Tom Price and Paul D. Ryan.

Of course "some say" there is nothing wrong with this sort of thing at all. Nothing illegal or unethical at all about people with similar interests gathering together to discuss ways to affect political change.

Why it's the same thing as when, say, the Harris County Democrats have a rally over a dinner, or a blockwalk followed by a fish fry. Except without the Supreme Court justices or the captains of industry. Or their money.

Bob Guccione 1930-2010

Bob Guccione tried the seminary and spent years trying to make it as an artist before he found the niche that Hugh Hefner left for him in the late 1960s. Where Hefner's Playboy magazine strove to surround its pinups with an upscale image, Guccione aimed for something a little more direct with Penthouse.

More explicit nudes. Sensational stories. Even more sensational letters that began, "Dear Penthouse, I never thought I'd be writing you..."

It worked for decades for Guccione, who died Wednesday in Texas at the age of 79. He estimated that Penthouse earned $4 billion during his reign as publisher. He was listed in the Forbes 400 ranking of wealthiest people with a net worth of about $400 million in 1982.

Guccione's magazine broke ground by exposing female genitalia (previously the undiscovered territorial boundary in print was pubic hair, in Playboy). This was decades before the word "Brazilian" entered the language as a noun not in reference to a person from Brazil.

His other revolution was publishing the graphic tales of other people's encounters. That's the "Dear Penthouse Forum, I never thought I would be writing this to you, but..." part mentioned in the excerpt.

Yes, Playboy typically had more beautiful women -- some of them courtesy of the darkroom's airbrush -- but Penthouse had the ones who looked slightly more like the kind of girl you might actually meet at your local bar. This was before even discos were popular, you Twittering little Facebookers.

Not too sure about the articles *ahem* but allegedly they were subversive for the time.

In 1984 it was the magazine that took down Miss America, publishing nude pictures of Vanessa Williams, the first black woman to hold the title. Williams, who went on to fame as a singer and actress, was forced to relinquish her crown after the release of the issue, which sold nearly 6 million copies and reportedly made $14 million.

But Guccione's empire fell apart thanks to several bad investments and changes in the pornography industry, which became flooded with competition as it migrated from print to video and the Internet. His company, his world-class art collection, his huge Manhattan mansion — all of it, sold off.

Guccione's family said in a statement that he died at Plano Specialty Hospital in Plano. His wife, April Dawn Warren Guccione, had said he had battled lung cancer for several years.

Only the good die young, as they say.

(In 1986) U.S. Attorney General Edwin Meese's Commission on Pornography issued a report attacking the adult entertainment industry. Guccione called the report "disgraceful" and doubted it would have any impact, but newsstands and convenience stores responded by pulling Penthouse from their magazine racks.

Sales dropped after the Meese commission report and years later took another hit with the proliferation of X-rated videos and Web sites. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, Penthouse's circulation dipped below 1 million in the late 1990s and fell to about 463,000 in 2003, the year General Media Inc. filed for bankruptcy. Over the first six months of 2010, Penthouse reported circulation of barely 178,000.

"The future has definitely migrated to electronic media," Guccione acknowledged in a 2002 New York Times interview.

Larry Flynt took everything Bob G did a few steps further and raunchier with Hustler about the same time Guccione was declaring war on Hefner and Playboy. As noted above, by the time the '90's rolled around the only ground left to break after Hustler was moving pictures and an easy distribution system. In the present day, videos (video stores and mail order) have already given way to the Internet's porn-on-demand, as well as the proliferation of niche/fetish options. "You want Asian midget ladyboys dressed as cheerleaders and nurses? We got that ..." minus the interaction with the scruffy-looking dude at the counter, of course. More anonymity than a brown wrapper.

The passing of Bob Guccione is just another sad ending to one of my youthful era's iconic figures.

Today's updates on the King Street Thugs

US DOJ is investigating:

(T)he Justice Department has interviewed witnesses about the alleged intimidation and is gathering information about the so-called anti-voter fraud effort.

"We are currently gathering information regarding this matter," Justice Department spokeswoman Xochitl Hinojosa said in a statement confirming the Civil Rights Division's involvement. ...

(First Assistant District Attorney Terry) O'Rourke said (former DOJ Voting Section Chief John) Tanner made a request on Tuesday to have federal election monitors sent to the county. County Attorney Vince Ryan met on Tuesday with the Democratic and Republican chairmen in the county after he received complaints of possible voter intimidation on the first day of early voting as well, the same day the Houston Chronicle printed a story detailing the allegations.

County Attorney Vince Ryan meets with party heads, instructs them to cool off the hotheads:

Responding to complaints that poll watchers were intimidating voters in predominantly minority polling locations, County Attorney Vince Ryan summoned the county chairmen of both major parties to his office Tuesday and reminded them of their responsibility to make sure the observers were obeying the law.

Ryan also announced in the meeting that he has requested a monitor from the Justice Department to observe the voting process in Harris County through Nov. 2.

In a follow-up letter to the county chairmen, Ryan pointed out that poll watchers are entitled to be at a polling location, but cannot be present at the actual polling station when the voter is preparing his ballot and cannot converse with an election officer about the election, except to call attention to an irregularity or violation of the law.

Houston Votes receives threatening e-mails with racist language:

A group trying to register voters in Houston received threats and emails containing racist slurs after being targeted by a local tea party group accusing it of "voter fraud."

In emails obtained by TPM, the group Houston Votes was accused of being "a bunch of white guilt ridden assholes, NIGGERS and greasy mexican spics," "fraudulent Marxist pigs," and "American hating A-holes."

"We received a couple of threats and several harassing e-mails," Maureen Haver of Houston Voters told TPMMuckraker. "There have been several efforts, I think, just trying to race-bait and stir racial tension and part of that I think is just based on what we've received in messaging from them."

"It's really had a chilling effect on our office," said Haver, adding that one of the e-mails was reported to the FBI.

More of the racist e-mails at this link.

Mediaite and this Kos diary have more on how this development -- the inflaming of racial hatred from the Right in this matter -- might shake out in the coming days.

Here's Miya Shay's report from the scene of one of the EV locations. She interviewed a voter who was turned away as well as a True the Vote poll watcher:



Off the Kuff, Dos Centavos, and Bay Area Houston have more.

"Jerry Patterson Shot Me!"

No, that was ...

a) the dog whacking me on the leg with his tail as he went by

b) a mosquito bite

c) me cutting myself shaving

d) a can of peas falling off the top shelf of the pantry that hit me on the head

e) just Jerry Patterson shooting his mouth off again

Your teevee is still lying to you

The Democratic caucus in the 2011 Senate moves up to 54, with this news about Jack Conway surging to a lead over Rand Paul in Kentucky and this news about Joe Sestak easing ahead of Pat Toomey in Pennsylvania. Chris Bowers, in his post this morning, still showed both trailing ...

Electoral-vote.com, which uses only the most recent poll, today has Sestak losing by ten points and Conway behind by 7. And to be both fair and accurate, Bowers uses a composite of several polls, so tomorrow's version of the chart above will still show Sestak and Conway behind. But the trend is unmistakable:

The odds of Democrats keeping 55 or more seats in the Senate are twice that of Republicans winning the chamber.

I'm guessing you might hear something about this on your teevee machine by next week, perhaps.

More evidence that Republicans can't win on their merits

Merits?! We don't need no steenkin' merits!

-- There's a billboard that went up yesterday here in Houston that says "GOP is the new black." Seriously.

Mary Benton speaks for me:

Someone please show me proof of an African-American stampede toward the Republican Party.

-- In Nevada, a group named Latinos for Reform bought teevee airtime to run an ad on Spanish language stations telling Latinos not to vote.

The ad opens with an attack on the Washington Democrat (sic) powerhouses and tells its viewers failed to deliver immigration reform.

Its (sic) the ending that has Hispanic community leaders outraged:

"Don't vote this November. This is the only way to send them a clear message, you can no longer take us for granted, don't vote."

Anybody of any race who isn't voting is just giving away their power. "If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice."

Update: you can view the ad here. From Sen. Harry Reid's campaign:

The group, led by a George Bush "Pioneer" fundraiser named Robert Desposada, has one goal - to suppress the Hispanic vote in Nevada.

-- And the King Street Thugs continue their intimidation tactics at EV locations around Harris County.

The complaints, he said, came from Kashmere Gardens, Moody Park, Sunnyside and other predominantly minority neighborhoods. The complaints included poll watchers "hovering over" voters, "getting into election workers' faces" and blocking or disrupting lines of voters waiting to cast their ballots. ...

(Spokesperson Hector) DeLeon said the county clerk's office received 14 complaints of alleged voter intimidation at 11 voting locations on Monday, the first day of early voting for the Nov. 2 general election. (Harris County Democratic Party chair Gerry) Birnberg said his office forwarded about two dozen complaints to the county attorney's office.

We already knew that the Party of NO isn't interested in offering solutions, because we know they made the mess we're in today. Why would any right-thinking individual reward failure with more authority?

Because they just aren't thinking right, that's why.

Gubernatorial debate tonight (again, without the goober)

Three candidates for governor will take part in a live debate at 7 p.m. tonight sponsored by the Houston Chronicle, the state's other large newspapers and Austin television station KLRU.

The debate will be webcast live on chron.com, and you'll be able to discuss the debate with other voters across the state.

Democrat Bill White, Libertarian Kathie Glass and Green Party nominee Deb Shafto will participate in the debate at the TV station's studios. Republican Rick Perry has declined to take part.

Christy Hoppe of the Dallas Morning News will moderate; panelists will be Dave Montgomery of the Forth Worth Star-Telegram, Peggy Fikac of the San Antonio Express-News and Houston Chronicle; and Alberta Phillips of the Austin American-Statesman.

He's ignored every newspaper in the state. He's blown off the taxpayers by renting a $10,000-a-month mansion while our schools go without. He bemoaned Washington for bailouts at the same time he took stimulus money to patch the hole in last year's budget deficit, now estimated to be over $20 billion.

Rick Perry is as sorry as they come, but there are a lot of morons in Texas who just don't care about any of that. The only question left to answer is: can we find enough people willing to vote between now and November 2nd who do?

It's all about the hair

And today, we will see the Emerging Technology Fund announce a grant of $500 million to a company named CHI, for manufacturing solar panels to be available -- free of charge -- to every Texan who wants one.

After failing to secure the Democratic nomination for governor, hair care magnate Farouk Shami will be voting for the gubernatorial candidate with the best mane: Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

Shami lost to Bill White in the Democratic primary by a decisive 63-point margin. It appears Shami believes that he was not the only preferable alternative to White running for governor.

Lord knows everyone in Texas was paying attention to everything Shami said in the spring, so we all hang on every utterance now. Seriously, how does this help the governor? By reinforcing his "open-for-bidness" theme of adding more minimum-wage jobs to the Texas economy?

By locking down the all-important Tex-Lebanese voting bloc?

Farouk is on fire, all right, but it's his hair that's burning. Somebody please piss on him and put it out.

Update: Harold Cook harshes the snark.

King Street Patriots = vote-suppressing thugs

Update: See? it's already happening.

Harvey Kronberg:

TDP SAYS THAT KING STREET PATRIOTS INTIMIDATING VOTERS ON FIRST MORNING OF EARLY VOTING

Behavior includes shouting misinformation, standing behind voters as they cast ballots, says TDP's general counsel

In a conference call with members of the press, Texas Democratic Party general counsel Chad Dunn said the Party is receiving on the first day of early voting reports of King Street Patriots intimidating voters at the polls.

Dunn was talking to reporters to share more details on the TDP’s decision to expand a lawsuit against the Green Party to include allegations that the King Street Patriots are operating as an unregistered political committee to benefit GOP candidates.

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

KING STREET PATRIOTS TARGETED FOR ADVOCACY OF CONSERVATIVE CANDIDATES

In separate actions, Texas Democrats and campaign watchdogs Texans for Public Justice claim that the Tea Party affiliated group is operating as unregistered political committee

A campaign watchdog group and the Texas Democratic Party both took action today targeting the Houston-area Tea Party affiliated King Street Patriots. In their separate actions, both groups allege that the King Street Patriots are operating as an unregistered political action committee through its advocacy of conservative candidates and recruitment of poll watchers.

The watchdog group Texans for Public Justice filed a formal complaint with the Texas Ethics Commission while the TDP is amending a lawsuit originally aimed at the Green Party’s efforts to access the ballot this year to include the King Street Patriots’ activities.

From the press release:

The King Street Patriots and KSP/True the Vote are Houston-based non-profit corporations affiliated with the “tea party” movement. TPJ alleges the corporations have used their corporate resources to coordinate and recruit poll watchers on behalf of the Harris County Republican Party. The King Street Patriots sponsored a number of “get to know the candidates” events where just one Republican candidate was invited to attend and promote his or her election. Texas law requires that all candidates for an office be invited to participate in such corporate sponsored candidate events. The Patriots website has promoted block-walking activities to “spread the word on great conservative candidates.” Clarifying who these candidates are, the website listed a number of Houston-area candidates, all of them Republicans.

The KSP/True the Vote group is organizing to stop “widespread voter fraud” in Harris County. A controversial, hyperbolic, 8-minute video on its website features white speakers bemoaning alleged voter fraud. The speakers’ proclaim: “Our voting system is under attack! Voter fraud is helping the Democratic Party! Elections are being manipulated by the radical left! It’s all very, very scary. The fraud is very widespread. This is war!” As a narrator on the video says, “Its people who want to vote twice,” the video shows what appears to be an electoral queue of mostly minority voters. True the Vote leader, Catherine Englebrecht says in the video that the group wants to recruit five poll watchers for every precinct in the county. (The True the Vote video is here: http://www.truethevote.org/).

“The Patriots are breaking the law,” said Texans for Public Justice Director Craig McDonald. “A non-profit cannot legally spend its corporate resources to be an arm of the Republican Party. Sadly, you can use racial fear to recruit white voters to try to suppress minority voting. But a non-profit corporation cannot do so on behalf of a political party and its candidates.”

Savvy Brains readers will note that they read about this story here last week, citing liberally from Patrick Brendel's reporting at the American Independent.

I believe at this point that only a restraining order by a state judge commanding the KSP criminals from ceasing their illegal activity will prevent widespread conflict at polling places in Harris County. Since early voting began today, the potential for KSP criminal activity remains high, now through Election Day.

Again, if anyone tries to prevent you from voting by challenging your voter registration card or identification, ask to speak only to the election judge for clarification. Be reminded of the requirements for voting from Hector DeLeon at the Harris County Clerk's office, by way of Mary Benton's fine blog "On the Beat":

To vote, a person may present one of the following documents: a voter registration card, a driver’s license, a picture identification of any kind, a birth certificate, a U.S. Citizenship or Naturalization certificate, a U.S passport, a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows the name and address of the voter. First time voters who registered by mail and did not provide their driver’s license number or identification number will need to provide another form of identification other than their voter registration certificate. 

And if anyone challenges your voting credentials, or otherwise attempts to stop you, at any time before you reach the clerk's table at your polling place, call 911 and report their illegal, intimidating, harassing activity to the proper legal authority.

Update II: The Houston Politics blog at the Chron has their story posted.  And Matt Angle at the LSP:

"The King Street Patriots is not a legitimate nonpartisan or nonprofit organization. It is the most extreme and intolerant arm of the Harris County Republican Party. "

"King Street allies like Republican State Representative Dwayne Bohac are already under investigation by the Public Integrity Unit of the U.S. Justice Department for improper campaign activity. Bohac and King Street extremists work to harass, intimidate and suppress voters rather than reason with or win their votes."

Early Voting Wrangle

EV in person starting today and through the 29th at hundreds of locations around the state. Mary Benton has all the information you need for Harris County. And the Texas Progressive Alliance is fired up and ready to vote as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff has interviews with Linda Chavez-Thompson and Barbara Radnofsky.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks breathing benzene, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants is bad. Why doesn't the TCEQ agree?

The Texas Cloverleaf posts on Blog Action Day about clean water in the Barnett shale.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson points our that there a still many unanswered questions regarding Gov. Perry and a special favor for a mega donor, The drip, drip, drip continues for Perry's mega-donor problem.

The King Street Patriot extremists are breaking the law again in Harris County. A lot more voter suppression and intimidation is in store from these thugs. Brains and Eggs has the details, including the link to the video of TeaBaggin' Jim Murphy (he's going to lose to Kristi Thibaut again) doing the honors.

Neil at Texas Liberal can't imagine that the people of Houston might wish to get rid of red light cameras. Our roads in Houston are already filled with drunks and crazies. Why would we want to make things even worse by making it easier to run red lights and get away with it? Neil urges folks in Houston to vote Yes on Prop. 3 and help keep our streets somewhat less bloody than they might otherwise become.

Intrepid Intern Ali Rawaf and Campaign Finance Curmudgeon Andy Wilson team up at TexasVox to remind you that early voting starts today, Monday, Oct 18, by giving you the sobering truth of who exactly is financing our Congressional midterm campaigns and what special favors they will want if you let their chosen candidates get into office. This is the first in a series -- keep an eye on TexasVox in the next two weeks for more in-depth looks at who's financing the Texas Governor's race, races for Ag Commissioner and Railroad Commissioner, and the Third Court of Appeals-- and maybe others.

Late Sunday Funnies