The Weekly GOTV Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes you all have voted or will be voting soon as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

This week at McBlogger, we take a look at the increasingly desperate campaign being run by Todd Staples. Last Friday they attempted to eavesdrop on an internal Gilbert campaign conference call, if that tells you much. You simply won't believe the rest...

Letters From Texas spent most of the week pointing to Republican efforts to scapegoat and alienate minorities, first pointing out both Parties' failure to communicate effectively with Hispanic voters, then pointing out Republicans' blatant attempts to prevent them from voting, and showing that they'd planned to do it in Texas too. Most shocking, however, was the release of a photo of the most disturbing political sign in Texas.

Off the Kuff published his last interview of this cycle, with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White.

Bay Area Houston would vote for Proposition 1 in Houston if....

Ever wonder why republicans have gotten so batsh*t crazy? CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme thinks they're locked inside their own tiny, tiny minds.

The news of the week in Harris County spread all across the country: well-fed Caucasian conservatives are going places they've never gone before -- minority early voting polling locations -- and doing their damndest to keep as few of 'those people' from casting a ballot as possible. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs kept the story up to date.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson shows the choice for governor comes down to this very simple issue: We must end Perry's unprecedented time as governor - he's been in office too long.

Martha Griffin at musings has questions about Prop 1 on the ballot in Houston. Why the lack of details about the plan and where is the political muscle to get this passed?

BossKitty at TruthHugger just decided to vent about the direction this election is trying to take the country ... with me in it: Federal Government in the crosshairs – OpEd.

Public Citizen is getting into the fray over early voting and intimidation activities across the state, with a press release and conference Monday afternoon in Houston with the League of Women Voters and a blog over at TexasVox. Keep watching for more coverage as this story continues to develop.

Len Hart at BlueBloggin looks at A Party of Panic and Depression, the Republican world of economics, death and destruction, K-Street and war. The administration of Ronald Reagan ushered in a depression of some two years, a contraction of the economy, and a transfer of wealth upward to the upper quintile, the nation’s richest 20 percent. A windfall of this nature is not stimulus to invest but rather to transfer the gains offshore.

Lightseeker at TexasKaos reports that according to a recent Gallup poll, Latinos, Asians, Native Americans... basically our non-white/non-black population... are going to vote for the Republicans in this election by a 52%-42% margin. Turns out that polling on this mid-term election has some serious problems. There is more at The Polls are Off and Nobody Knows by How Much!

Neil at Texas Liberal offered his election endorsements for Texas in 2010. And as a long-time former resident of the Buckeye State, he also made endorsements for Ohio.

The finish line in sight

When even poor ol' Karl-Thomas is down in the dumps over the polling, you know there's some gloomy Guses out there. But leave it to Kuffner to destroy that stubborn inevitability meme again. Only fools and Republicans -- there's a difference? -- believe it anyway. Look what the Texas Democratic statewides are doing:

-- Hank Gilbert is working West Texas hard in the closing days before the election.

Gilbert will meet and greet voters in Amarillo, Clyde, Panhandle, Pampa, Canadian, Perryton, Dalhart, Dumas, Stinnett, Fritch, Borger, Canyon, Tulia, Levelland, and Midland.

What, no Plainview?! These are not the kind of Texas towns in which a Democratic candidate usually spends the week before Election Day getting out the vote. But Gilbert has won over many Republicans and Tea Partiers in his campaign this year, and he's going fishin' where they're bitin'.

Update: jobsanger has photos from Amarillo yesterday.

-- Barbara Radnofsky kicks Greg Abbott in the pants again...



As she pointed out in her debate with the suddenly-proud-he's-wheelchair-bound attorney general, the amount of money the Wall Street banksters cost Texans comes pretty close to equaling the amount of money the state budget is lacking.

So even though the governor won't acknowledge the budget deficit, why aren't Perry and Abbott trying to recoup those billions? Because it would anger their fat cat donors, that's why. Perry's already been exposed for having pushed TRS trustees to invest in his cronies' companies, an investigation into which was essentially whitewashed. Harvey Kronberg had more on the curious case of Roel Campos last Friday:

Earlier this week, Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bill White released a whistleblower memo reporting that the Perry appointed Teacher Retirement System board reversed staff investment recommendations which benefitted the Governor’s campaign contributors.

The Governor’s office responded to Dallas Morning News' Wayne Slater: "This matter was brought up over two years ago. TRS had an outside lawyer review the facts and they said they had no merit or such, the matter was then turned over to the state auditor's office and they took no action."

Of course, the identity of “outside lawyer” proved to be a entirely separate issue of bad judgment on its own. Roel Campos of Cooley Godward Kronish LLP was the attorney that issued the report that ignored most of the substantive issues raised by the whistleblower and essentially reported that bosses get to over rule staff.

Our colleague Paul Burka called the report “pablum” and he may have been too gentle.

But the real question is how did someone with Campos’ resume’ ever get close to TRS and not once, but twice?

There is more to the story of Roel Campos and the Teacher Retirement System.

-- Speaking of the governor, he's lying again.



Border security is the signature hot button issue with the freak right. But Perry is demagogueing it by repeating the same "sanctuary city" BS his base keeps mumbling.

-- Bill Clinton is in Brownsville today rallying voters.

There's more, but you get the picture. This year's election results are still a cake in the oven.

MoDo is making me ill again

It's just too early in the morning to be this nauseous. Two excerpts I can manage to keep down:

It’s too late to relitigate the shameful Thomas-Hill hearings. We’re stuck with a justice-for-life who lied his way onto the bench with the help of bullying Republicans and cowed Democrats.

... and ...

The 5-to-4 Citizens United decision last January gave corporations, foreign contributors, unions, Big Energy, Big Oil and superrich conservatives a green light to surreptitiously funnel in as much money as they want, whenever they want to elect or unelect candidates. As if that weren’t enough to breed corruption, Thomas was the only justice — in a rare case of detaching his hip from Antonin Scalia’s — to write a separate opinion calling for an end to donor disclosures.

In Bush v. Gore, the Supreme Court chose the Republican president. In Citizens United, the court may return Republicans to control of Congress. So much for conservatives’ professed disdain of judicial activism. And so much for the public’s long-held trust in the impartiality of the nation’s highest court.

Justice Stephen Breyer recently rejected the image of the high court as “nine junior varsity politicians.” But it’s even worse than that. The court has gone beyond mere politicization. Its liberals are moderate and reasonable, while the conservatives are dug in, guzzling Tea.

And if you want more of this, vote Republican.

Sunday Evening Funnies

Rangers and Giants in the World Series

Here's a good story about how the American League champions turned things around and got to the Fall Classic.

Wearily, Nolan Ryan plopped down in the Rangers Ballpark press box dining area, covered his face with both hands and rubbed. It didn't help.

On this Thursday, July 8 evening, he scarcely touched his tuna salad and cantaloupe. Glumly, he described his day in bankruptcy proceedings and the previous day's hospital visit to a fan who had tumbled from the stands.

The rock-like Rangers president and Hall of Fame pitcher who KO'd a record 5,714 batters and pummeled Robin Ventura's face seemed – gasp – defeated.

"This just isn't a whole lot of fun right now," Ryan said.

Thus began the most pivotal 24 hours in Rangers history. There was no hint that half-century-old dark clouds were about to disperse, that this luckless and literally broke franchise would unearth a diamond rabbit's foot:

Cliff Lee.

With Texas now in the World Series, its heist of star pitcher Lee from the New York Yankees' greedy clutches is the Cliff-hanger moment of a Hollywood-esque story.

Without Lee, there would be no feel-good plot about the manager who tested positive for cocaine use but, given a second chance, guided Texas to its first American League pennant – 78 days after the franchise was auctioned in federal bankruptcy court.

It was Lee who twice beat Tampa Bay in the American League Divisional Series, including in the decisive Game 5. It was Lee who earned Texas' first playoff victory in Yankee Stadium – fittingly, against the team that nearly acquired him from Seattle in July.

And it will be Lee who starts Game 1 of the World Series on Wednesday night.

There's also the renaissance of Josh Hamilton, who beat his addiction demons to come all the way back to MVP for the ALCS, and the team celebrated (again) by showering him with ginger ale and not champagne. However I still feel like a National League guy, despite the storyline and the bandwagon effect, and not just because Vlad Guerrero has to play in the field.

I feel kinda bad for Roy Oswalt and Lance Berkman, who once again will be watching it on teevee like the rest of us.

I'll say it will be a classic seven-game series with the Giants prevailing. But I won't be unhappy -- or jealous -- at all if the Rangers get it done.

Update: On the other hand, this could give Texas a significant advantage.

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