Sunday Funnies

How you can be certain that the United States will be attacked again by al-Qaeda:

We have our first flashpoint in the Texas governor's race

And it's the loansharks.  The El Paso Times -- you know, the city that has all those Latinos and statewide Democrats running in 2014 -- continues to lead the reporting.

Attorney General Greg Abbott on Thursday called state Sen. Wendy Davis a hypocrite for demanding that Gov. Rick Perry remove William J. White as chairman of the Texas Finance Commission.

In a statement, Abbott pointed out that Davis voted to confirm White after Perry appointed him in March 2009.

"Sen. Wendy Davis' statement is blatant election-year hypocrisy," said a statement by Abbott's press secretary, Avdiel Huerta.

Davis voted to confirm White on May 11, 2011 -- four months after she told the Texas Observer that White's presence on the commission was "the classic fox in the henhouse."

Abbott refused, however, to say whether he supports White, who heads the state agency responsible for consumer protection.

There's a hint at the real story in that last sentence. Not Davis' vote to confirm White...

Davis' press secretary, Rebecca Acuna, said that despite her opposition to White, Davis voted to confirm him because he was part of a large group of nominees and Davis didn't want to torpedo the lot.

"A group of 40, including White, were confirmed in a single vote," Acuna said. "The bigger issue is what he's done since. Our call for him to resign was made in light of recent developments."

Abbott and his spox appear to have preferred that Davis block the mass of appointments with a filibuster.  That would be SOP for a Republican obstructionist, and certainly closer to meeting the description of "political".  But we still haven't reached the moneyshot yet.

(Flack Avdiel) Huerta, Abbott's spokesman, was asked Monday -- and twice Thursday -- whether Abbott supports White, who said people get stuck in payday loans because they do things such as buy $6,000 TVs. Huerta didn't respond to those questions.

He also didn't respond when asked whether the slot on the finance commission for a representative of the consumer-credit industry must go to someone who works for a payday lender or if it could go to someone who works for a credit-card company or some other consumer-credit business.

Abbott has been a big beneficiary of political cash from the payday-lending industry, which the Texas Catholic Conference and Texas Baptist Christian Life Conference say needs tighter regulation.

Abbott received the fourth-most of any Texas politician -- $159,000 -- from the industry between 2009 and 2012, according to a March 18 report by Texans for Public Justice.

Davis, who has pushed bills that would place stricter regulations of the industry, does not appear on the list of big recipients.

According to the Abbott campaign, Davis has received $9,500 from the payday lending industry since 2007.

Huerta did not respond when asked if Abbott supports tighter regulation of the industry.

Let's review: Abbott's mouthpiece won't answer any questions about White or the shylock industry, contests the amount of campaign contributions Abbott received (a number easily verifiable* from required reporting), and then calls Wendy Davis a hypocrite.

You have to like how this is going if you're a Democrat.  Abbott and his people are again committing unforced errors that Davis and her team are capable of exploiting.  It's also moving the skirmish away from the "AB" smears and the moldy oldie of "Clinton Obama Wendy Davis is goin' to take yer guns".  Since the 'mental illness' angle isn't getting any traction either, it looks like Abbott is desperate to attack Davis on something, anything to distract from his abysmally failed record.

I just don't think "hypocrite" is a label any Republican is going to successfully hang on anybody who isn't a Republican.

*Update: Not so easily verifiable, it seems.  The Davis campaign's own unforced error seems to be the point of this piece by David Rauf of the HouCHron, and not that Abbott is on the take from the payday lenders.  Only this last sentence at the very end acknowledges the point...

In all, the Express-News/Houston Chronicle estimates those 13 entities gave Abbott between about $190,000 and $205,000.  

Everything above that (in other words, everything else) is some awfully favorable media spin for the AG from the Hearst flagship.  Abbott has to be pleased about that.

Update II: KHOU has a better version of the story.

Update III: Peggy Fikac at the SAEN/HC covers it a little better, but is still extending the non-story for Monday morning's assist to Abbott.  The trouble with this kind of reporting is not just that the reporters gulped the Abbott campaign spin, but that they continue to make the "gotcha" the news.  And that is a direction chosen by editors at the top of the food chain.

Payday lenders going on offense

Privatization hits full tilt.

If you want to set up an account to use the new toll road in El Paso, Texas, you may have to first stop by a payday lender.

The El Paso Times reports that the Camino Real Regional Mobility Authority will be working with the payday lender ACE Cash Express to help collect tolls for the César Chávez Border Highway toll road, which is expected to open Jan. 8.

While people who want to set up an account to use the road or pay off their toll charges can do so by phone, mail or online, the only places to do so in person in El Paso are at ACE stores. Those individuals who make the transaction at the payday lender "will be charged a $3 fee to set up the account and a $2 convenience service fee to replenish a non-credit card," the paper notes.

Keep in mind that this news follows the report that Rick Perry's appointee to the state Office of Consumer Credit -- and the executive of a payday lending company himself -- has lashed out at critics of his usurious racket.

The official who oversees Texas' consumer watchdog says payday-loan customers -- not the lenders -- are responsible when the loans trap them in a cycle of debt.

William J. White says it's out of line to even question an industry that has had its practices called exploitative by many critics, including the Catholic Church.

White was appointed by Gov. Rick Perry to chair the state agency that oversees the Office of the Consumer Credit Commissioner, which is responsible for protecting consumers from predatory lending practices.

White also is vice president of Cash America, a major payday lender that the new U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau last month socked with its first sanctions for abusive practices.

The only thing left to know is how much Cash America and Mr. White and others have contributed to Rick Perry.  Do you smell the fascism yet?

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia ban payday lending, which the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation defines as "imposing unfair and abusive loan terms on borrowers." Another nine states restrict payday lending.

Payday loans often prey on society's most economically vulnerable. As the Center for American Progress notes, in Texas, more than 75 percent of payday lenders are in neighborhoods where the median household income is less than $50,000.

[...]

Under Gov. Rick Perry (R), Texas has been a welcoming state for payday lenders.

"Texas is still essentially the wild, wild west of payday lending, where you can see payday lenders charging 400 and 500 percent annual interest rates," Diane Standaert, senior legislative counsel at the Center for Responsible Lending, said.

The toll partnership with ACE was set up in 2010, during Perry's tenure.

With the vacuum of legislative inaction against these shylocks, Texas mayors have responded.

In December 2013, the City of Houston passed its own ordinance regulating pay day lending that requires lenders to register with the city, places limits on the amount of loans that can be dispersed, as well as the number of times loans can be renewed. Houston’s ordinance is similar to those adopted previously by the cities of Austin, Dallas, El Paso, and San Antonio.

Those cities all have Democratic mayors.  We're forced to remind ourselves that we get the government we deserve when Republicans get elected.  And that happens because Texas is the lowest among all 50 states in voter turnout.  Indeed, most of the victims of these usurious crimes can be found at the intersection of Poor and Dumb.  (Both of those are treatable conditions, but not as long as we let the GOP play doctor.)

But we also need to note that minor-league Democrats and their chickenshit political consultants have had their snouts in the payday lending trough as well.  John had his satirical take yesterday, while Sen. Sylvia Garcia has joined Wendy Davis in calling for White to step down.

“William White can’t protect Texas consumers while he represents a predatory lending company on the side,” she said.

You can count on Greg Abbott dodging questions about this for as long as he possibly can. The one thing the Attorney General is consistent about is avoiding taking a stand on anything until he runs it past his contributors. How much have they paid, again, is the only question that needs an answer.

We already know what they bought, after all.

Update: No sooner did I hit 'publish' than I see Charles' post, which links to Wayne Slater at Trailblazers -- with Abbott's (campaign spokesperson's) full-throated defense of his buddy, White.

In a statement Thursday, an Abbott campaign spokesman defended White and accused Davis of “blatant election-year hypocrisy” for criticizing him. Although Davis filed bills during the 2011 legislative session to curb abusive practices in the payday loan industry and was critical of White, the Abbott campaign spokesman notes she didn’t vote against confirming his nomination. Further, the spokesman said Davis had an opportunity to amend bills to limit industry representatives on the commission, but didn’t. A Davis campaign spokesman said White was one of more than 40 nominees to numerous state agencies and commissions voted on as a group. Cash America’s political committee — which White contributes to — has given Abbott at least $18,000 in political donations, according to state finance records. The industry’s major political committee, the Texas Consumer Lenders PAC, gave Abbott $10,000 before last year’s legislative session.

Not a single surprise there, not even Abbott's distortion of Davis' vote.

2014, 2015, 2018...

No time like the now to talk about the future, I suppose.

-- CultureMap followed up with Annise Parker, who made news last week in disclosing her long-range political plans.

On the eve of her inauguration for a third — and final — term as Houston's mayor Thursday morning, it's a bittersweet time for Parker, who has always been more of a policy wonk that a back-slapping, baby-kissing politician. She can't run for another city of Houston office because of term limits. Yet, she finds the thought of not running again a bit liberating.

"I don't have any plans to run for anything so I am free to do things that people don't like and do what I think is right, whether it's settling 16 years of litigation with the topless industry or working on a nondiscrimination ordinance for the city of Houston or acknowledging legal (same-sex) marriages," Parker said.

Funny; that's not what she told Lone Star Q.

LSQ: What’s next for you after your term expires at the end of 2015? There’s been a lot of talk that you will run for statewide office as a Democrat in 2016 or 2018.

AP: I don’t intend to run for anything until I’m done as mayor. Unfortunately, in 2016, there’s not a lot out there, so I probably will need to go back into the private sector for a while, but I hope that while mayor of Houston is the best political job I would ever have, I hope it’s not my last political job. … I would certainly be interested in looking statewide. [I'm] not trying to be coy. People talked to me about running in 2014 as a Democrat for one of the statewide positions. I’ve had a lot of conversations with folks about that, but I made the commitment to serve as mayor of Houston and to do my best for the city for as long as I could. I just wasn’t in that place. I’ve also been fairly public that what I’m most interested in in terms of a future political position is something where I’m in an administrative or an executive position. [With] due respect to my members of Congress down here, I’ve been the CEO of a $5 billion corporation. I like to get things done, and the idea of, say, running for Congress, doesn’t excite me. … [It will be] a statewide executive position.

Strange. Those two quotes seem both direct and contradictory. Anyway, that reference to the $5 billion dollar corporation appears also in the CultureMap Q&A.

CM: As your last term as mayor, it must be a bittersweet time.

AP: It is because I hear the clock ticking. While we have done some amazing things, I really had to spend a lot of the first two years patching holes in a leaky boat. The economy was dreadful. I had to walk in and slash hundreds of millions of dollars in spending and it wasn't possible to drive an agenda at first, it was much more reactive.

... I also fully intend to do something about term limits before I leave, not that it will benefit me, and probably not benefit anyone serving in city government today. But two-year terms are too short. We're a $5 billion dollar corporation and we turn our leadership every two years. No corporation would do that.

Comparing government entities to public (or private) companies is simply a false analogy.  This corporate mentality that Democrats, even so-called progressive ones, fall back on is nothing but an old frame of the GOP.  It started with Reagan.

It is wrong to think that government should be run as a business.  If someone said "Corporations should be run like the government", they would be laughed out of the room.  The reverse premise is also mistaken.

I will have an opinion in just a moment with regard to term limits of municipal elected officials.  It's helpful to recall that such limits came about as the result of the deep-rooted corruption of several city council members some years ago.  At a time when people are crying about capping the terms for state and federal offices, to move in the opposite direction -- again -- is not the right move.   And with that...

As the inauguration of Houston's elected leaders begins Thursday morning, supporters and spectators gathered at the Wortham Center downtown will see six new City Council members walk across the stage.

Observers at the ceremony two years ago saw seven new members sworn in, and those present two years before that saw five new faces cross the stage. That's 18 position turnovers in four years around a horseshoe that seats 17, including the mayor, as Councilman C.O. Bradford pointed out at the council's final meeting of the year two weeks ago.

With this churn in mind, Mayor Annise Parker, Bradford and others are calling for changes to the city's term limits structure, which allows three two-year terms for the mayor, city controller and council members.

"That's simply too frequent. When I came to council, there were council members in the process of leaving … and they were just well-seasoned, they were just at the point where they were really ready to dig in and serve the city," said Bradford, who is starting his third and final term. "As we go forward in efforts to move our city forward, look at 18 turnovers in a four-year period and look at the challenge that presents."

Parker, herself term-limited out of office at the end of 2016, said she will ask council to present voters with a shift to two four-year terms, adding that any proposal will not apply to her.

"Churn" is the wrong word to use to describe this situation.  It's better left to the newspaper circulators and cable TV customer retention analysts.

And C.O. Bradford is self-servingly incorrect.

I just won't be in favor of anything that gives people on council, or the mayor or the city controller, more time in office.  One four-year term is enough; that way nobody is ever running for re-election, with its attendant fundraising and consultant-influenced bullshit.

This is how you get (some of) the money out of politics.

They can stagger the elections and have 50% of the new members rotate in and out every two years.  To refute Bradford directly: continuity on council is far too overvalued.  And as Mayor Parker herself noted, when you don't have to run for re-election, one can focus on one's agenda.  Whether it is hers, or Michael Kubosh's, or C.O. Bradford's.

Before we leave the topic of Houston city elections, let's read this and snort.

The 2013 election cycle has come to a close, meaning that speculation is already running rampant about the 2015 municipal election cycle. With an open Mayor and Controller’s race, potential candidates are already lining up to establish themselves as potential successors. State Representative and former Mayoral candidate Sylvester Turner has indicated his desire to run, along with former Congressman and Mayoral Candidate Chris Bell. Current Council Members Stephen Costello and Oliver Pennington are also rumored to be looking at the race. On the Controller’s side, Former Council Member and HCCS Trustee Carroll Robinson has expressed interest in running along with recent controller candidate Bill Frazier and current Deputy Controller Chris Brown. With a little over a year before candidates can formerly declare their intentions, many questions remain. Will Benjamin Hall consider running again after his unsuccessful 2013 campaign? Will the business community field a candidate along the lines of Bob Lanier in 1991 and Bill White in 2003? Will 2015 mark the entry of a viable Hispanic Mayoral Candidate? Already candidates have begun polling and meeting with financial backers to measure their viability. In the era of the continuous campaign, this is par for the course. Hopefully some or all of these candidates will address many of the longstanding issues that are facing this city. Only time will tell.

Way, way too much inappropriate capitalization.  This is a little better.

Houston Chronicle Reporter Mike Morris and Rice University Political Science Professor Bob Stein were guests on KUHF's Houston Matters.

Morris says there are a number of names already being discussed.

"Ed Gonzalez in District H, his name has been mentioned but I don't know that is particularly likely. I haven't put the question to him directly and I wouldn't expect him to really weigh in at this point in the game. Adrian Garcia, the sheriff of Harris County, his name has been mentioned. He's a former city councilman. I know State Rep. Sylvester Turner has not ruled it out."

Bob Stein says there's also Houston At-Large Councilmember Stephen Costello, who has already announced his intention to run for mayor.

"But I think there will be a half a dozen or so men and women who will run for this. But I think the candidate that's most likely to succeed, we don't know yet. I think you'll see a candidate come from outside of the elected officials we're talking about."

Stein says one name that likely won't be on the ballot again is Ben Hall, who lost to Parker in a thorough defeat.

-- Finally, something recent about the present.

Chili? No beans. Star Trek beats Star Wars. Hunting trumps fishing.

For those wondering whether Democratic Sen. Wendy Davis and Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott can agree on anything, the gubernatorial candidates' answers to a short set of light questions find a bit of common ground - and some amusing asides.

Not that amusing.  Except for this.

Asked to name one thing they fear, neither picked a potential physical danger, as Gov. Rick Perry did when the Des Moines Register asked if he had any little phobias (he hates snakes).

Abbott's answer could have come straight from a campaign speech: "The steady growth of government and how it is chipping away at our liberty. (Ex: Obamacare)"

Davis' was more personal. "Failing to do my best on behalf of others," she said.

Can't wait to see a picture of Abbott crying like a Boehner because of all the little Texas kids who won't grow up to live the 'Merkin dream... because affordable healthcare insurance held them back.

New Year's Funnies (Changing of the Guard edition)

Wendy Davis is TPA's 'Texan of the Year'

Big surprise, eh?

The Texas Progressive Alliance, the nation's largest state-based association of online and netroots activists, today named State Senator Wendy Davis recipient of its Texan of the Year Award for 2013.

"Senator Davis' actions this year made her a clear choice. Our vote was unanimous," said Vince Leibowitz, Chair of the Alliance. Leibowitz said Senator Davis' June filibuster of Senate Bill 5 on behalf of Texas women and the preservation of reproductive rights was a courageous action that served to galvanize and energize Texas Democrats. "Senator Davis' courage to stand up and block this outrageous legislation helped raise awareness in Texas of the assault on a woman's right to choose that our legislature has waged for the last decade, as well as the extraordinary measures right-wing Republicans in Texas will take both to trample the rights of women and their own colleagues in government," Leibowitz continued.

Not only did Davis' actions draw national attention to Texas, but her filibuster and subsequent campaign for Texas Governor have galvanized Texas Democrats. "We have not seen this kind of excitement for a non-presidential election in Texas in many years. We see Democrats are energized, organized, and ready to take back our state for the people. To a great extend, we have Senator Davis and her courageous actions to thank for this; she served as a unifying figure for our party to rally around, and her actions will both strenghthen the party in the long run and serve to expand our base," said Charles Kuffner, Vice Chair of the Alliance.

Previous Texan of the Year recipients are: Carolyn Boyle of Texas Parent PAC (2006); Texas House Democratic Leaders State Reps. Jim Dunnam, Garnet F. Coleman, and Pete Gallego (2007); the Harris County Democratic Party Coordinated Campaign (2008); Houston Mayor Annise Parker (2009); Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns (2010); and the protesters of the Tar Sands Blockade (2012). There was no award given in 2011.

We also had to briefly consider a non-Texan named Cruz, who got somewhat more than 15 minutes' worth of fame out of reading Green Eggs and Ham during a filibuster of his own... but humbly chose to give all the glory to God President Obama instead.

So Ted's the biggest loser.  Again.

Honorable mentions for Texan of the Year have to include Leticia Van de Putte for her own significant role in Davis' filibuster; Sarah Slamen, aka @VictorianPrude, who burst on the national scene just prior to LVDP and Davis doing so; Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood; Annise Parker (as previously mentioned, the TOY winner in 2009); and Beyonce' (yes, Beyonce').

There's a clear trend with these selections, just in case you're not seeing it -- in which case, and to paraphrase Jeff Foxworthy, you might be a Republican.  I saw a great button the other day, and it said: "Women brought every single politician into this world... and they can take them out."

Here comes the future.

Picking your ducks, and picking your battles

There's not too many country-ass expressions I'm unfamiliar with, but recently I had to ask myself WTF does "pick your ducks" mean.  And I found the answer.

Before (Phil) Robertson issued these disgusting immoral words, I knew what 'picking ducks' meant. My Mama had told me a story that illustrated what a nasty task this was.

Chickens, ducks, and other birds have to be picked of their feathers before they are eaten. This is not an easy task. I have picked chickens and that's enough for me. The big feathers you see are the easy part. The real work begins when you remove the pin feathers. They are the tiny new feathers just breaking through the skin. You can torch them with a brûlée torch, use hot wax, or just pull them out with pliers one by one.

Ducks are especially hard to pluck because of the number of pin feathers. Once the larger feathers are removed, the duck is basically covered with down. Those are the pin feathers you have to get rid of. They are endless. The story my Mama told me involved a lot of these elements.

The first thing you need to realize when reading this is that my Grandmama didn't cuss. She wasn't a goody-two-shoes, but cussing was just not in her repertoire. I never heard her cuss and none of the relatives I grew up with had either. That made it all the more remarkable when she did.

One summer, my Mama, her sister, and my Grandmama were on the back stoop of the house picking chickens. Of course they gossiped the entire time and it was not such an unpleasant task. They had finished picking the chickens, and were beginning to clean up the area.

My uncle appeared at this moment and dumped 6 ducks he had killed on the back stoop. The three women just looked at a pile of hours that had been added to their day.

This is when my Grandmama uttered her immortal words. She looked at that pile of ducks for a looooong time. Then she said "I'll be shot with shit and killed for stinking." The other women were now in complete shock after hearing her speak.

So 'picking ducks' was a bad enough task that my Grandmama cussed about it. That's what Robertson meant. Marry the girls young before they realize what a nasty task it is. They'll be more pliable about doing it and a lot of other things.

Since Robertson has added 'pedophile' to his resume' alongside 'racist' and 'homophobe', it's safe to say that this culture war is on for 2014.  So with that, let's all get ready to welcome the Fucked-Up Dynasty crew to Houston this spring.

Stars from the hit A&E reality television show "Duck Dynasty" are coming to the Bayou City in March.

Northland Christian School is bringing the famous family to Houston for a special event called "Dynasty Forever." It will be hosted at Champion Forest Baptist Church.

The main event will feature testimonies from Willie and Alan Robertson. They will be joined by Willie’s wife Korie, their teenagers Sadie and John Luke, and Alan’s wife, Lisa. All six family members will take part in a Q&A session led by event emcee Mark Lanier of the Lanier Law Firm.

The event is scheduled for March 22.

I picked this off of Ray Hill's Facebook feed, and he has some choice words for those who may or may not be planning a protest... that will surely gain momentum now.  Hill also has a piece in the Chron with greater elaboration (link to come).

I hope HPD's equestrian brigade gets plenty of rest before spring break.

Why a 2013 Houston mayoral candidate is running for a West Texas Congressional seat in 2014

After I posted the list of Texas Green Party candidates running for office next year, I had a query from Charles in the comments here -- and saw this post of Ted's -- questioning the rationale of former Houston mayoral candidate Don Cook running for US Representative in CD-13, a west Texas district that includes Lubbock and Amarillo.  I reached out to Cook and received the following reply from him (with minor edits for style and brevity)...

1) The narrow political agenda:  As always, I want to promote the party that is out to save, or at least help maximally, humanity.  What this means to me, from where I am in Texas, is maximizing the GP's electoral presence in Texas.  I intend to mainly help other candidates, but since we have ballot access in Texas I wanted to add one more candidacy to the list.  Seeing that all our stay-on-the-ballot bases were otherwise covered, but fearing (without cause it turns out) that we might actually fall short of our record breaking numbers in the previous cycle of county, state, and federal elections, I was looking for the right office for me.

2) The personal comfort zone:  I found the mayoral race in Houston this year rather exhausting, financially expensive, and humbling -- not to mention the stress on my family life -- for the miniscule (which is to say virtually nonexistent) rewards.  Monetary obligations at this point are not great, but they are still not totally resolved.  I wanted a low maintenance race.  If you are just going to be a name on a ballot, nothing is more low maintenance than a Congressional race.  One doesn't have to live in the district to run; one must only relocate if one wins, so one can file for any Congressional seat in the state.  You don't have to file any campaign finance reports until you raise over $5,000, and I don't plan on raising any money.

3) Why District 13?

a. I won't say 13 is a lucky number for me -- earlier this month, on Friday the 13th, I fell off a treadmill and knocked a cap off one of my front teeth -- but the superstitious part of me seems to expect and enjoy challenge from the number.

b. Wikipedia described CD-13 as the most conservative congressional district in Texas.  It occurred to me that the Dems might not have a candidate, and that maybe I could get a boost from being the only liberal-progressive-radical on the ballot in that race.  Unfortunately there is a Democrat running.  So it goes.  If some other Green had wanted that race, I would have as gladly sought another.

4) Advantages of District 13:

a. No other Greens were running for it

b. It is in a part of Texas where the GP is thin.  Voters in those counties will see one more GP candidate on the ballot than they would have had I not declared.

c. It is too far away for me to consider door-to-door campaigning or expect any debate invitations.

d. I and others are considering comedy and other performance material to promote the GP in the coming year, and this could be a source of material. "Hi, I'm Don Cook and I'm the Green Party candidate for Texas Congressional District 13, in northwest Texas because it turns out you don't have to live in a congressional district to be elected to represent it..."

e. I can make the case that since you don't even have to live in the district you represent when you run for Congress, we should go a step further: eliminating all Congressional districts and, using a single transferable vote in the multi-seat or proportional representation model, allow all the voters across the state to vote for all 36 seats.  (Winners only need 1/36th of the vote plus one vote to win!)

5) If my fellow Greens are appalled by my action, they have only to vote for "None of the above" rather than me at the nominating convention, and I will not get the party nomination.

Many Democrats and Republicans over the years have run for Congress while living outside the boundaries of the district which they chose to seek... though typically they do so in districts closer together than those which represent Houston and Amarillo/Lubbock.  Here's just one recent example (click to enlarge).

The "carpet-bagger" argument against this sort of thing is only slightly less effective in election seasons following redistricting, especially in 2012, when district maps underwent several court challenges and revisions.  The final result so confused Mr. Cargas (above) that he advocated for the Texas Medical Center -- in neither CD-7 where he was running nor CD-2 where he resides, but CD-9 -- in his meeting with the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle, a comedy-of-errors circumstance I detailed in this post.

But I'll stop making a piñata of Cargas for now -- he will present plenty of opportunities to do so later on, after all --  and wait for the inevitable tsk-tsking of Cook's filing from others, mostly in the blogosphere, to apend here later.

I can appreciate the case Cook makes: that it is absurd not to require someone running for Congress to live in the district they seek to represent.  It goes without saying that Cook is an unconventional candidate running for office in a political party that gets mostly overlooked by mainstream media outlets across the state.  If all that is left for him to do in order to call attention to himself is things like bridge blogging and skits, then he seems well-seasoned to endure the ridicule of the conventional "wisdom".

God forbid the corporate media write anything about Green Party candidates or races; the Texas Tribune (yes, corporate media) still hasn't updated their brackets with all of the Greens' statewide candidates.

So anything beyond the historical response -- ignoring alternative parties, races, and candidates, in other words -- probably qualifies as progress.

And Harold Simmons makes three

Leo Linbeck Jr. and Bob Perry were the other two who bit the dust this year, ICYMI.

Dallas billionaire and heavyweight GOP political donor Harold Simmons, who has given tens of millions of dollars to Republican candidates, including Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has died. He was 82.

Simmons managed some contributions to both Planned Parenthood and LGBTQ organizations, but will be best remembered for funding what became known as the Swift Boat attacks, along with Bob Perry and T. Boone Pickens.

Simmons donated $2 million to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whose advertisements against Mr. Kerry, the Democratic candidate for president, included one impugning his military service as a Swift boat captain during the Vietnam War. The allegations were later discredited. Mr. Simmons gave heavily to other groups through the Dallas-based Harold Simmons Foundation, which is run by two of his daughters, Lisa Simmons and Serena Simmons Connelly.

Funny thing about Mr. Simmons' daughters.

It turns out that at least one of Simmons' daughters, Serena Connolly, is a max-out donor to both Senators Clinton and Obama. She wrote her first check to Senator Obama in the 2nd quarter of 2007.

Another Simmons daughter, Lisa Epstein, has donated to Democrats in the past.

So Rick Perry and Greg Abbott and all the rest of the Republican one-percenters sucking at the moneyed teats of these recently-deceased men are going to have their heir-groveling work cut out for them in 2014.  Leo Linbeck III might also be a difficult mark for them; he's cut from a similar bolt of cloth as his dad, but appears to be the Republican equivalent of a disruptor company.  From a two-year-old Mother Jones story about the man and his PAC...

... (T)he Campaign for Primary Accountability isn't your typical super-PAC, and its top donor, Houston construction magnate Leo Linbeck III, isn't your typical conservative sugar daddy. While groups like American Crossroads and Priorities USA have sprouted up in the last two years to boost specific values and candidates, the CFPA has a different goal entirely: electoral mayhem.

Led by Linbeck, the group's aim is to use the power of the purse to do what political parties and state redistricting panels won't—make congressional races competitive again. CFPA, which has raised $1.8 million to date, is targeting at least 10 Republican and Democratic incumbents in half a dozen states, with plans to increase that number over the next few months. And it's starting to work. The group has taken credit for the Super Tuesday defeat of Rep. Jean Schmidt (R-Ohio) and the retirement of another Republican, Dan Burton of Indiana.

Much more worth reading at that link.  If indeed there aren't other conservative billionaires willing to step up to replace these three, then the GOP is in even bigger trouble than previously imagined.

Update: Chris Tomlinson of the AP has more.

2013's final Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance bids farewell to 2013 and wishes everyone a happy and healthy 2014 as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff has stayed on top of the legal action in the Utah same sex marriage litigation and related matters.

Texpatriate picks Annise Parker as its 2013 Person of the Year.

DosCentavos gives us the last Thoughts on Viernes of 2013 which includes his Top 10 posts of 2013.

From the media's impression, it's pretty easy to think that all faith communities are against LGBT people and the struggle for equality. But in reality the religious debates are just as diverse as the ones going on elsewhere, with opinions changing just as rapidly as any other segment of society. Texas Leftist takes a look at one Houston church that is affecting this change while enlightening hearts and minds. As they would say: "traditional worship for contemporary people".

The Texas Education Agency totally ignores South Texas. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is outraged, but not surprised at Republican denial of education opportunities for Texas Hispanics.

There was some gay marriage news made at the end of 2013, and it had nothing to do with Duck Die Nasty, according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at All People Have Value took a walk on the Texas City Dike. Neil says that the TCD is a great place to get some thinking done. All People Have Value is a part of NeilAquino.com.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Laura Mayes sets a goal of spending more quality time with the children in her life.

Lone Star Q rounds up the top Texas LGBT stories for 2013.

Texas Redistricting collects some recent news stories relating to election law.

Grits for Breakfast reminds us that "Santa was in prison, and Jesus got the death penalty".

Greg calculates updated Citizen Voting Age Population (CVAP) totals for Harris County.

Andrea Grimes reports on a Texas law that is forcing a hospital and a family to keep a pregnant woman on life support against her stated wishes.

New Media Texas outlines the six steps to getting a job in politics.

Sunday Funnies

The Gay Marriage Headlines

-- First let's acknowledge that while the conservatives have won Duck Dynasty, the progressives won New Jersey, Rhode Island, Illinois, New Hampshire, Hawaii, New Mexico... and Utah.

I suppose we can live with that record.  So while there are many fronts across the country in the War on Marriage Traditional Family Values Bigotry, let's see what developed in Houston over the past week.

-- Annise Parker busted two moves: she filed to transfer the lawsuit against her decree to provide benefits to same-sex spouses of city employees out of that family court...

City Attorney David Feldman filed a “Notice of Removal” on Friday saying the lawsuit belongs in U.S. district court instead of state court because it raises federal questions, including the guarantees of equal protection and due process under the U.S. Constitution. The notice of removal says (GOP Judge Lisa) Millard, who presides over the 310th State District Family Court, failed to notify Parker and the city before holding a hearing at 5 p.m. on Dec. 17 — the same day the lawsuit was filed — and issuing an order halting the benefits.

... and she asked her partner, Kathy Hubbard, to marry her next month.

The source, who spoke anonymously because of the sensitivity of the matter, said Parker and Hubbard plan to wed in Palm Springs, Calif., in January. "I heard it from her own lips," the source said.

The mayor's wedding plans were reported earlier Friday by the website CultureMap.

Congrats to the happy couple.

-- Texpate notes that city employees have already filed suit over benefits they are paying for that the family court judge blocked.

KPRC reports that a local couple has sued the City of Houston after their full spousal benefits have been revoked. As the astute may recall, last month Mayor Parker announced that all legally married couples (includes those of the same-sex) could provide full spousal benefits from the City if one member of the couple worked for the municipality. Only three couples initially signed up for these benefits, including Noel Freeman (a City employee) and Brad Pritchett. Many will probably remember Freeman, the President of the Houston GLBT Caucus and previous candidate for the City Council, and Pritchett, an official with the Harris County Democratic Party. Shortly thereafter, officials with the Harris County GOP sued the City of Houston in attempt to enjoin the offering of these benefits; they were successful in obtaining a temporary restraining order to this effect until mid-January.

Here's the News2Houston video.



Charles has more on lawsuits and such.

-- The 1993 Houston Oilers, subjects of an NFL documentary and some more recent extended play in the Chronic, had at least two gay players.  Their teammates knew, and it wasn't a big deal.

See, acceptance and tolerance isn't something new and progressive.  It also isn't 'in anybody's face' or 'crammed down their throat'.

Greg Abbott is soooo going to hate it when this becomes an issue in the 2014 governor's race.