Davis presses on education while Abbott hides from media

"Talk by conservative scholar (sic) Murray draws ire at Rice":

A talk at Rice University by libertarian political scientist Charles Murray, whose controversial views have been called racist, drew ire from student organizations Monday, while administrators urged people to gather and protest.

"I really want to pack the auditorium with people who can discredit this white nationalist lunatic," Catherine Clack, associate dean for student life and director of multicultural affairs, wrote in an email to numerous people in the Rice community obtained by the Houston Chronicle.

Much more -- all of it bad for Greg Abbott -- if you can get over the paywall.

Abbott failed to appear at his own press conference yesterday afternoon, probably because of the exploding scandal around his association with Murray.  As with Ted Nugent's remarks, Abbott is forced into running away from the media again (is that insensitive? Should I have typed 'rolling away'?).  Meanwhile Wendy Davis drew a crowd of a couple of hundred for her speech on her education proposal, and a couple of thousand at last night's rally, both here in Houston.

She's right, (the conservatives in) Texas don't seem to have a clue about what's coming.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance welcomes President Obama to Texas -- for commemorations that are both happy and sad -- as it brings you this week's roundup of the best lefty blog posts from last week.

Off the Kuff analyzes precinct data in Harris County from the Democratic and Republican primary elections.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos learns Greg Abbott has not only invited creeps to advise his campaign, but he has also brought a Tom DeLay-minted crook on board.

Too many Texans who need health insurance are intentionally being kept from getting it. WCNews at Eye on Williamson wants to make sure everyone knows that if you don't have health care in Texas, blame Rick Perry and the Texas GOP.

The social policies of Charles Murray, whom the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a white nationalist, serve as inspiration for Greg Abbott's education reform proposal. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs is shocked and awed that Abbott is making so many critical mistakes in his gubernatorial campaign.

Texas Democrats haven't claimed a statewide elected office in 20 years, but after a rousing bus tour Texas Leftist is convinced that pharmacist, state senator extraordinaire, and lieutenant governor candidate Leticia Van de Putte has the prescription to change that.

Neil at All People Have Value offers the view that courtesy and a sense of self-worth without a feeling of superiority is a form of resistance in our society. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

Kingwood Area Democrat Karen Menke wrote a timely op-ed in the Kingwood Observer about women's rights, reprinted at EgbertoWillies.com.

Texpatriate releases an April Fool's day issue of The Houston New Post.

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

Texas Redistricting charts the components of population change in twelve Texas counties.

Scott Braddock reports that some legislators are concerned that schools will not have the funds to implement some mandated reforms.

Jason Stanford explains how Texas women can win on equal pay.

Juanita Jean can't help but see the face of Tom DeLay in today's Congress.

Dutch Small celebrated at the wedding reception of Houston Mayor Annise Parker and her wife Kathy Hubbard.

Christopher Hooks tries to pierce the conservative persecution complex that surrounds Republican SD-02 candidate Bob Hall.

M1EK has a simple suggestion for where to locate a rail line.

Sunday Funnies

News that's not breaking

Between the Supreme Court's decision on McCutcheon and the shootings at Ford Hood, a lot of other important developments got drowned out this week.   If you want to read something about those two things, there's plenty elsewhere; you can click away now.  We'll catch up on some lesser news here today.

-- The new CEO of Mozilla was forced out by public protests over his support of the anti-gay marriage initiative in California.  This is another example of the rapid evolution of tolerance in American society, and the haste with which it has happened.  This, and the same evolution of attitudes about marijuana legalization -- not just decriminalization, mind you -- are among the very few things that give me great hope about progressivism in this country.

-- Nate Silver seems to be hearing the critics of his hire of a climate change skeptic for FiveThirtyEight.  But his response is also tepid; he's going to air "both sides" of the issue.  He's already apologizing for the man, and that apology does not include the flawed data that underlie the opinions the man was employed to write.

Silver has growing problems with his "data-driven" analysis model of news outside of polling data.  This summarizes the dilemma.

It's not that Nate revealed himself to be a climate change denier; he accepts that human-caused climate change is real, and that it represents a challenge and potential threat. But he falls victim to a fallacy that has become all too common among those who view the issue through the prism of economics rather than science. Nate conflates problems of prediction in the realm of human behavior -- where there are no fundamental governing 'laws' and any "predictions" are potentially laden with subjective and untestable assumptions -- with problems such as climate change, which are governed by laws of physics, like the greenhouse effect, that are true whether or not you choose to believe them.

In short... Nate Silver has never been so wrong about so much.  An extremely rare, unforced error on his part.  Stick to the polls, Nate.  Or them and baseball.

-- I wonder what new whine the conservatives will be drinking now that Obamacare has served over seven million?  I mean besides "the numbers are skewed".

(Go back to last Sunday's Funnies for the above to have the greatest meaning.)

If Democrats all across the nation do not run on the success of Obamacare -- and the failure of certain states and their governors not to expand Medicaid -- then the chances to overcome their historical disadvantages in midterm elections will be reduced to nil.

This is the issue all Democrats should proudly own.  This is the issue they can win on.