The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is glad that the Republican Party of Texas has made the choices clear for November, 2014  as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff wants to know who stands with Harris County Republican Party Chair Jared Woodfill as he whips up opposition to the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.

Letters from Texas pens a moving obituary to Annie's List Executive Director Grace Garcia, who was tragically killed in an automobile accident last week.

Bay Area Houston highlights the Texas Tea Party platform concerning divorce.

Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos, upon returning from an overseas vacation, is not in the least surprised to learn the Texas GOP has gotten even crazier. Desperate times must call for desperate measures. Texas GOP: Welcome to the Funny Farm. The time for change is long overdue.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees Texas Republicans go full on hate for gays and Latinos. We see who you really are.

Appalled by the attacks on POW Bowe Bergdahl's father, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs barely noticed there was a Republican state convention going on. Has anyone asked Chris Busby about the "cure the gays" platform plank?

WCNews at Eye on Williamson demonstrates that with any tax discussion in Texas, as usual the main issue is not being discussed: Hegar And The "Cumbersome" Property Tax.

Neil at All People Have Value posted a history of the United States on his blog. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com.

Horwitz at Texpatriate is frightened by the new Texas GOP platform.

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

The Inanity of Sanity talks back to the Texas Tribune about their first installment of "TribTalk".

Socratic Gadfly asks: if Greg Abbott is such a big fan of public education, why is he so opposed to paying for it?

Grits for Breakfast responds to a Baker Institute op-ed on the timeline for marijuana legalization in Texas.

Fascist Dyke Motors has part one of a multi-post on her experience at City Hall as the Houston equal rights ordinance vote finally went down.

Texas Election Law Blog connects the woes of the Postal Service to the ever increasing barriers to voting in Texas.

Keep Austin Wonky wants to focus on transit productivity over political prizes.

Texas Vox analyzes the impact of the new EPA regulations on Texas.

Red Headed Wolf salutes the leaders that worked to get the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance passed.

Burkablog catches the Texas Public Policy Foundation quietly backing away from a shameless lie they made about the budget last year.

Offcite eulogizes Father Rivers Patout, founding chaplain of the Houston International Seafarer’s Center.

Beyond Bones concludes its retrospective on the Allied invasion of Normandy.

Sunday Funnies

Bergdahl's father appears to have been a lifelong Republican

As said before, there may not be a bigger disgrace to suffer by those conservatives that have called this man and his son every nasty name in the book.

In June 2010, Robert Bergdahl, the father of released American POW Bowe Bergdahl, gave a speech at an Idaho Republican Party fundraiser. In one of his first public appearances during his son's five-year captivity, he asked the conservative audience to show compassion for his son's captors—and, in a twist that foretold the plot of Homeland—he alleged that the United States had killed one of those captor's children with a drone strike.

In the past week, Bowe Bergdahl’s case has grown into a full-blown political firestorm. The 2010 speech was not televised, but it was one of the first sparks. It was Robert Bergdahl's first turn as either a tool or technician of national politics in his family's struggle.

The Idaho fundraiser was an election year event, and the day's other speakers—Idaho Senator Jim Risch, then-national-party-chairman Michael Steele, radio host Dennis Prager, and a belligerent stand-up comic named Eric Golub—took the usual shots at President Obama and rallied partisans to donate money to November's cause. (I covered the event as a reporter for AOL News.)

"There are many things that can hurt America," Senator Risch said. "Al Qaeda, Iran, North Korea, the Taliban—they can all hurt us. But they can't destroy us. This [Obama] Administration can destroy us."

I expect the criticisms of Bergdahl's father to quickly go mute.  You'll be able to measure the silencing of the fauxtrage by how soon (or late) they get the news.

"I grew up in a conservative family in Los Angeles," he said with a smile. "My father was for Goldwater. He wore a Nixon button in our liberal Jewish neighborhood. I was the lone U.C. Santa Barbara surfer who voted for Ronald Reagan." Many in the audience nodded in approval, and then Bergdahl talked about the work of retrieving his son.

Keep reading if you want a profound lesson in the nuances of war, supporting the troops, and all that.

The only thing I have left to wonder about is if this episode is enough humiliation for conservatives to simply STFU.  And the saddest part is that I doubt that it is.

A Triple Crown at last?

Heart says yes, head says no.  The guru, Steve Beyer, from DRF.com.

Over the past three decades, as the public has cheered for horses to win the Belmont Stakes and complete a sweep of the Triple Crown, some racing purists have been reluctant to lend their voices to the chorus.

Those of us who remember the last three colts to accomplish the feat – Secretariat (1973), Seattle Slew (1977), and Affirmed (1978) – know that they were giants in the greatest era of Thoroughbred racing in America. It would have been almost sacrilegious to put the names of runners such as Charismatic, Real Quiet, War Emblem, and Funny Cide on a short list along with the sport’s immortals.

But as California Chrome tries to become the first horse since Affirmed to sweep the Kentucky Derby, Preakness, and Belmont, the old worries about blemishing the list of Triple Crown winners hardly seem relevant. After 11 horses since 1979 have lost bids for the Triple Crown in the Belmont Stakes, any horse who accomplishes the sweep will deserve praise and respect – and a place in history.

If this happens Saturday, it couldn’t happen at a better time. The sport has been beset with so many problems that it needs a positive story. What better story could there be than one with a rags-to-riches hero like the ill-bred California Chrome?

The colt has generated excitement, superlatives, and high expectations, and it is hard for many fans to assess his Triple Crown bid dispassionately. But handicappers should not be swayed by sentiment. They are supposed to look at horses and races with cold-eyed objectivity. And an objective analysis would conclude that California Chrome is not the standout that the public thinks he is.

He's not.  In fact this crop of three-year-olds may be the weakest in all of horse racing's long history in terms of speed.  Chrome has still been good enough to beat all comers, but today's finale is longer by a furlong than the Derby.  And in both Derby and Preakness, he was losing ground to a hard-charging second place finisher.  Ominous.

...California Chrome’s edge is almost certain to shrink – or disappear – at the longer distance of the Belmont. California Chrome was tiring at the end of the 1 1/4-mile Derby and was hard-pressed to maintain his margin over Ride On Curlin in the Preakness. It is hard to imagine that he will be as good at 1 1/2 miles.

The four principal challengers Saturday all appear better suited to the distance than the favorite.

Those four are Commanding Curve (who came out of nowhere and blew up everybody's exacta picks in the Derby), Ride on Curlin (third and closing in Kentucky, second and closing in Maryland), Wicked Strong, and Tonalist.

History suggests that California Chrome will face another disadvantage besides the Belmont’s distance. Not only is winning the Triple Crown difficult, but merely running in all three races is tough for modern-day horses. In the last 12 years, only a single horse has won the Belmont after competing in both the Derby and the Preakness. During that period, six horses ran in the Derby, skipped the Preakness, and won the Belmont. The extra rest is clearly an important edge.

Wicked Strong has that extra rest, plus solid credentials. He was considered California Chrome’s main rival in the Derby, but he couldn’t overcome the outside post in the field of 19. Hung wide at the first turn, he never got into striking position and found himself in heavy traffic throughout the stretch run. Even so, he lost by less than six lengths. The Belmont figures to be very different race.

My Belmont Stakes picks: 1. Wicked Strong. 2. Tonalist. 3. Commanding Curve.

I think that order of finish is as crazy as a Texas Republican convention delegate, but we'll see.

I would be happy to be wrong. But in view of the difficulty of the Belmont’s distance, the possibility that he won’t have another easy trip as he did in his prior races, and the relative freshness of his challengers, California Chrome has too many obstacles to overcome. If he does surmount them, the sport will rightly hail a worthy champion.

Truly.  I cannot discount the favorite, so he'll be in my exotic mix.  I'll throw on the three Beyer likes above, and try to work in General A-Rod, who'll be going off at a long price and will pop if he hits the board.

A day at the races is better than any day at the office, win or lose.