Hard times in the land of plenty

-- Baker Hughes increases their oilpatch layoffs to 10,500.  Halliburton cuts 9,000.  Schlumberger slices another 11,000.  The freshly-unemployed will be blaming Obama at some point.

-- Blue Bell is recalling ALL of its ice cream products in the United States, because it cannot pinpoint the origin of the listeria outbreak in its supply chain.

Brenham-based Blue Bell Creameries is pulling all of its products from the shelves after more ice cream samples tested positive for a life-threatening bacterial infection.

The voluntary decision, announced Monday, is the latest and most sweeping development to plague the Texas business icon since a recall last month, the first in the company's 108-year history.

It came after an "enhanced sampling program" that found half-gallon containers of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream produced on March 17 and March 27 contained the Listeria monocytogenes bacteria, company officials said.

[...]

The latest tests mean the company had several positive tests for listeria in different plants.  On Monday, company officials said they "cannot say with certainty" how listeria was introduced into their plants.

This is the sort of disaster that usually devastates a company.  Blue Bell has indeed been a Lone Star staple almost all of my life, but what happens to them from here is likely either bankruptcy or acquisition by another food conglomerate for pennies on the dollar.

Houston and Houstonians are in for a world of hurt in the months ahead.

Scattershooting some worthwhile Houston events

Over the past few days, some of my blog brethren have worked a couple of things that tend toward making a difference.  Their efforts deserve additional mention.

-- I couldn't attend yesterday's luncheon, but Brother Neil was present for California attorney general (and likely successor to Barbara Boxer's seat in the US Senate) Kamala Harris' speech to Annie's List at the Westin Galleria.  He has a few reports about it on his FB page.

Neil is often more hopeful about things than I find myself these days.  A real port in the storm.

-- Last Saturday morning, Stace MC'd the Kingwood Democrats event with several local politicos appearing and raising funds for the club.  Houston mayoral candidates Sylvester Turner and Marty McVey, along with city council challengers Lane Lewis, Durrel Douglas, Laurie Robinson and dozens more all said a few words.  You've got have a lot of faith to be a Democrat in Kingwood, let me tell ya, and those folks have been going strong now for a decade or more.  A few pictures.

-- Over at the Meyerland Democratic Club last night, my friends Art Pronin, CJ Yeoman, Jill Moffitt, and Silvia Gederberg were all re-elected as officers, and their program featured environmental attorney Terry O'Rourke, who -- among many noteworthy accomplishments on his CV -- served the Carter administration, ran for Texas Railroad Commission in 1976, and currently is special counsel to county attorney Vince Ryan on environmental law issues.  (We've had a few, you know.)

Fighting the good fight and keeping the faith is an important function in these challenging times.  My hat's off to all these folks for doing the heavy lifting during the political offseason, and preparing for the campaigns to come.

Even the attorney who won Citizens United at the SCOTUS thinks the system is broken

James Bopp.  The problem is that his ideas for fixing it don't sound much like improvement.

Bopp: You have to have as few rules as possible, and those rules need to be vigorously enforced. If they are not enforced, they are pointless.

Center for Public Integrity: Do you think the number of people trying to game the system has increased in recent years?

Bopp: No, there are always corrupt people, and they will always try to game the system. The more rules there are, the more opportunities they have to do that … This is the reason the Soviet Union collapsed — because of all the rules on the economy that people were flaunting with black markets and bribes and everything [else] to get around all these rules. And, of course, the response by the Communists — just as the response by campaign finance reformers — always is more rules.

Ah, we're Communists now.

Center for Public Integrity: How would the 2016 presidential race be different if candidates could accept unlimited amounts of money or higher amounts of money?

Bopp: They wouldn’t need to set up six or eight different organizations to raise money. They would have one … [Now] your last option is a candidate committee because it is the one that has the most severe contribution limits of all the potential options.

[...]

Center for Public Integrity: What sort of boundaries or lines do those groups have to worry about?

Bopp: Each has their own unique set of rules, and you just have to make sure that you follow those. It’s a very complex dance now ... And it requires very sophisticated legal advice. It advantages the rich and the sophisticated, but all these rules always do. The more rules, the more money it takes, the more sophistication it takes to navigate them.

Center for Public Integrity: Is there a level of anonymous money in the process that would be concerning to you?

Bopp: It’s really pretty hard to get anonymous money effectively into a campaign … I am concerned about the system generally right now because it has been distorted, and it has been rendered so non-transparent and non-accountable.

Center for Public Integrity: What about political spending by so-called “social welfare” nonprofits that are organized under Section 501(c)(4) of the tax code — where it’s unclear where the money is coming from?

Bopp: If it’s a (c)(4), you’ve got to spend half your money on activity that has nothing to do with the election. If your intent is to affect the election, half of the money is wasted. And not very many people are willing to waste half of their money.

Center for Public Integrity: Looking at the current landscape, some regulators have proposed restricting the political activities of certain nonprofits.

Bopp: If the current [vehicles] are attacked so that [their effectiveness and utility] goes down, then other ones will be used … There are organizations that I have already thought of that haven’t yet been utilized very much.

Center for Public Integrity: Like what?

Bopp: You’ve got to pay me for that. But there are several that I’ve already figured out how to utilize if that becomes necessary.

"You've got to pay me for that".

Center for Public Integrity: In your mind, how long until the entire system reaches a tipping point?

Bopp: We have reached the tipping point! It’s utterly unaccountable and non-transparent. And it’s all because the rules have made them so … This is a downward spiral until the whole system collapses, which it is very close to. The effects of contribution limits have so distorted the system that we have almost zero accountability and transparency.

Yeah, we're through the looking glass all right.  Bopp appears to believe that there are still too many laws governing campaign finance reform.

If that's true, then yes, I'm a Communist, and the revolution is coming a lot slower than I would like.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance solemnly honors three anniversaries: the fifth year after BP's offshore well Macondo exploded, which resulted in the nation's worst oil spill disaster; the Oklahoma City federal building bombing -- and its victims -- on its 20th; and the 70th annual acknowledgement of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. 

Here is this week's roundup of the best Texas lefty blog posts from last week.

Off the Kuff celebrated the city of Houston's victory in court against the petition effort to force a referendum on repealing the city's equal rights ordinance.

Libby Shaw, blogging at both at Texas Kaos and Daily Kos, wonders what a progressive Democratic grassroots activist is to do when her party's leaders turn tail and side against their constituents: Les Miserables: Texas Political Donors and Voters Bought Lemons.

Nonsequiteuse suspects it would be safer to go to the grocery store and more crowded on election day if Democrats would put down their guns and move slowly to the left.

Socratic Gadfly combines his being a history buff with being an aficionado of classical music and poetry to note how Lincoln's death has been commemorated in the arts, on the sesquicentennial of his assassination.

There's a new "Dirty Thirty" in Austin, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs pulls back the curtain on the so-called Texas House Democrats who voted with the Republicans to overturn municipal fracking bans. Surprise: it's all about the money, specifically campaign contributions from oil and gas companies.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson: It's always funny when the media tries to figure out why the GOP can't come up with a "fantastic scheme for all that cash", when cutting is all you know.

Neil at All People Have Value wrote about the $2000 ticket a San Antonio chef was given for feeding the homeless in violation of a law prohibiting the feeding of the homeless. These laws are evil. Houston has such a law. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Texas Leftist noted (a few weeks back, but who's counting) on the recent designation of Interstate 69, renumbering the former US 59 through Houston and Harris County, and the economic impact expected.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme was extremely disappointed to hear Leticia Van de Putte used a fundamental Republican talking point to blow off non-discrimination ordinances. I want my money back from her lieutenant governor's race.

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

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

HOUEquality has more on the judge's verdict that the anti-HERO contingent failed to collect enough signature to force a ballot referendum, and Bluedaze has more on the oil money greasing the palms of the members of the Texas Lege, reflected in the HB 40 vote which overturned fracking bans in Texas cities.

Paradise in Hell marvels at the hatefulness of Steven Hotze.

Scott Braddock chides the Legislature for its inaction on the problem of misclassifying employees.

Texas Watch issues a call to action against a bill that would weaken insurance policyholder protections.

Texas Clean Air Matters is on the lookout for the legislators who are seeking to gut local control.

Better Texas Blog explains how the Aycock school finance bill would increase inequity among the highest and lowest wealth districts.

The Rag Blog has an account of a visit to an immigrant family detention center in Karnes City.

Liprap's Lament declares that her Texmudgeonly attitude is melting a little after a tour inside the Astrodome with her son.

Fascist Dyke Motors, blogging from a downtown train, almost had to use Kim's watermelon gun on a man who accosted her.

Isiah Carey reports on the customer appreciation party a Houston bail bondsman threw for his customers and supporters.  Something about that is just hilarious.

Today's edition of the Destructive Influence of Money in Politics

Yesterday I took down the the spineless, two-faced Democrats in the Texas Lege who couldn't say no to the Fossil Fuel Mafia and their money.  We know that even as oil and gas companies lay off thousands in the midst of the most severe market correction in decades, and try to break the labor unions at their refineries, the CEOs get multi-million dollar raises.  This perverted way of "doing business" is all just another day at the office, and not exclusive to Houston's greasy, ivory downtown towers.  Here's a few more of the latest examples of the in-your-face corruption rampant among the oligarchy (I prefer to call it fascism, but that's just me).

-- Teddy Schleifer, the best the Houston Chronicle had at local political coverage (no disrespect intended to Mike Morris), has been snapped up by CNN Politics.  Their gain is our loss.  Best to Teddy, and don't be a stranger, dude.  Jeremy Desel, another local news standout, gives in and crosses over to do PR for NRG.  In the vein of diminished and corporately compromised political coverage, we're left with the TexTrib (a bad joke, I know).  But they did do us the service of providing this latest Texas presidential political consultant scorecard.  So kudos to Abby Livingston and Annie Daniel for that.

-- "Hacked Sony Emails Show Major Democrat-Turned-Lobbyist Urging Support for Republicans".  The co-author of Dodd-Frank, the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act --  legislation that is being gutted even as this is written by Dodd's successors -- reveals his true self.

As head of the movie industry lobbying group Motion Picture Association of America, Chris Dodd—a former Democratic senator and self-styled champion for working families—urged film executives to give financial support to Republican campaigns for election to Congress.

“[W]hile loyalty to a person and/or party is admirable,” Dodd wrote in an email that was among those hacked from Sony, “we also need to be smarter about being supportive of those who are and will be in positions to make decisions that affect this industry.”

What's that whine I keep hearing from Democrats about their being different from Republicans?  More from The Intercept.

Dodd chose not to run for reelection to his Senate seat in 2010, after revelations that he had received a special discount mortgage from Countrywide’s “VIP program.” During his time in Congress, Dodd was a senior member of the Banking Committee, a position that oversaw mortgage lenders.

As he retired, he told the public he would not become a lobbyist — though he soon signed up for the job as the movie industry’s top lobbyist, a gig compensated at over $3.2 million a year.

Dodd’s call for Democratic-leaning movie industry titans to give money to Republicans reveals a simple truth in American politics: Though pundits regularly complain about a bitter partisan divide, those with power and money can simply buy support from both parties. Indeed, the tech industry and much of the movie industry have come together on many major issues concerning intellectual property and privacy, from trade agreements to new cyber surveillance legislation — with strong bipartisan support in Congress.

To think that I once seriously considered supporting Dodd for president in 2008 makes me ill.

-- Alan Grayson on Democracy Now! regarding the dude who flew his gyrocopter to the DC Capitol carrying a message.

AMY GOODMAN: Congressman Grayson, I assume you heard the story of the gyrocopter that landed on the White House lawn [Capitol lawn]. This mailman named Doug Hughes, basically a flying bicycle, landed on the lawn. He expected to be blown out of the air. But he said he was doing this for campaign finance reform. He had a letter to every member of Congress. I want to ask you, how much does the money that is going to your fellow Democrats and Republicans determine their support for TPP?

REP. ALAN GRAYSON: That’s right. I’m the only member of the House of Representatives who raised most of his campaign funds in the last election from small contributions of less than $200. Thousands of people came to our website, CongressmanWithGuts.com, and made contributions. I am one—one—out of 435. On the other side of the building, over at the U.S. Senate, there’s only one member of the U.S. Senate who raised most of his campaign from some small contributions. That’s Bernie Sanders, who you heard earlier in this broadcast. That tells you something. In fact, to a large degree, in both parties, because of the absence of campaign finance reform, the place is bought and paid for. And the only question is: Do the members stay bought? That’s what the corporate lobbyists stay up late at night wondering about: Is that member going to stay bought?

Now, I was actually in the courtroom when this disastrous Citizens United decision was decided five years ago. Mitch McConnell was two seats to my left. We were the only public officials who were in the courtroom. Mitch McConnell was the happiest I have ever seen him that day. He was literally chortling when the decision was rendered. And I said on MSNBC that night five years ago that if we do nothing, you can kiss this country goodbye. Well, pucker up, because right now the millionaires and the billionaires and the multinational corporations are calling the shots with whatever they want in TPP, whatever they want in fast track—more generally, whatever they want. They get the bailouts. They get the tax breaks. They get the so-called deregulation. They get what they want here because they get what they pay for.

--  An excerpt from the letters Doug Hughes was carrying.

The various mechanisms which funnel money to candidates and congress-persons are complex. It happens before they are elected, while they are in office and after they leave Congress. Fortunately, a solution to corruption is not complicated. All the proposals are built around either reform legislation or a Constitutional Amendment. Actually, we need both — a constitutional amendment and legislation.

There will be discussion about the structure and details of reform. As I see it, campaign finance reform is the cornerstone of building an honest Congress. Erect a wall of separation between our elected officials and big money. This you must do — or your replacement will do. A corporation is not 'people' and no individual should be allowed to spend hundreds of millions to 'influence' an election. That much money is a megaphone which drowns out the voices of 'We the People.' Next, a retired member of Congress has a lifelong obligation to avoid the appearance of impropriety. That almost half the retired members of Congress work as lobbyists and make millions of dollars per year smells like bribery, however legal. It must end. Pass real campaign finance reform and prohibit even the appearance of payola after retirement and you will be part of a Congress I can respect.

The states have the power to pass a Constitutional Amendment without Congress — and we will. You in Congress will likely embrace the change just to survive, because liberals and conservatives won’t settle for less than democracy.

Read the entire letter.  He wrote one for each member of Congress.

I don't think it's anything to get yourself killed over -- or even kill yourself over -- but it's apparent to me that the day is coming when it might have to be.  If our leaders keep failing us.

Peaceful revolution or something less so.  It's up to them.

Sunday Funnies

There are but 17 actual Democrats remaining in the Texas House

Almost all of the rest have sold themselves out to the oil and gas companies.

Worth repeating: if you get confused and angry when non-voters say, "Democrats and Republicans are all the same," then you just aren't paying close enough attention, especially to the Texas Legislature.

(HB 40, the bill to overturn local control of fracking) passed on a 122-18 bipartisan vote. Thirty of the 52 Democrats in the House voted for HB 40. The only Republican to vote against the bill was Rep. Tam (sic) Parker (R-Flower Mound), whose suburban district has struggled with intense fracking activity.

The "Dirty Thirty" Texas Democrats who voted for this bill include the following:

Alma Allen
Carol Alvarado
Garnet Coleman
Yvonne Davis
Joe Deshotel
Dawnna Dukes
Harold Dutton
Jessica Farrar
Helen Giddings
Robert Guerra
Ryan Guillen
Ana Hernandez (Luna)
Tracy King
Oscar Longoria
Eddie Lucio III
Armando Martinez
Ruth Jones McLendon
Borris Miles
Sergio Munoz, Jr.
"Poncho" Nevarez
Rene Oliveira
Joe Pickett
Richard Raymond
Ron Reynolds
Toni Rose
Senfronia Thompson
Sylvester Turner
Hubert Vo
Armando Walle
Gene Wu

Roberto Alonzo (absent) attached a signing statement saying he would have been a 'no'.  Dukes and Farrar, listed above as voting 'yes', also added statements saying that they "intended to vote no", whatever that means.  Other Democrats not present and not voting included Abel Herrero and Marisa Marquez.  Ramon Romero was wandering off somewhere; his signing statement says he would have voted yes.

Let's commend the lonely 17 Democrats remaining in the lower chamber that oppose state overrule of localities' efforts to keep the frackers from poisoning them: Rafael Anchia, Diego Bernal, Cesar Blanco, Terry Canales, Nicole Collier, Joe Farias, Mary E. Gonzalez, Roland Gutierrez, Donna Howard, Celia Israel, Eric Johnson, Trey Martinez Fisher, Joe Moody, Elliot Naishtat, Eddie Rodriguez, Justin Rodriguez, and Chris Turner.  And of course the one Republican who has had the scales fall from his eyes: Tan Parker.

Feel free to verify me against this list, which is where you can also find individual contact information by clicking on your representative's name.  If you would like to register your disapproval with them, or something.

Notably disgraceful was Houston mayoral front-runner Sylvester Turner.

During the debate, Turner said he would vote against HB 40 if it wasn’t amended to include a guarantee that cities could write ordinances protecting city-owned land. However, he was among a number of Democrats who complained about the legislation but ended up voting for it.

“I was surprised,” said Rep. Rafael Anchia (D-Dallas), who voted against the bill, of how lopsided the vote was. Anchia’s district includes some of the few proposed gas wells in the city of Dallas.

Turner said the bill’s passage was all but assured.

“We all came in knowing there was enough power behind the bill to get it passed,” he said. “This train has left the station. I gave it everything I could, I recognized what the end result was going to be, so I put myself in a position to be able to continue working with the authors as this bill moves forward.”

When push comes to shove and the fracking campaign contributions are at risk, witness the roll-over, as evidenced by all of the Houston and South Texas (Eagle Ford shale) Ds who tumbled, collapsed, and surrendered.  A line was drawn in the sand at the Alamo, and they chose not to cross it.

So they all need to be primaryed, and they all need Green party challengers in the general, just for grins if this reason isn't good enough.  Because nothing is ever going to change in this state until there is some semblance of opposition to the corporate powers that be.

Update: A fairly remarkable response to this on Facebook.

Oliver Pennington leaves Houston mayoral race

That's a scramble for those on the right.  Speaking of right, Mark Jones gets it for once.

The 75-year-old retired attorney's exit removes the candidate best positioned to secure conservative votes, said Rice University political scientist Mark Jones. That could have a significant impact on a crowded race in which any candidate with a reliable base has a shot at earning one of two spots in the December runoff election that will surely follow November's initial vote.

The news is an obvious boon to Councilman Steve Costello and former Kemah mayor Bill King, Jones said, two centrist-to-conservative candidates who were set to spar with Pennington for the same supporters.

"There simply was not enough room for them to all three run and have a real chance of entering the runoff," Jones said. "Pennington had at least a potential path to the second round. But it would have been a very uphill battle to actually win a runoff because the characteristics that made him one of the more viable Republican candidates also made him less viable against a Democratic foe in a runoff."

That's it, except for the Bill King part IMHO. Unless potholes are already the Tea Party mantra, then I have him underestimated.  But it's the HERO development, also yesterday, that is the conservative mantle waiting to be picked up and used as a cudgel.

Opponents of Houston's non-discrimination ordinance failed to gather enough valid signatures to force a repeal referendum, a state district judge ruled Friday, validating city officials' decision to toss out the petition foes submitted last summer.

After separate rulings from both a jury and state District Judge Robert Schaffer, attorneys for both sides entered dueling counts of the valid signatures, adding and subtracting voters as Schaffer responded to motions. By early this week, the counts were closer together than ever before, fewer than 1,000 signatures apart.

Ultimately, Schaffer on Friday ruled the final count of valid signatures was 16,684, leaving opponents short of the threshold required in the city charter of 17,249 signatures, or 10 percent of the ballots cast in the last mayoral election.

"The jury's verdict and the judge's ruling are a powerful smack-down against the forces of discrimination and intolerance," said Geoffrey Harrison, lead attorney for the city, in a statement. "And maybe, just maybe, they'll reconsider their misguided ways."

Don't count on that.  Somehow "Not free to pee in safety" seems a more motivational war cry than "fix the potholes".  So we'll see how things go as Costello and King bid for the Steven Hotze/Dave Wilson caucus; maybe Pennington at some later point endorses one or the other to move the needle.  He's giving us a clue at the end of that top link.

"As long as two-thirds of our general fund budget is tied up by firemen and policemen's salaries and pensions, and when the main activity going on in addition to that, which is ReBuild Houston, is not delivering what it could deliver, I think there are improvements to be made," Pennington said, referencing the city's ambitious street and drainage repair program. 

ReBuild Houston is Costello's deal, aka (in conservative circles) as the 'rain tax'.  So that's slamming Costello a little bit.  And since all this news broke on a night when one of our seasonal toad-strangling rainstorms flooded several parts of the city, it seems like a topic we'll also be hearing more of.

The conservative rationalizations being employed in voting for Hillary Clinton

Just posting these without comment.

-- "I'm afraid I'll lose my Obamacare."

James Webb, a 51-year-old YouTube celebrity who devotes his “Hot Lead” channel to topics like his love of guns and ranting about gay men kissing on The Walking Dead, may have shocked his viewers on Monday when he revealed that he was torn over which party to vote for in the 2016 election.

“And I’m serious because I asked myself, ‘Which party has helped me out the most in the last, I don’t know, 15 years, 20?’ And it was the Democrat [SIC] Party,” Webb lamented. “If it wasn’t for Obama and that Obamacare, I would still be working.”

“With Obamacare, I got to retire at age 50 because if it wasn’t for Obamacare, I would have had to work until I was 65 and get on Medicare because health insurance is expensive when you’ve got medical problems,” he continued.

Webb said that he hoped to lose some weight and get in shape by taking advantage of a gym membership that was covered by his health insurance.

“But you know, the Republican Party, they haven’t done nothing for me, man. Nothing,” he remarked. “So, I’m leaning toward voting for Hillary unless something major comes up. I don’t trust the Republicans anymore because they’re wanting to repeal the Obamacare. And I don’t want them to do that, man, because then I’ll have to go to work again. My life’s already planned out.”

“Just a tough decision,” Webb sighed. “I voted for Republicans for 32 years, I’m a charter member of my Tea Party Patriots chapter. I’m also a veteran of the U.S. Army under Reagan, when Reagan was in. That was great when Reagan was in there.”

“Things have changed. So unless the Republicans change with it, I’m probably going to have to swing my vote over toward Hillary.”

You think he's joking?  Watch the video at the link.

-- Because she's a badass.

Of the original band of Clinton hunters, only (Larry) Nichols kept up the ruse, doing interviews with fringe right-wing radio hosts, even boasting in 2013 that he had been Bill's personal hit man, which he now says he didn't mean and wouldn't have said if he hadn't been on painkillers.

But something strange has come over him. After six years of watching Barack Hussein Obama cower in the face of Islamists, Nichols believes the family he spent two decades tarring as cold-blooded crooks might just be the only people who can save the country. "I'm not saying I like Hillary, you hear me?" he said, defensively. "I am not saying I like Hillary Rodham Clinton. I'm not saying anything I've said I take back. But God help me, I'm going to have to stand up and tell conservative patriots we have no choice but to give Hillary her shot."

"I know she won't flinch," he continued. "That's a mean sonofabitch woman that can be laying over four people and say"—he paraphrased her now-infamous response to hostile congressional questioning on the deaths of four Americans in Libya—"'What the hell difference did it make?'" He was against Clinton because of Whitewater. Now he's voting for her because of Benghazi.

I got nothing.

Hospital entrance to the right

I did, after all, make big fun of Ted Cruz's gang-style-teardrop icon.  So turnabout is fair.

Along with her campaign announcement on Sunday, Clinton showed off her new logo—a big blue H with a red arrow striking through it, pointing to the right. Of course, the Internet freaked out and issued a torrent of snark-laden reactions to the design.

Critics commented on everything from the direction the arrow is pointing to other logos it reminds them of (cough, FedEx, cough) and of course made some other super-tangential-oddball associations.

I agree with the 'hospital entrance sign' comparison.  On the other hand...

And...

Anybody seen Rubio's or Rand's actual logos?  Oh yeah, here they are.  Paul stole his from Tinder, and Rubio obviously let one of his younger children draw his in order to save on expenses.

My God, this is going to be a lot of fun.

Judge Al Bennett and Durrel Douglas

-- Congratulations on your confirmation as a federal judge.

After months of delay, a unanimous U.S. Senate on Monday confirmed Alfred Bennett to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas, cracking open slightly a national logjam of judicial nominations and a backlog of cases.

[...]

Bennett’s is the first judicial nomination to clear the Senate since Republicans took over in January. The delays mounted under Democratic control as well, even after Senate rules were changed to ease confirmation of presidential nominations to the lower courts and executive offices.

[...]

Of the Lone Star state’s 11 federal judicial vacancies, nine are in district courts and two on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviews cases from Texas.

That is one-fifth of 55 total current vacancies nationwide, according to Glenn Sugameli, who tracks judicial appointments for Judging the Environment, a Defenders of Wildlife project. Meanwhile, the nation faces a record backlog of more than 330,000 civil cases.

Yeah, the Fifth Circuit.  A real nest of conservative snakes.  But I digress.

Bennett, for his part, will replace U.S. District Judge Kenneth Hoyt, who went on senior (semi-retired) status in March, 2013, more than two years ago.

Bennett has served as the presiding judge for the 61st Civil District Court of Texas.

In this week's game of "Can You Top This?" I posted the article above to Facebook, then Stace picked it up and added a picture of him with the judge, and this morning Charles bragged about working with Bennett's cousin.  I can top that.

In 2006, when Bennett and Rep. Borris Miles both challenged then-Rep. Al Edwards to represent Texas House District 146, I went to Miles' office and offered my support early on.  But Bennett approached me before the primary (he ultimately finished third) to ask if there was anything he could do to earn my support.  I said to him: "Please run for something else in 2008, so that I can give you my support."  He did, I did, and the rest as they say is history.  After defeating the Republican incumbent in 2008 for the 61st state district court, Bennett was elected administrative judge by unanimous vote (the same as his Senate confirmation approval) over Harris County's 24 civil district courts in 2009.

“I’m the first African-American to hold this position, and I’m the first Democrat to hold it in years, and I’m the youngest tenured judge to hold it,” (Bennett said).

As I have been perplexed many times over the course of the years by Miles' personal conduct as state representative, I have often wondered what might have happened if history had taken a different course, and Bennett was serving in the Texas House instead of on the state (and now federal) bench.

All things considered, I have to say that I'm glad Al Bennett was not elected to represent me in the Texas Lege nearly ten years ago; it is HD146's loss that he wasn't.  But it certainly was not Judge Bennett's.

Bennett isn't just an exemplary jurist, though; he is an exemplary person.  He is a Scoutmaster for his sons in what spare time he has, and as an Eagle Scout I know that experience imparts a wisdom and maturity to young men that can't really be matched by anything in this day and age.

It's just another example of who the man is.  Congrats again, Judge Bennett.  Well-earned and well-deserved.

-- Durrel Douglas, one of Houston's rapidly ascending community activists, declared for Houston City Council, At Large 5 and kicked off his campaign this past Sunday.

He was a blogger (for awhile), has served Working America, TOP, and the League of Women Voters; he co-founded Houston Justice, and is destined for even bigger things.



Philippe Nassif, a fine candidate in his own right, is going to have to move on to yet another slot so that the two men don't split Democratic voters in the general election and send Jack Christie back to Council.  Christie is a conservative jackass who never should have defeated Jolanda Jones in the first place.  I blame, among others, Bill White for that.

Judge Al Bennett and Durrel Douglas will be effecting great changes for Houston and Texas in short order.  Both men's talents are much needed in their respective areas of expertise.

Scattershooting Clinton and Rubio and Christie and Carson

-- Nailed it.

What could we expect from a Hillary presidency? My guess is that it would be Wall Street–friendly, militarized and secretive — though seasoned with mostly empty rhetoric about uplift, community and inclusion. It would do little to address polarization and rot. In fact it would be a perfect embodiment of polarization and rot. There will be strenuous efforts over the next year and a half to argue otherwise, but they will convince no one but loyalists.

-- No Plan B (as in back to the Senate) for Marco.

The newly minted GOP presidential candidate made clear in Fox News and NPR interviews that he’ll leave the Senate when his term ends in January 2017, and not reserve his options to run for re-election in Florida if his White House bid doesn’t work out.

“I don’t have a Plan B to pivot back to the Senate race. I intend to be the nominee,” Rubio said Monday night on Fox News, shortly after declaring his candidacy. “And that’s why I think it’s important for us to have a strong candidate in Florida who’s out there working now. If I went around talking about how I would pivot back to the Senate race if things didn’t work out, our best candidates may not run.”

He's in for the same reason Ted Cruz is: to be the vice-presidential nominee of his party in 2016, and/or another crack at the title in 2020.  I'll take even-money odds on a Rubio-Castro VP debate in October of next year.  Two actually; one in English and one in Spanish.

-- No, Chris Christie is not bold.  He's incredibly arrogant, exceptionally devious, highly obnoxious, and still morbidly obese two years after having his stomach banded.  He remains the nation's most at-risk-of-mortal-cardiac-event politician, bar none.

-- Dr. Ben Carson will (allegedly) announce his campaign for president in his hometown of Detroit next month.  No one really knows why he is running, especially now that Wayne LaPierre of the NRA inadvertently shot down Carson's only plausible rationale.

“Eight years of one demographically symbolic president is enough.”

Cruz and Rubio also thank you for your endorsement, Wayne.