Scattershooting the unblogged after a very busy week

(More post-debate Trump developments below.)

-- Thanks to Kuff for plugging the petition to the NFL's powers that be to relocate the 2017 Super Bowl if HERO can't clear the bar in November.  World class cities aren't run by bigots and homophobes.  And when an offensive lineman clips a linebacker, or a defensive back commits pass interference, the whole team gets penalized, not just the infractor.  Sign it and share it.  It's already making waves.

The effort to recruit Beyonce' Knowles to the cause also continues to gain momentum.

-- The Green Party of the United States (GPUS) will hold its 2016 presidential nominating convention in Houston next August.  This is kind of a big deal.  Jill Stein, the most recent and also presumptive nominee (though she has competition) has visited Houston twice previously, in 2012 and earlier this year.  Both times she had a full itinerary and full houses at scheduled stops, and raised a lot of money (okay, a little money, but a lot by GP standards).  And both Stein and Bernie Sanders are clearly aware of the value of going into the lion's den of the South to break the stranglehold of the conservative populists.  And it also helps people lose their fear of the S-word.



-- Donald Trump spent most of yesterday feuding on Twitter and teevee with debate moderator Megyn Kelly, conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer, and RedState proprietor Erick Erickson, whose annual convention of the freakiest of the freak right wing is taking place this weekend.

GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump said Friday he can't recall using words such as "dog," ''fat" and "disgusting" to insult women he believes have slighted him, but such language litters his Twitter feed and other public comments he's made for years.

The issue took center stage at the first Republican debate of the 2016 campaign for president, when Fox News moderator Megyn Kelly asked Trump about his use of such language and whether it reflected the "temperament of a man we should elect as president."

Trump largely dismissed Kelly's question at the debate, but on Friday he went directly after her.

Before dawn, he had retweeted a post calling Kelly a "bimbo." The post was later deleted, but on Friday evening Trump called Kelly a "lightweight."

"She's not very tough and not very sharp," Trump said during a phone interview on CNN. "I don't respect her as a journalist."

Referring to Kelly's questions during the debate, Trump said, "There was blood coming out of her eyes, blood coming out of her wherever."

Citing that remark, conservative commentator Erick Erickson said he was withdrawing his invitation for Trump to appear at his RedState Gathering in Atlanta on Saturday. "I just don't want someone on stage who gets a hostile question from a lady and his first inclination is to imply it was hormonal," Erickson wrote on the RedState website Friday night. "It just was wrong."

Erickson knows misogyny; he's the guy who coined the term "Abortion Barbie".  Update: Trump "clarifies" that he meant her nose, and calls everyone who thought he was referring to another part of her anatomy "deviants".

Trump's campaign responded: "This is just another example of weakness through being politically correct. For all of the people who were looking forward to Mr. Trump coming, we will miss you. Blame Erick Erickson, your weak and pathetic leader."

Besides what's obvious about these tirades of his, the fact remains that he can say them and Tweet them and pay no political price for doing so, unlike any other Republican running for president.  What Erickson is trying to do by shutting him out is to assert some control over Trump, a contest of wills that I wouldn't bet on just yet.  Reince Priebus is a eunuch at this point; the GOP establishment is Erickson now.  Even Rush Limbaugh is on Trump's side.  If the insiders don't do something now to slow his roll, the attacks just might make him stronger, and more difficult to defeat later.

This is what civil war looks like.

Make no mistake; The Donald is uniquely qualified to tear the Republican Party down to the bedrock under its foundation.  No matter whether he emerges as its nominee or runs as a third party independent, the GOP is already cooked for 2016 as it relates to the presidency.

And this may be the long-awaited earthquake fault line along which the Republicans crack in two.  It's the same fissure I'm trying to drive a wedge in with my HERO/Super Bowl petition.  Moderate, pro-business Republicans who are socially tolerant are continually being cleaved away from the radical Tea Party extremists.  Look at what's happening in the Texas Legislature for more clues to the future.

Except for Trump, there just wasn't all that much stupid and crazy going on last Thursday night.  Most of the ten-member varsity debaters looked weak, with Marco Rubio a notable exception (and the same for Carly Fiorina during the Happy Hour).  If the GOP nominated those two -- or to use another formidable example, John Kasich and Condoleeza Rice -- then Hillary Clinton and Julian Castro might be in real electoral trouble.

Don't worry; neither of those is happening.  And even if they did, Donald Trump as an indy would swamp their kayaks.

Update: More on the Trumpenstein Monster from No More Mister Nice and Oliver Willis.

KHOU on the HERO petition to relocate the Super Bowl

Some unnamed blogger started it, you know.

 

Boosters of big sporting events in Houston are nervous about the fight over the equal rights ordinance.

Opponents of the ordinance have succeeded in putting the issue on the November ballot. Now, some HERO supporters are calling upon the NFL to move the 2017 Super Bowl out of Houston if the ordinance is repealed. The online petition was launched by a blogger and it has dozens of signatures.

"Well, I think if Houston is ever perceived as an intolerant, bigoted place, it will greatly diminish our opportunities to bring sporting events to town," admitted Sports Authority Chairman J. Kent Friedman.

Houston's Super Bowl Committee had no comment.

Scared haters got something new to be scared of and hate.

The NFL reportedly considered moving a Super Bowl out of Arizona over legislation that would've offered legal protections to businesses that discriminated against gays. That never happened, because the governor vetoed the bill.

HERO opponents say it'll never happen here either.

"That's simply a red herring. That's simply what they tried to do in Indiana and Arkansas and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act," said ordinance opponent Jared Woodfill. "It basically shows that they are going to do anything and everything they can to skew the issue."

"I think it's a real threat," said KHOU 11 Political Analyst Bob Stein. "Now, how it plays with the voters is very interesting. It could conceivably become one in which voters have a backlash against it, see it as a -- how can I say this? -- a threat."

Houston voters will go to the polls in a little less than three months, but it's already game on for the equal rights ordinance.

Sign the petition, and if you already have, then share it.  Let's keep the momentum going.  Because when Houston's worst conservatives reveal they're worried, it means everybody else is winning.

Nobody wins GOP food fight

Trump met high expectations for bombast and blather, Rubio and Kasich got good marks for steady demeanors and answers, the rest failed to stand out (even Paul and Christie's nasty exchange wasn't all that).  Bush underwhelmed.

The Donald chokes on his own saliva.

What's wrong with this picture below, besides the obvious fact that there is only one demographic represented (as always at GOP debates)?  Like an NBAer who hits a clutch three, they're all looking for Godot after that "Jesus" question.

There were a lot of "I caught a fish once, and it was THIS big', Jesus-on-the-cross poses.

And they ran long, so everybody switched over to Jon Stewart's "Daily Show" finale.

Some photos from the JV Happy Hour kid's table debate

Courtesy NYT live-blog.  Click on 'em for bigger views.

Yes, that's the live audience, about 30 minutes in.

From both the Twitter feed and the Times' coverage, it seems that Carly Fiorina did herself the most good.  The rest, not so much.  George Will is currently spinning it out for Fox viewers as it just concluded, so I changed the channel.  The main event begins in about 2.5 hours.