It's not published yet, and I don't have much time to discuss it now, but Andre Pineda forwarded me a recent poll in CD28 that shows Ciro Rodriguez closing the gap on Henry Cuellar from 45-30 in October to 39-34 today, with Victor Morales getting 8%. I can only surmise that Bush-hugging has been hazardous to Cuellar's fortunes. The poll summary indicates that the more voters learn about Cuellar, the less they like him. No shock there.
As I'm about to skip town for a week, I haven't the time to delve into this. I expect the numbers will be published elsewhere soon, so look out for it. And go Ciro!
UPDATE: Here's the poll info (PDF), which I finally had the time to upload,
Republican Kirk England of Grand Prairie won a special election Tuesday to replace state Rep. Ray Allen.England received 2,788 votes, or 53 percent, to 2,438, or 46 percent, for Democrat Katy Hubener in final, unofficial returns. Libertarian Gene Freeman had 48 votes.
That's pretty close to the split from Hubener's 2004 loss to then-incumbent Ray Allen. That's still three or four points less than the overall GOP index there, which may mean Hubener's peaked, or (since Allen had fairly well-publicized ethical issues before that election, which could easily explain his relatively poor performance) it may mean this district is now trending blue, something which was not evident from previous elections. Or maybe the tiny turnout doesn't give us enough data to draw a conclusion. Hubener will take a third shot at this in November, so we'll know more then. More from BOR here, and a statement from the Texas Democratic Party is here.
UPDATE: PinkDome brings the funny.
Greg calls this story about the GOP primary for Harris County Treasurer "the race for the most meaningless countywide office". He's certainly right about that, and I agree that the story does a decent job of conveying how meaningless the Treasurer's job is, but it doesn't go quite far enough. Here's what I mean: Go do an archive search on Chron.com for the name "Jack Cato" and the period 2004-05. Want to guess how many hits I got? Four: One for Orlando Sanchez's announcement that he wants this do-nothing job, one for Cato's participation in a charity auction, one on the fall of Dan Rather that quotes Cato the former TV news guy, and one about the need for a photographer in a JP court. Two years, four stories, not one of which has anything to do with the official function of the County Treasurer. Do a similar search for "Paul Bettencourt" or "Beverly Kaufman" and you'll see the difference.
So, the only thing you really need to know about this particular race is that there is exactly one candidate who is campaigning to do what needs to be done to the office of Harris County Treasurer, and that's abolish it. That person is Richard Garcia, the Democratic candidate, who is running unopposed for his party's nomination. If you fancy yourself a believer in smaller government, here's a unique opportunity to act on that belief. Your choice this November couldn't be clearer. Richard Garcia's your man.
Granted that sensitivity to nuance has not been a hallmark of the Lieberman campaign thus far, someone at his campaign website really should have thought to ask Mr. Amann (the CT House Speaker) for a different quote.
Perhaps they were too busy working out the cutting edge (sorry, up-to-date) red, white and blue stars and stripes design.
Screenshot in the extended entry
Looks like Tom DeLay is confident of his chances in the CD22 primary.
With one week before the Republican primary in the 22nd Congressional District, the four candidates are setting strategies for how to make the most of the home stretch.As incumbent Rep. Tom DeLay's staff targets past voters and confirms that they will support him on March 7, the Sugar Land Republican is confident that he has laid the groundwork to spur his supporters to the polls.
Indeed, he will be in Washington on Wednesday, Thursday and maybe part of Friday to attend hearings and vote on the House floor.
Meanwhile, challenger Tom Campbell, a lawyer, may spend time between constituent events parking his mobile campaign RV at a local Wal-Mart to meet a few more folks. Candidate Mike Fjetland, also a lawyer, plans to meet voters today at Bob's Taco Station in Rosenberg and at a pancake supper at his church, Richmond's Calvary Episcopal.
Former schoolteacher Pat Baig's schedule was too fluid to offer details on specific events, spokesman Glen Risley said.
With all due respect, Pat, that sounds a lot like there's not much of anything particular on your schedule. You have my sympathies.
The four candidates are competing for the votes of the less than 10 percent of registered voters who typically vote in Texas primaries.
Not so sure about 10 percent being "typical" here. Yes, in 2004, when he ran unopposed in the GOP primary, DeLay got 15,000 votes, compared to 150,000 in the general. But in 2002 and 2000, when he faced Fjetland, the percentages were higher. There were 28,000 votes cast in the 2002 primary, and 100,000 for DeLay in the general. In 2000, 50,000 votes were cast in the primary, while DeLay got 154,000 in the general. If those patterns hold, I'd expect 25,000 to 35,000 votes cast, assuming non-Presidential-year turnout and GOP support for the general.
As for DeLay's optimism, you may recall the recent survey that Tom Campbell was touting that showed him with a nine-point lead, in which I expressed some skepticism. I've since spoken to Dan Kent of OneNet, who took the poll in question. He said he did it on his own, not on behalf of any campaign, and he said he only phoned people who had voted in either the 2002 or 2004 GOP primary or both. He generously provided me with the phone script (Word doc) and full poll data (Excel spreadsheet), which you can see for yourself. It took me a minute to figure out that Question 2 is referring to the electability of Tom Campbell, and that the corresponding values for Question 3 are how many of each of those people voted for or intend to vote for Campbell. Basically, everybody who gave a 1 or 2 for Campbell's electability (scale of 1 to 5, 1 = most electable, 5 = least electable) voted for him. Make of all that what you will. My thanks to Dan Kent for providing the data.
The much-maligned bonus ball of the Texas Lottery is officially kaput.
Starting in late April, players will choose six numbers between 1 and 54 rather than five numbers between 1 and 44 and one bonus ball from 1 to 44. That will return the odds of winning the jackpot to 1 in 25.8 million, down from 1 in 47.8 million with the bonus ball.Already sluggish sales fell even more after the bonus ball was added, lottery staff said. So far this fiscal year, a higher percentage of ticket sales have gone to the twice-daily Pick 3 game than to Lotto Texas, which once was by far the state's highest-selling online game, commission chairman C. Thomas Clowe said.
"I think the handwriting's on the wall," Clowe said. "We've got to do what we can."
Clowe blamed several factors for the decline in sales, from the growing popularity of Internet gambling to the prevalence of casinos in nearby states. Players also are increasingly drawn to the huge jackpots offered by Mega Millions and Powerball, he said, and are less likely to play for smaller prizes.
In an effort to build big jackpots more quickly — and therefore sell more tickets — the commission will devote a higher percentage of sales to the top prize and pay less to winners matching three, four or five numbers than it did in the old game involving 54 numbers. For example, players matching three of six numbers will win $3 rather than $5.
Lottery watchdog Dawn Nettles opposed the changes adopted Monday, saying that style of play already failed to draw customers and would fail again. She said players aren't as concerned about high jackpots as Clowe maintained, but they won't play for pocket change.
"The people are going to boycott this game, and I'm going to see to it that they do," said Nettles, who also opposes the concept of guaranteed prizes, saying players should instead win a set percentage of sales.
Nettles of course also opposed the bonus ball, which led me to wonder when I first read this if she's ever happy. Her objections are more clearly articulated in this Star-Telegram story.
Nettles said that the players who submitted comments to her made clear that even though they might despise the bonus ball; they do not necessarily endorse all aspects of the plan to replace it.She said that under the original configuration, 5.07 percent of every dollar taken in ticket sales went to the prize pool for second-place winners. That meant all of the players who hit five of six numbers shared equally in that prize pool and the payoff was often more than $2,500.
Under the proposed new rule, Nettles added, 2.23 percent of ticket sales would be earmarked for the second-place winners. Therefore, if ticket sales were sufficient to pay $2,500 to the five-of-six winners under the old rule, there would be only enough money to pay about $1,900 under the proposed rule.
The prize amounts for those who match four of six would be cut by about half. Matching three numbers under the old method guaranteed a player $5; that would be cut to $3 under the latest proposal.
Seems reasonable enough. You're much more likely to hit a lower-end prize in this lifetime, so it may as well be worth something.
The two-man commission discussed the issue for more than four hours, debating a variety of proposals, including the lottery's original form when players chose six numbers from 1 to 50. While that setup would return more money to players, the commissioners said that would happen at the expense of the Foundation School Fund, where revenues from lottery games go."We can't make everybody happy, but the thing I think the commissioners have to protect is that fiduciary responsibility to the state," Clowe said. "That's part of the integrity that we have signed on to discharge."
Too bad about not reverting to the old-style pick-six-of-fifty game. Though I still think that the Lottery is a dead man walking and no slick advertising blitz can change that, I also agree with the first commenter here that there was goodwill to be mined from going back to the original game. Alas.
UPDATE: I drafted this last night when the AP story was on the Chron site. Today they have their own story, which has more detail.
You can give it whatever fancy name you want. I know damage control when I see it.
An investigation into payroll padding at City Hall intensified Monday, as Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado spoke for two hours with Houston police soon after hiring a new communications firm and prominent defense lawyer Rusty Hardin."She came out from that very pleased with the conversation," said her new spokesman, Joe Householder, of the Austin-based firm Public Strategies Inc.
He did not provide details of the interview at the Houston Police Office of Inspector General's office on Riesner, except to say that it wasn't adversarial.
He said Alvarado believes the investigation could lead to improved procedures for preventing the possible payroll abuses that have led to suspension of four employees in the Office of Mayor Pro Tem. "She views this investigation as a first step on the road to reform," Householder said.
The interview occurred hours after Householder confirmed that Alvarado, who represents City Council District I, had hired Hardin. Lawyers from his firm attended the police interview with the councilwoman.
Alvarado hasn't been implicated in the probe into $143,000 in what city officials say were improper bonuses collected by Office of Mayor Pro Tem employees. No one has been charged with crimes.
Hardin and his associates were retained to provide guidance to Alvarado during the ongoing criminal investigation and any future involvement by Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal, Householder said.
It gives me no joy to blog this stuff. I like Carol Alvarado. I don't want to see her disappear from the public stage. It's important to realize that she herself did nothing wrong. Her sin was of omission. How big the price she pays for that will depend in large part on how much the wrongdoers got away with while she wasn't looking closely enough. Getting to the end of the daily drip of stories and having it all go to the DA's office where the news will slow down considerably will help her recover. I'm sure she can't wait.
With the primary election one week from today, I asked both Democratic candidates in CD07 to send me a statement about why you should vote for them. The following is Jim Henley's statement.
Democrats have a great opportunity this November! The race for Congressional District 7 comes down to who can wage the stronger campaign against John Culberson. It is sometimes difficult for voters to assess the strength of candidates prior to the voting. Some important indicators are:(1) I live in district 7.
(2) We have a broad based volunteer pool who live in the district.
(3) Please check the FEC filings for January and compare the number and amount of donations to both candidates.
(4) Issues: I have called for a complete withdrawal of our troops from Iraq by December, 2006. This is a national security issue for our country and a moral issue for a candidate for Congress.
It is true that District 7 leans Republican, but voters are looking for character, not the shadow of Culberson. I have refused special interest money, and folks have rallied to our campaign and opened up their checkbooks. Voters are looking for someone who is the opposite of Culberson to inspire them to give and work and take back their government!
Culberson, DeLay, Perry, Hutchinson,and Wong will be defeated this November by Democrats who offer the voters a clear choice. I ask the voters of District 7 for their vote and their support.
Jim Henley
Thank you, Jim Henley. Please see the previous entry for David Murff's statement.
With the primary election one week from today, I asked both Democratic candidates in CD07 to send me a statement about why you should vote for them. The following is David Murff's statement.
I am a practicing attorney here in Houston, operating my own law practice, and have many ties with the local business community, having served as Chairman of the Board to a local securities brokerage firm. I am the third generation in my family to have served in the military, and at last count, one of ten family members who have sworn to uphold and protect the United States Constitution by serving in our armed forces. I have a beautiful family, including my wife Lindsey and our three children, ages 7, 2 ½ and 9 months, and they are among the many reasons why I seek office today.Our Nation is destroying itself from within and must look to new leadership in 2006. We are failing our children in our approach to education and we are failing ourselves by continuing to permit this Administration and GOP led Congress to support initiatives that fly in the face of reason and defy logic. Our Nation must return to its roots as pioneers and reclaim our lost traditions of innovation and vision. And, we must have leadership willing to pursue issues such as: universal health care; strong public education; energy independence; and sound tax policies.
As a veteran, I am also a proud member of the Band of Brothers. We are 52 veterans running as Democrats, seeking a place within the 110th Congress. While there is more to consider, in chosing a congressional candidate, than one's service to his or her country, consider that as your congressman, I will not be a freshman representative forced to get along and play along. Upon taking our place in Washington, we "Band of Brothers" will form one of the most powerful caucuses in Washington, and WE WILL command the respect of our colleagues.
I appreciate the following groups and individuals for their support and endorsement: Houston GLBT Political Caucus, Houston Black American Democrats, former congressional candidate - Richard Morrison, former HCC Trustee - Herman Litt, former city council candidate - Mark Lee, Dr. William Brinkley - Dean Baylor College of Medicine; Dr. Joseph Bak - former local chairman "Physicians for a National Health Program", Debby Kerner, Marvin Rich, The Honorable Joe Jaworski - Galveston Mayor Pro Tem and City Council Member.
As a member of the "Band of Brothers", I have received commitments and support from the following individuals: Senator John Kerry, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Patty Murray, Representative Lane Evans, Representative John Salazar, former Senator Tom Daschle, former Senator Max Cleland, General Wesley Clark, USA (Ret), General Joseph Hoar, USMC (Ret), Vice Admiral Lee Gunn, USN (Ret), Lt. General Claudia Kennedy, USA (Ret), Brig. General Stephen A. Cheney, USMC (Ret), and Colonel Richard L. Klass, USAF (Ret).
Your voice will be heard and we will rebuild our Nation, one issue at a time.
David Murff
Democratic Candidate
U.S. House of Representatives, Texas CD7
Thank you, David Murff. Please see the next entry for Jim Henley's statement.
Today is the day of the HD106 special election. Donna Howard's victory in the previous special got everyone's attention. A win today by Katy Hubener would demonstrate that it was no outlier. If you're in HD106, make sure you vote. The Hubener campaign will have its vote-counting party at UAW Hall, 2218 East Main Street, Grand Prairie, beginning at 7 PM. I'll be packing for a trip out of town tonight, but I'll try to keep an eye on this result as well.
Meanwhile, early voting is up in Bexar County from 2004.
By the end of Friday, the fourth day of early voting, 5,161 people in Bexar County had cast ballots in the Democratic primary. That marks a 28 percent increase in turnout over the same period in the 2004 primary.Early voting started Tuesday and runs through Friday.
This week, the pace could pick up even more.
"The final week of early voting is always the heaviest, and the hotter the race, the heavier the turnout in the last few days," said Christian Anderson of Election Support Services.
It's the SD19 race between Carlos Uresti and Frank Madla that's the main driver of turnout, but as the article notes Ciro Rodriguez should also benefit. Link via Kos, who also quotes from a commenter who called the Webb County Election Administrator's Office and reports that "Laredo was lagging a bit from the last cycle at this point in early voting." It's the end total that matters, of course, but this is a positive sign.
Finally, you can see Uresti's latest ad here. And though it doesn't affect either of these races, turnout is good so far in Hidalgo and Cameron Counties.
UPDATE: See this BOR post for more on Hubener and results when they come in later.
And speaking of the Hall of Fame...
Effa Manley became the first woman elected to the baseball Hall of Fame when the former Newark Eagles executive was among 17 people from the Negro Leagues and pre-Negro Leagues chosen Monday by a special committee."This is a historic day at the Hall of Fame," shrine president Dale Petroskey said. "I hoped that someday there would be a woman in the Hall. It's a pretty proud moment."
[...]
Manley co-owned the New Jersey-based Eagles with her husband, Abe, and ran the business end of the team for more than a decade. The Eagles won the Negro Leagues World Series in 1946 -- one year before Jackie Robinson broke the major-league color barrier.
"She was very knowledgeable, a very handsome woman," said Hall of Famer Monte Irvin, who played for the Eagles while the Manleys owned the team, as did Don Newcombe and Larry Doby.
"She did a lot for the Newark community. She was just a well-rounded, influential person," Irvin said. "She tried to organize the owners to build their own parks and have a balanced schedule and to really improve the lot of the Negro League players."
Manley was white but married a black man and passed as a black woman, said Larry Lester, a baseball author and member of the voting committee.
"She campaigned to get as much money as possible for these ballplayers, and rightfully so," Lester said.
Manley used baseball to advance civil rights causes with events such as an Anti-Lynching Day at the ballpark. She died in 1981 at age 84.
"She was a pioneer in so many ways, in terms of integrating the team with the community," said Leslie Heaphy, a Kent State professor on the committee. "She's also one of the owners who pushed very hard to get recognition for Major League Baseball when they started to sign some of their players."
Buck O'Neil and Minnie Minoso, the only living members among the 39 candidates on the ballot, were not elected by the 12-person panel.
[...]
The election was the culmination of a Hall of Fame project to compile a complete history of blacks in the game from 1860 to 1960.
More than 50 historians, authors and researchers spent four years sifting through box scores in 128 newspapers of sanctioned league games from 1920-54. The result was the most complete collection of Negro Leagues statistics ever compiled, according to the Hall, and a database that includes 3,000 day-by-day records and career leaders.
"What we're proudest of is the broadening of knowledge," Petroskey said. "When we started five years ago, we had 20 percent of the stats. We've got 90 percent of the stats now."
Very cool, both Effa Manley's induction and the overall project itself. It's too bad that neither O'Neil nor Minoso, surely the two best-known non-enshrined Negro Leaguers at this point, didn't make it, but if that's how the committee saw it, then so be it. Link via David Pinto.
This Sunday article on longtime Astro Craig Biggio briefly discusses his likelihood of getting into the Hall of Fame.
Biggio someday will hang up his elbow pads and mucky helmet, but don't rush him. He's still in great shape, he's still productive, and there's still the lure of 3,000 hits.Most of all, he still has the desire.
He's come a long way
Who could have guessed that the fresh-faced Long Island kid that who replaced Alan Ashby at catcher 18 years ago would put together a Hall of Fame-caliber career? Biggio has made the NL All-Star team seven times, won four Gold Gloves and broken a whopping number of countless records.
He has continued to adapt with age. He went from the physical demands of catcher to second base to the outfield and back to second. He added a leg kick to his batting stance and later took it away.
And at 40, he's still going strong. This will be Biggio's 19th season with the Astros, an impressive unprecedented run in an era of treachery constant player movement and free agency. But this season probably won't be his last.
[...]
While Jeff Bagwell, who joins Biggio atop virtually all the club's offensive charts, could see his career end at any moment, Biggio chugs away. He hit .264 last season with a 26 homers (a career high) and 69 RBIs, strengthening his Hall of Fame case.
I think Biggio's case for the Hall can be summed up as follows: He's 43rd all time in career base hits. Every single currently eligible player ahead of him on that list is in the Hall. The others are Pete Rose, Cal Ripken, Rickey Henderson, Harold Baines, and Rafael Palmeiro, whose case for the Hall hinges more on how pissy the writers will be over his Senate testimony. He's also 24th all time in career runs scored, and again, he trails only Famers plus Henderson, Rose, and Barry Bonds. If he gets 3000 hits, he's a mortal lock. He's pretty damn close to it without that number on his resume.
I'll wait to see what Jay Jaffe has to say about Biggio's statheads case before I make any statements about how he ought to fare in the voting, but I expect Bidge's case there to be pretty solid, too. He played a lot of games in the Astrodome, so his overall numbers are really better than they look. I wouldn't worry too much about it.
Lair has more, while Plunk Biggio notes that a part of him is already enshrined.
By the way, the print story noted that Bidge is second on the Astros' all-time stolen base list with 407 thefts. This should be an easy question for longtime fans, but who's number one? Answer below the fold.
Cesar Cedeno had 487 steals as an Astro. The complete list is here.
Just go read this story about how one of Tom DeLay's friends got Texas Congressman Sam Johnson to instigate a complaint against Texans for Public Justice with the IRS for its role in exposing DeLay's financial shenanigans. As Josh Marshall puts it:
DeLay fundraising lawyer is worried that TPJ might end up deep-sixing the boss. DeLay fundraising lawyer contacts DeLay-lackey congressman and asks him to sic the IRS on TPJ. DeLay-lackey congressman does as he's told. And so does the IRS. TPJ gets put the wringer for uncovering information about DeLay's crimes.
TPJ was fully cleared in the matter, with no evidence of any wrongdoing on their part coming to light. You kind of have to admire the sheer shamelessness of it all.
The Harris County DA has offered a plea to Andrea Yates, but the offer was rejected.
Prosecutors have offered Andrea Pia Yates a plea agreement in which she would get a 35-year prison sentence if she pleaded guilty to murder in the drownings of her children, an assistant Harris County district attorney told a judge today.Prosecutor Joe Owmby told state District Judge Belinda Hill that the offer to let Yates plead guilty to the lesser charge will remain open until 10 days before her second capital murder trial.
Yates, who called Houston police to her Clear Lake-area home in June 2001 and told them she had drowned her five children in the bathtub, is scheduled to stand trial on March 20. She could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.
Her attorney, George Parnham, told the judge "I have considered that recommendation laboriously," but added that he has rejected the offer thus far.
Given that Yates is not eligible for the death penalty (since the initial jury rejected it), this wasn't much of a deal for her. Not that I expect Parnham to accept anything less than a guarantee of placement in a real mental facility instead of incarceration, but still. Rulings on the other motions are expected today, so stay tuned.
UPDATE: As I thought, Judge Belinda Hill has ruled in favor of the prosecution on the question of whether or not Park Dietz's erroneous testimony constituted double jeopardy for Yates.
Her decision could affect whether Yates' second capital murder trial in the drownings of her children will be held as scheduled on March 20.Yates' defense team, headed by George Parnham, had alleged that prosecutors used false testimony to obtain her conviction for the deaths of three of her five children.
Prosecutors countered that the testimony by forensic psychiatrist Park Dietz was simply a mistake and that they did not try to hide it.
No ruling yet on whether it was frivolous or not. If the latter, Parnham can appeal, which would delay the start of the trial for months.
Today's Chron has a couple of stories on primary elections that (unlike their pathetic effort from last week) are actually worth reading. First is this piece on the Ciro Rodriguez - Henry Cuellar rematch. Most of it is familiar to those who have followed this closely, but it's a decent overview (if more than a little slanted in Cuellar's favor, if you ask me) and it does have a good quote from Larry Sabato:
The contest also may signal Bush's strength in a part of his home state where he got 53 percent of the vote against Democrat John Kerry in 2004. Bush is an element because on Jan. 31, before he gave his State of the Union speech, he was seen embracing Cuellar.Cuellar, who says he would never switch parties, was standing with Republicans in the House chamber.
Democratic activists used the Internet, with a photo of the two men, to raise money for cash-starved Rodriguez and started calling Cuellar Bush's chulo, Spanish for cutie.
The Rodriguez campaign said it got a much-needed boost from the photograph.
"It's anger towards Bush," said Larry J. Sabato, head of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics. "It's a Texas district, and you would think the anger would be less there, but it's still substantial."
We'll know soon enough how substantial it is. Meanwhile, in an echo from 2004, Rodriguez is complaining about voting irregularities in Webb County. Let's just hope this one isn't close enough to be affected by a recount.
Story Two from the Chron is on the Leininger Five and the big issue of the cycle, education.
"If Republicans are vulnerable, it is on education. Collectively, they have not been able to give us anything more than gridlock on this issue," said Greg Thielemann, a political science professor at the University of Texas at Dallas.Political consultants and observers say this is an unusual primary election cycle because of the large amounts of money being raised, as well as the attention focused by the Legislature's failure to lower property taxes and boost school funding during last year's regular session and two failed special sessions.
[...]
Voter dissatisfaction about school finance has allowed a new political action committee to become a player in several campaigns. The Texas Parent PAC was formed last year by supporters of public schools to raise money, recruit candidates and influence legislative races.
As of Jan. 26, the PAC had raised $62,000 to support 10 candidates. Though the money comes nowhere near matching what most incumbents are raising, the group also is helping organize local volunteers and is providing campaign advice.
Brian Mayes, a Dallas campaign consultant working with Texas Parent PAC, said his polling shows the group's message is resonating with voters. "They are taking an issue that is at the top of voters' minds and making sure they remember who failed," Mayes said.
Incumbents facing Parent PAC candidates are counting on the fact GOP primary voters usually are more conservative than the public at large. They also hope voters will be patient about their inability to agree on how to pay for the state's $30 billion a year school system, historically the toughest problem for lawmakers to solve.
[...]
At a news conference in Austin last week, Perry said he didn't put much stock in groups that bill certain candidates as being pro-schools.
"I would bet that there's not a member of the Republican Party or the Democrat Party that is running on the platform of, 'Elect me and I won't support our children in public education,' " Perry said.
I just love that quote from Governor Perry. Of course no candidate opposes public education - well, other than Debbie "Pit of Hell" Riddle. No candidate favors crime or opposes job creation, either. What matters is "What have you done?" and "What will you do?", two questions that people like Rep. Kent Gruesendorf and Perry himself can't answer easily. People can see what's right before their eyes.
The media-shy Leininger defended his campaign activity in a guest column Friday in the Austin American-Statesman.Leininger said he has helped thousands of poor students in San Antonio's Edgewood school district attend private schools, and would like to see others around the state have the same opportunities.
"My resolve is firm and my political activities unambiguous: those who support helping the neediest children escape failing schools will receive my support, and I will vigorously oppose those who don't," he wrote.
Here's that editorial Leininger wrote. I want to call your attention to one thing:
Almost 15 years ago, I read about a private scholarship program helping kids out of bad schools in bad neighborhoods in Indianapolis. I thought, "That's the answer!" That summer we offered 1,000 scholarships to low-income children in San Antonio. The first week we saw more than 6,000 applications from desperate parents.
Which means that 5000 desperate parents were sent away empty-handed. That's the difference between public and private schools. Public schools take all comers, while privates can pick and choose who they want to educate. As long as private schools can turn away any kid for any reason, vouchers are and will be a sham solution.
Just so we're all clear what Texans think the top priority is:
Asked to cite the state's most important priority, 47 percent of respondents said it was public education.Sixteen percent said cutting property taxes should be the top concern of the Legislature and the state.
[...]
Mr. Perry dismissed the numbers, saying, "I don't pay a lot of attention to special-interest polls. We make our decisions based on what is in the best interest of the schoolchildren of Texas."
We know, Governor, we know. There's lots of things you don't pay attention to. Here's another:
A statewide poll conducted by The Dallas Morning News shows that 52 percent of Texans said they would pay more in state taxes if the money went to schools, while 39 percent opposed an increase."It's interesting that Texas, which has always said no more taxes, no more taxes, no more taxes, is willing to say OK to this," pollster Mickey Blum said. "But you find this all over the country, that the one issue that will open up the pocketbooks — and we all hate taxes — it is education."
Blum & Weprin Associates Inc. of New York conducted the poll, which surveyed 1,482 registered voters by telephone Feb. 9-15. It has an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points. The newspaper released the poll Tuesday.
Of Republicans, 46 percent said they would not be willing to pay more taxes for schools and 44 percent said they would. They were the only voter group unwilling to pay more.
I'm just saying.
Getting back to Leininger and his fembots for a minute, this is the sort of candidate that Leininger is trying to install in Austin:
Macias said the issue most important to him is limiting state spending and cutting taxes."As I walk door to door and talk to people, the tax burden seems to weigh most on people," he said. "As a conservative Republican we are for limited government, less regulation, less burden on the citizenry."
While he stressed the need to cut "wasteful spending," Macias could not identify any areas he would advocate cutting.
"I need to get in there and really take a look at it," he said. "Do an across-the-board, up-and-down review and look for ways to relieve some of the burden."
That's Nathan Macias, running against Rep. Carter Casteel in New Braunfels. Way to be informed on the issues, Nathan! BOR has more, as well as a different response to Leininger by Rep. Tommy Merritt.
This is getting a bit long, but I do want to note some other decent primary-related coverage, from the DMN: This nice piece on Barbara Radnofsky, and this piece on veterans/Congressional candidates David Harris and Van Taylor. Though Harris and Taylor are the only two who saw service in Iraq, it should be noted that a total of nine Democratic Congressional candidates from Texas can claim military experience. That to me is a story that deserves a little more digging.
Finally, the Chron has finally seen fit to start making endorsements in Democratic primaries, with recommendations for Chris Bell, Ben Grant, and Barbara Radnofsky. The bad news is that they apparently will be skipping at least one local State Rep race. Why they would do this, I have no idea.
Don Knotts, known for many roles from Barney Fife to Ralph Furley and much more, passed away over the weekend at the age of 81.
Knotts first rose to prominence in the late 1950s, joining Louis Nye and other comedy players on "The Steve Allen Show." In 1961, United Artists Records released a comedy album entitled "Don Knotts: An Evening with Me," which featured various takeoffs on the "nervous man" routine the comic had made famous on Allen's show. One of the bits, "The Weatherman," concerned a TV forecaster forced to wing it after the meteorology report fails to make it to the studio by air time.During the mid to late 1960s, in a largely unsuccessful bid for major film stardom, Knotts made a series of family films that many connoisseurs now say were critically underappreciated at the time. These include "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" (1964), "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" (1966) and "The Reluctant Astronaut" (1967). The latter two were made as part of a five-picture deal with Universal Pictures.
"Limpet," the tale of a meek man who is transformed into a fish, has particularly won recent acclaim. Its early mix of live action and animation was a forerunner of such later films as "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?" and "Space Jam."
At one point, Jim Carrey was said to be considering starring in a "Limpet" remake, although the project has yet to materialize. Once, when Knotts visited the set of "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," Carrey paid tribute. "I went to him, and I was just like, 'Thank you so much for "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken,"' Carrey later told an interviewer. " 'I watched it a hundred times when I was a kid.' "
Martin Short has likewise hailed Knotts as a major influence, and at least one of Short's recurring characters, shifty-eyed lawyer Nathan Thurm, owes a debt to Knotts' "nervous man" character, created for "The Steve Allen Show" in the 1950s.
As always, your best source of information on celebrity eulogies is Mark Evanier, who remembers Knotts as "The most beloved person in all of show business" and has more here. Rest in peace, Don Knotts.
You may recall from our earlier discussions of HPD Chief Harold Hurtt's proposal to install surveillance cameras as a crimefighting tool that a fellow who takes civil liberties a bit more seriously created the Hurtt Prize, which is intended to reward the first person who catches Chief Hurtt breaking the law on film. Well, after seeing this obnoxiously ignorant cartoon from the Chron's new in-house doodler, I say let's extend the concept to include any high-profile booster of Hurtt's plan. Anyone who's that eager to sacrifice their basic freedoms in return for the illusion of protection deserves to live under a higher level of scrutiny, don't you think? Smile for the cameras, Nick Anderson. You never know who'll be watching.
Whatever it was they found in the UT dorm, it apparently was not ricin.
A University of Texas at Austin student from Pearland was taken to Memorial Hermann Hospital Friday night and "tested negative for any toxin" after she discovered a white powder that tested positive for the deadly toxin ricin.Officials with the Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services said late Saturday, however, that subsequent tests have indicated the powder might not be ricin, UT Director of Communications Rhonda Weldon said.
[...]Special Agent Rene Salinas of the FBI's San Antonio office said the agency believed the incident "is not terrorist-connected."
But he said a team of experts on weapons of mass destruction had flown from FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va., to Austin to collect samples of the powder for further testing.
Other federal agents "are trying to determine the exact origin of this material," Salinas said, noting that additional testing would be completed over the weekend.
Strange. Better that what we thought at first, but strange. At least no one appears to have been harmed by whatever this is.
I got an email the other day from a former Trinity classmate, Stephanie (Greer) Stradley, whose sister Deb runs a cute blog here in Houston called Debutant. Deb has unfortunately run into some bad times.
On October 21, 2005, I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia that is Philadelphia Chromosome positive. After that date, I was told that my daughter couldn't live with me any more because of the risk of infection, and that I would have to get admitted to the hospital a lot to get chemo and go to the hospital a lot for outpatient services. She is now living with my Sis #2 and her family.On Sunday, February 19th, I was admitted to the hospital for a stem cell transplant. It is a serious scary procedure but it is the best treatment for my form of the disease and hopefully will be a complete cure.
A little less than 4000 people in the United States get ALL each year. Most of those people are children. No one knows what causes ALL.
Deb could use a helping hand, be it in the form of financial assistance, blood or platelet donations, or just good thoughts and prayers. I'm told that the stem cell transplant takes place this Monday (tomorrow), so please keep that in mind. Deb's got a beautiful little daughter and she's a fan of the movie Airplane!, and that's a pretty good combination in my book. Take a moment to visit her site and let her know you're rooting for her.
The Koufax nominations for 2005 are still coming in. Most of the categories are up, but there's still a couple to go, and voting will commence once they've all been compiled. Meanwhile, the latest additions are:
Best Blog Community
Best Group Blog
Best Expert Blog
Best Writing
The deadline for the emergency fundraiser for Koufax support has passed, but there's never a wrong time to help out the good folks at Wampum who put so much time and effort into doing this.
On a slightly different note, Julia wants you to help her buddy Michael Berube win Crazy Davey Horowitz's Worst Professor In America contest (assuming you can get past the ick factor and follow that last link). He's comfortably in the lead now, but you never know what those other loony academics might have up their sleeve, so go help him out.
County Judge Robert Eckels wants to see more traffic light synchronization.
Signals cannot be synchronized in some areas now because signals installed by the county, Texas Department of Transportation and city are often incompatible, he said.Synchronization generally involves setting lights to change sequentially, so traffic maintaining a certain speed can pass through numerous intersections without stopping.
As county, city and TxDOT signals wear out in the coming years, they will be replaced by equipment that is compatible, and more lights will be synchronized, including in the congested Galleria area, he said.
He praised Mayor Bill White for overseeing the synchronization of downtown traffic signals.
That sounds as good to me as Mayor White's initiative, which was one of the very first things he did in office, did. I guess I'm just a little puzzled at how there could be county and/or TxDOT signals in the Galleria area. I would have thought that since this is solely City of Houston territory, only city traffic lights would be there. Maybe the ones on the service road at 610 are TxDOT's, but where would the county have a hand in this? I'm just asking.
Minor point, and whatever the logistics, I like the idea. This was from Eckels' state of the county speech, for which Anne has more info.
I thought that the recent lovefest for Tom DeLay would generate some campaign material. Mary Beth Harrell is first out of the box with a critique of Carter's gushing.
Carter took time out of his busy schedule to show up one more time to defend and support Travis County Defendant Tom DeLay, but Carter could not find the time to come back to his own district to visit the veterans at the VA hospital in Temple for their Valentine's Day tribute to the vets.[...]
Carter's office did send a representative to the VA event to speak for Carter. Carter's rep told us that the Congressman was busy in D.C. and couldn't be there. Carter's rep told us that he must be real busy because he wouldn't normally miss the opportunity to meet and escort Miss Texas on a tour of the VA hospital.
I'm thinking that if DeLay does get convicted in Travis County, or if he gets fingered in the Abramoff investigation, there's going to be a lot of Texas Congressfolk with some explaining to do to their voters.
Who would have expected that Ciro Rodriguez would have more cash on hand at this point of the primary race than Henry Cuellar?
The most aggressive fundraising leading up to the March 7 primary was posted by freshman Democratic Rep. Henry Cuellar and former Rep. Ciro D. Rodriguez, who are waging a rematch of a 2004 primary that Cuellar won by 58 votes.Cuellar reported raising $319,000 in the first six weeks of the year — in large part because of a slew of contributions from supporters of the Club for Growth, an organization that promotes fiscal restraint and tax cuts. Cuellar has $208,000 left to spend.
The Club endorsed Cuellar last month — its first ever endorsement of a Democrat. Rodriguez says that proves his point that the conservative-leaning Cuellar is a disloyal Democrat.
The reports show that Rodriguez is having some late success in attracting new donors. Rodriguez reported raising $272,000 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15, which was more than he had previously raised in all of 2005. He had $257,000 left to spend.
Most of Rodriguez’s itemized contributions came from Texas, though he also counted contributors from 15 other states and the District of Columbia. The FEC requires all donations of at least $200 to be itemized.
Rodriguez got a big boost from the liberal political action committee ActBlue, which transmitted about $96,000 to Rodriguez’s campaign from individual donors. Another $28,000 was earmarked from supporters of the liberal political organization Democracy for America, which has argued that Cuellar is a “DINO” — a Democrat In Name Only.
Cuellar’s campaign said its operation is fully-funded and fully-paid and argued that the uptick in funds for Rodriguez is too little and too late.
“Ciro and his special interest friends have arrived at the 11th hour and we think there will be a strong voter backlash to their vitriol,” said Colin Strother, the general consultant to Cuellar’s campaign.
Got that? Everyone who kicked into Ciro's fund at ActBlue is a "special interest", but the Club for Growth, why they're just plain ol' folks. Link via Kos. Oh, and to answer my own question, Henry Cuellar certainly didn't expect this.
In the other hot San Antonio-area primary, Frank Madla's spending habits made it into the Express News. Link via Matt. Remember: Carlos Uresti is the choice here.
Did Carole Keeton Strayhorn vote for Donna Howard last week? PerryVsWorld reads this story and thinks maybe she did. Well, she was a Dem once, and she needs Dems to vote for her now, so who knows?
Take a picture of a Larry Stallings push card out in the wild and win a prize!
Special Election Day in HD106 is this Tuesday. Katy Hubener gives a statement for her candidacy at BOR.
Who will earn the coveted In the Pink Texas endorsement for President in 2008, Joe Biden or Mark Warner. Click and see for yourself. Do Presidential candidates only come in one height these days, or does the Pink Lady adjust herself for those photos? Only her cameraman knows for sure, I guess.
Finally, Anna reports on the continuing pie fight in the GOP primary in HD94, where top DeLay lieutenant Kent Gruesendorf is going against Texas Parent PAC-backed challenger Diane Patrick. As I said before, the House Speakership will ride on races like this one. The Dems do have a contestant, a fellow named David Pillows, but in all likelihood the GOP primary will be the determinant. Keep an eye on that one.
Ricin, a potentially deadly poison, was found in a University of Texas dormitory Thursday by a student who reported the substance to school police officers.The dorm was sanitized, and the substance was sent to a laboratory for testing and came back positive for ricin Friday night. University officials said they had not yet determined where it came from.
A "small amount" of UT students living in Moore-Hill dormitory were exposed to the substance, UT police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said.
The students are now at an undisclosed location and are in contact with the FBI. They are not showing any symptoms, officials said. Other students living in Moore-Hill were being moved to Jester dormitory Friday night, Weldon said.
There is no threat to the university suspected, but an investigation is under way, Weldon said.
The substance found in Moore-Hill was a chunky powder and exposure was limited due to the humid conditions, Dr. Adolfo Valadez of the Austin health department said.
"We were very concerned as soon as we heard about the positive testing late this evening," said Dr. Theresa Spalding of UT Health Services. "But everything was packed away and tested in an orderly manner."
That's appalling, however lucky we are that the prevailing conditions prevented more widespread exposure. I certainly hope the students who came into contact with the ricin remain in good health. I hate to be paranoid, but it's a little hard to imagine someone casually possessing ricin. Whoever or whatever is behind this, I hope they're found quickly. Karl-T has more, and there's some video with the Chron story.
State District Judge Belinda Hill will rule on Monday whether or not Andrea Yates should be tried again for murder or if the false testimony presented by prosecution witness Park Dietz creates a double jeopardy situation.
Dietz testified Friday he immediately notified prosecutors of his mistake. They, in turn, said they notified Yates' attorneys. Yates' attorneys, prosecutors testified Friday, seemed satisfied by alerting jurors of the mistake and did not take up Dietz's offer to return to Houston at his own expense.Yates' attorneys have argued that subjecting her to another trial would amount to double jeopardy. If the judge disagrees and Yates chooses to appeal that finding, her trial could be delayed for up to a year, said Harris County Assistant District Attorney Alan Curry.
But if Hill also declares the defense's double jeopardy claim to be frivolous, Yates' trial could proceed as scheduled, Curry said.
"Obviously, we're taking this very seriously," Curry said after Friday's hearing. "When Dr. Dietz testified about this, we believed he knew what he was talking about. The court of appeals clearly found there was no evidence of prosecutorial misconduct."
My gut says that Judge Hill will not grant the defense motion. Dietz's phony testimony was the grounds for overturning the guilty verdict from the first trial. In theory at least, the appeals court could have taken the extra step that the defense is now requesting, as Curry notes. I don't think she'll rule that it's frivolous, though, so we may be in for a long wait.
Those who testified Friday included Dietz; Tomball area resident Shauna Thornton, who alerted the Harris County District Attorney's Office of Dietz's mistaken testimony; and the Harris County prosecutors assigned to the Yates case, Joe Owmby and Kaylynn Williford.Thornton said she first sent an e-mail to the district attorney's office one week after the Yates children died to alert prosecutors the A&E network had aired a rerun of L.A. Law that concerned a woman found not guilty of killing her child by using a "postpartum psychosis" defense. The program, Thornton said, aired shortly before the children's deaths.
Prosecutors followed up by talking to Thornton, but said they did not give her message much weight because there was no way to prove that Yates had actually watched the TV program. They said they were busy chasing down numerous other leads.
Owmby said he mistakenly referred to the TV program as Law & Order when he briefly discussed the matter with Dietz, asking the psychiatrist to check if such an episode existed.
"I really had no interest in the matter except to put it to rest and get it out of the way," Owmby testified Friday.
When Dietz testified at Yates' first trial in March 2002, he said Law & Order had aired an episode about a case with circumstances similar to the Yates children's deaths. Owmby and Williford both said Friday they had no reason to doubt Dietz's testimony at the time, although they were surprised by it.
Thornton said she sent another e-mail to the district attorney's office after seeing media coverage of Dietz's testimony to alert them of the mistake.
"Actually, we shouted at the TV, 'The name of the show is L.A. Law, not Law & Order,' " she recalled Friday.
Owmby said Friday if he had known Dietz's testimony was incorrect, he would have spoken up immediately.
I dunno. This certainly sounds less than diligent on the part of the DA's office, but not quite malicious. I think that the remedy already granted was sufficient. But we'll see.
Chevron will be moving some employees into the office building I once worked in downtown, across the street from the former Enron building they bought in 2004.
Almost two years after buying the 40-story downtown tower built for Enron, Chevron has leased about 20 stories of space in another high-profile building nearby.The California-based oil giant will use 465,000 square feet of space in 1600 Smith, the 51-story building that's also the headquarters for Houston-based Continental Airlines, to consolidate operations now in Sugar Land.
The transaction will be a "major plus to downtown," said Tim Relyea, vice chairman of Cushman & Wakefield of Texas, who represented Chevron in lease negotiations.
I worked in 1600 Smith for about a year during 1993 and 1994. Had a great view of the Rockets' victory parade down Smith Street after the won the NBA championship in '94, too. I'm glad to see the old place still has some life in it.
I linked to this story mostly because Chevron's purchase of the Enron building had a few bumps in the road. Here's what I blogged about it at the time.
Breathe easier, corporate America, your BlackBerries are still good to go, at least for now.
U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer said at hearing today in Richmond, Virginia, that he would rule on a shutdown probably after first assessing how much Research In Motion must pay the patent owner, NTP Inc., for infringement. He criticized the two companies for not settling the matter out of court.The judge's decision to postpone a ruling gives Waterloo, Ontario-based Research in Motion time to settle the almost five- year-old dispute before any shutdown, which would affect more than 2 million nongovernment users in the U.S., including Wall Street bankers, members of Congress and White House staff.
"Many people expected at least a partial injunction coming today,'' said Rob Sanderson, an analyst at American Technology Research. "I wouldn't call it a victory yet. There's obviously still a ruling coming. You're seeing a favorable reaction from the markets.''
There are differing levels of anxiety where I work - I do BlackBerry server administration for a living. For the most part, we think the risk is low, but we all want to see this one in the rearview mirror.
Spencer criticized the companies' settlement efforts."I am surprised, absolutely surprised, that you have left this incredibly important decision to the court,'' the judge told company representatives at the hearing. "I have always felt it was a business decision.''
[...]
In the morning-long hearing, a Research In Motion lawyer said a "workaround'' the company developed to deal with a shutdown would take 2 million man-hours to implement.
"It's not something that can be done overnight,'' company lawyer Henry Bunsow told Spencer. Balsillie said that works out to 15 to 30 minutes per user. New BlackBerry units will have the workaround technology installed, he said.
"No matter what, the BlackBerry service will continue,'' Balsillie said.
Research In Motion has said its "workaround'' technology would maintain service without interruption. In court papers, it stressed the difficulty of introducing the changes and said the switch would drive off some customers.
I've seen the specs on the workaround. The stumbling block is that each individual handheld would need to be updated. Given that BlackBerries by definition are heavily used by people who travel a lot, that'll be a killer.
In a parallel proceeding, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office ruled that one of the patents in dispute in the Virginia case should be canceled, Bunsow said today. The agency made similar findings on two other patents involved. Spencer said he won't wait for the patent-office process to be finished before ruling in his case. Appeals of patent agency rulings could take a year or more.[...]
Research In Motion has asked that any new injunction be put on hold. The reason would be either to await a final decision from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on a review of the NTP patents, the results of a Supreme Court hearing on the general issue of injunctions in patent cases, or for Research In Motion to file yet another appeal.
This part has always confused me. How can you infringe a patent that hasn't been granted? I'm sure there's a legal aspect to this that I don't fully understand, but it's still odd.
More on the story here and here. One winner in all this has been the Palm Treo, which is gaining market share at BlackBerry's expense.
Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry, the telephone and e-mail device carried by Wall Street bankers and Washington politicians, scored lower than Palm Inc.'s Treo in a survey of customer satisfaction.Treo won a rating of 3.61 out of 5 for satisfaction, while BlackBerry had a 3.31, according to Brandimensions, a researcher that scoured almost 100 Internet forums, Web logs and discussion boards to assess the product's "buzz.'' The company is known for surveys of consumer reaction to products such as TiVo Inc.'s digital video recorder and the Academy Awards.
[...]
"BlackBerry seems to be lagging behind,'' said Mark De Paoli, the author of a report by Mississauga, Ontario-based Brandimensions. "When people are out there with their Treo, they're often in an office where nine out of 10 people have a BlackBerry, so they feel a sense of pride in it.''
[...]
Palm may have an edge on the Internet chatter because the company's products have been snapped up by consumer technology enthusiasts, while BlackBerrys evolved as a product issued to workers by corporate technology departments.
That may bode well for Motorola and Espoo, Finland-based Nokia, already well-known brands among consumers, De Paoli said.
"People online tend to be early adopters and like the newest things,'' he said. "The more consumer-oriented products may have a chance at winning more interest and making it even more competitive in this market.''
Treos are definitely slick. The demo I saw of Good Technology's server architecture is similar in many ways to RIM's, so the email and calendar experience is much the same. It's the other bells and whistles, like its Internet browser and music/video capabilities that really set it apart. That's not nearly as useful in a corporate environment, of course. You can block a lot of that stuff on the server, but that defeats the purpose of having a Treo.
A fellow inmate of Andrea Yates has told prosecutors that Yates gave her advice on faking mental illness.
Andrea Yates advised a fellow inmate how to "beat her case, specifically, to act mentally sick or crazy," according to court documents filed by prosecutors Thursday.Prosecutors say Felicia Doe told them last year that Yates told her not to eat, not to speak properly, not to be friendly or open in front of people. Doe spent four days in 2002 in a jail block with Yates, who drowned her five children in 2001.
"The defendant also said if you could get the jail psychiatrist on your side, they could testify to your mental health and they couldn't prosecute you if you were sick," according to a document in which prosecutor Kaylynn Williford details interviews with a variety of witnesses who could be called during Yates' upcoming capital murder retrial.
"According to the witness, the defendant basically told her, 'Do what I'm doing,' " Williford wrote.
George Parnham, Yates' defense attorney, called the account "sad and ludicrous."
"That is absolutely so bogus, it doesn't even deserve a response," he told the Associated Press on Thursday evening. "That discounts the medications that this woman was on, the mental illness she suffers from."
Two things here: First, you're going to have to do better than dredge up a jailhouse snitch to impress me. I'll let Scott speak on that issue.
Second, did Yates have this alleged conversation with Doe before or after she was convicted? Because if it was after, and you want me to believe she's fully in control of her mental faculties, then perhaps it might have occurred to her that the insanity defense was a losing proposition for her, and as such, wouldn't have had much to recommend it. I'm just saying.
Is it possible that Yates is faking it? Anything is possible, I suppose. The evidence being presented here is a long way from compelling, however. It feels a little desperate on the prosecution's part, as a matter of fact.
At the hearing, prosecutors say they will give defense attorneys more than 230 letters Yates wrote since the drownings.Prosecutors say they want Hill to order NASA to turn over any e-mail communication between Russell and Andrea Yates, as well as any e-mails Russell Yates sent or received that discussed the killings. Russell Yates continues to work at the Johnson Space Center.
Prosecutors also want communications between Russell Yates and "any person with whom he had a romantic or intimate relationship prior to the murders or that evidence such a relationship."
"Any communications that evidence a romantic or intimate involvement by Russell Edison Yates with another person prior to the murders are similarly relevant ... ," Williford wrote.
The letters Yates wrote could be interesting, though I don't expect there will be too much. As for the other items, why wasn't the prosecution interested in them before the first trial? (I'm assuming they're only interested in emails between Rusty and Andrea prior to the murders; I doubt Andrea gets much email these days, and any that she does get should not require a court order to be available to the DA.) Do they know that Rusty was fooling around before the murders, or are they fishing? I suspect the latter, but who knows? All in all, a little strange.
The Mayor Pro Tem office manager implicated in the unauthorized bonuses business had testified to City Council last year that the requested budget increase was for office supplies.
Explaining a proposed budget increase for the Houston office of Mayor Pro Tem, manager Rosita Hernandez told a City Council committee last summer that the money would pay for reams of paper, document storage and ceremonial envelopes.But much of the $66,000 budget increase that the council approved actually went where one might expect in an office at the center of allegations that four employees pocketed more than $143,000 in unauthorized bonuses.
It went to their paychecks.
Records released Thursday show that 88 percent of the extra budget money, about $58,000, paid Hernandez and her three employees.
And, with more than four months left in the fiscal year, the records show the office has spent all but $56,000 of its $326,000 budget.
[...]
Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado, who oversees the office in addition to her elected job representing council District I, says she wasn't alerted.
"That's why they call them checks and balances," said Marc Campos, Alvarado's political consultant.
He questioned why city finance officials didn't say, 'Hey, we might have a problem there.' "
But Alvarado didn't notice, either. The unauthorized bonuses came to light last week after an employee in the Finance and Administration Department noticed irregularities.
[...]
The administration of Mayor Bill White, ultimately responsible for the city budget, also isn't speculating publicly about how the process broke down.
"I'm not privy to what the investigators are doing or saying or talking about," said Frank Michel, White's spokesman. "We're going to let them do their jobs."
Michel said the results of the probe, which will be forwarded to the Harris County District Attorney's Office, would likely lead to a full airing of the details surrounding the payroll scandal.
I hope so, because we do need to figure out where and why this happened. The amount of money involved is small relative to the city's budget, and employee malfeasance is not something that can ever be totally eliminated, but it's pretty clear that there's room for some process improvements here.
"If these people were siphoning money for unauthorized bonuses and raises," Michel wondered, "what was their plan for the final quarter, when the reality of what was in the account caught up to this?"
Well, they did have Enron's example to learn from. Sure, it all catches up with you in the end, but as long as you can keep putting that off, you're in clover.
The Texas Republican Congressional delegation still hearts Tom DeLay.
Ten Republican members of the Texas congressional delegation, including a few who owe their jobs to redistricting engineered by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, came to Houston on Thursday to endorse the incumbent."We're not here because Tom DeLay is 'The Hammer' or because Tom DeLay is some intimidating, threatening character," said Rep. Joe Barton of Ennis, referring to DeLay's nickname as an enforcer of party discipline. "We're here because he's been a leader and a voice for positive conservative change."
That's so sweet. A fuller report, including some potentially useful quotes from several of DeLay's BFFs can be found at DeLayVsWorld. This one is my personal favorite:
DeLay's 1984 classmate Joe Barton spoke for a long time on DeLay's integrity ("I'll stake my reputation that he's a man of integrity").
Hey, it's not like Smokey Joe's got one to lose.
DvsW goes on to report from a "press availability" for DeLay's primary opponent Tom Campbell. One bit of interest there:
Campbell shared that they'd done an internal autodialer tracking poll by OneNet Info (whom I'm unfamiliar with, and I know lots of pollsters) over the last few days which showed Campbell with 47%, DeLay with 38%, and Other with 14%. He claimed that this was an improvement over some of their recent polling, though he conceded that with only 151 respondents, the margin of error was quite large (his campaign puts it at 9%, I suspect it might be even larger since Dr. Hill put the Chron's recent poll with 213 respondents at a 9% margin of error).
Wikipedia to the rescue! (Note to Richard Cohen: The following involves math. You may want to find a middle schooler to help you understand it.) The margin of error on a sample size of 213 is 8.8% if you use a 99% confidence interval. With the generally more used 95% confidence interval, the MoE is 6.7%. For a sample size of 151, those numbers become 10.5 and 8.0.
More interestingly, if one accepts Campbell's poll sample as being representative of the population in question, then the probability that he is leading DeLay by some amount is 86.6% if we assume the 95% confidence interval. Having said that, I agree with DvsW's skepticism - I've never heard of this polling outfit either, internal polls are notoriously favorable to the campaign that commission them, and a choice of "Campbell, DeLay, and Other" may push a few Fjetland and Baig supporters to Campbell's tally. I don't think we'll have any real idea how this race is going until we start to see the returns.
On a side note, ThinkProgress has a scanned copy of the portion of the constituent letter DeLay wrote recently where he claimed that he did not have personal relations with that man, Jack Abramoff. Check it out.
UPDATE: More bad news for DeLay:
Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Sugar Land, trailed his Democratic opponent, former Rep. Nick Lampson, in fundraising and cash in the bank, according to new financial reports that covered the first six weeks of the year.DeLay, who faces three contenders in the March 7 Republican primary for the 22nd Congressional District, said he raised $154,712 and spent $304,795 between Jan. 1 and Feb. 15, the time span covered in the pre-primary filings required of candidates. The lawmaker reported having about $1.3 million in the bank.
Lampson, who is running unopposed in the Democratic Primary, reported having raised $250,970 in the same time frame and having spent $125,027. He said he has more than $1.4 million in cash on hand.
According to his report, DeLay's largest expenditure — $110,000 — went towards paying Richard Cullen, the attorney representing DeLay in the investigation of an influence-peddling scandal involving indicted former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
It's pretty ironic how after all he's done in Congress, DeLay may wind up spending his last years in office fattening the wallets of trial lawyers everywhere.
From my former history professor Char Miller comes word of a candidate forum on environmental issues on the Trinity campus this Sunday:
What: The Texas Environmental Watch Alliance, along with a host of prominent co-sponsors, will host a no-nonsense forum on key environmental policy issues for the candidates in the primary elections/nominating conventions for U.S. Congressional Districts 20, 21, and 28. At a time when decisions about air pollution, water quality and alternate energy are more important than ever, our Representatives must be held accountable for their actions. Questions will come from local and statewide environmental experts, as well as from the audience. The forum will be moderated by Dr. Char Miller, Chair of the History Department at Trinity University, and Director of the Urban Studies Program. The event is free and open to the public.When: Sunday, February 26, 2:00pm - 5:00pm
Where: Laurie Auditorium, Trinity University Campus (from 281 go east on Hildebrand, take first left at Stadium Drive, fork right at bottom of hill and follow to auditorium on left)
Who: All candidates from U.S. Congressional Districts 20, 21, and 28 have been invited: Rep. Henry Cuellar, Rep. Charlie Gonzalez, Rep. Lamar Smith, Victor Morales, Ciro Rodriguez, John Courage, Jessie Bouley, Michael Idrogo, Glenda Moyes, Mark Rossano, and James Strohm
Sponsored by: the Texas Environmental Watch Alliance; Trinity University, Urban Studies Program; Catholic Archdiocese, Office of Social Concerns; Bexar Audubon Society; Fuerza Unida; Environment Texas; and Aquifer Guardians in Urban Areas
Accomodations: American Sign Language Interpretation; Spanish interpretation simulcast
Don't Vote in the March 7th Primary... until you learn where the candidates stand on the issues affecting your land, air, and water!
For more information: (210) 421-1518/ info@texwatch.org
As of yesterday, according to Dr. Miller, Ciro Rodriguez, Charlie Gonzalez, John Courage, Mark Rossano and James Arthur Strohm have confirmed they will be there. Lamar Smith will not. I know, we're all shocked by that. Anyway, if you're in the area and want to learn more, check it out.
The Supreme Court will begin hearing oral arguments on the Texas redistricting of 2003 on Wednesday, March 1. The Lone Star Project sent out this letter (PDF) yesterday, with an update on where things stand, a timeline, a brief bio of the attorneys involved, and an analysis of what might happen if the 2003 map is ruled unconstitutional.
If the Supreme Court invalidates the map due to violation of the Voting Rights Act:• The Court will almost certainly remand the case to the three-judge court to provide a remedy consistent with the Supreme Court ruling.
• Given that the Supreme Court’s accelerated schedule allows time for a remedy prior to the 2006 elections, a new plan would have to be devised to fix whatever voting rights problem the Court finds.
• Normally, courts defer to the legislature to craft new lines to correct a violation, but the court may also impose its own plan to take effect in the 2006 elections. Consistent with the precedent established by the federal court in the Bush v. Vera congressional redistricting case in 1996, the Court could order that the March primary results be abandoned and that special congressional elections be held in new and legal districts.
• The most likely scenario for the 2006 elections and beyond would be the reinstatement of the 2002 courtdrawn plan, because it is a legal plan based on the 2000 census that was upheld by the Supreme Court of the United States, and it is the logical default plan in the event the Supreme Court declares the 2003 plan illegal.Who Might Run?
The seats lost under the DeLay plan were: District 1 (Sandlin), District 2 (Turner), District 4 (Hall switched parties), District 9 (Lampson), District 17 (Stenholm) and District 24 (Frost). If the map is reversed, Democrats would almost certainly reclaim Districts 9 and 24. It is also possible to reclaim Districts 1 and 2, assuming the former Members return or other very strong candidates are recruited. Obviously, District 4 is lost, and District 17 is strongly Republican and would not likely be reclaimed.
I've been skeptical before of the Democrats' chances to reclaim these seats. I agree about CD24, and in retrospect Nick Lampson would be the favorite in CD09. If they did pick up those districts, and they held onto Chet Edwards' seat in the old CD11, Dems would have between 13 and 15 in their delegation. Depending on how you want to count it, an 18-14 or 19-13 split in favor of the GOP would be a reasonable approximation of the state's partisan ratio. The former could have been achieved in 2002 if Hall had switched earlier and the GOP had managed to knock off Edwards and Stenholm, both of whom won with narrow margins. Not that this would have satisfied Tom DeLay, of course.
An interesting case is the old CD23, where Henry Bonilla won a close one against Henry Cuellar. As things stand now, of course, Cuellar would get less institutional support in a rematch of the two Henrys than he otherwise might have. Jeb Hensarling at 58% had the next-closest win among the Republicans. As for CD22, who knows? It's moderately less Republican now, but the DeLay Scandal-Go-Round factor clouds things a bit. Of course, DeLay would not have the well-funded Lampson running against him in this scenario. I'm not sure that any substitute Dem would be able to raise the kind of money needed to be truly competitive in that district, especially if the campaign schedule is shortened. I don't even have a clear idea of who'd take a shot at it.
Finally, there is another possibility that LSP doesn't mention. The only dissent in the original three-court ruling came from Judge John Ward, who argued that CD23 was illegal but the rest of the map was okay. It's not out of the question to me that if SCOTUS punts this back to the three-judge panel, they might decide to go with that idea and limit the do-over to just that district. I'll guess that in that case, CD23 would become more of a swing district, and CD28 (which picked up most of the Dem-heavy Webb County as a result) would become more anchored in Bexar County. You can do the math on that one from there.
Anyway. All briefs filed in the case can be found here. A decision is expected in the June/July time frame. Stay tuned.
I've previously confessed my semi-irrational fondness for Campbell's tomato soup, so reading this makes me happy.
Executives at the Campbell Soup Co. have heard the same thing almost since Andy Warhol was making art out of their cans in the 1960s: Lower the sodium in soup without sacrificing taste and people will eat even more of it.Now, after years of gradually reducing the sodium in its soups, the Camden-based company says it has made a breakthrough: natural, low-sodium sea salt. It will be used in about 30 soups — both new and reformulated recipes — scheduled to be on supermarket shelves in August, Campbell announced Wednesday.
"We've been everywhere on the globe trying to find a sea salt with all the characteristics of this one," Chief Executive Douglas Conant said.
The company is hoping the lower-sodium salt will help soup sales, which have stabilized after losing ground to other convenience foods in the 1990s.
Regular table salt is 99.7 percent sodium chloride. The federal Food and Drug Administration says that adults should eat no more than 2,300 milligrams a day — or just under a teaspoon.
A few years ago, the average serving of a Campbell's soup contained almost half the daily limit. By using less salt, the company got its average down to 850 milligrams.
The sea salt in the new soups has 40 percent less sodium than the regular stuff, said George Dowdie, Campbell's vice president for research and development.
We only buy the original lower-sodium versions of Campbell's soups, so I'm glad to hear that they'll be even better in that department shortly. I'm thinking there's gonna be a can or two in the works for my weekend. Mmmm...
I was fascinated by the following in this LM Sixel column about Mayor White encouraging local businesses to offer more flexible work schedules as a way of reducing traffic at peak hours.
Direct Energy Texas, for example, had to deal with the stigma attached to signing up for a "nine-80" shift (10 days of work crammed into nine workdays) or working from home.Only 10 percent of the 220 employees who worked in what the company had identified as eligible jobs signed up for the program when it was launched, recalled Phil Tonge, Direct Energy's president.
"People were very worried," he said.
But Tonge knew employees wanted a compressed workweek or to telecommute because of their responses to a 2004 survey. They were frustrated with the time they spent in traffic getting to and from work, and with White's mobility campaign to Get Houston Moving, it was a perfect opportunity to put the two ideas together, he said.
So Tonge held a series of meetings to encourage employees to sign up. He emphasized it had his full support, and he put pressure on managers to sign on to the idea.
To make telecommuting easier, the company bought laptops for some workers and provided them for departments to share.
As a result, 65 percent of its eligible employees in Texas are participating, and the company is looking for ways to include more job classifications in its program.
I've been on a 9/80 schedule for about a decade now. I love it, and I've loved it from the get-go. Having that Friday off to get stuff done - heck, just having that extra day in the weekend every other week - is wonderful. I dread the idea of ever having to go back to a "normal" workweek. As such, I'm at a loss to understand why so many Direct Energy employees would have resisted this. Nine-eighty acceptance was darned near universal when we adopted it where I work.
Harold Reddish, president of S&B Infrastructure, wasn't thinking a lot about compressed workweeks last summer. But the head of the engineering company soon found himself pondering schedules based on four 10-hour days, among others, because its petrochemical business was booming."We needed a lot of people fast," Reddish said. "We had trouble finding them."
Many applicants wanted to work four 10-hour days and have Fridays off, he said. They also wanted to decide which hours to work between 6:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m.
Don't know if they still do, but USAA had this schedule back when I was a summer employee in the late 80s. It too was great, though there were two hitches to their implementation of it. One, if the week contained a holiday, you had to work on Friday. I believe the only exception was Thanksgiving, but since I was there from May to August, I couldn't swear to it. Two, as an hourly employee they subtracted a half hour each day for lunch, so I only got paid for 38 hours each week. I was making $5 an hour, so I looked at it as trading $10 a week for a three-day weekend almost every week. Needless to say, that was a trade I was happy to make.
I've been trying to put my finger on what exactly bothered me about this article on the pervasiveness of surveillance cameras and the reaction to HPD Chief Hurtt's proposal to install more of them for crimefighting purposes, and I think I've finally got it.
[T]he Metropolitan Transit Authority has a video camera on top of the Binz Building downtown to monitor Main Street — the same strip where the Houston Police Department hopes to install surveillance cameras.Shoppers at the Galleria are monitored by camera both inside and outside the mall. Drivers on freeways managed by the Texas Department of Transportation are caught on tape. Commuters at Metro's rail and transfer stations and inside trains, and also soon at Park & Ride lots, are watched on screen from miles away. And if you're cheering at Toyota Center, you can bet you'll be watched on video.
Schools, too, use camera technology to monitor students. A man who police say sexually assaulted a student in a Westbury High School restroom Feb. 9 was caught on one of the school's 128 cameras as he entered the school, though authorities have not arrested a suspect. And officials at Westfield High School used images from a surveillance tape to identify students in a fight.
METRO's camera, according to the caption to the photo in the print edition of the Chron, is to "monitor the Main Street light rail line". Presumably, that means to ensure the trains are running on schedule, and to watch for any obstacles that could cause a collision. Similarly, TxDOTs cameras are to ensure that traffic is flowing. Those are very specific purposes.
The Galleria and the Toyota Center are private property. Their owners have a lot more leeway to do things, like search customers' handbags, than the government does. Similarly, the courts have long established that minors do not enjoy the same level of constitutional protections that adults do, which is why school newspapers can be routinely censored and lockers can be opened at will.
Finally, the insides of light rail trains and Park & Ride lots are bounded spaces where it really doesn't make sense from a cost perspective to use human patrols for security. The London study on CCTV usage in that city showed that cameras in parking lots was the one truly effective use of the tool as a crimefighting device.
What I'm getting at is that none of these situations is really a good comparison for Chief Hurtt's proposal to blanket downtown in cameras. The purpose of that proposal is too non-specific (What exactly will they be looking for? "Suspicious behavior" covers a lot of ground, after all.), the constitutionality of it all is not a settled matter, the cost justification is questionable, and the effectiveness is poor. And we haven't even touched the philosophical issues involved.
So let's just say that I remain highly skeptical and leave it at that. I could imagine some specific, limited situations where I might be willing to acquiesce to this idea, but not without a lot of written guidelines as to what these things will be used for, who will have access to them, and how long the data will be kept. I hope City Council is up to the task of asking the right questions on Tuesday when this is brought up.
Finally, on a side note, I call your attention to The Hurtt Prize. The Internet is a wondrous thing, is it not?
Andrea Yates' attorney is alleging prosecutorial misconduct in the matter of Park Dietz's bogus testimony.
In court papers filed Monday, attorney George Parnham said prosecutors in her original trial were reckless, if not intentionally misleading, when they used testimony they had reason to believe was false.Prosecutors knew that testimony by psychiatrist Park Dietz about an episode of the television series Law & Order — regularly watched by Yates — was false during the original trial in 2002, Parnham alleges.
Dietz testified then that one Law & Order episode portrayed a woman who drowned her children. The episode, he said, aired shortly before Yates drowned her five children.
After Yates was convicted, it was learned that no such episode was ever produced.
Parnham's motion contends that Yates should not have to stand trial again because of this. I'm not a lawyer, but what is being alleged here sounds an awful lot like suborning perjury to me. Help me out here - is this from the standard defense attorney bag o' tricks, or is this as remarkable as I think it is?
The United Steel Workers union is publicly calling on Rep. Henry Cuellar's campaign consultants to disavow him. No stones are being left unturned here, that's for sure. Ciro Rodriguez has raised something like $270K from netroots and other sources since that "one-day story" stirred up the blogs, according to Kos, and that figure doesn't include some ads being purchased on his behalf, as the League of Conservation Voters is doing. He's also racking up endorsements from his former colleagues in Texas and elsewhere. Cuellar for his part is getting a $150K ad buy from those good progressives at the Club for Growth.
Did you hear about Frank Madla's spending habits? I'm sure this is the sort of thing that most longtime officeholders would like to keep under wraps, but still. For a person representing such a low-income district, especially with his vote on HB2292, he can take it. Larry Stallings, who says that's not how he'll operate as a Rep, sings the praises of Carlos Uresti.
More endorsements: from Abram, Fred, and Matt. There's a running tally at BOR. And lookie here, the Chron is finally in the game. Will they make it to the finish line before the buzzer sounds? We shall see.
UPDATE: Larry Stallings adds his endorsements.
I'm still trying to wrap my mind around the news of port security being handed to a company that's fully owned by a foreign government. As Reed Hunt remarked, the UAE could not own a US television station, but port security? No problemo.
Like Kevin (more here), I'm a little queasy about bashing this on grounds of foreignness. By the same token, however, this is the umpty-umpth example of President Bush saying "Hey, trust me, don't sweat the small stuff, it's all good" when he's proven time and again that he doesn't deserve any such trust. I certainly can't disagree with the notion, expressed by Rep. Jerry Nadler, that Congress ought to have a look at this before we go signing on any dotted lines. If there really is nothing to worry about, we can still go forward with it.
I've printed a couple of press releases, from Nick Lampson and Rep. Chet Edwards, beneath the fold for your perusal. And just so we're clear that the objections to this are bipartisan, I invite you to read Rep. Sue Myrick's letter to President Bush, which if nothing else is admirable in its pithiness.
Oh, and one last thing: It's always worthwhile in these matters to see who might be benefiting from the transactions in question. I'm just saying.
UPDATE: Tom DeLay has now criticized the port deal. So who's in the President's corner on this now?
Houston – Former Congressman Nick Lampson today continued to voice concern over port security in response to revelations that Dubai Ports World of the United Arab Emirates are receiving contracts to load and unload military equipment at two Southeast Texas ports. Lampson is running in Texas’ 22nd congressional district against Tom DeLay, who in yesterday’s Pasadena Citizen refused to take a stand for or against a deal allowing the UAE to run operations at US ports.
“I want to build good relations with the United Arab Emirates and count them as allies in the war on terror,” Lampson said. “But there are better ways to do that than handing over operations at security sensitive sites to the UAE. Apparently, this may happen right here in Southeast Texas. To outsource port operations of this highly sensitive and strategic nature defies logic.”
The Beaumont Enterprise reported today that the English company to be sold to a state-owned United Arab Emirates company just renewed a contract to provide services at ports in Texas.
According to the Beaumont Enterprise, Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, whose sale to Dubai Ports World is causing Congressmen on both sides of the aisle to speak out, recently renewed a contract to operate terminals at the ports of Beaumont and Corpus Christi. The terminals handle military cargo. The journal Army Logistician reports, "Almost 40 percent of the Army cargo deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom flows through these two ports."
Nick Lampson believes only American companies should be in charge of operations and security at American ports and airports. He believes we cannot have financial decisions taking precedent over the safety and security of our citizens.
==================================================
(Washington, DC) - U.S. Representative Chet Edwards today said Congress should put a hold on the sale of six U.S. seaports to Dubai Ports World run by the government of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Since the United Arab Emirates was the home base of two of the 9-11 terrorists, the deal has been met with bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill as well as with the governors of Maryland and New York. Edwards also signed a letter to the Administration stressing the need to halt the deal.
"Congress should immediately pass legislation to stop this transaction and hold hearings because the American people have a right to know the facts on how this decision was made before, not after, it becomes a done deal," said Edwards.
The deal was approved by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, a secretive 12-member board that includes Cabinet members and White House officials. The panel operates behind closed doors, with little or no input from Congress. The $6.8 billion contract goes into effect March 2 unless Congress acts. President Bush has said he will veto any legislation that cancels the port sale to the UAE despite widespread dissatisfaction among members of both parties with the deal.
"I know how serious this issue of port security is because I initiated the effort three years ago to add $85 million dollars to the budget to fund nuclear detection devices at foreign seaports. Administration officials had told me that if terrorists had ever obtained nuclear weapons, a likely method of delivering those weapons would be via ship containers coming into U.S. seaports since less than 5% of these containers were inspected," said Edwards. "Given my work in this area, it just doesn't make sense to put American families at risk by quickly pushing through a questionable transaction that would have a Middle Eastern government directly involved in U.S. port operations."
The United Arab Emirates was one of three countries in the world to recognize the Taliban as the legitimate government of Afghanistan. The UAE has been a key transfer point for illegal shipments of nuclear components to Iran, North Korea and Libya. According to the FBI, money was transferred to the 9/11 hijackers through the UAE banking system. After 9/11, the Treasury Department reported that the UAE was not cooperating in efforts to track down Osama Bin Laden's bank accounts.
"I don't understand how the U.S. government can say that it is unsafe for American seniors to import drugs from Canada but it is safe for the homeland of two 9/11 terrorists to be in charge of 6 major US seaports," said Edwards.
Why Port Security Matters
* U.S. seaports handle over 95% of our nation's foreign trade worth over $1 trillion a year.
* A weapon of mass destruction detonated in a container at a seaport could cause tremendous numbers of casualties, and an estimated economic loss ranging from $58 billion to $1 trillion.
* The 9/11 Commission report concluded that terrorists have the "opportunity to do harm as great or greater in maritime and surface transportation" than the 9/11 attacks.
* The U.S. Coast Guard estimates that ports will have to spend $5.4 billion over 10 years to maintain a basic level of security.
It's been a little while since I've posted some pictures of Olivia, hasn't it? Well, there's no time like the present. Click the More link to see a couple of snaps my sister Kris took while in town to help me celebrate my 40th birthday.
Happy Happy Joy Joy
Have I mentioned lately that I'm doomed?"I find your lack of faith disturbing."
Roger Owen, the gay-bashing candidate for CD01, had himself a little meltdown at meeting on Tuesday at the Gregg County Democratic Party's headquarters. Patrick Franklin, the Democratic candidate for HD07 and the target of Owen's misplaced ire, has the details. Just remember, if you're in CD01, vote for Duane Shaw in the Democratic primary.
In response to the release of the report by the Governor's task force on hurricane evacuations, TxDOT says it's already doing a lot of the things it's been called upon to do.
Janelle Gbur, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Transportation's Houston district, said construction is under way to remove the bottleneck on I-45 North (the North Freeway) where it narrows from four lanes in each direction to two at FM 1488 near The Woodlands. During the Hurricane Rita evacuation in September, this chokepoint brought traffic to a standstill for miles.Gbur said the highway is scheduled to become a continuous four-lane road all the way to Conroe in 2008, but she noted that "we're just moving the jam farther north" unless the number of evacuees can be reduced.
Planners also need to educate people not to hit the road until they really need to, she said.
"A key point here is the public awareness," added TxDOT spokesman Randall Dillard in Austin.
As we discussed in the previous post, I think this is necessary, but not sufficient. Some number of people are going to respond to their own risk assessments no matter what the official proclamations are. I can't say that I won't be among those people, at least as long as I've got a small child in the house.
Most of this story is about various chokepoints - on-ramps, highway intersections and junctions, etc - that caused major problems during the Rita evacuation. Improvements and widenings can help in some cases, but as Gbur is honest enough to admit, you can't fix the I-45 logjam by adding lanes unless you do so for the entire length of the road. That's just not economically feasible, and would for the most part be a waste of resources.
Dillard said TxDOT and DPS will have a contraflow plan drawn up by the start of hurricane season June 1.As a starting point, they can use the hastily devised measures set up during Hurricane Rita.
Improvements being considered include remote-controlled gates on freeway entrance and exit ramps, Gbur said.
She said a safety fence being installed on nearly 100 miles of the I-10 median between Houston and San Antonio will need escape hatches where drivers and emergency vehicles can cross over for emergencies.
And here we come back to the issues of expense and manpower. That's not a criticism - I think these ideas are fine - just an observation that we shouldn't expect a full solution to be ready by June 1. This is going to take time and a commitment to see it all the way through.
The full report is here, in its 4 MB PDF glory. I'll try to read it when I can. Feel free to beat me to it and comment on any aspect of it here.
The more we learn about what happened with those unauthorized bonuses to staffers in the Mayor Pro Tem's office, the less we seem to know about how it all happened.
The city office where four employees received unauthorized bonuses saw a 25 percent increase in its budget this fiscal year — an appropriation that city officials haven't fully detailed.The glare of publicity about the $130,000 incentive payments to workers in the Office of Mayor Pro Tem has drawn attention to the budget, which was included in a larger pool set aside for the 14 City Council members.
The City Council approved an increase from $260,000 to $326,000 for the pro tem office. And that was only half of the $122,000 increase the office requested.
Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, who as mayor pro tem oversees the office, and top members of Mayor Bill White's administration, which produced the council budgets, didn't respond in detail to repeated inquiries about the proposed and actual increases.
"The justification cited was increased costs of services and supplies," said Frank Michel, White's spokesman. "We don't have any written documentation."
Alvarado, whose district office is separate from that of the pro tem, said the extra money was a "restoration" to levels in previous administrations. The pro tem budget remained $260,000 during the past three years, but was more than $300,000 in the past, she said.
She said the increase this year was requested by her mayor pro tem office manager, Rosita Hernandez, one of four employees who received bonuses city officials say were unauthorized. Hernandez's $47,500 in 2005 bonuses boosted her total pay to $125,500, among the highest in city government.
"I'm looking for something in writing that justifies the restoration of funds," Alvarado said. "I wish I had access to those documents."
According to the story, the Houston Police Office of Inspector General and Houston's Finance and Administration Director Judy Gray Johnson are the ones with the documents, and they aren't talking. Which is fine and how it should be in an ongoing investigation. Once they're done, I imagine the District Attorney's office will get involved.
The good news, as far as it goes, is that this is not the kind of malfeasance that enhances one group's political power at the expense of another, so when the facts are out and it's time for the Council to do something about it, whatever solutions get proposed will most likely run into little organized resistance. In other words, nothing like what happens to reform measures, even ones with a majority of the membership as sponsors, in the Texas Legislature. Along those lines, Stace has some suggestions for how to keep this from happening again.
Getting back to the story, Councilmember Alvarado would do well to make like the HPOIG and AD Johnson for a little while:
Alvarado, who has said she can't recall specific details about the increase, said Tuesday she was "frustrated" by the lack of information.She also was concerned about whether media coverage of such questions might unfairly taint her.
"It's my office. It's my name," she said. "I don't know why this $50,000, or $60,000, is such a big issue."
With all due respect, your office and your name are your problems right now. What matter is figuring out what happened here, and taking the necessary steps to prevent it from happening again. You may or may not come out of this looking good, and how that comes down may or may not be within your control. Them's the breaks.
Also not looking so good:
When asked about the budget, city officials referred to a June presentation to the council's Fiscal Affairs Committee.The short session included a broad description of the overall City Council budget, with only vague details about the pro tem office. And council members asked few questions.
"I have to tell you, I was stunned that the pro tem office had such a substantial raise this year," Councilwoman Pam Holm said Tuesday, noting that she didn't notice it in the hustle of last year's budget process.
Holm said council members should be accountable for all lines in the budget and suggested a study of whether the pro tem budget is too high.
Did you register your stunned-ness for the record when you voted on last year's budget, or are you just retroactively stunned now? Because the latter isn't helping.
In one sense, Alvarado is right: $130K out of a $3.2 billion budget is 0.004%. And so Holm is also right, in that every Council member should be accountable for each line item. Like I said, once we have all the facts, passing the reforms should be easy enough to do.
UPDATE: Alvarado apologizes to her Council colleagues for the mess.
"I would never do anything to jeopardize the integrity of the position or to compromise the essential services the office provides," she said. "I was shocked to learn of payroll irregularities."[...]
"I have been astonished and disappointed to discover how easy it was for someone to forge my initials and steal both taxpayer dollars and my personal reputation at the same time," she said.
That's a better response. Now let's stay focused on fixing the problem.
Elyse Lanier, the city's former first lady and an unabashed booster of Houston, was appointed today as a commissioner on the Port Authority of Houston.Lanier replaces Cheryl Thompson-Draper, who resigned last month after being accused of uttering a racial slur while on port business in Shanghai last year. Thompson-Draper has denied making the slur.
Harris County Commissioners Court appointed Lanier on a unanimous vote. But it came after County Judge Robert Eckels made a motion to appoint Leroy Hermes, a local architect and chair of the University of Houston board of Regents. That motion failed.
Commissioner Sylvia Garcia sponsored Lanier's nomination to the seven-member commission.
"She brings a wealth of experience in representing our area,"Garcia said. "When she was first lady of the city for six years, she met people from all over the world."
Well, if they need a little redecorating, I'd certainly agree that Elyse Lanier is their woman. Houstonist has the background info for you kids who don't remember Mayorbob and Elyse. Beyond that, I got nothin'.
Point of curiosity: Is it, like, a normal thing for one of Judge Eckels' motions to fail like that? And did it fail because no one seconded it (which would be really weird) or just because he got outvoted? Maybe I'm making something out of nothing, but that strikes me as odd.
Via Kevin Drum, progressives now have a new resource for helping good bills get through state legislatures. It's called the Progressive Legislative Action Network, and it was inspired by a conservative outfit called the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). You can read the story of its genesis here, or just go check out the site and its blog and see how you can get involved. I like the look of it and hope it gets some traction.
On a related note, Kos recently wrote about focusing more on local races, a thought that was expanded on here and here. Gotta win those legislative races before you can get anything done there, after all.
As a regular eater of their product, I meant to link to this story about Shipley's Donuts' 70th anniversary earlier, but fortunately Lair and Houstonist were on task. Don't really have much to add to it other than of late I've started noticing the familiar red-striped boxes at work again. I guess when all else fails, you return to your roots.
So it looks like Sammy Sosa will be retiring, now that he rejected the Nationals' lowball contract offer. Sosa's production fell off a cliff last season, so perhaps this was a propitious time for him to hang 'em up. Unfortunately for him, his public image and relationship with the press has also declined dramatically of late. Jay Jaffe takes a look and rightly concludes that Sammy is getting shafted. Check it out.
Meanwhile, Barry Bonds says this will be his last season.
"I'm not playing baseball anymore after this," Bonds was quoted by USA Today in a story posted on its Web site Sunday. "The game (isn't) fun anymore. ... I want to play this year out, hopefully win, and once the season is over, go home and be with my family. Maybe then everybody can just forget about me."Records aren't a big thing to me. It's a great honor to pass Ruth, but it means more to baseball than it does to me."
Looks like Bonds has changed his tune a bit regarding his place in baseball's record books versus The Babe's. Fine by me. I'm not a Barry-hater, but it'll also be fine by me if he's still in Hank Aaron's rearview mirror when he finishes up. Somehow, that would just be right.
If my endorsements for the Democratic primary weren't enough for you, there's plenty more where that came from: See Vince, Perry, Stace, Eddie, and Greg and get your fill.
On further reflection, I want to add some recommendations for races outside of Harris County. Let's start with a non-endorsement:
U. S. Representative, District 1 - Whatever you do, do not vote for Roger Owen. Patrick Franklin, candidate for HD07, tells you why. (More here.) I don't expect candidates to agree with me on everything, but I do expect them to treat all of their constituents like human beings with a full slate of civil rights. If you can't do that, stay home. And if you live in CD01, vote for Lufkin attorney Duane Shaw in the primary.
Moving on to other races of interest:
U. S. Representative, District 28 - Ciro Rodriguez
State Senate, District 19 - Carlos Uresti
State Representative, District 48 - Donna Howard. As I recall, Andy Brown dropped out of the primary after he was ruled ineligible for the special election, but I'm not aware of Kathy Rider doing the same. I don't expect any oopsies here, but let's not take a chance. If you're in HD48, make sure you vote for Donna Howard.
State Representative, District 122 - Larry Stallings. This is an uncontested race, but Larry deserves special mention and support for running such a good blog. Help him run his total up so he can get some attention outside the blogosphere.
Finally, a reminder that there are many judicial races on the ballot in Harris County as well. I've listed those races and candidates beneath the fold, since they rarely get any attention in the press. Get to know these folks, because they need support, too.
UPDATE: Oh, and don't forget the special election in HD106, in which Katy Hubener deserves your support. Harvey Kronberg says:
In exactly one week, we get to see if the [Donna] Howard win was a fluke or the beginning of a trend. Up in Irving, Democrat Katy Hubener takes on Republican Kirk England in another special election. This race is also in a 58 percent Republican district, but one far more blue collar than West Austin.In contrast to Austin, early voting has been fairly light. But some Republicans in the district say Hubener has a real shot at a win.
If lightning does strike twice, all bets are off for Republicans incumbents being challenged by moderates in their primary a week later.
'Nuff said.
Justice, 1st Court of Appeals, Pl. 9
Jim Sharp
(713) 869-0090
Justice, 14th Court of Appeals, Place 6
Leora T. Kahn
(713) 222-1353
leoratkahn@aol.com
Justice, Texas Supreme Court, Place 2
William E. (Bill) Moody
(915) 546- 2101
Judge, Civil District Court District 189
Charles (Chuck) Silverman
(713) 238-6775
cmscedar@yahoo.com
Judge, Criminal District Court District 183
Robert Voight
Judge, Criminal District Court District 185
Randall Kallinen
attorneykallinen@aim.com
Judge, Criminal District Court District 232
Herb Ritchie
(713) 521-9216
Judge, 245th Judicial District Court (Family)
Mary Kay Green
Judge, Criminal District Court District 248
Lydia Clay-Jackson
Judge, Juvenile District Court District 315
Bill Connolly
(713) 520-5757
Judge, County Criminal Court at Law Number 1
Joan Nwuli
Judge, County Criminal Court at Law Number 2
Silvia Pubchara
(713) 446-9420
Judge, County Criminal Court at Law Number 8
Alfred (Bud) Valdez
(713) 271-0719
Judge, County Criminal Court at Law Number 9
Randy E. Roll
(713) 869-7933
Judge, County Criminal Court at Law Number 11
Ira Chenkin
(713) 626-7400
Harris County Clerk
James G. Pierre
Harris County Treasurer
Richard Garcia
(281) 655-9308
MrRGarcia@aol.com
Justice of the Peace Precinct 1, Place 2
David Patronella
(713) 755-5195
Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, Place 2
George Risner
(713) 920-1045
Justice of the Peace Precinct 2, Place 2
Leobardo “leo” Cardenas
(713) 637-8057
Justice of the Peace Pct. 2, Place 2
Vicky Morris
(832) 867-1779
www.morrisforjp.com
vickymorris06@yahoo.com
Justice of the Peace Precinct 3, Place 2
Tony Polumbo
(281) 427-3838
Justice of the Peace Pct. 6, Place 2
Armando V. Rodriguez
(713) 921-6141
Justice of the Peace Precinct 7, Place 2
Zinetta Burney
Justice of the Peace Precinct 7, Place 2
William M. Bowers, Jr.
County School Trustee, Position 3 At Large
Andrew C. Burks, Jr.
Governor Perry's task force on What We Learned From Those Nasty Hurricanes Last Year has presented its recommendations.
Texas can best manage future disasters by vesting the governor with the power to order mandatory evacuations, a task force recommended Monday.The task force was convened by Gov. Rick Perry to address the lessons learned from Hurricane Rita. Its report said a single, well-informed official could best coordinate an efficient evacuation of multiple cities, counties and regions. During Rita, some coastal residents turned back when the freeways leading from Houston were jammed with fleeing inland residents.
[...]
Houston Mayor Bill White and Harris County Judge Robert Eckels, the officials most involved in the evacuation of millions of coastal residents from Rita, appeared with Perry on Monday to endorse the plan.
"More than anything, this is a great starting point," Eckels said.
After holding six public hearings across the state, the task force made 21 recommendations to Perry in five areas: command and control; evacuation of people with special needs; fuel availability along evacuation routes; gridlock elimination; and public awareness.
The task force recommended the state direct licensed and unlicensed special-needs facilities to create and maintain evacuation plans, and designate a state agency to ensure compliance.
[...]
The task force report also recommends the Texas Department of Transportation work with industry to create a plan to ensure fuel is available along evacuation routes. After Rita struck, White called it "totally unacceptable" that the state failed to provide fuel along the evacuation routes.
[...]
The panel also called on TxDOT to develop contraflow traffic plans for nine highways and interstates leading away from coastal areas, including I-10, I-45, U.S. 290 and U.S. 59.
Lots to digest here. I suppose the advantage of putting the Governor in charge of evacuations is that he or she can (theoretically, at least) ensure that coastal regions are given a head start on places like Houston. That was a big bone of contention for cities like Kemah, whose mayor is quoted in a mostly approving fashion later in the story. You can't stop people from heading for the hills, but you can order some people to get moving sooner than others. That ought to help.
I think the biggest challenge in developing a contraflow traffic plan is that you have to implement it from the outer areas in. With enough manpower and the right communications equipment, you could do an awful lot of this simultaneously. We may some day have the equipment, but having the manpower will be a huge obstacle.
Guess I'm going to need to hunt down a copy of this report and see if it's all high-level blue-sky stuff, or if they actually get into some logistics. I don't think there's anything wrong with what they're saying, I'm just not sure how doable some of it is, and I'm not sure how expensive it all would be. Within reason, whatever the expenditure is would be worthwhile (and hey, what a good time to have a budget surplus, right?), but I daresay the spirit will be willing but the flesh will be weak. We'll see what eventually gets proposed to the Lege.
Parting thought: Does Perry add any of this to the special session call, or does he wait till 2007 and hope we have a milder hurricane season this summer?
UPDATE: See Eric Berger's comment below for more information on the report and Governor Perry's likely course of action.
As we enter the voting part of primary season, it's good to see some coverage around the state of Republican moneybags James Leininger and his attempt to install five sycophants into the Lege. The stakes involved in his almost seven-figure campaign to oust Republican incumbents he deems unworthy are summed up in this Statesman story.
The outcome next month could speak volumes about whether Republican lawmakers can oppose major legislation backed by House leaders and conservative activists without digging their own political graves."If those people survive, others will be emboldened," said Cal Jillson, a political science professor at Southern Methodist University. "If they don't, others will be intimidated."
I've blogged before about how Tom Craddicks' Speakership is potentially at risk here, something which Houtopia also notes today. Watch these races carefully. Link via South Texas Chisme.
Meanwhile, this Star Telegram piece offers a laugh:
Hatley's campaign director characterized as "absurd" and "absolutely false" any suggestion that the candidate would kowtow to Leininger. He said the San Antonio contributor made the donations because he appreciates Hatley's conservative credentials."I don't know about any of those other campaigns, but we're running hard here," Watson said.
But Watson also confirmed that a Leininger-financed PAC had made an "in-kind" contribution by donating the services of political consultant Jeff Norwood. According to campaign reports, Leininger's PAC provided similar in-kind donations of Norwood's services to candidates Christian, Macias, Williams and Wilson.
Contacted in East Texas, Christian acknowledged that the Leininger-backed PAC is almost completely funding his campaign. He also said Norwood's consulting company has provided polling, consulting, and other services.
But like Hatley, the East Texas politician says Leininger has no control over his politics. If these are cookie-cutter campaigns, said Christian, "then I'm running the entire cookie cutter."
Of course you are, dear. And there is no Matrix, either. Link via ItPT.
I think most of these are easily knowable by my regular blogging, but just for the record, here are my endorsements for Democratic primary elections in Harris County. Only contested races are included here.
Senator - Barbara Radnofsky
Governor - Chris Bell
Lt. Governor - Ben Grant
Agriculture Commissioner - Hank Gilbert
U. S. Representative, District 7 - No preference, as I think both candidates are worthy of support. Read my interview with Jim Henley and with David Murff and make your decision:
Henley interview
Murff interview
I've asked both candidates for a statement to be printed here, as a final pitch for your vote. When I get them, I'll post them.
U. S. Representative, District 10 - Ted Ankrum
State Representative, District 140 - No recommendation. I honestly don't know enough about challenger John Reyes to evaluate him against Rep. Kevin Bailey. I don't much care for campaigns based on demographics, but I've no reason to doubt that Reyes is qualified. If anyone from either campaign wants to send me a statement about why they deserve voters' support, I'll be happy to print it.
State Representative, District 146 - Borris Miles
State Representative, District 147 - Rep. Garnet Coleman
Early voting starts today, and the primary itself is in two weeks. Whoever you support, get out there and vote!
I've complained many a time about the Chron's piss-poor coverage of local races. Seeing the half-assed, apathetic stories they have today on the Senate and Congressional primaries does nothing to change my opinion of their efforts. Look at how little useful information there is in these stories. Do you know anything more about any of these candidates than you did before? If this is going to be the only freaking story you write during the entire freaking campaign, why can't you at least ask the candidates some questions and then print their full answers? You know, do some actual interviews. You can even ask the incumbents to join in answering them, where appropriate. Who knows, we might learn something. If there's not enough room in your news hole for the full interview, then give a teaser in print and put the rest of it on your website. Why is this so hard?
And while I'm in rant mode here, do we not understand the distinction between a candidate who is actually campaigning for an office, and a candidate who has done and will do nothing but pay his filing fee? Again I ask, what purpose is being served?
For all of the good work the Chron has done with blogs, their lack of any bloglike coverage of campaigns (something which both the Statesman and the Express News have done with decent success) is never more glaring an oversight than when lousy stories like these hit the pages. Even if today's efforts weren't journalistic Cheetoes, just doing that kind of one-time, thousand-foot-view of a campaign is an anachronism. Political junkies want more and can find it elsewhere, while the more casual voter who still wants to feel informed comes away unsatisfied. You know what to do and you know how to do it, so why aren't you? Who in your audience still wants to see this sort of thing?
And finally, with early voting for primaries set to begin tomorrow, where are the endorsements? The Express News became the fourth of the five major dailies to make an endorsement in the Governor's race (they also threw in a nod for Carlos Uresti for good measure), leaving you-know-who as the lone holdout. I recognize that there's not much time between the filing deadline and today, which makes it a tall task to screen everyone and write the endorsement pieces, and that this rush can lead to some due diligence failures, but that's a risk I can live with. It's sure better than disinterest.
Another great baseball broadcaster has called his last game.
Curt Gowdy, whose distinctive baritone was the TV voice of the Red Sox for 15 years, died at his Florida home after a long battle with leukemia. He was 86.Gowdy announced Red Sox games from 1951-1966 before leaving to become a national sports broadcaster for NBC.
According to the Baseball Hall of Fame website, Gowdy made his broadcasting debut in 1944 atop an orange crate in Cheyenne, Wyoming, doing the play-by-play of a six-man football game between Pine Bluff and St. Mary's before 15 fans in sub-zero weather.
His enthusiasm and distinctive style during his subsequent broadcasts of minor league baseball and major league recreations over KOMA in Oklahoma City earned him an opportunity with the New York Yankees and Mel Allen in 1949, the site says.
Two years later, Gowdy became head man on the Boston Red Sox broadcast team. He left the Red Sox in 1966 for a 10-year stint as Game of the Week announcer for NBC.
[...]
In 1984, Gowdy won the Ford C. Frick Award, presented annually by the Baseball Hall of Fame to a broadcaster for major contributions to baseball. Each award recipient is recognized in the "Scribes & Mikemen" exhibit in the library of the Hall.
Gowdy’s distinctive style made him popular across Red Sox Nation and around the country. He once recalled: "I tried to pretend that I was sitting in the stands with a buddy watching the game -- poking him in the ribs when something exciting happened. I never took myself too seriously. An announcer is only as good as yesterday's performance."
I remember Gowdy, along with Joe Garagiola, for narrating all the World Series and All Star Game highlight films I saw multiple times in baseball camp as a kid. He had a great voice and a style that was both serious of the subject matter but not full of himself. We could use more of that from the booths these days. Rest in peace, Curt Gowdy. Thanks to David Pinto for the heads-up.
State Rep. Garnet Coleman is the one member of the House Democratic leadership to face a reelection battle this year, as two challengers entered the Democratic primary for HD147 at the last minute. Coleman is one of the true good guys that the Dems have in the Lege, and as excited as everyone is about the Rodriguez-Cuellar, Uresti-Madla, and Miles-Bennett-Edwards races, let's not overlook this one. I had the opportunity to ask Rep. Coleman a few questions recently, and I present his answers here.
1. What do you think was your best accomplishment from the regular and special sessions last year?Our best accomplishment was the adoption of the Hochberg Amendment over the objections of the Republican leadership. In addition to providing a real teacher pay raise, the Hochberg Amendment would have put more resources into our schools and provided more tax relief for the vast majority of Texas homeowners than the Republican plan. Unfortunately, the leadership shut down the session after a bi-partisan majority of legislators voted for the Hochberg Amendment. On a personal level, I was proud to pass the Bob Meadours Act--legislation requiring law enforcement officials to undergo crisis intervention training for dealing with persons with mental illnesses.
2. What do you think of the work the Texas Tax Reform Commission (TTRC) has done? What of their proposals do you want to see enacted?I am certainly hopeful that the TTRC will recommend a fair tax system that will reduce our over-reliance on property taxes, satisfy the Court’s ruling, and increase the state’s investment in our public schools. I am very concerned, however, that the individuals appointed to the commission are not representative of Texans and that they will likely recommend a tax swap in which a regressive tax, such as the sales tax, is increased purely to pay for a property tax decrease. This is similar to the Republican plans we have seen in the past that would have raised taxes on almost 90 percent of Texans and done nothing to improve public education. I will not support such a plan regardless of whether John Sharp or anyone else, Democrat or Republican, recommends it. My constituents don’t care who recommends a policy; they care how that policy affects their lives. What matters to them is that the state increase its investment in our neighborhood schools and that we pass a tax system that requires everyone to pay their fair share rather than simply shifting the burden onto those who can least afford to bear it. Ultimately, it is the Legislature’s job to find a school finance solution that ensures a bright future for our state regardless of what the TTRC recommends.
3. Governor Perry wants the upcoming special session to be only about property tax reform, and to postpone action on school finance reform until 2007 (see here). Lt. Gov. Dewhurst disagrees (see here). Which is your preference and why?
I disagree with Governor Perry as well. The upcoming special session should deal not only with reducing property taxes but also with improving our public schools. School children should come first and our teachers should come first. If we pass tax reform aimed only at generating sufficient revenue to reduce property taxes then our schools will continue to drift towards inadequacy. If we wait until the next regular session to pass school improvements, then those polices won’t go into effect until September 2007. Improving our children’s schools should be on the agenda now.
4. The Democrats were able to derail the Perry/Craddick school finance reforms last year by getting the "Hochberg Amendment" passed as an alternative (see here). Will something similar be proposed this time around? How likely do you think it will be to pass if so?We will have a plan that mirrors the Hochberg Plan to the extent possible under the Governor’s call.
5. Among the reforms that the Republicans want to pass are a uniform school start date, holding school board elections at the same time as regular legislative elections, and merit pay for teachers. How do you assess these proposals?I am against merit pay unless we first bring teacher pay, across-the-board, to the national average. We should consult with teachers and parents before passing a mandated uniform school start date because it has implications beyond economic considerations. I oppose holding school board elections at the same time as legislative elections as such a move would inject partisanship into the process. Why fix what isn’t broken.
6. One of your primary opponents, in reference to your opposition to HJR6, the anti-gay marriage amendment, said that "Mr. Coleman is bought by the constituents of the gays" (see here). Do you believe that your support for gay rights will hurt you in March?I hope not. But my pledge is to continue to support equal rights for all Texans and that includes GLBT Texans. As a matter of principle, bigotry and hate should be stamped out everywhere. The Republicans have used attacks against gays and other groups—the latest example is immigrants— as political wedges to advance their cause. That’s wrong.
7. HJR6, the Texas Enterprise Fund, HB 3588 (creating the Trans Texas Corridor), HB2292 (the massive health and human services bill from 2003 that among other things cut CHIP funding), HJR3 (the tort reform constitutional amendment from 2003) - All of these bills were passed with at least some "Yes" votes by Democratic legislators. How does this happen? What if anything can or should be done about it?First, we must make sure that members on the floor are aware of what’s in a bill. After the true details of the Trans Texas Corridor bill became evident, I filed legislation and amendments to repeal portions of it. Some bills, such as HB 2292, are so obviously harmful to Texans that no legislator should vote for them. Democratic members ought to be about our principles and voting our districts. We had greater success this past session in maintaining a unified front against harmful legislation such as the Republican leadership’s school finance plan. The 2004 defeat of several Democrats who decided to represent Speaker Craddick’s agenda rather than their own constituents probably had something to do with that.
8. Comptroller Strayhorn has just announced that the state has a budget surplus of $4.3 billion. Some of that is money set aside for education, but most of it isn't. What should be done with this surplus?I believe that the state should restore the cuts to the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), mental health services, and other health and human services programs that were enacted in 2003. I have filed numerous bills and amendments to restore those cuts, which have, among other things, resulted in over 180,000 kids losing CHIP coverage.
9. When you look ahead to the 80th Legislature in 2007, what do you see?Either the Republicans will continue on their march against the interest of most Texans, or we will derail the current leadership. Our job is to shine a light on the hypocrisy, raise the contradictions, and represent Texans who get up and go to work everyday. If we continue to see the leadership push legislation that is harmful to most Texans, then we will continue to forward a vigorous and vigilant opposition on the merits.
If you want to help out Rep. Coleman, you can do so here.
First-time candidate for public office Larry Stallings has a request:
Now is the time for some of those bright Trinity kids to actually write a cookbook on how to get elected in Texas - yes, a cookbook, a "take an egg and break it, putting the contents in a bowl and throwing away the hard white shell" kind of cookbook. A cookbook with descriptions of offices, requirements for running for them, how many petitions signatures are needed to get on the ballot without paying a filing fee, demographic information, filing requirements, how to decide on a strategy for winning and how to make tactical decisions, the qualities of a good campaign staff, how long it takes to leaflet x number of houses - just really simple stuff like that.
Pieces of this certainly exist in various locations, online and off, but I'd bet there's no one source for all of it and anything useful and related to it. This sounds like a pretty good idea to me. Anyone want to comment on this?
Via Dwight, the city of Houston has posted an RFP (which you can get in either Word or PDF format, and on which you can post a comment here) for a citywide WiFi network. It'll be a public/private partnership like what's going on in Philadelphia. Read more about it at Dwight's place and at Save Muni WiFi.
Speaking as one of those annoying people who uses the default sound on his cellphone, I'm slightly boggled to read that composing ringtones is big business. And now, anyone can do it!
Ring tones are already big business, accounting for $4 billion in revenue worldwide, and jumping from $277 million in 2004 to $600 million in revenues in the United States, according to Jupiter Research. That consumers will spend $2.50 for a song clip to use as their ring tone when a full recording costs less than $1 to download has not been lost on the struggling music industry. Meanwhile, start-up companies have emerged selling software that lets users turn chunks of their favorite CDs into rings.Harmony Line is different. Founded in 2004 by MIT composer Tod Machover, whose work has been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Pops, the company aims to market its Hyperscore software, a program designed to allow nonschooled musicians to compose fully conceived pieces with relative ease.
Harmony Line decided recently to offer a simplified version of the program for free to entice people to buy the complete software, which retails for $30. With the move, Harmony Line joins a small but growing group of companies that are trying to offer an alternative to the prerecorded samples sold as cell-phone downloads that rule the Billboard ring tone charts.
The Billboard ringtone charts. Some days, I know for sure that I really am an old fart.
Anyway, I blogged this because one piece of family gossip I picked up when everyone was in town for Uncle Ken's funeral was that my cousin Aaron is composing ringtones for a company in Asia, where he's now living. I'm just glad to know that you actually can make a living at it.
And for my birthday present, we got some poll numbers from the DMN. (All results are summarized here.) I'll start with the highlights:
If the November general election for governor were being held today and Chris Bell were the Democratic nominee, for whom would you vote?
Rick Perry: 36%
Chris Bell: 19%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 16%
Kinky Friedman: 10%If the election were today, and Bob Gammage were the Democratic nominee, for whom would you vote?
Rick Perry: 36%
Bob Gammage: 17%
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 17%
Kinky Friedman: 10%ASKED OF KINKY FRIEDMAN VOTERS
If the election were today, and the candidates were Rick Perry, Chris Bell and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, for whom would you vote?
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 34%
Chris Bell: 25%
Rick Perry: 18%
Would not vote: 12%If the election were today, and the candidates were Rick Perry, Bob Gammage and Carole Keeton Strayhorn, for whom would you vote?
Carole Keeton Strayhorn: 36%
Bob Gammage: 20%
Rick Perry: 18%
Would not vote: 14%
Perry checks in with a 47/38 approve/disapprove rate, which is more or less in line with his most recent SurveyUSA tally, and an improvement from previous negative results. This is probably my favorite bit:
What do you think has been Mr. Perry's most important accomplishment as governor (no choices provided)?
None: 20%
Hurricane Katrina/disaster relief: 8%
Other: 8%
Education reform/improvement: 7%
Taxes/tax reform/ reduced spending: 2%
Jobs/economic development: 2%
Highway construction: 1%
Border control: 1%
That about sums up Rick Perry. If given a choice, "Katrina relief" goes up to 28%, but "None" is still 21%.
From the article:
"Perry is doing well because the opposition is split three ways," pollster Mickey Blum said. "If that weren't the case, he wouldn't be looking so good. Getting 36 percent as the incumbent Republican in a Republican state – that's not so great."
I'm glad someone finally said that. Regardless of the other candidates' totals, both the WSJ/Zogby Online and Rasmussen polls have put Perry consistently below 50%, ranging as low as 40%. This is a new trough, and is about as low as I think it's possible for him to go.
[T]he poll highlights several potential warning signs for the governor, Ms. Blum said, as he tries to win a second four-year term and become the longest-serving governor in Texas history.He is attracting only 59 percent of his 2002 general election voters, a sign that some former supporters "are not happy with [him] and are looking for someone else," she said.
Mr. Perry's backing is solid among GOP loyalists but soft among other groups – including nominal Republicans, independents and minority voters who have spread their support among the rest of the field. Ms. Blum said Mr. Perry could be vulnerable if voters were to coalesce behind a single challenger.
"One of them has to break out, and people have to decide that if they don't want Perry, they have to agree on one of the other guys," Ms. Blum said.
Which is probably why Strayhorn and Bell/Gammage will likely have to turn on each other at some point. The not-Perry pie is big enough to win, but only if one person's slice is much bigger than the others'.
I'm actually a little surprised that Strayhorn's numbers are as poor as they are here. I've said before that the Rasmussen results feel wrong to me, and I'm not sure I'm confident in this one, either. What I do note is that Rasmussen has less than 10% of its respondents undecided, while this poll has about 20%. I'd say that's more likely to be realistic.
The poll of Friedman supporters, something which was way overdue, seems to be a bit of a Rohrschach test, as Greg and Karl-T come to opposite conclusions about the Kinkster's presence on the ballot. I lean more towards Greg here, and I think we have One Tough Grandma to thank for that. Whoever said back in January that she'd suck the oxygen out of Friedman's campaign was dead on. Other than the "60 Minutes" story, which was done before OTG jumped in, he's been much less visible in the media lately. Now if only we could get a similar question asked of Strayhorn supporters.
Elsewhere, Bell picked up endorsements from the Statesman and from Houston State senators Rodney Ellis and John Whitmire. Gammage claimed the nod of the El Paso Times and State Rep. Senfronia Thompson. And what do you know, the still-endorsementless Chron wrote an actual story on the Dem primary. Maybe they will get around to writing about the other races before early voting closes.
UPDATE: SurveyUSA has Perry at 47 approve/45 disapprove in February, which is back in line with November and December after an uncharacteristically positive January for him. Link via Political Wire.
Today is my 40th birthday. We had a little party to celebrate last night, and I think everyone had a good time. Before anyone asks, the answer is I feel great about hitting this milestone. If my 40s are to my 30s as my 30s were to my 20s, I'm in for a great decade.
Of course, the truly momentous thing about this is that it means that Cindy Crawford will be turning 40 tomorrow. I'm in good company.
I don't have much to say about this story, in which Mayor Pro Tem Carol Alvarado says "that's not my handwriting!" on forms authorizing those unauthorized bonuses. It's still too early to say whether anyone other than those currently accused may be dirty, or if anyone should have been more proactive to prevent this. A handwriting analyst quoted by the Chron says we don't even have enough of a sample to compare to Alvarado's real sig - the forms just had initials on them.
Let's just investigate the hell out of this and get it over with. The city has bigger issues to deal with.
I've got family and friends in town this weekend for my birthday, so I'll be spending a lot of time away from the computer. I'll post some stuff, just not so much. I'd suggest we all go outside and enjoy the nice weather, but Mother Nature didn't cooperate. Alas. Go wish Julia a happy fourth blogiversary, and enjoy the weekend in spite of the temperatures.
I've blogged before about uber voucher proponent James Leininger and his financing of likeminded candidates for the Lege, but I hadn't realized until I read this Harvey Kronberg piece just how much control he exerts over them and their campaigns.
Apparently, Leininger doesn't trust these candidates to run their own campaigns. Very little of his money is actually going to the candidates. Instead, it’s Leininger's PAC that is directly paying the consultants and pollsters. His PAC is bypassing the campaigns and directly buying the television and radio time, as well as paying the people doing the mail and producing the commercials. In fact, it’s fair to say these five campaigns are run by the PAC and its consultants, with the actual candidates reduced to little more than figurehead or employee status.So it’s not surprising that the voters in Nacogdoches are seeing the exact same cookie-cutter advertising as are the folks in say, Fort Worth, Lubbock or New Braunfels.
When one man all but single handedly organizes, plans and funds five campaigns, local voters might reasonably question whether Leininger's candidates will represent them rather than the wealthy physician from San Antonio.
Beyond the sheer creepiness of this, it's just wrong on more levels than I can count that Leininger could be in a position to weild such an outsized amount of influence over the Lege. James Leininger is accountable to no one, and he may have as many as five legislators who owe their seats entirely to him and his money. I can't think of a better argument for campaign contribution limits. Real ones, ones that take PACs and varations on them into account.
Link via Eye on Williamson, who analogizes Leininger to Clear Channel and its centralization of control over its radio stations.
On the plus side, this does seem to be getting some notice. The Lufkin Daily News has a good editorial on the subject, and one of Leininger's targets is fighting back with an ad that you can hear at PinkDome. I sincerely hope that as of March 8, Leininger will have nothing to show for this effort but a lighter checkbook.
It's bad enough that people like Richard Cohen can proudly write about their own ignorance and have it pass as commentary. What's worse is that I don't think it's ever occurred to Cohen how competence in mathematics could make him a better political analyst, or his colleagues at the Post and other media outlets better reporters. You can browse my archives for various instances where I've tried to correct some misperception, like how much more Democratic CD22 is, or how much the state gas tax would really have to be to fund highway needs, but the bottom line is that these misperceptions wouldn't exist if the person who wrote the original stories knew how to evaluate the claims in question. None of this is hard - the stuff I do for electoral analysis involves imprting publicly available data into Access, running a basic query, and exporting the results into Excel for comparison and summarization. (Yeah, I could probably do it all in Access, but I'm more confident of my Excel fu than I am of my SQL fu. Sue me.)
Not being able or willing to do the math isn't just a personal failing. For reporters and pundits, I say it's a professional failing. Richard Cohen should be ashamed of himself.
More on the topic, from Kevin Drum, Atrios, Pharyngula, and Big Media Matt. And just so there's no question in anyone's mind, Olivia will be taught from an early age that she can do math as well as anybody else.
The headline pretty much says it all: Candidate worked as prostitute.
[Tom Malin, a Dallas Democrat who is seeking election to the Texas House] acknowledged Thursday that he once worked as a prostitute."I've made mistakes in my life, and I've stood before my Creator and I've accepted responsibility for my behavior," Mr. Malin said. "I've also accepted his grace and his redemption and his love and his forgiveness, and that's what's important."
Web pages that have been used to advertise the sexual services of "Todd Sharpe" say he previously worked in the New York City and Los Angeles areas. His rates ranged from $200 to $600, according to graphically detailed reviews from men whom the pages described as satisfied customers.
Mr. Malin said he no longer works as a prostitute.
"I knew that if I continued on with that, I would die," Mr. Malin said. "God spoke to me, and I knew I had to make a different choice in life."
[...]
Mr. Malin is running for House District 108, which covers much of central Dallas and the Park Cities.
On Thursday, he received a key endorsement from the Dallas Tejano Democrats, a Hispanic political group.
"We were not aware of this, and he never mentioned it to us during the screening," said Domingo Garcia, chairman of the local Tejano Democrats. "Obviously we will have to reconsider our decision based on the new information."
The Dallas Morning News editorial board also recommended Mr. Malin, but in light of this new information, said it was reconsidering that recommendation.
His opponent in next month's Democratic primary is retired salesman Jack Borden, who said he was disappointed to learn of the revelation.
"I'm wondering who put him up to run in the first place," Mr. Borden said. "I don't approve of anybody selling their body."
Mr. Malin said the decision to run was his own.
The winner will face incumbent Republican Dan Branch in November. Mr. Branch had no comment on Mr. Malin's past, saying he looked forward to standing before voters in the general election.
Former Dallas County Democratic chairwoman Susan Hays, a Malin supporter, said the candidate told her about his past in the buffet line of a local restaurant.
"He kind of amazed me," she said. "He's been a mess, but righted himself. He's got more honesty and energy than his Democratic opponent and Dan Branch."
[...]
Mr. Malin said he would continue to campaign for the state House.
"People don't care where you have been," he said. "They just want to know where you are going. All I know is that the ultimate authority is God. That's what's most important."
There are, I suppose, two ways to approach a story like this. One is to give in to the natural snark instinct ("Hey, Jeff Gannon! Finally, there's someone you're qualified to interview!"), and the other is to note that one of the great things about America is that it's a land of redemption and second chances. I believe the expression in the evangelical community is "the greater the sin, the more glorious the salvation". If the primary voters choose to look at where Mr. Malin is going as opposed to where he's been and pick him to be the nominee for HD108, I'll be fine with that.
Keven Ann Willey of the DMN editorial board explains in their blog why the paper will in fact rescind its endorsement of Malin. Whether or not you agree with her conclusion, I at least see nothing objectionable about the board's reasoning. Check it out.
The METRO meeting to discuss the Universities rail line was very well attended.
Some 350 people arrived in cars, buses and light rail trains Thursday to hear 28 of them advise the Metro board on whether its planned University line should go on Richmond Avenue.The unofficial score was eight opposed to rail on Richmond, four in favor and 16 wanting the Metropolitan Transit Authority to consider all its options, talk with a lot of people and make a wise decision.
Whatever the board decides late this year, it should "keep the city's long-term best interests in mind" and "build something our children and grandchildren can be proud of," said blogger Tory Gattis.
Gattis also said that if Richmond is the choice instead of Westpark — the designated route in a 2002 referendum on Metro's transit plans that was narrowly approved by voters — the board should appoint "somebody with real power" to advocate for business and residents during construction, and ride herd on contractors to minimize harm.
Metro should also "consider a well-funded 'Support Richmond Business' campaign," Gattis said.
As previously noted, Gattis summarized his remarks here. Robin Holzer has some more in depth coverage here. Christof was one of the sixteen who spoke in favor of letting the process work. There's some discussion of the meeting in this Houston Architecture Forum thread as well. I'm encouraged that as many people as did spoke in favor of looking at all available options and making a sound decision based on that rather than on emotion and political expediency.
It wasn't just the 2006 State of the Union address where Henry Cuellar gave President Bush some sugar. The Lone Star Project has the video evidence.
Of much greater concern than that is Cuellar's support of the Minutemen. Let me just say: eww.
You can hear Ciro Rodriguez's interview on Agonist Radio here. He's up to $127K on ActBlue now, by the way.
Speaking of video evidence, what happens when a Star Wars fan with too much time on his hands dinks with Frank Madla's Democrats in my trunk clip? You get this. Whoever said politics had to be stuffy?
Slightly more seriously, Carlos Uresti filmed a campaign ad hammering Madla for his vote on HB2292 from 2003. We know that bill helped bring Arlene Wohlgemuth down in her bid to unseat Rep. Chet Edwards in 2004. Will it strike again this year? Here's a nice overview of the race so far.
Endorsements! Barbara Radnofsky picks up the nod from the DMN to go with the earlier recommendation of the Star Telegram. This was an obvious choice for the Democratic primary, of course, but both papers still went out of their way to say good things about her.
Latinos for Texas make their picks as well. Read the comments for some good discussion on the decision they made in the Governor's race.
Finally, on the other side of the aisle, there's some rumblings in Williamson County, where State Rep. Mike Krusee, a top target of anti-toll road forces, has apparently commissioned a push poll. Eye on Williamson has the details.
I like Philip Martin's postgame wrapup on the HD48 special election. Much of what he mentions is, I think, replicable in other races. And yes, Ben Bentzin's ties to the DeLay machine certainly did him no favors. Dems will need to take advantage of that where they can.
Jason Embry and Gardner Selby offer their views as well. One should never draw too broad a conclusion from a special election like this - if nothing else, the only-game-in-town factor skews the dynamics of such a campaign - but there are definitely things to learn from them.
Just a thought: Compare the education, income and housing, and population overviews of HD48 to the same three things in HD134. They're pretty similar. Probably doesn't mean anything, but it's interesting to note.
I'm a little late to the party here (life is like that sometimes), but let me add my voice to those who are criticizing this bad idea from Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt.
Surveillance cameras monitored by police could be installed along Main Street in an effort to deter crime in the downtown area, Houston Police Chief Harold Hurtt said today.He said the project is still in the planning stages, but he hopes to have a least five cameras up this year.
''I know a lot of people are concerned about big brother, but my response to that is if you aren't doing anything wrong why worry about it,'' he said.
Yeah, Ed Meese said more or less the same thing when he was running amok in the Justice Department in the 80s. The notion hasn't improved any with age.
Hurtt said the department needs a mix of more officers and technology to fight crime.''I don't think anyone in this room believes we can afford to hire enough officers to put one on every corner, but we can have cameras to relay activity to the authorities,'' he said.
Hurtt said installing cameras would be less expensive than hiring officers. He said the Downtown Management District has recommended the idea and would be willing to fund the project should it be approved by the district's board.
''Once you buy the equipment and you put it in place and you have a maintenance contract in place, I would think it would be less expensive then paying officers to stand on those corners," he said.
You know, I blame CSI and 24 for this belief that surveillance cameras are a panacea for crimefighting. If only it all worked like it does on teevee. Without an investment in some expensive technology, and in the skilled people who can operate it, what you get is basically a bunch of clerks - or worse, cops who might otherwise be doing real work - watching endless hours of videotape. Doesn't sound like such a good deal to me.
If there were solid evidence that surveillance cameras actually did reduce crime, I'd be happy to engage in a discussion about whether or not the tradeoff of security for liberty was worth it. But as Scott points out, all the evidence from London, home of CCTV cameras on every street, is that it has no effect. Why would we want to emulate that?
''I think people are upset when people are robbed and killed on the streets of Houston and there is a lot of controversy about that,'' he said. ''We are trying to respond to that. I don't see a lot of people standing up and saying tax me for public safety.''
Actually, I think if there's one thing most people would be willing to pay a few bucks more in taxes for, it's better public safety. Why are we so afraid to even ask?
Nothing like allegations of unauthorized bonuses paid to City Hall staffers to shake things up downtown.
Four employees in Houston City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado's mayor pro tem office were placed on administrative leave today after city officials said "payroll irregularities" were discovered.The pro tem office, separate from Alvarado's district office, handles administrative functions for the 14 council members. The office was empty this afternoon.
Houston Mayor Bill White's spokesman, Frank Michel, said an internal investigation has been launched to look into the "payroll irregularities," which were discovered by the city's finance officials in recent days.
Mayor Bill White said the allegation under investigation is that four employees in the office somehow received unauthorized bonuses totaling $130,000. Investigators are trying to determine how that would have been arranged, and whether it would require cooperation by employees in other city departments.
"It's a betrayal of the public trust," White said. "We will follow it through to the full extent of the law."
Alvarado confirmed the investigation this afternoon, but did not provide details.
"I am deeply disappointed to learn of these alleged irregularities. I support the investigation and fully intend to cooperate. I want to get to the bottom of this matter as quickly as possible."
Here's her full statement. Her City Council staff, which is separate from the Mayor Pro Tem office, is not involved.
This updated story has more from Councilmember Alvarado.
Houston City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado deflected responsibility today for the improper bonuses city officials say some of her employees received, saying she trusted subordinates to oversee payroll administration."There is no way that an elected official can police every single iota, every single detail, that goes on in their office,'' she said this morning. "My job is to delegate, to hire people, to trust people that will bring forward any types of irregularities.''
The four employees, who work in the mayor pro tem office that Alvarado oversees, have been placed on administrative leave pending a police investigation into how they received more than $130,000 in extra pay since late 2004.
"Something slipped through the cracks,'' said Alvarado, whose district office employees have not been implicated in the investigation of the separate mayor pro tem operation.
[...]
Asked whether someone might have forged her signature, or she might accidentally have signed off on the payments, Alvarado said, "There is something that doesn't smell right here. There's no way in hell I would ever authorize an increase of that magnitude.''
Ask whether she felt responsible, she replied, "My responsibility, once something is brought to my attention, is to correct it, to make sure procedures are put in place, to make sure that something like this never happens again.''
One never looks good in a story that says one has "deflected responsibility" for something bad. This has been a rough couple of months for Carol Alvarado. She's in her last term of office, and this is not the sort of way that one wants to make an exit. She may be right about her delegations, and it may well be that she hasn't done anything different than any other Mayor Pro Tem did, but the "I didn't know" defense is never flattering. I like Carol Alvarado and I hope she survives this, but she's going to take some lumps for it.
As noted by Houstonist, the Chron did not print any names, as the people involved have not yet been charged with a crime, but KHOU did. There's also some more quotes from previous Council members Mark Goldberg and previous Mayor Pro Tem Gordon Quan.
UPDATE: One of the employees involved speaks to KPRC. Houstonist thinks there's more bad news to come for Carol Alvarado.
UPDATE: The ubiquitous Bob Stein chimes in. Link via South Texas Chisme.
Thanks to some excellent support from Movable Type, I believe I've gotten TypeKey authentication working. That means that as of now, if you sign in with a TypeKey ID, your comment will appear right away, with no wait for approval. If not, your comment will appear after I approve it as before. No one has to use TypeKey, but if you do you'll see your comments faster. Let me know if you run into any problems. Thanks!
Maybe we should just declare a moratorium on all political advertising related to the CD22 race this year.
After four Houston TV stations initially refused last month to show an ad criticizing the Republican House member from Sugar Land, at least one local station is refusing to run a new spot that promotes the lawmaker and attacks a prominent supporter of the Democrats."We have chosen not to take the spot in its current form," said D'Artagnan Bebel, vice president and general manager of the local Fox affiliate, KRIV (Channel 26). He would not elaborate on why.
[...]
The 30-second spot from the conservative Free Enterprise Committee attacks billionaire financier and Democratic supporter George Soros for spending "$25 million against President Bush. He also bankrolled the liberals linked to attacks on Tom DeLay."
Soros contributed $300,000 to the Campaign for America's Future, which along with the Public Campaign Action Fund, put out the ad that highlighted ties between DeLay and disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff.
[...]
The new ad features pictures of a bewildered-looking Soros followed by a smiling DeLay. "When you see attacks on DeLay, consider the source," it says. "And tell Tom DeLay to keep fighting for your conservative values."
You know what? I don't like this decision any more than I liked the ones that prevented the anti-DeLay ads from appearing at first. This ad sounds like the usual boogeyman scaremongering that I'd expect from a group like the Free Enterprise Committee, but stupidity is (for better or worse) not a disqualification from the public discourse. Are they making a factual claim that's provably false? Skirting the line on slander? Depicting Soros with horns and a tail? If the answers to these questions are all "No", then I have to say, I don't see what the fuss is. And I damn sure don't like this trend of local stations vetoing political ads, even if this is the first time I can recall where it was a pro-Republican ad that got the axe. Though I'd prefer that the current legal standards be changed to require more transparency in advertising, if this ad meets those standards, it should be allowed to run. I don't understand why this is not the case, just as I didn't understand it the last time.
Meanwhile, on a side note, DeLayVsWorld adds some extra context to the recent Chron story about DeLay's attacks on primary opponent Tom Campbell (I noted the Fort Bend Now piece on this topic). An item of interest from the AP wire story:
DeLay's campaign charged that Campbell, a Houston attorney, "tried to hide the fact" that he's voted in only two Republican primaries since registering to vote in Fort Bend County a dozen years ago. The campaign also alleged Campbell lied about his activities with the Fort Bend Republican Party, is raising money outside the district, and that his campaign commercial contains footage from Michigan.[...]
Campbell answered, "I don't recall," when asked how many of the last four Republican primaries he voted in. Campbell acknowledged to The Associated Press that he only voted in two primaries in the last 12 years.
"I have not voted as often as I should have," he said. "I have a national (legal) practice and travel hundreds of thousands of miles."
The issue of a candidate having a spotty voting record came up in the 2005 HISD1 election. I said then that I don't consider it to be that big a deal, but from the feedback I got, I'd say I'm squarely in the minority on that score. Be that as it may, Campbell's excuse for not voting is baloney. We have these things called "early voting" and "absentee voting", which he really ought to look into. It should be the exception, not the rule for one's travel schedule to affect one's ability to vote. I hate to say it, but between that and some of the other allegations against Campbell, he comes off looking like an amateur. Which is a shame, but that's how it goes.
METRO has announced a timetable for the Universities light rail line, which is the official name for the east-west line from UH/TSU to the Galleria area.
METRO board selects light rail technology Feb, 2006
Selection of technical team March, 2006
Technical work begins April, 2006
- evaluation of alternative alignments
- development of environmental impact statement
- preparation of New Starts project documentation
- preliminary engineering
Preliminary findings Oct, 2006
Final environmental report July, 2007
Record of Decision (FTA approval) Oct, 2007
Letter of No Prejudice
(for reimbursement of federal funds) Jan, 2008
Start construction Aug, 2008
Start service May, 2012
They also say the following regarding the location of the line, presumably in response to recent political pressure to favor one place over another:
The bottom line is that because there is no hard data on the pros and cons of either Richmond or Westpark, both streets should be included in the study process. No party, no matter how vocal, should be allowed to force an outcome at this early stage in the process that trumps the legitimate interests of other segments of our community.
I certainly agree with that. They'll get to see how vocal some of those parties are later today.
Residents and businesspeople from neighborhoods along routes from Main Street to the Galleria say they will tell the Metropolitan Transit Authority board today how they feel about a light rail on Richmond.They speak with many voices — some for, some against and some wanting Metro to consider all options.
That's today from 1 to 3 PM, at th METRO Administration Building, 2nd floor board room, 1900 Main St, between Pierce & St. Joseph Pkwy, Houston, 77002. Attend if you want your voice to be heard.
Though the 2003 ballot did name Westpark as a route, [Metro president and CEO Frank] Wilson noted that it also said each line was subject to available funding and the required legal process, which includes route studies and community input. "We are doing precisely what the referendum says," he said.Wilson has described Westpark, where Metro already owns right of way, as a "desert" that might not generate enough ridership for the line to qualify for federal funding.
[...]
Maps on Metro's Web site show the Westheimer alternative, which would lay rail through the posh Highland Village and Galleria shopping areas, branching off from Richmond via Weslayan or alongside the Union Pacific tracks, and running north to Westheimer.
But Wilson said Highland Village interests oppose the idea, and although Metro has not ruled it out, he said, the agency is "carrying forward" only the Richmond and Westpark alternatives.
Westpark and Richmond aren't so far apart that putting this line on Westpark would mean no one would use it to get to places on Richmond. I feel quite certain that a lot of the new housing being built on streets like Caroline in Neartown, which is at least as far from Main as Richmond is from Westpark, is being bought by people who wanted to live within walking distance of a rail stop. To that extent, I can sympathize with the argument for putting the train on Westpark.
But it's not just about getting to places on Richmond, it's also about getting to places on the equally heavily trafficked Westheimer, and to a lesser extent Alabama. Westheimer is a much longer walk from Westpark, enough of one that I think it would be disincentive to ride a Westpark rail line to get to a destination on Westheimer. And that's before you consider that to get to either Richmond or Westheimer from Westpark, you have to cross US59, which is pedestrian-unfriendly at best. And I just can't see what you'd do with the line east of Kirby, where Westpark terminates. Pro-Westpark advocates talk about running the line along US59 for that stretch, but with US 59 below grade most of the way from Kirby to Main, I don't see where you'd put it. I really can't picture this being a viable alternative to Richmond, which is where the people and the destinations already are.
Building it on Richmond is to my mind the most sensible thing to do, but it will be disruptive, and it will put businesses there under strain. I hope METRO has learned from its experiences with the Main Street line, and I hope they will live up to their promises to try and address the concerns the residents on Richmond have. But this is where it needs to go, and everyone involved needs to do what they can to make the best of it.
UPDATE: Tory spoke in favor of letting the process make the decision, not politics.
Carlos Guerra has a couple of good columns about the Trans Texas Corridor and the opposition its been generating in San Antonio, home of a nasty fight over toll roads. See this one about the financial aspects, and this one about how many aspects of the TTC are not widely discussed.
As happy as I am with Donna Howard's win on Tuesday, I think this is an overbid.
The seat was also once held by State Ag Commissioner Susan Coombs who is now seeking to replace Carol Strayhorn as Comptroller. Coombs and Gov. Rick Perry's organization played an aggressive role in attempting to hold the house district for the Republicans. Although special elections can be tricky and unpredictable the GOP candidate, Ben Bentzin, was a handsome, well-financed, ex-Dell executive. Democrat Howard was an attractive campaigner who did not pretend to be anything but a liberal.The primary issue was education and Howard's victory is heartening for candidates in both primaries who are critical of the governor's handling of that issue and the overall GOP performance. However former US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay's conduct was also a key issue as was the governor's quick call of the special election.
Many political observers believe that Howard's victory could mean that a Democratic takeover of the Texas House is a possibility.
I'm not aware of any political observers, let alone many, who think a Democratic takeover of the Texas House is a possibility in any real sense. The gap is too wide right now, and while the Dems have some attractive targets to aim for, they've also got some tough seats to defend.
Assuming Katy Hubener wins on Feb 28, the Democrats have a decent shot at six other seats in November: HDs 102 (Goolsby, Dallas County), 93 (Goodman, Tarrant County), 32 (Seaman, Aransas County), 47, (open, Travis County), 133 (open, Harris County), and 134 (Wong, Harris County). If they can hold all of their vulnerable seats save for Pete Laney's, which is almost surely a lost cause, and run the table on these seats, they're up to 70. That's still five seats shy of a split in the House.
Needless to say, that's a very optimistic scenario. Individually, each race is winnable, but putting them all together while losing no other ground is a very tall order. I'd put the over/under on Dem membership at 65, with a modest gain of two or three seats a reasonable goal. Bear in mind that would be a total gain of up to five over last session, which would be a nice accomplishment indeed. There are some other seats that could come into play, but you start getting into blue sky territory pretty quickly.
Now what could happen, if all the stars align, is that Tom Craddick's speakership might be in jeopardy. That's at least as dependent on several mostly Republican primaries as it is on any Dem gains in November. If Craddick-crat Al Edwards loses, if the Leininger Five survive, if the Texas Parent PAC notches a win or two, Craddick could be in deep trouble even before the Dems take a shot at increasing their numbers. All it would take is about ten Republicans to go along with just about every Democrat to name a different person as Speaker, and while that person would necessarily be another Republican, he or she would be the Democrats' choice for the job. Think about the implications of that for a minute.
How likely is this? Again, a lot of things have to go right. If Hubener follows Howard with another special election win for the Dems, I'd say it's fair to assume that the trends are pointing in that direction, but there's still a lot of factors in play. Bottom line is that the next three weeks could have a profound effect, not just on the upcoming special session, but on the 80th Lege as well. So stay tuned, it's gonna be a fun ride.
BOR and PerryVsWorld have the latest Rasmussen poll numbers for the Texas gubernatorial race.
500 Likely voters; MoE 4.5%, pollster Scott Rasmussen; conducted February 6th.
Rick Perry 40%
Carole Strayhorn 31%
Chris Bell 13%
Kinky Friedman 9%Rick Perry 38%
Carole Strayhorn 29%
Bob Gammage 18%
Kinky Friedman 8%Perry 53%/45% Favorable/Unfavorable
Strayhorn 55%/31% Favorable/Unfavorable
Bell 33%/36% Favorable/Unfavorable
Gammage 27%/43% Favorable/Unfavorable
Friedman 28%/40% Favorable/Unfavorable
PvsW in particular has some good thoughts on this. Rasmussen also did the Senate race again, but it's in their subscriber content. I saw a little blurb on it in the Quorum Report that suggested little movement there, which forces me to once again bring up the possibility that they're oversampling Republicans. Pollsters make assumptions about the ratio of R/D/I in the population and weight the responses they get accordingly. Without seeing their crosstabs, I can't assess those assumptions. I can only complain if the data they publish seem askew from my own assumptions.
Even without that concern, it's a little hard for me to believe that somewhere between one half and two thirds of the state's Democrats (if you use the Royal Masset 50R-35D-15I formula) would vote for a non-Democrat in November. I don't doubt that both Strayhorn and Friedman are taking support from Dems as they are from GOPers. I just don't think it's that much.
I could be wrong, of course. The thing about this race is that we have nothing to compare it to, so everything is guesswork and wishful thinking. We may all wind up looking like idiots in November.
I think PvsW is right in that the Dem nominee is going to have to go after Strayhorn to have a chance at winning. I can't see Perry slipping much lower than 40%, though I suppose another special session meltdown or two might hurt him. Strayhorn and Bell/Gammage together can beat Perry, but I don't think all of Strayhorn's support is transferable to the Dem, and vice versa. That said, even I will have to consider my options if a string of polls in October show Strayhorn neck and neck with Perry, while the Dem lags behind. I don't like the thought of that, and at this point I don't believe it will come to that, but I don't doubt for a minute that this is what's driving some of the Rasmussen dynamics right now.
Will prolonged exposure to Strayhorn make her more or less appealing to Democrats? Will she, as PvsW suspects, tack left to increase that appeal to them, and will that cost her support with other voters? Hell if I know. I still want to see more polling, and I want to know what assumptions the pollsters are making about the partisan mix. It's all still noise until then.
Last thought: 40% unfavorable for Friedman? That's way high. I seriously doubt that he and Bell and Gammage have enough name ID to have the levels of fav and unfav that this poll says they do.
Dwight is looking for a blog critic.
As I've been looking for and reading hundreds of Houston blogs with an eye toward linking them on our Opinion page, I've been thinking a lot about the quality of the posts. There's a wide variety out there, from insightful analysis and compelling writing to a lot of copying/pasting of other material, followed by what amounts to a "Yeah, right" comment . . . kind of the Web equivalent of radio's rip-and-read, with snark.It got me to thinking. Would Houston's blogging community benefit from a blogging critic?
He lists his criteria and asks for feedback, so take a look and give him a suggestion if you have one. I personally like the idea, and I've already given Dwight a few thoughts on the matter via email. Having considered it a bit more, I actually think someone who doesn't have a blog could do this, as long as he or she has been a consumer of blogs for long enough to have a good feel for the medium. I think design and features are viable fodder for criticism along with content. And I think whoever signs up to do this is going to need some asbestos underwear.
I also think it might make sense to have more than one person doing it. A little Ebert & Roeper action might be fun now and then, and I say keeping up with the entire blog scene, even just Houston's portion of it, is more than one person can do. That the critics will do their thing in a blog of their own goes without saying.
That's what I think. What do you think? Tell Dwight.
UPDATE: Lair thinks I'm wrong about a non-blogger being qualified for this gig.
Christof says that we'll be seeing "a lot of press coverage on Richmond rail in the next few days", thanks to the METRO board meeting on the rail line tomorrow and a protest by the anti-Richmond people today. While the antis have a lot of (apparently bad) information that they're freely giving out, METRO is not so good on the distribution front, which is a shame and sadly not out of character for them. In an attempt to fill that gap, Christof has created a FAQ, which he describes as "a list of the questions I hear asked about rail that METRO ought to be answering". Check it out, and give him some feedback in the CTC forum.
Information about tomorrow's METRO board meeting is included in a CTC press release that I've reprinted beneath the fold. It's unfortunate that they're holding this in the middle of a workday, but that's how it is. If you can be there, you ought to try.
HOUSTON LIGHT RAIL REQUIRES FACTS NOT POLITICS SAY CITIZENS: CITIZENS DEMAND METRO MUST KEEP RICHMOND LIGHT RAIL ON THE TABLE; CALL FOR OPEN AND FAIR PUBLIC PROCESS TO STUDY ALL THE OPTIONS
(Houston) - A small group of businesses and residents led by state Representative Martha Wong and US Congressman John Culberson are politicizing what should be an open public process and fact-based analysis to determine the best light rail route to serve central Houston's businesses, universities, institutions, and neighborhoods.
The "Richmond Area Residents and Businesses for Rail (RARBFR)" are raising serious and important concerns about METRO's Universities line rail project. At a public protest Wednesday and again at Thursday's METRO board meeting, they will demand METRO take Richmond off the table before it has even been studied. This is the wrong answer.
In contrast, many organizations, including the Citizens' Transportation Coalition, the Neartown Association, the Menil Foundation, Houston Community College Central Campus, the American Institute of Architects (AIA), the Museum District Business Alliance (MDBA), and others are calling for METRO to study all of the options, effectively engage the public, and address community concerns in the planning process.
What: METRO Board meeting - Public Comments
More than 40 neighborhood leaders to address the Board
When: Thursday, February 16, 2006 from 1:00 pm to ~ 3:00 pm
Where: METRO Administration Building, 2nd floor board room
1900 Main St, between Pierce & St. Joseph Pkwy, Houston, 77002
Houstonians deserve the best transit system we can build, which means looking at all possible choices of where to put rail. Politicians must not prematurely determine a route based on their needs.
CONTACT:
Robin Holzer
Chair, Citizens' Transportation Coalition
h (713) 526-2283
m (713) 301-5716
The new MLS team Houston 1836 is considering a name change.
Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Sylvia Garcia said Tuesday that Philip Anschutz, owner of the Anschutz Entertainment Group, which in turn controls 1836, confirmed that a name change is in the works for the Major League Soccer franchise."He (Anschutz) indicated that they (AEG) were strongly considering a name change, and before the weekend was over they committed that they would be doing it." said Garcia, whose director of communications, Paul Mabry, met with Anschutz over the weekend in Los Angeles. "I've confirmed that (that they would change the name) today (Tuesday) with the owner, Philip Anschutz, who's the CEO of the Anschutz Entertainment Group. I suspect we'll be hearing an official announcement very soon."
A person close to the situation said "Lonestar" or "Lone Star" looks to be the team's next name. Choices such as Apollos or Mustangs also are being considered, the person said. An announcement is expected no later than Tuesday.
KHOU had reported this earlier (link via Houstonist). I liked and still like the 1836 name. I'm going to gag if they swap it out for some variation on "Lone Star", even if they promise to revive the old Lone Star Beer commercial jingle that I love to hate as their team song. Pretty much every one of these names is better than Lone Star(s).
Of course, to be fair, I'm not very likely to ever buy a ticket to a Houston Name-Still-Pending game. So, as far as that goes, they really ought not to care what I think about their name.
In case you care, here's what some other people think: Sue thought "Houston 1836" was boring, so she's glad for the change. Rob is appalled. Stace is elated.
Closing thought: The article doesn't mention it, so I'm going to speculate that if season ticket sales had been meeting or exceeding expectations up till now, we wouldn't be having this conversation. I'd love to know if the name change, once it's officially announced, has any effect one way or the other.
Final tally, hot off the Secretary of State page:
Candidate Votes Pct
============================
Ben Bentzin 9,281 42.38
Donna Howard 12,618 57.62
Remember, this was a district drawn to elect a Republican, and Todd Baxter got 52.37% in 2002 when he knocked off incumbent Ann Kitchen. The rest of the district averaged about 57% GOP then. How times have changed. Here's the Statesman story on Howard's win. And if you're looking for wider significance, consider that Howard's win prolongs a nationwide winning streak by Democrats in special elections.
Congratulations to Donna Howard, our newest State Rep, whose election brings the Dems' membership to 64. On to Dallas County and Katy Hubener's special election in two weeks!
It's pretty much like this: Being a friend of the Club for Growth is not anything a Democrat should want to be. It's roughly equivalent to MoveOn making an endorsement in a Republican primary. So go support the Democrat who isn't on the Club for Growth's Valentine's card list. And go read Latinos for Texas' interview with Ciro.
Over in SD19, Frank Madla is not very happy about the release of the infamous lock the Democrats in the trunk video.
Madla said he was addressing supporters at a Jan. 10 fundraiser where Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, a Republican, was a featured guest.The campaign of state Rep. Carlos Uresti, who's challenging Madla for his seat in the March Democratic primary, disseminated the video last week in an e-mailed news release headlined: "What Frank Madla thinks of Democrats ... " It goes on to identify Uresti as "a real Democrat."
"I think it demonstrates the kind of campaign my opponent is waging," Madla said.
He accused Uresti's camp of orchestrating the taping and said the person who recorded the scene lied at the time about why she was at the event.
But Uresti said his campaign had nothing to do with that.
"We didn't send anybody to the fundraiser," he said. "Somebody brought it to us."
OK, here's the thing. Reaching across the aisle, working well with others, being bipartisan - these are all, in general, good things. What's chapping everybody's hide here, and the same is true of many national figures that get scorned by the netroots, is the idea that you first have to deny who you are in order to do your bipartisan reaching across the aisle thing. Be proud of your party for pete's sake, and make a habit of reinforcing the good qualities of your party that you proudly share that makes you such an effective aisle-reacher. Say things like "As a good Democrat who believes in getting things done for his constituents, I know the benefits of working with honorable members of the Republican Party like Lieutenant Governor Dewhurst, whose support I'm happy to have." See the difference? It's a little thing, but it means a lot.
Matt has a Quorum Report piece on the SD19 race. Madla's got a lot of institutional support, but Carlos Uresti seems to be hitting a nerve. We'll see if that translates to votes.
Endorsement watch: The DMN weighs in for Chris Bell, while the Star Telegram gives its nod to Barbara Radnofsky. I figure sooner or later the Chron will have to start making its endorsements. There's twenty days to go, and early voting starts next week.
David Van Os notes that indicted TRMPAC operative John Colyandro was on Greg Abbott's payroll during the same time in 2002 as the crimes he's accused of committing.
I see that Tom DeLay is attacking primary opponent Tom Campbell. Now why would a guy who expects to cruise to victory in his primary need to do that? Oh, and this is too precious for words:
In a statement, DeLay's campaign said Campbell has received "such little support" in the 22nd District that he's been forced to raise money by "hitting the road," adding, "Yesterday, Campbell was in Utah holding a fund raiser to take money from students at his alma mater, Brigham Young.""Tom Campbell needs to take a hint – if he's getting more campaign support in Utah, he should consider staying there," Homan said.
Yeah, that's Tom DeLay criticizing someone for his fundraising practices. We do live in strange times, do we not?
Finally, a couple of notes from outside Texas. ArchPundit is calling for people to support John Sullivan, whom he compares favorably to Ciro Rodriguez. Read a condensed version why here.
And via Julia, meet the New York GOP's family-values sacrificial lambcandidate against Hillary Clinton, one John Spencer.
For most of his mayoralty, rumors swirled that Spencer was having an affair with his unmarried chief of staff, Kathy Spring, who bore two children during that time. For years, Spencer refused to discuss the relationship or address the possibility of a conflict of interest involving Spring, a City Hall staff member who saw her annual salary increase to $138,000 from $52,000 working for Spencer.In 2002, after announcing a possible run for Westchester county executive — he was barred from seeking a third mayoral term by his own 1994 term-limits law — Spencer publicly acknowledged that he had fathered Spring's children. After finalizing a divorce from his wife, Eileen, Spencer married Spring, now 43.
"I met her when I was going through matters of the heart with my first wife," he said. "My children ... were conceived in love."
He said his infidelity was "ironically" in the public interest. "I didn't have to make an appointment with my chief of staff to go over everything. That's all we did."
Yes, he values families so much, he started a collection of his own. You almost have to admire the chutzpah. Almost.
I've had moderated comments for several months now - it was originally a defense against an obnoxious troll, but it's also the default setting that I inherited when I upgraded to version 3.2 of Movable Type. I think it works pretty well, but it means I've got to approve comments all the time, and that's a bit of a concern, especially when I'm on the road. I've always wanted to get to a point where comments by people who are known quantities can pass through without my intervention, and I've had some inquiries about it as well.
Towards that end, I've enabled TypeKey authentication for comments. What that means is that if you have a TypeKey ID and you sign in with it when you go into comments, the comment you leave will appear right away. If you don't have a TypeKey ID or you choose not to use it, everything will be the same as before - your comment will appear as soon as I approve it. Nobody has to get a TypeKey ID in order to comment, and that will never change. This is only a change for those of you who do have a TypeKey ID and want to use it.
To make sure this works, if you do have a TypeKey ID, please log in and leave a comment here. If you run into any problems, please let me know. I've still got an open ticket with SixApart tech support for help with the setup for this, so if something is broken I should be able to get it fixed shortly. Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks very much.
UPDATE: TypeKey authentication is not working yet. I've updated my trouble ticket with SixApart. Hopefully we'll get this resolved quickly. Thanks to all for the feedback.
For what it's worth, I agree with Kos and Greg on Paul Hackett's announcement that he's dropping out of the race for the Democratic nomination for Senator in Ohio. I'm sorry to see him go, and I'm sorry he feels he was done wrong along the way, but that's life in the big city. Much as the netroots helped Hackett in his strong campaign for OH-02 last year, Sherrod Brown's organization helped him at least as much. Like Atrios, I was fine with the prospect of a Hackett/Brown primary and wasn't terribly worried about it having a negative effect on the Dems' prospects in November - I seem to recall the Republicans surviving all of their nasty and expensive Senatorial primaries nationwide in 2002 with few ill effects. But like Archpundit, I surely don't blame Rahm Emanuel for trying to convince the one person who could credibly make OH-02 a competitive race to have another go at it. That's Emanuel's job, and he'd have been derelict at it if he hadn't tried.
So. My sincere thanks to Paul Hackett for all he did, and my sincere hopes for a change of heart on his decision to get out of politics for good. Best of luck in the future.
Your best belly laugh of the day comes courtesy of John Fund, who had the following to say about the primary battle between Ciro Rodriguez and Henry Cuellar:
Should he lose, despite an effective first term, it will send a signal that Democrats aren't really interested in having a truly diverse party ideologically--and that dissidents who go their own way do so at the peril of being defeated in primaries. Ask Marty Martinez, a Democrat who represented East Los Angeles in Congress for 18 years until the unions ganged up on him and defeated him with their own candidate in 2000. "I wouldn't toe the line 100% on their issues, " Mr. Martinez told me at the time. "Democrats say they are tolerant, but when it comes to dissent, they have a different tune."Next month Mr. Cuellar will see if he has any better luck getting his party to understand that it can regain majority status only if it makes room for moderates.
Oh those wacky Democrats and their ideological purges! What kind of chuckleheads would do such a thing in Texas?
John Fund, meet James Leininger and Bill Crocker:
A political action committee gave nearly $700,000 last month to the Republican primary opponents of five state House members who fought school voucher proposals during last year's legislative session.James Leininger, a prominent supporter of school vouchers, was the only contributor during the latest reporting period to the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee, according to reports to the Texas Ethics Commission.
[...]
Leininger, a San Antonio businessman, gave the political action committee $500,000 and pledged $250,000 more, The Dallas Morning News reported in its Wednesday editions. Leininger also made direct donations to some of the challengers.
The political action committee made in-kind contributions of advertising and mailings to primary opponents of Reps. Carter Casteel, R-New Braunfels; Tommy Merritt, R-Longview; Roy Blake Jr., R-Nacogdoches; Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock; and Charlie Geren, R-Fort Worth.
[...]
Bill Crocker of Austin, one of the state's two members of the Republican National Committee, said he founded the Texas Republican Legislative Campaign Committee in October to go after "liberal Republicans" in the Legislature.
The committee has endorsed opponents of the five targeted Republican incumbents, who Crocker said have been "betraying the very Republicans who put them in office."
Do tell me more about "having a truly diverse party ideologically" and "dissidents who go their own way", John. I promise to hang on your every word.
Continuing her investigation into attempts by the Republicans in Congress to pass a bill absolving the government of its court-ordered obligations to the Indian Trust, Mary Beth Williams thinks she's found a link to Jack Abramoff in testimony by Stephen Griles to the House Appropriations Committee. Check it out, and remember that you can keep up with all of her sleuthing in her Abramoff and the Injuns archive.
The Austin Chronicle, which is usually pretty sharp about political matters, is propagating a myth here in its preview of the Democratic primary for CD10:
In 2004, the Tom DeLay-designed CD 10 was so overwhelmingly tilted toward the GOP that no Dem from North Austin to the suburbs of Houston even bothered to file in the primary. For the general election, Democrat and UT math Prof. Lorenzo Sadun made a valiant write-in effort to get the donkeys back in the game, but the result was brutal – he took only 6% of the vote, finishing even behind the (listed) Libertarian candidate. Austinite Michael McCaul, the least reactionary of a nine-way GOP primary field, joined Congress in a 79% landslide.The prospect of unseating McCaul, even tainted with the stench of Tom DeLay, is dim. All four of the Dem hopefuls are political novices, and none has the kind of campaign machine needed for this race. The biggest fundraisers, as of Dec. 31, were retired NASA official Ted Ankrum of Cypress, who reported collecting $6,181, mostly from himself, followed by retired nurse Pat Mynatt of Spring with $5,982, again mostly from her own checkbook. Austinites Paul Foreman and 95-year-old Sid Smith have yet to file a finance report. In interviews, the first three admitted they would be relying more on face-to-face campaigning and word-of-mouth than advertising.
By contrast, McCaul has nearly half a million raised, with $151,165 still in the bank. And as he's son-in-law to Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays' broadcasting fortune, one suspects landing advertising won't be an obstacle. Heck, the Dems could even run behind the Libertarian again: This time, the third party will be represented by Michael Badnarik, the Austinite who ran for president in 2004. Badnarik has raised $85,598, although he only has $8,090 on hand.
The myth in question is that CD10 is "overwhelmingly tilted toward the GOP". It's a red district, no question about it, but don't be fooled by Mike McCaul's 79% showing. When the only listed opponent is a Libertarian, the real points of comparison are with other Republican/Libertarian matchups and with Republicans who run unopposed. Here's that data, starting with the three R-L contests:
Candidate Votes Pct
===============================
Cheryl Johnson 181,705 82.3
Larry Meyers 179,901 81.4
Mike McCaul 182,113 78.6
McCaul got more votes than Court of Criminal Appeals justices Johnson and Meyers despite his smaller percentage, but that's mostly because there were fewer undervotes in his race. Now let's compare his vote totals to the two Republicans who actually were unopposed:
Candidate Votes
=========================
Harriet O'Neill 192,733
Paul Green 191,366
Mike McCaul 182,113
McCaul didn't quite match the truly unopposed candidates, who always seem to outpace everyone else. My assumption there is that some number of people can't stand to skip a race, and that there's more of them than there are top-ticket-only people.
Finally, the real comparison: to the four statewide Republicans who faced a Democrat in CD10:
Candidate Votes Pct
===============================
Mike McCaul 182,113 78.6
George Bush 177,361 61.9
Scott Brister 169,003 61.5
Mike Keasler 166,090 60.7
Victor Carrillo 162,044 60.7
Victor Carrillo of course also faced a Libertarian candidate, who apparently cost him and Dem Bob Scarborough an equally proportionate number of votes. The bottom line here is that at a smidge more than 61% for the statewides, this is actually one of the less Republican districts that Tom DeLay drew. (Don't take my word for it - go to the SOS redistricting reports page and compare for yourself.) I wouldn't have expected a serious and reasonably well-funded candidate - say, former Austin Mayor Gus Garcia, who briefly flirted with this race in 2004 - to have done much better than 40%, but don't let McCaul's showing against the Libertarian Robert Fritsche and write-in Lorenzo Sadun fool you into thinking this district compares to the one Mike Conaway got.
Funding of course is a big issue, and I doubt any of the Dem contenders will have anywhere near enough to compete. Maybe Ankrum can leverage his Band of Brothers connection for a few bucks, but in this two-major-media-markets district, anything less than a million or so isn't going to cut it. At least this time we'll have a name on the ballot, so maybe we can at least get an idea of what the baseline vote is. And I guarantee it will be better than whatever Mike Badnarik gets, which isn't saying much - Badnarik got 38,000 votes in all of Texas as the Lib Presidential candidate. That's about 3000 more than Fritsche got, and less than what Quanah Parker and Tom Oxford got from CD10 in their judicial races. Badnarik will get the usual Libertarian quota of 2 to 5%, mark my words.
One last thing: This district may be primarily composed of Travis and Harris Counties, but those two ends of the place are not the same. The average countywide Dem candidate got 58% of the vote in the Travis precincts of CD10. The countywide Dems in Harris averaged 24%. That will be the single most difficult thing to overcome, and with 96,881 of the 231,643 votes cast there (90,558 were cast in Travis), it's got to be overcome. Having a name on the ballot is a necessary first step, but there's a ways to go from there.
The HD48 runoff election between Donna Howard and Ben Bentzin is tomorrow. According to the Quorum Report, early voting was heavy compared to the original election:
The vote may not be until Valentine’s Day, but more HD 48 voters are showing early love for their candidates in the upcoming runoff election.Early voting totals easily outpaced the votes cast ahead of the Jan. 17 special election, with 7,695 votes cast through Friday. The Travis County elections division recorded 4,584 ballots cast during last month’s early voting period.
More remarkably, the early voting period for the runoff ran only five days as opposed to the 11 days of voting prior to the January election.
If you're in Austin and want to join in the Howard campaign's watch party, it'll be at the Waterloo Icehouse, 6203 N. Capital of Texas Hwy. (at the intersection of 360 and 2222), from 7 p.m till all the votes are counted.
One ends and another begins: Early voting for the HD106 special election between Katy Hubener and Kirk England. You folks up in Dallas know what to do.
Via Nate, here's a nice article on Barbara Radnofsky that (as he put it) is actually about Barbara Radnofsky. Whether it's because the Waco Trib believes that hearing what a candidate's opponent's spokesbeing says about that candidate is generaly uninformative or because they just couldn't get anyone from KBH's campaign to talk to them is beside the point. Check it out.
Also good to see: this Sherman Herald-Democrat article on what CD04's Ralph Hall and Glenn Melancon have to say about the Patriot Act and FISA. It's a straight up interview with both candidates, the kind that I wish I actually saw in the local paper once in awhile.
Over $117,000 for Ciro Rodriguez on ActBlue. Ah, those one-day stories.
Finally, Carlos Uresti will be a guest on Agonist Radio tonight, from 7:30 to 8 PM. Tune into AM 550 KTSA or listen to the livestream here.
Time to check in on what the Texas Tax Reform Commission is up to as it continues its statewide tour. Eye on Williamson notes that there's a lot of mixed signals out there.
The commission has rejected charging the franchise tax on company payrolls because it might discourage companies from taking on new employees. [TTRC Commissioner John] Sharp, however, has not been clear about just how the franchise tax money would be collected.Far from engendering support, such vagueness has given business owners pause, said Will Newton, spokesman for the Texas office of the National Federation of Independent Business. With a membership of more than 34,000 representing a broad base of small businesses in Texas, the federation has not signed on to the franchise tax or any plan so far, Newton said.
"Our message is that, generally speaking, small businesses already pay the franchise tax," Newton said. "It makes my heart proud to know that other businesses are saying they are willing to come to the table and pay their fair share, but we'll see. (Sharp) needs to deal the hand, and then I'll take it to our membership and see what they think."
Newton and others worry that businesses that have avoided paying the franchise tax are working overtime to protect themselves.
"In the last (legislative) session, real tax reform was killed by a perfect storm of lobbyists," said Michael Johnson, a Republican precinct chairman from Harker Heights, who addressed the commission at its meeting Jan. 18 in Belton. "What I heard at the meeting in Belton was a bunch of lobbyists for businesses saying an equitable tax system will exclude them."
That's been my fear all along as well. I just have a hard time seeing Rick Perry fight - really fight, because Lord knows there'll be real resistance - to this kind of franchise tax reform. It's just not who he is, and there'll be that nice fat, juicy surplus sitting there, just begging to be squandered.
Further, the more of these stories you read, the more you see talk of sales tax hikes pop up like prairie dogs. With an income tax being an article of faith and a real franchise tax being a hothouse flower, what else is there to talk about? Never mind the fact that it's the same old regressive non-solution that failed every other time it was dragged out as a way out of this morass. What's truly mind-boggling is how disconnected from reality some of this sales tax talk is becoming:
Sharp said there also are some members of the commission who support expanding the state's sales tax to include industries that are currently not subject to it, and increasing the sales tax rate. Currently set at 6.25 percent, members of the commission have discussed raising it as high as 11 percent."From where I sit, raising the sales tax by that much would have to mean some other funding mechanism will have to be done away with, or that will be overburdensome," said Karr Ingham, an Amarillo-based economist. "It's not unfeasible to do that. Raising money through sales tax is more broad-based than raising money through property taxes, (but) you will run into some resistance. We're bound here in Texas by what the courts will permit the Legislature to do."
Earth to Karr Ingham: It's completely unfeasible to raise the sales tax to 11 percent - a rate that, let's not forget, would mean a 13% tax in Houston. And you wouldn't get "some resistance" to it, you'd get a full-on storm-the-Bastille revolt, led by the senior citizens who'd feel it the worst plus anyone who didn't have the kind of million dollar mansion that would be needed to get a net tax reduction. I'm not sure what amazes me more, that Sharp would admit to such a thing, or that there exists a professional economist willing to comment on the record about it as if it were a realistic policy proposal.
Latter link also via Eye on Williamson. The TTRC wraps up its schedule of hearings on Feb 28, so maybe then we'll finally find out what their recommendations are. Then the real fun will begin. Stay tuned.
When I said "Just implant the chip in my head now and be done with it", I was only kidding, I swear!
Two employees have been injected with RFID chips this week as part of a new requirement to access their company's datacenter.Cincinnati based surveillance company CityWatcher.com created the policy with the hopes of increasing security in the datacenter where video surveillance tapes are stored. In the past, employees accessed the room with an RFID tag which hung from their keychains, however under the new regulations an implantable, glass encapsulated RFID tag from VeriChip must be injected into the bicep to gain access, a release from spychips.com said on Thursday.
Although the company does not require the microchips be implanted to maintain employment, anyone without one will not be able to access the datacenter, according to a Register article.
Link via TalkLeft. I took a peek at Snopes and didn't find any references to this, so who knows? Better check the warranty expiration date on your tinfoil hat just to be on the safe side.
The jokes are pretty much gonna write themselves over the Cheney accidentally shoots fellow hunter incident, aren't they? Stina's right - it's like someone wanted to give Jon Stewart a present.
On the not-so-funny side of things, here's a question that needs an answer:
While E&P was first to raise the question about the delay Sunday afternoon, Frank James, reporter in the Chicago Tribune's Washington bureau, put his own spin on it later in the day, asking, "How is it that Vice President Cheney can shoot a man, albeit accidentally, on Saturday during a hunting trip and the American public not be informed of it until today?"Indeed, others raised questions as well. "There was no immediate reason given as to why the incident wasn't reported until Sunday," The Dallas Morning News observed. "The sheriff's office in Kenedy County did not respond to phone calls Sunday."
Honestly, is anyone surprised?
UPDATE: Mark Evanier asks a good question: Why is the man who's a heartbeat away from the presidency out hunting?
Shouldn't the Secret Service still say, "Uh, Mr. Vice-President, we don't like you being around people with guns"? I mean, isn't there some unnecessary security risk in there? Even if everyone in the hunting party passes a rigid security clearance, the Secret Service is supposed to keep weapons away from the Veep. And if Cheney could accidentally shoot this poor guy, isn't there some danger of this poor guy accidentally shooting Cheney?I always understood that when you run for public office of this magnitude, you agree to sacrifice a certain amount of privacy and freedom to the folks charged with protecting you. Anyone here remember Ronald Reagan claiming the reason he didn't attend church more often was because the Secret Service thought it was a security risk and asked him not to? I'm no fan of Mr. Cheney but couldn't he put off killing quail 'til he's out of office? There'll be ducks then. There may not be a future for our economy but there'll be quail.
Got me. Any theories out there?
UPDATE: Michael has the same question in the comments, which I didn't see until after I'd posted the previous update.
Given the amount of feedback to Ellen's recent guest post on HSAs, I thought I'd link to this piece on how employer-offered HSAs are mostly being shunned by workers.
"It's got a lot of the right design features, but the HSA model creates some substantial barriers to companies embracing them in a meaningful way," said Gary Laugharn, regional client leader in Houston for Hewitt Associates.Among the greatest drawbacks, he and others say, are workers' aversion to high-deductible health insurance policies, which by law must be coupled with the savings accounts.
Employers are "dabbling, they're all looking" at HSAs, he said. "But the jury is still out."
Brett Haugh, a principal at Houston-based Employee Benefit Solutions, noted that in a local employer survey conducted by the consulting firm last year, only eight of the 137 respondents said they were offering their workers health savings accounts.
In Houston, interest in HSAs is beginning to emerge, but is still very small, Haugh said. "Employees just don't gravitate toward HSA plans."
[...]
[S]ome say getting people to shop around for health care as they would for a television has a major problem: the lack of available, objective information about the cost and quality of health care providers, facilities and procedures.
"Until we have transparency in pricing, until a person knows, for example, what an appendectomy is going to cost at St. Luke's as opposed to Memorial Hermann, it is hard to promote consumerism," Haugh said.
Jim Wilhite, director of compensation and benefits at Baker Hughes, said the oil services giant began offering HSAs to employees for the first time this year, and that 70 of its 12,900 employees signed up.
But company officials didn't "push" the plan because of the lack of good information about health care for consumers.
"A lot of this depends on the medical community providing better information," Wilhite said. "We're not trying to drive people to this yet until we have better information to make available to our employees."
Yeah, well, good luck with that. Tiffany and I both have HSAs through work, which we use simply to supplement our existing low-deductible policies. Basically, we use that to pay for non-covered services like vision care and chiropractic visits with pre-tax dollars. I'm way too risk averse to go with an HSA/high-deductible plan. As long as I've got a viable alternative, that's a choice I won't make.
I don't get out to see a lot of movies these days. I was never that much of a cinephile, and having a toddler around makes it even harder to find the time needed to sit through a full-length feature. As such, movie reviews to me are usually more academic exercises than anything else. I like it when certain movies do well critically and/or financially and when some others don't, but usually it's no big deal one way or the other.
And sometimes it really really matters to me how a movie gets reviewed. I've said before that I'm a huge fan of the Pink Panther movies, so it does my heart a world of good to see that the pointless, mercenary abomination of a remake that's now fouling up our theaters is getting the reaming it deserves from the cognoscenti. I knew that Pete would hate it for me, and I appreciate his sacrifice, but even more than that, I appreciate that he's not alone. Movie critics of America (certain exceptions notwithstanding), from the bottom of my heart, I thank you.
Moviewatching public of America, I'm looking at you next. Don't let me down.
Get yer Most Humorous Blog and Most Humorous Post nominees right here. Earlier Koufax nominations for your consideration are here. Voting will be opened when all categories and their nominees are listed. In the meantime, read and enjoy.
How bad are things for Tom DeLay when stories with headlines like GOP voters still like DeLay get published? Last I checked, it wasn't supposed to be news when an incumbent officeholder could claim to have support from his fellow partymates. Quite the reverse, in fact.
The one thing I want to point out here is the continually evolving story line from Fort Bend GOP Chair Eric Thode as to why DeLay's performance sucked rocks in 2004:
DeLay began showing signs of weakness at the polls in the 2004 election, when defectors voted for Republican President Bush but skipped him on the ballot."Disaffected Republicans wanted to send DeLay a message. But they didn't want to see him defeated," said Fort Bend County Republican Chair Eric Thode. "The message was, 'We'd like to see you a little more.' "
DeLay took note, and he has shown up and stumped more often.
First of all, as I've said before, DeLay started showing weakness in 2002, when he underperformed all but three other GOP candidates in CD22. No one paid attention at the time because his margin of victory was still solid, but it's there for all to see: DeLay was one of the worst votegetters in his own district.
Second, Thode wants you to believe - and sadly, there's nothing in this story to tell you otherwise - that DeLay's lost support manifested itself in undervotes; that is, a bunch of people just did not vote in the Congressional race in CD22 last time. But that's baloney. Look, we know that DeLay got 9000 fewer votes than the next-to-last GOP performer in CD22. If it were a simple matter of undervotes in his race, then you'd expect that his Democratic challenger, Richard Morrison, would have gotten about as many votes as John Kerry, or about as many votes as the other statewide Democrats on the ballot. Here are the actual totals:
Candidate Votes
============================
Richard Morrison 112,034
JR Molina 100,132
John Kerry 98,180
Bob Scarborough 97,456
David Van Os 96,459
Not only did Morrison get the most votes among Democrats, he did so even though there were two other candidates on the ballot that combined for 4% of the total. Morrison's strength carried down to the county level, too. There were about 275,000 votes cast in the Presidential election in CD22. In the Congressional race, it was 272,620, and that's more than each of the other three statewide races by at least 10,000. People didn't skip this race. They made a point of voting in it.
So there was a message delivered by Thode's "disaffected" Republicans in CD22, but that message wasn't "We'd like to see you a little more." That message, delivered by the thousands of people who voted for other Republicans and for Richard Morrison, was "We'd like to see you lose."
Via Mark Evanier, an article on Disney's attempts to revive the Muppets franchise.
As with many Hollywood comebacks, the saga of how Kermit is trying to leap back on top is a story of changing tastes and the eternal quest for green.The executive in charge of the Muppets says the studio envisions Kermit and Miss Piggy as "evergreen" characters, akin to Mickey Mouse and Winnie the Pooh. Every division at the company is contributing ideas to the renewal project. Among the proposals under consideration: a mock reality TV series and a Broadway musical à la "The Lion King."
Kermit "has been resting on his reputation from the TV show of the late '70s," said Disney Executive Vice President Russell Hampton, referring to "The Muppet Show," which had an extraordinarily successful syndicated run from 1976 to 1981.
[...]
Kermit's fate shows how relatively quickly even a world-famous brand can ebb without constant upkeep. Since Henson's unexpected death at age 53, corporate control of Kermit and Miss Piggy has changed hands three times. Even today, Disney doesn't own the rights to all the characters that sprang from Henson's shop; Big Bird, Bert and Ernie, Elmo and other icons of the preschool set belong to the nonprofit Sesame Workshop, producer of PBS' "Sesame Street."
Perhaps more important, the decline of the Muppets offers an instructive lesson in the vagaries of the market for family entertainment. Nickelodeon, Cartoon Network, Disney Channel and others are vying for children's attention, constantly churning out a panoply of new characters for every age range and taste. While the latest generation of kids tuned in to Dora the Explorer and SpongeBob SquarePants, the Muppets fossilized, as much a cultural artifact as mood rings or vinyl records.
"There was a certain creative malaise, post-Jim Henson," said Martin Brochstein, editorial director of EPM Communications, which publishes newsletters on product licensing and other marketing issues.
First of all, I agree with Evanier in that the least likely way to succeed with this project is having "every division at the company contributing ideas" to it. Find a visionary, give him or her a budget and a talented staff to work with, and get out of the way.
Second, while the Muppets are unquestionably family entertainment, I think a key to any revival will be to realize that many of the parents of the children they'll be targeting were fans of the old Muppet Show - I sure was. Capture the spirit of that show, and you'll have all those parents wanting to tune in with their kids. Get it right and I guarantee the parents at least will find it preferable to Dora and Spongebob.
Finally, I dispute the idea that Mickey Mouse is an "evergreen" character. Much more than the Muppets, Mickey is a victim of criminal neglect by Disney. But that's a different rant.
A la carte pricing for cable channels, which I've blogged about before, just got another push.
Most cable TV subscribers would save money if allowed to pay for only the channels they want, a Federal Communications Commission study said Thursday, reversing the agency's earlier finding that consumers wouldn't benefit.The analysis by FCC staff provides new support for consumer groups and conservatives pushing for a pick-and-choose pricing system to replace the bundled services offered by the cable industry. Cable companies fear that would diminish their wide distribution.
The study gives added ammunition to lawmakers and regulators who see "a la carte" as a way to clean up raunchy television by giving parents more control over the channels their children watch.
"I am pleased that the commission has concluded that 'a la carte' offering could reduce consumers' cable bills by as much as 13 percent," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who plans to introduce a bill next week to create and promote use of "a la carte."
Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, said if a la carte won't cost consumers more, "I will support an effort to take such an approach, subject to discussions with providers on the downside of such a process."
This is just a guess on my part, but I suspect that the pricing models that cable companies will present for a la carte will only make it a really good deal for people who want a small number of channels. Above a certain number, you'll be better off with a standard basic tier package. There's no real incentive for them to do otherwise, especially now that much of their marketing is geared towards getting you to buy a cable/Internet/phone sevice package.
I also think that most people will wind up preferring the simplicity of a bundled service. As I said before, it's not like there are no options to keep the kiddies from tuning into whatever shows or channels you find objectionable. If all you really object to is MTV, for example, what's going to be easier - enabling the parental lock for that channel, or ordering every other channel but MTV? Even just calling the cable company to say "Switch me from your basic package to an a la carte plan that includes all the channels I currently get except for MTV" will take more time and effort and will probably cost more money, too. Who wants that? I guess it's somewhat a question of how easy the cable companies make it to pick and choose the channels you want. What do you think the odds of that will be?
I could be wrong. Maybe this idea will put downward pressure on cable prices. Maybe the concept will bring enough new business to the AOLTimeWarners of the world to make it worth their while to come up with a really attractive price structure for a la carte usage. I doubt it, but I guess we'll see.
The Krispy Kreme franchise is exiting Houston next month. For now, anyway.
Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is exiting the Houston market after reaching an agreement with its Houston franchisee, Lone Star Doughnuts.The five Houston-area stores will cease operations on March 8, as will the location in Beaumont.
Lone Star Doughnuts said Thursday that it will launch its own brand of doughnuts as soon as Krispy Kreme closes. And Krispy Kreme said it plans to reopen stores in Houston, but didn't say when.
Lone Star's new brand, Jumbles Dough Factory & Coffee Bar, will be in the same six locations, selling doughnuts, kolaches and coffee beverages in a softer setting, said Dan Brinton, Lone Star's chief operating officer.
My place of employment was primarily a Shipley's shop in the pre-Krispy days. Once in awhile you'd see a Dunkin Donuts box, but for the most part if someone brought donuts to work, they were from Shipley's. Once Krispy Kreme entered the scene, however, that was just about all you ever saw. It was a near-total takeover. Which is a bit funny, now that I think of it, because there are at least two Shipley's locations near my office and no Krispys, at least according to the included map. I think on the whole I preferred Krispy Kreme, though there are some specific donuts that I think Shipley's does better. Houstonist begs to differ, while Sue is not happy about this at all.
Not that this has any bearing on the situation at hand, which has to do with a nasty franchisee lawsuit. Tom's been following all this - his posts on the subject are here. I just like donuts. So there.
The support for Ciro Rodriguez keeps coming in. First, from organized labor:
Add steelworkers to the list of unions gunning for U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar."He is our No. 1 primary target in the United States," said Chuck Rocha, national political director of the United Steelworkers of America.
[...]
United Steelworkers has been the loudest union seeking to bring down the first-term congressman. But it's got plenty of company among unions that assail what they consider Cuellar's Republican leanings.
Rocha said labor has put together "a comprehensive plan" to unseat Cuellar and return Ciro Rodriguez , whom Cuellar narrowly defeated two years ago, to Congress.
"Every affiliate of the AFL-CIO is involved in this race — every international is doing what it can to help," said Alicia Garza, president of the San Antonio AFL-CIO Central Labor Council. "This race has gotten national attention, so we have internationals who have sent people here to help."
[...]
[Labor activists are] targeting District 28's 10,000 union members. Rocha said the number rises to 18,000 after adding in spouses and voting-age children. The biggest chunk — possibly three-quarters — live in the San Antonio area.
That doesn't include members of the Teamsters, Service Employees International Union and other labor organizations that broke away from the AFL-CIO last year.
The steelworkers union is spending money on direct-mail pieces and a phone bank. Also, its national field director is temporarily moving to San Antonio to prepare for the primary.
[...]
As he has so far this campaign season, Rodriguez won a slew of union endorsements in 2004. But unions threw far fewer resources into the battle then. Garza said the national AFL-CIO sent only one organizer to work full time on the race and the number of volunteers was lower.
"It goes way beyond what happened in 2004," said Oscar Sanchez, Rodriguez's campaign manager. "One of the things that's different is the people power — the troops."
As I said before, this is going to come down to Bexar County turnout and support for Rodriguez. It's true, as a commenter said in that last post, that there are also contested races in Webb County that will help drive turnout there, but how in the world can you improve on 2004's effort for Cuellar? Bexar is the biggest part of this district, and there's plenty of room to grow there for Rodriguez. Cuellar will need to get a higher percentage of the vote there (the split was about 80-20 for Ciro last time) to offset Rodriguez's turnout effort.
On the money side, Rodriguez has now gotten the support of Democracy for America, and his ActBlue total is over $96K. I'm not sure if that includes DfA fundraising - the verbiage at ActBlue is " 2187 individuals from ActBlue, the netroots, and Democracy for America have contributed $96232.86 to Ciro Rodriguez", but I don't see a link from DfA to ActBlue or a link on ActBlue for DfA. Regardless, that's a pretty amazing amount to get in, what, ten days? And there's still 23 days to go, so you can still help.
Scott has read the criminal justice reform proposals in detail, and he's not impressed. Read why here and here. I confess, I went by the news story instead of the original document, and it sounded better to me there. So I sent an email to Scott and asked him if there was anything worthwhile about this report. He graciously responded here. All I can say is I should have known better than to think Rick Perry was serious about this. Read Scott's posts and you'll see why.
More subpoenas from the Travis County DA.
New subpoenas issued by Travis County prosecutors on Thursday cast light on a campaign contribution made by Primedia Inc. in 2002 just two days before the State Board of Education cast a vote that could have affected the company's profits in Texas.Documents requested by the subpoenas show the New York publishing company gave $2,500 to Texans for a Republican Majority, the political action committee founded by U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, on Nov. 13, 2002. The money was solicited for TRMPAC by the husband of a board member, Dallas businessman Vance Miller, according to a document obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
[...]
The subpoenas seem to target relationships that DeLay, R-Sugar Land, had with convicted influence peddler Jack Abramoff and his Washington lobby clients' donations to TRMPAC.
Abramoff was the registered lobbyist for Primedia at the time of the 2002 donations.
The subpoenas do not mention him, but former Christian Coalition Executive Director Ralph Reed also was lobbying for Channel One at the time.
Several Texas public interest groups have complained to Travis County Attorney David Escamilla that Reed violated state law by failing to register as a lobbyist in 2002. Among the claims is that he called board of education members urging them to vote against Strickland's resolution.
"Clearly, Ralph Reed was contacting members of the State Board of Education on behalf of Channel One and its owner, Primedia," said Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice.
I'm just noting this for future reference. It's clearly related to this "Thin Reed" article that I linked to earlier. I like to keep track of this sort of thing.
This is unfortunate.
The future of the Metro Solution's Plan has always depended on federal money.It's a planned 50/50 match to move the bells and whistles beyond downtown and the Med Center to the north and southeast sides.
But Houston's two planned lines approved for preliminary engineering didn't make the cut this year.
In all, the Federal Transit Administration recommended $1.5 billion worth of projects in 2007.
There were five new ones added to the list: Denver, Salt Lake City, two in Portland, OR and in Dallas.
There are 15 projects at the same point of the process that are Houston's two requests, five of them received funding this year.
This does not mean Houston's plan is out of the running forever.
The FTA says ratings for the projects not yet recommended should not be construed as a statement about the ultimate merits of the project, but rather as an assessment of the project's current strengths and weaknesses."
Metro officials say now they did not necessarily think they would receive funding this year. But last year at this same time when the Houston projects did not receive funding, officials said they hoped it would come this year.
Like I said, it's unfortunate, but it's not fatal. The story doesn't say which of Metro's expansion projects was left unfunded by the FTA - in his comments, Tory thinks it was the north and southeast BRT lines.
Of more immediate concern appears to be the east-west Blue light rail line, which goes from UH/TSU to the Galleria area. Tory in that same post above prints a letter from the CTC which shows that Rep. John Culberson and State Rep. Martha Wong are siding with a group called “Richmond Area Residents and Businesses for Rail" that's pressuring Metro to put that line on Westpark instead of Richmond. These folks have been pushing for that for awhile now, and with those two legislators on their side they're going to get heard. As Christof argues, though, there's a very good case to be made for keeping the line on Richmond as currently envisioned. If you feel you have a stake in this, you need to start making your opinion known now, before any decisions get made.
Finally, on a tangential topic, Christof continues his look at the proposed Intermodal Transit Center. Check it out.
UPDATE Changed "originally envisioned" to "currently envisioned" after reading feedback in the comments from Kevin and Laurence.
UPDATE: Robin makes an important point about the fuss over where this line will go:
Many Houstonians support a Richmond alignment. Many support a Westpark alignment. Some support a combination thereof, and many have not yet made up their minds. Now is not the time to decide. Instead, we must agree that a thorough technical analysis is a prerequisite to making the right decision. We must evaluate our transit future with facts and rigorous analysis, and not close off options in reaction to fear, uncertainty, and doubt.Rep. Wong is scheduled to appear at the Thu Feb 16 METRO board meeting at 1:00 pm with many of her supporters. I expect her to present the above letter of opposition from Rep. Culberson, demand that METRO take Richmond off the table now, and call for a new referendum.
I hope that theirs will not be the only voices heard. It is time for everyone who supports more and better transit for Houston to speak up. We must keep all options on the table and we cannot allow a political process to take one off prematurely. METRO must be allowed to complete the federally-required planning process and fairly evaluate all of the alternatives.
Amen.
WFAA in Dallas hosted a debate between Chris Bell and Bob Gammage yesterday - Jason Stanford described it as "No rules, no opening & closing statements, no time limits, just a conversation moderated by Wayne Slater of the Morning News and Brad Watson of WFAA that is live to tape." It was viewable live on the site at the time - I missed it, but Ryan Goodland didn't. I presume it will air in Dallas if it hasn't already. And even if you still miss it, you can catch Part II of the BOR interviews with Bell and Gammage. This AusChron story on the Dem primary is also a good read. Eye on Williamson picks up on an intriguing tidbit at the end of the piece.
The Star Telegram is the first major paper to give an endorsement in the Democratic gubernatorail primary, and they go with Bell. I've seen a few scattered endorsements in other races around, but only the Morning News, which has mostly done the Republican races so far, seems to be really into it as yet. Early voting will be on us before you know it, so I hope these folks get on the stick pronto.
Elsewhere, there's two more reports from Matt in DC with the John Courage campaign. Looks like it was a good day for them:
Today we met with another half dozen groups including an specialist on immigration issues Rick Schwartz, the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW), the League of Conservation Voters, a specialist in media and communications strategies Jon-Christopher Bua, NARAL, and the American Trial Lawyers Association (ATLA).In exciting news, IBEW endorsed on the spot and pledged to make a substantial campaign contribution.
The Express News also has some coverage on Courage's trip. The attention is good, but he's going to need some cash to make any headway. I hope this helps.
Three members of the San Antonio Area Progressive Action Coalition trekked out to Bandera to hear CD23 Democratic candidate Rick Bolanos speak, and they came away impressed.
On the other side of the aisle, CD22 challenger Tom Campbell has an ad running on local TV, which you can see here (page loads slowly). Like DeLayVsWorld, I've not seen them on the air. I too think DeLay will skip running ads on his own, but it wouldn't surprise me if the Club for Growth runs something on his behalf as they did in 2004. As Juanita points out, they wouldn't be the only "outside group" shilling for DeLay in this campaign.
I see that the Ciro Rodriguez-Henry Cuellar primary has been written up on MSNBC. It's a nice enough piece, with one point that I want to discuss:
This time, analysts don't expect the Cuellar-Rodriguez race to be as close [as it was in 2004], due to Cuellar's fundraising advantage, the federal money he's brought back to the district, and the expectation that -- as the incumbent -- he'll dominate in his hometown of Laredo and improve his standing in San Antonio, Rodriguez's hometown. "It is funny that people are commenting that this is a competitive race," said [Dan] Wright, Cuellar's campaign manager. "It is nowhere near competitive."
Here's the thing: The 2004 primary was a tale of two counties, Bexar and Webb. 2006 is unlikely to be any different in that regard. To understand how this race will be decided, let's take a look at what happened last time.
In the 2004 primary, Rodriguez won Bexar County by a 10,824 - 2,737 margin, for 13,561 total Democratic votes cast. Cuellar won Webb 12,894 to 2,431, for 15,324 votes all together. Shift over to the general election, and what you see is that Cuellar took 45,126 votes in Bexar and 15,637 in Webb. In other words, the primary turnout represented 30.1% of the Democratic vote total in Bexar, and 98.0% of the Webb total.
Ninety-eight percent!
What this says is very simple: Rodriguez has way more room for growth in Bexar County than Henry Cuellar does in Webb. Rodriguez carried the other counties by a 13,624 to 11,757 count. He can't do much worse in Webb than he did last time. If he turns out Bexar at even a little better clip, he ought to win even if Cuellar improves his standing there. Heck, if the same number of people in Bexar had voted in 2004 as they did in Webb, Rodriguez would have won by over a thousand votes, assuming the same percentage split among the extras.
That's pretty much it in a nutshell. Do better with turnout in his home county, and Rodriguez wins. In his favor are the contested primaries in HD118 (Rodriguez's former State House district) and SD19 where former HD118 rep Carlos Uresti is running, which should help drive participation even if Rodriguez doesn't have the campaign cash to do it on his own. Watch the early voting numbers and see how it goes. We ought to know pretty quickly if Ciro has a shot or not.
And since I know you want to know, Ciro's just passed $80K on ActBlue. Every little bit helps, so you know what to do.
Tom DeLay now, as quoted in Roll Call:
In his letter to Republican constituents, mailed out by his re-election campaign this week, DeLay acknowledges that he faces political problems due to his ethical problems, although he dismisses the allegations as "baseless" charges ginned up by a "liberal press."[...]
"A final word on Jack Abramoff: the notion that he was a close friend who wielded influence over me is absolutely untrue," DeLay wrote. "As Whip and Majority Leader, I met with many people who brought issues before Congress and sought support of both Republicans and Democrats."
DeLay added: "The reality is, Jack Abramoff and I were not close personal friends. I met with him only occasionally, in fact less frequently than numerous others who brought issues before Congress - never did he receive preferential treatment. To be certain, I knew nothing about the crimes for which he has pled guilty." Abramoff pleaded guilty last month to tax evasion, fraud, and conspiracy to bribe public officials, among other things.
Tom DeLay then, from a story in the Dallas Observer (and other places, including the book "The Hammer"):
"When one of my closest and dearest friends, Jack Abramoff, your most able representative in Washington, D.C., invited me to the islands, I wanted to see firsthand the free-market success and the progress and reform you have made," DeLay said, after thanking Tan for 'that great introduction."
What a pal, huh?
UPDATE: It's in the Chron today.
Ah, the memories that this must bring back.
Watching a video shot five years ago this month, defendants Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling looked up on a big screen in court Wednesday and saw themselves predict that by now Enron would be "the world's leading company."In the celebratory video, Skilling and Lay stood onstage at a February 2001 employees meeting. Lay then pulled a cord to reveal a sign with their new vision for Enron.
"We want to move from being 'the world's leading energy company' to be 'the world's leading company,' " then-CEO Skilling said to applause from employees. He noted he would change his vanity license plate from "WLEC" to "WLC."
"Five years from now I think there's a good chance we could be the leading company in the world."
Funny how things turn out, isn't it? I'm pretty sure a clip from this video is in "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room". It's hard to consider such a thing without thinking of the old newsreels from the 50s and 60s that projected a now-hilarious vision of what the world would be like in the future.
Not a whole lot else of interest going on in the trial. Skilling defense attorney Dan Petrocelli got prosecution witness Mark Koenig to admit to some errors in his testimony. Loren Steffy thinks they were glancing blows and not direct hits on him, while Tom thinks it's the prosecution that swung and missed. How much more fun do you think the jury room would be if these two guys were to be in it?
Next up, former Enron Broadband CEO Ken Rice, who didn't exactly cover himself in glory during that trial. That cross-examination ought to wake people up a bit. And finally, Tory has a Wall Street Journal story about "Houston's still-conflicted feelings about Enron and its former executives" that's thankfully short on the angst. Whether or not this city has "moved on" regarding Enron's collapse and its supposed effect on our psyche, at least the media seems to have mostly gotten bored with thumbsucker stories about it. For that, I'm grateful.
In the last post I mentioned the state's budget surplus, which now stands at $4.3 billion.
Of that amount, $1.9 billion is earmarked for education and tax reform. The rest of it is "free money" that lawmakers can use as they see fit, Deputy Comptroller Billy Hamilton said.State programs that were not fully funded in the current state budget are hoping for their share of the budget surplus. A pharmacy school that has been built but has no operating funds and nursing homes top a list of priorities issued by Gov. Rick Perry.
Of the surplus, $473 million can be spent anytime by the Legislative Budget Board. Other expenditures must be approved by lawmakers during a legislative session.
I believe that $473 million represents funds that were earmarked in bills that got vetoed. That's down from $655 million in October, so either some it has been spent already or there's a discrepancy somewhere.
The surplus is the largest in Texas in several years. In contrast, lawmakers wrote the 2004-05 budget in the face of a $10 billion revenue shortfall. Current projections indicate that the surplus will grow even larger over the biennium as the result of larger-than-expected tax revenue from consumer spending and higher oil and gas prices.
"We've had an uptick in the economy," Strayhorn said, noting 28 consecutive months of increased sales tax revenues.
Quite a difference from three years ago, when several consecutive months of declining sales tax revenue turned a $5 billion projected deficit into a $10 billion one. Keep that in mind as you read this:
Some conservatives are calling for the Legislature to use the surplus for property tax relief."They should give it back to the people from whom they took it," said Michael Quinn Sullivan, vice president of the Austin think-tank Texas Public Policy Foundation. The surplus would be enough to reduce property taxes by about 17 percent.
[...]
The surplus "reaffirms to us the need for the Legislature to use that surplus to buy down property taxes, an easy solution to the situation that we find ourselves in with the June 1 deadline looming," Sullivan said. "There's no need to do economically dangerous things."
Funny, I don't recall this guy advocating tax increases to help cover that $10 billion deficit back in 2003. "Easy" does not equal "responsible". What happens when tax revenues level off or decline? How quickly some people forget.
Meanwhile, you can't have a story like this without some posturing. That's Governor Perry's cue:
Taking a swipe at Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn over more than $2 billion in uncollected taxes, Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday that he will oppose any legislative effort this spring to significantly boost education spending with new taxes.[...]
Perry said it won't be necessary to raise taxes to increase education spending if lawmakers adopt a broad-based business tax because it will raise more money for education as the economy grows.
"Second," he added, "we just need the comptroller to collect the nearly $3 billion that is out there and owed her office today by deadbeats and tax cheats. Do the job!"
The governor's office later said Perry's comments were based on a 2-month-old news report on KHOU-TV in Houston.
Strayhorn, running against fellow Republican Perry as an independent, adamantly defended her tax collection efforts and said the governor was trying to mislead Texans with a "partisan political attack."
"The governor of the state of Texas has a responsibility to know the facts and to tell the people of Texas the truth," she said.
Strayhorn said the uncollected taxes total $2.6 billion, stretching over as long as 10 years, and already have been turned over to the attorney general's office for possible legal action after the comptroller's office had exhausted all collection alternatives.
Some of the taxes, she said, are tied up in bankruptcy, and others are owed by "fly-by-night" operators no longer in business.
Actually, that's an interesting question, and I'd like to know more about it. Unfortunately, there's not a quote from AG Greg Abbott as to how much of that uncollected boodle is on his to-do list. I can't take either Perry or Strayhorn's word for it on this, given their histories and the obvious politics at play here. Unlike a lot of other situations, though, this is one that ought to have an objective answer. Who wants to dig deeper on this?
Perry also confirmed earlier reports that he wants the Legislature to focus on cutting property taxes in a special session and, if necessary, leave any additional educational changes until next year.[...]
Legislative leaders have said they want to consider other educational changes this spring, including merit pay for teachers, which Perry supports. But the governor said it would be better to wait.
"I'm for reform. ... But I understand what the Supreme Court told us," he told reporters after his speech.
"Do we have to eat this (education) pie at one sitting? And I think the answer is 'no.' We can eat it one slice at a time and enjoy it and actually keep it down," he added, apparently recalling the rancor that plagued two unsuccessful education sessions last summer.
I don't know about you, but I could have lived without a binge-and-purge analogy from Rick Perry.
Perry said only one in 16 businesses now pays the franchise tax, which he criticized as a "very unreliable source of revenue for our schools.""I think it makes more sense to have a broader tax that captures more of the economy at a very low rate," he said.
Well, yeah. So why did it take you so long to realize this? Why didn't you say things like that in the earlier sessions? I mean, welcome to the table and all, but why did it have to be this hard?
This Chron story about criminal justice reform proposals is very interesting.
Giving trial judges more discretion to order post-conviction DNA testing and studying ways to improve eyewitness identification are among the dozens of recommendations released Tuesday by the governor's criminal justice advisory council.The council also wants the state to look into establishing public defenders' offices and increasing the compensation to the wrongfully convicted.
[...]
The report said public defender offices would improve the quality of representation, especially in rural areas where there are few defense attorneys willing to accept court appointments. The cost of a statewide program would exceed several hundred million dollars a year, the report said.
Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Barbara Hervey, who led the council's Forensics Committee, said trial judges have been reluctant to order DNA testing without specific statutory authority to do so. The council recommended the law be changed to give judges discretion and make it clear that the state will incur the cost of testing unless the applicant has hired a lawyer.
"The defense would still have to show a need. But these small changes would really free up the trial courts in granting forensic testing," Hervey said.
More testing would add to the backlog at Texas Department of Public Safety crime labs, so the panel called for the state to pay for DNA testing at private laboratories. Additionally, the state should give $10,000 salary increases to the 170 scientists working for DPS and expand crime-lab facilities.
[...]
The panel also suggested establishing a pilot program at several locations across the state designed to improve the reliability of eyewitness identifications. Faulty eyewitness testimony has been implicated in a number of cases in which convictions were overturned after DNA evidence was tested.
Some states require photo lineups be shown by a "blind presenter" not involved in the investigation. Since the presenter doesn't know who the suspect is, there are no suggestive expressions or comments to influence the witness.
A pilot program also could test whether reliability improves when photos are presented to a witness one by one instead of simultaneously in a photo spread.
The panel encouraged local law enforcement agencies to use in-car audio-video recording of all traffic stops. It also called for a survey to see how many jurisdictions are videotaping the interrogation and confession of suspects in major crimes.
Quite a few of these proposals are longtime progressive agenda items - blind and sequential lineups, public defenders, greater leeway in granting requests for DNA testing when a conviction is being challenged - and some of them, the last two in particular, will cost money. I applaud Governor Perry for taking initiative on this, and if he actually pushes for some of these reforms I'll be genuinely impressed, but I fear that our current budget surplus will be long gone before any means to pay for these items are suggested. I'm willing to be pleasantly surprised, though.
Scott has links to the council's full report, and he promises some more in depth analysis later. I look forward to it.
Major Applewhite, former Longhorns quarterback and new Rice offensive coordinator, gives an entertaining interview to Houstonist. Check it out.
Katy Hubener gets a ringing endorsement from the Dallas Morning News.
Here's what Katy Hubener, a real estate agent running for House District 106, has going against her special-election candidacy to fill the retiring Ray Allen's seat. She's a Democrat running in a conservative Republican district, which takes in southern Irving and most of Grand Prairie. And she's up against Republican Kirk England, son of popular longtime Grand Prairie Mayor Charles England. (Gene Freeman, a Libertarian, is also on the ballot.)Here's what Katy Hubener has going for her candidacy – and why we enthusiastically recommend her for the special election slated for Feb. 28. (Early voting begins Monday.)
She knows the big issues down to the smallest detail, and she is on the right side: local-option tax election for transit (for), recorded votes (for), more money for public education (for) and an active governmental role in cleaning up North Texas air (for – she's been an activist on this issue).
Mr. England, 44, an insurance agent, is making his first run at elected office – and it shows. He told us that he decided to seek the office in large part because he "is about to be an empty-nester."
Representing the people in the Legislature ought not be seen primarily as a hobby for folks with time on their hands.
What's more, Mr. England displayed a troubling lack of detailed knowledge about the issues facing the district. For example, when asked about whether the additional counties should have been added to the Dallas-area air quality nonattainment area by the EPA, Mr. England responded, "I'm not familiar with that issue."
Ouch! Air quality is a complicated issue – most issues are – and that's why people, no matter what their political ideology, need to count on having an energetic, engaged representative down in Austin advocating for the needs of their district. Ms. Hubener is probably more liberal than most in District 106, but practical-minded voters should place a high value on competence.
Besides, if voters don't like how Ms. Hubener performs in Austin during the special session, they'll have a chance to toss her out in November.
Richard Morrison sent out a fundraising email on Hubener's behalf yesterday, which I've reproduced beneath the fold. Picking up this seat and HD48 will go a long way towards keeping the upcoming special session on point, so help out if you can.
Moving on to SD19, some free advice for Frank Madla: When you want to win a Democratic primary, it's probably not a good idea to say things like "When I get to the state Capitol, I lock the Democratic Party in my trunk." Call me crazy, but Democrats usually prefer voting for Democrats, you know? There's video at the link, so take a look, or just revisit the classics.
Seems Henry Cuellar has some endorsement problems. And a lousy environmental record. Oh, and Ciro's total on ActBlue is up to $76K. Go Ciro!
Vince has the story of a misleading attack ad on Donna Howard. And did you know Ben Bentzin thinks there isn't a lot of scientific consensus about whether or not intelligent design really is a scientific theory that is mainstream and acceptable? Sure, Ben.
Reporting from DC during Band of Brothers week: Matt on behalf of John Courage (here and here), and Michelle Harris on behalf of David Harris. Here's more on the main event from Tim Tagaris.
Score one for Barbara Radnofsky: KBH is finally taking action on a VA hospital in South Texas. Perry has the press release.
Part One of the BOR 40/40 interviews with Chris Bell and Bob Gammage are up. You can't say you don't know enough about the candidates to make a decision by now.
I am writing you today to tell you about my friend Katy Hubener, who is running for State Representative in House District 106 in the special election on February 28.
Katy is a certified Texas teacher, small business owner and longtime community leader. She will be a strong voice for the mainstream values of her community.
Katy challenged lawmaker Ray Allen in 2004, winning 47 percent of the vote against the 12-year incumbent. Allen later announced he wouldn't run again and has suddenly stepped down, triggering the special election.
"There is one issue and one issue only in this election -- solving the public school finance crisis," Hubener says. "That will be the focus of the upcoming special session, and that will be the focus of my campaign."
Katy has vowed to fight for putting more resources in Texas classrooms, raising teacher pay to the national average, and cutting property taxes for families in Grand Prairie and Irving.
Katy has been endorsed by 100 local leaders, every major education group participating in this election, and other leading community groups.
With your support, she can win the special election on February 28 and become a strong voice for her community and Texas.
Help Katy by clicking on the following link to contribute to her campaign or send a check to Katy for Texas Campaign, 19 East Mountain Lane, Grand Prairie, TX 75052.
I have already committed my support to Katy and I am asking that you do the same. I believe that the tide is changing and Katy’s campaign is a prelude of great things to come for the Democratic Party of Texas. She deserves everyone’s support. So we need to step up and get involved in her campaign. We all need to do what we can and give what we can to help Katy take the House District 106 seat. Thank you and I hope you’ll join in my support for Katy. Visit Katy's website at http://www.katyfortexas.com.
Fight on!
Richard Morrison
I need to pause for a moment to wish an unfond farewell to George Deutsch, the now-former NASA staffer who tried to tell its scientists how to do their jobs (see here and here for some background).
The resignation came as the agency was preparing to review its policies for communicating science to the public. The review was ordered Friday by Michael D. Griffin, the NASA administrator, after a week in which many NASA scientists and midlevel public affairs officials described to The New York Times various instances in which they said political pressure was applied to limit or flavor discussions of topics uncomfortable to the Bush administration, particularly global warming."As we have stated in the past, NASA is in the process of revising our public affairs policies across the agency to ensure our commitment to open and full communications," said the statement from Acosta. The statement said the resignation of Deutsch was "a separate matter."
Deutsch, who is 24, was offered a job as a writer and editor in NASA's public affairs office in Washington last year after working on President Bush's re-election campaign and inaugural committee, according to his resume. No one has disputed those portions of the document.
According to his resume, Deutsch received a "Bachelor of Arts in journalism, Class of 2003."
Tuesday, officials at the school said that was not the case.
"George Carlton Deutsch III did attend Texas A&M University but has not completed the requirements for a degree," said an e-mail message from Rita Presley, assistant to the registrar at the university, responding to a query from The Times.
[...]
Deutsch's educational record was first challenged on Monday by Nick Anthis, who graduated from Texas A&M last year with a biochemistry degree, is pursuing a doctoral degree at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and has been writing a Web log on science policy (scientificactivist.blogspot.com).
After Anthis read about the problems at NASA, he said in an interview: "It seemed like political figures had really overstepped the line. I was just going to write some commentary on this when somebody tipped me off that George Deutsch might not have graduated."
He posted a blog entry asserting this after he checked with the school's association of former students. He reported that the association said Deutsch received no degree.
A copy of Deutsch's resume was provided to The Times by someone working in NASA headquarters who, along with many other NASA employees, said that Deutsch played a small but significant role in an intensifying effort at the agency to exert political control over the flow of information to the public.
Such complaints came to the fore starting in late January, when Dr. James E. Hansen, the climate scientist, and several midlevel public affairs officers told The Times that political appointees, including Deutsch, were pressing to limit Hansen's speaking and interviews on the threats posed by global warming.
Tuesday, Hansen said that the questions about Deutsch's credentials were important, but were a distraction from the broader issue of political control of scientific information.
"He's only a bit player," Hansen said of Deutsch. " The problem is much broader and much deeper and it goes across agencies. That's what I'm really concerned about."
I share Dr. Hansen's concerns. How is it that a callow shill like Deutsch was ever allowed to be in a position where he could exert influence over people whose functions he clearly did not comprehend? I mean, he was a "writer and editor" in NASA's Public Affairs office. How in the world did he get to dictate policy as he did? Who's in charge here?
Oh, well. I guess we should all just be happy that he tripped over his own hubris before he had a chance to grow up to be another Brownie. Goodbye and good riddance.
Rick Perry may think that the coming special session on school finance reform should ne about property taxes instead, but David Dewhurst begs to differ.
"Why don't we come together? Why don't we agree on some reforms?" Dewhurst asked in an address to the Texas Association of Business.Without mentioning Perry by name, he said he disagreed with limiting the session to reducing school taxes and fixing the funding system to comply with a Texas Supreme Court order.
"Most of us agree that school finance is bigger than just lowering local school property taxes, as much as that's needed," he added.
Yeah, most of us do. There's a lot to dread about this upcoming session, whether it's strictly limited to
Someone please help me out here. How, exactly, is this not a conflict of interest?
A powerful West Texas lawmaker has cajoled and berated state health officials for nearly three years, trying to persuade them to dedicate millions of dollars to an unproven anti-smoking product promoted by the lawmaker's longtime friend and campaign contributor.House State Affairs Committee Chairman David Swinford, R-Dumas, is now threatening to shift more than $5 million in annual tobacco prevention funds from the Texas Department of State Health Services to the Texas Education Agency in hopes that health officials will respond to his demands.
[...]
Swinford said Rodney Burd has supported his campaigns financially because they share beliefs. But Burd's campaign contributions jumped from $100 in 2002 to $1,000 a year since Swinford began pushing the state to buy Burd's anti-smoking product.
[...]
State health officials have resisted, noting that legislative budget writers have mandated that smoking-prevention funds be spent only on programs that have been scientifically tested and proven effective.
There's no proof Burd's calculator will actually change behavior, state health experts told Swinford, and adopting it would deplete funds needed to continue a concentrated, comprehensive anti-smoking campaign that is reducing smoking rates in East Texas with its high rates of lung disease.
That response, which Swinford has equated to "stonewalling" that neglects children statewide, drew his wrath at a public hearing last year.
"If I were you, I would be putting a plan together because I'm coming after you guys," Swinford warned during a state affairs committee meeting that attracted little attention last summer. "If it's not a hell of a lot better by the time we get back here in January 2007, I promise you the first bill I'll file will be to gut your program and move it. Is that plain enough?"
It's pretty plain to me, all right. Plainly unethical. Perhaps someone ought to explain why to David Swinford.
Here's the Express News writeup of the debate between Ciro Rodriguez and Henry Cuellar. It was liveblogged here in greater depth. According to ActBlue, over $70K has been raised online for Ciro since the infamous Bush-Cuellar embrace photo was published.
Rodriguez got to debate Cuellar, but so far State Sen. Frank Madla has resisted Carlos Uresti's calls for the same thing. From his press release:
Texas Senate challenger Carlos Uresti today urged his opponent to reconsider his decision not to participate in public debates before the March 7 primary election, saying voters would like to hear his explanation of why a bill to strip 500,000 eligible children of their health benefits deserved a hearing on the Senate floor.
"My opponent says his vote has been misinterpreted and mischaracterized," Uresti said. "This is his opportunity to set the record straight."
Uresti also offered to hold the public forum at Frank Madla Elementary, the public school recently renamed for the incumbent in a controversial move by South San Independent School District board members.
"My opponent says he's concerned about debating me, so let's make sure the setting is as comfortable for him as possible," Uresti said.
Ooh, having it at Frank Madla Elementary School. That ought to be fun. I've put the full release beneath the fold.
Part One of the PolState interview with Chris Bell and Bob Gammage has been updated to reflect interviewer Vince Leibowitz's subsequent phone conversation with Gammage. Part Two is here. Gammage has announced the endorsement of State Rep. Marc Veasey, while Bell has collected nods from several groups plus Cameron County Judge Gilberto Hinojosa.
Matt reports on John Courage's first day in DC with the Band of Brothers.
David Harris is also in DC. He's got a Kos diary that lays out his case against Smokey Joe Barton, in case you still needed to be convinced.
Shane Sklar gets a short writeup in The Hill:
Rancher Shane Sklar (D), running for the 14th Congressional District in Texas, says he wants to bring a strong agricultural voice to Washington in 2006.Sklar said that the incumbent, ninth-term Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is out of touch with the district and does not support agriculture interests. Before Hurricane Rita struck, Sklar said, Paul voted against hurricane-relief funding for a district that has nearly 170 miles of coastline.
Sklar, executive of the Independent Cattlemen’s Association of Texas, raised $50,000 last year and gained the endorsement of the Texas Farm Bureau’s Ag Fund, a political action committee that typically backs Republican candidates.
"Paul has alienated both parties," Sklar said. "He’s a libertarian army of one. I’ve got strong ties to the 14th District, and people are going to see a conservative Democrat win in Texas."
The ninth-term lawmaker was unchallenged in 2004.
The United Steelworkers of America, the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, the Farm Credit Council and Texas Pest Management Association have also endorsed Sklar.
At the end of 2005, Paul had nearly $237,000 cash on hand.
Jeff Deist, Paul’s spokesman, defended his boss’s votes: "He is going to maintain his stance, a stance for taxpayers."
Thanks to Banjo for the catch.
Karen Felthauser, candidate for HD20 in Williamson County, writes about her DFA endorsement. Link via Eye on Williamson.
Finally, a couple of events on the local calendar. Chad Khan, running in HD126, is having an open house/birthday party for his 5-year-old twins on Sunday, February 12th, 2006 from 2:00-5:00 p.m, at 4503 EL Salvador, Houston. TX 77066. RSVP by Fed. 10th to Ckhan@Vote4khan.com or call 713 643 3800.
Mark McDavid (no webpage yet), running in HD138, is having a Campaign Kickoff Party.
5 to 7 p.m. Sunday, Feb., 12, 2006
Bravo's Mexican Restaurant
5101 Bingle Rd., Houston, TX 77092Please R.S.V.P. by Feb. 9 to:
McDavid for Texas House Committee
P.O. Box 924016, Houston, TX 77292
fax:(713) 680-0759
e-mail: votemcdavid@cs.com
call Elizabeth Hodges at (713) 436-2000 or Ginny Stogner McDavid at (713) 812-9368 for more information
URESTI URGES MADLA TO RECONSIDER NO-DEBATE DECISION
Suggests Forum at Recently Renamed School to Make Madla Feel at Ease
(SAN ANTONIO) Texas Senate challenger Carlos Uresti today urged his opponent to reconsider his decision not to participate in public debates before the March 7 primary election, saying voters would like to hear his explanation of why a bill to strip 500,000 eligible children of their health benefits deserved a hearing on the Senate floor.
"My opponent says his vote has been misinterpreted and mischaracterized," Uresti said. "This is his opportunity to set the record straight."
Uresti also offered to hold the public forum at Frank Madla Elementary, the public school recently renamed for the incumbent in a controversial move by South San Independent School District board members.
"My opponent says he's concerned about debating me, so let's make sure the setting is as comfortable for him as possible," Uresti said.
Uresti said a public debate would help voters understand where the candidates stand when it comes public schools, children's health, and water resource issues.
Madla in 2003 voted three times to let a now-infamous bill go forward that cut half-a-million eligible children of working parents from the popular Children's Health Insurance Program. Although some services were later restored, more than 180,000 children are still without health benefits, driving up costs to local taxpayers for emergency room visits for routine treatment.
In addition, U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison has said the failure to provide coverage for the eligible children is costing Texas at least $600 million per year in forfeited federal revenue.
A former Marine, Uresti has served in the Texas House since 1997, where he led the effort to reform the state’s Child and Adult Protective Services. He co-founded the Bexar County Blue Ribbon Task Force against child abuse and neglect, and has served as chairman of the House Committee on Government Reform and Committee on Human Services, and is a member of the House Veterans Coalition, and the powerful House Committee on Local Ways and Means.
Uresti earned a B.A. in political science and teacher’s certificate from St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, and received a National Achievement Medal as a 2nd Lieutenant in the U.S. Marine Corps. After four years of active duty, he returned to St. Mary’s and earned a law degree. He is currently a partner with the law firm of Gonzales
Hoblit Ferguson in San Antonio.
The Democratic primary election is March 7, 2006. The general election will take place on November 7, 2006.
Senate District 19 includes Bandera, Brewster, Crockett, Culberson, Edwards, Hudspeth, Jeff Davis, Kinney, Loving, Maverick, Medina, Pecos, Presidio, Real, Reeves, Sutton, Terrell, Uvalde, Val Verde, Ward, Winkler, and parts of Bexar and El Paso.
The headline Perry May Put School Reform On Back Burner pretty much says it all.
Gov. Rick Perry wants the Legislature, in a special session this spring, to cut school property taxes by about one-third but postpone action on other education changes until next year, a legislator who met with the governor said Monday.Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, said he believed a commission appointed by Perry may recommend increases in sales and cigarette taxes, as well as a new business tax, to pay for the property tax reductions.
"The governor was saying we're not going to do any (school) reforms this session," Wentworth said, despite calls by House Speaker Tom Craddick and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst for changes in how education dollars are spent.
[...]
Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt on Monday confirmed the governor's meeting with the San Antonio legislators but declined to say what specifically was discussed.
"The governor has indicated that his primary interest and focus right now will be on addressing the Supreme Court ruling," Walt said.
She said other items could be added to the agenda after the finance changes are addressed. The governor sets the agenda for a special session, which can last as long as 30 days.
Perry already had indicated he wanted to avoid a special session fight over spending tax dollars for private school vouchers, although he and many other Republicans support the idea.
Walt said the governor hasn't decided whether to include another controversial subject — new limits on property tax appraisals — in the special session's call. She said he also still supports that proposal, which, like vouchers, has failed in recent sessions.
Walt said the exact size of a property tax cut was still a "point of discussion," although Sharp has been advocating a one-third reduction.
That would lower the $1.50 per $100 valuation cap for school maintenance taxes to about $1. Many schools districts are at or near the $1.50 cap, which helped prompt the Supreme Court ruling.
Sharp has said a reduction of that size would require the Legislature to raise more than $5 billion a year in new state taxes or other revenue.
[...]
Craddick, in a recent speech, continued to push for other educational changes, including a uniform school start date and tying at least some teacher pay raises to performance.
But spokeswoman Alexis DeLee said Monday that Craddick "has said all along it's up to Perry to determine the call (special session agenda)." She said the speaker also was awaiting the commission's recommendations.
First things first: Any time vouchers are not on the agenda, it's a good thing. Same for those bogus appraisal caps. So far, so good.
And if the alternative to a special session that only focuses on property tax cuts is a special session that includes Tom Craddick's school "reform" agenda, I'd pick Door Number One and not look back.
All that said, my concern is that without the constraint of having to worry about actually paying for schools during the session, the pressure will be on maximizing the tax cuts based the current financial snapshot. Once that happens, their hands will be greatly tied when they finally do get around to fixing school finance, which you may recall was the impetus for the special session in the first place. With the current mood in the Capitol being flush and with statewide elections on the ballot, it's not at all hard to imagine a shortsighted and irresponsible tax cut getting rammed through. Even if you think that the Lege will have the foresight to keep some money sequestered for school funding, it's not like there aren't other things to pay for.
Well, at least this answers my question about how Perry will react to the TTRC's recommendations. As Linus Van Pelt once said, there's no problem so big and so complicated that you can't run away from it.
On a related note the Statesman has an article about how the Democratic gubernatorial candidates are more willing to deal with school finance than Perry is. I'm mostly linking to it for this bit of unintentional comedy:
Perry spokesman Robert Black challenged the Democratic candidates to detail their plans for school finance reform."Governor Perry is the only candidate in this race who has put forward a school finance plan and a property tax cut that is paid for," Black said.
He's also the only one to have all of his proposals get rejected by the Lege, including one time that was unanimous and represented the "worst shutout ever laid on an Aggie". But you already knew that.
Now this is way cool, and it's something I'd love to see the Chronicle do: The Statesman's Gardner Selby moderated a debate between HD48 runoff candidates Donna Howard and Ben Bentzin, and put it all in a podcast for your listening convenience. That's what I call campaign coverage for the new century - kudos to all involved. The MP3 file is here, so fire up those iPods and have at it.
By the way, according to the Quorum Report, "the final tab on the special election to fill the seat vacated by Rep. Todd Baxter (R-Austin) in House District 48 is $246,191". That includes the runoff as well as the original special election, and is "equal to the pay and benefits of four full-time deputies for a year". Yikes.
A few days ago, Kevin wrote about AOL and Yahoo's implementation of a program to certify and enhance delivery of email from specified senders, with financial institutions being the prime example.
"CertifiedEmail will cost a fraction of a cent to send, which will be generously offset by an order of magnitude ROI in the form of assured delivery, improved open rates, and enhanced click-through rates," Richard Gingras, chairman, CEO and co-founder of Goodmail Systems, told ClickZ News.Until that ROI is proven, however, it is likely that the service will be used more for transactional messages -- like billing statements or transaction receipts -- than for marketing messages. The company has not yet set a price point, but will base it on the number of messages sent. For certain transactional message senders, the value is clear, according to Gingras.
"Ninety-five percent of e-mail users fear identity theft, and nearly 30 percent categorically refuse to open messages from financial institutions," he said. "Goodmail CertifiedEmail will be distinctly labeled both in the inbox list view and when the message is opened so the user can quickly recognize that the message is certified and thus authentic and safe to open."
Kevin wondered if this is another front in the network neutrality wars. John, who has a (legitimate!) background in bulk email, applauds the initiative here and here. Among other things, he says, this should be a huge boon for ISPs:
AOL gets a lot of spam because it's AOL. It's an enormous domain with millions of email addresses, so naturally spammers are going to send all kinds of crap to it. There are lots of ways for spammers to get AOL addresses, from monitoring their chat rooms to trying random letter combinations and so on, and they work fairly well. So AOL blocks a huge amount of stuff that's obviously crap (based on the IP address it's coming from, message characteristics, how often that server is sending them mail, and so on).The filtering rules change all the time, and they're not perfect; some things that you want to get never make it to you because they look too much like spam. And of course other things get through. What I find interesting about the Goodmail deal is that AOL is basically outsourcing something they do already: monitoring the kinds of email they get and figuring out what's spam and what's not.
Their idea, I suspect, is that since legitimate marketing email - stuff that you ask to get, like emails from Amazon and newsletters from places you shop and all that - is making money for the people sending it, there's no reason for AOL to spend money sorting it all out. You want to send stuff that looks like spam, but isn't? Pay Goodmail, and we'll accept that it's legit. Don't pay, and take your chances with everybody else.
Instead of AOL having to deal with companies complaining that their valid email is getting blocked, Goodmail picks up some of that task - and AOL winds up getting paid for it. It's a smart move for them.
I'm not sure that does anything to quell the slippery-slope fears, but it certainly does make sense for AOL and Yahoo to unload part of this onerous function onto someone else. Dwight isn't convinced, in any event.
I'll say this: I don't think we're going to make headway on the spam problem with current technology and paradigms. Technology Review magazine's recent cover story was entitled The Internet Is Broken, and while I'm not sure I'd go that far (nor that I'd necessarily endorse their proposed solutions), I think it's clear that a new mechanism for email delivery has to be adopted. Some form of sender verification, which is essentially what Goodmail is, is certainly one way to do that. Is it the best way? I don't know, but let's try it and see if someone else can come up with something better. I don't see that we have much choice.
The defense got its first crack at a prosecution witness yesterday, and it went about as you might expect.
Daniel Petrocelli, lead defense lawyer for former Enron CEO Jeff Skilling, repeatedly asked [Mark] Koenig about his plea agreement with the government and if he ever confronted anyone else at the company about lies he earlier testified were told during analyst meetings and conference calls."You never said, 'Mr. Skilling, why are you spearheading a criminal conspiracy,' did you?" Petrocelli asked.
"No," Koenig replied.
"And you never saw a single e-mail or memo that said Mr. Skilling broke the law? Or Mr. Lay?" Petrocelli asked, referring to former Enron chairman Ken Lay, who is also on trial.
Koenig said he never read such a document and didn't know if one existed.
"You're still in a mode of trying to protect yourself, aren't you?" Petrocelli asked.
"I don't feel in the last three days I've protected myself," Koenig said, noting that he is still subject to shareholder lawsuits and will probably lose the $5 million in assets he still owns. He forfeited $1.5 million to the government last year.
Admit it: You could imagine this exact dialogue on almost any episode of Law & Order. The names and crimes may change, but the dynamic - "Why should we believe you when you've already told us you're a crook and you took a deal to save your sorry hide?" - is the same.
I think in the end, all the mind-numbing technical details aside, that's what this case will come down to. Who will the jurors believe, Koenig, Rice, Causey, and Fastow, or Skilling and Lay? Fastow is a huge wild card here. He has the potential to say the most damaging things, but he's also clearly the least honest person involved. As I said before, I think that's where this trial will get interesting. If the jurors can stay awake that long, we may be able to get a feel for how they're leaning after Fastow finishes.
That appears to be the view of Samuel Buell, a former Task Force member who's now joining in the Legal Commentary blog, and it's noted in this story about media indifference as well. Even we bloggers are apparently falling down on the job:
The much-ballyhooed blogosphere has barely weighed in on the opening of the trial.The Truth Laid Bear, a Web log monitor, confirms that Enron cannot qualify as anything close to a hot topic, notwithstanding periodic mention by local blogs such as blogHouston, Houston's Clear Thinkers and Slampo's Place, the latter of which offered readers what may prove to be an appropriate invocation to a trial struggling to make its mark in the competitive world of current events:
"Friends, as we gather here today to pass judgment on these two once-glib sons of the Great Midwest, let us resolve to never, ever forget the bitter lesson of Enron. And the lesson of Enron is, of course ... is ... um wait, it'll come to us ... the lesson was ... hold on ... lessee ... lesson ... Enron ... uh ... ."
I guess my mentions weren't periodic enough. Well, I knew the risks when I went out of town this past weekend.
And finally, Tom gives a little context to Jeff Skilling's famous "asshole" comment. As always, it's good stuff.
This is going to be a week to focus on Democratic gubernatorial candidates Chris Bell and Bob Gammage. Philip Martin at BOR will be doing his 40/40 coverage on them - he gives the coming attractions here. If you can't wait until tomorrow for his interviews, get started today with this one at Political State Report by Vince Leibowitz. There will be a part two of this one up tomorrow. I'll update this post when it is. I sadly doubt that any newspaper will do something similar, so check these out and get to know your candidates.
Mary Beth Harrell is back with another Kos diary, this one about why she decided to run for Congress. Check it out.
I see that David Harris and John Courage are on their way to Washington, DC for tomorrow's Band of Brothers event. I don't see anything on this in Google News as yet, but I'm hopeful it'll get some coverage. We'll see.
Finally, if you're in the Sugar Land area this afternoon, Nick Lampson is holding an education roundtable at 4 PM. Click the More link for details.
Nick Lampson, congressional candidate for Texas's 22nd congressional district, will host a discussion focusing on education with Fort Bend County educators, parents, and students on Tuesday, February 7, 2006.
The event will take place at 4:00 pm at the First Colony Branch Library in Sugar Land.
Nick Lampson wants to see Congress recommit to a strong educational system. He wants to see a renewed focus on math and science so our children can compete in a 21st century global economy. He will lead the way in making sure we don't short change education while spending heavily on pork barrel projects like a $241 million "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska. Lampson knows that part of making sure this country can compete in the future is making college more affordable and accessible to our students. And Nick Lampson will work in Congress to ensure that our teachers are treated like professionals.
What: Discussion with Fort Bend County educators, parents, and students
When: Tuesday, February 7, 2006, 4:00 pm
Where: First Colony Branch Library Meeting Room
2121 Austin Parkway
Sugar Land, Texas 77479
Early voting has begun in the HD48 runoff between Donna Howard and Ben Bentzin. Howard's been piling up the endorsements, from the Texas Parent PAC, the Texas Academy of Family Physicians PAC, and the Statesman. Meanwhile, Team Bentzin gets off a silly attack ad (which you can see here) that links Howard to a new high school in Eanes that was also supported by Margaret Spellings (nee LaMontagne), Jerry (Mr. Karen) Hughes, and Turd Blossom his own self, Karl Rove. Don't take my word for it - see the letter they signed in support of it. Oops.
On a different comic note, Bentzin has been sued by his children's former nanny, who alleges, among other things, that he made her do a lot of unpaid overtime. In the Pink has the details.
Finally, the Strange Bedfellows blog notes that the DeLay fundraisers scheduled for this evening have apparently been postponed. The Jeffersonian has more.
Today's debate between Ciro Rodriguez and Henry Cuellar was liveblogged here. (Victor Morales was not invited.) I'm guessing this will be more thorough than any news coverage, but I'll wait until I see some coverage before I say for sure.
By my count, over $55K has been raised on the three ActBlue pages for Ciro Rodriguez. Not too bad for a "one-day story".
Abram has a BOR diary that gives an overview of CD28. While it is true that Bush won 52.5% of the vote there in 2004, that's not the whole story. None of the other three statewide Republicans did nearly as well - Victor Carillo got 45.8%, Mike Keasler 44.4%, and Scott Brister 47.1%. Basically, the Democrats easily carried the Bexar and Webb County portions, while the Republicans took the rest by comparable margins.
Finally, DavidNYC explores the question of whether or not Henry Cuellar could switch parties and run as a Republican nominee for CD28 in the event Ciro ousts him in March. Far as he can tell, the answer is no.
The Texas Observer advances the ball again in the Tigua Casino scandal, with evidence suggesting that Christian Coalition activist/bagman Ralph Reed broke the law by acting as an unregistered lobbyist. Here's a taste:
In 2001, legally questionable Texas casinos operated by the Tigua tribe in El Paso and the Alabama-Coushatta tribe in Livingston competed with tribal gambling operations in Louisiana. East Texas' Alabama Coushatta lacked the autonomy that comes with formal federal recognition, making them subject to a state law prohibiting casino gambling. The Tiguas did obtain federal recognition in 1987, but only after they mollified critics by pledging to obey Texas gaming laws. The Tiguas later argued that Texas cleared the way for a tribal casino in 1991, when voters approved racetracks and a state lottery. The courts ultimately shot down the tribe’s legal theory. Facing legal threats from then-Attorney General John Cornyn, who soon would persuade the courts to shut down these casinos (see "No Picnic at Speaking Rock," December 17, 2004), the Texas-based tribes backed state legislation to legalize their casinos. Killing this bill (House Bill 514) was a top objective of the rival Louisiana Coushatta tribe, which paid Abramoff’s lobby firm $1.8 million in 2001. Abramoff-Reed correspondence reveals that Abramoff paid Reed to work on this effort. As he previously did for Channel One in Alabama, Reed created a front group to run attack ads against this gambling legislation. Last year the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Reed secretly hired Houston lobbyist Andrew Biar to create this so-called Committee Against Gambling Expansion.Abramoff-Reed e-mails also suggest that Reed and his shop may have engaged in the kind of paid contact with Texas officials that can trigger a legal obligation to register as a lobbyist. In a January 2002 e-mail exchange discussing then-Texas Attorney General John Cornyn's litigation to shut down the Tiguas’ casino, Reed assured Abramoff that, "we are discussing this with the head of the [attorney general’s] criminal division today."
Perhaps illustrating how toxic Abramoff’s name has become, the Observer could not find anyone who would admit to being deputy attorney general of criminal justice in January 2002. The preponderance of evidence points to Michael McCaul, who was elected in 2004 to represent one of Tom DeLay's newly minted congressional districts. Yet Rep. McCaul's spokesperson said that his boss had been replaced by that time by Shane Phelps, a one-time opponent of Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle. Now a Brazos County prosecutor, Phelps told the Observer that McCaul succeeded Phelps in that post, not vice versa. The Observer then found a December 2002 attorney general release announcing the replacement of "acting Deputy for Criminal Justice" Don Clemmer, who had served in that post "since Michael McCaul joined the U.S. Attorney's for the Western District of Texas." A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney said that McCaul joined that federal office in October 2002 - nine months after Reed’s team reportedly met with Cornyn's deputy attorney general. At press time, a spokesman for Rep. McCaul called and admitted that the congressman in fact had been the deputy attorney general at the time but had "never had any contact with" Ralph Reed, Century Strategies, or the Texas or national Christian Coalition.
In another January 2002 message Abramoff directed Reed to recruit cooperative Texas and Alabama lawmakers, dubbed "tigers," to introduce legislation that would exclude companies that do business with Indian casinos from state contracting. "Easy to get our tigers to introduce them [bills] in both places," Reed responds. What such correspondence fails to establish, however, is if Reed and Century Strategies directly lobbied Texas officials, as the e-mails suggest, or if Reed was bearing false witness to rationalize millions of dollars in gambling fees.
Read the whole thing. It's no wonder that Ralph's fellow Republicans in Georgia are urging him to drop out of the race for Lieutenant Governor there.
Meanwhile, in a largely-unnoticed section of the Abramoff Scandal-Go-Round, Mary Beth has been collecting and tying together a lot of threads between Abramoff, various Congressional Republicans such as Richard Pombo, and Interior Secretary Gale Norton, all of which has to do with the Cobell v. Norton lawsuit. Start here, read The Story So Far in this Kos diary, and refer back to this category page for the rest of the research.
Pardon my French, but WTF?
They may not have flashed any body parts — except for Mick Jagger’s well-toned stomach — but the Rolling Stones made ABC glad editors were on duty for the Super Bowl halftime show.Two sexually explicit lyrics were excised from the rock legends’ performance Sunday. The only song to avoid the editor was "(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction," a 41-year-old song about sexual frustration.
In "Start Me Up," the show’s editors silenced one word, a reference to a woman’s sexual sway over a dead man. The lyrics for "Rough Justice" included a synonym for rooster that the network also deemed worth cutting out.
So "Start Me Up", the erstwhile theme song for Windows 95 and such a vital component of the Classic Rock radio format that I'd bet it's playing right now on a Clear Channel station somewhere in the US, is suddenly too risque for halftime? It took me a few minutes to even realize what lyric the story refers to. I didn't get to see halftime due to my travels, but this is silly. If the Stones are acceptable to the live audience, they're acceptable to the people at home. Either let them do their thing without interference, or have the guts to refuse to show them at all and suffer the blowback from that. ABC should be ashamed of itself.
Just a couple of links of interest: Christof continues his study of the Intermodal Transit Center proposal by looking at comparable sites, and Robin gives us a report from TxDOT's January meeting, which was in Conroe. Check 'em out.
This is going to be happening right near where I work.
A property near Reliant Center that for years housed big-box retailers like Target and Garden Ridge has changed hands and will be redeveloped into an urban apartment project.Fidelis Realty Partners bought the land on Old Spanish Trail just east of Kirby at the end of last year and has since demolished a building there.
The Houston real estate firm and developer Simmons Vedder & Co. are planning a five-story structure with four levels of apartments above shops.
The project is similar to the much-admired Post Midtown Square, one of the few projects in Houston that truly mixes uses with hundreds of loft-style apartments over retail space.
Designed by the Steinberg Design Collaborative architecture firm, the new project will face Old Spanish Trail and have an East Coast brownstone look.
It will have about 300 apartments and 40,000 square feet of shopping space.
I hope to heck this includes some restaurants. I've said many times before that there's damn few places to eat around there - it's the main reason why I'm so skeptical about the proposed Astrodome Convention Center project. The area just desperately needs something that isn't fast food or in the Olive Garden/Red Lobster part of the spectrum.
There's been a minor boom in housing around this area. A new apartment complex is opening at OST and Greenbriar, next to a bigger one that faces the Smithlands light rail stop. This one here will be a short walk away. I'd love to know how many people who live in these places, including the new one when it's done, actually use the light rail to get to work. That's part of the allure of this kind of development, right? It'd be nice to have that confirmed.
One last thing:
Alan Hassenflu, a Fidelis principal, said this area near the Houston Texans' stadium has "transitioned up."Indeed, the football stadium, Metro's light rail line, and growth in the Texas Medical Center have helped change this area, with some landowners improving their properties and developers building new apartments and condos.
"There's very little land left," said Hassenflu, noting a strong demand for housing by medical workers.
There's still a vast empty space at OST and Almeda, where a couple of sleazy hot-sheet hotels were torn down a few years ago. I measured it at a litte more than a mile from there to Greenbriar, so it's at least theoretically within walking distance of the Smithlands station. Until I see a sign that those lots are about to be built up, I say there's still land left.
I'm back from Portland, where a depression is now settling over the Seahawk-rooting city. There's no shame in losing to Bill Cowher's team. He's one of the good guys of coaching, and he deserves this one. Congrats to Cowher and the Steelers for their awesome run through the postseason.
I had the opportunity to read the Portland newspapers this morning, and and old bugaboo popped up.
Now, we understand that the Super Bowl is a private sports event run by a private league, and what we're actually seeing is an exercise in capitalism by owners rich and savvy enough to conduct this bidding game at the highest level.So we're told to mind our own business, as if this isn't a public issue.
Except, it feels exactly like one when you consider that holding a Super Bowl is worth as much as $300 million to a local economy. And that local corporations and sponsors with a lot to gain have become especially interested in the process. So maybe it's no surprise that the host committees, and the league owners lurking behind them, are crossing ethical lines with bribes aimed at swaying secret-ballot votes.
The column is about the secretive process for deciding on a Super Bowl host city, but here we see again the mythology about how much those hosting dutines is worth. You would think that after forty of these things, we'd have some solid data, but if there's ever been a postgame study on, say, Houston's Super Bowl 38, I've never seen it. Why this is, I couldn't say. There's gotta be an economist or two who'd be interested in this sort of thing. Whatever number they pulled out of the ether for you, Detroit, I hope you achieved it. Not that we'll ever know for sure, I suppose.
Regular posting will resume tomorrow. My thanks to Ellen and Julia for their guest blogging. I've got some more travel in my future this year where it will be somewhere between inconvenient and impossible for me to blog, so I really appreciate being able to turn this space over to talented folks like them to keep things going. Thank you, Ellen and Julia!
"Why is Kevin Federline on your box of mints?"
My sweetie recently returned from an overseas flight with a remnant from the "courtesy kit" provided him onboard. This particular item was a box of Hiya Liquid Filled Mints - 32 Peppermint Conversation Pieces, in fact. The package sports a hologram of a squirrelly-looking guy bobbing his head in that rap star style. Overcome with curiosity, I used the odd little wheel dispenser to retrieve one of the mints, which mostly resembled a tiny bath oil bead.
It was only after the Aiiiiiiieeee! (and the spitting) that I noticed one of the ingredients is pork. Well, gelatin (pork origin). Still.
which, I'm sure you must have read, is a major concern for House Republicans these days
House Republicans Try to Get Back on Course
Boehner seen as face of change in house
GOP picks a ‘fresher’ face
House GOP's new face
Going beyond damage control
Post-Abramoff Mood Shaped Vote for DeLay's Successor
News Analysis A Cry of Concern by Republicans at Voter Unease
Boehner chosen to lead House GOP in break with DeLay era
Reformer in upset win as Republican leader in US House
Ethics at heart of GOP leadership race
No, not the reform. The new face.
And there they've chosen well, because Mr. Boehner is one of the few remaining members of the leadership that enacted damage control without any real reform when their criminally unethical leadership derailed the revolution before this one,* and he wasn't too fastidious about it back then either.
Mr. Boehner, Online Newshour, April 17, 1997
REP. JOHN BOEHNER: The leadership really did not engage in this. Not at one time during the last three months was there a discussion of this in the leadership. It was between Newt and his wife and his advisers and his lawyers over how this would be dealt with. But he kept it to himself. He worked with his friends and really did not involve the rest of the leadership in those discussions.A transcript of a conference call recorded by two citizens with a scanner (which is illegal, so don't) off of Mr. Boehner's cell phone signal, in which the entire House leadership discusses their strategy for dealing with Newt's little difficulties. The call took place on December 21, 1996, or, if you prefer, at one time.
Subsequently, of course, as the water rose around Mr. Gingrich, Mr. Boehner scampered up the hawser.
He's spent his time since consolidating his popularity with his fellow congresspersons on the right by the thoroughly un-DeLaylike strategy of, um, raising a huge pile of money from lobbyists*** and special interests and handing it out to his fellow incumbents.
CNN opines that it's his perpetual tan and cigarette that make him distinctive.
I'd have to agree that those would be pretty much the only things that make him stand out from the rest of the disgraced Republican leadership in my mind too.
Way to clean up the culture of corruption, guys.
*for those of you who don't remember the last time, Mr. Gingrich was crooked as a dog's hind leg and got caught. The Republicans shut down the Ethics Committee, but it didn't help. A selection of rats went racing, predictably, for the hawsers (quite a few of them didn't think he was extreme enough anyway). The rest of the leadership heard about it, tried to run to the front of the parade, and then discovered that the insurgents weren't interested in handing the reins of power over to them.
At that point, they belatedly discovered their outrage at this unconscionable disloyalty and ratted everyone concerned out to Gingrich, who accepted the resignation from leadership of Rep. Paxon for not telling him sooner (Paxon was the only one who served at the pleasure of the Speaker), although there were also rumors that his ouster also had something to do with suspicions that he had given information about private House meetings to a good friend who was a journalist.
Paxon and his wife, former Gingrich favorite Susie Molinari both left Congress shortly afterwards. Saxon and Molinari are both now employed sucking up money from friendly businesses who want to do favors for compliant congresspersons. You can't make this stuff up. Another amusing version of the tale from the socialists at the National Review (containing this remarkably satisfying assessment of Mr. Boehner: "He is a unifying figure for warring Republican factions: nobody trusts him.") is here
**Amusingly enough that seems to have been at the instigation of Mr. Armey, who (despite washing his hands in the wake of the coup attempt with the avidity of a germophobic Pilate in any public place he could find) was thought to have lobbied the hardest to be installed by the rebels in Gingrich's place
***You heard the story about passing out tobacco lobby checks to members on the House floor, right?
Our Fiscally Responsible (and, of course, Fearless) Leader is having another go at getting the bills under control
In his budget next week, President Bush will propose substantial savings in Medicare, stepping up his efforts to rein in the growing costs of social insurance programs, administration officials and health care lobbyists said Friday.For the first time since taking office five years ago, they said, Mr. Bush will try to reduce projected Medicare payments to hospitals and other health care providers by billions of dollars over the next five years. In addition, they said, Mr. Bush intends to seek further increases in Medicare premiums for high-income people, beyond those already scheduled to take effect next year.
Despite the failure of his plan to overhaul Social Security last year, Mr. Bush has signaled that he intends to curb rapid increases in federal spending linked to the aging of the population. "The retirement of the baby boom generation will put unprecedented strains on the federal government," Mr. Bush said in his State of the Union address on Tuesday.
Administration officials, Congressional aides and lobbyists said the president was contemplating a package of proposals that would cut the projected growth in Medicare spending by $30 billion to $35 billion in the next five years. That represents less than 1.5 percent of total Medicare spending in those years.
but, of course, we do need the money.
Steve points out one reason that we do need the money
The new Medicare drug benefit will give drug companies up to $2 billion in extra profits this year because they're no longer required to pay rebates on drugs bought by the government for the elderly poor....The boost in profits comes from a shift in the drug coverage of 6.4 million poor and elderly people from Medicaid to the new Medicare drug benefit. Unlike Medicaid, which requires drug companies to charge their lowest or "best price" for medications, the Medicare program relies on competition among private drug plans to keep prices low. By eliminating the need to discount drugs for the government, the industry can now pocket the savings.
"The net effect over 10 years is probably closer to $40 billion in extra profit," said Stephen Schondelmeyer, a pharmaceutical economics professor at the University of Minnesota...
I think we can all agree that it's only responsible politics to find some way to pay for a $40 billion increase in government spending that only pays for what the government was already getting for $40 billion less, and the cutting food stamps for the low-income elderly and disabled who received benefits thing didn't work out.
It's maybe kind of a bitch if you're old and poor, though, since the same government has already suggested (quite effectively, apparently) that the pharmaceutical companies shut down the programs they had in place helping the elderly poor pay for drugs. This was spun as concern about fraud, but apparently intended to keep the poor using generics. Liberal stronghold the Wall Street Journal estimates one million seniors are going to lose their drugs.
To save money.
Of the less money in healthcare spending they are providing to the states, the Bush administration has laid down an unfunded mandate in the eight figures in extra costs every year by refusing to let them negotiate bulk purchases with drug companies.
7.5 million seniors will see their out of pocket costs go up, while six out of ten won't be helped.
Our Fearless Leader blames Congress. He says they underestimated the costs, and they were just going to have to be more prudent about spending.
In fairness to Congress, although the White House says that they did tell Congress that they knew the costs would be higher than the costs they were quoted, they also said, they also said that the administration's point guy in getting the bill passed was just kidding when he threatened to fire an analyst who worked for him if he told Congress what the actual costs were going to be.
Still, you'd have to be some sort of partisan to suggest that this administration isn't hurting poor sick old people because they're really serious about deficits.
Now step away from the tax cuts for the rich and no-one gets hurt.
Health Care Savings Accounts will save the world! That's the message post-State of the Union. But the key problem with these types of health plans is one nobody's talking about: how do you ensure individuals with less-than-perfect health can get access to health insurance on the open market without the hook of employer group associations?
It's conventional wisdom that the current US system of paying for health care is unsustainable. Costs are spiraling out of control, and when the boomers move squarely into old age, the problem is only going to get worse. President Bush and others are hoping that consumer-driven health care plans can help address the issue. The idea is that for the first X dollars of health care spending each year, the spend comes out of consumers' pockets, encouraging them to be more cost conscious as they choose treatments and providers. After a certain deductible is met, insurance coverage kicks in. Part of the sell to consumers is that they can pay for those first X of costs with pre-tax dollars; another benefit is that premiums for this type of plan should be generally lower than for PPOs and the like.
Today's WSJ points out the benefits for employers.
Trade groups cheered President Bush's call in his State of the Union address Tuesday to expand key elements of health-savings accounts, or HSAs. The president's proposals could make it more attractive for millions of people to sign up for HSAs, either on their own or at the growing number of companies that are adopting them.The growing acceptance of HSAs accelerates a transition in health-care benefits, from employers providing a safety net to employees taking on more risk. The shift parallels a similar trend away from traditional pensions in retirement benefits. Indeed, HSAs may be poised to become the 401(k)s of health care: a low-cost substitute for a once-standard workplace-provided benefit, which can offer employees greater flexibility but also can increase their financial burdens and risk.
"I think what [employers] are really after is that they're moving the risk from their balance sheet to the employees," said Richard T. Evans, a health-care analyst with Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in New York. "The risk is being transferred without the consumer really realizing it," he said.
Here's the thing: this new type of plan doesn't address the real, crushing issue for millions of Americans. If you're self-employed, and you're not young and healthy, it's nearly impossible to find a plan that will accept you as a client at a price that anyone would call reasonable. Today's Journal cites estimated annual employer costs for health insurance for individuals: ~$3400 annually for non-HSA plans, ~$2300 for HSA-type plans. That's an average, across different health profiles. And that's how insurance is supposed to work: risk is pooled.
As an individual, not an employer, good luck getting access to insurance at 150%, even 300% of those numbers if you've got health problems. While I was self-employed, I was insured through BCBS via an HSA-linked, high-deductible plan. As a healthy 36-year old woman, I paid about $130 a month, with ~15% cost increases each year. I looked into what a similar plan would cost for a typical early retiree, age 60, with chronic health problems like diabetes. Only option? High risk insurance pool, with premiums north of $1000 a month. If you're not covered by an employer plan, you're not perfectly healthy, and you're too young for Medicare, you've got no realistic options.
Now, don't get me wrong. I think that the ideal would be HSA-type plans for everyone. If individuals are actually paying a la carte for the first couple of thousand of dollars of health costs a year, you'll likely see changes in behavior. Making the person receiving the service the same as the person paying the bill may well result in smarter decisions. Then, if someone has a catastrophic illness, the insurance would kick in and pay much of the cost. This seems a reasonable approach to me. No one - not my employer or anyone else - should pay all my health care costs for me, especially the routine ones. But if I get a horrible illness, or am in a car wreck, I want insurance against that continegency. HSA plans offer that type of approach. The catch: only if you can get access to one at a reasonable price. That's out of the grasp of many individuals without employer associations. If we really want to solve the country's health care insurance crisis, this is an issue we have to face.
I'm off to Portland for the weekend for my niece's baptism. I've activated the Emergency Guest Blogger Network, so don't be surprised to see a different byline or two this weekend. Be nice to them, they're doing me a big favor, and I think they do a great job. See you Sunday night!
I've blogged before about Bill Ceverha, the now-bankrupt former TRMPAC treasurer who sits on the board of the Employees Retirement System of Texas - see here, here, and here for background. Ceverha has been dogged by State Rep. Lon Burnham about some potential conflicts of interest between his service as an ERS Board Member, and his for-profit lobby practice. Burnham is still on the case, with a new complaint:
Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, urged the Texas Ethics Commission to reconsider its ruling that law does not require Bill Ceverha, a member of the Employees Retirement System of Texas board, to disclose the amount of a check given to him by Houston home builder Bob Perry, the state's largest individual campaign donor."Any appointed government official can receive a check from anybody for any amount and all they have to write on their disclosure form is 'check,' " Burnam wrote in a letter to the commission. "This is absurd — and dangerous."
[...]
Appointed public officials are required to disclose financial information to alert the public to possible conflicts of interest.
Ceverha disclosed receiving a check from Perry last year but did not give the amount. The ethics commission ruled last week that state law requires disclosing only the nature of a gift.
Ceverha said he followed state law. "I will do whatever the ethics commission says I should do, but I'm not going to respond to someone on a political vendetta."
As they say, the real crime is that Ceverha most likely is following the rules. Neat little system we have here, isn't it?
Swing State Project reports on the Band of Brothers, who are "55 and counting" military veterans all running as Democratic candidates for Congress this year. They're gathering in Washington, DC, on the steps of the US Capitol (west lawn) at 10am on Wednesday, February 8th, to show their support for fellow veteran/Congressman John Murtha. They'll also be having a fundraiser that evening from 6-8 PM at the Frederick Douglass House (320 A Street NE). You can buy a ticket here.
No fewer than seven of the Brothers are from Texas. I know of at least two who are going to be there for this - David Harris and David Murff. If anyone knows of others who will attend, please let me know. Get to know these guys, they're going to make things interesting this year.
Nick Lampson sits for a fairly in-depth interview with Josh Marshall. Here's my earlier chat with him if you want more. Check it out.
Chris Bell will be featured on CNN's Anderson Cooper 360 tonight at 11 PM EST, which is 10 PM Central and 9 in El Paso. They'll be talking about a certain former Majority Leader and the ethics complaint that Bell filed against him. Check it out.
Sometimes it's hard to see the forest for the trees. When I blogged about the TTRC's business tax proposal, I noted this quote:
Byron Schlomach of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which advocates for smaller government and lower taxes, said he hopes the commission keys in on consumption taxes, such as the sales tax and the roughly $3.5 billion in surplus money now sitting in state coffers, to replace property taxes."We have to ultimately judge this policy by what it's long-term effects are likely to be," Schlomach said. "The fact is that a business tax taxes innovation, work effort, investment and job creation."
I interpreted this to mean that the TPPF and its ilk would oppose the TTRC's proposal, which in turn led me to wonder again what Rick Perry would do. I missed something in there, and it wasn't until I was sent a not-online news story (copied and uploaded here - PDF) about a recent SD7 candidate forum that I understood what it was that I'd overlooked. Here's a quote from candidate Dan Patrick, responding to the question "If we reduce taxes that go to education, how do we replace them?"
Patrick said there was plenty of money available now to replace reduced school property taxes."We're awash with money in Austin, but there's tremendous waste in our education budget," he said.
"Awash with money". Sure didn't feel like it all last year when CHIP cuts were left unrestored and we had those endless battles over school finance, did it? And I'm not sure where this idea that there's a ton of surplus cash, $3.5 billion or whatever, lying around. This is the latest financial information I can find, and if I'm reading this correctly, it's a deficit situation, not a surplus. So what gives?
Three words: Rainy Day Fund. I have this bad feeling that the solution to the cut property taxes/leave bidness alone/make school finance comply with the court's ruling conundrum is going to be a raid on the Rainy Day Fund. Why not, if it's currently loaded? It's an easy fix, no hard choices need to be made, and the loudest voice against it will be none other than Carole Keeton Strayhorn, whom Perry can then paint as a tax-raiser-wannabee.
Of course, this is a one-shot fix, and it'll put us right back in the hole afterwards. But so what? There's an election to be won. Who cares about the future and the stability of the tax system?
I could be wrong, of course - among other things, I can't find a link that's got the current Rainy Day Fund balance in it, so who knows if this is accurate - but these are the clues, and this is what I make of them. When Perry speaks, we'll know for sure. Stay tuned and see if I'm right.
UPDATE: Ah, here's where that 3.5 billion figure comes from:
Months before a raucous showdown over education funding, Texas lawmakers haven't been officially notified about a massive budget surplus — at least $3 billion — sitting in the state treasury, and it's quickly becoming a political football.The estimated surplus means that Texas has that much more money than the Legislature budgeted in the current two-year spending period. Lawmakers going into a spring special session on school financing know they'll have at least $3 billion more, but they don't know how much more money there is.
[...]
A $3 billion surplus would be the largest the state has seen in several years. In contrast, lawmakers wrote the 2004-05 budget in the face of a $10 billion revenue shortfall.
Some of the money, $1.2 billion, is leftover tax revenue from the last budget cycle and $1.9 billion was stashed away by lawmakers to use in the upcoming school funding debate. Current projections indicate that the surplus will grow even larger over the biennium, as the result of larger-than-expected tax revenue from consumer spending and higher oil and gas prices.
"The glitch is, there hasn't been a revised revenue estimate released yet. They ususally do it in December to say if what they said a year ago is still true or not," said Eva DeLuna Castro, a budget policy analyst for the Center for Public Policy Priorities. "Things change in an economic forecast based on consumer spending and oil and gas prices."
The state also is sitting on $473 million in savings from vetoed legislation in the current budget that can be spent anytime by the budget board.
So there you go. Thanks to Damon for the catch.
Guess it took this picture for the big boys to notice the CD28 primary, but Kos (here, here, and here) and Atrios (here, here, here, and here) have really been pounding on Rep. Henry Cuellar lately. They're also touting his primary opponent, former Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, who gets into the act himself with this Kos diary. They're also asking for donations to Rodriguez, who as you can see needs the help.
Cuellar raised $167,900 from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 and posted year-end cash on hand totaling $293,833, according to his latest campaign finance report heading into the March 7 Democratic primary."It'll give us every advantage," Cuellar's campaign manager, Colin Strother, said of the fundraising effort. "It will allow us to execute a comprehensive campaign strategy."
In the meantime, Rodriguez raised $84,631 and ended the year with $43,000 on hand.
In a written statement, Rodriguez acknowledged the amount raised was "token" but said that since Jan. 1 his campaign has raised more than it did in the final quarter of 2005.
Campaign manager Oscar Sanchez said the former congressman's camp now has more than $100,000 at its disposal.
"The pace is picking up quite a bit, especially after that picture last night," Sanchez quipped.
He was referring to a Washington Post photograph taken Tuesday night at President Bush's State of the Union address. It showed Bush holding a smiling Cuellar's head between his hands during a stop on his way to the dais.
You can certainly help with the money, but if you live in CD28, you really need to help with the blockwalking and phonebanking. Fill out the volunteer form or call the campaign headquarters at 210-928-2476. Early voting for the primary starts on February 21. The primary's all there is for this election, so take action now while you can.
UPDATE: Jane Hamsher joins in, with her own ActBlue page as well. Counting that, plus Atrios' page and this page, I count about $15K raised for Rodriguez. Can't say how much came from the last couple of days, but that's not too shabby.
UPDATE: Kos again. He reports $11K in four hours from the two non-Hamsher ActBlue pages. Like I said, not too shabby.
UPDATE: The Express News picks up the story. Via Atrios.
We're on day two of the prosecution's case, and if we've learned anything from yesterday's testimony by Mark Koenig, it's that this trial is going to be wicked long. Basically, the Princess Bride/Good Parts Version of the story will begin when Fast Andy Fastow takes his nothing-but-the-truth vow. Tom Kirkendall explains why this may be a problem for the Feds.
If you read one thing related to the Enron trial today, I recommend it be this blog post by defense attorney/color commentator Kent Schaffer about those who pled out and will testify for the state. I don't doubt for a minute that many bad things happened at Enron. I think the defense "run on the bank" strategy is hooey; plenty of companies overstate earnings or understate losses and get their stock hammered as a result but stay in business. I don't think anyone questions Fastow's criminality, and whether or not Skilling or Lay knew about it they damn well should have. They, their cronies, and if there's any justice in this world the entire Board of Directors should spend the rest of their lives fending off civil judgments because of their venality, greed, and incompetence.
But that doesn't mean that Skilling and Lay broke the law. Maybe that's an indictment of the law, but it concerns me when I see progressives leading a pitchfork and torch brigade to a courthouse. I'm sure I've been guilty of this myself. It's easy to get caught up in that in a case like this. Still, Skilling and Lay may be reprehensible people, but that doesn't lower the government's burden of proof and it doesn't mean the government might not have strongarmed a few confessions from risk-averse or financially strapped Enronites. As with all defendants, I want these guys to get a fair, thorough, and by-the-book trial so that when the verdict is read, we can all feel confident in whatever it is. And I want Fastow's testimony to come sooner rather than later. Too bad I can't TiVo this thing and skip forward to it.
I've just received the following from a source in the Legislature:
San Antonio, TX - State Representative Frank Corte Jr., R-San Antonio, will announce at a press conference on Thursday that he is being deployed to Iraq as part of his tour of duty with the U.S. Marines, 3rd Civil Affairs Group. The press conference will be at the Raytheon FBO Aircraft Services at the San Antonio International Airport Complex, 1115 Paul Wilkins Rd., starting promptly at 12:45 pm. Rep. Corte will also announce his intention to appoint a Temporary Acting Representative in case a special legislative session is called in his absence. Governor Rick Perry and other legislators will also be in attendance at the press conference. Rep. Corte will be available for questions after the press conference.
My source tells me that the acting rep will be Corte's wife. That would make his situation almost exactly parallel to that of Rick Noriega, who was deployed to Afghanistan in 2004 and who had his wife Melissa take his place in Austin last year.
My best wishes to Rep. Corte and his family. May he return home safely when his service is complete.
UPDATE: Larry Stallings, Corte's opponent and a combat veteran from Desert Storm, wishes him godspeed.
Andrea Yates has been released from prison on bail. She's not exactly free, however.
Wednesday, [Judge Belinda] Hill granted bail with the assurance that Yates would voluntarily commit herself to Rusk, until her trial begins. She then will be moved to the Harris County Jail psychiatric unit, where she was moved last month for court appearances related to her trial.Yates has been held at Skyview, a Texas Department of Criminal Justice psychiatric unit near the Rusk hospital, since her conviction.
Hill told Yates that she could not order her to commit herself to Rusk, but was granting bail on the stipulation that she would. [Yates' attorney George] Parnham had asked for $50,000 bail, but said he was happy with Hill's decision and will try to raise the money from people and groups concerned with mental-health issues.
Prosecutors had requested $1 million bail, expressing fear that since she is being allowed to commit herself, Yates will be able to leave the hospital, located about 3 1/2 hours from Houston. They say the heinous nature of the killings indicates that she is a danger to society.
"This is a case about five dead children," Assistant District Attorney Kaylynn Williford said after Hill's decision.
But Parnham told Hill that Rusk officials have given assurances that if Yates attempts to leave, they will hold her and contact Parnham. He said he then would ask that bail be revoked and Yates be returned to the Harris County Jail.
I don't think there's any chance Andrea Yate will make a break for it. I doubt she's got the ability to think in those terms right now. I'm just glad she'll have a chance to be someplace that can treat her effectively. With the retrial scheduled for March 20, she won't be there long, at least not at this time. I'm still hopeful for a plea agreement. We'll see what happens.
Monday, February 6 is the first day of early voting in Austin for the HD48 runoff. On that same day, Tom DeLay will be in the capital for two fundraisers (as we've seen, he needs all the funds he can get). Anyone else think he's there in part to help whip turnout for poor, hapless Ben Bentzin? Given Bentzin's poor showing in January, it's hard to imagine him winning on issues or personality at this point. A little red meat surely couldn't hurt him. Just a thought.
By the way, DeLay will be at the Barton Creek County Club at 6 PM on Monday, in case anyone wants to give him a warm welcome.
UPDATE: Tangential, but Susan Combs is also trying to drag Bentzin across the finish line. "Mighty Texas Strike Force"? Someone read too many Action Comics as a kid.
Headlines we like: Is DeLay's fundraising slipping?
Rep. Tom DeLay has just $150,000 more in the bank than challenger Democrat Nick Lampson, the most recent election filings show.DeLay's campaign committee reported having $1.44 million on hand and Lampson's campaign $1.29 million, according to year-end reports that were filed late Tuesday with the Federal Election Commission. The reports include all funds received up to Dec. 30, 2005, and also include a swing-for-the-fences fundraising dinner in Houston for DeLay with Vice President Dick Cheney on Dec. 5. DeLay's office called the fundraiser "the most successful of the congressman's career."
"In one night alone, the congressman took in more than $500,000," said campaign spokeswoman Shannon Flaherty. "It was a very strong fourth quarter."
Lampson campaign spokesman Mike Malaise was surprised that the race for dollars was so close, based on what he said he'd heard from Delay's camp.
"DeLay's fundraising numbers are dropping off," Malaise said.
Here are DeLay's totals and Lampson's totals. Note how much DeLay spent this quarter to raise the money he did. With that kind of burn rate, he's gonna get passed by Lampson in the coming months. And how often is Darth Cheney going to fly in to help him out? There are other Republicans to raise money for, too.
More bad news for DeLay: His legal defense fund is spending faster than it's raising.
DeLay, fighting an indictment in Texas on charges of illegal fundraising while facing scrutiny by federal prosecutors in Washington for his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, raised $181,851 between Oct. 1 and the end of the year. That amount brought the total raised for his legal defense fund in 2005 to $590,520 — significantly more than the $439,550 recorded in 2004.But during 2005, DeLay's legal expenses topped $1 million, said Brent Perry, a Houston attorney who administers the fund.
"We paid out well over $500,000 in legal fees (in 2005)," he said. The payments would leave DeLay owing lawyers at least $500,000, a figure Perry said was probably low.
DeLay, of Sugar Land, raised $318,000 in the third quarter of 2005, during which he was indicted in Travis County. Perry said the falloff in the final three months should not be interpreted as a lack of enthusiasm among donors.
"I have not experienced any reluctance to give," Perry said. "We've already taken in $100,000 in January, without any fundraising events."
As reported in required disclosures to the U.S. House, contributions to the fund in the fourth quarter trailed Republican DeLay's legal expenses for the same period, which came to $239,257.
Keep sucking up the money, Tom. The more you take for yourself, the less there is for your buddies. And don't count on ARMPAC to help because they're broke, too. Poor Tom.
Get ready to gird your loins: the Texas Tax Reform Commission is gearing up to propose a new business tax to replace the state's antiquated franchise tax.
[Former state Comptroller John Sharp] said the Texas Tax Reform Commission is zeroing in on a replacement for the current business franchise tax that would help raise the revenue needed to cut school property taxes by an estimated $5.8 billion a year – a reduction of about a third.The new franchise tax could be kept at a low rate because it would affect virtually all businesses except for sole proprietorships – a notable contrast to the current franchise tax, which Mr. Sharp estimated that more than 90 percent of businesses avoid through loopholes.
"You can drop the franchise tax from 4.5 percent to 1 percent if everybody participates in the system," said Mr. Sharp, whose panel will make recommendations to Gov. Rick Perry and the Legislature. Their proposal will also include a mix of consumer and business taxes.
At the same time, Mr. Sharp added, the new business tax would be friendly to companies that invest in the state and hire a large number of Texans.
"We're looking at a tax that lets you base your deductions either on the cost of goods sold or on the personnel you employ," he said. "For every person you hire, your taxes would go down."
"If you're out of state and you sell products in Texas but you manufacture those products in California, you're going to pay higher taxes than if you had built a plant in Texas and hired people in Texas," he said. "If all your buildings and employees are sitting up in Chicago, you're going to pay more."
That approach, the former state comptroller noted, means that a business tax based on payroll – such as was considered in the Legislature last year – is "not on the table."
According to the Statesman, that may not be all.
[Sharp] also said the commission is looking at broadening the state's 6.25 percent sales tax. The tax now excludes some goods, such as bottled water and newspapers, and some services, such as legal work and haircuts.
The business tax idea sounds fine. Frankly, it's the sort of thing that I'd be advocating if I were on the TTRC. The broader your base, the shallower the tax can be. Makes all kinds of sense, and in theory it should be acceptable to everyone. In the DMN story, Sharp claims it will be:
While opposition from business groups helped kill a proposed new franchise tax in the Legislature last year, Mr. Sharp said an increasing number of business leaders "are coming up to me and saying it's time" to revise the state's tax system so that all companies pay their fair share.
I'll get back to that in a minute. For now, the devil is in the details. What loopholes will various special interests seek? What effect will the broadening of the sales tax (another thing which makes sense in theory) have on the people who won't see any benefit from property tax reductions? When will we see a Legislative Budget Board analysis of this? And finally, what effect will it have on school finance? You remember school finance, right? Is this all being done under the assumption that the level of school funding is fine as it is, or under the assumption that it needs to increase?
As to the issue of support for this broader-yet-shallower business tax, I'm not convinced that the usual suspects won't try to kill it in favor of more regressive measures. As the Statesman story notes, that's what they're already saying:
Byron Schlomach of the Texas Public Policy Foundation, which advocates for smaller government and lower taxes, said he hopes the commission keys in on consumption taxes, such as the sales tax and the roughly $3.5 billion in surplus money now sitting in state coffers, to replace property taxes."We have to ultimately judge this policy by what it's long-term effects are likely to be," Schlomach said. "The fact is that a business tax taxes innovation, work effort, investment and job creation."
My interpretation of this statement is that the TPPF will oppose any "new" business taxes. This is Rick Perry's base. I cannot think of a single example of Perry going against them. As I said before, Perry has some hard choices ahead of him. Until I hear the words that John Sharp is currently saying come from Rick Perry's mouth, I'm not at all convinced that Perry believes in them and will advocate for them.
Finally, both stories refer to this new tax as possibly being on "gross receipts" for businesses. I received the following email from John Sharp (which is what spurred me to find these stories), which he sent to various real journalists plus me, to clarify this:
Just as a quick point of clarification, there have been several references to the third option of taxes that I and my commission are considering as a gross receipts tax. That particular option can no more be called a gross receipts tax than a sales tax can be called an income tax. Although they use a similar basis, a gross receipts tax to business connotes a tax on the entire gross receipts of a company. That is far from the case with this option. It is accurate at this stage to say it is an option under consideration. It is also accurate to say it is a revision of the state's franchise tax and some people have referred to it as a tax dealing with margins, but it is not and never will be a gross receipts tax. Thank you for your time.
So now you know.
UPDATE: Aaron Pena thinks the sales tax will also be raise a half-cent. I'd think that might be a problem for some folks. We'll see.
Gads. I can tell that it's going to be impossible to keep up with all the Skilling/Lay trial happenings. Opening arguments are already over, and the first prosecution witness is testifying as I blog. Just subscribe to the feeds for the two Enron blogs plus Loren Steffy's Full Disclosure and you'll be in good shape.
Well, okay, you'll also need to follow Tom Kirkendall's analyses. Here's his pregame review, and here's his recap of the opening arguments. The defense team is talented and aggressive, and he thinks they did pretty well yesterday. One place where I think they may have stumbled a bit is captured in this Trail Watch post, from the opening statements by Skilling's lawyer Daniel Petrocelli.
"What is Jeff Skilling's motive?", asked Petrocelli. The indictment said he committed crimes for money and prestige. "In 1999 he had more money than he ever dreamed of having," Petrocelli said. He said he already had plenty of prestige.
For what it's worth, that's an argument that would cut no ice with me. It's called "greed", and even though Attorney Petrocelli also said that Skilling wasn't greedy, the question I'd have for him is if Skilling had all the money and prestige he ever needed, why didn't he quit in 1999? Especialy if he was (as you also claim) "uncomfortable" running Enron? Lou Pai, the former Enron exec whom the "Smartest Guys In the Room" film fingered as the reason why Enron and strippers went hand in hand, retired with his millions (and as I recall, a stripper girlfriend) to Hawaii a couple of years before the implosion. That's what someone who has "more money than he ever dreamed of having" does. Why didn't Skilling take his fortune and disappear into the sunset? One might say that as long as he was doing a CEO's job and getting a CEO's lavish pay, he still had room in his heart for more money and prestige.
Just my opinion. I'll close here with Dwight's behind-the-scenes look at the logistics of blogging a big trial. And Dwight, in the event that Judge Lake does shut down the courthouse's WiFi network, there are alternate technologies available to your blogging crew.
This ought to be exciting: The Electronic Frontier Foundation has filed a class action lawsuit against AT&T for "violating the law and the privacy of its customers by collaborating with the National Security Agency (NSA) in its massive and illegal program to wiretap and data-mine Americans' communications."
The suit (.pdf), filed by the civil liberties group in federal court in San Francisco, alleges AT&T secretly gave the National Security Agency access to two massive databases that included both the contents of its subscribers' communications and detailed transaction records, such as numbers dialed and internet addresses visited."Our goal is to go after the people who are making the government's illegal surveillance possible," says EFF attorney Kevin Bankston. "They could not do what they are doing without the help of companies like AT&T. We want to make it clear to AT&T that it is not in their legal or economic interests to violate the law whenever the president asks them to."
[...]
The suit, which relies on reporting from the Los Angeles Times, seeks up to $22,000 in damages for each AT&T customer, plus punitive fines.
[...]
The government is not named in the lawsuit, though it is already being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union over the surveillance program.
Bankston estimates that millions of people nationwide would be eligible to join the class action, pushing the possible total fines into the billions. However, he expects the administration will try to kill the lawsuit by invoking the rarely used state secrets privilege.
"If state secrecy can prevent us from preserving the rights of millions upon millions of people, then there is a profound problem with the law," says Bankston.
More information is here. I'm not a lawyer, so I can't tell you how much merit this suit has. I suspect there's a nontrivial amount of desire to put public pressure on AT&T and any other company that would (unlike Google) accede to the government's wishes for this kind of activity. There's a debate going on in this thread on The Agonist over whether AT&T was compelled by law to do what the government asked them to do. I'm sure they'll argue that, but I feel reasonably confident that it's at least a murky point, since last I checked the EFF had some smart people working for them, and it wouldn't do them or the cause they're advocating much good to have this thrown out of court in the first round of motions.
Will the tactical gambit of putting pressure on AT&T and anyone like them work? The AP has picked up the story, and Google News shows that it's appeared in a number of newspapers. There's quotes from the EFF's Bankston but none from AT&T, since they declined to comment. The Chron has it, but as far as I can tell, the San Antonio Express News, which is to say the paper of AT&T's corporate headquarters, does not. Maybe tomorrow, we'll see. In any event, I look forward to seeing what AT&T's response will be, and if any other companies will change their behavior because of this.
Yesterday when I blogged about James Leininger and his new voucher PAC, there was more to the story at the end, on a different topic. Here it is, from PinkDome:
"TRLCC (Leininger's PAC) also spent $15,000 with Keep Texas Strong. According to Williamson County Assumed Name records, Keep Texas Strong is a proprietorship owned by Milton Rister"This is the same Milton Rister that came to Austin with Tom Craddick; who helped run the 76 in '96 and 8 in '98 campaigns; who worked with Rove to handpick certain legislators; who worked for TRMPAC, TLR, and both Dewhurst and Craddick.
Now Craddick, Perry and Dewhurst have agreed on a guy to head the vacant position of Legislative Council director. Their pick? Bingo, Milton Rister. This guy is actively campaigning RIGHT NOW to knock out several incumbents in the House. Does this not strike anyone as odd? An ultra-partisan running the Lege Council while snipering wayward House members? These Lege Council folks are the poor saps who work tirelessly (and unbiasedly) to punch up into legalese whatever wet dream a legislator can think of. With this guy at the helm, things look like they could take a fairly unbalanced swing.
Rep. Senfronia Thompson has sent a letter to Dewhurst and Craddick to object to Rister's selection. Again from PinkDome:
31 January, 2006The Honorable Tom Craddick
The Honorable David DewhurstTo the Honorable Members of the Legislative Council:
It has come to my attention that the Council is scheduled to approve a new Council director Wednesday morning, Milton Rister, a political operative, who has worked against sitting members of both Houses. Mr. Rister will more than likely work with some of these members in his capacity as the Executive Director of the Legislative Council. Mr. Rister's devisive presence may create a perceived erosion of the confidentiality, independence, discretion, and credibility of the non-partisan Legislative Council.
As one of the most senior legislators and a former member of the Legislative Council, I urge your reconsideration of this ill-considered and ill-timed appointment. Texas Legislators must be able to depend on the Legislative Council to draft potential legislation according to the members request and for those requests to remain confidential. This has always been the policy of the Legislative Council. Having an Executive Director, with such a well-documented political agenda could stifle many legislators' willingness to make use of the such a valuable legislative asset.
The bipartisan traditions of the Texas Legislature have been honored by such diverse persons as George W. Bush and Ann Richards. At the core of this tradition, is an independent and dependable Legislative Council. I pray a more suitable candidate can be found to fill the shoes of true non-partisan Texas heroes like Bob Johnson and Bob Kelly.
Yours for a better Texas,Senfronia Thompson, State Representative
cc: Members of the Legislative Council
Rep. Paul Moreno is also objecting. Here's a list of House and Senate members who will vote on Rister's nomination some time today and their contact information. I note that Frank Madla is one of them. Perhaps a phone call will help him or any of these other folks make a good decision on this. Call quickly, I don't know when this vote is scheduled.
Just a few tidbits to tide you over...
Frank Madla gets a school named after him just before he's in a contested primary. With a little help from his friends, of course. Matt has the story.
Borris Miles is having a meet-and-greet tonight at Annie's Hamburgers, 10821 South Post Oak Rd, from 5 to 7 PM. Call 713-529-3520 to RSVP or for directions.
Further down the line, Nick Lampson will be having a fundraiser in my general vicinity. From the email I got:
Please join Congressman Nick Lampson, Democratic Candidate for Congress, Texas – 22
At the home of
Ginni & Richard Mithoff
2930 Lazy Lane
Houston, Texas 77019
Tuesday, February 21, 2006
6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m.
Minimum suggested contribution $250
Please R.S.V.P. to Susan at (281) 335-5826 or syates@lampson.com
That's a little rich for my blood, but if you were planning to write Lampson a hefty check anyway, that's the place to do it. I've actually been to the Mithoff house - they hosted a benefit for the Bayou Preservation Association a few years back. It was an outdoors event, so while I've been to Chez Mithoff, I've not been in it. They live on Bayou Bend, though, so out on the grounds was the place to be anyway.
In the other contested Democratic primary for a State House seat being abandoned by a Republican, both Jason Earle and Valinda Bolton picked up endorsements recently. Candidate Eric Beverly will get his turn in the BOR interview rotation shortly - Earle's is here and Bolton's is here.
Finally, Glenn Melancon has another press release about the effect of the drought in North Texas on its ranchers:
"Over the last year Texas families have struggled because of the sluggish economy. Now's the time for change; now is the time to put families ahead of corporations," said Glenn Melancon, Democratic candidate for Congress.
"While Washington politicians measure the State of the Union by looking at corporate profits, they turn their backs on working families. Farmers and Ranchers have asked for drought relief, yet Congress refuses to act. College students can't afford to pay their tuition, yet Congress cuts Federal Financial Aid and state's raise tuition. Commuters face rising gas prices, yet Congress rewards oil companies with tax giveaways. Something is radically wrong with the direction of our country."
Glenn Melancon is running for Congress to demand change and to fight for Texas families. The State of the Union will be truly healthy when Congress promotes and protects well-paying American jobs, ensures health-care access for all Americans, breaks America's addiction to foreign oil and creates a winning foreign policy.
Glenn Melancon of Sherman is the Democratic candidate in Texas' 4th Congressional District. The district includes Bowie, Camp, Cass, Collin, Delta, Fannin, Franklin, Grayson, Hopkins, Hunt, Lamar, Morris, Rains, Red River, Rockwall and Titus counties.
An earlier release is here.