Powerball still in limbo

Looks like I may have spoken too soon about Powerball. The House and Senate have not agreed on a bill to authorize it yet, and the clock is ticking.

If the two chambers can't agree on lottery by Monday, dreams of Powerball go away -- along with the Texas Lottery Commission and all its games. The House and Senate versions of Senate Bill 270 both continue the commission for the next 12 years, but the big difference is that the Senate did not include Powerball and did not pass provisions tightening up the regulation of bingo as the House did.

House Ways and Means Chairman Ron Wilson, D-Houston, said he doesn't expect the Senate to concur with the House's version of the lottery sunset bill, meaning the two sides must beat the clock or risk busting a balanced budget. If that happens, the odds of a special summer session are extremely high.

Sen. Mike Jackson, R-La Porte, said he hasn't decided whether to agree with the House yet, but he said Powerball wasn't the problem. "I'm more worried about the bad bingo language," he said.

[...]

The revenue expected from Powerball -- an extra $101 million -- also has been spent in the budget bill.

The House would toughen the state's regulation of charitable bingo games by requiring bingo money handlers to pay $25 a year for a state license. About $1.2 billion is raised each two-year budget cycle from bingo, but only $60 million goes to charities, Wilson says. The rest of the money is kept by bingo operators and those who lease halls, he says.

The hang-up appeared to be more about those regulations than Powerball.

I'm not quite sure what the fuss is, but I can't help but be reminded of that old bumper sticker: "Support Bingo. Keep Grandma Off The Streets."

UPDATE: Amazingly, Powerball is probably dead. I'm frankly shocked that a hangup over regulating charity bingo could derail this.

UPDATE: Powerball lives! Never say never, I guess.

And starring as...

The Gunther Concept, who avoids the Blogger permalink problem by not having permalinks enabled at all, has what I think is the proper response to the news that a made for TV movie about 9/11 is going to show Dubya as an articulate action hero. He suggests a cast list which I think is pure genious:

G.W. Bush - Ray Romano
Laura Bush - Rosie O’Donnell
Dick Cheney - William Shatner
Donald Rumsfeld - Rip Torn
Condaleeza Rice - Rosie Perez
Colin Powell - Richard Roundtree
Tom Daschle - Alan Alda
Dennis Hassert - doesn't matter; no one knows what he looks like anyway
Tom DeLay - Kevin Sorbo
Osama Bin Laden - Nicholas Cage
Ari Fleischer - Verne Troyer

Scroll down to the May 28 entry, entitled "Better Than 'Showgirls'?" and leave a comment if you have any suggested additions. I'm thinking Will Ferrell as Karen Hughes and Colin Mochrie as Karl Rove.

Faint, fading, and the FCC

I haven't been beating the drums over the FCC's proposed rules to allow even more media consolidation, but it's gaining a reasonable amount of attention. This article raises an interesting question:

Here's a quiz for you: Name the best-known and most influential conservative commentators in America? Rush Limbaugh? George F. Will? Bill O'Reilly? Now, quick, who are their liberal counterparts?

If you can't think of any, you're not alone. Conservatives love to rant that liberals dominate the news media. Trouble is, it's just not true. In fact, I'd argue that the biggest problem with America's public discourse today is that the left is barely represented at all on mainstream TV and radio talk shows and in major newspapers and magazines.

Via Rhetoric & Rhythm (permalinks bloggered), a left-leaning blogger from San Antonio who digs baseball. He goes on in his subsequent post to list some liberal voices, which leads me to ponder which of these people would you most like to see on the air, and which unlisted liberals would you like to tune in to. Leave a comment with your nominations.

Meanwhile, the Economist looks at how radio frequencies are allocated and what the future may hold there. If I were convinced that the spectrum is not really a scarce resource, I'd feel a lot less apprehensive about whatever mischief Michael Powell is up to.

Tell us how you really feel

Jim Henley works up a pretty heavy froth over the current state of affairs in Iraq. Go read it and see if you get as angry as he does.

Here's an idle question to chew on, by the way. Team Bush has passed all of its tax cuts and knocked off Saddam Hussein, wherever he may be. What, exactly, do they plan to do between now and next November?

Look at it this way: After however many huge tax cuts, the economy is still in the crapper, and despite some encouraging growth numbers, payrolls continue to shrink, meaning that to many people, things feel more like recession than recovery. What will Bush do if this is still happening next year? Given that this latest tax cut was sold as a surefire way to get the economy humming and to create jobs, will anyone believe him if he proposes yet another tax cut as the cure for what's still ailing us? Will people begin to see what's happened already as snake oil?

As for Iraq, despite declaration of victory, US armed forces are still taking casualties, more and more pro-invasion advocates are complaining about the brazen lying over WMDs, and the price tag for rebuilding Iraq is now over $100 billion. If Iraq is still in chaos, if al Qaeda continues to strike, if the where-are-the-WMDs drumbeat gets louder, and if the soldiers are forced to stay on for longer and longer hitches, where does that leave Bush? Somehow, I don't think invading Iran or Syria will do him any good, assuming they even bother to try that approach.

If I were the kind of hack writer who dragged out sports cliches at every opportunity, I'd observe that Bush appears to resemble a team that has peaked too early on its quest for a championship, and is now vulnerable to a foe it would have vanquished earlier. Fortunately, I'm not that kind of hack writer.

There are straws in the wind here, from polling numbers to murmurs about what Bush knew before September 11. What does Team Bush have left in its arsenal to counter them?

Go west, young man

John McKay and Kos have both made some interesting points about the Western states and the Democrats' prospects there in the near term and farther out. Check them out, and be sure to read Kos' comments.

Yard sign silliness

The top story in today's Chron is about a dustup over yard signs between a homeowner and the neighborhood association.

The way Michael Skadden sees it, there is little difference between a sign supporting Bill White for mayor and one supporting President Bush.

Both, the lawyer reasons, are political in nature.

That's why he is perplexed that his neighborhood association wants him to remove the "Bill White / Get Houston Moving Sign" from his yard.

At the same time, the southwest Houston neighborhood is dotted with signs that say "We support President Bush and Our Troops."

His neighborhood association says that you can't have "temporary signs, such as political signs" on your lawn more than 90 days before an election. Judith Jones, the association secretary, who informed Skadden that he must remove the sign, says that the Bush signs are OK because they don't say anything about supporting Bush for re-election.

I say that's ridiculous. It's a loophole, like the one that allows unrestricted "issue ads" as long as they don't say the magic words "elect" or "defeat". If you think that those pro-Bush-and-troops signs aren't "political", you've got your head in the sand. If you need evidence, consider this:

After the war began in Iraq, the Harris County Republican Party produced thousands of signs supporting Bush and the troops. The party requested a $1 donation for each sign.

How is that not political? Even if you could somehow imagine that the message isn't overtly political, the Republican Party is earning a buck a sign. Don't you think that maybe that might have a political purpose?

Did I mention, by the way, that the person who issued this egregious ruling is a GOP precinct judge? Who had one of those pro-Bush signs in her yard for many weeks?

"He has turned a teeny, tiny ant hill into something big," Jones said of Skadden. "He had the nerve to tell me that the Constitution protects people from people like me."

He's right. Get over yourself. Either both signs are okay, or neither of them are. You can't have it both ways.

UPDATE: From John Williams' column on Monday, which I meant to blog about but forgot:

Last week, the Houston Chronicle detailed a lawyer's fight with his civic association to keep a campaign sign for mayoral candidate Bill White posted in his yard.

The lawyer, a member of the American Civil Liberties Union, says free speech laws protect the sign.

The association says the sign violates deed restrictions because it was planted more than 90 days before the November election. But the association allows signs distributed by the Harris County Republican Party that say "We Support President Bush and Our Troops."

And the association's president? Linda Sanchez Kroneman.

If that maiden name rings a political bell, maybe it's because she is also known as the sister of mayoral candidate Orlando Sanchez.

Kroneman says she wasn't involved in the efforts to remove the White sign. She plans to discuss the association's political sign policy with its board later this month.

Oh, yeah. I'll bet she's looking forward to the conversation.

Governor utters the "S" word

Governor Perry has declared his intent to call a special legislative session, but not for any of the issues (budget, school finance, redistricting) that have been anticipated so far. He's vowed to keep legislators in Austin until they pass a tort reform bill that's to his liking.

House and Senate leaders have been in a standoff over the proposal, House Bill 4, for days. The Senate favors a more flexible cap that would allow up to $750,000 in damages for pain, suffering, disfigurement and loss of companionship, but Perry and Speaker Tom Craddick back the $250,000 cap in the House version.

Craddick said Perry has been saying for weeks that he would immediately call a special session if the $250,000 cap was not written into law.

Rep. Joe Nixon, the bill's author, said Wednesday that Perry told him on the House floor Monday that he would call a special session on the issue after the regular session ends Monday if the bill isn't passed.

"He told me to tell everybody, `Don't pack your bags,' " said Nixon, R-Houston.

"That is an appropriate recollection of the conversation," Perry said hours later, according to the Associated Press. "I don't know why we would want to go home.

"We're trying to limit litigation here," Perry said. "I think the House numbers are appropriate."

The House last week refused to concur in the Senate amendments to the bill and named five members to serve on a committee to work out a compromise. But Sen. Bill Ratliff, R-Mount Pleasant, so far has refused to ask Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst to appoint senators to that conference committee.

This bill has a strange history, having attracted opposition from anti-abortion activists who think it will make it easier for doctors to perform abortions (given all of the abortion-restricting laws this Lege has passed so far, I wouldn't worry about that too much if I were they).

Ratliff said a zero cap on noneconomic damages would reduce insurance costs even more, "but that doesn't mean it's right."

Ratliff acknowledged he's getting pressured about the bill. But as one of the Senate's most respected members, Ratliff likely can count on his colleagues to back him up.

"The Senate trusted me to hear the testimony and propose a reasonable solution," said Ratliff, who listened to 60 hours of testimony from doctors as well as patients who had been severely injured. "I won't violate the very trust the Senate put in me. I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to walk away just because of the heat."

Senator Ratliff, who was the acting Lt. Governor when Perry took over for Bush in 2001, seems likely to compromise to me. He's a pragmatic sort, but he also supposedly has no big love for Perry, so if he feels he's getting bullied he may very well dig in his heels. We'll see.

Meanwhile, as Clay Robison notes, whatever law gets passed will ultimately be a constitutional amendment that the voters can approve or reject this fall. Unlike most such amendments, this one will be voted on in a special election on September 13, instead of in November. Proponents of the bill are afraid that Houston voters, who will be electing a mayor, will have too much effect on its outcome. It's a slick yet sleazy maneuver, sure to reduce turnout.

I believe the bill deserves to die a swift death, but that ain't gonna happen. Tort reform is an illusion, a false solution to a manufactured crisis that aims to screw the little guy. And as Dwight Meredith asked, if politicians like Rick Perry have so little faith in civil juries, why do they trust criminal juries so much?

Council passes "unconstitutional" law

Sometimes, I just don't know what to make of our City Council. Yesterday, they passed an anti-prostitution law which they themselves acknowledge is unconstitutional and a surefire bet to be challenged in court.

Under the ordinance, effective within five days, any officer may arrest a "known prostitute" -- someone convicted of prostitution within the last year -- for loitering in a public place with the intent to commit prostitution, demonstrated by enticing, soliciting or procuring someone.

"This ordinance makes it a crime for looking like you want to proposition someone for sex," said Annette Lamoreaux, East Texas regional director for the American Civil Liberties Union.

"In this country, we only arrest people for committing a crime, not for looking like they are about to commit a crime."

Lamoreaux said her office will decide whether to file a lawsuit immediately or wait for someone to be arrested and seek a plaintiff, adding that council was irresponsible for passing the law based on political expediency.

Look, I get that the Council is responding to residents - in a neighborhood not far from my own, I might add - who have legitimate complaints. But what good will this law do if it's sure to be struck down by the courts? Now you're not only right back where you started, you're out court costs at a time when you're already cash strapped. Who's being served here? There's a million lawyers in this town - couldn't we come up with something, you know, more effective than this?

It is not just the act of prostitution that affects neighborhoods, said Paula Parshall, a member of Northline's Super Neighborhood, but also its side effects.

"Prostitution brings other crimes into our communities. It causes a deterioration of our neighborhoods. It knows no boundaries," she said.

Well, then, why not try cracking down on those who commit the other crimes as well? It's called broken windows policing, and it's got a lot of support behind it (and some opposition as well). Unfortunately, it's also associated with the infamous Captain Mark Aguirre, so I'm not holding my breath. The point is that attacking the other crimes will pretty much by definition make any neighborhood less hospitable to hookers as well. Doesn't that sound like a win-win?

I admit, it's possible this has been tried and has been insufficient. The article gives no indication. A search of the Chronicle archives turns up some interesting stuff, though. On February 20, there was an article about the "storefront" police department in the Independence Heights, and it mentioned one of the anti-prostitution strategies that the officers there use:

Instead of simply arresting a single drug dealer, the [Differential Response Team]-trained officers now look at the overlapping crimes to connect the transporters, buyers and owners of the house or apartment used for illicit business, he said.

Rather than arrest a prostitute, [Sgt. Frank] Escobedo and his officers will spend more time tracking down the owner of the rent-by-the-hour motel the prostitute operates from. If the owners are not cooperative in helping reduce the illegal trade, officers will look into electrical or plumbing violations with which to eventually shutdown the operation, he said.

Guess that wasn't working so well, because on March 7 the residents were complaining to Council member Gabriel Vasquez and District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal:

"I'm at my wit's end; they need to do something to stop this," said Amanda Augustine. "Maybe the police can do more undercover sting operations or investigations."

Augustine said prostitutes and johns will often do their business in or near an abandoned 18-wheeler trailer in a field behind her house. She said it was distasteful to see the same women walking up to the same cars at all hours along Airline between Crosstimbers and the North Loop.

So it's hard to say. One last thing about this law is that it was modelled after an ordinance passed in Dallas in 1976. There must be some differences if Houston's statute is clearly unconstitutional, for the Dallas law is apparently still on the books, as this May 2 article indicates:

Dallas' law has been on the books since 1976, and [HPD Captain David] Cutler said it has been successful in reducing prostitution.

Houston's legal department drafted a similar ordinance at the city council's request but has warned members that, if passed, it could be overturned because of possible civil rights violations.

Annette Lamoreaux, the East Texas Regional Director for the American Civil Liberties Union, made it clear during Thursday's public safety committee meeting that her organization would fight it.

"Any criminal defense lawyer worth their salt is going to run a truck through this," she said. "Don't be lulled into a sense of security that because the Dallas law is on the books, that this will go unchallenged."

So I guess we'll have to see. If the city ultimately prevails in court, then this will have been worth it. I trust you'll pardon me if I don't have a lot of faith.

Why we fought

I don't want to be the last blogger on the planet to link to Billmon's collection of quotes from Team Bush about why we invaded Iraq. You shouldn't be the last blog reader to see what he's got.

Once you've read that, go read this, about why it matters. Here's a taste:

A strong case might have been made to go after Hussein just because he posed a potential threat to us and the region, because of his support for suicide bombers, and because of his ruthless oppression of his own people. But this is not the case our President chose to make.

Truth in public life has always been a slippery commodity. We expect campaigning politicians or debating journalists to pitch and spin. Facts are marshaled to support arguments and causes; convenient ones are trumpeted and inconvenient ones played down or ignored. This is the political game.

But when the President of the United States addresses the nation and the world, I expect the spinning to stop. He represents not just a party or a cause, but the American people. When President Bush argued that Hussein possessed stockpiles of illicit and deadly poisons, he was presumably doing so on the basis of intelligence briefings and evidence that the public could not see. He was asking us to trust him, to trust his office, to trust that he was acting legitimately in our self-defense. That's something very different from engaging in a bold policy of attempting to remake the Middle East, or undertaking a humanitarian mission to end oppression. Neither of these two justifications would have been likely to garner widespread public support. But national defense? That's an argument the President can always win.

I never doubted for a minute that Team Bush was being dishonest about why we were invading Iraq, but I admit that I went along with the premise that Iraq had WMDs up the yingyang. I knew they were conning me, and I still fell for it. Shame on me.

The Green[e]house Reloaded

Congrats to Greg Greene of The Green[e]house Effect for getting his own domain and doing the Movable Type migration. Update those bookmarks and drop in to say Hi.

Out of the House

State Rep. Kevin Bailey (D-Houston) has announced that his committee has finished its investigation of record-shredding by DPS and the security tapes.

"It may have been a technical violation of the law to destroy the documents. I don't think there was an intent to cover up anything. So I don't think there's a need to look at it any further," said Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, chairman of the House General Investigation Committee.

[...]

The committee chairman said his office talked to a DPS officer who called the federal Department of Homeland Security to help track a missing lawmaker's plane. That investigator told the committee staff that he did not recall who initiated the phone call but denied the federal agency's statements that he misled officials to make them believe the plane may have crashed.

Mr. Bailey said the committee can go no further concerning whether federal homeland security assets were abused.

And, he said, there is nothing more to pursue on the subject of Deputy Texas Attorney General Jay Kimbrough, the top state homeland security official, who was seen on a surveillance tape at a DPS command post for the manhunt.

Mr. Bailey said he has no choice but to accept statements from the Texas attorney general's office that Mr. Kimbrough was present in his capacity as a state lawyer, advising DPS and House Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, on legal issues related to the hunt.

"And if that's the case, I don't see a problem. On the other hand, obviously, if they used the federal agency that's designed to get terrorists, that might be a problem," Mr. Bailey said. "I'm not sure it's anything that I can really, or we can really, get information on."

With his involvement over, the rest of the work will be done by Travis County DA Ronnie Earle, who has convened a grand jury to determine if any laws were broken by DPS and its magical miracle shredding machine. There are also internal investigations being conducted by Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation regarding the propriety of DPS's request to help them look for Laney's plane.

Speaking of Homeland Security, they say that their investigation is almost over, but it's not clear when their full findings will be made public.

James Burke, a deputy assistant inspector general at the Homeland Security Department, said Wednesday that the investigation will be concluded in the next few days.

But he said tapes shielded from public release because of the investigation will not be immediately available.

Those tapes are expected to illuminate facts surrounding the Texas Department of Public Safety's request for help from the anti-terrorism agency's air interdiction service to locate an airplane of former House Speaker Pete Laney of Hale Center, one of the runaway Democrats.

"Our investigation is wrapping up soon," Burke said. "We're talking days, versus weeks. But there's the report process, and that could take a while."

Once the report on the investigation is complete, Burke said, it will be available to the public only through Freedom of Information Act requests.

It was unclear at what point the tapes of conversations between DPS and the Air & Marine Interdiction Coordination Center, an agency of the Homeland Security Department, will be made public.

Back in Texas, keep your eyes on State Rep. Lon Burnam (D-Fort Worth), who has filed a lawsuit to prevent DPS from destroying any more records related to their search for the Killer D's. Burnam had filed an open records request for the DPS data before it was revealed to have been deleted, then got a temporary restraining order against DPS to halt any further records destruction. He has claimed to have a source inside DPS who has intimate knowledge of what DPS knew and when they knew it. Attorney General Greg Abbott has demanded to know who that source is, and now Burnam has pledged to reveal his source in a sworn deposition on Monday after a judge ruled that he must testify.

The ruling set up a showdown of sorts between Burnam and the Texas attorney general's office, which Burnam suggested was trying to hide links between top Republicans and the DPS actions by fighting to squelch his lawsuit against the DPS.

At a hearing set for Monday, the Fort Worth Democrat will be asked to reveal the identity of a "well placed source inside DPS" on which Burnam based much of his lawsuit.

He said the source can corroborate his charge that DPS officials destroyed records illegally.

The records were sought by Burnam in an attempt to prove improper use of law enforcement assets in the hunt for AWOL Democrats who fled to Oklahoma two weeks ago, preventing a quorum and derailing a congressional redistricting bill favored by Republicans.

In court Wednesday, the deputy attorney general defending the DPS said he had doubts about Burnam's source.

"If he knows of egregious acts going on now, why is he stalling? Why is he reluctant to come tell us about it?" Jeff Boyd asked visiting state District Judge Charles Campbell.

Outside the courtroom, Boyd, the state's deputy attorney general for litigation, said he doubted Burnam's source exists.

"He is calling me a liar, and I highly resent that," Burnam said.

"The source does indeed exist, and it's (a person) who is well placed inside DPS, and I will reveal that source" under oath on Monday, he said.

He charged that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office "is apparently trying to find out who a whistle-blower is rather than stopping the illegal shredding of documents."

"I wonder what they have to cover up, especially with those AG people coming in and out of the command post," Burnam said.

That should be fun.

The Austin American Statesman has a sharp editorial which deplores the use of Homeland Security for inappropriate purposes:

Homeland Security became linked to a partisan political squabble in Texas because the state Department of Public Safety called the federal agency and intimated that Laney's plane might be missing. Who authorized the bogus call and who made it have been obscured by foggy memories and shredded records.

What isn't in doubt is that the state police department called in a false alarm to the Homeland Security Department about Laney's plane, bringing the federal authorities into a local political dispute. Nor is it in doubt that a DPS commander ordered the records of the call and investigation destroyed, and that an assistant state attorney general who is Gov. Rick Perry's contact for Homeland Security was in and out of the command center set up to search for the missing Democrats by House Speaker Tom Craddick.

The attorney general's office says that the assistant in question, Jay Kimbrough, was there on official business and doesn't know whether he gave the Homeland Security number to DPS to make the call. It all smells like a backroom brainstorm that exploded and is being covered up.

Finally, Josh Marshall clues in Joe Biden about what's been going on lately.

[We] now know that DeLay was personally involved in the effort to track down Laney’s plane. The chain of events went something like this:

Early on May 12, DeLay’s office called the FAA and received information about the whereabouts of Laney’s plane. Not long after that, DeLay spoke to Craddick by phone and passed along that information. Then, a short time later, Lt. Will Crais, a Texas state trooper working out of the command center in the conference room adjoining Craddick’s office, called the DHS and tricked them into helping search for the missing aircraft. The information Crais used was the information DeLay had passed on to Craddick.

It ain't over yet.

UPDATE: From Josh Marshall:

On Thursday afternoon, I spoke to Burnam. He told me that he has "multiple sources" at the DPS who told him about the alleged document destruction. He also says he will identify his sources at the deposition on Monday, though he is currently trying to arrange some sort of whistleblower protection for them. When I asked Burnam why he thought the AG's office placed such importance on finding out the identity of his sources, he said he thought "they are trying to find out what I know and who I know it from and how they can get to them."

Can't wait to hear it.

Separate trials in K-Mart case

District Judge Carol Davies has granted a motion by K-Mart Kiddie Roundup defendant Sgt. Ken Wenzel to sever his trial from that of Captian Mark Aguirre.

In requesting the severance, [Wenzel's defense attorney Joe] Bailey argued several points that he said could prejudice the jury against Wenzel if he were tried with Aguirre. They included the fact that Wenzel did not participate in formulating or directing the police raid from which the charges arise; that Wenzel did not participate in a raid the day before at another location; and that Wenzel might not be able to call Aguirre as a witness if they were tried together.

Wenzel and Aguirre "have inconsistent and incompatible defenses," the motion stated. "When evidence is admitted against one co-defendant, but is inadmissible against the other co-defendant, severance is necessary ... "

Two items of interest here. One is that Wenzel clearly fears that Aguirre, as the designated villain of this drama, could sink him by association. Wenzel's name never came up in any of the news stories until the original indictments were handed down, while Aguirre's been in the news repeatedly from the get-go. Frankly, I think Wenzel is wise to be concerned. Idle thought - might he plead out in return for testimony against Aguirre? Probably not, especially since Aguirre's trial appears to be first, but you never know.

Second, as Aguirre's trial is set to begin on Monday, we might finally get the answers to some questions about the raid itself and Chief C.O. "BAMF"'s involvement in it. Well, maybe it'll be wild speculation and assorted allegations, but that's even more fun. Stay tuned, hijinx will surely be ensuing in short order.

Howard Dean, the Open Source Candidate

Archpundit reminds me that I hadn't yet read Ryan Lizza's piece about the Howard Dean blogger action network. And I was struck by a thought, right about the time I finished reading this paragraph:

Once a month, thousands of self-organized Dean supporters across the country get together at coffee shops and bars to discuss their candidate and ways they can help his campaign. This ability to get people to meetings, Trippi says, bodes well for Dean in the Iowa caucuses. "What do you do in a caucus?" he asks. "You go to a meeting." And Trippi has plans beyond the caucuses and primaries. He speaks of using Meetup and other Web tools to build a million-person-strong network of small donors who could raise the cash needed to take on President Bush. "There's only one way you could ever get to a million people in this country," he says before pausing dramatically. "That's the Internet."

I said to myself, "Holy crap, it's an open source campaign!"

A lot of this is nothing new, of course. Dean's grassroots/outsider campaign has quite a bit in common with John McCain, Ross Perot, John Anderson, and every other outside-the-Beltway insurgent. What he has that others didn't is not just the technology to harness that energy, but the recognition of its potential and the willingness to use it. That's pretty impressive. And if the Dean campaign actually pays attention when someone at a Meetup suggests a good idea, well, I can just about guarantee that any Bush supporter below the Pioneer level will never share that experience.

Back in April, I wrote that the existence of a Gary Hart blog was a sure sign that he wouldn't run for President. Turned out I was right about Hart's candidacy, but wrong about the likelihood of a serious Presidential candidate maintaining a blog. (In my defense, the official Dean weblog was still a relative newcomer when I wrote that. I just hadn't really noticed it at the time.) I still think there's a potential liabilty for a candidate to link to bloggers, but I admit I may have overblown the danger. Dean at least has a disclaimer at the bottom of his page which states that he's not responsible for someone else's content. I'm still not convinced that mainstream pundits will be clueful enough to tell the story properly if it ever comes to this, but then I'm just extra cynical these days.

One thing I am curious about is if the Dean campaign can maintain this kind of connection to their base of supporters if and when he achieves frontrunner status among the Democrats. If big money donors start to knock on Dean's door, will that disaffect the legions of small money loyalists? I don't know if Dean (or anyone) can keep his little-guy cred if he cozies up to the usual fat cats, and I don't know if any candidate can run against Bush and his war chest effectively without big money. I can see a parallel between the Dean phenomenon and a successful startup company as it goes through a growth spurt, when the originals start to complain that the place has lost the atmosphere and amenities that attracted them to it in the first place. That doesn't have to happen, of course, and I think the Dean team is prepared to deal with that. It'll be interesting to watch, and if they can pull it off, it'll validate the thesis that this is an actual paradigm shift and not a fluke.

Feel the Powerball

The Texas House has approved a bill that would allow Texas to join with other states in the Powerball lottery, a move that supporters say could bring in another $100 million per year. I guess that means the answer to my question is "this year if all goes as planned".

As the investigation turns

Now that all of the security tapes have arrived intact from DPS, a new star is born: Assistant Attorney General Jay Kimbrough, the governor's "point man" for the Department of Homeland Security, who was there in the command post on the day that Homeland Security was contacted with the cock-and-bull story about Pete Laney's plane.

[House General Investigating Committee Chairman Kevin Bailey, D-Houston] said Kimbrough, one of Perry's former deputy chiefs of staff, was in the DPS command center that was set up May 12 in the speaker's reception room.

"We don't know how much of a role he played, but it does appear he was very heavily involved in the process," Bailey said.

Angela Hale, spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, said Kimbrough was in the room in his capacity as an assistant attorney general, not as homeland defense coordinator.

Hale said Kimbrough had gone to the command center with Abbott's first assistant, Barry McBee, to offer legal assistance to Craddick and the DPS. McBee is Perry's former chief of staff.

Hale said McBee called U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton in San Antonio to see if the FBI could be used to bring the lawmakers back from Oklahoma or whether the DPS could arrest them across the state line. She said Sutton's office said "no" to both questions.

As Josh Marshall notes, the clearest thing to come out of all this so far is the probable identity of the fall guy.

Another person who made an appearance in the command center that day is none other than the Governor himself, though only the Chronicle made any real mention of it.

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt refused to discuss what Perry did while in the command center but denied he had any role in the use of federal Homeland Security resources.

"I've never had any inkling that anybody on our staff, including the governor, called Homeland Security," Walt said.

Whatever. If Perry had taken any questionable actions here, I fully expect that he'd have done it through vague phrases and several layers of underlings, so that like a mafia don he'd be hard to nail down.

The tapes did show that Tom DeLay's aide Jim Ellis did nothing noticeable, meaning that the missing six hours was just the result of honest incompetence and not anything sinister. We can all breathe easier now.

Rep. Bailey's investigation appears to be winding down, but that doesn't mean it's all over, as the Austin American Statesman reports:

Bailey said his committee probably will play no major role in any further investigations.

The committee's preliminary inquiry has satisfied him that DPS probably did nothing criminal when it rushed to destroy all of its records of the search, Bailey said, even though "they probably shouldn't have done it."

Because Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle is already investigating the records destruction, Bailey said, the committee plans no further inquiry into that.

Marshall Caskey, chief of criminal law enforcement for DPS, has already testified before a county grand jury, and more witnesses are expected to testify Thursday.

Bailey said his committee will probably leave it to federal authorities to sort out whether the Homeland Security Agency did anything improper during the search because his committee does not have the power to demand federal records.

So we've got Kimbrough's as-yet-undetermined role, we've got Ronnie Earle deposing DPS, and we've got Joe Lieberman pestering the White House. I'm beginning to get the feeling that unless there's another revelation coming, this thing is about to peter out. We can mutter all we want about the DPS' lightning reflexes when it comes to records disposal, but without those records it'll be nigh impossible to tie the smoke to any fires. I hope I'm wrong, but I'm a bit pessimistic right now.

Backup bill for Tulia 13 passes

There are now two bills to free the remaining 13 defendants of the Tulia drug bust who are stil in prison, thanks to an amendment on another bill that just passed the House.

A special prosecutor has said the cases would be dismissed if new trials were ordered. But it could take the appellate court as long as two years to complete its review of the cases, some legislators and lawyers believe.

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, responded by filing Senate Bill 1948, which would allow the bonds to be set. That bill was unanimously approved by the Senate on May 14 and is set for routine approval Wednesday on the House's last "local and consent" calendar of the session. Such special handling is reserved for noncontroversial legislation.

Not wanting to take any chances, however, Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, tacked identical language onto another criminal justice bill by Whitmire that won House approval on Sunday.

The only difference between the two, Keel said, is that Senate Bill 1948, Whitmire's original Tulia bill, could go into effect immediately once the governor signs it. The backup measure, Senate Bill 826, wouldn't go into effect until Sept. 1.

Keel said he still expects to win House approval of the original bill but wanted some insurance since the session ends Monday.

"I know of no opposition to the bill," Keel said.

Hopefully, Whitmire's SB 1948 will pass the House without any problems, but I suppose it never hurts to have a backup plan.

Joe versus Tom

I agree with Big Media Matt that Joe Lieberman can only help himself in the Presidential primaries by pushing for an investigation of Tom DeLay. It's an issue that will resonate with partisan Democrats without forcing him to tack left or right, and so far he's the only one out there doing it. It won't change the minds of those who really dislike Lieberman for one reason or another, but he certainly won't lose any ground with this. And who knows? He might eventually get the David Broders and Tim Russerts, also known as "DC's wizards of high dudgeon", as Josh Marshall called them, to start talking about this. That would be fun.

DPS continues its Keystone Kops routine

You know things are going badly at the Department of Public Safety when they can't even dupe a tape without screwing it up:

"I don't know if people are trying to run out the clock so we're not in town any more or if it's just incompetence. Either one is bothersome," said Rep. Kevin Bailey, D-Houston, chairman of the House General Investigating Committee.

Bailey's committee is looking into how the Texas Department of Public Safety coordinated its search for 55 missing legislators on May 12, whether anyone associated with U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay helped direct the search and why DPS officials ordered some records on the issue destroyed on May 14.

As part of the probe, Bailey had asked DPS to turn over Capitol security tapes for the hallway outside of House Speaker Tom Craddick's office. A DPS command post was set up May 12 in Craddick's reception room, and Bailey said he wants to know who went in and out of that room.

Bailey said the DPS provided his staff with copies of the security tapes late Friday. As the staff watched them over the weekend, the entire week was available except for the afternoon of May 12. He said the tape stopped at 12:47 p.m. and did not begin again until 6 p.m.

"It's odd that it was the day and time that we wanted," Bailey said. "It's fine all week, except for that one period."

DPS officials scrambled to make a new copy of the May 12 afternoon tape, which was given to the lawmaker Monday evening.

"It's a simple malfunction," said DPS spokesman Tom Vinger. "They're copying hours and hours of tape. They just didn't notice some was missing."

Y'know, maybe setting up DPS to oversee state crime labs isn't such a good idea after all.

UPDATE: DPS managed to copy the missing tape without overwriting it with the last Buffy episode or some such. As Josh Marshall notes, the missing segment has quite a bit of potential for muckraking:

[House Investigations Committee Chairman Kevin Bailey, D-Houston] also indicated that a Travis County grand jury investigating the destruction of records has apparently extended to some House members; [Jim] Ellis, an aide to U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay; and perhaps DeLay himself.

Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle was unavailable for comment.

Last week, Earle quietly convened a grand jury and took testimony from DPS law enforcement chief Marshall Caskey. His focus was on the agency's role in destroying files that DPS criminal investigators compiled during the two days that state troopers and Texas Rangers were searching for the runaway legislators.

Bailey's committee and Earle apparently have zeroed in on a six-hour period May 12 as the likeliest time DPS officials called federal Homeland Security officers to seek their help in tracking down the Democrats.

It was that time period that was missing on the tape.

What a shame that grand jury proceedings are confidential.

Lege does poorly in poll

A poll taken before the Killer D's walkout occurred says that 53% of Texans disapprove of the job the Legislature is doing. Governor Goodhair is at 50% approval, pretty much where he was in January but with slightly higher negatives (44% compared to 40%). A few items of interest:

While the opposition of Perry and other Republican leaders to higher state taxes will result in spending cuts, 64 percent of Texans believe state government is already doing a "poor" or "only fair" job of providing services to the needy, according to the poll.

And 59 percent believe Texas is doing a "poor" or "only fair" job of providing a quality education in the public schools.

Moreover, despite the state leadership's opposition to higher taxes, 56 percent of people responding to the Texas Poll said they backed a combination of tax increases and spending cuts to balance the new budget.

Anyone want to alert the state Democratic Party that there just might possibly be a campaign issue or two here?

Too bad this all happened before the Killer D walkout. The only poll regarding that event that I've heard of so far is one that was conducted by Rick Perry's pollster, so I'm not inclined to put any stock in it. Frankly, I think if there will be any fallout from this it'll be from one party's base being more energized than the other as a result of this. I could be wrong, but I don't think too many non-junkies cared one way or the other.

DOT investigating DeLay

I've been out of town for most of this weekend, so I'll just point you to Josh Marshall, who's been on the Tom DeLay story like Rush Limbaugh on an all-you-can-eat buffet. Marshall notes that now the Department of Transoprtation is now investigating what DeLay knew and when he knew it during the Killer D's standoff. The crux of the issue is that DeLay apparently used his office to get FAA data that's not available to the public and gave it to Tom Craddick and the DPS.

Will this lead to anything that actually sticks to DeLay? Who knows? I think Marshall is exactly right when he says that DeLay benefits from his reputation as being a power-hungry jerk, because journalists don't really consider that to be news. Obviously, the soft bigotry of low expectations is not a universally negative thing.

Someone who could really use some low expectations right about now is Speaker Craddick:

Craddick spokesman Bob Richter said Friday that Craddick and DeLay spoke about the matter May 12, but that Craddick does not remember who initiated the call.

"He doesn't remember any details at all about that day," Richter said. Acting on a vote of House members present May 12, Craddick ordered the missing representatives arrested and returned to the Capitol, as allowed under House rules.

Apparently, the ghost of Elizabeth Ray works in Craddick's office. What a joke.

And so it ends

The Twins played their final game last night. They played hard and they played well, but they came up short. We finished the season as we started it, looking for our first win.

The final loss was really tough. We were down 9-7 to start the bottom of the fourth, and with a little more than 15 minutes left before the time limit kicked in, I figured we needed a 1-2-3 inning to get another chance. When the first three batters got on to load the bases with no outs, I was sure we were doomed.

Not so fast! The next batter hit a line drive right at the third baseman, who snatched it for out number one. On the very next pitch, a sharp ground ball was hit to the shortstop, who grabbed it, tagged the runner heading to third, then stepped on second base to complete a spectactular unassisted doubleplay. We hustled everyone into the dugout and were able to start a fifth inning.

Now the kids were fired up. We were drawing walks and hitting the ball, and when the dust cleared, we'd scored the maximum five runs to take a 12-9 lead. All we had to do was shut them down for the win.

Alas, it wasn't to be. I could see some jitters out there, and when the opponents started to come back, the pressure may have gotten to us. In the end, we lost 13-12.

The guys took it pretty hard. I told them they had nothing to be ashamed of, that they'd given their best and they'd gone down fighting. I told them they were all better players than they'd been at the start of the season, and that I was proud of them.

The team parents took everyone out for pizza afterwards, which no doubt helped take some of the sting out of losing (that and some Shiner Bock sure helped for me). They presented me with an autographed team ball, and a card with a gift certificate at Oshman's Sporting Goods as a thank you. I was really touched.

Before the game, I asked each player in private to tell me who his pick for team Most Valuable Player was. I told them that I would announce the MVP and the All Star Game selections afterwards. We were limited to three All Star choices, which was tough for me, since I had four legitimate candidates. The three kids who got picked, one of whom was the team's MVP choice, were pumped when they heard the news. One of them had been in the league for four years, and this was the first time he'd been picked.

Several parents told me later that they really liked the team MVP concept. It helped each kid think about the other guys' contributions. They chose a worthy candidate, who was given a "season ball" as his prize.

I lingered at the pizza parlour after the bill was paid, saying goodbye to everyone. There were some rough patches during the season, and plenty of times when I wondered if I had any clue about what I was doing, but looking back over it, I can say it was really rewarding. The kids were generally responsive, the parents were involved and helpful, and it was just plain fun. I was asked several times if I'll do this again. I deflected the questions because I wanted to take some time and think about it. I do think I will, though.

So that's the story of my season as coach. I'll be at the All Star Game - each team coach is expected to be there - but for all practical purposes I'm done. I do know one thing: if I do wind up doing this again, my won-lost record can only improve. How many other coaches have that assurance?

Diane Zamora to get married

Convicted murderer Diane Zamora, who had petitioned the state for permission to marry another inmate named Steven Mora, has been granted that permission.

The strange love story got official Bexar County attention earlier this year, when County Clerk Gerry Rickhoff received letters from both inmates asking for permission to get a marriage license.

"This is the first time this office has had a request like this from two people in prison, one serving a life sentence," said Rickhoff, who secured legal approval from Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott.

In her letter dated April 29, Zamora wrote: "Sir, I do not take marriage lightly and am certainly not marrying someone I haven't already met, despite all you've heard."

The marriage would be a double-proxy union, meaning there would be a ceremony at each prison with stand-ins for the bride and groom.

Mora and Zamora, who are restricted to their cells for 23 hours a day, would have to use the hour they get for daily recreation to say "I do," said Michelle Lyons, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

"These types of marriages are performed by volunteer chaplains," Lyons said. "It's rare for one inmate to marry another — most marriages by proxy are between an inmate and someone living outside prison walls."

The union would exempt Mora and Zamora from restrictions imposed by the department in March prohibiting the exchange of letters between inmates in different prisons, Lyons said.

Whatever. It's a long way to 2036, when Zamora is eligible for parole, so don't expect too much out of this.

DeLay admits involvement, and other news

In the Sky Is Blue And Water Is Wet Department, Tom DeLay has admitted that yes, he did have a role in the DPS investigation of the Killer D's.

DeLay said his staff used public information at the Federal Aviation Administration to track former Texas Speaker Pete Laney's airplane.

Laney was among 55 Democrats who broke a House quorum on May 12 to kill a congressional redistricting bill sought by DeLay, R-Sugar Land. Craddick and DeLay wanted the errant legislators arrested and returned to the House to force a vote on the bill.

"I was told at the time that that plane was in the air coming from Ardmore, Oklahoma, back to Georgetown, Texas," DeLay said of the FAA's information, which he said was also available on the agency's Web site. "I relayed that information to Tom Craddick."

Texas Department of Public Safety officers working in Craddick's office had the same information when it contacted a federal air interdiction agency to seek its help in finding Laney's airplane. The federal agency has since said it was misled into believing Laney's airplane was missing and possibly had crashed.

Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge, meanwhile, said Thursday his agency is investigating "potentially criminal" misuse of the federal air interdiction service by the DPS.

DeLay said he played no part in the DPS' decision to contact the federal air interdiction service. And Craddick denies knowing anything about how the DPS came to call the agency.

"I don't know who contacted who," Craddick said.

I'll pause a moment so you can catch your breath and/or stop guffawing. In the meantime, if you're in the vicinity of Austin or Tom DeLay's office in Washington, watch out for pointed fingers. Someone could lose an eye.

Meanwhile, in Austin, the Travis County DA's investigation of search records destroyed by DPS is underway as the chief of DPS was questioned by the grand jury.

The sworn testimony of Marshall Caskey came two days after his agency acknowledged he ordered the destruction of all investigative files the state police accumulated while tracking the lawmakers.

It wasn't immediately clear who besides Caskey testified Thursday. But the investigation by Travis County District Attorney Ronnie Earle clearly ratchets up the scrutiny on the role the DPS and the federal Homeland Security Department played in the search for the legislators.

Both Earle and the DPS declined to comment on the grand jury proceeding. Late in the day, Earle issued a statement saying his office is "examining the circumstances surrounding the destruction of (DPS) records. The questions (being asked) include what records were destroyed, under what authority and why the records were destroyed so quickly."

The statement also noted the DPS is cooperating with the probe.

Also Thursday, Rep. Lon Burnam, D-Fort Worth, sought and secured a temporary restraining order in state district court in Austin to prevent the DPS from destroying any more of its records.

Burnam, one of the Democrats who fled to Oklahoma, earlier this week filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking all the materials the DPS accumulated during the two days it said it searched for the lawmakers.

While this has the potential to be juicy, they do take time and often disappear off the radar screen. I haven't heard much about any of the other investigations since they first made news.

The Austin American Statesman's John Kelso notes an irony in all this:

Where DPS started looking real screwy is when it destroyed all the records they had compiled about the search for the Democrats — with one exception. The Cops of the Keystone Kind forgot to ditch the incriminating e-mail.

Yes, I know, it's not as easy as just hitting the Delete key. But still, that's pretty funny.

The Star Telegram has possibly the ugliest photos of Tom Ridge and Tom DeLay you'll ever see, plus a reminder from DeLay that like Lord Voldemort and Darth Vader, he may have retreated but he hasn't been defeated:

"I'm not giving up," DeLay said. "And I will not be intimidated. This is not over yet."

There was no indication if he rubbed his hands maniacally amidst evil laughter and lightning strikes in the background.

Finally, from the Dallas Morning News, some more good news for the Democrats:

In related matter, a DPS spokeswoman said a Travis County prosecutor has told the DPS that there was insufficient evidence to press charges in the reported theft of a GOP redistricting map. A Craddick aide said that an aide to U.S. Rep. Martin Frost, D-Arlington, took draft redistricting maps from his briefcase, which he had left unattended in a Capitol committee room.

A surveillance camera showed that Frost aide leaving the room with documents.

Given how crappy surveillance camera video often is, that's no surprise. Call the CSI folks next time, fellas. They're always able to pull the right pixels out of the image.

It's a Catch-22 for DPS

In the comments to this post, Morat suggests the statute that DPS was talking about, and goes to show why it's not applicable. Josh Marshall is on the same page, and he's quoted from this Star Telegram article and this Statesman article to show the contradiction that DPS is in.

"The mere invocation of it is nothing more than an attempt to find an excuse, to find some sort of cover for what is clearly an embarrassing action that was probably taken hastily," said Houston attorney Rob Wiley, a former president of the Texas Freedom of Information Foundation. "It seems on its face to be ludicrous."

Wiley and Austin media law attorney Bill Aleshire said the records destruction might have violated state open records laws, or worse.

"We've got DPS using the criminal investigation apparatus of the U.S. to track the Killer Ds, and then they destroy the evidence of the tracking on the grounds that it wasn't a criminal matter," Aleshire said. "DPS knew the first day they were looking for the Killer Ds that it was not a criminal investigation. If they violated federal regulations, if not other laws, in using the criminal investigation apparatus for this political purpose, the destruction of the records that were created could be considered obstruction of justice."

Aleshire noted that the federal code the department cited to destroy the records also seems to prohibit it from using its criminal intelligence program to collect information on the missing lawmakers.

The code is a lengthy federal provision setting guidelines for handling records in far-ranging criminal investigations such as loan sharking and drug trafficking.

Among other things, the code requires that law enforcement agencies "shall make assurances that there will be no harassment or interference with any lawful political activities as part of the intelligence operation."

The Chron has a new front page story which indicates that Tom Ridge is acknowledging what the Democrats have said all along:

Ridge made the statement near the end of a hearing before the House Select Committee on Homeland Security, as Democrats repeated their request that he release tapes of conversations between the Texas Department of Public Safety, which was searching for the missing Democrats, and an agency of Ridge's department.

"This is now potentially a criminal investigation," Ridge responded to a question from Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J. "The tapes are part of the evidentiary chain. When you're involved in a criminal investigation involving information and pieces of evidence, they're not necessarily available for public review right now. At some point in time I suspect it will be available."

It's not the act but the coverup. It's not just impropriety but the appearance of impropriety. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

Liberal radio

Jesse points to this interesting article which indicates that the specter of liberal-themed talk radio may be more than just vaporware:

At a Saturday talk radio industry event put on by Talkers Magazine, Gabe Hobbs, Clear Channel Radio's vice president of News/Talk/Sports, announced that in the near future this corporate owner of over 1200 radio stations is considering programming some of their talk stations "in markets where there are already one or two stations doing conservative talk" with all-day back-to-back all-liberal talk show hosts.

Using the analogy of how music radio stations wouldn't run different categories of music on a single programming day, Hobbs said talk radio was similarly "all about format." This, he said, is why liberal talkers haven't succeeded when sandwiched between conservatives - radio stations shouldn't mix formats but instead should market to specific listener niches. Understanding this, it's clear that only all-liberal/all-day programming can fill the demand for liberal talk radio, Hobbs' comments suggested.

I suppose I should be happy about this, and certainly a pragmatic part of me is, but isn't this sort of market segmentation exactly what's wrong with music radio today? Maybe I'm just being cranky, since talk radio is different in many ways, but when Clear Channel starts talking about why its rigid programming style is a Good Thing, I instinctively recoil.

I'll get over it. The article makes some other good points about market saturation and the timing of this announcement, so check it out.

Coverups and criminality

It's really amusing that Texas State GOP Chair Sarah Weddington told her colleagues to use phrases like "on the lam" when describing the Killer D's walkout because it connotes "criminal wrongdoing", especially given that the justification being bandied about by the Texas Department of Public Safety for destroying all records having to do with the search for the Killer D's is that it was not a criminal matter.

DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange said the agency acted appropriately in destroying the records because federal law mandates that law enforcement agencies cannot keep intelligence information on individuals who are not suspected of a crime. The missing lawmakers were not accused of any crimes.

Which leads to a question that Josh Marshall asked:

Does this regulation even exist? In each of the stories I've read this evening, the writer passes on that claim without any comment giving the reader a clue as to whether it has any validity.

Is there really a federal regulation stipulating that nothing that police agencies compile -- pictures, notes, phone logs, anything -- can be kept unless it pertains to a specific criminal investigation? I find it really hard to believe that such a sweeping regulation exists. Now, mind you, my question is not purely rhetorical. I have certainly asked such questions before, with great incredulity, only to find out that yes, believe it or not, the answer is 'yes.' It just doesn't sound true to me, though -- and I think the failure to mention any specific regulation and the, shall we say, diminishing credibility of the source [DPS] makes me think so even more.

If this "regulation" does in fact exist, it isn't used all that much:

It also was not immediately revealed today whether the DPS had ever before destroyed documents under the federal regulations it cited in its prepared statement.

I'm finding it harder and harder to not lapse into Dana Carvey mode and make with the "How Conveeeeenient" asides, let me tell you.

Darlie Routier loses appeal

The state Court of Criminal Appeals has unanimously rejected Darlie Routier's appeal for a new trial. Routier's attorneys had argued that the trial transcript, which was known to contain many errors, prevented them from raising legal issues, but the court rejected that argument. She still has a federal appeal pending on her death sentence. I wrote about this case last year, and I still feel the same way about it today.

Baseball, money, and meaning

Unlearned Hand, who just finished watching the 1950s episode of Ken Burns' Baseball miniseries, has a question:

It really is a shame how the money has corrupted baseball. I have no doubt that this is equally true of other sports, but am I so wrong in thinking that baseball really used to mean something in this country? Something special?

The answer to the question is Yes, but the implication is that this is no longer the case. I'd argue that's very much not so, as anyone who watched the 2001 World Series would attest. Attendance figures bear that out as well - take a look at the yearly attendance and average league attendance for the Braves, Cubs, and Yankees, and observe that average attendance in 2002 was nearly triple that of 1952, and with twice as many teams to boot. I've said it before, and I'll say it again - there's never been a better time than now to be a baseball fan.

As for money, well, the entire history of professional baseball is all about money. Entire leagues, including the Federal League, whose unsuccessful 1915 lawsuit against Major League Baseball gave rise to its antitrust exemption, were formed in response to team owners' penurious practices. High profile players frequently held out, from Home Run Baker (who jumped to the Federal League in 1915 after playing on the pennant-winning A's team) to Babe Ruth (who justified getting paid more than President Hoover in 1930 with the immortal line "I had a better year than he did") to Joe DiMaggio (who got hate mail from parents of GIs in 1942 after he demanded that his salary not be cut following his storied 1941 season) to Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale (who held out together in 1966), sometimes for entire seasons, in order to be paid what they thought they were worth.

As it happens, by the way, one side effect of the Yankees' dominance in the 1950s was reduced attendance among other American League teams. The minor leagues also declined, with only 38 teams in existence in 1957.

I loved Ken Burns' miniseries, and I loved The Life and Times of Hank Greenberg and many other things about baseball's history, but they all paint the past with excessively bright colors. To paraphrase a famous baseball fan, the good old days weren't always good, and today's a lot better than it seems.

DPS covers its tracks

The Texas Department of Public Safety is under heavy criticism for how it handled the search for the missing Democratic legislators last week, with allegations of harassment of the legislators' families and misleading the Department of Homeland Security about Pete Laney's plane. In response to the accusations, the DPS has announced that it has destroyed all records related to their actions last week.

"We can maintain intelligence information only if there is a reasonable suspicion that the individual is involved in criminal activity and the information is relevant to that criminal activity," an agency statement said.

"Any kind of intelligence information that we can maintain or disseminate must not be used in violation of the privacy and constitutional rights of individuals."

The unsigned DPS statement said the Democratic walkout on May 12 was not a criminal investigation so the agency could not legally maintain the information. The order to destroy the documents came on May 15.

I'm just speechless. There's no way you can spin this as protecting privacy because the people whose privacy would be affected by the investigation are the ones who are demanding it. This is a hamhanded coverup, as clumsy and bullheaded as torching a jewelry store to hide evidence of a burglary. I can't imagine anything the DPS could have done that would have been less likely to make this issue go away.

Of course, they're not the only ones who are stonewalling:

Congressional Democrats also raised questions May 14 about whether the DPS misused a federal Homeland Security Department agency in searching for former Speaker Pete Laney's airplane the day of the walkout.

A DPS officer had called the Air and Marine Interdiction Coordination Center asking for help locating Laney's aircraft.

The federal agency last Thursday put out a statement saying the DPS had mislead the interdiction service into believing it was searching for an aircraft that was missing and had possibly crashed.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has refused to release tapes of the telephone call from DPS.

The Fort Worth Star Telegram has a fuller story that names the person responsible for giving the order to destroy:

AUSTIN - One day before Democrats ended their boycott of the Texas House last week, the Texas Department of Public Safety ordered the destruction of all records and photos gathered in the search for them, documents obtained Tuesday show.

A one-sentence order sent by e-mail on the morning of May 14 was apparently carried out, a DPS spokesman said Tuesday. The revelation comes as federal authorities are investigating how a division of the federal Homeland Security Department was dragged into the hunt for the missing Democrats -- at the request of the state police agency.

Addressed to "Captains," the order said: "Any notes, correspondence, photos, etc. that were obtained pursuant to the absconded House of Representative members shall be destroyed immediately. No copies are to be kept. Any questions please contact me."

It was signed by the commander of the DPS Special Crimes Service, L.C. "Tony" Marshall.

As vile as this act is, it's not clear that it's a crime:

State law generally requires that records be kept for a certain period of time, but it was unclear late Tuesday how those guidelines would affect DPS' actions.

Angela Hale, spokeswoman for Attorney General Greg Abbott, a Republican, said it would be a crime to destroy records that had been requested under the Texas Open Records Act. It could not be determined late Tuesday if there was a standing request for the records before they were destroyed.

Hale said destroying records before state guidelines allow it would not be within the purview of the attorney general.

Rob Wiley, past president of the Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas, said it may not be a crime, but it is not how state agencies typically handle records.

"As a general rule, government agencies don't destroy records this quickly … that is very unusual," he said.

"A reasonable person would certainly believe that somebody thinks something ought to be hidden," Wiley said. "The likelihood was there was some kind of attempt to use the governmental processes for what was clearly a partisan political issue."

This AP wire story notes that there was a request for the DPS information:

State Reps. Lon Burnam, Yvonne Davis and Timoteo Garza — members of the House law enforcement committee who were among the fleeing lawmakers — filed a Texas Public Information Act request Monday seeking all printed and electronic documents about the DPS involvement in the search.

By Monday all of the records were already destroyed, though of course that was not yet known. Whether a Texas Public Information Act request meets the standard that Attorney General Abbott's spokeswoman mentioned for a criminal case is something I couldn't say. Bear in mind, though, that when these reps asked about these records at a Public Safety Commission meeting, they were not told they had been destroyed.

Democratic Reps. Lon Burnam, Yvonne Davis and Timoteo Garza filed a Texas Public Information Act request Monday seeking all printed and electronic documents about how the agency searched after the legislators didn't show up for the House session May 12.

But officials did not answer Burnam's questions during a Public Safety Commission meeting Tuesday, saying a response would not be appropriate because it was during the public comment period.

"It was very gracious and polite stonewalling," said Burnam, D-Fort Worth.

So if this was during the public comment period, then why had the records already been destroyed? That doesn't add up.

On a side note, Josh Marshall outlines Tom DeLay's role in all this, in DeLay's own words, here.

Talk Like A Pirate Online

One of the most popular posts I wrote last year, at least in terms of Google searches that led to this site, was this one about National Talk Like A Pirate Day. Well, thanks to an email I received last night from NTLAPD co-founder John "Ol' Chumbucket" Baur, I can tell you that all of your pirate talking needs can be satisfied here. Be sure to read the brief history of NTLAPD, which contains the following amazing bit of information:

Chase's Calendar of Events, the annual listing every holiday under the sun (and many under the moon, for you Wiccans out there) asked us to submit the event for inclusion in their 2004 listing (2003 has already gone to press.) So that makes it official, as far as we're concerned.

Pretty darned cool. They couldn't have done it without the help of Dave Barry, whose influential column on the subject can be found here.

So mark your calendars, for September 19 is less than four months away. Arr!

Have petard, will hoist

Seems like just yesterday that the main leg breakerpolitical consultant for mayoral candidate Michael "Boy Wonder" Berry was accusing Orlando Sanchez for being soft on tax scofflaws. Turns out that Berry has issues of his own:

Monday, Berry's campaign consultant blasted Sanchez for scheduling a fund-raiser at the home of people who owed back property taxes.

As it turns out, one of Berry's own steering committee members, lawyer Mark Dulworth, had the same problem -- overdue taxes of $2,770 on a house he bought last year in West University Place.

Berry spokesman Chris Begala said Dulworth's mortgage company was supposed to have escrowed money to pay the tax bill that became due Jan. 31.

After learning that had not happened, Dulworth paid his back taxes on Tuesday, Begala said.

Begala said that Dulworth has contributed $100 to the Berry campaign in addition to being a steering committee member.

This is all just incredibly petty and tawdry, and I'm enjoying every minute of it. Keep it coming, fellas, I need something to tide me over until I get to see Matrix Reloaded.

One month to Harry

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix will be released on June 21, which will probably do more to stimulate the economy than any Bush tax cut ever will. Book Magazine has several articles on Harry and author JK Rowling in this month's issue, a subset of which is online. Spoiler warning: Strictly speaking, not much, certainly nothing in particular, but there are speculations, hints, and allegations, so the more spoiler-sensitive among us should stay away.

Cry havoc, and unleash the consultants of war

Ah, the sweet sound of conservative candidates trashing each other:

The political consultant to mayoral candidate Michael Berry has talked about finding a "silver bullet" of an issue to aim at opponent Orlando Sanchez.

Monday, the consultant, Allen Blakemore, came forward with more of a burr under the Sanchez saddle blanket.

Blakemore conducted a news conference blasting Sanchez for scheduling a fund-raiser today at the home of a couple that owes more than $16,000 in back property taxes for the current year.

Blakemore said the fund-raiser indicates Sanchez is not abiding by his campaign promise to meet "the highest standards of honesty and integrity."

He noted that City Council recently approved an ordinance prohibiting the city from doing business with companies that owe more than $100 in city taxes.

Blakemore said the couple chose to give campaign contributions rather than pay property taxes.

"This type of behavior is indicative of Orlando Sanchez, and the Michael Berry campaign is going to point this out throughout the entire mayoral election campaign," Blakemore said.

[...]

Blakemore has said Berry's campaign strategy includes taking the offensive against Sanchez in a fight for the conservative Republican voters both need.

In February, Blakemore said, "We're going to get to the right of Orlando and see if we can work him over."

That noise you hear is Kevin Whited banging his head against a wall.

Allen Blakemore accusing anyone of being unethical is, of course, hysterical. He's got quite a track record in Houston. This race may be more entertaining than I first thought.

New venue denied for K-Mart trial

The attempt by attorneys for former HPD Captain Mark Aguirre and former HPD Sergeant Ken Wenzel to get a change of venue in their upcoming trial on five counts of official oppression has failed. State District Judge Carol Davies made essentially the same point I did back then:

"We have certainly seen many high-profile cases in which we've been successful at getting jurors," Davies said in handing down her ruling. Earlier this year Davies presided over the murder trial of Clara Harris, the dentist convicted of running over and killing her adulterous husband. That case drew national media attention.

She'll let the defense team raise the issue again during voir dire if need be, which is reasonable enough. Now let's get this show on the road!

Thank you for calling tech support

Mac Diva has a question I can answer:

I am pretty satisfied with this blog's standing in the ecosystem. In its second month, it climbed into the 100s at The Truth Laid Bear and ranked 160 today.

I don't understand why some blogs, including mine, often double list. I've been meaning to ask Bear.

The answer is that there are multiple URLs that work for a given blog. I had expected there would be one listing for "macaronies.blogspot.com" and another for "www.macaronies.blogspot.com", but Bear appears to have accounted for that. Instead, it's the difference between having a slash at the end of your blog URL and not having a slash. I'd guess that's a bug, but without knowing Bear's code I couldn't say for sure.

Back to the usual disorder

I'm not sure whether to laugh or cry when I read stories like this about the latest debacle in the continuing saga of How To Balance A Budget When There's No Money. The latest propsal to be floated only to be shot down by Governor Goodhair is a $1-per-pack excise tax on cigarettes.

"It ain't going to happen," Perry said. "It's pretty straightforward -- there isn't going to be a cigarette tax increase in this session of the Legislature. We'll get this budget balanced without having to enhance these revenue sources."

Strayhorn announced her support for a cigarette tax increase while warning legislators that state business tax collections are in a "free-fall," hinting she might increase the size of the state's shortfall.

There's a case to be made against this cigarette tax increase (more on that in a moment), but Goodhair isn't about logic or public policy or solving problems. He's about getting his way no matter what. Every day he finds a new way to lower his stature.

The downside of the proposed cigarette tax increase can be seen pretty clearly in the justifications for it:

A cigarette tax is acceptable because it will give young people an incentive not to smoke, Strayhorn said.

"As a mama and a grandmama I want to deter young people from smoking," Strayhorn said.

[...]

Strayhorn's recommendation was praised by a coalition of health care and family organizations that includes the Texas Parent-Teacher Association, the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society.

"Raising the cigarette tax by $1 per pack is an easy way not only to generate much-needed new revenue, but also to cut state Medicaid expenditures and to save lives by discouraging smoking," said Kelly Headrick of the American Cancer Society.

The tobacco industry generally opposes tax increases, saying it actually leads to declining revenues by driving down the number of smokers.

Strayhorn revenue estimator James LeBas said a reduction in the number of smokers was calculated in his estimate of how much money the tax would generate.

Fritz Schranck has already noted (here and here) some of the real-life effects of imposing this tax. I don't think too many people will cross the border to buy their own personal smokes - most people don't live anywhere near a state line in Texas - but I'm willing to bet there'd be a lot more organized smuggling, and I'm equally willing to bet that Comptroller Strayhorn's office hasn't factored that in to its equations.

On a more philosophical level, this proposal is Texas' entire tax structure writ small. Just about every single tax we have in this state is a high tax on a small base, which is exactly the opposite of how it should be. We're willing to stick it to smokers because they're a small enough group to pile up on without too much fear of backlash. The same philosophy has led to ridiculously high taxes on hotel rooms and rental cars. Sooner or later, that kind of golden goose stops laying eggs, and you're right back where you started.

All of this comes amid the cheerful news that once again, the trend in tax revenue is down and shows no sign of reversal:

With almost three-quarters of the state's businesses having filed their franchise taxes, collections are down almost 18 percent from last year, she said.

Strayhorn, the state's tax collector, declined to put a dollar amount on the decline. But if that trend holds, it would represent about $348 million less revenue than what the state collected in 2002.

Strayhorn said she will have a more accurate picture of the franchise tax revenues by May 23. Then she will measure that against other tax collections to see whether she needs to change her estimate of how much money the state has to spend over the next two years.

Strayhorn said business tax collections are down in part because of the economic recession. But she said there are hundreds of businesses that have started using a corporate restructuring loophole to avoid paying Texas franchise taxes.

"This should rekindle interest in either stopping the franchise tax free-fall and eliminating the tax entirely and rethink how we tax business in this state," Strayhorn said.

I'm pretty sure there's supposed to be an "or" in between "free-fall" and "eliminating" in that last sentence, but with Strayhorn you can never really tell. In any event, closing the franchise tax loophole (which is that limited liability partnerships (LLPs) are exempt from the franchise tax) was supposedly a major priority of Governor Goodhair. If he can't accomplish a "major priority" with a Republican Lieutenant Governor, a Republican Comptroller, and Republican majorities in both houses, then what exactly is he able to accomplish? Note, by the way, that Speaker Craddick had given up on this task well before last week's Killer D walkout.

Let's close this with a bit of unintentional comedy:

House Appropriations Chairman Talmadge Heflin, R-Houston, said he does not believe Strayhorn will change her estimate. He said the budget will be written by Wednesday.

"If she was going to lower it, she would have done it today," Heflin said.

Your faith is touching, Talmadge. I feel positively churlish that I must remind you that Comptroller Strayhorn gave us nothing but sunny revenue projections until after the November election was over, which caused a few of your colleagues to accuse her of sandbagging. Of course, I'm sure that was just a weensy little mistake that'll never ever happen again.

The wheels of punditry grind slowly

Nearly two months ago, I wrote about receiving email at my only-published-on-the-old-Blogspot-site address about the Heritage Foundation's Big Ol' Blog Initiative, which is to send email to a bunch of bloggers and beg them to link to stuff they've written. I didn't understand that strategy then, and I don't understand it now, but never mind that. At long last, just when I'd given up hope that I'd ever hear from them again, I finally got a missive about their latest magnum opus, which is something to do with COPS data. (I tried, I really did, but I lost consciousness somewhere around the fourth paragraph, so you'll have to slog through it yourself to learn more.)

So how successful was Heritage's link-pimping strategy? Well, I got their email on Friday, and as of the time I wrote this post, there are three blogs (not counting me) linking to their screed. I admit, these are blogs with good readership, but this still strikes me as not a lot of bang for the buck. We'll see how long it takes before their next breathless update, and how many bloggers jump when asked.

The last word on the Dixie Chicks

Ahem. I just found Kinky Friedman's tribute to the Dixie Chicks. I may never see again. Tread carefully. You have been warned.

Turner's troubles

John Williams spells out Sylvester Turner's problems going into the Mayor's race. I've made the same observations (here and here), but Williams adds an interesting Killer D twist that I'd forgotten:

Turner said he understood why the Killer D's acted but declined to participate because he was one of the five House conferees trying to reach a compromise with the Senate on a new state budget.

Politically, Turner acknowledged he was in a no-win situation that would leave one side or the other unhappy.

He's right. Had he joined the Democrats in Ardmore, Turner's opponents in the mayor's race could label him a quitter for leaving work in Austin.

Such criticism, however, probably wouldn't come from the man many believe Turner will face in a runoff -- former Councilman Orlando Sanchez, who forced Brown into a runoff in 2001.

In 1999, Sanchez and four other council members temporarily blocked a vote for an airport parking contract by walking out and breaking a quorum.

Pretty ironic, especially since Chris Bell led that walkout.

I believe Turner's stock is falling, and I believe it won't get back up. I'd love to see some reliable poll numbers right about now.

Rollin' on a river

What a wild week it's been. Can't speak for anyone else, but I sure never saw the Killer D's walkout coming. I'd like to thank everyone for stopping by and for the notes of support I got during the week. Special thanks to everyone who linked to me this week, including Kos, Atrios, Burnt Orange, and Political Wire.

I've got a couple of thoughts about fallout, winners, losers, what the local and national Dems should do next, etc etc etc, but it'll have to wait. I'm leading my own group of quorum busters to New Braunfels for a hot, wet, and slippery day at the Schlitterbahn. I'll be back on Sunday. Have a great weekend.

Killer D's: The Movie

This is just too weird. Three years ago, an Austin writer named Lawrence Wright penned a screenplay called Sonny's Last Stand about a group of Democratic state representatives who hole up in the Alamo for a few hours to break quorum and beat a bill they hate. Naturally, it was considered too unrealistic to be filmed.

"This is life finally catching up with art, isn't it?" said Port Arthur-bred G.W. Bailey (best known as Sgt. Rizzo on TV's "M•A•S•H"), who played a Machiavellian lobbyist at an Austin reading of the screenplay in 2000. "You thought it was obviously hyperbole, dramatic license, that it could happen — but it never would."

The 109-page script was inspired by the hyperbole and drama that have defined Texas politics; by the senators who hid out in a West Austin apartment to kill a bill in 1979; and by Rep. Mike Martin, who shot himself to try to win voter sympathy in the 1980s.

"If I tried to put into the screenplay things that really happen, it wouldn't be seen as plausible," Wright, a staff writer with The New Yorker magazine, said from his Tarrytown home Thursday. "In art, I had to tame it to make it more realistic."

He said his plot, with Democrats hiding out in the back of the Alamo for a few hours, was a lot less imaginative than the reality of 51 House members escaping to Oklahoma under the cover of darkness this week. For good measure, though, Wright laced his fictional quorum bust with some Hollywood-style schmaltz, sex and car chases. Start with the lead character, Rep. Sonny Lamb of West Texas, fathering a love child with feisty Rep. Angela Jackson of Houston, who was patterned after Rep. Dawnna Dukes of Austin.

"There were no gathering in my room at all this week . . . no affairs," Dukes swore from Oklahoma on Thursday, though she admitted to catching a glimpse of Rep. Rick Noriega in his underwear during a tornado warning.

Amazingly, it gets even weirder:

Strangely, the lead in "Sonny's Last Shot" was played by an amateur Georgetown actor named Dan Gattis at the 2000 reading. Gattis is now a Republican state representative who wanted to bunk out on the House floor this week to show up the Democrats.

"When I have the thought of how this imitates the screenplay, I kind of grin," he said Thursday. "But the rest of me is not really happy about what's going on."

Wright may try again to sell his work to HBO. As they say, stay tuned.

Dems return, life is back to what passes for normal

All of the missing Democratic legislators have returned from Ardmore and elsewhere, having accomplished their mission of preventing a Tom DeLay-orchestrated Congressional redistricting bill from reaching the House floor. The legislators and their supporters are happy with what they have done and are ready to get back to work:

Government is by the people and for the people, and we had to go to Oklahoma to say government is not for Tom DeLay," said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco, a leader of the insurgent group, which fled to Ardmore, Okla., on Monday to break and quorum and prevent the House from conducting business.

Most returned to Austin in two chartered buses about 3:30 a.m. today after a midnight deadline for passing the redistricting bill had passed. A few drove or flew back home.

A few hours later, they emerged from the Capitol to be greeted by cheering supporters, waving banners and signs.

Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, thanked Democrats for their support during the group's self-imposed exile.

"It was that support that every day helped us keep our morale up," he said.

The 51 exiled Democrats congratulated each other for enduring four days away from a Republican-dominated Texas House chamber and avoiding the reach of state troopers who were ordered to round them up for thwarting a quorum.

As the Democrats' two charter buses pulled up to the Capitol, Rep. Pete Gallego said, "Hey, guys -- be proud of yourselves. We really made a difference."

The buses had departed late Thursday from a hotel in Ardmore, 30 miles north of the Texas state line, just before the redistricting bill died in Austin. A midnight deadline passed with no vote -- due to a lack of a House quorum caused by the absent lawmakers.

Legislators' first stop in Austin about 3:30 a.m. CDT today was a hotel where they had first met Sunday night to finalize their plans to leave the state. A number of Democrats were picking up their vehicles at the hotel.

Friends and relatives greeted the returning lawmakers at the hotel.

"It feels good. It's good to be back," said Rep. Garnet Coleman, D-Houston. "We're tired and we slept some. And we should be ready to continue working on the floor today. We have bills on the calendar."

As sleepy lawmakers retrieved their luggage from the buses, some apparently picked up the wrong personal items.

"I'd feel a lot better if my bag wasn't missing," said Rep. Lon Burnam, D- Fort Worth. "Probably, one of my half-asleep colleagues took it."

Though Governor Perry has sent a notice to his supporters to pack the House and wear red in solidarity with the Republicans, public statements have so far mostly been about finishing work on the budget and other bills that had been brought up before the walkout. There are some ways that the dead redistricting bill could be revived this session or be part of the focus of a special session, but early indications are that it won't happen.

The redistricting bill and more than 200 other pieces of legislation officially died at midnight Thursday, the deadline for bills originating in the House to win tentative House approval.

"Redistricting dies with all the other House bills at midnight tonight," Speaker Tom Craddick said Thursday. He adjourned the House -- at least those members who were there -- several hours before the deadline.

Craddick said he wouldn't take any steps to resurrect redistricting before the regular session ends, and he declined to speculate whether it would be on the agenda should lawmakers have to meet later in special session.

Perry would be forced to call a special session this summer if the Legislature failed to complete work on a new state budget because the current budget -- necessary to keep state government operating -- expires Aug. 31.

The governor didn't want to discuss a special session either.

"Looking past June 2 is just not on my radar screen right now," he said.

Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston, chairwoman of the House Calendars Committee, was reluctant to give up on redrawing congressional boundaries.

"Never say never. Sometimes ghosts reappear," Woolley said. "Texas is a Republican state by all voting population, and they (Republicans) deserve to have greater representation in Congress. Sooner or later, we will redistrict. This is not over."

The Burnt Orange Report details how the issue could be brought back up, in case you feel like speculating.

If there's any immediate fallout from this spectacle, it may have to do with reports that the Department of Homeland Security, acting on a request from the Texas Department of Public Safety, was called in to search for Rep. Pete Laney's private plane, which they had been told was in distress. Sen. Joe Lieberman has called this an improper use of federal resources and is calling for an investigation. As Josh Marshall notes (here, here, and here), this could splatter over the two Toms, Craddick and DeLay, who have given contradictory accounts of their own involvement. Andrew Sullivan and Glenn Reynolds also note this.

On a lighter note, Houston Chronicle features writer Ken Hoffman visited Ardmore and gives a nice portrait of the Dems and the town they helped make famous. This is possibly the best thing of all:

Like most of the Texas Democrats, Rep. Garnet Coleman of Houston insists his week in Ardmore was packed with business as much as possible.

"We've been working hard on issues. We've stayed closely connected to work while we're here in the north annex of the Texas capital," Coleman said.

He enjoys that line about Ardmore being the "north annex" of Austin. "Yeah, it's pretty good. I guess you heard me say that a lot."

Coleman said there was one surprising benefit of sleepaway camp in Ardmore.

"I've gotten to know these people much better. I've gotten to see their character and have a better sense of their personalities," he said.

Nothing like a shared experience, that's for sure. Makes me think the Dems ought to plan a retreat every other year or so.

The Chron, which has an unsigned editorial denouncing the use of Homeland Security, has a fitting coda for this long, strange trip:

Also deserving opprobrium is Susan Weddington, state Republican Party chairwoman. When the Democrats' whereabouts became known, Weddington falsely accused the absent members of violating state open meetings laws.

The Travis County district attorney's office, which has jurisdiction, determined no violation had occurred. The district attorney's ethics unit pointed out, with exquisitely poetic justice, that the Republican-controlled House had adopted rules that effectively exempted itself this session from criminal prosecution for breaking the rules on open meetings.

This fact was brought to everyone's attention earlier when Democrats vainly accused a Republican committee chairman of holding a secret committee on tort reform.

Ouch.

Meanwhile, back in Houston

As I mentioned late last night, I attended a fundraiser/rally for Houston mayoral candidate Bill White. I chatted with a couple of people, including the chairman of the Harris County Democrats, an old friend from my Planned Parenthood volunteer days, and a friend of a coworker.

I had an urge while writing my name on my name tag to include my blog URL underneath. I resisted, on the grounds that it was both hopelessly geeky and shamefully egotistical. Turned it it didn't matter, for when I started chatting with Mike Lester of the HCD, he told me he recognized my name from having come across my blog recently. That was simultaneously gratifying and weird.

I was impressed at how diverse the crowd was at this event. I've nattered on about coalitions and bases of support, but if this event is any kind of indicator, White has some crossover appeal. Both he and City Councilwoman Carol Alvarado, who introduced White before his short speech, made several mentions of the varied backgrounds that were evident. Both of them threw a few barbs at Orlando Sanchez, though he was never mentioned by name. The crowd lapped it up.

White gave a decent, if fairly canned, speech which emphasized positive themes - he twice referred to "taking the city to the next level". He only spoke for about five minutes - the event was at the Cadillac Bar, and there was food, drink, and music to compete with - so while he touched on his wish to improve mobility and city services, he didn't get specific. I would have loved to have been at the recent Downtown Houston Association event at which he spoke, but I couldn't make it fit in my schedule. I do hope to hear him give a more substantial speech in the future.

I mentioned to a couple of the people that I spoke to my growing sense that Sylvester Turner is hosed in this mayoral race. He's damned lucky that the Rockets caved quickly, before his representation of Les Alexander became a big stinking dead fish that permeated his campaign, but he's still going to have to deal with Democratic resentment that he didn't join the Ardmore walkout and the likelihood that he'll be back in Austin for the month of June. I have a blue-sky scenario of Turner dropping out and endorsing White, which could actually put him in a position to win a majority of the votes on Election Day and avoid a runoff altogether. It's sweet to think about, that's for sure.

All in all, an hour well spent. This should be an exciting campaign.

RIP, Dave DeBusschere

The news that former New York Knicks star Dave DeBusschere died of a heart attack at the age of 62 makes me really sad. I grew up a Knicks fan, and got to see him play a couple of times back the glory days. I remember my folks taking me to Madison Square Garden for my birthday - somewhere among the stuff they sent me when they cleaned out the house prior to their move west in 1999 is a game program from February 19, 1972.

Mike Lupica is frequently a twit, but he's the man to write an appreciation of a player like DeBusschere. He finds just the right quote:

"Sometimes you hear old guys in sports say they didn't know how good they had it," DeBusschere said to me once in a bar, because we both spent too much time in bars in our lives. "I knew how good I had it. We all did."

It's tough to say goodbye to a childhood icon. Rest in peace, Dave DeBusschere.

Near the end

Well, the walkout is about over, as tonight is the deadline for new bills to be filed, and the Dems won't be back until tomorrow. I've just posted another roundup of news and views on the Political State Report. I'm as ready for all this to be over as you are, I assure you.

Just a couple of things to point out: Josh Marshall has finally spoken on this topic, and according to him it is almost completely unprecedented for there to be a re-redistricting outside of the normal ten-year census period.

Ginger vents a little, and makes the point that the Reps in the State House are acting a lot like the Gingrich Group of 1994.

The Burnt Orange Report continues to be full of good stuff. They have the Democrats' talking points and Q&A, plus a picture of Rep. Jim Dunnam (D, Waco), the de facto leader of the pack.

I can't tell you how glad I am that this is ending and that I'm heading out of town myself this weekend.

All Stars

Been awhile since I've added a Just Call Me Coach post. We're still looking for that first win - with three games to go, we stand 0-10. I keep seeing signs of improvement - in our most recent game, we hit the ball as well as we've ever hit it - but the other teams are allowed to grow and mature during the season as well. I know it's been tough on the kids, but they keep hanging in there.

There have been a few rough patches for me, not so much over the losing but with player personnel issues. I haven't gone into any of this on the grounds that some day, one of my kids or more likely one of their parents may stumble acorss this, and I don't want any of them seeing something that must be about themselves or their kids that they don't like. Thankfully, I've been able to handle these situations. To be honest, I've surprised myself somewhat. One reason why I've always shied away from a management track at work is because I don't want to be in charge of people's destinies. As I've told Tiffany, one result of this experience is that I no longer fear becoming a manager some day.

The funny thing is that back when I was a kid in baseball camp, I usually wound up being team captain. I was rather pushy and more than a little sure of my own abilities, convinced that no one else could make lineups as well as I could. I'd press the point until the other kids decided it was easier to let me have my way. I quickly learned that this did not make me God, it made me a harried bureaucrat who had to prevent a revolution from fomenting against me. I frequently batted myself last in the order, even though I was one of the better hitters, as a way to keep the peace. I must have buried most of those memories, because I hadn't thought of them when this season started.

One positive aspect of being down by ten or more runs frequently is that you can make good on promises to give everyone a chance in the infield without taking a risk that you'll tank a game. Hey, you've gotta find those silver linings where you can.

Today I got word that I'll have to submit three or four kids as our team's All Star Game representatives. I have a pretty good idea of who I'll pick, but I just know it'll cause some hurt feelings. Sigh.

I've told the kids that during the last game, they get to vote on the team's Most Valuable Player. Every player gets a vote, and no one is allowed to vote for himself. The winner will get a game ball. I'm genuinely curious to see who it will be.

Our next game is Friday, which I'll miss due to our planned trip to the Schlitterbahn. Two more games for me, then it's all over.

There's missing and then there's missing

I see that Binkley has a picture of the Killer D's playing cards, which he found here. All I can say is that someone didn't do his homework - Rep. Irma Rangel died of cancer in March. Her replacement is Juan Escobar, who is up in Ardmore with his colleagues. I suppose that makes this an irregular deck, so look for it to turn up on EBay as a collector's item shortly.

Buffy studies

NPR had a longish story on All Things Considered yesterday about the coming end (sniff) of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The story was about how academics have gotten into the act:

Buffy enjoys a special following among academics, some of whom have staked a claim in what they call "Buffy Studies." NPR's Neda Ulaby reports there are serious academic studies on the characters and themes in the series -- titles like "Buffy the Vampire Disciplinarian: Institutional Excess and the New Economy of Power."

Now the series is down to its final two episodes (the final episode airs May 20), and the fate of "Buffy Studies" is up in the air. David Lavery, helping to organize the second Buffy Studies Conference in Nashville, Tenn., in 2004, says the end of the series will actually be just the beginning of the debate. "We are at the point where we're developing textual studies of Buffy and debates about what constitutes the actual text of Buffy," he tells Ulaby.

It's a hoot. Give it a listen, and follow the links. You won't be sorry.

Governor discovers Tulia

Last week, after Sen. John Whitmire (D, Houston) filed a bill to allow the 13 Tulia defendants who remain incarcerated to be freed on bond, Governor Perry's spokeswoman announced that the Guv had no comment until he could study all 32 lines of the bill. Apparently, he's finally finished reading it, for now he has ordered the state Board of Parole and Pardons to review all 38 convictions.

Breaking a long silence on the controversial 1999 arrests, Perry asked the board to "recommend whether a pardon, commutation of sentence or other clemency action is appropriate and just."

Perry's office said the governor contacted the parole board after reviewing the findings of a judge who recommended that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturn all 38 convictions and order new trials.

In his report to the appellate court, retired state District Judge Ron Chapman, who presided over evidentiary hearings in March, found that the only witness against the defendants, undercover officer Tom Coleman, was guilty of "blatant perjury" during the Tulia prosecutions.

"It would be a travesty of justice to permit ... the convictions to stand," Chapman wrote.

Perry, who received a copy of Chapman's findings last week, voiced "grave concerns about the potential miscarriage of justice."

Although the drug convictions have received extensive media attention in recent years, the governor said Chapman's findings "represent the first independent legal analysis on the so-called 'Tulia drug arrests' available to my office for review."

This is the same Board of Pardons and Paroles that meets over the phone and doesn't actually discuss the cases that are in front of it before making their decisions. On the other hand, they are supposed to accept the governor's recommendations. If Perry is handing this off to them with a charge to Do The Right Thing, then good on him. If he's done this to fade the heat on himself and hide behind the BPP's dithering, then he's a bigger bastard than I've ever given him credit for.

Conservatives still love me

Awhile back, I mentioned that I'd received an unsolicited offering from the Heritage Foundation to periodically receive "short notices about significant Heritage studies, publications and events". As it happens, I never did receive any such email from them, so unless one of the other recipients of this missive can say otherwise, as far as I know this project died a quiet death.

On the plus side, the same 'bot that harvested that address for Heritage (which, as I noted, is not published here but on my old Blogspot site) has apparently told the fine folks at Townhall.com all about me:

TO: Online Publisher
FROM: Jonathan Garthwaite, Townhall.com Editor
RE: Opinion Alert - Conservative Commentary in your inbox

I would like to take this opportunity to bring to your attention Townhall.com's free flagship product, the Opinion Alert.

I've included today's edition so you can see for yourself what it looks like.

Six days a week over 100,000 subscribers receive the most comprehensive conservative op-ed page in the world from Townhall.com. Over 65 columnists contribute dozens of columns each week and Townhall.com puts them all in one convenient place for you.

Just after midnight each day, a dozen or more of the best commentaries around are delivered to your inbox. You can read one, two or all of the day's articles if you like. Link to them if you think your readers will enjoy them.

With the Townhall.com's Opinion Alert you'll have writers like George Will, Ann Coulter, Thomas Sowell, David Horowitz, Jonah Goldberg, William F. Buckley and many more at your fingertips. The full list is available at Townhall.com is a completely free service and so is the Opinion Alert.

I would like to send you this terrific service for free. If you agree that the Opinion Alert is something you've been looking for, you can subscribe quickly here:

They helpfully provide a free signup link, which I'm not helpful enough to reproduce here, as well as a bunch of samples from their hardy stable of deep thinkers. Alas, as this requires effort on my part, I'm afraid I won't be partaking of their generous offer. But I can hardly wait to see who's next to woo me.

Clarification

When the walkout of the Killer D's was first reported on, I said the following:

Travis County Democrats are sponsoring a rally in favor of the 52 strikers (typically, the Harris County Democrats have zip on this).

Michael has since pointed out to me that the Harris County Democrats and the Harris County Democratic Party are two distinct groups, and while the former still hasn't updated its page since Sunday (it's been a slow news week, you understand), the HCDP does have a message of support for the Killer D's. Memo to self: Be more thorough when Googling in the future. My apologies for the goof, and my thanks to Michael for the tip.

UPDATE: The HCD statement is up. As it happens, I got to meet their chairman at a Bill White campaign rally tonight, and he recognized my name from having come across my blog. Pretty cool, and now I feel like a jerk for being snarky about them. Them's the breaks, I guess. By the way, as insomnia notes in the comments, the HCD is having a rally in front of the local Republican headquarters (in the 3100 block of Richmond) tomorrow (Thursday), which another attendee told me will be at 11. Just FYI.

Bipartisanship and history

One of the Republican responses to the Democratic walkout of the state House has been to point out that the GOP was the minority party for most of Texas' history. As Speaker Craddick put it, "How do you think the Republicans felt for the last 130 years?"

Well, not to put too fine a point on it, the Republican Party barely existed in Texas for most of that 130 years, as it was originally identified with Reconstruction. Only in the past 30 years or so has there been a Republican Party worth talking about in Texas. Everyone who was anyone was a Democrat.

What that means, in particular, is that the conversion of Texas from a Democrat state to a Republican state has not meant that the party of George Bush and Phil Gramm has finally wrested control of the state from the party of Hillary Clinton and Barney Frank. When the Democrats were the only party in the state, there was a sizeable and powerful conservative wing in it, a wing which contained politicians such as Gramm and Rick Perry, who started as a Democratic representative in the state House. Eventually, these conservatives realized they'd be in a stronger position if they followed the national trend and switched parties.

This is one reason why the Texas Lege has a history of bipartisanship - there was and still is a lot of common ground shared by the conservative Democrats and the Republicans. Many Republicans still recognize that, which is why some of them pledged to support Pete Laney for Speaker in 1999 when it first looked like the GOP would win a majority of the seats in the state House.

"I didn't pledge to Laney for any reason other than I think he is the best person," said Rep. Gary Walker, R-Plains.

Rep. Delwin Jones, R-Lubbock, said he is pledged to Laney for "however long he wants to be speaker." Jones said his primary responsibility is to his West Texas district and that Laney has been supportive of the region, Lubbock and Texas Tech.

Rep. Warren Chisum, R-Pampa, said he gave his pledge to Laney and has no intention of reversing that. "Anytime you would go back on your word, that puts in question what your word's worth," Chisum said.

Rep. Toby Goodman, R-Arlington, said it will take more than winning 76 seats for Republicans to elect a Republican speaker. Goodman said he expects Laney to have at least six or seven Republican votes even if the Republicans are in the majority.

"It would have to be a super Republican candidate to get me not to vote for Pete Laney for speaker," said Goodman, who signed a pledge card for Laney.

This cross-party support has gone both ways, as Laney supported George Bush for President in 2000 and former Lt. Governor Bob Bullock endorsed Bush's reelection bid for Governor in 1998. Both of them helped push Bush's legislative agenda, on which Bush's fabled reputation as a bipartisan was forged. Going farther back, the incident that triggered the Killer B's walkout of 1979 was Lt. Governor Bill Hobby's support of John Connally's run for the Republican nomination for President in 1980.

It's the recent crop of Republicans who have put more emphasis on party identity over pragmatism. It can be seen in many ways, such as committee memberships and bloc voting on amendments. Had the Republican leadership been even just a little more flexible and amenable to Democratic concerns, they likely would have accomplished just about everything they wanted, as noted here:

What changed the atmosphere from the Bush era was the Republican takeover of the House last year for the first time since the Civil War. The Republicans are moving an agenda that thanks their longtime supporters, said Harvey Kronberg, a longtime Austin observer and editor of The Quorum Report, a political newsletter.

A blistering six-day debate on lawsuit limits in which Democratic amendments were steamrolled under, along with a bruising fight on budget cuts, has left the minority party feeling desperate, he said.

"It is almost impossible to get 50 Democrats to walk off the floor," but the GOP did it by making them feel ignored and irrelevant, he said.

"The early message was that we could do all this without you, which is naive because the rules protect the minority as well as the majority," Mr. Kronberg said.

He said that all of the GOP agenda could have been passed by starting early and settling for just a little bit less.

"I think they could have taken the Democrats in the backroom and seen what they needed to come on board. Maybe you give them a little bit of A, or some of B. Then they walk out the door and they've been made a little bit pregnant," Mr. Kronberg said.

The Republicans let the perfect be the enemy of the good (from their perspective). They had a good example to follow in David Dewhurst, and they blew it. The result, however shocking, should not surprise them.

Report from the scene

Byron of the Burnt Orange Report and a friend travelled to Ardmore to hear the Dems' press conference. They got to mingle a bit with the Killer Ds, and he has a nice report posted. Check it out.

Oh, and Byron also notes that you can send email to them at holidayinnardmore@yahoo.com.

Dems still hiding and enjoying life in Oklahoma

Although three Democrats returned to Austin today, at least one of whom was brought in by DPS, 51 of them remain in Oklahoma, where the locals and some visiting constituents are treating them well.

"You guys are my heroes," Sharon Copeland, who drove to Ardmore from her home about 60 miles away in Denton, Texas, said today as she threw her arms around Rep. Lon Burnam of Fort Worth. "I sure am proud to be a Democrat today. I didn't even know this could be done."

[...]

"The issue is: Is democracy going to win over excessive political greed? The only way that we can make sure that it does is to stand up," Coleman said.

About a dozen people, some holding homemade signs reading "Save Texas," cheered with lawmakers during the news conference.

"For somebody to stand up like this is a wonderful affirmation of American values," said Gene Lantz, who drove to Ardmore from his Dallas home Tuesday.

[...]

Today, local law enforcement agents greeted the Democrats with big smiles and warm handshakes.

"We're here to let them know we support them," Harvey Burkhart, sheriff of Carter County, Okla., said Tuesday. "Nothing's going to happen to them here. I can tell you we're certainly not going to put them in jail."

I must say, my opinion of Oklahoma just went up several notches.

How long the Dems will stay put is in doubt, though it sounds like they'll be back by the weekend. In the meantime, they're holding firm:

"There is absolutely no dishonor in using the rules," said Rep. Pete Gallego, D-Alpine, who said blocking a House quorum is a legitimate tactic.

"The reality is we hope the legislative leadership will take note of our position and will work with us in resolving what brought us to today," Gallego said. "It is not an easy thing to get over 50 members of the Legislature to agree on much, much less to agree on a trip to our neighboring state of Oklahoma."

This is the biggest gun they have to fire, so it better hit something. Stay tuned.

Can we vote on this? Please?

The Katy Corridor Coalition mailing list alerts me to this West University Place Examiner article about a rather fascinating mobility solution being proposed to the Commissioner's Court:

The [Harris County Toll Road Authority] last week approved a $1.7 million study by Wilbur Smith Associates to study five proposed toll roads, including one that would follow the Union Pacific tracks from Memorial Park through the Mid Lane area, Afton Oaks, West University Place, Bellaire, Southside Place, Braes Heights, and Westbury.

[...]

The year-long study of five proposed toll roads would include the feasibility of putting a tunnel through Memorial Park for the road, according to details of the contract with Wilbur Smith Associates.

The rest of the toll road would be elevated, and sound barriers would probably be required, [Mike Strech, director of the Harris County Toll Road Authority] said. “It would have to go through a full environmental impact study. But, yes, it would need to have sound walls and things like that,” he said.

Just what everyone who owns a West U. McMansion wants - a lovely view of an elevated toll road, complete with sound walls. Anyone care to guess why the Toll Road Authority is considering pouring so much concrete?

One factor driving the proposed midtown toll road is heavy traffic congestion on Loop 610.

Even through the Texas Department of Transportation is finishing major reconstruction of the 35-year old freeway, it is already at capacity, Strech said.

The proposed midtown toll road “would be one way to solve traffic distribution,” Strech added. It would have five major interchanges: at Highway 290, Interstate 10, Highway 59, and Loop 610 North and South.

Do I really need to make a sarcastic comment here? Please tell me that all my work so far hasn't been in vain.

Now how much would you pay for this?

“I couldn’t even begin to give a ballpark estimate” of how much the road might cost, Strech said, adding: “It would be very expensive.”

OK, so we have a project that's likely to be wildly expensive, will have God-knows-what kind of impact on homeowners and the environment, and may or may not actually alleviate traffic. I just have one question: Do we get to vote on a project like this, or is that only reserved for eeeevil rail proposals?

So how does this thing get resolved?

Now that we're hip-deep in this little legislative comedy, how exactly do we get ourselves out of it?

The lines in the sand are pretty clear. Democrats want the Republicans to take the DeLay redistricting plan off the table. Republicans want the Democrats back in the House, by whatever means necessary.

The Democrats are pretty much committed here. If they return without assurance that redistricting is a dead issue, then their walkout had no purpose. Everything positive they've gotten so far - sympathy from newspaper editorial boards, a fired-up voter base, recognition for having actual cojones - would not only disappear, it would be thrown back at them with vicious fury. They've given the GOP a slap across the cheek with their glove, so they cannot be seen to run away from the duel. In short, they started it and they'd better finish it.

This works for and against them. Surely some cooler heads in the state GOP have to be thinking that DeLay's fantasy Congressional map isn't worth all this crap. There's no budget, school finance reform (which many new GOP legislators ran on) has already been delayed, and insurance reform (the Governor's alleged top priority) is still vaporware. There has to be some temptation to give in.

On the other hand, if the Dems stay out for the rest of the week, the entire session is moot. If this happens, regardless of any special session makeup work, those same newspaper editors will blame them for the death of all the other bills that currently hang in limbo. There's a point out there somewhere, I can't say where it is, where the tide is likely to turn against the Dems. For sure, the GOP knows this, too, and may very well bank its strategy on it.

The GOP has more to lose in the short term, since they're in complete control of the legislative agenda otherwise. They also have more flexibility in their possible options. They can play hardball and hope to do serious damage to the Democrats, or they can try to play the "statesman" card and magnanimously agree to concede on this trifling redistricting thing (knowing that they can try again in 2005) if the prodigal Dems will agree to come home and play nice. The latter scenario isn't a clear win for them, but it likely recovers a lot of the yardage they've lost and it gives them a certain amount of moral high ground for the rest of the session.

I'm still struck by the relative silence of David Dewhurst. He's remained optimistic and above the fray, and the longer this goes on the better he looks. Dewhurst supposedly wanted to run for Senate in 2006 but was talked out of it so John Cornyn could go for Phil Gramm's seat. With rumors of KB Hutchinson's retirement in 2006 floating around, Dewhurst may be looking to come out of this with a better reputation than Governor Perry, who has always been mentioned as the likely GOP nominee for Hutchinson's seat. Given Dewhurst's personal wealth and thus his lesser dependence on the state's money raising machine, he could try to broker a deal, which if successful sure would make those editorial page writers swoon.

No matter how you slice it, this is still better entertainment than most of the summer movies promise to be.

Rockets blink

The Houston Rockets have reportedly entered "good faith negotiations" with local minority groups over the issue of splitting the new arena's construction and operations boodle.

Both sides were ordered into mediation for the second time after state District Judge John Coselli last week issued a temporary restraining order barring the Rockets from signing any new concessions contracts without his approval.

As a result of the latest mediation, Rockets spokesman Bill Miller said Monday the team offered black and Hispanic leaders a deal similar to the concessions joint-venture partnership between minorities and the Astros at Minute Maid Park.

"There is a rent factor that is taken out, and then the balance is split between 70 percent operator and 30 percent investor," he said. "There will be a minority investor group that is in partnership with Les on the food and beverage portion."

In addition, Miller said the Rockets still intend to reach the 30 percent goal for minority- and women-owned business participation in all operations contracts.

In the Minute Maid agreement, Astros owner Drayton McLane Jr. fulfilled minority participation goals at the baseball field by agreeing to a joint venture in which investors anted up at least $100,000 each and share equally in the risks and profits of food and beverage sales.

This sure has the feel of Les Alexander realizing that he's whipped. You've got no one to blame but yourself, big guy. This never had to happen.

UPDATE: An agreement has been reached. That sound you hear is Sylvester Turner exhaling.

Buffy break

Amazingly enough, the Killer D's walkout hasn't stopped other things from happening around the world. Chron TV writer Mike McDaniel, who's been a big booster of Buffy the Vampire Slayer for years now, has a nice farewell article in today's paper. The article mostly focuses on series creator Joss Whedon and is essentially spoiler-free, though if you're truly sensitive to that sort of thing you might want to wait till next week to read this.

Speaking of spoilers, Whedon has stopped trying to deceive the folks who are determined to know ahead of time what happens:

"About a year ago, I gave up trying to keep anything off the Internet, because even when we had alternate endings, eventually you have to put together the one with the real ending, and someone sees it before it goes out on satellite feed," he said. "The Internet is the one real downside for me because of the destruction of surprise. Some people don't go on it or deliberately avoid spoilers, so they are the people I'm talking to the most. They're the people who want to see it pure, who understand that's the best way to see the story."

You know who you are. I must say, after next week's Buffy and 24 finales, I won't know what to do with myself on Tuesdays any more. Maybe I'll just light a candle for the prospect of a big screen version of 24.

UPDATE: Missed this sidebar article with Buffy trivia in it. That's what I get for following the front page link instead of drilling down into the Lifestyle section.

Editorial roundup

You've probably heard by now that some of the missing Democratic State House members have turned up in Ardmore, Oklahoma, where they partied down on Denny's pot roast and continued to thumb their noses at Speaker Craddick and Governor Perry. Here's a roundup of what the major Texas newspapers have had to say about this.

The Houston Chronicle understands where the missing Dems are coming from. They compare redistricting rush to school finance reform reluctance and throw Speaker Tom Craddick's words right back at him:

Craddick himself spoke a rationale recently in explaining why he counseled delay in dealing with another controversial issue -- school finance -- rather than set to work immediately on a Senate plan for reform.

"We're not going to do anything with a gun to our heads," said Craddick, "especially on something so crucial to the future of Texas."

The issue differs, but the same logic applies. Surrendering the Texas House to an external political agenda set the stage for this showdown.

The Austin-American Statesman blames lack of leadership and finds a lot of it to spread around:

It's sad that it came to this, but the speaker has been tested and found wanting on a number of issues. The one that sent the quorum-busters toward the exits was the grossly partisan congressional redistricting bill and how Craddick let it advance in the hasty, backroom way that it did.

[...]

Craddick's disappointing performance might not matter so much if there were strong leadership out of the governor's office. But Gov. Rick Perry does not lead, he waits -- on events, on bills, on hope that, somehow, the problems will go away or the money will show up. That's why Dewhurst's emergence as a real state leader in the Senate has won so much notice.

The Dallas Morning News also blames Craddick:

House Speaker Tom Craddick can halt the work stoppage in Austin. All he has to do is play by the rules on redistricting.

[...]

Mr. Craddick should resist pressure from Congress to contaminate a generations-old census-based exercise by converting it into an ill-considered purely partisan power grab. He should commit to leave Texas' political boundaries alone, and protesting Democrats should promptly return to the hive.

The San Antonio Express News blames Tom Craddick. Call me crazy, but I think I see a theme developing here.

Under the leadership of soft-spoken but rigidly partisan Speaker Tom Craddick, R-Midland, the House has pushed through a variety of measures that have more to do with the enthusiasms of ideologues than with the good of the state.

A totally inadequate state budget is the most egregious sin. Coming in a close second is a blatantly partisan congressional redistricting scheme.

The Waco Tribune not only blames Tom Craddick, they note that Craddick himself once participated in a quorum-busting walkout:

Craddick has no one to blame but himself. He helped write history when he was one of 30 members of the Texas House who disappeared during the 1971 legislative session.

Craddick and his "Dirty Thirty" colleagues were protesting the heavy-handed actions of then House Speaker Gus Mutscher and his cronies who were involved in the Sharpstown bribery-conspiracy scandal.

Mutscher, who called the "Dirty Thirty" irresponsible, eventually was ousted from power and found guilty of accepting a bribe.

At his Jan. 14 swearing-in ceremony as speaker, Craddick went out of his way to promise that the historic bipartisan tradition in the House would continue "all the way through the session."

Craddick not only failed to remember history, his brazen attempt to punish Democrats by forcing through a new congressional redistricting map also failed to keep his promise to uphold the House's bipartisan tradition.

It's not all favorable to the Democrats. The El Paso Times has harsh words for them:

The Democratic move is a classic sour-grapes reaction against the House's Republican leadership. It was a venting of frustration that was ill-advised, counter-productive and will end up hurting the constituents who put them in office -- though constituent interests obviously weren't uppermost in these Democrats' minds Monday.

Finally, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram blames both sides, and has a Top Ten Democrats' Hiding Places list:

10. A best practices class at the LBJ School of Government

9. Looking for a Tom DeLay voodoo doll.

8. Doing "legislative research" on casino gambling in Bossier City.

7. House shopping in the Houston neighborhood slated to get a Democratic-safe congressional district.

6. Scouting for Trans Texas Corridor locations.

5. Auditioning for next Survivor installment -- in Midland.

4. Lobbying Tom Daschle for federal "No Democrat Left Behind" legislation.

3. Seeking enemy combatant status with the Justice Department.

2. In Austin's bat caves where, like the Lege, it is often hot, noisy and full of manure.

1. Colonial Country Club's 19th hole, considering that Fort Worth is House Speaker Tom Craddick's kryptonite.

They'll be here all night, folks. Tip your waiters and waitresses generously.

UPDATE: Aziz compares this to the Kobayashi Maru from Star Trek. Excellent!

A few questions and answers about the walkout

I just posted this over at the Political State Report and wanted a copy here as well.

Question: How can the Dems do this?

Answer: The State Constitution gives them the right:

Two-thirds of each House shall constitute a quorum to do business, but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner and under such penalties as each House may provide.

The Constitution can be amended - it happens all the time here - but that requires a bill being passed that authorizes an amendment to be voted on at the next election.

Question: Aren't the Democrats risking a backlash from the voters?

Answer: Yes, but probably not much of one. As this post shows, only a handful of Democratic state reps were in any kind of close race in 2002. My guess is that there will be little if any electoral fallout.

Question: But won't this ruin the normally collegial atmosphere of the State House?

Answer: The House has been pretty partisan for some time now. The Senate remains collegial and relatively non-partisan (which is why in part the Senate was less enthusiastic about redistricting). It's quite telling that Pete Laney, the former speaker who was a booster of George W. Bush, is among the walkouts. Basically, the Republicans have voted in lockstep this session, rejecting dozens of Democratic amendments to the budget, all on party-line votes, and Speaker Craddick has given most of the good committee seats to his cronies. Add in the fact that several House Dems were redistricted out of jobs in 2002, enough for Republicans to win a majority of seats and then some, and there would seem to be little for them to lose.

Question: Will this make a redistricting bill more likely to pass in the Senate?

Answer: My gut says no. First, I'd have to guess that Sen. Eddie Lucio is less likely to vote in favor of bringing up the redistricting bill in the Senate at this point. If that's the case, then the bill will die in the Senate no matter what else happens.

Second, I haven't seen any reaction so far from Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, who chairs the Senate. Dewhurst is no friend of the Democrats, but he's been on a collision course with Governor Perry and Speaker Craddick, both of whom have dumped his budget efforts and school finance reform bill. The latter, which passed the Senate unanimously, was Dewhurst's crowning achievement, but Perry has insisted it can't be passed this session. Given that House Bill 2, which would greatly increase the Governor's power at some cost to the Lt. Governor, is also in danger of being scuttled by the walkout, I can't help but think that Dewhurst is not particularly broken up by this turn of events.

Question: So what can the Governor do about this? There has to be a budget passed, right?

Answer: Right. Governor Perry will almost surely have to call a special session of the Legislature to finish the budget work. He can present legislation for the special session as noted here), so this issue could come up again. Special sessions are limited to 30 days, so traditionally they've been called to deal with a single specific issue. It's possible Perry could include redistricting in a special session, but at this point he's got other legislation to worry about.

Question: So what will ultimately happen?

Answer: Beats me. There's now been a lawsuit filed to stop the redistricting bill as well, so this may all turn out to be moot, at least for now. We'll just have to see.

State House Dems go for a walk

Holy parliamentary procedures, Batman! At least 52 Democratic members of the Texas House have walked out of the legislative session in protest of redistricting and other legislation. This means there are fewer than 100 members present, which is not enough for a quorum, so all business has ground to a halt.

I'm going to quote most of the Chronicle story, as it's pretty incredible:

At about 10:10 a.m., Speaker Tom Craddick ordered the House chamber locked so no one could leave. At 10:30, he ordered the House sergeant at arms to use whatever means he had available to arrest the missing members and bring them back to the House. Typically, when such a call is put on the Legislature, the Texas Department of Public Safety is called in to carry out that order.

The House walkout not only blocked the redistricting bill, but any action on all other bills on the calendar. The House cannot convene without at least two-thirds of the membership, or 100 members, present on the House floor under legislative rules.

The crisis erupted this morning when, less than 30 minutes before the Texas House was due to convene, the letters of 52 Democrats were delivered to the Republican leadership informing them they would not be present.

Here is the text of the letter that each legislator sent. The Austin-American Statesman says the number of walkouts is fifty-three. The San Antonio Express-News has a list of all missing members. Someone please remind me to send Jessica Farrar some flowers when this is all over.

One of the organizers told the San Antonio Express-News in today's editions that the action was planned as retaliation against the Legislature's Republican leadership.

The lawmakers were preparing for the trip Sunday night and were packing clothes to allow them to stay away for four days, a legislative source told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. That would be until the deadline for preliminary passage of major bills in the House.

The plan by Democratic House members, if successful, would derail and likely kill major pending bills that have been termed a priority by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

"We're leaving, and we'll stay gone 'til Thursday," one member from South Texas, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper.

Richter said a special legislative session would have to be held immediately after the regular session ends June 2.

The story doesn't say who "Richter" is, but Patrick informs me in the comments that "The Richter in question is likely Tom Craddick's Press Secretary, Bob Richter".

Several of the legislators who planned to be absent said they were expecting the worst.

"I guess we will be called obstructionists, or maybe worse. But we are making a statement," said a South Texas legislator. "If this is going to be the only way to stop bad legislation from being rammed down our throats, then so be it."

The latest group of quorum-busters planned to leave the state to avoid having state police detain them and forcibly return them to the House floor, if necessary.

"DPS or the Rangers can't exactly come get us if we are outside of Texas," said one legislator.

Several sources said some of the members were to board a plane leaving from a Central Texas airport to rural Oklahoma. A separate group would fly to New Mexico, while a third group left by bus for New Mexico, according to the sources.

The last time quorum was broken was 1979, in the State Senate. The Express News has the most background on this:

The Democrats' move mirrors a similar action by a group of 12 Texas state senators 24 years ago this month, who defied then-Lt. Gov. Bill Hobby by refusing to show up at the Capitol.

The action of the “Killer Bees,” as the dozen came to be known, provided a sea change within the Democratic Party, which then controlled state politics as completely as Republicans do today.

The Killer Bees hid out in a West Austin garage apartment while Department of Public Safety troopers, Texas Rangers and legislative sergeants-at-arms unsuccessfully combed the state for them.

[...]

In the 1979 incident that captured national media attention, Hobby was pushing a bill to require a separate presidential primary, which would have allowed conservative Democrats to vote in the Democratic primary for most races, then vote in a Republican primary to support former Gov. John Connally for president.

“Connally had just turned Republican after spending all his political career as a Democrat, including his stint as governor,” recalled then-state Sen. Carlos Truan of Corpus Christi. “So we were not crazy about the idea of giving him a leg up.”

Truan said Sunday that he and the other 11 senators were “very, very adamant” about their stand.

“We were quite concerned about how we were being portrayed,” he said, “but I think history will show that we did the right thing.”

The group was dubbed “Killer Bees” after Hobby declared, “you never know where they're going to show up next,” former Sen. Ron Clower told the Austin American-Statesman in 1999.

Other accounts have Hobby saying the group was “about as useful as killer bees.”

The decision to hide out was made fairly quickly after one of the senators' aides agreed at a breakfast meeting at her home to let the legislators stay in an apartment in her detached garage.

“We were very concerned about getting caught by the DPS, but at the same time, it was kind of hilarious to watch some of the most powerful members of the Texas Senate, dressed in business suits, crawling on their bellies from the house to the detached garage apartment,” Truan recalled, laughing.

The group managed to stay gone for four days, despite a widespread manhunt, and Hobby eventually gave in, withdrawing the measure from consideration.

The Killer Bees were greeted as heroes.

“We could not believe how many people turned out and cheered us,” Truan said.

But Truan cautioned that such drastic tactics aren't for the faint of heart.

“They better be prepared to pay the political consequences for their actions because there will be a hell of a price to pay,” Truan said. “Breaking a quorum is a very, very major thing.”

Three of his fellow colleagues should know. They were defeated for re-election as Ronald Reagan swept into the White House in 1980.

There are a lot of things one can do in the Texas Lege to kill bills you don't like - just ask Arlene Wohlgemuth, who killed 52 Senate bills with one parliamentary procedure in 1997 in what became known as the Memorial Day Massacre. This, however, is pretty darned extreme. I'm in awe of the backbone these folks are showing, but in more than a little fear of the possible repercussions. We'll see how it goes.

Travis County Democrats are sponsoring a rally in favor of the 52 strikers (typically, the Harris County Democrats have zip on this). Some material for this post was taken from the Burnt Orange Report.

UPDATE: Fixed error concerning the identity of "Richter".

How conservative is Joe Lieberman?

I'm not a supporter of Joe Lieberman, but something always feels a little off to me when people refer to him as being a near-Republican. Yes, he's been a hawk on Iraq, which is something the Democratic base may never forgive him for, but overall, how conservative is he?

Well, maybe we should check and see what some actual conservatives think. Lieberman has a lifetime score of 20 from the American Conservatives Union. His score last year was also 20, which compares pretty favorably (from a Democratic perspective) to John Breaux (42 last year, 46 overall), Blanche Lincoln (40 and 23), Zell Miller (47 and 54), and Ben Nelson (55 and 53). He's also quite the liberal when compared to the Senate's Republican "moderates" - Lincoln Chaffee (53 and 47), Olympia Snowe (65 and 52), and Susan Collins (55 and 57). Jim Jeffords (6 and 26) has him beat last year, but not overall. You can find all of the ratings here.

How does he compare to other Democratic Presidential candidates?

John Kerry - 20 in 2002, 6 overall.
Richard Gephardt - 8 and 12.
John Edwards - 30 and 15.
Bob Graham - 20 and 18.
Dennis Kucinich - 0 and 13.

No ratings are available for Howard Dean and Al Sharpton. I'm too lazy to look through their archives for Carol Moseley-Braun.

From where I sit, Lieberman is a relative moderate in Democrat terms. There are certainly reasons to dislike him, and there are certainly reasons to think he's not electable (you'll have to argue with Greg Wythe about that), but let's be honest here: Joe Lieberman is worlds better than George Bush, and I for one will get over my lack of enthusiasm for him pretty damn quickly if he winds up carrying the Democrats' banner.

Run for the Rose

Over the past few months, an awful lot of people have found this post by Googling for "Marnie Rose", the young Houston doctor who was featured on Houston Medical. Dr. Marnie Rose lost her battle to brain cancer on August 23, 2002, but her memory lives on:

"Marnie would not have wanted to be forgotten," her mother, Lanie Rose, said as she prepared for a 5K-run called "Run for the Rose" to continue her daughter's mission to increase awareness and help raise money to find a cure for brain cancer.

Proceeds from the May 18 run will go toward brain cancer research at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and to improving the lives of sick children at Memorial Hermann Children's Hospital, where Rose was a resident.

"Brain cancer robbed our daughter of her career, her mobility and then her life, but it never diminished her sense of humor, her spirit or her will to survive," Lanie Rose said. "She would never want us to give up on searching for a cure or to forget the children she personally cared for. We are determined to continue the wonderful work she began."

The run, which will wend through the Texas Medical Center where Rose worked and received cancer treatments, is expected to draw more than 1,000 participants. Lanie Rose envisions it as the next "Race for the Cure."

More information about the Marnie Rose Foundation and this event, including a registration form, can be found here. The Chron article, which is actually just an AP wire story, does not mention any of that.

No Guardrails

Have you ever heard of the "No Guardrails" theory of public morality? I hadn't, but Radley Balko has a nice piece about it.

"No Guardrails" basically blamed society's elite — and the leftist elite in particular — for adopting the ever-sliding mores, values and morals that cultural conservatives blame for most of modern society's maladies.

Elitists can afford to lack values, "No Guardrails" thinking says, but the underclass can't. So single motherhood may be fine for Murphy Brown, who is wealthy, well-connected, and educated (not to mention fictional), but fatherless child rearing is a devastating example to set for low-income communities.

Perhaps elites can afford to flirt with drugs, with indiscriminate sex, and with excess personal liberty, the editorial explained, "but for a lot of other people it hasn't been such an easy life to sustain. Not exceedingly sophisticated, neither thinkers nor leaders, never interviewed for their views, they're held together by faith, friends, fun and, at the margins, by fanaticism."

"These weaker or more vulnerable people, who in different ways must try to live along life's margins, are among the reasons that a society erects rules. They're guardrails."

As you might imagine, he ties this to the William Bennett brouhaha, and finds that conservative pundits like Jonah Goldberg are utter hypocrites when applying "No Guardrails" thinking to the likes of Bad Boy Bill. Check it out. Via Jim Henley.

And then there were three

Orlando Sanchez has finally made it official by announcing his entry into the 2003 Houston Mayoral race.

The former City Council member has been courted by the White House to run for Congress. State officials have talked with him about an appointment to the Texas Railroad Commission.

Sanchez has taken two new jobs, one with an investment group and another with an accounting firm. He's joined boards of local companies and institutions.

In short, Sanchez, a Republican, has become a hot property since he fell 10,702 votes shy of becoming the first Hispanic mayor of Houston at a time when the GOP is courting that growing section of the population.

Despite the many opportunities that have come his way, one thing has remained constant since Sanchez delivered his concession speech before a packed crowd of supporters at the Hotel Derek in December 2001.

Sanchez's steel blue eyes -- which were highlighted in some of his 2001 campaign advertising -- have been focused on the 2003 mayor's race.

"I knew, standing in that podium, looking at the crowd, that I would run again in 2003," Sanchez said. "It's what I want to do and be. When I start something, I stick to it."

Monday, after months of speculation, Sanchez will officially kick off his campaign to replace Brown, who has served six years and is term-limited.

"Sanchez's steel blue eyes", eh? Never knew John Williams got his start writing Harlequin Romances.

Anyway, to answer Kevin's question, I think it's good news and bad news for Sanchez so far. The bad news is that I truly believe he's lost some momentum to Bill White and Michael Berry. I'm already seeing a lot of White and Berry yard signs and bumper stickers. Every one of the Berry signs, and probably a few of the White signs, belongs to a voter that Sanchez will wish he had in November. I think Sanchez has some ground to make up, despite his coronation as frontrunner.

There's also going to be a fair bit of pressure on Sanchez this time around. I think if he loses again, his political career is in serious jeopardy. In addition, I'm sure the state and national GOP would like nothing more than to highlight a high-profile win by a Hispanic candidate. As the article notes, he can't just run as the not-Lee-Brown candidate this time. I remain a bit surprised that he's been so much out of the limelight since 2001. If he's been developing ideas and themes for this election, he hasn't been forthcoming with them yet.

On the plus side, both Sylvester Turner and Bill White have had to deal with distracting issues they can't control. Turner's law firm represents the Houston Rockets, which means Turner is caught up in the current unpleasantness, in which minority leaders are threatening to boycott the team over owner Les Alexander's alleged backtracking on promises about minority participation in the construction and operation of the new basketball arena. If Turner suffers an electoral backlash as a result of his ties to Alexander, he not only has no shot at the runoff, he may wind up in last place.

Turner also has to worry about a special Legislative session being called in August to finish passing a budget. There are a lot of big bills still being debated, and there are only three weeks left in the regular session. If he has to head back to Austin later in the summer, his campaign may never really get off the ground.

Meanwhile White, who has made transportation his main campaign issue, has had to thread the needle with Metro, whose recent regional mobilty proposal would end road subsidies for the cities it serves, and potential supporters like former Mayor Bob Lanier, who think ending the subsidy is a bad idea. White doesn't absolutely depend on a successful Metro referendum to succeed, but he'll be way better off if he's in harmony with them. Sanchez, an avowed build-more-roads candidate, can sit back and take pot shots while Metro gets its act together.

For now, I'm more inclined to believe the poll that Bill White recently took, which has Sanchez with an 27-22 lead over White (with Turner getting 15 and Berry 8) rather that Berry's bizarre poll. I don't think polls will really mean anything until Turner's status is formalized, though.

Advertising

Population: One suggests a political ad I'd like to see. And yes, though you may have heard it was an urban legend, something like this did actually happen.

Traffic report for April

April started out like gangbusters and may have been my busiest month ever had I not taken a week off to visit California. Not that I'm complaining, mind you - we had a fantastic time out west. I still wound up with about 6200 visitors, according to Sitemeter. Late in the month I had my 70,000th visitor, and should hit 75,000 sometime before the Memorial Day weekend. On a slightly different note, late in April the total number of comments on this site passed the number of posts.

As always, thanks to everyone for stopping by, and especially for coming back. Top referrers for last month are listed under the More link.

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81:  http://radio.xmlstoragesystem.com/rcsPublic/



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Another lawsuit against Tom DeLay

Two more losing candidates from last year's election have filed suit, alleging that campaign money was used illegally by a Republican special interest group.

Paul Clayton of Orange and Mike Head of Athens claim Texans for a Republican Majority violated state campaign laws by not reporting "all the money contributed to and expended" on behalf of the plaintiffs' winning Republican opponents.

Texans for a Republican Majority had a state political action committee that made donations to candidates and spent money on their behalf. But federal IRS filings showed that at least another $500,000 in corporate donations were raised to cover committee administrative expenses, which included polling and fund-raising.

Texans for a Republican Majority is, of course, the same Tom DeLay-founded group that Travis County DA Ronnie Earle has been investigating. I'm not sure why these candidates waited so long to file, instead of taking quick action like some others - maybe the recent ruling that the Texas Association of Business' membership list isn't a protected secret helped convince them they have a shot. I dunno. I'm rooting for them, of course, but I'd put better odds on a Sharpton-Lieberman ticket in 2004.

Thanks to Alfredo Garcia for the heads-up.

It ain't Shakespeare

Why didn't anyone think of this before?

LONDON - Give an infinite number of monkeys an infinite number of typewriters, the theory goes, and they will eventually produce the works of Shakespeare.

Give six monkeys one computer for a month, and they will make a mess.

Researchers at Plymouth University in England reported this week that primates left alone with a computer attacked the machine and failed to produce a single word.

"They pressed a lot of S's," researcher Mike Phillips said Friday. "Obviously, English isn't their first language."

In a project intended more as performance art than scientific experiment, faculty and students in the university's media program left a computer in the monkey enclosure at Paignton Zoo in southwest England, home to six Sulawesi crested macaques.

Then, they waited.

At first, said Phillips, "the lead male got a stone and started bashing the hell out of it.

"Another thing they were interested in was in defecating and urinating all over the keyboard," added Phillips, who runs the university's Institute of Digital Arts and Technologies.

Eventually, monkeys Elmo, Gum, Heather, Holly, Mistletoe and Rowan produced five pages of text, composed primarily of the letter S. Later, the letters A, J, L and M crept in.

The notion that monkeys typing at random will eventually produce literature is often attributed to Thomas Huxley, a 19th-century scientist who supported Charles Darwin's theories of evolution. Mathematicians have also used it to illustrate concepts of chance.

The Plymouth experiment was funded by England's Arts Council and part of the Vivaria Project, which plans to install computers in zoos across Europe to study differences between animal and artificial life.

Phillips said the results showed that monkeys "are not random generators. They're more complex than that.

"They were quite interested in the screen, and they saw that when they typed a letter, something happened. There was a level of intention there."

Give 'em another month. Maybe they'll start a blog.

Tulia update

All of the pieces are in place for the 13 people who were convicted in the Tulia drug bust fiasco that are still in prison to be released. A special judge recommended that all convictions be overturned because the state's star (and sole) witness, Tom Coleman (who has since been indicted for lying under oath) was completely not credible. A special prosecutor has said that even if new trials are ordered, charges will not be filed. No one on God's green earth believes that these people deserve to spend another minute in prison.

No sane person believes that, anyway, and therein lies the rub because the decision lies in the hands of the Court of Criminal Appeals, which is the domain of Sharon Keller. They're taking their own sweet time to act on this, which has prompted a bill in the Senate that would allow a district judge to do the CCA's work for it.

"I kept thinking the process was going to work, but it's way too slow. They shouldn't spend another day in prison," said Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston.

Whitmire's Senate Bill 1948 would permit a district judge in Swisher County to release the 13 on bond while the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals deliberates their cases.

Whitmire scheduled the legislation for a public hearing on Monday before the Senate Criminal Justice Committee, which he chairs.

[...]

Whitmire said Rep. Terry Keel, R-Austin, chairman of the House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee and a former Travis County sheriff, will carry the bill in the House.

Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said Whitmire "believes strongly in the bill."

"If it accomplishes what he's outlined to me in general, I'll be supportive," Dewhurst said.

Good on all of you. This is a disgrace and it needs to be made right.

And it wouldn't be a blog post without checking to see what kind of bold leadership our Governor is displaying:

Spokeswoman Kathy Walt said Gov. Rick Perry wanted to study the bill before commenting.

As always, he's up to the challenge. Here's the full text of the bill, in case you're curious.

State's lobbying office declared useless

You'd think having a President that comes from your own state would mean that your state would never see hard times. You'd be wrong, especially if your state's lobbyists in DC are nothing more than patronage appointees who don't feel the need to do any actual work.

AUSTIN -- Senators threatened to close the state's lobbying office in Washington for failing to get Congress to address state needs during its financial crisis.

Their charges against the Office of State-Federal Relations followed criticism by Democrats earlier this year of the Washington office's hiring of Drew Maloney, a former top aide to Majority Speaker Tom DeLay, as a consultant.

Maloney's $15,000 monthly fee was questioned because numerous other state programs and services faced budget cuts in the face of a $9.9 billion revenue shortfall.

"Y'all have not been able to get the congressional delegation to do a damn thing about the problems here in Texas, like retirement issues, like highway funding, like everything else," said state Sen. Ken Armbrister, D-Victoria, during a Senate Committee on State Affairs hearing Thursday.

[...]

Ed Perez, OSFR executive director in Washington, D.C., was forced to hire Maloney at the direction of DeLay, according to a Washington source.

"It basically makes (OSFR) an arm of DeLay," the source said.

Well, now, what did we expect? You need to have a really close relationship with the President in order to benefit from his largesse. Or at least be in danger of not getting reelected.

Speaking of which, our Governor is on top of the situation:

Kathy Walt, spokeswoman for Gov. Rick Perry, said the claim that DeLay forced the hiring of his former aide is untrue. She said the governor spoke to several legislative and state leaders about hiring a consultant for the state to secure more federal funding. That, she said, was the extent of Perry's involvement in Maloney's hiring. He started March 26.

"The governor was not involved in the selection of Maloney for that job," she said.

At the time of Maloney's hiring, the governor's office said the state was aggressively pursuing more federal funding for health care, transportation and higher education.

But the decision came under fire because of the salary Maloney was receiving at a time when the state was struggling to secure matching federal funding for Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

Molly Ivins is fond of referring to former Governor Dolph Briscoe as the state's "pet rock". I'm thinking that same label could be applied to the equally do-nothing Governor Goodhair, though perhaps in deference to modern times he should be referred to as our official state Aibo.

Lest you think this is all politically motivated, note the words of Sen. Chris Harris (R-Arlington) as he berates hapless OSFR director Tony Gilman:

"If I don't see a monumental change in your attitude and your participation with legislative measures, I'm going to be right there to do everything I can to get every one of you fired and do away with this whole mess, because right now as far as I'm concerned you're nothing but a damn waste of money," Harris said.

Ouch.

A chart is worth 11,483 words

Mike T has an excellent chart, taken from a study by Rep. Henry Waxman (D-California) on the effect of the proposed tax cut on dividends. If you believe that proper presentation is the key to winning political battles, take note of this.

(Yoo hoo, Democratic Presidential candidates! You can use this chart, too!)

Lottery changes enacted

The state Lottery Commission has rolled out the new version of its flagship Texas Lotto game amid confusion over how to play and grumbles that it's even more of a ripoff than it used to be.

In the past, as I explained here, Texas Lotto was a simple game of picking six numbers out of 54, with odds of hitting the jackpot being one in 25,827,165. The new game has two sets of 44 numbers. You pick five numbers from the first set and one more from the "bonus" set (this is the basic style of Powerball games, which I talked about in February) in order to win. This makes the odds of winning one in 47,784,352. I've got the calculation of that under the More link if you're interested.

Though not mentioned in the online version of this story, the print version notes that lottery payouts will drop from 55% of revenue to 52%. The expectation is that the state will get an extra $50 million or so annually from Lotto as a result of this change. As always, I'll believe it when I see it.

UPDATE: Apparently, someone on the Lottery Commission was really sure this change was going to be enacted:

The Texas Lottery Commission paid $83,150 for two new drawing machines a month before the formal vote to adopt changes that made the game harder to win and increased the size of jackpots, the Austin American-Statesman reported Thursday.

That timing has many people -- including Gov. Rick Perry and several lawmakers -- concerned that the decision may have been made before the formal vote was taken, the newspaper reported.

[...]

On Tuesday, Deirdre Delisi, Perry's deputy chief of staff, called Lottery Commission Executive Director Reagan Greer "out of concern of the purchase of the equipment prior to the change in the game," according to Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt.

The equipment was purchased Feb. 28. The game change was approved March 27.

Greer defended the purchase, which was set in motion by then Acting-Executive Director Gary Grief, as "by the book."

Greer said Grief acted on his own and not as a result of any direction from the three-member Texas Lottery Commission as to how it planned to vote on the game change.

State Rep. Jack Stick, R-Austin, has asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to review the purchases.

I just want to add that "Jack Stick" is one of the greatest names I've ever heard.

To calculate the odds of winning the jackpot in this new-and-maybe-improved Texas Lotto: There are 44 balls in the hopper, each with a number painted on it. Once a ball is taken from the hopper, it is not replaced, so the first ball is picked from 44, the second from 43, and so on. That means there are 130,320,960 possible combinations (that is, 44 x 43 x 42 x 41 x 40) of the five numbered balls.

Since order doesn't matter (i.e., 1-2-3-4-5 and 5-4-3-2-1 are the same thing here), you need to eliminate duplicates, so divide that by 120 (which is 5 x 4 x 3 x 2 x 1), which is the number of ways to arrange five numbers. That gives 1,086,008, which is the total number of ways to pick the five balls.

The "bonus ball" is then picked from another hopper, which has all 44 balls in it. Multiply 1,086,008 by 44 and you get 47,784,352. Clear? Leave me a question in the comments if not.

Marfreless

Those of you who live in or travel to Houston will be pleased to know that Marfreless, the little watering hole often referred to as "the make-out bar" tucked into a corner of the River Oaks Shopping Center, is under new management and has been renovated. The place is now co-owned by my cousin-in-law Robert, and at his invitation Tiffany and I attended a friends'n'family grand opening event last night. It's still the same dimly-lit bar with couches upstairs, but it's clean and freshly painted and feels a lot nicer than it used to. I believe they'll be open to the public as of this weekend, so head on over and have a drink.

(Amazing the things you find when you Google. Twenty years ago, Marfreless was considered one of the greatest bars in Texas by someone who claims a fair bit of authority on the subject. If his liver can still take it, I hope he'd still like the place today. I'm moderately pleased and moderately appalled to note that I've been to four of his faves - the others being Kay's, Grif's, and the Last Concert - all of which are still chugging along.)

Metro-neutering bill may be dead

SB 1939, the anti-federalist bill authored by Sen. Jon Lindsay (R-Houston) designed to prevent local voters from determining their own mobility needs, may be dead in the water due to lack of support.

"I'm trying to talk common sense to them," said state Sen. Jon Lindsay, R-Houston, the bill's author. "I have allies, but I don't think they're strong enough right now."

Lindsay filed Senate Bill 1939 last Thursday after Metro unveiled a $3.3 billion proposal outlining the region's transit needs for the next 22 years. The proposal shows Metro moving toward light rail for the future and eventually scuttling funding for road and bridge construction and repairs.

[...]

Committee Chairman Steve Ogden, a College Station Republican, said Lindsay has not asked him to put the bill before the committee for a vote, nor has he scheduled it for one.

"He does not have the committee votes to get it out right now. That could change, and the clock is ticking, but if he gets it out of the committee, it could pick up a head of steam on the floor," said state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, a committee member.

The Senate committee coordinator has recommended that Senate committee chairpeople report out Senate bills and joint resolutions by May 23. The deadline, however, is being left to the discretion of the chairman.

Those of us who are fans of Rice athletics have a little cheer that we use late in the game when our heroes are winning. Given all that's going on in the 78th Lege, it seems appropriate to say it here:

C-L-O-C-K
Go, clock, go!

Rockets lose in court (not on it)

The Rockets have lost round one in their bizarre legal battle against members of the Houston minority communities.

State District Judge John Coselli issued the 15-day, temporary restraining order after about two hours in his chambers with lawyers representing the Houston Area Urban League and the Rockets. He also scheduled a temporary injunction hearing on May 15.

"I'm still concerned that the (Leslie) Alexander team does not fully understand that ... full participation meant in every aspect of the operations and the profit of the arena," said Sylvia Brooks, Urban League president and chief executive officer.

Black and Hispanic leaders want minority participation in all aspects of arena operations. The Rockets say profit-sharing isn't part of the agreement, and it plans to meet or exceed 30 percent minority participation goals in the operation phase as it did in the design and construction of the arena.

"I think the (temporary injunction) hearing will bring out the truth," said former City Attorney Benjamin L. Hall, an Urban League lawyer. "We think there is a very real and serious threat to minority participation in the arena."

They can't even agree on what the judge's ruling means.

Hall said the order prevents the team from signing any more operations contracts until a hearing later this month.

Rockets lawyer Michael Goldberg disagreed, saying the order is limited to new concessions contracts.

"The Rockets are absolutely free to let all contracts on the operations with one minor exception, and that is the food concessions," he said.

He said the team can sign concessions contracts as long as they are presented to the judge.

The judge did not give any details on what aspect of arena operations will be affected by the court order. No copies of the order were available late Tuesday.

"I granted a TRO on very narrow grounds," Coselli said.

Arena operations include food and beverage concessions, advertising, suite rentals, security and ticket sales.

I just don't get it. I know there's money involved here, but I can't believe that it's more than the goodwill the franchise has got to be costing itself. Please, someone knock some sense into Les Alexander so we can all get on with our lives.

UPDATE: This is what I'm talking about:

A coalition of black and Hispanic organizations today threatened to boycott the Houston Rockets if owner Leslie Alexander does not live up to the spirit of a written agreement over minority contracting at the new arena.

The groups have filed a lawsuit demanding that Alexander keep a promise for 30 percent of the contracts in the design, construction and long-term operations at the new arena.

"If we have to strike an economic blow to get economic parity we will strike that blow. We are here for the long haul," said the Rev. William Lawson of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church and a member of the Baptist Ministers Association of Houston and Vicinty.

The coalition includes the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Houston Area Urban League, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce and the NAACP Houston chapter.

Les, Les, Les...get a clue before it's too late.

Will state Dems hold the line?

Almost overlooked in all of the brouhaha surrounding redistricting is the fact that any proposed new maps may never come up for a vote in the State Senate.

But Sen. Gonzalo Barrientos, D-Austin, chairman of the Senate Democratic Caucus, said state House efforts to redraw the Texas congressional district boundaries are meaningless because he can keep the bill from being debated on the Senate floor.

For a bill to come up in the 31-member Senate, two-thirds of those present must cast a favorable procedural vote on the measure. When all senators are present, 11 can block debate.

"I've got at least 11," said Barrientos.

You go, Gonzalo. We're with you. Meanwhile, for a good laugh, read Cragg Hines' snarky summary of this fiasco.

A different redistricting battle is being fought in the County Commissioners Court, where the same Justice of the Peace precincts have been in place since the 1970s. I must confess, I don't know much about what the JPs do, so I don't have any opinion to offer about this right now. The one interesting thing about this article is here:

[Commissioner Steve] Radack's call to delay redrawing lines caught [County Judge Robert] Eckels by surprise, with Radack proposing the move the day after he and Eckels and Radack discussed redistricting. Eckels said Radack never mentioned his desire for a delay during their conversation.

I didn't think Steve Radack blew his nose without asking Robert Eckels for a tissue first. Quelle surprise.

Earthlink takes new route in spam fighting

Earthlink is preparing to roll out a new spam blocking service that requires mail senders to verify their identity for mail to be delivered.

Known as "challenge-response" technology, the system thwarts the ability of spammers to reach their intended audience with millions of automatically generated e-mails. When someone sends an e-mail to a challenge-response user, he or she gets an e-mail back asking to verify that the sender is a live person.

Once the sender does that by replicating a word or picture displayed on the screen, the original e-mail is allowed through. The system automatically recognizes future e-mails from the same sender, so the verification needs only to be performed once. Without the verification, the e-mail is not delivered.

I wrote about this kind of technology a little while ago, and thanks to this article I now remember the name of the software that I'd read about while in California. It's called Mailblocks, and this is the article I'd read about it. I should note that not everyone is as impressed as Ed Baig was, so caveat emptor and all that.

The WaPo article lists some concerns about this technology that I hadn't thought of:

"Challenge-response will indeed block the vast majority of spam," said John R. Levine, a computer consultant and co-author of "The Internet for Dummies." But he said a lot of people will never respond to a challenge, or will think the challenge e-mail itself is spam.

Levine said that already, spammers are disguising e-mails as challenges to get people to open the messages. And he worries that if large numbers of people begin to use the system, user address books will be a target of hackers seeking to obtain lists of approved addresses.

Some viruses launch attacks using computer address books, and if that happened, confidence in the challenge-response system would erode, Levine said.

"The consequences of spammers' response to challenge-response will be really ugly," Levine said.

David had an additional objection in the comments to my original post, about how this system adds an additional point of failure, that's worth considering. I suppose integrating it with Earthlink might get around that - it depends on how they implement it. I still think this is a promising avenue in the war against spam, and I look forward to seeing how Earthlink users like it.

The Gambler's Ruin

Now that we all know more than we ever thought we'd know about Bill Bennett's love of slot machines, let's talk numbers. What are the odds that you can actually break even or come out ahead when playing the slot machines?

Mathematicians have a formula for this, and it's called the Gambler's Ruin problem. Given an initial bankroll and the desire to increase it, what are the odds you'll succeed, assuming that you stop when you reach your goal or when you go broke ("get ruined")?

Here's a nice little web page that allows you to run an applet that simulates the Gambler's Ruin problem, along with a concise statement of how it all works. The applet assumes that you make the same bet every time, and that there's a maximum number of times you'll play.

For example, let's assume you start with $10 and have a goal of doubling that amount. You decide to play roulette, and you bet on black each time. The odds of winning a given bet is 18/38, or 0.4736. If you were to do this a hundred times, limiting yourself to a maximum of 200 plays, the application says you'll win about 25% of the time. 67% of the time you'll be ruined, and 8% of the time you'll still be playing after 200 turns. Something to consider when you plan that next trip to Vegas.

I can't use this to determine the likelihood of Bennett's claim that he "more or less broke even" - even if I knew the odds of a given slot machine, it has differing payouts (the Gambler's Ruin problem assumes even money odds - if you bet a dollar and win, you get a dollar back). Plus, this page only models the odds of winning. If you ask it to calculate the odds of finishing with the amount you started with, it assumes you never bother to play. Alas.

Here's a simpler application of the Gambler's Ruin problem, for two players. Here's an application of the math for dedicated casino players (see this article for a definition of the terms he uses).

Anyone want to bet that Bill Bennett never understood this concept?

Giving the people what they want

From The Bloviator:

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS...EDWARD BARLOW?

Bored with blogging? Busy with business? Freak cello accident?
At least the last time he took an extended hiatus from providing us with free content, he had the common decency to sign off.

Where are ya Ted? Hope all is well. You're sorely missed.

From Mac Diva:

I have been wondering the same thing. Prior to his hiatus, Ted Barlow questioned my position that gun research fraud John Lott, Jr., is bad news for progressive Americans all the way 'round. I responded with an entry called "John Lott's woman problem." Then, to make my reasoning even clearer, I wrote a three-part series called "The Friends of John Lott." Quite a few of you read all or some of those entries. I appreciate that and would give you a 21 gun salute if I owned a gun. But, I wrote those entries with Ted in mind and he hasn't read them as far as I know. This is like puckering up and opening your eyes to discover the fellow immigrated to Canada.

If you are a real life friend or neighbor of Ted Barlow's do us all the favor of checking up on him, please.

From Sisyphus Shrugged:

We take pleasure in answering thus prominently the communication below, expressing at the same time our great gratification that its faithful author is numbered among the sisypheans:

I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Ted Barlow. Papa says, "If Sisyphus says it, it's so." Please tell me the truth, is there a Ted Barlow? -- Virginia O'Hanlon

Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a sceptical age. They do not believe except what they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Ted Barlow.

He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Ted Barlow! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The external light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Ted Barlow! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Ted Barlow, but even if you did not see Ted Barlow coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Ted Barlow, but that is no sign that there is no Ted Barlow. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that's no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby's rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Ted Barlow? Thank God he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

As it happens, I spoke to Ted on the phone a few days ago. He's alive and well. I did not ask, and therefore cannot say, when he might return to blogging, but he has popped up recently in comment threads (here, for example). Perhaps this recent groundswell of interest will help encourage him to start up. We shall see. In the meantime, I'll add my voice to the chorus that's singing the We-Miss-You-Ted refrain.

UPDATE: He's back! Woo hoo!

Time wounds all heels

A few years back, I was visiting the family in New York. While there, I had the opportunity to attend a Yankees game, along with my sister and her then-boyfriend. We scored some tickets from my dad's old law firm, who had season tickets on the field level, between home plate and first base, about fifteen or twenty rows back. We took the 4 train to the Bronx for a day of baseball on a beautiful summer afternoon.

Midway through the game, I noticed that a bunch of people around us were standing up and looking at something farther back in the stands. Usually, that meant that a fight has broken out. I turned to look, but didn't see any of the regular signs of a scuffle, so I asked the guy next to me, who was peering through a pair of binoculars, what was up.

"It's Joey Buttafuoco," he replied.

[Pause]

"Can I borrow your binoculars for a second?"

And sure enough, there he was, wearing a multicolored 'do rag, signing autographs for the crowd that had gathered around him. I took a deep breath and sighed, knowing that I had just experienced a Genuine New York Moment.

I'm telling you this story as a lead in to the sad news that the Buttafuocos are calling it quits after 26 years of marriage.

"It's OK. To move on you've got to get a divorce," Buttafuoco said in a telephone interview. "She's with another guy. His name is Stew. I've been with a girl for awhile, too."

Buttafuoco's attorney, Leon F. Bennett, said the two remain friends and are "trying to work out an amicable resolution."

Mary Jo Buttafuoco, who filed divorce papers in Ventura County Superior Court on Feb. 3, did not list an attorney in her filing and could not be located for comment.

[...]

Buttafuoco, who owned a Long Island auto body repair shop at the time of the shooting, moved to Los Angeles in the mid-90s to pursue an acting career. He said he's since returned to the car repair business, and now works with his adult son.

"I do all the Ferraris," he said. "I do a little TV and movies but that doesn't put a lot of butter on my bread."

Aren't you glad you're caught up on his life now? Of course you are.

A bumpy ride for Metro so far

Since first announcing their new longterm vision for mobility in Houston, the Metropolitan Transit Authority has run into the usual opposition from the usual suspects. The most controversial part of Metro's plan is their proposed method of payment for rail, which is to cease disbursing 25 percent of its funds for road mantenance among its participating municipalities. This will be a tough but not impossible thing to sell for a referendum in November.

Except they may not get the chance if Senate Bill 1939 passes. Proposed by Sen. Jon Lindsay (R-Houston), a former Harris County Judge, the bill would mandate that Metro continue to spend 25% of its revenue to "fund construction and improvements to roads and bridges located within the boundaries of the authority". It also mandates the creation of a three-person subcommittee that would have absolute authority to spend that 25%.

So much for federalism - Lindsay would preempt an upcoming election and have Austin tell Metro what to do with its money instead of letting the locals have a say, something he has a long history of doing. With that attitude, if he were only thirty years younger, he'd have a great future in the national party.

To its credit, Metro is going ahead with public meetings about their proposal. They got a better reception at the first one than they have from politicos so far. Maybe Lindsay is right to be paranoid, as the Chron editorial from Sunday (reprinted below the More link) suggests.

I didn't write about this right away, mostly because it happened at the end of the week and I wanted to relax over the weekend. Two different people prodded me about it, which is fine by me - I aim to please around here. One of the two, my old college buddy Patrick, wondered if I'd be able to write this piece without saying "rat bastard" or "son of a bitch" every other sentence. I've achieved inner peace, Patrick. Now if you'll excuse me, it's time to take my meds.

UPDATE: It's not on their web page yet, but the Katy Corridor Coalition has sent out email asking people to call/write/fax Sens. Lindsay, Rodney Ellis, and Steve Ogden, as well as Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, to express their opposition to SB 1939. The contact information is as follows:

The Honorable Jon Lindsay
15531 Kuykendahl
Houston, Texas 77090
(281) 583-1011
(281) 444-0189(fax)

The Honorable Rodney G. Ellis
440 Louisiana, Suite 575
Houston, Texas 77002
(713) 236-0306
email: Contact form

The Honorable Steve Ogden
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0105
email: Contact form

Lt. Governor David Dewhurst
Capitol Station
P.O. Box 12068
Austin, Texas 78711
512 463-0001
email: Contact form

Paper: Houston Chronicle
Date: SUN 05/04/03
Section: OUTLOOK
Page: 2
Edition: 4 STAR

RUNAWAY / Legislation would derail city transit,clean air plans

Staff

Barreling down the legislative fast track in Austin is a late-train bill
filed by state Sen. Jon Lindsay , R-Houston, that could derail this city's
mobility and clean air efforts, disenfranchise local voters and undercut the
oversight of Houston's City Council and Harris County Commissioners Court.

The list of things wrong with Lindsay 's Senate Bill 1939 , filed late last
week and scheduled for an express-run committee hearing in Austin on Monday,
is longer than a box car.

The bill would require the Metropolitan Transit Authority, alone among all
transit authorities in the state (and perhaps in the country), to dedicate
in perpetuity 25 percent of its tax revenues to fund construction and
improvements to roads and bridges. It would also set up a three-member
"subcommittee" of the Metro board to determine which construction projects
to fund with the money. The full board could not alter the subcommittee's
decisions.

With a massive plan to expand bus, rail and HOV services on the table for
local voters in November, the first question is obvious. Is Lindsay afraid
of a popular vote?

Taking this decision out of the hands of hundreds of thousands of Metro
voters and proposing to put it into the hands of the Legislature is an
affront to fair play - and an absolute betrayal of the promise of a popular
vote on Metro plans.

But then, maybe that is its specific intent. Polls show that Metro has
support for its transit plan. Depending on how details are fleshed out, it
has a chance to win in November, and that must incense the handful of
powerful political operators here whose long-standing opposition to any
element of rail transit is a matter of record.

Congressional leaders in Washington have said they will look more favorably
on funding requests for a plan that has voter approval. So, perhaps this is
yet another tactic to make sure that funding that goes to Dallas and other
cities around the country continues to be denied to Houston.

Metro board Chairman Arthur Schechter says if Lindsay's bill were in place
it would effectively kill the transit agency's ability to build and operate
the system it has laid out.

That would waste the thousands of hours already spent on planning,
collaboration with other agencies and seeking political consensus. Lindsay's bill would also render moot the plans to hold public hearings on Metro's
proposal and would neuter citizens' ability to affect the plan, since no
plan for transit improvements could go forward.

Lindsay could show up and have his say at the public hearings this month
instead of trying to disenfranchise Metro voters.

Under the bill, a subcommittee of three members of the Metro board would
determine which mandatory road and bridge projects would be built with Metro
funds. The city, Harris County and the mayors of the small cities within the
Metro service area would each get to name one of the three, an arrangement
that raises both equity and jurisdictional issues.

Almost three-fourths of the Metro tax revenue is collected within the city
of Houston. Why the city should have only one-third of the decision-making
authority on where money gets spent is not clear. It's also not fair.

If successful, this bill could throw our region's effort to meet federal
clean air deadlines by 2007 off the tracks. Meeting those deadlines assumes
a workable transit plan. Without such, it's not simply a matter of "back to
the drawing board" for this region. We won't have the money to buy a drawing
board: Federal funding for transportation will come to a halt, as it did in
Atlanta when that city fell into similar circumstance some years ago.

Lindsay could be more constructive if he tried to make sure Houston -
historically shortchanged - got its fair share of highway, clean air and
other funds coming out of Austin.

DJs suspended for playing the Dixie Chicks

Amazing:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Country station KKCS has suspended two disk jockeys for playing the Dixie Chicks, violating a ban imposed after the group criticized President Bush.

Natalie Maines told a London concert audience just before the war in Iraq that, "Just so you know, we're ashamed the president of the United States is from Texas."

"We pulled their music two months ago, and it's been a difficult decision because how can you ignore the hottest group in country music," said station manager Jerry Grant.

He said there has been discussion about whether to reinstate the music, but the DJs, Dave Moore and Jeff Singer became impatient.

"They made it very clear that they support wholeheartedly the president of the United States. They support wholeheartedly the troops, the military. But they also support the right of free speech," said Grant.

The station has received a couple of hundred calls and 75 percent favored playing the music.

Grand said Moore and Singer will be out for a couple of days.

"I gave them an alternative: stop it now and they'll be on suspension, or they can continue playing them and when they come out of the studio they won't have a job."

The station plans to play the group's music again eventually.

"Most stations are starting to play them again anyhow a song here, a song there. I just have a problem with the way this was done. We would have put them in anyhow. But wed like to do it on our terms," he said.

Surprisingly enough, they're not part of the Clear Channel evil empire. I can't seem to get to their web page right now - I'll bet they're getting more traffic than usual.

UPDATE: Someone in the comments thread at skippy's site thinks the whole thing may just be a ratings stunt.

OK, guys, joke's over

I've decided that the neverending supply of proposed redistricting maps is just a joke being played on gullible Democrats like me, designed to distract us from other legislation that the Lege is currently considering (such as this bill to outlaw pubic hair [1], as noted by Greg Morrow). There doesn't seem to be any other logical explanation for these things, which are clearly inspired by Jackson Pollack.

I'll say this: If any State Senate Democrats sell out on this for any reason and allow a redistricting bill to pass, the national party ought to hunt them down like rats in a sewer. My God, this latest map puts me in John frigging Culberson's district. I haven't been "represented" by a Congressional Republican since I moved to Montrose in 1989, and I have no desire to start now.

By the way, notice how Sheila Jackson Lee's district pokes into Fort Bend County? They'd give her Precinct 2, which is predominantly black, presumably to ensure that the 22nd CD remains sufficiently white to keep electing Tom DeLay. Lovely.

I'm going to take a deep breath and stop worrying about this. It's just not going to happen.

[1] - No, that isn't really what this bill does. I'm just making with the funny. Go read it for yourself.

UPDATE: Travis County's fate under this latest proposal is equally ridiculous. Via the Burnt Orange Report.

Feeling a little down

We had a tough game on Saturday. The game was originally scheduled for 9 AM on May 3. A few weeks ago, the other team's coach emailed me to ask if we could move the game to Friday night, since he had a conflict on Saturday. I agreed and made the arrangements. A little while after that, I was told that the elementary school that many of my kids attend was having a school dance on that Friday, and that half of my team would have to miss the game if it were played then. So I went back to the other coach and said sorry, we need to move the game back to its original time. He agreed. Unfortunately, during the time that the game had been moved, one of my better players made plans for Saturday. Two other kids missed the game as well, one of which I did not know about beforehand. We wound up playing with only eight fielders as a result.

We had a great practice on Thursday, in which everyone got to do a lot of hitting and came away feeling good about it, but it largely didn't carry over to Saturday. We are still improving at the plate, but there's a lot of room yet to go.

We had two runners thrown out on the bases during the game, which is the Little League equivalent of taking a third strike in slow-pitch softball. Good baserunning depends more on experience than on athleticism, so it's an issue on a team like ours that's fairly green. I stressed to the players that they need to do what the base coaches tell them to do. If it turns out to be wrong, it's our fault and not theirs.

Good things do still happen, even in tough games like this one. One of the outfielders made a sliding catch on a fly ball, which resulted in wild applause from the stands, a huge grin on his face, and a game ball for his effort. I overheard him afterwards saying that the outfield is cool. That's one less thing for me to worry about.

I was really feeling down after this game, feeling like I haven't done much to help the kids get better as baseball players. I'm okay now, after getting some reassurance from Tiffany and going to see X2: X-Men United on Saturday night. We play again tonight. I'm ready for it.

UPDATE: This is the attitude that I hope we play with for the rest of the season.

Change of venue?

The attorneys for former HPD Captain Mark Aguirre and Sergeant Steve Wenzel are requesting a change of venue for their upcoming trial on five counts of official oppression, claiming that the local coverage has poisoned the jury pool against them.

Aguirre's attorney, Terry Yates, said "the amount of coverage and the negativity of the coverage" would prejudice a fair trial in Houston. Wenzel's attorney, Joe Bailey, said "day to day coverage" of the case will likely continue.

The lawyers did not ask for any particular location for the trial.

Whatever. Personally, I think that if Andrea Yates can be tried in Houston, then these guys can, too. Nice try, fellas.

Talk about a hot stock

Looking for a nice, recession-proof stock? Try an Australian brothel.

"Everyone knows sex is a smart investment," said Heidi Fleiss, the former Hollywood madam, who helped launch the Daily Planet on the Australian Stock Exchange yesterday. Investors in the Melbourne brothel saw shares rise from an opening price of 50 Australian cents (19p) to $1.09 (42p) at the close of trading.

The Daily Planet prides itself on a high-class clientele and says it is "like any other five-star hotel", although rooms can be hired by the half-hour. It claims to be Australia's largest legal brothel and has 18 spa rooms, all equipped with ceiling mirrors.

The chief executive, Andrew Harris, said it had been an uphill battle to get the company listed. "The financial establishment did not want a brothel on the stock exchange," he said. "We have fought every institution, every law firm. It has cost us a fortune."

The flotation was also the culmination of delicate financial manoeuvres designed to allow investors to back the project without being prosecuted under legislation that prohibits living off immoral earnings. Mr Harris said the company had never made a cent from the "working girls" themselves, who were paid directly by clients. Instead, its profits were derived from the $115 (£44) an hour room rental.

The promotional brochure for the brothel promises hospital-standard hygiene, noting that "all sex workers are required by law to use condoms and/or dental dams during any sexual activity".

The company has ambitious plans. It wants to open a sister establishment in Sydney, as well as a "sex Disneyland" theme park. Mr Harris, a former special forces officer who describes himself as "a very strong family man", said: "You may be able to have a simulator of a six-mile high club."

Brothels are legal in Australia, but must be licensed by state governments. Daily Planet also hopes to open outlets in Brazil, Colombia and the American state of Nevada.

Maybe if they include a casino, they can get Bill Bennett to drop in. I suspect he'll have some free time coming up.

Suing the coach

Kevin Drum points to this LA Times story about a father who is suing his son's former high school baseball coach over allegations that the coach ruined the kid's arm and thus his chances to get a college scholarship and/or a shot at the big leagues.

John Emme, the baseball coach at Corona del Mar High in Newport Beach, has been sued twice in two years by Marc Martinez, a physician whose son pitched on the school team.

Martinez alleged in his first suit that Emme harmed his son J.D.'s future as a college pitcher by making him pitch too many innings, damaging his arm. Martinez pulled his son off the team in his senior year and later filed another suit, saying the coach made false statements in a newspaper article, ruining his son's chance for a college scholarship and, perhaps, a career in the big leagues.

Kevin calls this an example of a frivolous lawsuit. I happen to agree with Kevin, but after reading the LAT article, my agreement has to do with the actual merits of the case rather than any theoretical notion of lawsuit abuse. Let's start with the allegation that the coach ruined the kid's chances at playing in college or the pros:

Despite claims by parents such as Martinez, the role of the high school coach in the college recruiting process has generally diminished. These days, scouting services specialize in shopping kids to colleges, complete with videotape packages highlighting a player's strengths.

"We always say, 'You can't hide Babe Ruth,' " said Bob Flint, a high school baseball coach for 35 years who has spent the last three seasons at Irvine's Woodbridge High School. "Even if I wanted to completely bury a kid, I couldn't do it if you're good enough, they'll find you."

True. Heck, any hardcore fan can tell you who the top prospects are, thanks to resources like Baseball America. We've come a long way from the days when a scout could visit a little backwater town and come away with Mickey Mantle.

Of course, we're assuming that JD Martinez was a prospect in the first place:

Martinez showcased J.D.'s right arm as much as he could during the summer and fall. After his senior year, J.D. played in a tournament in Waco, Texas, before numerous college scouts. Marc Martinez said his son was given a "7" rating out of 10.

"He was throwing 83 to 84 miles an hour," Martinez said. "He was stronger and better than he had been in high school. The scouts in Texas said he was a prospective Division I college player and a potential lower-round draft pick."

83 MPH? Please. That's a batting practice fastball. With some exceptions, real prospects hit 93 or higher on the radar gun. A few years ago I was at a batting cage and accidentally found myself facing the 80 MPH machine. I managed to make contact on a few swings. If I can do that, there's no way this kid is going anywhere.

How about the amount of alleged damages?

But J.D., who declined to discuss the case, was not recruited by any Division I programs, even though Marc Martinez said his son received about 30 letters of interest from colleges. Martinez, who asked for $25,000 as well as punitive damages in his suit, said Emme told him that he was going to "close the door" on his son's chances of getting a college scholarship. Emme said he never closed any doors on the young baseball player.

The NCAA mandates a limit of 11.7 scholarships for baseball. Many programs give partial scholarships as a result. It's also common practice to encourage kids to attend a junior college for two years, as this allows them to develop without tying up scarce scholarship money. $25K is not an outrageous amount to ask for actual damages, but it's on the high end if the kid was headed for a state school.

Interestingly, Gary Huckabay of the Baseball Prospectus has a Premium article about avoidable injuries and the theoretical possibility that a pitcher may some day sue his team for ruining his career as a result of careless or reckless overuse, citing the current example of AJ Burnett (see here and here for more info) as a case in point. Huckabay lists issues of proximate cause (was it really the manager's fault, or was this injury the result of many factors over time?), assumed risk and contributory negligence, and standard of practice as things a jury would have to decide.

The latter issue is another place where the Martinez case would likely fall down. There's certainly evidence that throwing too many pitches per game leads to a higher risk of injury, but there's no real consensus yet as to the quantifiability of that risk. The idea is still mostly confined to stathead types - many coaches and general managers at all levels of the game are skeptical if not dismissive of the idea. The upshot is that it would not be considered at all unusual or reckless for a high school coach to put a heavy workload on a star pitcher.

So yeah, this is a frivolous suit. It should get tossed pretty quickly.

Bill Bennett, moral degenerate

That story about Bill Bennett's little gambling problem sure has tongues wagging, doesn't it? I'm particularly fond of Michael Kinsley's piece, as well as Calpundit's survey of conservative pundit responses.

One thing I haven't seen mentioned much is Bennett's other well-known addiction, tobacco. Doonesbury pilloried then-Drug Czar William Bennett for his smoking habit back in 1989. Anyone want to bet that if this were some other high-profile person, Bill Bennett the Professional Moralizer would piously opine that one form of moral laxity inevitably leads to other, more pernicious forms, which is why we must always be vigilant about holding the line on what is considered acceptable behavior?

Arab American Republicans Against Bush

Avedon and Hesiod point to the Arab American Republicans Against Bush web page, which could either be the work of a lone crank or could be the start of a backlash against the President by a group that largely supported him in 2000 and will be a key constituency in states like Michigan. There's not really enough on this page to tell, but one can hope.

Actually, the most interesting thing on the page is this quote, which is one of the reasons given for being AARAB:

(3) Legitimized anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bigots and fostered a culture of divisiveness. The ancient Greeks used to say, "You shall know a man by the friends that he keeps." Given the nature of his friends and advisors, what are we to conclude about George W. Bush:

Attorney General John Aschcroft: "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you."

Daniel Pipes, appointed to U.S. Institute of Peace: "The increased stature, and affluence, and enfranchisement of American Muslims...will present true dangers to American Jews." (October 2001) "The Palestinians are a miserable people...and they deserve to be." (July 2001)

Rev. Franklin Graham, delivered Bush’s inaugural invocation and his personal minister: Islam is "a very evil and wicked religion."

Rev. Pat Robertson, friend of Pres. Bush: Prophet Muhammed "was an absolute wild-eyed fanatic."

Rev. Jerry Falwell, friend of Pres. Bush: "I think Muhammad was a terrorist."

President Bush was justly praised for speaking out against anti-Muslim bigotry in the wake of 9/11. If this website is any indicator, his friends and associates have cost him that goodwill, and deservedly so.

Now when do you think we'll see Log Cabin Republicans Against Bush?

Jack Chick

Gary Farber points to this article on Jack Chick, the world's most widely published author, who specializes in apocalyptic evangelical comics. It's a fascinating read.

Obligatory new-media nod:

Chick's choice of medium was not that odd—for the 17th and 18th centuries. He comes from a grand tradition of pamphleteers, writers like Daniel Defoe, Jonathan Swift, and Thomas Paine, who exploited the new technology of movable type to reach the masses in previously unimaginable numbers. Starting in the 1640s, pamphlets about everything from religious reform and phrenology to the injustice of the Stamp Act were everywhere, their authors at the forefront of the world's first true media boom. In many ways the pamphlets of that era functioned much like today's Weblogs. Chick, however, has done bloggers one better, finding ways to get his message to places still untouched by the Internet. Missionaries regularly take his tracts into the world's most isolated regions—and pay Chick for the privilege, at about 14 cents a tract.

Yeah, that Old Media sure is on its way out. Anyway, check it out.

Taxes, taxes, taxes

Elsewhere on the op-ed pages today we get some more serious stuff, as Lt. Governor David Dewhurst pushes his school finance reform plan, while a couple of think-tank theorists argue instead for a state income tax. Meanwhile, Clay Robison notes that some Republican true believers are turning on their own, a theme I picked up on last week.

Our poor misunderstood government

The funniest thing I read today was this opinion piece by Sherry Sylvester of Texas Media Watch, which blames "one-sided and emotional" coverage of the ongoing budget battle to - wait for it - media monopolies. Yes, readers of the five major Texas newspapers are being underserved because Belo, Hearst, and NewsCorp are not being sufficiently deferential to their government masters. And here I thought the worst thing to come out of media consolidation was too many radio stations that play too much Journey. Silly me.

Still more on redistricting

Tom DeLay's redistricting jihad continues on, despite little support outside of the Republicans in the state House. Speaker Tom Craddick has promised to allow a vote on the House floor, but with no enthusiasm from Lt. Governor David Dewhurst and not enough votes to bring the issue up in the Senate, it's likely to die a quiet death. Of course, with the budget still unsettled and Dewhurst pushing his school finance reform, redistricting may well get lost in the shuffle anyway, as there are only four weeks left in the legislative session.

The Burnt Orange Report has an analysis of what the proposed new districts would look like, plus pointers to articles on how redistricting would affect San Antonio and Austin.

One thing to keep in mind through all this is that Republicans have used the fact that 56% of Texans cast votes for GOP Congressional candidates in 2002, yet only 47% of the seats are held by Republicans, as a reason for redistricting. (I quibbled with the math on that.) If that's the case, then why do the various plans give the Republicans as many as 20 seats, which is 62.5% of the total? Wouldn't a "fair" solution give the Republicans 56% of the seats, which is 18 out of the 32? When Ralph Hall retires in 2004, the GOP will be up to an even 16 without any cartographical shenanigans, and they have hopes to knock off a couple more Democratic incumbents. Of course, this isn't about "fairness" but about Tom DeLay getting what he wants. He has until June 2 to make it happen.

Avedon's back

Avedon Carol is back at her original digs, after recovering from eye surgery, and she's posting up a storm. Drop in and welcome her back. And update those blogrolls.

How to make the All Star Game better

So Bud and the boys have gone forward with that silly plan to give home field advantage in the World Series to the league that wins the All Star Game, the idea being that this would somehow make the ASG more competitive (read: "would help improve ASG TV ratings"). The MLB players' union had to buy into it as well, so I guess it's unfair of me to blame this exclusively on management, but it was their idea in the first place.

Not everyone reacted favorably:

"I disagree with it, completely and totally," said Los Angeles pitcher Kevin Brown a five-time All-Star. "I think it just takes away from the whole idea of what the All-Star game is about, which is letting the fans vote and letting it be an exhibition game. Now they're trying to make it into something that it never has been."

Yep. Somewhere along the line, the idea that this midsummer make-believe game had Special Meaning appeared in the public consciousness. Admittedly, last year's tie game fiasco didn't help matters. And yes, baseball's All Star Game really is the only one worth watching (the NBA All Star Game is runnerup), but that's probably because it's the one game that most resembles a real game, if you ignore all of the substitutions. For my money, it's always been an exhibition game, and for that reason I've never really cared one way or another how seriously it's taken.

The intensity of the All-Star Game has lessened in recent years, with increased player movement reducing the allegiance players have to their leagues. Also, managers have become more focused on getting every player into the game than winning it.

"It all depends on what they want: Do they want a showcase? Then do what they've been doing," Phillies manager Larry Bowa said. "If they want intensity, then have it back the way it was played before, where you see Pete Rose knocking somebody into the stands, and the president of each league coming in and giving pep talks before the game. To me, that's what it's all about -- pride."

This is the key to the whole thing. If you want the ASG to be as intense as a real game, then set the rules to make it more like a real game. If I were in charge of this, I'd take a different approach:

1. First, I'd reduce the roster from 30 (now 32) players to 20. Nine starters (including a DH; more on that in a bit), five backups (one catcher, two infielders, and two outfielders), and six pitchers.

2. Next, I'd drop the rule that each team must have a representative on the All Star Team. You want a high-caliber game, get the best of the best. If Detroit or Tampa Bay doesn't have any worthy candidates, tough luck for them. Maybe next year they'll hire better players.

3. Each team will have a DH. You don't go to the All Star Game to see Randy Johnson or Pedro Martinez bat, so why make them? This way, managers can leave starters in longer without having to worry about pinch hitting or double-switching for the pitchers. Besides, I say that one reason why the All Star Game was being taken less seriously was because of the attempt to get everyone into the game. This isn't Little League, people - revolving door substitutions are stupid.

4. Finally, I'd give long thought to dropping the fan vote. Every year, the fans vote in some number of sentimental favorites (*cough* *cough* Cal Ripken *cough* *cough*) and half-season flashes. If the managers are charged with winning this game for some notion of League Pride, let them pick the players. This would cause an outcry, from sponsors as well as fans, but it's the logical thing to do if the point is winning and not simply showcasing popular players.

That's what I'd do if forced to change things. I still don't think any change needs to be made, but if it must be done then there you have it. Checking other bloggers, only David Pinto and Mike Carminati (permalinks bloggered) have weighed in, and neither one cares for this change. So be it.

Notice the pattern?

Big Media Matt points to this article about the US siding with repressive regimes to block language in a United Nations resolution that calls for countries to condemn violence against women and "refrain from invoking any custom, tradition or religious consideration" as an excuse against condemning such violence. It contains several rather revealing quotes:

"I don't think we're aligning ourselves with countries who have bad records on human rights," said Ellen Sauerbrey, a former Republican candidate for Maryland governor and President George W. Bush's chief representative to the commission.

The State Department's 2002 human rights report says that in Iran, "abuse in the family was a private matter and was seldom discussed publicly." Rape is illegal, but with the law rarely enforced, it is "a widespread problem." Also, the testimony of a woman in a court proceeding is worth half that of a man's. And, the State Department reports, "The 'blood money' paid to the family of a female crime victim is half the sum paid for a man."

Anyway, Sauerbrey said, the positions she took were part of an effort to achieve consensus in a forum where all participants must agree on a final document. In fact, the controversy over halting violence against women disrupted the proceedings and no final statement was issued - for the first time ever. It so happens that the changes pushed by the ayatollahs dovetailed with attempts by American social and religious conservatives who were appointed by the White House as representatives to the UN commission.

"For too long, the feminists have been pushing a radical, special-interest agenda under the erroneous mantra made rhetorical cliche by Hillary Clinton: 'Women's rights are human rights,'" writes Janice Crouse, an official of the conservative group Concerned Women for America and a member of the U.S. delegation.

Concerned Women for America, in comments about the commission session on its Web site, said it objected to language on preventing "custom, tradition or religious consideration" as excuses for violence against women. "It starkly projects custom, tradition and religion as as negative influences," the group said.

The organization, along with the National Right to Life Committee, also objected to use of the term "forced pregnancy" in the section on the abuse of women in armed conflict.

"It so happens there are times when there are issues where social conservatives, whether they be Muslim or Christian, find common ground," Sauerbrey said in explaining the groups' influence.

Other countries that we're aligned with include Sudan, Libya, and Pakistan. As the article notes, in the recent past one of our allies of convenience was Iraq. One wonders how Ellen Sauerbrey would characterize their record on human rights. You can read more about the Bush Administration's support for such things here. I blogged about that incident here, here, and here. That was in my Blogspot days, so the comments I refer to are no longer visible.

Setting goals

We lost again on Tuesday to reach the halfway mark with an 0-6 record. Still, as losses go, this one wasn't too bad. I thought we got a good effort from everyone, and was encouraged to see some of the guys start to hit. In particular, the kid for whom I had a (not vocalized) goal of hitting the ball once this season did in fact hit the ball, and reached base as a result, later coming around to score. I gave him a game ball for his effort, and could tell he was pleased with himself.

We had a practice tonight, and concentrated on hitting. To simplify things, one of the dads pitched and another one caught, so we just rotated everyone through turns at the plate. The results were good - lots of contact, and lots of positive feelings about making so much contact. A couple of the kids were really pumped, and I hope that will carry over to Saturday's game.

I spent a few minutes with each kid at the start of practice giving them some goals for the rest of the season. A lot of praise, a lot of encouragement, a lot of you-can-do-it, all for motivation. I'm seeing improvements, and I just have to believe it will eventually translate into a victory.

We'll see. We finally play the team we were supposed to have played in Game 1, which got rained out and was rescheduled for May 22 (this would have been our second game against them). Our sponsor, the Kiwanis, is hosting a pancake breakfast at the lodge where our field is from 7 AM to 1 PM on Saturday. I asked the parents to bring the kids to the lodge after the game - I don't want any upset tummies during play if I can help it.

Six down, six left. Go Twins!

The quotable Carole

The story you'll see in the Chron about the Senate's version of the budget is about how Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn doesn't like the budget, may not certify the budget, and so on. What you unfortunately won't see in the online paper is the following quote from Strayhorn. It's on page 27A of the dead tree version, in the banner graphic on the top.

The quote is Strayhorn's response when "asked what's the difference between the 'smoke and mirrors' tactic she now criticizes and the similar accounting tricks the Legislature used in 2001 for a budget she certified". Ready? Here it is in full:

Well, I, uh, and, and - let me say this is a work in progress.

Sheer poetry, if you ask me.

Our governor loves his secrets

Awhile back, Governor Goodhair lost a fight to keep his drafts of the 2003 budget secret. Once those drafts were released, it became apparent why he didn't want the public to know about them, since they broke nearly every campaign promise he made. What's a secretive yet responsibility-averse governor to do?

Why, get a buddy in the Legislature to sponsor a bill that would allow you to indulge in your passion for being the Undercover Governor without any interference from that meddling Attorney General, that's what.

A provision tucked deep inside of House Bill 2, sponsored by Rep. David Swinford, R-Amarillo, would exempt from public disclosure "drafts, working papers, supporting material, research material, and internal or external communications" that the governor's office uses in compiling a two-year budget proposal.

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt said the governor's office continues to believe _ as it stated in a letter to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott _ that budget drafts and working documents should be exempt from disclosure.

"In the long run the public is better served by full and accurate information, not speculation and incomplete documents," Walt said.

If I ever get the chance to meet Kathy Walt, I'm going to check her head carefully for signs that it's been reinforced to prevent exploding. She's obviously had the full Ari Fleischer treatment.

The Texas governor is required by state law to submit a budget proposal to legislators, who write the spending plan.

Perry's zero-based proposal released Jan. 17 listed amounts spent in previous budget years in each category, such as education, and then recommended nothing be spent on that item for the coming two-year cycle. He said by starting from zero, every expense would have to be justified.

The working documents showed that before Texas' budget shortfall nearly doubled and before Perry released his zero budget, his office was working on a two-year plan with funding increases to education and health and human services.

The proposal also used some of the accounting mechanisms such as payment delays that Perry is now criticizing.

We learn two things from this, boys and girls. One is that Perry wouldn't be in this mess if it weren't for our incompetent comptroller. Two is that Perry is indeed a big ol' weasel. No surprise there.

Thanks to the Burnt Orange Report for finding this. They're on my blogroll, and they should be on yours.

Lea Fastow does the perp walk

Federal prosecutors are preparing to announce charges against seven more Enron executives, including Lea "Wife of Andrew" Fastow. Get the cuffs, Ponch!

The former executives to be named today are Ken Rice and Joe Hirko, co-chief executive officers of Enron Broadband Services; Kevin Hannon, chief operating officer of EBS; F. Scott Yeager and Rex Shelby, EBS executives; Ben Glisan, Enron treasurer; Dan Boyle, vice president; and Fastow, who is married to former CFO Andrew Fastow and was a one-time assistant treasurer of Enron.

By 7:30 a.m., Rice, Hirko, Hannon, Yeager, Glisan and Boyle had surrendered at FBI headquarters on East T.C. Jester. "Prosecuting this guy is like prosecuting a piano player in a whorehouse," said Boyle's attorney Bill Rosch on the steps in front of the FBI building.

The indictments were reported on earlier this week. As they were sealed, this is the first indication of who is being charged. Reportedly, Andy Fastow is being re-charged, presumably so he can be tried in conjunction with some of these guys. These charges are all related to the Enron Broadband Services fraud, which was not yet on the menu the first time Andy was busted.

Sources said Lea Fastow has also been charged or indicted, probably on a tax count and she could be tried separately from her husband. Defense lawyers are expected to criticize the charge as an attempt to strong-arm her husband to turn against his bosses, Jeffrey Skilling and Ken Lay.

[...]

The most controversial defendant is likely to be Lea Fastow, 41, a member of the Weingarten family, which founded a supermarket chain that dominated the Houston grocery business for decades before being sold to a competitor in 1980.

Like her husband, Lea Fastow has a degree from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. She worked at Continental Bank in Chicago and joined Enron in 1990. She left in 1997 after rising to assistant treasurer. She also helped Enron acquire a stunning art collection during its heyday.

In charges that drew a guilty plea from Andrew Fastow's former Enron assistant, Michael Kopper, prosecutors pointedly said that Lea Fastow had received $54,000 for administering one of the partnerships. Also, her name is on some of the accounts frozen by court order pending the outcome of the federal inquiry.

Most of that "stunning art collection" is set to be auctioned off soon, in case you're in the market a little something to decorate the living room.

Here's a detailed background piece on Lea Fastow. Ever since Andy was indicted there's been speculation that the feds have pressured him to roll on Skilling and Lay, with the threat of indicting Lea as leverage. We'll see who blinks first, or if the feds really think the case against Lea Fastow is worth pursuing on its own.