On the one hand, I admire what he’s trying to do. On the other hand, I completely disagree with how he’s going about it.
Booker T
Pro wrestler Booker T. Huffman is in a real fight to actualize his run for mayor of Houston.
His announcement in 2016 might have been met with skepticism — oh, another entertainer without a background in politics says he has the answers? — but Huffman, 53, thought he could relate to underrepresented voters and approach policymaking from their perspective because he knows what it means to face the same challenges.
Part of his inspiring life story involves a turnaround after his 1987 felony conviction for armed robbery. He had pleaded guilty, earned his release after serving 19 months of a five-year sentence, and then began a decades-long career in pro wrestling that culminated with an induction into the WWE Hall of Fame.
Huffman trains more than 40 pro wrestlers at Booker T World Gym Arena in Texas City, commands nearly 2.5 million followers on social media and is slated to be a pre-show TV host at WWE’s pay-per-view event Elimination Chamber on Sunday at Toyota Center.
Nothing about Huffman’s success suggests he feels held back by the crime and punishment he had experienced, but more than 30 years later, it is why he cannot get on the ballot. The Texas Election Code and a Houston ordinance use language that has been interpreted to mean felons are allowed to re-register to vote, but they cannot run for political office.
Huffman described his criminal record as a dirt pile no broom can clear.
“I have to be totally clean,” Huffman said.
See here and here for some background on Booker T. As the story notes, he could challenge the Houston ordinance in court to get on the ballot. A candidate for City Council in Austin in 2018 did that successfully, with the Austin City Attorney agreeing with him rather than fighting him in court. For the record, I support Booker T’s efforts on the merits. Felons who complete their sentences should be allowed full participation in all aspects of society, which very much includes voting and running for office. The Houston ordinance, as well as the state law, should be challenged and either defeated or voluntarily changed. It’s the right thing to do.
That doesn’t mean that I want to see Booker T run for Mayor. He’s not qualified for the job and he can’t win (*), though his presence on the ballot would make it easier for Bill King to win. I would strongly encourage Booker T to run instead for City Council, which would accomplish his stated goal of being an example of how someone can rise above and succeed in a system that is stacked against them just as well, while also being an office that’s far more suitable for a first-time candidate. I’m sorry, but after 2016 I have zero patience for unqualified candidates, especially unqualified celebrity candidates, running for powerful executive offices. Participating in the process is great, but it’s on all of us to take it seriously. There are many ways to be an effective and influential member of the political system that do not involve competing for an office you have no business being elected to.
(*) – Tony Buzbee is also unqualified for Mayor and can’t win. We wouldn’t pay any attention to him if he wasn’t rich enough to spend a bunch of money on his vanity project. The only good thing about him is that he will siphon votes away from Bill King. Which is still not a valid reason for him to run.
Oh c’mon now… if morally bankrupt, possibly treasonous, unqualified, pussy grabbing DJT can make it on the POTUS ballot, surely Booker T can make it on to the Mayoral ballot.
treasonous = loves America
unqualified = built, grew, and ran billion dollar business
pussy grabbing = guy draws hot women…models, Playmates, porn stars
“The American dream is to be like Donald Trump.”
`BHO
“treasonous = loves America”
Loves a reactionary, pre-Civil Rights era America, but even that comes in second to himself.
“unqualified = built, grew, and ran billion dollar business”
Inherited tens of millions of $, some of it very likely made through tax fraud. Long record of fraud and stiffing small contractors. Bankrupted multiple businesses. Got a reputation so bad that America banks stopped lending to him. No objective measure is available of his actual success in business, as he refuses to release tax returns and other relevant financial documents.
“pussy grabbing = guy draws hot women…models, Playmates, porn stars”
Multiple accusations of assault and harassment and defamation, some of which are going to discovery in court. Openly bragged about committing sexual assault.
“The American dream is to be like Donald Trump.”
“Donald Trump is a poor person’s idea of a rich person, a stupid person’s idea of a smart person, and a weak man’s idea of a strong man.” (Sorry I don’t know who to credit with that spot on quote.)
And there’s still the minor case that Mr. Huffman doesn’t seem to live in Houston. By all accounts, he seems to live in Friendswood.
Not that it stopped Dave Wilson from “moving” into a warehouse or Jack Christie from renting a house with questionable residency status, but that would be the first hurdle, I would think.
Bill, I get that you like what he’s done with the courts, immigration, trade, etc., but it appears you’ve truly prostituted yourself if you’ve sunk so low to your knees that DJT appears to be on a pedestal to you.
Set the bar high(er).
C.L.:
The most important thing I think Trump has done, is expose the media as fatally conflicted with liberal bias. Did you see the Lara Logan interview? It took getting gang raped by Muslim savages to finally open her eyes about it. When I was growing up, it never occurred to me that the news media was working a coordinated effort to craft a message. I subscribed to the Houston Post, a few periodicals, and watched the broadcast news, while getting on with life.
Trump has ripped the curtain back and exposed the figurative old man. It’s finally out there, there’s a carefully crafted narrative that is being spoon fed to Americans, and it’s crap.
The Jussie Smollet hoax is just the latest in a long line of narrative pushing.
Exposing this is perhaps the greatest achievement of Trump, and let’s be honest. Trump didn’t really do it…..media exposed themselves, they just couldn’t help themselves, having to be more and more deranged in their attempt to sink Trump.
Another example: Look at the recent workplace shooting near Chicago. Once the facts came out and didn’t fit the narrative, that story went down the memory hole. A black guy prohibited from owning a gun who shot up a work place with a gun he wasn’t supposed to have doesn’t promote the gun control narrative. The story exits stage left.
Another example: The gun control bill winding its way through the house….Gaetz wanted to add on to it to make ICE referrals for illegal aliens trying to illegally buy guns, which just so happens to be the most common reason a gun sale is denied. Nope, can’t have that, because it conflicts with the narrative. So we want to disarm the public, but when it comes to illegal aliens and non whites, we don’t really want to go there.
Bill, your evolution to political consciousness has only one more step remaining: you will eventually see that Trump hasn’t exposed anything that wasn’t already obvious to anyone willing to see, which is, there are numerous narratives and some are more tethered to objective reality than are others. He has used his media mastery to refine and megaphone the version of reality espoused by Sean and Rush (and Ann before he didn’t know her). Without the media that you so unabashedly condemn, this narrative would not have gained the legs to elect a President. However, that narrative is the product of an elite and privileged lifetime that will eventually be revealed to be as muddy and toxic as the content of that mining dam that burst in Brazil last month. When the Trump dam breaks you’ll have a golden moment to realize that all narratives require scrutiny.
You bitch about hoaxes from the left, but you vigorously defend the mountain of lies and bullshit that Trump spews. More IOKIYAR hypocrisy.
Voter:
I’m a libertarian, so all those characters you mention are already flawed in my book, because they supported both Bushes. The real proof in the pudding is, look at all the past presidents. They all universally hate Trump. Pub, Dem, doesn’t matter. They all hate him, spoke out against him, and even admitted voting against him in the case of the Bushes.
The things Pubs always claimed to want, like stopping illegal immigration? Suddenly, it seems like they don’t really want them. The things Dems always claimed to want, like ending wars and not being the world’s police force? Suddenly, it seems like they don’t really want them.
Trump, like him or not, is something we haven’t ever seen in my lifetime. A true outsider with FU money who actually won. For reference, I voted Perot twice, Ron Paul each time he ran, and Libertarian or Constitution Party candidates.
Finally, consider this local story which kind of encapsulates things:
https://www.click2houston.com/news/couple-says-woman-confronted-family-during-1-year-olds-birthday-photo-shoot
Rich liberals, when confronted with actual unwashed masses in their own neighborhood, don’t like it. They don’t like it when they have to suffer for the decisions they support and make.
“The real proof in the pudding is, look at all the past presidents. They all universally hate Trump.”
They have good reason to. He had degraded the office. He puts his ego and his pocketbook above the best interests of America. He had zero respect for the 1st Amendment, the separation of powers, voting rights, civil rights, America’s role of leader of the Free World, or the principles that we claim as American. He lies shamelessly and brazenly about everything. He is the Ugliest America, and the shame and damage will be with us for decades.
A posting on CNN from TODAY:
https://www-m.cnn.com/2019/02/19/us/aurora-gunman-background-check/index.html?r=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F
Exit stage left? Really? Why must you lie so much Bill?
What’s likely to push this out of the news cycle is the next mass shooting.
Fly,
Yes, exit stage left. Where is Anytown for Gun Safety? Where are the Parkland Kids? Where’s soon to be congressman Giffords? All the usual suspects that bleat about gun control every time there’s a tragedy are……not around.
@Tom in Lazybrook:
You were right all along. Trump is rounding up gays and putting them in camps. Evil! We must resist!
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/national-security/trump-administration-launches-global-effort-end-criminalization-homosexuality-n973081
You are moving the goalposts again Bill. You complained that it “went down the memory hole”, rather than a lack of protests. Pro tip- stop changing your story when your original words are still there for all to see.
As far as the protesters/activists you now want to bitch about, in the year since Parkland, there’s been a bunch of mass shootings. I’m pretty sure they didn’t make it to the scenes of most of those too. That’s the sad truth about life in America today- that we have that many mass shootings. Yet you choose to bitch about this particular one. They’re still working on their cause, whether they show up at the scene of each new mass murder or not.