The Home Rick Perry Turned Down

As you may know, the governor's mansion in the state of Texas is currently being renovated. And Governor Rick Perry has taken the opportunity to set himself up in some pretty fancy digs at the taxpayer's expense. He has rented a real mansion which is costing taxpayer's the princely sum of $10,000 a month in rent payments. That's a rather heady sum to be billing to a state with a $15 to $18 billion dollar shortfall in the next biennium.

In an effort to save the taxpayers this money (and score some political points), the Texas AFL-CIO offered the mobile home above to Governor Perry. The cost to the taxpayers would have been only $1 a year. Before anyone says the governor can't live in a mobile home, let me say this would not have been precedent-setting. When Mike Huckabee was the governor of Arkansas, he lived in a mobile home while his governor's mansion was being renovated (although I will admit it was a double-wide mobile home).

I'll bet if Perry had asked them nicely the AFL-CIO would have come up with a double-wide, but that's just not good enough for coyote-hunting Rick Perry. He considers himself far too important to live like common folks -- no matter what it costs the taxpayers.

The AFL-CIO has the trailer parked outside the convention center here in Corpus Christi for the duration of the Democrats' state convention.

Convention Gets A Lone Picketer

It looks like a high-level Republican operative has infiltrated the state Democratic convention -- one of Rick Perry's aides perhaps? Seriously, a convention is not official until it has been picketed by one or more nuts. It must be too hot outside today for most Republicans (or teabaggers) because the guy pictured above was alone (and thrilled to have his picture taken). I guess he'll do though. The convention is now official.

Voting Against Their Own Interests

Found at the excellent blog What Would Jack Do?.

Notes On Sarah Palin

I haven't blogged much about Sarah Palin lately, so I thought I'd catch you up on some things going on in Palin-World. It seems that things are not going too well for the Wasilla Witch. One of the biggest of these is how silly she now looks for her "drill, baby, drill" mantra. She's still trying to push that but it looks pretty feeble in light of the continuing Gulf oil disaster.

She also hasn't had much luck in endorsing candidates this year. Almost every candidate she endorsed in the primaries lost. The notable exceptions are Rand Paul, who takes crazy to new and dizzying heights, and Nikki Haley, whose success can be traced more to a Jenny Sanford (ex-wife of Gov. Mark Sanford) endorsement than to Palin. In fact, it's starting to look like a Palin endorsement can have a toxic effect on a candidacy.

The Washington Post's on-line column called The Plum Line has some interesting numbers culled from a new NBC/Wall Street Journal poll. The poll asked its respondents how they'd feel if a candidate were endorsed by Sarah Palin. Here's how they answered the question:

8% would be enthusiastic about that

17% would be comfortable about that

15% would have some reservations about that

37% would be very uncomfortable about that

Those are not good numbers. At least 52% (a majority) would have some or serious reservations about a candidate endorsed by Sarah Palin. It looks like Republican candidates need to think twice before asking Palin for an endorsement. And there were only two things that were seen by the respondents as being worse than a Palin endorsement. They are:

Supporting the economic policies of George W. Bush

Supporting the elimination of federal agencies and/or social security

Meanwhile, things are not going well for Palin on the legal front either. Remember when a legal defense fund was started for Palin to defend her against various accusations of her misusing her position as governor (some of which were found true)? Well it turns out, as many of us thought at the time, that the fund violated ethics laws.

To settle the ethics complaint, Palin has now agreed to return all of the money collected before she resigned as governor -- a total of $386,856 (only $33,546 was collected after she resigned). Complicating matters is the fact that $87,680 has been spent from the fund. That means $54,134 is going to have to come out of Sarah's pocket since it can't come from the $386,856. But I'm sure she can afford it with the huge speaking fees she has been getting.

Speaking of the huge speaking fees, she may not be getting those much longer. It seems that Sarah Palin just doesn't have the drawing power she once had. Maybe people are starting to figure out that her head is as empty as her speeches are incoherent.

In Atlanta (in one of the reddest of the red states) Zachariah's Way, a Gwinnett County ministry is holding a fund-raising event for special needs parishioners. They have rented a 13,000 seat auditorium and the headline speaker at the event is Sarah Palin. But so far the soon-to-be-held event is a flop. They are having a lot of trouble selling tickets to the event and it now looks like thousands of the seats may be empty. People are just not willing to spend $25 to $65 to see Palin ($1000 to attend a special reception).

As I said, things are just not going well in Palin-World. If the magic is not gone, it is disappearing fast.

New Mechanic, Same Car

Political Cartoon is by David Horsey in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

I Meet Senfronia (By Accident)

I have a confession to make. I am a political junkie. That won't surprise regular readers of this blog, but it is why I am currently attending the state Democratic convention. I haven't missed one of these conventions in years (either as a delegate or with a press pass). This year I am lucky enough to be doing both. The good Democrats of Potter County were kind enough to select me as a delegate and the state party once again credentialed me as a member of the press (I know -- they have a rather loose definition of press).

The convention is being held in Corpus Christi this year, and believe me, that's a long way from Amarillo. I left Amarillo about 7:00am yesterday, and three plane rides and several hours later I finally arrived in Corpus Christi. The plane rides were from Amarillo to Dallas, Dallas to Houston, and Houston to Corpus Christi. It was on the last leg of that journey that I had a rather exciting accidental meeting (remember -- I'm a political junkie).

As passengers were boarding this rather distinguished lady sat down next to me. I didn't think much about it -- after all, who expects to meet someone they admire this way. I was just glad it wasn't some 300-pound behemoth who would take up his seat and half of mine. Then another lady who was boarding put her hand on the lady's shoulder and said "Senfronia" in a sing-song voice before going on down the aisle.

I was flabbergasted (and embarrassed that I hadn't recognized her). But just to make sure I tapped her on the arm and asked her if she was Rep. Senfronia Thompson, a member of the Texas legislature. She politely replied that she was and shook my hand as I introduced myself.

We exchanged some polite banter about politics, and then she found out I was recently retired from a juvenile justice career with the state. She asked me point blank what needed to be done in the area of juvenile justice. Never being one who was too shy to give my opinion, I launched into a long discourse on the subject. Now most politicians would have interrupted me and told me what they thought needed to be done. Ms. Thompson didn't. She listened intently as though I might actually have something important to say. I must say I was impressed with her.

Now, I was already a fan of Rep. Senfronia Thompson. I even posted a couple of years ago that I thought she would make a great Speaker of the Texas House (and I still believe that). But she has climbed even higher in my estimation. I can now tell you that she is as nice as she is capable (and she is very capable). And she is willing to listen.

Ms. Thompson, I hope I didn't bore you too much and I appreciate your kindness. You really made this political junkie's day.

Saying What They Really Think

Political Cartoon is by John Darkow in the Columbia Daily Tribune.

At The Convention

This is a picture of the view from my hotel room in Corpus Christi, where I am currently attending the state Democratic convention. Looks like I'm going to be suffering for the next couple of days. ;-)

Doesn't Have A Clue

Political Cartoon is by Cameron (Cam) Cardow in The Ottawa Citizen.

David Van Os On Texas Democratic Chaimanship

The other day I wrote a post on the current Texas Democratic Party chairman Boyd Richie (pictured above). The point of my post was that Richie has been utterly ineffective as chairman and the state party needs a new chairman. The Democratic Party doesn't hold a single statewide post in the state of Texas -- that's 0 for 29 if you're keeping score. And yet I still hear people talking about what a good chairman Richie has been. Frankly, I'm at a loss to understand their thinking on this.

Fortunately, the state party will again vote for a chairman at it's convention over the next two days. The good news is that there is a candidate running against Richie. He is Michael Barnes. Is he the answer for Texas Democrats? I don't know. What I do know is that he couldn't be any worse than the current chairman. I plan to vote for Barnes, and I urge other delegates to the state convention to do the same.

I just learned today that one of the states leading progressive Democrats, David Van Os, agrees with me on this matter. Here is what Mr. Van Os has to say:

Many of you reading this message will be delegates to the Texas Democratic Party State Convention that opens tomorrow in Corpus Christi. You will have the opportunity to make a badly needed change in the election for state party chairman that will take place on Saturday. I will be eagerly casting my delegate vote for Michael Barnes for state party chairman and respectfully urge you to do the same. Michael met with me recently during a visit he made to San Antonio. I liked what I learned about him. Michael knows that Republican control of all 29 of the statewide elective offices in Texas state government, as it has existed since 1998, is intolerably detrimental to the economic conditions, health, education, and welfare of the vast majority of Texans. He knows that incumbent party chairman Boyd Richie refuses to acknowledge any accountability for the party's failure to win statewide on his watch, but to the contrary, is full of excuses. Michael knows that if something isn't working it needs to be changed. Michael has vision and a winner's attitude. He knows that the people of Texas need relief from Republican Corporate rule and "wait until next time" is not a satisfactory response from the Texas Democratic Party leadership. Michael knows that unelected mercenary consultants are making the strategic decisions behind the scenes and the skills and insights of grassroots Democrats are ignored. Michael knows that to be true to its professed values the Texas Democratic Party has to be governed democratically from the bottom up. He knows that going 0 for 29 in the statewide offices is failure, not success. Michael knows that Texas Democrats have to stop rewarding failure with re-election of the same officers and more contracts for the same consultants. Please let me share some background history and facts with you that you may find relevant. Twelve years ago in 1998, the Texas Corporate Republican Party came out of that year's general election holding all 29 statewide offices in the Executive and Judicial branches of State government. (The executive branch offices are Governor, Attorney General, Comptroller, Land Commissioner, Agriculture Commissioner, and the three Railroad Commissioners; the judicial branch offices are the nine Justices on the Texas Supreme Court and the nine Judges on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals) As the Democratic Party's candidate against incumbent Republican corporate-loving Texas Supreme Court Justice Greg Abbott that year, I experienced the 1998 wipeout very personally. A few days after the election, I predicted on my website that with Republicans now owning 29 of 29 statewide offices the people of Texas would be subject to the iron grip of corporate power to a worse degree than at any previous time in the state's history. Reviewing the history of the past 12 years, was I wrong or right? Have millions of Texans lost ground compared to 1998, or have they not? For the last 12 years I have continually believed and advocated that the first priority of the Texas Democratic Party should be to win back the statewide offices with hard-driving populist campaigns showing, and meaning it, the will to fight back on behalf of the people of Texas against the domination of our state by undemocratic aristocracies of the rich and powerful. In my opinion, by defaulting on the statewide offices the Texas Democratic Party defaults on its historical mission to give the people an equal voice with the powerful. In contrast, the leaders (actually, the unelected consultants like Matt Angle of the Texas Democratic Trust who are the true strategic decision makers) of the Texas Democratic Party have primarily concentrated on trying to win seats in the Texas House of Representatives each election. They usually "target" about 10 to 15 Texas house districts, apply cleverly crafted lip service to the statewide races and the other 100 or so contested legislative races, and then proclaim victory if they win a handful of their "targeted" house districts while staying 0 for 29 in the elections for the far more powerful, more widely impacting, statewide offices. With all due respect to the members of the Texas House, and there are certainly many members whom I greatly respect, winning a majority solely in one of the two chambers of the legislative branch of government, while continuing to forfeit the executive and judicial branches, which together possess far greater power to improve the lives of Texas' people and protect the people's Constitutional rights,does not constitute turning Texas blue. Over the next two and one-half days, incumbent party chairman Boyd Richie will be loudly proclaiming his dedication to the mission of winning statewide offices. Do not waste one second listening to him. He says this every election year. He has never meant it sincerely and does not mean it now. During the election campaign season of 2006, most of us on the statewide ticket (which included me as candidate for Texas Attorney General) knew that the state party staff and chairman (Boyd Richie) had a defeatist attitude about the statewide races that projected itself to the public and the media to the great detriment of our candidacies. We were close to the situation and it was obvious to all of us. Most of us, maybe all of us, voiced our concern about this to Boyd and/or the party staff. In response, Boyd repeatedly denied any defeatism. If you asked him about this during 2006, he denied it to you too. Well now, here is a direct quote from Boyd's recent interview with Reeve Hamilton of the Texas Tribune, wherein Boyd's objective was to deny accountability for the 2006 defeats: "Frankly when I became chairman in 2006, our statewide candidates had already been nominated. I had nothing to do with recruitment, or how they got to be nominees. Those campaigns were doomed from the beginning." A lot of you put in many passionate volunteer hours in support of the 2006 statewide candidates. You believed in that ticket. You fought for it and sweated for it. You probably believed that your state party shared your belief and your enthusiasm. After all, the state chairman told you so, right? But the truth is, as he now confesses when it suits him to do so, the state chairman had a defeatist attitude about that ticket. Do you call that leadership? I don't. You may remember my last-minute run for state party chair against Boyd at the 2008 state Democratic convention. On the very eve of the convention I decided to make that run when I read Boyd's quote in the Burnt Orange Report that as far as trying to carry Texas for the Democratic presidential ticket, the presidential campaign would "take care of itself". This was proof to me that nothing had changed - there was to be no serious attempt by the Texas Democratic Party to win Texas statewide. I publicly confronted Boyd over the statement. His response was that the quote had been garbled and did not accurately express his meaning. That response of his was pure bull. After I promised in my speech to the convention that if elected chair my first order of business would be to fly to Chicago to press the Obama campaign to make a serious effort in Texas, Boyd took the podium and proclaimed how hard he would work to carry Texas statewide. He did not mean a word of it. Usually when somebody evades something that means they have something to evade. Here is what Boyd also said in the recent Texas Tribune interview: "This year is the first year that I've had the opportunity to have any input about recruitment." Come again, Boyd? Were you not party chair in 2008 and had you not served as party chair since 2006? Really, how much more transparent can you be in your attempt to deny accountability? What do you say now to the candidates who carried the party's banner in the statewide races of 2008? Indeed, Boyd should hardly be bragging about his recruitment efforts for 2010. For the first time in many elections, there is no Democratic candidate for the major office of Comptroller of Public Accounts. To make matters worse, Boyd has repeatedly emphasized the importance, in his outlook, of the upcoming decennial redistricting. One would think that since he places such a priority on redistricting he would have certainly fielded a candidate for Comptroller, since the Comptroller holds one of the five seats on the Legislative Redistricting Board. This is the excuse the Texas Tribune reports out of Boyd's mouth: "That was a seat that we took very seriously," he says, "and I'm very disappointed that we weren't able to recruit somebody." Did you know that Boyd Richie was trying to recruit a Democrat to run for Comptroller? Did he put any word out about it in your community, or your county, or your Democratic club or organization? Of course not! The real translation of Boyd's statement is, "we asked a few people within our insider circle." Is that good enough for you? And the deeper meaning is a recurrence of the continuing theme: Whatever goes wrong is never my failing. It is somebody else's: the pre-doomed candidates whom I didn't recruit in 2006, the possible candidates for Comptroller who wouldn't step up and run in 2010, and 2008 doesn't matter because even though I had been chairman since 2006 I had no opportunity to participate in recruiting candidates for 2008. Under Chairman Richie, Texas Democrats have not only had failure, but even worse, evasion of accountability. Michael Barnes knows what the problem is and he won't make excuses if he fails to deliver. It is time for a CHANGE. If you are a delegate to the Texas Democratic Convention, I respectfully urge you to vote for MICHAEL BARNES for state party chairman on Saturday.

Thank you for your consideration of my point of view. Sincerely, David Van Os

Seppuku

Political Cartoon is by Daryl Cagle at msnbc.com.

Blasphemy !

What a horrible blasphemy! A pasta-fatwa must be immediately issued against the artist who created this sacrilegious drawing! From the pages of Unreasonable Faith.

Creationism Loses A Battle In Texas

The Institute for Creation Research (ICR) thought they had found the promised land when they moved to Texas. Texas has as many fundamentalists as any state and it has been a real battle here to keep creationism out of high school science classes -- a battle that is still being waged.

The ICR wanted to issue their own version of a master's degree in science. Their science master's degree would be in "creation science". If they could get state accreditation for the degree, then they could get these fraudulent "science" teachers into schools across the state (and maybe across the South). But they ran into a problem. Even Texas is not that crazy.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) voted unanimously to deny the ICR the authority to issue the degree in creation science. The THECB ruled that the degree would not really be in science (but religion) so it did not meet the state's standards for a science degree. Well, fundamentalists never give up easily so they took the THECB to court claiming they imposed "an unconstitutional and prejudicial burden against ICRGS's (ICR graduate school) academic freedom and religious liberties."

But the United States District Court for Western Texas disagreed with them a couple of days ago. The court said the "Plaintiff (ICR) is entirely unable to file a complaint which is not overly verbose, disjointed, incoherent, maundering, and full of irrelevant information." The court found that the THECB's "decision was rationally related to a legitimate governmental interest, and there is no evidence the decision was motivated by animus toward any religious viewpoint."

In plain English, the state has a right to set it's science standards and doing so does not deny anyone their religious freedom. Whether the fundamentalists like it or not, science and religion are different things and religion should not be taught as science (or vice versa).

I'm sure the ICR will probably appeal this decision, but I doubt a court of appeals will overturn this very rational decision.

History Repeated

Political Cartoon is by Rex Babin in the Sacramento Bee.