Bowling for Justice in Fort Bend County

What passes for justice here in still Republican-dominated Fort Bend County surely would make the justice system in any given banana republic look like a shining example of jurisprudence. Witness a case being heard here by a visiting judge. A case that just concluded yesterday.

Taxpayers are paying for the trial of one Joey Sula who, it is alleged, conned a weak and vulnerable woman out of 500 large. That’s half a million bucks to those of you who don’t watch gangster movies. The poor, weak and vulnerable Fort Bend woman who he bilked? That would be Karen Pearson, owner of “Winning Edge Consultants” a political consulting firm that oversees the campaigns of several Republican Fort Bend County office holders.

The poor, weak, vulnerable woman who has, as a partner in her firm, former Fort Bend County Republican Party chairman Gary Gillen.

According to testimony given last week, and reported at the Fort Bend Herald, Pearson was approached by Joey Sula while she was sitting at a high roller table in a Louisiana casino, and established a relationship with her while she was “vulnerable because she had divorced, both her grandmothers had died and her father died all in that time period. Sula, she said, made her laugh and had the right words.”

Pearson claims that there was no monkey business between the two, just money business.

Money business where Pearson gave Sula, in several transactions, $500,000.

That happens all the time you know. Complete strangers approach me in supermarkets, at the gas pump, and in casinos while I am gambling away the deed to my house, and ask me for hundreds of thousands of dollars. If they make me laugh, I pony up.

When Pearson finally smelled a rodent she did what everyone would do. She got her personal friend and client’s husband, Fort Bend County Assistant DA Mike Elliott, to arrest him.

And what are friends for, anyway? She knew that Elliott was up to helping out, having seen the fruits of his past labors in prosecuting a bunch of roofers who had the umbrage to go into business and compete with their former boss, personal friend, and contributor to the campaign of Annie Elliott, the wife of Mike Elliott, the client of Karen Pearson.

Now what I didn’t know until today, again courtesy of the Fort Bend Herald, is that last year, Sula, through his attorney, had tried to negotiate a formal agreement to pay back all of the money that Pearson had loaned to him. His attorney, Richard Raymond, negotiated with Pearson’s attorney, Mike Elliott. Yes, the same Mike Elliott who had Sula arrested.

The trial is being held in the 400th District Court of Cliff Vacek. Vacek, however, is not hearing the case. The case is being heard by a visiting judge, Judge W.G. “Dub” Woods. Vacek, another client of Karen Pearson, recused himself from the case.

Now here is a frightening thought. What we learn here is what we gather from hearings in open court, where transparency is the rule and not the exception. Think of what must be lurking there behind closed doors in the opacity that is Fort Bend County government.

Lurking there, below the waves as it were. The frightening thought is that what we can see out there in the public record is just the tip of the iceberg.

What? A TX 22 Congressman Needs a Bailout?

First it’s Bear-Stearns and AIG. Then it’s Wall Street and the banking industry in general. Then the Big Three stick out their hands.

Everyone wants bailout money.

And now we hear that our newly elected congressman for Texas CD 22, Republican Pete Olson, needs some bailout money as well.

Olson, it seems, loaned his campaign some of his own personal fortune that he’d like to have back, thank you very much, but he also owes some big-time money to creditors.

It’s all here at FortBendNow:

“Left with at least $170,000 in personal loans to his campaign and more than $100,000 owed to consultants, campaign workers and the IRS, incoming GOP Congressman Pete Olson is asking the public to help pay his debts.”

“In an email sent to supporters and residents of Congressional District 22, Olson thanked people for voting for him in his election victory over incumbent Democrat U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, adding ‘now I need your help for one last time this year.’”

Let me just say that this is unprecedented in TX 22.

Nick Lampson is well-known for his campaign cash raising skills, and leaves office with a $155,000 cash surplus. Before Nick, CD 22 was the realm of Tom “The Hammer” DeLay.

Tom DeLay wasn’t a congressman who ever had any trouble picking up campaign cash. He had lots of friends to help him, too. Unfortunately, most of them are now in stir, so they can’t be of any help to Pete. Indeed, two individuals who were like peas and carrots with Tom DeLay, Chris Homan and Dana Benoit, aren’t going to be of much help either as between the two of them Olson owes a grand total of $53,000, more than half of the outstanding debt his campaign still owes.

Unprecedented.

And as to that $170,000 personal loan that Olson made to his campaign, money he’d like back now, I have to wonder where that came from. Do DC staffers really pull down that much coin? I just hope to high heaven that Pete didn’t take out a second mortgage on his house – a bad move in this day and age.

So to the conservatives and independents who will do anything but vote for “Liberal Lampson” I say congratulations. Congratulations, you now have on your hands a freshman congressman with no power or pull, just a guy with a bunch of DC friends and cronies.

Hey, that’s right, he’s got lots of DC friends. Maybe Pete can pass the hat around in DC and get his friends, staffers, former staffers and lobbyists to kick in. Evidently they make the kind of serious money where that might be possible, don’t you think?

And what could Pete offer them in return?

Maybe some coupons for organic honey from his position of power on the Subcommittee on Horticulture and Organic Agriculture.

Chris Bell: One More Vote for Reform

Have you seen what our choices are in the SD 17 special runoff election? Well, if you haven’t yet, it’s in a new You Tube video on Chris Bell and education reform.

Chris Bell’s Republican opponent is clueless on education issues.

Clueless.

A Republican judge may be great at throwing the book at accused felons, but you really have to question whether that is a really good background when the issue is improving the quality of education in Texas. When I briefly discussed with him the looming issues in science education a couple of weeks ago, Bell demonstrated to me a depth of knowledge and an appreciation for what will lie ahead for Texas public schools.

The Republican opponent has gone on record as saying that Texas is “very generous in our funding of public education.” No, not really. If you want to know which state is “very generous” toward public education, you need look no further than the state of New York. At $14,119 spent per student per year, New York is very generous. Not Texas, which spends $7,267 per student per year, or roughly half of what would be considered “very generous.”

The video speaks for itself. A vote for Chris Bell is a vote for education reform in Texas.

Pharmaceutical Firm Takes Aim at Mascara Market

In papers recently filed with the Food and Drug Administration, it seems that Irvine, California-based pharmaceutical company Allergan has set its sights on claiming a portion of the burgeoning mascara industry’s $3.7 Billion per year bonanza.

Allergan, which produces such wonder drugs as Botox, a derivative of the fatal botulin toxin, and Lumigen, a wonder drug that reduces the hypertension in eyes, commonly called glaucoma now wants to extend its grasp on the cosmetics market by offering a new product that they will call Latisse.

Latisse, they say, makes human eyelashes grow longer and fuller. You know, like how mascara works to produce the same outward effect, but without growing anything.

Latisse is the same product as Lumigan. They noticed that glaucoma patients who take Lumigan acquired beautiful eye-catching eyelashes.

And they reasoned, if they could make so much cash from patients having a neurotoxin injected into their faces, erasing years of wrinkles, why not capture a part of the mascara market by making it possible for patients to grow what they used to paint on?

The future, it seems, is bright in the mushrooming mascara industry. Especially since now males may consume the drug as well as females, and never again be accused of using mascara.

In other news, a bomb in the Iraqi city of Mosul ripped through a primary school on Wednesday, killing 4 children and injuring 12 others. In addition, a car bomb was exploded at a check point in the Iraqi province of Nineveh, killing 7 and injuring 39.

Meanwhile a Federal Reserve report just released compares the present recession to those of the past, indicating that the current 12-month long recession exceeds the length of all but two recessions that took place since World War II.

Lumigan, anyone?

I’ll See Your Lawsuit and Raise You One “Boutique” Law Firm

Dallas County Commissioners today have decided to wade into the HD 105 fray by voting to hire a “boutique law firm headquartered in Dallas,” the Munck Carter law firm that is said to “specialize in election law.” As found in the Dallas Morning News.

This is in response to the recent lawsuit filed by the Texas Democratic Party over how the Dallas County Elections Office is effecting the HD 105 recount, which presently has the Republican incumbent Harper-Brown in the lead by 20 votes over her Democratic opponent Bob Romano.

The TDP, in a news release, filed the lawsuit to prevent the Dallas County Elections Office from complying with a ruling by Republican State Attorney General Greg Abbott that would “change the election rules in the middle of the game, ignoring Department of Justice requirements that demand pre-clearance for changes.”

In their lawsuit, the TDP is requesting that the elections office “be required to count for each candidate the straight-party votes from electronic voting machines not tallied during the initial count because no candidate was chosen.”

In this argument, the Democratic Party seeks to include so-called “emphasis votes” where an ill-informed voter votes a straight party ticket, but then votes for the candidate again in the next electronic ballot screens. Rather than adding emphasis, the voter actually deselects the candidate that they so energetically wish to elect.

Abbott has ruled that this doesn’t need to occur.

The TDP cried foul in their lawsuit, saying that the votes were therefore not counted under the same rules, enfranchising some voters and disenfranchising others.

Shades of Bush v. Gore.

Well Dallas County isn’t taking this lying down, and in a move that is beginning to look more and more like the judicio-political 5 act play that took place in Florida in November to December 2000, the commissioners court has upped the stakes.

And the reason they (and Greg Abbott) are doing this couldn’t be clearer. If Romano succeeds in winning the race as the results of the recount favor him, the State House becomes a 75 to 75 tie, with neither party in the majority.

And wouldn’t that be just too bad if that happens? If that happens, Republicans will actually have to start making deals and compromises in their legislation. They might have to give up on plans for Voter ID laws and other tools of voter suppression.

Things might actually get done that might help things get better around here.

Not a pretty picture, huh?

Hillary Clinton Tapped for SecState; DOW Drops 700 Points

And no, one has little or nothing to do with the other.

But it’s interesting that in the last go-around of cabinet appointments we had five consecutive days of colossal rises in the stock market, 1,276 points in total, this time when President-Elect Barack Obama announced his security team headed by Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State-Designate, the DOW drops nearly 700 points.

It’s as if saying that physical security and financial security have nothing to do with each other, which is preposterous. If that were the case, the huge drop in stock prices in the days after 9/11 should have actually been a few good days at Wall Street.

No, I have a theory.

The theory goes that the stock market is still being manipulated by short sellers.

Here is my reasoning. Everyone who has been paying even the slightest attention to what is going on knows that we are in a big economic fix, a fix that was engineered by over-zealous free marketers who deregulated the market to almost pre-1929 levels. Everyone knows that we are in for what is euphemistically termed a “deep recession.”

So when confirming news hit the streets today that the United States’ economy is officially in recession and that the recession will be around for some time to come should have been met with a collective ho-hum.

Instead it unleashed a selling frenzy that drove stocks back down to roughly 600 points above the lows where they sat last week, undoing half of the gains that resulted from the Obama financial appointments euphoria.

So, it’s either this or that. It’s either the fact that our stock market is being driven by a bunch of ignorant nincompoops who react wildly to news that has been common knowledge since September, or the fact that our stock market is being manipulated by short selling brokers who take advantage of any bad news at all, surprise bad news or yesterday’s news, it makes no difference, and rake in huge profits in selling stocks short, driving down prices and effectively creating tomorrow’s bargains. Bargains that they will make huge profits when they buy them back at low low prices.

Someone is making lots and lots of money here.

It just isn’t anyone I know.

On Packing Heat in Texas

Now you may have already heard somewhere that I’m not from around here. I’m from the state that, in the very same year, granted the right to same-sex marriage by virtue of a state Supreme Court decision, and then had a majority of its population revoke that right.

I’m originally from California.

California, it seems has a love-hate relationship with marriage rights. In a state that is widely regarded for its liberal social standards, I am sometimes startled at some of the very backward thinking that goes on there from time to time.

So what is the first thing that you think of when it comes to gun ownership rights in Texas? Yes, me too. Texas has a worldwide reputation for being not only a gun-loving state, but occasionally a gun-shooting state.

Texans love guns and low taxes. In that order.

So imagine my shock and surprise when I come to find out that Texas is one of only six states in the country that has laws on its books that specifically forbids the wearing of handguns out in the open.

It is legal, in Texas, to carry a concealed weapon on your person. You need a permit, but one thing that George W. Bush did for Texas gun owners as governor was to sign a concealed weapon bill into law.

Yes, before George W. Bush was governor, it was illegal in Texas for most people to carry a weapon on their person, concealed or not.

And the law is still on the books that specifically forbids your average person to “open carry” a handgun. Yes, here in wild and wooly Texas, where we have the Castle Law that gives a person the right to use shoot first and ask questions later when someone is trying to enter your dwelling, you can’t wear a handgun in plain sight.

And wouldn’t you know it; the law comes out of Reconstruction. The law forbidding the open carrying of a gun outside of your own property line was one of a series of Jim Crow Laws passed in 1870, and this one was meant to keep guns out of the hands of former slaves.

I find this to be absolutely fascinating.

And now we have a group of outside agitators coming to Texas to change this law. Their website is here.

From UPI:

“Opencarry.org co-founder Mike Stollenwerk said supporters of the proposed state law have begun targeting both state residents and lawmakers in attempt to get the state Legislature to pass the bill in January, the Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram said Sunday.”

“‘We are targeting Texas,’ Stollenwerk said. ‘Texas is probably the most pro-gun state, but doesn't have open-carry laws.’”

It came as some surprise to me that Texas is one of 6 states that forbid the wearing of a handgun: four other southern states, Texas, and New York. It is permitted everywhere else they say. So this group is concentrating on gun-loving Texas so that Texans can take their handguns out of their closets and nightstand drawers and put them onto their gunbelts where they rightly belong.

So while Californians concentrate on revoking the marital rights of their gay and lesbian neighbors, Texans concentrate on getting their state’s law changed that will bring guns out of the closet and into the streets.

I can’t figure out which is crazier.

What to Do With Turkey Leftovers

You would not believe the number of websites that are dedicated to the handling of Thanksgiving leftovers. Take a look. Click here, I’ll wait.

Turkey Tetrazini? Turkey Chile Rellenos?

Whatever happened to the good old Turkey Sandwich?

A turkey sandwich is a good Democratic sandwich. It is inclusive (contains all the food groups), and gives you a warm cozy feeling, especially if it is the open faced kind with lots of turkey gravy poured on top.

A turkey sandwich is THE official turkey leftover dish at the Half Empty Hovel – a tradition of long standing. A good turkey sandwich is yet another thing that I have in common with Ross Geller, the nerdy paleontologist who was a main character in the extinct television series “Friends.”



Yes, I too know about the “moist maker.”

Election Day Voting Places for SD 17 Special Election

Well the good news is that if you live in 36 of the 53 (previously reported as 54) Fort Bend County precincts within Senatorial District 17, you can go to your usual polling place on Election Day (December 16th) and cast your vote for Chris Bell there.

The bad news is that 17 of these 53 precincts have new polling places for one reason or another. John Oldham reported to the Commissioners Court that these moves were because of conflicts due to “holiday scheduling.”

Maybe so, but there are a few changes I do have to wonder about.

But anyway, to deliver the information, here are the 36 precincts that go to their usual polling locations on December 16th (the same ones as on November 4th).

1018, 1058, 1068, 1087, 1118, 2028, 2030, 2033, 2034, 2061, 2090, 2091, 3009, 3020, 3022, 3032, 3069, 3086, 3098, 3100, 4029, 4044, 4046, 4047, 4062, 4064, 4065, 4084, 4094, 4102, 4105, 4107, 4109, 4119, 4121, and 4127.

And here are the 17 precincts with their new locations (and former ones).

1. 1007: Williams Elementary 5111 FM 762 Richmond, TX 77469 (Was Cindy's Palace)
2. 1021: Schultz Trucking Company 18602 Hwy 36 Guy, TX 77444 (Was Brazos Bend Home and Ranch)
3. 2092: Quail Valley Elementary School 3500 Quail Village Dr Missouri City, TX 77459 (Was Meadow Creek Clubhouse)
4. 2117: Meadows Place City Hall One Troyan Dr. Meadows Place, TX 77477 (Was Calvary Church at the Fountains)
5. 3035: Sugar Land Church of God 1715 Eldridge Rd. Sugar Land, TX 77478 (Was Eldridge Park Conference Center)
6. 3043: Townewest Town Hall 10322 Old Towne Ln. Sugar Land, TX 77478 (Was Southwest Calvary Baptist Church)
7. 3053: Sugar Land Church of God 1715 Eldridge Rd. Sugar Land, TX 77478 (Was Barrington Place Clubhouse)
8. 3099: Mission Bend Elem School 16200 Beechnut Houston, TX 77083 (Was Providence Community Clubhouse)
9. 4011: Colony Bend Elem School 2720 Planters St. Sugar Land, TX 77479 (Was Settlers Park HOA)
10. 4042: Knights of Columbus Hall 702 Burney Rd Sugar Land, TX 77478 (Was Sugarland Comm Center)
11. 4049: Lexington Creek Elem School 2335 Dulles Avenue Missouri City, TX 77459 (Was Brightwater Clubhouse)
12. 4080: Colony Meadows Elem School 4510 Sweetwter Blvd. Sugar Land, TX 77479 (Was First Colony Church of Christ)
13. 4083: Highlands Elem School 2022 Colonist Park Dr. Sugar Land, TX 77478 (Was Lost Creek Park)
14. 4110: Colony Bend Elem School 2720 Planters St. Sugar Land, TX 77479 (Was Sugar Land City Hall)
15. 4111: Settlers Way Elem School 3015 Settlers Way Blvd. Sugar Land, TX 77479 (Was Colony Bend Elementary)
16. 4129: Fort Settlement Middle School 5440 Elkins Rd. Sugar Land, TX 77479 (Was Commonwealth Clubhouse)
17. 4131: Austin Parkway Elementary School 4400 Austin Parkway Sugar Land, TX 77479 (Was First Colony Conference Center)

I guess it could be worse. As Susan says on her not-a-blog, they could have chosen to hold this election in Oklahoma.

Our Last Thanksgiving with Bush as President

Yes, despite everything that has happened over the past 8 years, we do have one thing to be thankful for, and can give George W. Bush, 43rd President of the United States, full credit for it.

SD 17 Special Election Early Voting Locations Are Up

Well, not up at the county elections office website, anyway. Not yet anyway. But I got a call this evening advising me that the commissioners court was indeed apprised of the voting locations – my previous informer was misinformed by the elections office worker – and it actually appears on yesterday’s agenda, Item 30 on yesterday’s agenda.

On viewing the meeting video, I could see some of the thoughts that went into assigning voting and early voting locations. The county reports that there are 95,000 active voters in Fort Bend County who may vote in the special election. They are spread over 54 precincts, however due to the fact that “customary locations are unavailable due to holiday scheduling” total Election Day voting locations were “clustered down” to 27 locations. So, yes, voters need to know where their polling locations are going to be because maybe half of them will be going to a new location.

For early voting, 4 early voting sites were originally allocated, one in each precinct, but 1st Methodist Church on Eldridge was added yesterday due to anticipated heavy traffic from holiday shoppers who are expected to flock to the nearby Sugar Land mall.

Anyway, here is the list of five, yes you read that correctly, five early voting locations in Fort Bend County for the SD 17 special election.

• Fort Bend County Rosenberg Annex (that’s right, centrally located in SD 18) 4520 Reading Road Rosenberg [map]
• Meadow Creek Clubhouse 2410 La Quinta Dr. Missouri City [map]
• Meadows Place City Hall One Troyan Dr. Meadows Place [map]
• Sugar Land City Hall 2700 Town Center Blvd North, Sugar Land [map]
• Sugar Land 1st United Methodist Church 431 Eldridge Rd., Sugar Land [map]

Early voting locations will be open between 8 AM and 5 PM from Monday December 8th until Friday December 12th.

These convenient voting hours courtesy of your Fort Bend County Commissioners Court and the Fort Bend County Elections office.

Does A Low Voter Turnout in Special Elections Favor Republicans?

Common wisdom has said yes. So I was interested to see an analysis by Matt Glazer on Burnt Orange Report that gave facts that belied this so-called truth.

And I was not convinced.

Yes, I was also interested in the HD 97 results that had the same two opponents with opposite results, favoring the Democrat in the low voter turnout special election, as opposed to favoring the Republican in a general election. But thanks to Elbridge Gerry the patron saint of district boundary manipulation, districts vary in their affinities to one party or another.

So what I decided to do was to look at nearly every state house or senate special election or special election runoff held since 2000 and look for central tendencies. Nearly every special election because some of these are held in lopsided districts where no member of the minority party would bother running.

And by my count, there are about 13 special election races between then and now, with 7 of them, or just over half, classified as low turnout. Low voter turnout, by my definition, is any election where total voter participation is 12% or less.

And of these 7 races, 5 were won by Republicans and 2 were won by Democrats.

If voter turnout is moderate (20-30%) or high to very high (35% and greater) it doesn’t seem to matter. 3 races with moderate turnout favored Democrats 2 to 1, and 3 races with high turnout favored Republicans 2 to 1.

It’s only the low voter turnout elections that seem to be anomalously tilted toward Republicans.

Glazer also cited the extremely low turnout in HD 29, pointing out that “House District 29 hasn't elected a Democrat since 2000” which is absolutely true. However, HD 29 is a consistent R:D 60:40 district, even when a dead woman is the R. However, in 2006, Democrat Anthony DiNovo could only scrape together 22.5% of the vote in a district that by all rights should have delivered 40% of its votes to him.

So I am still pessimistic about Democratic chances in low turnout special elections.

Which is why it is more important than ever that Texas Democrats should band together in SD 17 and help deliver the upcoming special election to Chris Bell.

The trouble is, and has been pointed out here, that, in Fort Bend County at least, there is no information on where a voter is to go and vote in next month’s runoff election. And it’s obvious that this is some basic information that a phone banker or a block walker would want to have to better inform the voters.

It’s one thing to tell voters to go and vote. It’s yet another that they know where to go when it’s time.

Now, in reaction to my posting from yesterday, I was contacted by a reader who went ahead and phoned the Fort Bend County elections office and got some information. That yes, they had settled on a list of voting locations, and no they would not be making that list public anytime soon. The voting locations, it turns out, need to be approved by the County Commissioners, and they only meet on Tuesdays.

And, oops, Tuesday was yesterday.

Oh, wait, they don’t meet on the third Tuesday of any given month.

And, oops, that was the Tuesday of last week.

So the earliest we get an idea of the special election voting locations is Tuesday December 2nd.

What better way to keep the vote totals low than to have a special election 9 days before Christmas, and withhold the voting locations until a less than a week before early voting starts?

This is your Republican-dominated county government, playing those 5 to 2 odds, 24/7.

Special Election Early Vote and Election Day Polling Locations Still Not Announced

By my count, it is now less than two weeks before early voting begins in the Senate District 17 runoff special election between Chris Bell and that Republican judge.

Less than two weeks.

Phone banking and block walking has already begun in the Bell campaign, but without the critical information on the early voting and Election Day voting locations these calls and door-to-door visits are less valuable in terms of getting the information out to the voter. Here is what I could do today if I chose to make some calls.

"Hello, my name is Hal and I am calling to remind you that early voting in the State Senate special election for Senate District 17 begins on December 8th and runs through until Friday, December 12th. Election Day is December 16th. Please cast your vote for Chris Bell who is the Democrat running in this race. "

"Sorry ma’am, I don’t know where you go to vote. No, I don’t know whether it is where you usually vote. The county hasn’t published the list of voting locations yet. No, we don’t know when they will. Ma’am? Ma’am? Hello?"

Do you suppose that the County Elections office is aware that this omission is harmful to a campaign? Here is their webpage that is supposed to list the December 16 polling locations. As of 5:57 PM CDT the page is blank. So is the list of December 8 to 12 early voting locations.

This is why we need to elect more Democrats to county offices. With Richard Morrison as the Commissioner-Elect we are on our way, but we have a long way to go before we can stop Republicans from taking advantage of incidents such as this with their colossal stranglehold on Fort Bend County.

Honestly, I’ve seen more government transparency in a banana republic.

Texas Board of Education Reconsiders Evolution

Coming on the heels of a Florida state school board decision to place in their curriculum the notion that Evolution was merely a theory, Texas’ State Board of Education is reconsidering its stance on the teaching of Evolution in Texas’ public schools.

The occasion is the board’s task to rewrite the state’s curriculum 10 years after its 1998 adoption of the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills or TEKS.

On November 19th the board met in a public hearing to hear testimony on the teaching of Evolution in public school, an occasion that was live blogged here.

It should come as no surprise that Texas’ state board of education contains several members from the religious right that have an agenda to suppress the teaching of evolution in public schools in favor of their preferred theory in use, the one called Intelligent Design.

That is, God did it. Did it all.

Now the fact that other state boards of education have taken this on, and have had their members voted out of office doesn’t faze the Texas board. Not in the least. These creationist school board members know that they have the backing of a strongly religious Texas population.

For now.

To get a feel for what they are attempting to do, take a look here, at the second draft of the high school science TEKS that was posted a week before the public meeting.

I’ll tell you what the first thing I looked at was after reading the link in the title to this posting. §112.43.c(3)A.

Here is what it says in the adopted 1998 document:

“analyze, review, and critique scientific explanations, including hypotheses and theories, as to their strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information;”

This little gem was placed there by the religious right members of the board in 1998 to use as a wedge in the years to come to encourage students to challenge scientific principles and theories, and pressure textbook publishers into making equivocal statements on scientific knowledge.

If you don’t believe me, take a look at this document at the TEA website, which lists challenges to biology content in a high school biology textbook published by Glencoe.

The challenges were lodged by the Discovery Institute a supposed nonpartisan institute that promotes the conservative evangelical agenda. They make heavy use of §112.43.c(3)A. For example.

“Because of its factual errors and lack of information, the text does not enable students to “analyze, review, and critique” this scientific explanation as to its “strengths and weaknesses using scientific evidence and information” (TEKS 112.43c(3)A). ”

Now what does the science curriculum team propose to do with this infamous section? Delete it and combine it with draft version 1 of section (3)B. It is proposed that (3)A now say this:

“analyze and evaluate strengths and limitations of scientific explanations including those based on accepted scientific data, and evidence from students’ observations, experiments, models, and logical statements;”

So in place of “weaknesses” we have “limitations.”

This, I suppose, is in response to the scientific community’s objection that “strengths and weaknesses” is not a valid scientific concern. As in what these guys say.

So by entirely dropping the word “weaknesses” the state board thinks it has the problem solved. But I just checked my thesaurus. “Limitation” is a synonym for “weakness.”

So it’s still there, only better hidden than it once was.

They just don't get it do they? For the same reason that there are no weaknesses in evolution, there are also no limitations. A scientific theory or a biological principle cannot and should not be “evaluated” based on its weaknesses, nor on its limitations. This isn’t even science.

It’s Sunday School.

At the Chris Bell for Texas Senate Headquarters Grand Opening

In the build-up to his SD 17 special election runoff race that will end in just 3 weeks, Chris Bell is opening up campaign headquarters all over the senate district, which gerrymanders its way along the Gulf Coast from the Texas-Louisiana border, takes a right after passing Freeport and hooks through Brazoria County up to Fort Bend County.

Today a Grand Opening celebration took place at his Fort Bend County headquarters.

A small but dedicated group of supporters helped him celebrate the opening along with nearly all of the Democrats who hold office in and around Fort Bend County.

I took photos.

I took video.

Here is video number one. I apologize in advance for the shaky picture. I was not in the best place to take the shots that I took, and even had to hold the camera over my head at times. Richard Morrison, appointed the master of ceremonies for the afternoon because, he said, of his recent election into county office, introduced Fort Bend County Constable Ruben Davis, and Congressman Al Green.

Then Chris Bell spoke.



Nick Lampson was running late, but finally showed up just as Chris Bell was winding down his speech. Here is Nick Lampson showing support, finding out about when Election Day was, and recalling his own runoff race in December 1996 against Republican Steve Stockman.

One thing I am going to miss about Nick Lampson, other than the fact that sometimes I had my congressman vote my way, is that thing that he does with his voice. That thing that got Howard Dean in so much trouble several years back.

Nick does it just right.

The Importance of Language

The old joke is this:

Q: What do you call a person who speaks many languages?

A: A polyglot.

Q: What do you cal a person who speaks two languages?

A: Bilingual.

Q: What do you call a person who speaks only one language?

A: An American.

But it takes more to speak another language than just getting the words and syntax. It takes proper pronunciation. Witness:

A Night With the Fort Bend Democrats

At their irregular monthly meeting, the Fort Bend Democrats again celebrated the election of Barack Obama and Joe Biden as our new President- and Vice President-Elect.

They had lots of Obama memorabilia on sale with lots of buyers.

There was a good sized crowd that attended.

Don Bankston gave them the low down on what transpired on Election Night. The short version: we're not there yet. But with the latest results, we are closer to a Democratic majority in decades. One interesting statistic is that it was predicted that we would win the majority of votes if 70% of Democrats in the county came out and voted. Well, 67% of them did and we were barely edged out.

Then Geri announced plans for an Inauguration Ball that will take place locally at the Sugar Creek Country Club. We had two options, to hold it on Inauguration Eve or Inauguration Night and the vast majority of hands went up for Inauguration Night.

That settled, Albert Hollan was asked to say a few words as a recent candidate for District Judge. Albert got it right when he said we won the one that we had to win, the one at the top of the ticket.

The Fort Bend Democrats had not one but two National Convention delegates in their number. These two then got up and described their convention experiences.

All of that was a look to the past.

Looking toward the immediate future we had a campaign worker from Chris Bell's SD 17 state senatorial campaign speak to us on the importance of volunteering to help get out the vote in the upcoming SD 17 special election runoff.

And you know? I can't think of a better way to end this short report than to quote a man I think we all know and respect, Senator Ted Kennedy.

The work begins anew. The hope rises again. And the dream lives on.

On Running a Country into the Ground

George W. Bush and his cronies “Dead-eye” Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Phil Gramm, to name a few, have had a few shining years to run America right into the ground, haven’t they?

Inheriting a country at peace, with a budget in the black and employment and job creation at all time highs, they slowly and deliberately altered it into a country with two wars, huge budget deficits, unemployment at 7% and rising and news of massive layoffs coming in daily.

And a few people got as rich as Croesus, and a few more people went below the poverty line.

And you’d think that that would be enough, wouldn’t you?

But I guess not. Not with news today out of the Associated Press that Bush’s people in the Department of the Interior are feverishly working to rewrite the rules that govern how public officials can decide whether a species is endangered or not.

At present, when you want to build a dam or a highway you have to clear it with biologists, experts in species population renewal, who will either OK or not OK the funding for the project, or even alter the project to ensure the survival of endangered species.

Interior Department people are trying to rewrite the rules so that governments can essentially skip that step.

Interior Department people are also trying to rewrite the rules, and bar federal agencies from deciding whether to build coal-fired power plants based on how much green house gases the plants will produce, how that will affect global temperatures and therefore how those temperatures will affect endangered species habitats (ahem . . . polar bears).

It seems that the “Greening of George Bush” was something of a palliative. Something to keep the environmentalists at bay. Bush never did come around, did he? He was just waiting for this time to rewrite the rules and make it that much harder for Barack Obama to govern.

I know, in 60 days our National Nightmare will be over. I’m just a little concerned though. There are many, many busy, busy hands working right now behind the scenes in Washington. It’s as if my house were infested with Formosan termites, out of sight, but you know that there is damage being done and nothing can be done about it until it is perhaps too late.

Nationalize the Auto Industry

I have been watching the to and fro arguments on why or why not to bail out the Big 3 auto industry: General Motors, Ford and Chrysler. The arguments are shrill on both sides.

Conservatives of both parties are arguing that these companies are “dinosaurs” and the only thing that has occurred that threatens their existence is fatal mismanagement by their own obscenely overpaid management. They don’t build what Americans want and have ignored market trends. Their workers, union workers mind you, are overpaid and lazy.

Sure, they argue, let them file Chapter 11 and let them reorganize. This has happened before and it is what makes our capitalist system the resilient system that it is.

Liberals, Democrats for the most part, argue that this is the premier manufacturing industry in America. To let it die on the vine would be tantamount to inviting a full depression with the 3 million jobs that the auto industry directly or indirectly supports.

Some argue that letting GM go under would be a blow to our national security because of the many defense industry products that it produces.

And that got me to scratch my head.

Defense industry? GM?

Well, yes, in the past. In years past GM had a military division that produced all manner of weapons and things that promoted the killing of our fellow man. GM Defense it was called. But to my recollection, that division was sold off to General Dynamics in 2003.

Another model decision from GM’s management, selling off a military war materiel manufacturing division right in the middle of two shooting wars.

But they still retain a corner in the market of military trucks. They still make and sell the LSSV (Light Service Support Vehicle) also known as a pick-up truck. There is also their
EMP (Enhanced Mobility Package) – God knows what that is. Maybe it’s an automobile.

I can see both sides points here. That is a fatal flaw in my character. Both sides make good points.

So here’s the thing. Are the three companies that dominate America’s largest industry being led by incompetent jerks who are now engaged in begging for corporate welfare? Absolutely. Do I trust them with $25 billion of public money? No way. Is this industry so important that the collapse of it will have a domino effect that will doom our country to an unrecoverable depression? Alas, that is also true.

So what is the answer? Are we going to fork over these sums to these incompetents anyway? No way.

The answer is clear, and I never thought I would hear myself saying this, but the answer is for the Feds to buy up the auto industry.

Nationalize it.

Think of it. If this is the premier industry of our nation, and its collapse will drive the rest of us into economic ruin, this industry is a threat to our national security.

Letting the private sector mismanage this uber-industry when it is so key to keeping us economically sound makes no sense at all. It makes as much sense as privatizing our military services. Letting GM management take over at the Pentagon.

So see? There are not two alternatives that may or may not work. There is a third alternative that eliminates all of the minuses of having a critical industry managed by idiots whose solution to the gas price crisis was not to engineer lower mileage autos, but to guarantee $1.99 gasoline to SUV customers.

And it eliminates the feeling of throwing good money into a garbage disposal. If we, the people make the investment in buying out the Big 3, we the people get to share in the profits. Right?

After all, we’re not Communists.

Governor Proclaims SD 17 Special Election Runoff Date

Well you could have knocked me over with a feather. Three minutes after I uploaded last night’s posting, out comes the announcement that the SD 17 runoff election was set for December 16.

This is what I thought it would be, but not hearing of any proclamation at 30 days out I figured Perry was going to take this election up to the ridiculous date of Christmas Eve Eve.

Don’t get me wrong, December 16 might as well be Christmas Eve for all of the damage it is going to do to voter turnout.

Anyway, also shown on the proclamation, found here, are the early voting dates. Early voting for the special election runoff will begin on Monday December 8th, and extend to Friday, December 12th (sorry, no weekend voters need apply). There is yet no information at the Fort Bend County Elections website on which polling locations will be open for early voting, but there is a notice that the ballot position drawing on the Fort Bend County ballot will be held at 4 PM on November 20th at the Election Administrator’s office.

What, at this point, would be the Get Out the Vote strategy? Well, it’s obvious to me. First and foremost, get out the base. This will not be a race over whether there are more Democrats in SD 17 or Republicans. This race will have such a low turnout that the race will be over who can best rouse their base.

And the challenge could not be more difficult.

Democrats have been lulled into a sense of accomplishment. We elected the top of the ticket. That’s all that has been in the news. It is going to be very hard getting Democrats to go back to the polls after all of that excitement.

This is in contrast to Republican voters who have been shown the door. What I cannot fathom, though is whether being shown the door is something that will give Republicans impetus to come back and try for another local smackdown, or whether the whole thing has dispirited them, and Joan Huffman won’t be able to buy a vote.

So the challenge is difficult and the outcome is uncertain.

At least we have the uncertainty this time.

In SD 17, that’s saying something.