Surge for McCain in Albania

If the world could vote tabulates results from all over the world.

Tax Info

Obama will lower your taxes.

He will do it more than John McCain.

That applies to 95% of you.

This has been moved to the top for people to think about as they go vote.

Here is the info from Parade Magazine.

Tags: taxes, income taxes, Obama, McCain

Bob Perry trying to buy another election

Since Bob Perry got involved in elections in Texas he has spent many millions of dollars and has got a sweet deal for his Perry Homes and other builders. This election is no different with him. So far he has given almost three million dollars this election to buy more legislators to keep the Texas Residential Construction Commission toothless in producting home buyers. Bob Perry created this commission after spreading so many millions around he essentially bought the legislature. Bob Perry is no family values Republican as was revealed in his son's divorce proceedings this year.

What has Perry's Commission accomplished? From the Texas Observer:

The Sunset Commission staff sums up the TRCC in its report: “Current regulation of the residential construction industry is fundamentally flawed and does more harm than good.”

No need to read the entire 75 pages. You’ll get the gist of just how rotten the agency is from the two-page summary at the beginning of the report - PDF.

In 2005, the Observer wrote about the homebuilding industry’s lavish donations to the Republican Party — more than $8.9 million to candidates and political action committees. Bob Perry, head of Perry Homes, the top contributor of them all, gave more than $6.9 million from 2001 to 2005. In 2007, the Observer reported that the TRCC couldn’t enforce its own permitting decisions — builders who had lost their permits were still openly working.

The TRCC, stacked with home-builders and builder-friendly appointees, forces homeowners to wait for months for relief that most often never comes. Homeowners must file a complaint with the agency. They also have to complete the agency’s “dispute resolution process” before they can get on with their lives and file a lawsuit or go to arbitration.

When the TRCC does rule in favor of a consumer, it has no power to compel a home-builder to repair the damages.

Elect Sherrie Matula and get rid of one of Perry's cronys and show Bob he can't buy another election.

Tags: Bob Perry, Sherrie Matula, Texas, homes, statehouse, elections

How bad are things for Texas GOP politicians right now?

When asked by an AP reporter to comment on the excessive expenditures for renovating a member's lounge in the state house Tony Goolsby, R-Dallas, chairman of the House Administration committee said:

"I'm up to my ass in a damn campaign. This is the only job I've got and I'm trying to save it. Obama's got people coming from the rafters."

Get down from the rafters and vote Tuesday.

I saw that story first in Capitol Annex.

Here is some more good news and backs up what I am seeing in Texas where there is a reverse "Bradley Effect," conservative whites who will reluctantly vote for Obama but don't want you to tell their friends and neighbors. PoliMom has noticed the Republicans you don't read about who are voting for Obama.

Harris County Early Voting info and links

Moved to the top for Early Voting. Newer posts are below this.

EARLY VOTING IS OVER. Prepare for regular voting Tuesday.

Harris County Early Voting Locations and times.

Here is a great map of the locations.

What to Bring — Any one of these will allow you to vote in Texas:

Your Voter Registration Card OR
The pink copy you kept from your voter registration application OR
Personal Identification (driver’s license, government ID, bank statement or utility bill or pay stub or check.)

On early voting you can vote anywhere in Harris County, if you live anywhere from Pasadena to Baytown to La Porte to Clear Lake to Katy to Humble or Houston and anywhere else in the county, any early voting location is good. On election day it will be more crowded and you must vote in your precinct.

When voting I say one easy choice is to just hit the D and then review your ballot.

Harris County sample ballot - you won't have all the state representatives and senators but you will have most of the judges. Remember the D is your friend. Unlike some years I don't see any fools running with a D after their name this time.

Here are all the state candidates in Texas.

Volunteer to work the polls for the public or your candidate or your party. Elections don't work without you. It is much better to be a poll worker than a poll watcher.

Democratic Harris County offices - you can pick up that sign you want or work the phones. This office still has Obama caps.

Right now we have a Texas statewide League of Womens Voters Guide and the local Harris County guide - PDF is also just released.

Here are all the local 2008 Democratic candidates.

Check you voter registration here.

Need a ride to the polls? Call your local party office. Vote NOW Houston is also providing free Yellow Cab rides to the voters that will take them to the polls and return them to their point of origin.

Tags: Houston, voting, Pasadena, La Porte, Harris County

President Obama - 30 minute video wows

I had to take the legal class to be an election judge so I missed seeing this live but it was terrific when I did see it.

Classy, professional, with no smears of John McCain and the dirty Republican campaign they are waging against him these last days.

All my discussions with people who are supporting McCain now revolve around false information and them referring to sites to the right of the Minutemen. This is a FEAR! campaign on its last legs.

He followed his 30 minute spot with Florida rallies and then an interview with Jon Stewart.

Watching McCain the grumpy old man and his spokesmen trying to combat this was an interesting contrast. Reagan and others knew that the most optimistic candidate wins, should someone tell McCain? I am more worried that the increasingly outlandish conspiracy theories the conservatives are weaving means we are going to face 8 years of the old irrational Clinton hatred transferred to Obama-Biden.

Six Years Ago - Molly Ivins was Here

I took this from Molly in the Chron Six Years Ago:

There's many a contest between political pygmies this year -- we're down to seeds and stems again --- but even in proud Texas we have to admit that this year's palm for nose-holding voting must go to California. Not to overstate, two of the most titanically unattractive candidates in the history of time -- Gray Davis and Chuck Simon -- are vying for the governorship. A new nadir in modern politics. How we got from the Lincoln-Douglas debates to this -- or what we ever did to deserve it -- is unclear. The debate between Davis and Simon raised the always-timely question: Is God punishing us?

Naturally, when it comes to voting, we in Texas are accustomed to discerning that fine hair's breadth worth of difference that makes one hopeless dipstick slightly less awful than the other. But it does raise the question: Why bother?

One sorry excuse for a decent, fighting people's pol or the other; what difference does it make?

Oh, just that your life is at stake...

The Bush administration has announced this grand imperial plan, the "National Security Strategy of the United States," under which America is to dominate the world forever, and we'll attack any country that doesn't agree with us. Frankly, it's nutty. But they made a big mistake. They forgot to run it by the people first.

About five years ago I had another Molly - contrasting the Bush haters with the Clinton haters.

After all this time and all those millions of dollars wasted, no one has ever proved that the Clintons did a single thing wrong. Bill Clinton lied about a pathetic, squalid affair that was none of anyone else's business anyway, and for that they impeached the man and dragged this country through more than a year of the most tawdry, ridiculous, unnecessary pain. The day President Clinton tried to take out Osama bin Laden with a missile strike, every rightwinger in America said it was a case of "wag the dog."

By now, quite a few people who aren't even liberal are starting to say, "Wha the hey?" We got no Osama, we got no Saddam, we got no weapons of mass destruction, the road map to peace in the Middle East is blown to hell, we're stuck in this country for $87 billion just for one year and no one knows how long we'll be there. And still poor Mr. Krauthammer is hard-put to conceive how anyone could conclude that George W. Bush is a poor excuse for a President.

Chuck, honey, it ain't just the 2.6 million jobs we've lost: People are losing their pensions, their health insurance, the cost of health insurance is doubling, tripling in price, the Administration wants to cut off their overtime, and Bush was so too little, too late with extending unemployment compensation that one million Americans were left high and dry. And you wonder why we think he's a lousy President?

Sure, all that is just what's happening in people's lives, but what we need is the Big Picture. Well, the Big Picture is that after September 11, we had the sympathy of every nation on Earth. They all signed up, all our old allies volunteered, everybody was with us, and Bush just booted all of that away. Sneering, jeering, bad manners, hideous diplomacy, threats, demands, arrogance, bluster.

Tags: Molly Ivins, history, Texas

The GOP Harris County Love Boat

It's all about the videos.

Here's another.



Disclosure, I volunteered for ACORN one day without pay and I know someone who was hired to straighten out their voter registrations for a brief period.

Tags: GOP, video, Harris County, love+boat, ACORN

Opie Endorses

See more Ron Howard videos at Funny or Die

Zimbabwe or Harris County Texas?

What place has local politicians from the ruling party getting local constables to disrupt opposition events? The answer is both.

Precinct 4 Constable Ron Hickman had fellow constables repeatedly disrupt a campaign event held in a county park. Hickman is the campaign treasurer of State Representative Patricia Harless and evidently felt he could use his authority to harass voters at her opponent Democratic Candidate for State Representative Chad Khan's event at Cypresswood Park.

This isn't the first time Hickman has been in the spotlight for questionable activities related to his association with Rep. Harless. Earlier this year, he was criticized for supporting early release and parole for Harless' brother, Donald Fincher. Fincher was convicted of killing a deputy constable while driving drunk.

"This behavior is typical of the questionable judgment exercised by Constable Hickman and his office. That a sitting State Representative like Patricia Harless would want to be associated with someone who threatens to arrest a mother for wearing a campaign tee shirt in a public park--in front of her two young children, no less--should cause voters to question her judgment. First, she asked the Constable to help get her brother out of prison, now she is having him try to suppress her opponent's campaign rallies," Khan said. "It makes one wonder what she and Constable Hickman will try next," he continued.

The conservatives can fill the airwaves about the "totalitarian socialism" of the Democratic Party but voters can see who is using the local law enforcement as their brown shirts to shut down free speech and political opposition.

A video is available at Texas Kaos.

Even conservative bloggers have had issues with Ron Hickman and there have been several investigations of the Precinct 4 constable's office recently. The fact that he let politics influence his requesting early release for a DUI who killed one of his officers says quite a bit about Hickman's character.

Tags: Harris County, Texas, constables, GOP, brown shirts, police state, free speech, Ron Hickman, Patricia Harless, Chad Khan

Video Updates for Texas Late Early Voting

Lampson at Work

Paul Bettencourt - Incompetent, Intemperate Partisan

Paul Bettencourt's temperament and incompetence is finally catching up with him. Channel 11 has had two reports of the partisan role he has taken in rejecting new voter registrations.

The Tax Assessor’s office in Harris County is trusted with one of the most important functions served by our government: the registration of voters. One would think that Bettencourt would be bound by honor and civic duty to ensure that he does a good job. Instead, he works as a partisan hack for voter suppression laws while failing to properly process valid applications.

Ask any volunteer voter registrar about their experience with Bettencourt’s office and odds are you’ll hear the same story: the only thing consistent about Paul Bettencourt’s office is its inconsistency with changing deadlines, changing rules, and changing interpretations. He rejects applications and takes too long to inform the voter — making the real loser is the voting public.

Recently Bettencourt’s actions are becoming public because some voters are showing up to the polls and finding out they aren’t registered. KHOU-11 showed up at Bettencourt’s office with a stack of improperly invalidated voter forms, and asked him to explain himself. Amid his stammering, all Bettencourt could manage to say was that the forms represent “a mistake” and claimed a “fantastic” relationship with the local League of Women Voters.

The local League of Women Voters refutes this claim.

By the way, his Democratic opponent is — really — an ethics teacher.

It’s time for a lesson.

Texas Roundup - Early Voting Countdown

It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Round-Up. This week's edition is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

Oh, and don't forget to vote early!

The Texas Cloverleaf helps spread the truth about ACORN.

McBlogger takes a look at our own Congressman from Clear Channel, Mike McCaul, and discovers that he is indeed different.

jobsanger points out the dysfunctional aspect of this year's Republican campaign, first in Palin Disagrees With McCain, and then in Repubs Can't See The Reality.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is sad to recognize that while America’s Foreign Policy Suffers - Unemployment Soars - Religion Goes Toxic America's short attention span has been grabbed by personal survival and courted by political and religious philosophies.

As early voting begins Eye On Williamson charts the early voting numbers in Williamson County. HD-52 Democratic candidate Diana Maldonado continues to rack up the endorsements and launches her latest ad, taking on the insurance companies and high homeowners insurance.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted the second part of his Who I Would Have Supported For President series. The latest entry covered the years 1824-1852.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News is keeping the early voting info up for the voters who need it but did notice that nearly all the PUMAs have come home to Obama.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that the Texas Association of Business has finally pleaded guilty in connection with its 2002 violations of Texas' campaign financing laws and that State Rep. John Davis (R-Clear Lake) and State Sen. Kim Brimer (R-Fort Worth) have taken big bucks from a company the TCEQ fined more than a quarter million dollars last week for polluting.

CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme has some hints about how to get your specific sample ballot. Be prepared!

Off the Kuff analyzes the high level of early voting in Harris County so far.

XicanoPwr analyzes the GOP attack on ACORN and the disenfranchisement of thousands of voters carried out by Paul Bettencourt in Harris County.

John McCain describes the economy as a drive by shooting. The Texas Cloverleaf calls it a whack job.

North Texas Liberal reports on Sarah Palin's $150,000 shopping spree at Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue, and discusses why it could signal the end for her and John McCain's faltering campaign.

As Democrats in Harris County appear on the verge of something historic, the trends in the extraordinary early voting turnout portend the same blue surge that the rest of the country is about to experience. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the deets.

refinish69 at Doing My Part For The Left wants everyone to say thanks to Barbara at Avenue Gallery- NOT!!!

nytexan at Bluebloggin points out just how McCain and Palin are alike with their FEC violations. We’ve gone from 8 years of the “emperor has no clothes” to “the empress has new clothes.” The GOP is priceless. Palin is following in McCain’s footsteps for FEC violations, what a pair of mavericks. CREW Files FEC Complaint Against Palin. And, for McCain, apparently he and Palin have an affection for Russia; McCain’s New FEC Violation: Asks Russia For Campaign Money.

George at The Texas Blue wants you to know your job's not over just because you voted. We look at the early voting excitement across the state and remind you that it's critical to tell your friends and family to vote as well!]

Tags: liberal news, Texas, bloggers, blogs, progressive, round-up, TPA

Forget every negative thing I have ever said against Lampson

Sure I would like him to be better on environmental votes, but he still beats every Republican from Texas in DC. But the main change of my heart and my previously luke-warm support is that Pete Olson has revealed himself in a debate. Olson is Sarah Palin without lipstick. The snake filled audience (hiss, hiss) didn't help the debate atmosphere.

Khou-11 - Gloves come off in Lampson-Olson debate.

Houston Chronicle - Olson blasts Lampson at debate.

Support Nick Lampson and keep the partisan attackbots like Olson out of Congress.

Tags: Lampson, Olson, Harris County, election, Fort Bend County,

Have all the PUMAs Come Home?

Obama is now doing better among Democrats than McCain is doing among Republicans.

For a couple months there were constant media reports that the female Hillary supporters would not vote for Obama.

But see what has happened now that it is time to vote. After watching the old angry man in the debates and seeing his questionable judgement, and getting a look at Sarah Palin, the Pumas look like they've come home for the good of the country. This Obama finding is not reflected in just one poll but looking at the six that show support by party ID.

Tags: polls, Obama, Pumas

Caught on Tape: Stealing an Obama Sign

I love this comment... Did you know the average Obama sign is about four inches longer than the average McCain sign?

And the average McCain sign is really old and wrinkly.

Texas Roundup - Early Voting Edition - October 20, 2008

It's Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance's weekly round-up. This week's round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.

The Texas Cloverleaf took part in Blog Action Day this past Wednesday. Find out how you can combat poverty in your neck of the woods.

Bay Area Houston listed the fines for State Representatives and Senators issued by the Texas Ethics Commission in 2007 and 2008. Enjoy!

jobsanger discusses voting and registration. He says the E-Voting Can't Be Trusted without a paper trail, and ACORN Is Not Committing Fraud in their effort to register over a million new voters.

Vince at Capitol Annex notes that State Rep. John Davis (R-Clear Lake) is misleading voters about his poor record on education in his newest mailer, and that the mainstream media is calling John Cornyn's performance in the final senatorial debate "less than senatorial."

In the first of a series of posts on past presidential elections, Neil at Texas Liberal offers up Who I Would Have Supported For President 1788-1820.

WhosPlayin goes off on a Republican County Chair who thinks a candidate's sexual preference is more important than the substance of his ideas.

Off the Kuff takes a look at why some people won't be able to cast their ballot during the first few days of early voting.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants a fair election without Republican voter suppression and questionable electronic voting machines.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the fake controversy about voter "registration" fraud, Gone nuts about ACORN. And Diana Maldonado released her first TV ad this week, HD-52: Diana Maldonado is on TV, "Texas' Comeback".

Now that McBlogger has torn him a new cesspool, Joe The Plumber's fifteen minutes of fame are OVER

North Texas Liberal dissects Obama's wide lead on McCain in the polls and the projected electoral map. Also, former Secretary of State Colin Powell endorses Obama for president. (Start following us on Twitter for mini-updates and breaking news!)

Harris County clerk Beverly Kaufman predicts that 500,000 Houston-area voters will cast early votes, but Harris County tax assessor-collector Paul Bettencourt and Texas SoS Hope Andrade have done their best to hold that number down. Brains and Eggs has
the details.

Gary at Easter Lemming Liberal News has put up his Early Voting Info post but also announced he is rapidly becoming a clueless Cassandra.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is sad to recognize that Sex Scandals, Scams, Phishing and Your Bank Account are signs of deeper disorders. Power, Money and Sex are hopelessly intertwined with EGO.

Justin at AAA-Fund Blog laments the loss of Gordon Quan as a future candidate.

Burnt Orange Report takes a look into the numbers of the latest poll in the U.S. Senate race and tells why it might be even closer than it looks.

Over at TexasKaos, fake consultant discovers a Gaint Load of Hooey in one of THOSE emails. Just for fun, he investigates the "facts". The result is an education in how desperate the McCain-Palin crowd have become.

Tags: liberal news, blogs, bloggers, progressive, Texas, election, voting, early voting, news

We Voters Approve This Message

Sherrie Matula For District 129

Sunday News

Colin Powell endorses Obama. A common conservative reaction seems to be that Powell is a racist traitor - check comment sections of newspapers and conservative blogs. The good conservative reaction, except the religious right doesn't consider Andrew a conservative at all. Is Colin Powell "the most popular political figure in the country"?

Houston Chronicle endorses Obama. Most other newspapers endore Obama. A common theme - Palin.

Perhaps the worst mistake McCain made in his campaign for the White House was the choice of the inexperienced and inflammatory Palin as his vice-presidential running mate. Had he selected a moderate, experienced Republican lawmaker such as Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison with a strong appeal to independents, the Chronicle's choice for an endorsement would have been far more difficult.

Polls show race tightening, more polls, as surveyers use outdated likely voter models. The Gallup poll showcases the likely voter model differences with between 3 and 10 point Obama leads depending on definition.

Obama raises $150 million in September. GOP reaction - it's unDemocratic, we always rake in the money. McCain - No to socialism, except for campaign money.

Why I blog, Andrew.

YouTube - Obama making funny, includes links to McCain videos.

Hate You Can Believe In: ACORN Deluged with Threatening and Racist Voicemails and Emails - warning - explicit.

NYT - Saturday Night Live - Palin and Fey.

Friedman - Iceland and the global economy.

NYT: Is the bust Henry Cisnero's fault?

GOP Congresswomen disses Democrats as anti-Americans who should be investigated. Opponent raises half a million in one day.

Long article on the death of Betton Woods, will the rest of the world decide the United States is too big to fail?

Mike and Connie sent this: Palin as President - click around the oval office.

Tags: liberal news, Powell, Houston Chronicle, Obama, polls, economy, Cisneros

Tamisan News

I have to give her a plug for being an excellent news reposter. The truly important but perhaps you missed geeky news updates. I seemed to have missed her at FenCon based on Tygerr's report.