Next Tuesday, March 10th, 2009 the Senate "Committee of the Whole" will conduct a hearing in Austin on proposed photo Voter ID legislation in the Texas Senate chamber. We need you to call the following state Senators to help defend our fundamental right to vote by voicing your opposition against this bill, which is part of a national Republican campaign to suppress the vote and keep failed leaders in office. Please call the following to voice your opposition to proposed photo Voter Identification legislation in the Texas Senate:
The Honorable Jeff Wentworth
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0125
fax: (512) 463-7794
email: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/...
The Honorable Joan Huffman
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0117
email: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/...
The Honorable Tommy Williams
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0104
(512) 463-6373 fax
email: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/...
The Honorable Glenn Hegar
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0118
fax: (512) 475-3736
email: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/...
The Honorable Steve Ogden
P.O. Box 12068
Capitol Station
Austin, Texas 78711
(512) 463-0105
(512) 463-5713 (fax)
email: http://www.senate.state.tx.us/...
Over the last several days the Republican Party has been struggling with something: itself. For liberals and progressives there are few things as entertaining as watching the Grand OLD Party eat itself: between David Brooks calling Bobby Jindal's response to President Obama's State of the Nation speech "the worst response to a Democratic speaker in the history of democracy" and the Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairman apologizing to Rush Limbaugh.
It can only be assumed that after Election Day the GOP, and the conservative movement by extension, began going through the stages of grief is somewhere between denial and anger. What should be interesting is when the GOP moves to the bargaining stage, if this current stage is any indication it is going to continue to be a political disaster. At the current rate it seems as though acceptance much further in the future than a mid-term election.
I’ve heard it said that churches are supposed to make bad men good and good men better. Our campaign finance system seems to do the opposite: make good men bad and bad men worse (ie, Governors Richardson and Blagojevich, respectively). As far back as Socrates, outside observers have noticed the corruptive influence of money on public policy. Our public servants worshiping at the altar of campaign donations is sure path to hell for most of us. But the fact that we force them to do so by not providing a public financing system begs the question: Are we getting what we deserve?
As Richardson withdraws his name for consideration of being Commerce Secretary, more and more details are coming out about his ethical problems. Did he take campaign donations that changed his votes? Possibly, or at least there’s enough of an ethical cloud there that no one can know for sure.
President Elect Barack Obama has begun to choose is White House staff, and his first selection was Rahm Emanuel for White House Chief of Staff. Emanuel is a Congressman from Illinois's 5th congressional district, and was the Chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee for the 2006 midterm elections. According to Politico.com the selection "was a powerful signal of Obama's determination to be effective under the existing rules of the Washington game." While John Nichols of the Nation described the selection of Emanuel as "best understood as a disappointing choice rather than a definitional selection." Jacob Weisberg of Slate described Emanuel in 1996 as "the [Clinton] administration's most diabolically effective tactician." While Noam Scheiber of the New Republic made a case for Emanuel because no one else had the "combination of policy chops, Hill knowledge, and the understanding of how to mobilize voters that he'll need to pass major initiatives like healthcare reform."
What Rahm Emanuel symbolizes is that while we can expect an Obama Administration to be bi-partisan, we can also expect to see the administration aggressively perusing Obama's agenda. The role of the Chief of Staff is to execute the President's agenda, and no one has argued that Emanuel will not be able to execute with proficiency. There have been those that have characterized Emanuel as a partisan, and there have been those that have characterized him as moderate. However, it does not matter, what matters is whether or not he will be able to execute what it is a President Obama will ask him to do. Barack Obama ran one of the most discipline campaigns that have been seen in politics, and the appointment of Emanuel symbolizes that an Obama White House will be just as disciplined.
It has been a busy day. I have been driving around the county going from polling place to polling place recording the voter turnout numbers. The turnout numbers seem to be favorable, especially when you take into account the early voting numbers. Some of the blue districts in Brazos County have already surpassed their 2004 voter turnout numbers, and a few of those had already almost matched the 2004 voter turnout numbers just with early voting.
There are a plethora of campaign signs, but the surprising thing is that even in a country as historically red as Brazos there are still a significant number of Obama signs. At polling places there are also campaign workers working to change minds, and those are the people that can help make the difference. That last contact and last campaign sign that voters see can make the difference.
There will be more Election Day coverage as the day goes on...
The Young Conservatives of Texas (YCT) Texas A&M University Chapter garnered some unfortunate publicity yesterday, and it was the politics of the lowest common denominator that can be expected from the YCT.
The Anti-Obama "carnival" took place on the Texas A&M campus in Rudder Plaza, and according to the KBTX report the YCT "encouraged students to throw eggs at a large picture of Barack Obama during a campus demonstration. It was part of what the group called an "anti-Obama carnival. Conservatives said the egg toss was symbolic of Obama's economic policies."
In an interview with KBTX Jay Cunningham, the Executive Director of the YCT, characterized the event as a "great success." Cunningham also said that YCT wanted to bring up issues that they believe Obama supports such as "redistribution of wealth."
Texas A&M University released the following statement:
A university campus is a marketplace of ideas. While we found today's activity offensive and not representative of Texas A&M's core values, we certainly respect the free speech of students on our campus. We are of the opinion that there are more appropriate and constructive ways to engage in a dialogue in advance of the upcoming elections.
"The McCain campaign has made impressive strides over the last week of tracking." I am not exactly sure what Republican pollster Bill McInturff means by impressive strides. According to the Gallup Daily tracking poll since October 20th Senator Obama has not dropped below 50% in the poll and Senator McCain has not risen above 43%.
This morning on MSNBC McInturff pushed the idea that the majority of undecided voters, which is between four and eight percent, will break for McCain.
Tonight Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain take the stage for the second time, and less than a week after the Vice Presidential debate. The debate tonight also takes place during a period in which the Obama campaign has made significant advances in several key swing states, and the McCain campaign has pulled out of Michigan and has been spending a significant amount of time in Republican stronghold states such as Florida.
