Okay, I admit that I am so mean that I make a hornet look cuddly, so I made
an FOIA request at the FEC to see the check ARMPAC used to pay the fine. (I
think I just went over the UIL restrictions on usage of acronyms or glitter
in one English sentence. However, if you don’t know what those things mean,
you wouldn’t be here anyway.)
I was hoping they paid the fine late, but they didn’t.
However, in a charming moment of serendipity, I happened to notice
that the check is a tad shy of $115,000.
In the cover letter, the nice FEC Public Liaison person tells me, “Our
search of FEC records has revealed no other documents responsive to your
request.” So, there’s no other check for the remaining $8,128. owed on the
fine. Republican deadbeats. Oh yeah, they’ve got $350,304 to pay to Tom
DeLay’s wife and daughter, but they’re just a tad shy of being able to pay
their fines. Ain’t that just damn amusing?
And why, oh please tell me, did they use a bank check to pay the
fine instead of the non-federal ARMPAC account? Do you think they’re trying
to hide something? Honey, these boys are slicker than a pocket of banana
pudding. Of course they’re trying to hide something.
Now I hope I didn’t bore you too much, but Tom DeLay is still a
twit and I’m glad I can prove it again and again.
September 26 - Okay, so
it's not $3 million, but - hey - the NRCC did pay for a fake poll for
Shelley at $12,000. And, - last I heard - they promised to tie Dick
Cheney to his desk to keep him from campaigning for her. That's worth
at least a million right there!
September 25 -
Our county has become infested with rabid bats. No, none of them
have filed for political office yet, but a few have applied for jobs as
campaign treasurers.
September 25 - I
wonder - did the local GOP sober-up and realize that
Dick Cheney has a lower approval rating than your average flesh-eating virus?
I haven't heard anything more about Dick trotting on down here to help raise
$3 million for Shelley.
September 24 - As if county
commissioners didn't have enough explaining to do when they return on
Monday, there's this piece of bully strong-arming against a county employee.
It smells of witness tampering. No wait, I'm wrong. It doesn't
smell, it stinks to high hell of witness tampering. It might even be
official misconduct.
The Texas Safari is where
darned near every Republican fundraiser in the county is held. James
Patterson is a county commissioner.
Good on Stephen Palkot
for getting this story. Here's the story in PDF
format because the Herald hasn't put it online.
Had Enough yet? No? Well, there's more coming. County
commissioners aren't the only ones running around abusing their authority.
There's more to come.
September 24 -
I wonder how many more checks the county commissioners will "find" now?
Under the category of
"Lay Down With Dogs, Get Up With Fleas," our county commissioners would take
money from the devil himself and then plead that they didn't recognize those
horns or cloven hoofs.
Let's be kind and naive
and believe the commissioners are telling the truth about not getting money
from the scandal belch called PBS&J. This is the one contribution they
all admit getting
274237
(click it to open in PDF format). Take a look at
the "straw men" all lined up in a row -- just like the investigation in
Florida revealed.
Local investigation?
They'll just sit around and wait for everyone to die or the law to change.
September 24 - Okay,
thanks to Alfredo, we've got a fun toy for you this morning. There's a new
site on the internets called LegiStorm.
You can use this site to
look up the salaries of congressional staff. You know how lazy your
Congressman's caseworker is? Find out what he's making and get really
hacked off.
One of my first stops, of
course, was Tom DeLay. If you check to see what an incompetent twit
like
Chris Homan was making before he quit DeLay's congressman staff to work
for DeLay's political staff, you can understand
why Homan was so darned mad
to be unemployed. Let's face it, there's not a big calling for
"Wrecking Organizers" in the classified this morning. And when there
is a rare opening, usually a 4 year old gets it.
And, Alfredo points out
that
Shannon
Flaherty and Kevin Madden should have charged by the lie - they would
have made far more money. And look who has the lowest salary - DeLay's
General Counsel! Well that makes sense - it’s obvious that DeLay never
consulted him.
And, if you're stuck at
home on a rainy day with nothing to do, hop on over to the
FEC site to compare what these same folks
are making for working on political work when they should have been working
for us.
And here's
a
little ditty about dirty payrolls from Harper's. One party
government is not a good thing. There's no watchdogs.
September 23 -
My Muse picked up on this
Case
of the Missing Hyphen.
Sekula-Gibbs is the Republican write-in candidate seeking Tom DeLay's
former seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. But most voting, even
write-in voting, is now done on electronic machines in the 22nd
congressional district of Texas. The machine most commonly used in the
district requires voters to enter the candidate's name letter by letter,
and it doesn't allow hyphens, so Sekula-Gibbs has eliminated the hyphen in
her last name in all her campaign materials.
And, sadly for her, they say she still won't win, hyphen or not.
It appears that voters aren't as hyphenphobic as Shelley suspected.
September 22 -
Willie Nelson's public
statement regarding being caught with a bag of
Marijuana earlier this week:
"It's a
good thing I had a bag of Marijuana instead of a bag of spinach. I'd be
dead by now."
I thought for sure that Willie would claim he was saving the grass and the
mushrooms for bio-diesel fuel. I'm not a lawyer so I don't know if
that's a valid defense, but if I were on a jury, I could see the wisdom in
it.
September 22 - I don't
know if you people from foreign states
know
about this, but ...
Six months ago, the Texas Ethics
Commission ruled that a politician in this state can receive checks, in
this case worth $100,000, and report nothing more than the word "checks"
on his disclosure form. Today the commission will decide whether the same
ridiculous principle applies when someone gives a state official wads of
cash.
Under a draft proposal before the
commission, politicians would be able receive cash gifts worth any amount
over $250 and report only a gift of unvalued "currency." Did they say
"draft" proposal or "daft"?
Well, this morning, Texas' DA, Ronnie Earle, said, "Its kind of
like reporting you just received a wheelbarrow without having to mention it
is filled with cash." Gotta love Ronnie.
The only way I know to
fix this mess is to get rid of the State Legislature or get rid of cash
money. I vote for dumping every darned member of the Lege. And
if the replacement Lege doesn't take care of business, dump them in two
years ... and on and on until some of them catch on and behave themselves.
Good Lord, these guys are
an embarrassment to even thieves.
UPDATE: In
Austin this morning, the Texas Ethics Commission has decided to postpone any
decision on gift definition until December. Yes, December - after the
election. Where the dickens is William B. Travis and his courage now
that we really, really need him?
I'll have more on the
meeting later but I gotta scamper over to the Democratic Women's Luncheon
and Dish Fest.
September 21 -
It the damnest thing I've read in a long time.
Housing Secretary Alphonso Jackson urged top aides to take contractors'
politics into account when handing out grants and deals, an internal
department review has found, though there is no "direct evidence" that
favoritism actually occurred.
The department's inspector general began investigating Mr. Jackson after
he boasted in a Dallas speech that he'd once scuttled a deal because the
would-be contractor disparaged President Bush.
Another Bush incompetent crony fails to see that governmental agencies work
for the people, not "the administration."
Hey, at least this one
admits he shot off his mouth. Play to play, indeed!
I've never seen such a
large collection of men who need to go buy some Viagra instead of trying to
be all hot shot. That includes Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld.
There ya go, Pay to
Play Pizza!
Add this disgusting story in this morning's
New York Times about auditors from the Interior Department being blocked
into checking underpayments, and you've got Crony Stew!
The auditors contend that they were
blocked by their bosses from pursuing more than $30 million in fraudulent
underpayments of royalties for oil produced in publicly owned waters in
the Gulf of Mexico.
"The agency has lost its sense of mission,
which is to protect American taxpayers,” said Bobby L. Maxwell, who was
formerly in charge of Gulf of Mexico auditing. “These are assets that
belong to the American public, and they are supposed to be used for things
like education, public infrastructure and roadways."
And then if you want to make Cahoot
Hash, add one cup of this
Washington Post story.
WASHINGTON -- Republican
activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings
inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday
that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the
two presidential allies have enjoyed.
The White House released the
Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party
and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitors logs for the two GOP
strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff
lobbying scandal.
Earlier this month, the White
House suggested to the judge in that lawsuit that such records need not be
disclosed because the information was privileged and might reveal how Bush
and his staff get private advice, according to court documents obtained by
The Associated Press
September 21 - For those
of you keeping up with the continuing saga of Roseland, Indiana, the only
place crazzzzier than Fort Bend County, our friend
Kathy sends us an update.
ROSELAND --
Residents concerned about their town came in force Thursday night to an
informational meeting at the Clay Township Civic and Democratic Club.
Everyone was welcome except Dorothy and David Snyder, the married couple
who compose two-thirds of the Roseland Town Council.
--- lotsa good stuff
omitted here because you really need to go read it for yourself ---
When the
meeting started at 7 p.m., the Snyders were standing outside being
interviewed by a television reporter.
They had been denied entry because the membership of the Clay Democrat and
Civic Club had voted a couple of years ago not to allow them in the
facility, according to McCombs.
Kathy comments --- "I think it's time for them to move out of town
if they can't even go to the Democratic Club. Maybe they'll retire to
Texas."
Hey, Kathy, at least no
old men were beat up this time!
September 20 - Our regular
customer, Sam from Pearland, just sent me some very interesting information
that you need to see.
Citizens for
Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has released their Second
Annual report on the 20 most corrupt members of Congress.
Two members
have been removed from last year’s list of 13. Rep. Randy “Duke”
Cunningham (R-CA) is now serving an eight-year jail term for bribery and
Rep. Bob Ney (R-OH) has agreed to plead guilty to crimes that will likely
result in a minimum two-year prison term.
The website they opened to follow the corruption is named - you're gonna
love this -- www.beyonddelay.org/
Beyond DeLay. I wish I had thought of that.
Yep. There's
Democrats on the list. Texas only has one listing - Pete Sessions, which
comes as a shock to no one. Since we lost Tom DeLay, California seems
to have the franchise for corruption now.
September 20 - Okay, I'm going
to be honest with you. If Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott sends
investigators to peek in my bathroom window, there's gonna be some
investigators with buckshot in their rumps.
Texas voter fraud law under fire
AUSTIN — Willie Ray, 69,
said she thought she was teaching her granddaughter civics lessons in
democracy, but instead the two black women in Texarkana ended up with
criminal records for voter fraud.
Gloria Meeks of Fort Worth, also
69, said she stepped out of her morning bath last month and screamed. Two
voter fraud investigators from Attorney General Greg Abbott's office were
peeking in the bathroom window, Meeks said in a sworn statement.
Abbott's office declined to
discuss specifics, but said its investigation of Meeks has been "conducted
professionally and properly, to the full extent allowed by law."
The last time there was voter fraud in this county, it was being
done by a county employee getting votes for his Republican boss by lying to
elderly Black voters about which primary they were voting in. Nobody
looked in his bathroom window. In fact, nobody did nothing. In
fact, it was a Republican County Commissioner who did it and when he retired
his brother Commissioners named the Senior Citizen's Center after him.
They didn't get the irony
of that. They still don't.
I have been mad about
that for 10 years. I may not be able to do much, but Honey, I
can really hold a grudge!
September 20 - Someone asked me how
the Adopt a Sign program is going. We've raised over $1,000 to buy
more signs and we're still going. I thank you. Fort Bend
Democrats thanks you. America thanks you.
I decided to put a few of
the adoptions online for everyone to see. Some
are shown with their happy new owners!
There's still time to get in this deal for as little as $10.
Republicans make one phone call and get $1,000 from a fat cat. We get
ours $20 at a time from people who want America to be America again.
September 20 - My friend
Mike in Austin sent me this email this morning ---
Juanita,
I just got a phone poll call about political issues. The first series of
questions was on a scale of 0-10 how would I rate:
Rick Perry=0
Tom DeLay-I asked if I could use negative numbers and the girl laughed and
said "Unfortunately not"
George Bush=0
My congressman Lloyd Doggett=10
Mike
Okay, so I got to wondering: why would a poll in Austin include
Tom DeLay? It kinda confused me. Hummmmm ..... why would a
pollster want to know about Tom DeLay who's resigned from national office in
disgrace.
And then it hit me!
Tom DeLay, with all his
own felony indictments and the felony indictments of his friends where he'll
have to testify, will have to spend a lot of time in his old haunt - Austin.
Tom DeLay is considering
establishing residency in Austin and running for office there! Think
about it - it makes sense.
He already has name ID
there - it's where he earned the name Hot Tub Tom.
And getting free tickets
to UT football games may be a steep step down from jetting all over the
country for golf, but at least it's something for nothing and he's getting
diddle squat now.
Hey, look at it this way
- he's probably polling better than Dick Cheney right now.
September 19 -
Lookie what evil Bob Perry is
doing to the American political system in Indiana.
Phoning It In: Attack in Indiana
by New, Well-Funded Conservative Group
Conservative group's
automated calls tar House candidate with voting to let unsavory material
be sold to kids.
Expect Perry to do the same thing here for his friend Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.
It's probably time to change your phone number before you get assaulted with
Perry-Political-Porn, too.
September 19 -
Okay, everybody on your
best behavior. Momma’s back.
I spent the day over at Momma’s house tinkering with her computer
machine. It’s been on the blink for a while so we got her a new one. It
has all the bells and whistles, but all she uses is email and one thing on
her “Favorites” list (that would be me).
Momma is
afraid to “surf” because she’s heard about all the pornography on the
internet and she’s afraid that she’ll stumble across some and have a heart
attack right there. “And there y’all would find me dead in my chair with
nasty pictures on my internet machine,” she explains seriously.
Momma don’t take to nasty real well.
She had to ask me what “Mofo” meant when Governor Perry said it.
I explained it gently and clinically but still almost got my butt whipped by
an 80 year old woman. “Hump,” she said to end a conversation she really
didn’t want to have, “I knew he was nasty when I first saw him.”
But Momma comes to my website because some of her lady church
friends do, and she’s more than half scared that I’m gonna say something
outrageous. Momma and her friends are a bunch of Baptist Democrats who pray
for Republicans but really don’t have much hope of Republicans ever acting
like Jesus said to. They don’t have much hope for those “hardshell”
judgmental Southern Baptist either.
It’s a little known fact that my Momma and Aunt Gladys invent all those cute
little “Amazing Women” emails that you get. You know, the ones that have
cute little blinking pictures of puppies and cartoon figures or roses and
canned music. That’s why Momma has email. To exchange those emails with
Aunt Gladys. They just love those things.
Momma now has a $780 computer set up, complete with color printer,
to send Hallmark cards to Aunt Gladys. Momma is happy. Welcome back,
Momma.
September 19 -
Remember those
robo-calls from Tom DeLay where he promised to name you Businessman of
the Year if you coughed up some dough for the NRCC? The FEC actually did an
investigation of those calls and found
they violated the FEC's regulations
The complaint filed in this matter alleged that Congressman Tom DeLay
solicited campaign contributions via phone calls under the guise of an award
program. A review of the public record revealed that the NRCC was the source
of the phone bank. The Commission found reason to believe that the NRCC may
not have included disclaimers in these solicitations after November 2002, in
violation of the law….. The Commission found reason to believe that a
violation occurred.
But then, of
course, they decided not to do anything about it.
However, given the information
indicating that the violations were the result of vendor error and the
subsequent NRCC quality control measures and their apparent effectiveness,
the Commission decided to send an admonishment letter and to take no further
action.
I'm strongly considering changing the FEC and the TEC
"rules" to "suggestions for elected officials."
September 18 -
Bob
Ney plead guilty on Friday. On Monday the head of the NRCC is extorting
contributions from corporate PACs:
From
Roll Call (by
subscription only)
DeLay Redux?
A roomful of about 100 high-dollar-donor lobbyists and political action
committee directors huddled late last week with Rep. Tom Reynolds (N.Y.),
chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, for an
election update and strategy session.
According to one source who was
present at the meeting, Reynolds used the election briefing to spread the
word that the endangered House GOP will not look favorably on PACs that
start “hedging their bets” by upping their contributions to Democrats. The
source at the meeting said Reynolds made sure the attendees know that the
NRCC would have no choice but to report back to all House Republicans
details of any PACs or companies that shift their giving.
“That’s an old [former Rep. Tom]
DeLay (R-Texas) tactic,” said the source, who attended the meeting at the
American Trucking Associations on Sept. 14. “Isn’t it that heavy-handed
stuff that backfired and got him in trouble?”
NRCC spokesman Carl Forti
said only, “We don’t discuss things that go on in private meetings.”
You can smell the fear. Hey, keep it up guys, and Tom won't be lonely
in Club Fed.
September 18 - Who would have ever
thought that the terrorists were going to get us by using spinach?
I mean, it makes sense
once you think about it.
They probably saw those
Popeye cartoons and figured that if they kill off all our vegans and healthy
people, it's just be a snap to invade this country. I will not let the
terrorists win! That's why I had a Hershey bar and a Diet Coke for
lunch. If you eat healthy, you're just playing right into their hands.
And they're even sending trucks full of it. (I do not know how Bob
wrote this story with a straight face. You'd have to see the San
Bernard River this time of year to know how funny this is.)
A California man has been arrested after being caught dumping more than
100 boxes of bagged spinach and salad near the San Barnard River southwest
of Needville.
The arrest comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration continues to
warn consumers against eating fresh spinach or products that contain fresh
spinach.
You have to go read the whole story. You really, really do.
Especially if you're from Texas.
September 18 - Oh
rats. I feel just awful about this. Poor put-upon pathetic
Bob Perry is going to need a legal defense fund.
Attorney General Steve Carter has filed a lawsuit today in Brown County
Circuit Court against a group making automated phone calls targeting
Democratic congressional candidate Baron Hill
Carter also is seeking a preliminary injunction against the
California-based group, Economic Freedom Fund, which is financed by Bob J.
Perry, a Texas homebuilder with close ties to White House adviser Karl
Rove. Perry also bankrolled the Swift Boat attack ads against the war
record of Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry in 2004
Carter, a Republican, began investigating the calls after receiving
complaints about them from people who live in the 9th Congressional
District in southeastern Indiana. Hill is running to represent the
district, against Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Sorrel and Libertarian Eric
Schonberg
Bob Perry? Not being able to buy his way around the law? When
did that happen?
September 18 - Our
friend Rich, out in Kentucky, gave us a heads-up this morning for some
Republicans who haven't drank the Kool-aid. The
Washington Monthly says ---
Now
seven prominent conservatives dare to speak the unspeakable: They hope the
Republicans lose in 2006. Well, let’s be diplomatic and say they’d prefer
divided government—soon. (Perhaps that formulation will fool Dennis
Hastert.) Of course, all of them wish for the long-term health of
conservatism, and most are loyal to the GOP. What they also believe,
however, is that even if a Speaker Pelosi looms in the wings, sometimes the
best remedy for a party gone astray is to give it a session in the time-out
chair.
Everything they say is true for our local races, too. County
government has become bloated, self-serving, lazy, and Cronyville under
Republican dominance.
And, as luck would have
it, four of the creepiest local Republicans have opponents this election.
September 17 -
Reason #487 why I can’t be
a Republican.
I got an email from a local Republican big time political activist
who we shall call A.D. who lives in Katy, Texas – a part of Fort Bend
County. I won’t embarrass A.D. worldwide by saying his last name right
here, but locals know who he is. If any of you locals don’t know who he is,
ask Sheriff Milton Wright and depending on which side of Milton’s mouth he’s
using that day, A.D. is either a great guy or a total idiot. I kinda stand
in the middle of those opinions.
So, Ole A.D. sends me this email last Friday:
Don’t forget about Katy.
What do you local guys have for us? We had the first women to run for
County Judge. The local democrats are stuck on ethnics.
Now, first I’m going with the obvious. Ethnics?
I spent a whole mess of time and money at Rita Mae’s College of Cosmetology
and Shakespearian Studies, but I have no idea what an “ethnics” is.
Best I can figure, it might be misspelling a character trait of
somebody with a lot of morals, like maybe, “I’d trust Rev. Jim to take cash
to the bank for me. He’s got a lot of ethnics.”
If that is what A.D. meant – then yeah, local Democrats are a
little concerned about the ethics of some elected Republicans and you should
be, too. Thank you for reminding everyone.
However, I am pretty darned sure that A.D. sat at his computer and
mulled over an enlightened word for “colored people” for a long time. Can’t
you just see him at a backyard bar-be-que saying, “Hey, I’ve got nothing
against ethnics. Some of them are my best friends.”
I’m going with the second explanation. After a frightening
primary, our local Republicans elected what we refer to as the Fluffy White
Male Slate. Any minority or woman who went up against a white male in the
GOP primary got whipped. Badly. I don’t know why they just didn’t send
Dick Cheney down here to shoot them in the face – it would have been less
humiliating and could have looked like an accident. But, having every
single woman and minority lose in the primary looks pretty much looks like
it was done by Republicans on purpose.
Yes, local Democrats have highly qualified minorities and women
running for elective office in this county. In county wide races, they a
female Hispanic, a male Hispanic, a female South Asian, and – ta da! – a
white male, and he’s Czech so that makes him especially white in this
county.
The bottom line is that the GOP has the all fluffy white male
ticket and the Democrat’s ticket reflects the population of this county.
YOU tell ME who’s stuck, Honey.
Now we get to the other conservative radio talk show talking
points in the email.
Yes, Katy did have the first woman to run for County Judge. She
got whipped. Twice. In the GOP primary. By fluffy white fellas. Your
point is ……?
Not one single county elected official comes from Katy. That
heavily Republican area has not elected even one person to a county office.
All of them have been beaten in the Republican primary.
However, there is a very qualified Democratic candidate running
for Justice of the Peace from Katy. His name is
Farhan Shamsi – oh dear, an
ethnics.
September 17 -
Et tu, Joe Scarborough?
I can't help but feel sorry for
my old Republican friends in Congress who are fighting for their political
lives. After all, it must be tough explaining to voters at their local
Baptist church's Keep Congress Conservative Day that it was their party
that took a $155 billion surplus and turned it into a record-setting $400
billion deficit.
How exactly does one convince the
teeming masses that Republicans deserve to stay in power despite botching
a war, doubling the national debt, keeping company with Jack Abramoff,
fumbling the response to Hurricane Katrina, expanding the government at
record rates, raising cronyism to an art form, playing poker with Duke
Cunningham, isolating America and repeatedly electing Tom DeLay as their
House majority leader?
How does a God-fearing Reagan
Republican explain all that away?
Easy. Blame George W. Bush.
Escaping political death by
attacking an unpopular president is hardly new -- especially since most
endangered politicians have the loyalty of a starving billy goat. But this
is Dubya's Washington, where the White House has pushed around, bullied
and betrayed GOP lawmakers for years.
And Shelley Sekula Gibbs is bringing Dick Cheney to Houston to
fundraise for her. Has any Republican thought this though? I
mean, why don't they just say, "Dick Cheney is coming to dinner and spinach
salad will be served."
If local Republicans get
any nuttier, we need to replace all those railroad coal cars running through
here with Prozac trains.
September 17 -
As we all
know, Bob “As Innocent As Tom DeLay” plead guilty. Buried deep in Bob Ney's
plea agreement is the fact that Bob Ney tried to insert an amendment in the
Help America Vote Act to allow Stolichnaya vodka to label its product "Made
in Russia" when in fact it is made in another country.
Stoli kicked in $25,000 for Ney's St. Andrews golf trip.
Wait a minute.
Let me think ..... Crooked politician. Crooked liquor company who wants to
label its product as coming from one place when its made in another. I've
heard this song before.
Oh, yeah -
Bacardi stole the "Havana Club" trademark the same way.
And who's been
helping Bacardi steal the Havana Club label? Mel Martinez. But that's only
fair - Bacardi held an illegal fundraising event for
Mel that brought in over $60,000.
Hmmm, maybe
Martinez gave Ney the idea - there's big money to be made stealing famous
trademarks . . . Just ask Tom DeLay, the inventor of pay to play.
Good thing our county
commissioners and county judge can’t sell trademarks. They have to settle
for selling out the taxpayers’ money instead.
And speaking of crooked
politicians ...
Rick Casey in today's Houston Chronicle is tired of "lifestyles," too.
September 16 - Okay, so
thanks to Tom DeLay and Rick Perry we've got two elections going on at the
same time here, about a half dozen write-in candidates for one of those
elections - none with easy names, a brand spankin' new election
administrator, and we're using electronic voting machines for the first time
in a major election.
On top of that, last I
heard Vegas was giving even odds that something is going to leak or break or
go kerplunk in Fort Bend on election day.
Add all that together and
you've got - a damn mess bigger than pre-school fingerpainting day.
Yes, you do.
It appears that while the
rest of the country is not experiencing all the difficulties we are,
they are still predicting chaos.
An overhaul in
how states and localities record votes and administer elections since the
Florida recount battle six years ago has created conditions that could
trigger a repeat -- this time on a national scale -- of last week's
Election Day debacle in the Maryland suburbs, election experts said.
In the Nov. 7
election, more than 80 percent of voters will use electronic voting
machines, and a third of all precincts this year are using the technology
for the first time. The changes are part of a national wave, prompted by
the federal Help America Vote Act of 2002 and numerous revisions of state
laws, that led to the replacement of outdated voting machines with
computer-based electronic machines, along with centralized databases of
registered voters and other steps to refine the administration of
elections.
But in Maryland
last Tuesday, a combination of human blunders and technological glitches
caused long lines and delays in vote-counting. The problems, which
followed ones earlier this year in Ohio, Illinois and several other
states, have contributed to doubts among some experts about whether the
new systems are reliable and whether election officials are adequately
prepared to use them
Me? I'm voting early and often.
September 15 - Well, local Democrats
have some people fooled. They are working hard, but they're not nearly
as well-funded as you'd suspect. (If you'll adopt a
sign, it'll help.)
The local newspaper says -----
The
Democratic Party in Fort Bend County this year is well-funded and has been
highly active, said more than one Republican candidate at the Fort Bend
County Republican Party Executive Committee meeting on Thursday.
Fort Bend County has long been considered solidly Republican, but several
contested candidates on Thursday evening told fellow Republicans that
without a unified party and adequate funding, county-wide Democratic
candidates could be elected into some offices for the first time in years.
Read the whole article. The tide is turning and it's starting here.
Local Democrats in Fort
Bend aren't funded by the big boys, corporations, or the national party.
They are funded through bar-be-ques, garage sales, adopt-a-sign, and
donations from members. They are serious about this, and work like the
dickens. The Fort
Bend Democrats Club has led the way in putting Democrats back on the map
in this county.
Be a part of something
that will make history - donate to
Fort Bend Democrats
Adopt a Sign or
Send a check.
September 15 - For those
of you keeping score for the County Commissioners and the County Judge's "Lay
Down With Dogs, Get Up With Fleas" Money Marathon, you need no longer
wonder why PBS&J would want to buy influence with politicians who are giving
them only
half a million in business.
Lookie here what a customer found with a quick Google search.
The FBCTRA [Fort Bend County Toll
Road Authority] selected the Brown & Gay (BGE)/PBS&J team due to BGE’s
local knowledge and PBS&J’s general engineering consultant (GEC) and
program management experience
Guess who appoints the Board of Directors of the Toll Road Authority?
No, seriously, guess. Okay, you're starting to hack me off. This
game isn't any fun if you always know the answer.
September 15 -
The missing receipt. The
Houston Chronicle reports this morning that …..
A stone slab
found in the state of Veracruz in Mexico bears 3,000-year-old writing
previously unknown to scholars, according to
archaeologists
who say it is an example of the oldest script ever discovered in the
Western Hemisphere.
The order and
pattern of carved symbols appeared to be that of a true writing system,
according to the Mexican scientists who have studied the slab and
colleagues from the United States. It has characteristics strikingly
similar to imagery of the Olmec civilization, considered the earliest in
pre-Columbian America, they said.
We here at the beauty shop figured it out very quickly. It’s
clearly a campaign contribution receipt. According to our multi-linguist
manicurist, Darleen, the receipt says Congressman Jotec Tslaque has been
awarded a contribution of 4,523 rocks in exchange for his vote to give dart
gun contracts to Halliburton.
Some things never change.
September 14 -
And the beat goes on.
Okay, somebody ain't telling the truth.
PBJ&S Engineering firm
says they are giving money to our county commissioners and the county judge.
Bob Dunn checked and found that - uh oh - most of them aren't
reporting that money.
Somebody is violating
campaign finance laws, either in Florida or here. I'm certain that Bob
will keep on it like oxygen on air.
I wish I had a friend at
the IRS to check all these "charitable contributions" that commissioners
give and the re-imbursement checks they write to themselves. There is
so much room for hanky-panky and these boys are so darned greedy.
By the way, you, too, can
be an investigative reporter. Check the
materials here
against the reports here.
September 14 - I know you're
gonna say, "What's the odd of this originating in Texas again?" but there's
another religious cult who has buried themselves in bunkers because the
world was gonna go kaboom in a nuclear explosion on September 12 but they
forgot about the International Time Zone deal so now it's gonna happen
September 13 which has already passed but there's no way to let them know
because they built bunkers in Kenya and ain't coming out because we could be
the devil just trying to fool them when we say everything is okay.
Abilene. I've been
to Abilene. If the world ended, Abilene wouldn't get the news for
years. I guess they figured that bunkers in Abilene would be too hard
to build.
September 14 - The House of
Representatives just voted to build a 700 mile fence along the border with
Mexico. They didn't say if that was horizontal or vertical.
Neither way won't do any good.
I think we should just
dig a big hole and pour money in it. Oh wait; we did. We call it
Congress.
I heard someone say that
they only thing a 10 foot fence would help is the 11 foot ladder industry.
September 14 - I always
wanted to live in a world with Ann Richards in it.
Here's a great Ann story
as told by Molly Ivins, and a picture of Ann dancing with one of my sons
during happy days.
Several
years ago there was a big political do at Scholz Beer Garten in Austin and
everybody who was anybody in political Texas was there, meetin' and greetin'
at a furious pace. About halfway through the evening, a little group of us
got the tired feet and went to lean our butts against a table by the back
wall of the Garten. Like birds in a row were perched Bob Bullock, the state
comptroller; me; Charlie Miles, a black man who was then head of Bullock's
personnel department (and the reason Bullock had such a good record on
minority hiring); and Ms. Ann Richards.
Bullock, having been in Texas politics for thirty some-odd years,
consequently knew every living sorry, no-account sumbitch who ever held
office. A dreadful old racist judge from East Texas came up to him, "Bob, my
boy, how are yew?" The two of them commenced to clap one another on the back
and have a big greetin'.
"Judge," said Bullock. "I want you to meet my friends. This is Molly Ivins
with the Texas Observer."
The judge peered up at me and said, "How yew, little lady?"
"This is Charles Miles, who heads my personnel department." Charlie stuck
out his hand and the judge got an expression on his face as though he had
just stepped into a fresh cowpie. It took him a long minute before he
reached out, barely touched Charlie's hand and said, "How you, boy?" Then he
turned with great relief to pretty, blue-eyed Ann Richards and said, "And
who is this lovely lady?"
Ann beamed and said, "I am Mrs. Miles."
September 13 - Bob Dunn at Fort
Bend Now is real smart. He took the PBS&J
story one step further than I did and called the county commissioners to
see if they were willing to talk. I'd say that they played dumb,
except it's not playing for them.
You can read Bob's amazing story by clicking here.
In its most recent
local activity, PBS&J PAC made political contributions of $800, $2,000 and
$2,500, respectively, to Stavinoha, Meyers and Hebert, all on March 6,
2006.
A week before the
contributions were made, Hebert, Meyers and Stavinoha joined Prestage and
Patterson in unanimously voting to extend an engineering services contract
for PBS&J.
According to
information from the Fort Bend County Engineer’s office, the contract
involves preliminary engineering and right-of-way acquisition services for
a Texas Department of Transportation project to widen F.M. 359 near
Richmond.
However, no
information obtained in preparing this report suggests the timing of the
contribution is more than coincidence.
There are more coincidences at Commissioner's Court than legally allowed by
the fiction section of your local library. That many coincidences in a
story moves it to the fantasy section.
It appears that
Commissioner Andy Meyers got his talking points straight from Jack Abramoff,
Bob Ney, and the K Street crooks.
Meyers said
engineering firms wanting to do business with the county all have been
told the same thing by commissioners – “at some point…it will be your
turn.”
Yes, it'll be your turn as soon as you give Andy some money.
And you thought I was
upset over their 17% payraise? Oh Honey. You ain't even seen
upset yet. I'm boot kicking mad.
September 13 - Tom DeLay's
sub-career of changing America one Dancing with Stars
episode at a time has fallen on hard times.
Today's Dallas Morning
News reports that the evil dance-o-fascists have intervened with Texas's
highest criminal appeals court to conspire against Tom DeLay and his idol,
Sara Evans
AUSTIN - Texas' highest criminal appeals court said Wednesday it would
consider reinstating a dropped conspiracy charge against former House
Majority Leader Tom DeLay, further delaying his trial on felony money
laundering and conspiracy counts.
Dirty rotten dancing-hating Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals. They are obviously
Harry
Hamlim fans and they hate Tom DeLay and his American dancing values!
The Belles of Heaven
Republican Women's Club will be all atwitter over this. They will be
some strongly worded letters written, I can assure you of that!
September 13 -
This is kinda an
important story so stick with me.
The Miami Herald has
broken a story that goes to the core of corrupt pay to play politics and, of
course, there’s a Fort Bend County connection.
The Miami Herald tells the story of a company – PBS&J – who gave illegal
campaign contributions to secure lucrative government contracts. Their
investigation centers on Miami’s connection, but, the Herald contends, this
appears to have happened all over the Unites States.
The Miami-based engineering company being investigated for alleged
campaign law violations has been a prolific giver to election campaigns,
handing out more than $500,000 in political contributions since 2003, The
Miami Herald has found.
PBS & J and its leadership have backed scores of candidates across the
country, Republicans and Democrats, for offices with influence over the
kinds of lucrative government contracts the company often seeks.
Remember how the County Judge waited until 2 members of
Commissioners Court were absent to shove through a