Following is a part-time job opening with NARAL Pro-Choice Texas. Hurry and get your CV in quick - applications are due by next Friday.

We got this in the e-mail, basically saying that the Senate is happy with what they had previously agreed on before the end of the regular session. So take that, Perry! Or am I reading too much into it?

See the release after the jump.

From a tipster:

ok so i was being a tourist in the capitol last friday, and i walked up the stairs on the side of the senate chamber. well i looked on the ground and this is what i found.

You know it's a slow day when we get a tip like this, complete with photo!

Was that Senator Troy Fraser seen casually popping a dinner mint into his mouth and aloofly discarding the wrapper onto the grass just outside of the east entrance to our revered Capitol building? Apparently legislators have dropped the "Don't Mess with Texas" campagain and opted instead for "Don't Mess with Texas' Franchise Loopholes". But seriously, littering on the Capitol grounds... What would your mother say?

See the evidence here: View image

PD is off to the airport, so send your tips to Bluebonnet and we'll see you next week!

The House has recessed until Tuesday at noon (I'm so jealous). The Senate is still at work, discussing HB2. Sen. Shapiro actually looks sorta stylish today in her clean-cut light-colored suit. Who ever thought we would condone an outfit she wore? The pages sitting behind her look like they are having too much fun. If I could focus on what she was saying, I'd post on it. I'm still a little blurry this morning.

Yes, we are awake. Just because we drank champagne all night doesn't mean we aren't getting up at the butt-crack hour of 8:00 a.m. Guess we'll go wander around and see what's happening with HB 3. If someone that's all smart has got something to say about it, email it to me and save my hungover ass from having to figure out what it says and why it is so damn LOUD!

Because it's slow, what with the holiday and all, we created an 'ode to school finance' video. It's just over 2 minutes long, so give it a whirl. To play video, click here.

The Austin American-Statesman issues a small correction to yesterday's front page story on the Ten Commandments ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court. Seems that the article used Attorney General Abbott's press release as their reference material.

Let's compare the article with the press release:

AAS--In the court's majority opinion, Chief Justice William Rehnquist wrote that the Ten Commandments monument is passive and has an "undeniable historical meaning," dismissing the contention by Thomas Van Orden that it is overtly religious and violates the separation of church and state.

Abbot Press Release--Chief Justice William Rehnquist, who wrote the majority opinion in Van Orden v. Perry, said the Ten Commandments have "an undeniable historical meaning."

No big deal. Oh wait...except it was not a majority opinion. It was a plurality decision. Slight difference in words, large difference in legal definitions.

Abbott should have known better, but pandering is a full-time job. The Austin American Statesman hopefully learned a lesson: Don't believe everything you read. (We learned that the first time we picked up a newspaper.)

Remember Abbott's press conference when he said the Capitol had other religious references besides the Ten Commandments so they were just part of the history of Texas? Well, we believe the other religious examples you can find is references to Aztec culture. Aztecs believed in human sacrifice, if memory serves. Sounds good to me. Human sacrifices at the Capitol building would be a helluva lot more entertaining that school finance!

76-69 HB2 passes 11:26 p.m. to scattered applause. Motion to suspend the rules and allow HB2 to pass the House on Third Reading tonight. The motion passed 140-4, and we go straight to the Third Reading. 77-70 HB 2 passes. The House Ways and Means will take up HB 3 and Craddick says we'll be back on Tuesday and vote on the bill on Wednesday.

Update: Read Ray's comment for this post. Well done, Ray.

It's 11:15 p.m. and we're on HB2's 13th hour of debate. The members in the House are tired, voices squeaky and hoarse and they have gone through about 90 amendments so far. (I lost track in between glasses of red wine)

Rep. Grusendorf is trying to persuade the members that he's been right all along and at this late hour he is not very persuasive. Has Grusendorf ever seen a school? He says we have two choices and he wouldn't yield until he let us know that the choices are: Kill the bill and let the Courts decide how Texas schools are financed or pass his bill. Gross, those choices suck ass. Can we get a third option? Oh, that's right the Dem plan was defeated already.

Got this from a tipster today, no email address to apply to though.

Democrat Jeremy Ring is looking for a campaign manager for an open State
Senate seat in Broward County, Florida. Mr. Ring is an early executive at Yahoo and a key contributor to Florida's successful minimum wage referendum. The job includes day-to-day management of fundraising, communications, and field operations. Experience in campaigns is preferred. The area is heavily Democratic. The position is open immediately. Contact information after the jump.

The Dems school finance proposal was defeated by a vote of 75-74 today. As usual, it was Tom Craddick's vote that broke a tie on the measure. Twelve Republicans voted for the Dems plan, showing maybe a sign that there is some 'let's work together' sentiment going on up there during the Special.

Now, we are on to HB 2. It's 6:30 and wouldn't you know it? As soon as we turn on the live feed it's Martha friggin' Wong at the mic.

We are not going to liveblog the HB2 debate because we've got shit to do, but...Rep. Carter Casteel is at the mic. Could someone get her her very own show?

Well, this photo is making the email rounds in the Capitol today.

And UT Baseball Coach Augie Garrido came on the floor with the rest of the UT baseball team, said a lot of nice things about Texas baseball, and said, "I'd just like to add that you can never spend too much on education"

And, according to our tipster, "it was awesome----there was this huge uproar on the House floor, and Craddick just about shit a brick."

I have just been tipped to this article from the Express-News: Madla says he will run for Senate again. Oh boy-eee. Here's the choice quote:

"With my seniority, the breadth of experience from serving over three decades in the Legislature, and the relationships I have forged with Democratic and Republican colleagues, I am perfectly positioned to facilitate resolutions to these and other important issues," he said.

We love this photo so much we want an autographed version. State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn's criticism of Perry's school finance plan and his return fire are covered in today's ASS AAS. If this battle of the back-and-forth is any indication of what's to come, we say advantage, Strayhorn. Here's why.

Strayhorn says the Perry plan doesn't add up. Guess what? The LBB and the House committee agree with her. But, Perry can only respond with this:

"The comptroller refuses to put forward her own plan for fear of criticism, but is quick to criticize others," said Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt. "It's a sad comment on her inability to lead."

Ok...it's not the comptroller's job to put forth a school finance plan you dipshit. It's your job. If the comptroller even attempted to put forth a plan the entire state would attack her with a collective, "What the hell?"

Pitiful, Kathy, Pitiful.

Kinky Friedman took time out from his book signing to speak a little truth.

"My campaign is not the joke," he said, his trademark cigar hanging from his lips. "It's the Texas Legislature that's a joke."

Amazing how if you let that just sit there for a while it sort of resonates, doesn't it? The brutal truth of the matter is that the Emperor has no clothes. Even Perry reminded the Legislature the other day that all the other crap they are busily putting on the calendar is not the reason he called them back.

Still desperately seeking a leader. Anyone? Bueller. Anyone?
[Corpus Christi Caller-Times via QR]

That's Greek for Finance Public Education. Since our brains are pickled from too much gin, Greek makes about as much sense to us as the school finance plans put forth by everybody.

Reading the Quorum Report's coverage of the House Ways & Means Committee today did make us wish we were just a little bit smarter.

The Governor's Budget Director Mike Morrissey said the state has 535,000 filers, of which 150,000 businesses ending up paying a tax. The Governorâ??s office estimates closing the Delaware sub and Geoffrey loophole would bring another 10,000 payers into the system.

Ok, back the truck up a minute. Is that 535,000 "Business" filers? Ok, first..that seems low. Second, How come only 150,000 of them are paying taxes? WTF?

Uhm, I don't want to say nothing...but as someone with a pea-sized brain it seems to me if you have 535,000 filers you'd have a bit higher percentage paying taxes.

And then Rep. Keffer said, "Youâ??re putting the Legislature in a very tough box because now we have to live up to that sound bite, and we have some extremely tough choices to make when we come back."

Well, D'uh. Anyone have sympathy for elected officials having to make tough choices? We bet Texans make tough choices all the time. Maybe those teachers whose pay ranks (what is it? 47th in the nation?) among the lowest in the country make tough choices every day. Like...is it Ramen noodles for dinner or turkey hot dogs.

Keffer, if y'all are looking for sympathy from the voters because the legislature has got a clusterfuck when it comes to school finance, we suggest you keep on lookin' cause you ain't gonna get it here.

Carole Keeton Strayhorn says Perry's school finance proposal falls short and will create a big ass gap come 2008. (Big ass is defined as anything over $2 billion dollars, FYI) and Perry's Pit Bull Kathy Walt wakes up from a nap and says, "Whoa! That is so like totally a lie."

Apparently the Mofo vetoed a lot of stuff that makes it all add up.

Quorum Report has the scoop and we'll let someone that's smarter than us figure out who's lying. We mean, someone's got to be lying, right?

Uhm, apparently 'eop.gov' is some sort of domain that comes from within the White House. Guess that explains the how this search term came to PinkDome: "shrunken testicles"

So, if you have something in particular to say to the White House comment away. But, keep it legal and nothing we'll wind up getting a knock on the door by men in dark glasses for.

Juanita has a post about a flyer that's appeared on cars in the First Colony Mall in Sugar Land. You know, in Tom Delay's home district. Click the image for the .PDF

The Supreme Court has decided that Texas' Ten Commandments display on the lawn of the capitol is A-OK:

(A) 6-foot-granite monument on the grounds of the Texas Capitol - one of 17 historical displays on the 22-acre lot - was determined to be a legitimate tribute to the nation's legal and religious history.

"Of course, the Ten Commandments are religious - they were so viewed at their inception and so remain. The monument therefore has religious significance," Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist wrote for the majority in the case involving the display outside the state capitol of Texas.

"Simply having religious content or promoting a message consistent with a religious doctrine does not run afoul of the Establishment clause," he said. [Myway: AP news]

Be the first person to email us a photo of you wearing a PinkDome 'Adios, Mofo' t-shirt in front of the State Capitol and we'll send you two dozen Tiff's Treats fresh baked cookies! (we'll photoshop out your face)

Senator Van de Putte has been named President-Elect of the National Conference of State Legislators. We guess that rocks, if you're a total political nerd.

Gritsforbreakfast has some great notes on blogs and blogging. Here are few interesting points, but go read it yourself, lazy.
"...blog readership increased 58% in 2004 making it one of the fastest growing media,...Blog readers already constitute the equivalent of 20% of the total newspaper audience and 40% of the talk radio audience"

Here's something we already knew. Blogs do better on search engines than campaign web sites. Check out one of our favorite games, Googlefight, where we kick Rick Perry's ass with Google links.

Just this week, we saw once again what the viral world of the Internet can do with the 'Adios, MoFo' t-shirts. Saturday night the NBC affiliate from El Paso called us for a report and today's FWST breathes new life into the story. The whole 'adios, mofo' thing would have probably petered out just four years ago but with blogs swirling around it has stayed in the news cycle for almost a whole week now.

Houston's Gay Pride Parade saw a big turnout this year and the Houston Democrats Hubert Vo, Garnett Coleman and Senfronia Thompson all made an appearance at the event. (Houston Democrats)Apparently, they remember gay people vote and are part of their constituency and are probably begging for some brave leadership.

Funny, we did not see a photo of Martha Wong? Isn't the Montrose in her district? Maybe she had a big feng shui gig or something.

The DMN has outsmarted my pop-up blocker with annoying new advertising that manages to obscure the entire site. View image Are the stories so embarrassing they'd rather you not read them?

We know advertising is de riguer for websites, hell we've even decided to add blogads, but they aren't intrusive. We want to go to a site, read and navigate easily and move on. We don't want to 'register' and we sure as hell aren't going to pay for content.

What happens when you burn an American Flag? Dangerous particles are released threatening freedom and liberty, explained in this creative essay. [via freakgirl]

Seriously. We have had so much fun and don't think we've said, 'MoFo' so often in such a short period of time in a long while. With that in mind, PinkDome opens up the PinkDome MoFo store. Our new favorite is the Vote MoFo merchandise. Tired of people bitching about politics, easy..tell 'em Vote MoFo.

While PD is recovering from last night, I'm here for you. Sorta. I'm going to pass on this opinion piece from the Waco Tribune-Herald co-written by Rep. Grusendorf and David Russell. It's all about an incentive plan for educators. We think that teachers deserve better pay all around. Let's get these people on or above a living wage already!

Rep. Ken Grusendorf [ERICH SCHLEGEL/DMN]

PinkDome is drunk posting (WOOOHOOO). Meaning while y'all are up at 8:00 a.m. doing political shit, we'll be drooling on our pillow cursing the rising sun. Comment away and when we wake up we'll see what's pissing us off today. Hopefully Bluebonnet is not hungover and will have something interesting in a bit.

. . . but y'all know by now that I am biased where he's concerned.

Texas Freedom Network has released their grades for reps and how they voted on public education. You can see all the ratings here(.pdf).

Andy Brown fires a shot across the bow of Todd Baxter with a press release today condemning Baxter's votes in the Regular Session. (after the jump)

We expect lots of challengers will use the Special as a great opportunity to just beat the incumbents over the head. Lord knows, they'll have plenty of material!

We hear Rep. Anna Mowery just signed onto the Democrats School Finance Plan as a co-author.

While we're on the theme of education this month, we noticed this article from the El Paso Times which reminded us that it's been 10 years since the Lege approved the first charter school.

I have conflicting views on charter schools. It is great that these schools offer an intimate environment for learning through smaller classes. They also allow a bit more freedom in curriculum. However there are some bad examples out there. We know that not every charter school director will bankrupt their school and use our taxes for a non-school-related trip to Africa. Still, if we are going to continue to have charter schools, there needs to be more, and better, regulation. At this point, it seems they are here to stay (like it or not).

For more info:

• TEA Division of Charter Schools
  
• Texas Freedom Network: Charter Schools Fact Sheet
  
• Texas Charter School Legislation and the Evolution of Open-Enrollment Charter Schools(.pdf)

We got some great emails. Here's our top 3 faves:

The cookies go to this tipster:
I would say that SB 12, by Harris, is the one that has the least to do with anything. It asks for us to put new lights, better signs, and better Tulips for our public parks and lands. A valid idea, but one that is more for the local Gardener's Club meeting than the Texas legislature.

Also mentioned:
Why would you need a constitutional amendment to eleminate a county treasurer??

and..
Rep. Keel re-filed his "death penalty cases don't need no stinking lawyers" bill that got roundly rejected in the regular session.

Thanks! And enjoy the cookies!

So far, we see that 63 Bills were introduced for the Special Session. Let's be generous and say 13 of those have to do with school finance (you know, the reason we're all swirling around the pink dome...hahaha, j/k. We're all swirling around because it's a campaign event.)

So, that leaves 50 (pronounced: fid-dee) Bills dealing with some other crap we're too lazy to look up right now. We'll deliver one dozen Tiff's Treats cookies to the first staffer to email us with the most outrageous, nothing to do with school finance Bill introduced so far.

Get to it! Hot fresh cookies on the line!

We'll announce a winner just after noon. (Don't worry, we won't 'announce' as in your name, etc.)

Adios, MoFo has made it out of Texas. Wonkette has it, BOR has a hilarious Adios, MoFo remix. (PD is apparently the only ones that feel the need to capitalize the "F" in MoFo, though...we have a strange affection for the "F" all around you know)

We would like to thank Governor Perry for inspiring a full line of Adios, MoFo merchandise available on Pinkdome.

[Update: Dallas Morning News asks us a question about Adios, MoFo]

Thanks for putting us in the position of having to defend Hillary Clinton, assholes. The book, The Truth About Hillary: What She Knew, When She Knew It and How Far She'll Go to Become President, is causing rage throughout the Internet.

I guess we could just laugh and say some conservatives are so friggin' afraid of this lady they have fabricated an entire book full of lies. Including the claim that Bill Clinton, a former president of the United States of America, raped his wife to conceive their child.

When politics gets this nasty we have two words for those that participate: Adios, MoFo.

We get one last sine die story:

What Senator showed up to the senate messenger sine die party at the penthouse of the Doubltree around 2 a.m. with two 'fine ass ladies'?

Your guesses in the comments.

Drumming up support for his school finance plan, on his campaign web site no less. It puts $5 billion back into schools!! Contact your legislators today!! Listen here and vomit on you own time, please.

Tom Tomorrow of the comic strip This Modern World posts on his blog a comparison involving this loverly quote from Tom DeLay:

"You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways," DeLay said.

"Everybody that comes from Iraq is amazed at the difference of what they see on the ground and what they see on the television set." [Houston Chronicle]

Senator Van de Putte's new media director, Vanessa Solesbee, starts work today and immediately gets Van de Putte 'on message.'

"If we are going to demand excellence from our students, we shouldn't settle for mediocrity from our Legislators."

Personally, we think mediocrity from the legislature would be a stretch. Excellence? Bless your little pea-pickin' heart for even thinking it.

Full release after the jump.

Whatever the opposite of a policy analyst is, that's us. But we did take a look at the Perry Plan Overview and pulled out these two items: 1.) Increase the sales tax to 6.95% and 2.) Increase the cigarette tax by $1.00. Then we went over to the 2004 data provided by the Tax Foundation's web site and discovered two interesting facts about Perry's plan.[AAS]

His proposed sales tax increase would give Texas the 3rd highest sales tax in the nation. Only Tennessee, Mississippi and Rhode Island have higher sales taxes. The proposed increase in cigarette taxes would put Texas at the top of this again, with only 7 states with a higher tax on cigarettes. Since we don't know anything about taxes or policy analysis, we suggest you verify and confirm.

Lastly, a tax on cosmetic surgery is just wrong.

Sometimes, It's just too good. Buy it online now.

In a rare TV interview, Perry signed off with "Adios, MoFo" to the reporter from KRTK. The question the reporter asked was, "Governor, what do you think the voters will say to you come next election once you fail to fix school finance yet again?" [QR]

KTRK posts:

"Those last words aren't exactly part of the seven dirty words, but it isn't something you want to say to your mother or use in good company. Tuesday morning, Governor Perry called me personally. He apologized and said his comment wasn't directed at us."

If you believe that, I've got a beachfront condo in Oklahoma for sale. Cheap. Speaking of buying, get the t-shirt!

First day of the Special. Representative Kolkhorst took the mic, "Point of Order Mr. Speaker. The level of bitchiness around here is intolerable. I move the House stand in adjournment until Monday, June 27th. I'm supposed to float the river this weekend."

Kinky Freidman's campaign released this statement about the Special. It's amazing how powerful the truth is...oh...and how hilarious it can be. BURN!

We'd like to welcome our Texas legislators back to Austin, and we wish them success in devising a solution to our public school finance crisis. We hope that they will take the issue of educating our kids as seriously as they took cheerleading.

A tipster sends us the brief on what's what in the House:

...there is also a bill, HB 16 that provides a onetime $3600 across the board pay raise for teachers & school admin...I cant access Pena's bill online so I can't really compare the one he filed after...additionally, Hochberg's HB 15 provides a $4000 teachers pay raise, $2000 the first year, $2000 the second. Also, in case you were wondering, Madden brought back those lame ass virtual schools in HB 17.

WTF? This is why it is offensive if you ever refer to PinkDome as a 'journalist' or a media outlet. If Phillip Hamilton were any further up Governor Perry's ass he'd be a hemmorhoid. Click the extended entry for what's pissed me off so much.

Today at noon. In reading the media's stories this morning on the Special there is a theme that just sort of pissed us off every time we read it: "...negotiations over school finance ran out of time just before the regular legislative session ended on Memorial Day." [DMN]

Time did not "run out" on school finance. It was a top priority and was the fourth attempt in four years to fix school finance. It's so bad in this state that a friggin' court has to step in and scream for the Lege to fix it.

Time did not "run out" during the Session. Time was wasted on social issues, intra-party fighting and dick size contests. Everyone was busy jockeying for their next elected office or campaign and how to GOTV of their base. The leadership was busy arm-twisting and putting their paid-for agenda through the legislature.

So, everyone (not just the DMN) would you--for the love of all that is holy--quit saying "time ran out" on school finance so oops we're at it again. Try writing it this way: "The legislature completely failed its main objective in the 79th Regular Session and is for the fourth time in four years back where they started. Political infighting and we guess just plain old stupidity are the reason everyone's back in Austin for 30 days."
[photo: AP]

Today begins the special session on education financing. We know not to get our hopes up too much, but we see that our friend Rep. Pena has already put his nose to the grindstone. We hope this bodes well for the rest of y'all.

National Journal's brand new blog, Beltway Blogroll, is a great read and it is wonderful to see traditional media understand the power of blogs and de-mystify blogging for the rest of us. Well, not us..you.

But so far, it's just a lame announcement. [QR]

Also known as an in your face move, the House Democratic Leadership announced their own school finance solution.

The Democrats that are all whiny and with no agenda seem to be the only ones with an agenda so far, and outlined a comprehensive school finance solution in a press conference this afternoon. There's a copy of the press release here and a copy of the Principles of the program here.

â??This is not the time to embrace just any solution for the sake of politics,â?? Rep. Hochberg said. â??Today, we are again offering a sound starting point to solve this problem once and for all. We cannot afford to let partisanship make things worse for our school children when we can work together to make things better.â??

We've decided that we are not going to say Carole Keeton Strayhorn can't beat Perry in a Primary. It may be tough to do, but we're already sick of seeing every media outlet use Perry press release lingo to refer to her campaign for Governor as something other than a legitimate threat. As a matter of fact, we just may start calling her the Republican Primary frontrunner.

Texas Monthly reminds us why she is a force in politics. We thought we'd share it with you. (After the jump)

So Perry doesn't have the great Gabe Kaplan do . . . it is somewhat comparable. On that note, we were passed on an article from Capitol Inside about how Perry has a backup plan if his special session accomplishes nothing. From their story (which you have to be a member to read):

Welcome back to town, y'all. We have a few suggestions how to make the Summer Special tolerable.

1. Robert Talton should not be recognized by the Speaker for anything. Ever.
2. Frozen margarita machines in your office will make constituent visits much more pleasant.
3. Every Wednesday debate should be held at Barton Springs Pool.
4. All press conferences (AKA political campaign events) should close out with Rep. Senfronia Thompson grabbing the microphone and saying, "Overruled."
5. Point of Personal Preference, May the Members be allowed to wear shorts and flip-flops on the House Floor?
6. Point of Personal Preference, May that Point exclude Susanna Hupp? We can't tolerate the idea of acid-washed denim jean shorts potentially making an appearance.
7. Press briefings held at the Four Season pool. Anyone?
8. More Carter, Less Tom.

Add your own to welcome back the State's esteemed elected officials.

Looks like Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson will formally announce his intention to run for re-election on Thursday.

We love to see a *Media Advisory* with a bit of humor in it:

NOTE:
No hot dogs, pony rides or live music. But at least it's inside.

Could someone make up a big wall chart for us on who all is running for what? We started one but decided it was way to boring.

The Texas Monthly Best & Worst List was great and all, but then we started thinking....hey, PinkDome has a lot of smart people that probably have an opinion on the legislators this Session. So, in the comments leave us your ideas of the Best & Worst. Wonder if anyone will try to improve their ranking.

We'll pick two best and two worst.
Best
Representative Carter Casteel--A Republican who knows the difference between governing and politics. Standing up for her constituents and for public education make her a standout this session. You folks up there in the pink dome ought to be carrying Carter around on your shoulders.

Representative Senfronia Thompson--Love her. Someone told us Representative has 'no credibility' among the power elite. We think Rep. Thompson's devotion to her constituents and to the poor folk in Texas gives her enormous credibility and power. And besides, her impassioned speech on HJR 6 has made its way virally around the world via the Internet. That's some power.

Worst
Rep. Terry Keel--First off, he totally tried to trick PinkDome on a subject. Secondly, his petty killing of bills because his big melon head feelings got hurt were like the actions of a 7th grade girl, not a legislator. We think he must have stopped taking his Xanax when he accused a member of the judiciary of threatening him. All that and now he wants to be a member of the judiciary. What a tool.

Rep. Robert Talton--How can PD say anything but, "cockface" when describing Robert Talton? His big push this session was HJR 6 and a gay foster parents ban. He also had DPS officers guarding his office all session so the gays could not even get to him to talk to him. He's so immersed in hate and ignorance he's afraid to learn the truth that he speaks lies and hate. Definitely an embarrassment to the State of Texas.

Your ideas?

Juneteenth is celebrated this weekend as the celebration that followed when news that the Civil War had ended and with it, so did slavery. A full two and a half years after Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation.

Just think, if PinkDome had been around you'd only had to wait until we woke up from a drunken stupor to find out.

Carole Keeton Strayhon announced her candidacy for Governor of Texas today at a rally held near the Capitol. Strayhorn said, "Now is the time to replace this do nothin' drugstore cowboy with one tough grandma. Rick Perry has promised any challenger in his own words, and I quote, 'A bloody brutal campaign.' If that is the campaign he promises to wage, bring it on." [AAS]

Strayhorn's official announcement came on the heels of Kay Bailey's announcement she'd go back to the Senate. Senator Hutchison said, "Goddammit y'all. I wanted to come back to Texas cause Washington is a shithole."

Oh, and Governor Perry did something today, too. Funny, though, we are going to let Strayhorn have the 'news cycle' on PinkDome. All day today and tomorrow. (image of PinkDome with one finger salute pointed towards Capitol inserted here)

Morgan Quitno Press has ranked states by 'education' and names the smartest to the dumbest. Texas? 33rd in a dead heat with....wait for it......West Virginia. That's right, Mountain Momma. [via bluemassgroup]

We say we all lobby for education dollars dressed like toothless hillbillies. *shudder*

Thanks to a commenter on ITPT, we see this link to a 'whole bunch of shit' the Governor vetoed this late afternoon. Somebody figure out if any of these bills were noteworthy.

Here at DemocracyFest as people pour in for the GLBT caucus, the Texas Veterans caucus and the Blogger caucus. Word is, C-Span will be covering a DeLay panel discussion tomorrow. That could be hilarious.

As soon as we got a wireless connection a staffer IM'd us with these additonal tidbits about the rumors swirling this afternoon about a special. Here's the highlights.

--Apparently the Speaker's office is behind the Tuesday rumor when the Gov. and Lt. Gov. were thinking more like the 27th instead.
--Some think the Special will be targeted for a 3 day event.
--Pitts is still in the Carribean on vacation so if Perry needs his vote the Special may be on hold until he can get here.
--Judicial pay raises and school finance are on the agenda.
--There is a 'fragile' deal on school finance in place, but the Gov. wants more time to negotiate with Craddick.

And on the "Who's getting indicted?" front we hear a total of 8 indictments will come down. More on that later.

Now, we'll go wander over to where the free drinks are...what? No margarita machine? What kind of fresh hell is this?

Rumor has it we are in for a DRAMATIC Special. Could an indictment come at the time we're all scurrying around looking at a new school finance proposal. Will Craddick have to be dragged out of the House Chamber?

Will Shapiro eat crow for her leak about a Special? Will Carole Keeton Strayhorn pop Perry upside the head for stealing her news cycle on Saturday?

Next Season on the Texas Legislature. Don't Miss it!

Sorry, but I could not help myself about the Brady Bunch reference. Like Perry would ever marry Shapiro,she's not his type he's already married and we think he opposed polygamy this last Session. Looks like she wanted to be the one to leak the news of the Special Session Perry will announce on Saturday as he summons everyone back to Austin. Told y'all we smelled bullshit wafting back into Austin.

Funny how the announcement will take place the same day as Strayhorn's media fair. Hmmm, politics anyone? Don't mind if we do. Thankyouverymuch. [DMN]

With the exception of the Carole Keeton Strayhorn county fair tomorrow, it's all Democrats, all the time in Austin this weekend.

DemocracyFest is in full swing. Check out the calendar for events, et cetera. Plus, meet the Dallas County Sheriff, Lupe Valdez tonight at Habana Calle Seis, 709 E. 6th Street, 5:30-7:30. (PDF Invite)

We think the "YeeHaa!" accompanied by a "Hell Yeah!" will go over in Texas a lot better than it did in Iowa or wherever. I mean, we've been to an Aggie game before and those two words are practically the entire vocabulary in College Station.

For exactly where Howard Dean will be while he's here in Texas, see the extended entry.

Yep. And there's a preview available online, even. But, we're not linking to it. Go buy it and read it yourself. We will share this plea from Texas Monthly about the list, though.

One more thing: please, no cracks about how hard it is to find ten folks for the Best list. Itâ??s no joke. Nor is there anything funny about how easy it is to find ten Worsts. Especially this year.

Eh. It's against our nature to accept without criticism or not make a crack about the 79th Legislative Session. So, we'll just shut up and go back to bed.

Will we or won't we? The talk about a Special has not stopped. QR goes out on a limb. Here's how we know there's a Special coming...we went outside to a big whiff. Yep, smells like bullshit wafting back towards the Capitol. That must mean a Special is on the horizon. (Like how we've arbitrarily decided to capitalize 'Special')

. . . for the state's lowest-paid teachers, that is. These teachers will receive an automatic pay raise since the Lege never got their act together on the school finance bill. The Lufkin Daily-News reports:

Based on the automatic increase, the minimum salary for a first-year teacher will rise from $24,240 to $24,910, according to the Texas Education Agency. Teachers with 20 or more years of classroom experience will see their minimum salaries bumped from $40,800 to $41,930, the TEA said. The average pay increase will be 2.76 percent.

In past years, the Legislature had changed state law to override the automatic adjustments, but they forgot to do it this year, said John Cole, president of the Texas Federation of Teachers, in a Fort Worth Star-Telegram story.

We strongly encourage everyone to take action regarding the killings of women in Ciudad Juarez (across the border from El Paso) and the area of Chihuahua. We first read about these acts of violence a couple years ago, when Molly Ivins wrote a column about it. As of today, more than 70 women remain missing from the area. This is ridiculous. The government is working on it, but more can be done.

For more information: Amnesty International's page on the murders, Alternet: Letter from Juarez, Alternet: The Disappearing Women of Chihuahua City, and even CourtTV has a site on the murders.

Okay, back to our regularly scheduled programming.

Texas Monthly will announce its Best & Worst Legislators of 2005 tomorrow morning. We would wander over, but we're pretty confident that it's really bright outside at 9:30 and after a night of apple martinis it doesn't seem like a good idea. (we learned that the hard way)

So, if you are going to be there shoot us an email and tell us if Harvey was actually salivating with anticipation and if Karen Brooks was there...just because, we like it when she's around.

The big news of course will be how in the hell did they pick a best list? It's got to be a pretty low bar for them to squeeze a whole list out of this year.

And every time I look at this cover here, I go where in the hell is Ann? Ann, if you are out there could you please provide some sassy commentary? Thank you.

The campaign to raise $30,000 by June 15 was hit and exceeded with small donations from people like you. Well, not people like you exactly...people like other people better than you.

The House rejected a provision of the Patriot Act yesterday that would permit the government to track you down based on what books you check out from the library and to compile data on what books you buy at the bookstore. Supporters of the Patriot Act countered that the rules are potentially useful and argued that the House was voting to make libraries safe havens for terrorists. [AP]

We have personally only used the library for its computer lab to send out copious amounts of resumes and to check out books because we couldn't afford to buy them. We have never used the library computers to surf porn sites. As far as the FBI knows.

Laredo Mayor Betty Flores is begging Governor Perry for help. The outbreak of violence in Nuevo Laredo is crossing the border into Laredo. We'd just ask Governor Perry, Yo...can you stop running for re-election for like five minutes and look down there and see what's up for us? You want us to go look? Mmm, No we really think you should go first.

"We're not going to be able to cover this," she told the Star-Telegram. "I'm telling you right now we can't do it on our own anymore. We need this assistance."

Flores, above all, wants state help to buy communications equipment and helicopters to aid in the apprehension of suspects. In a letter to Perry on Monday, Flores called her request for help a matter of "great urgency" and cited violent incidents that are the "direct result of the organized crime and violence occurring in our neighboring city of Nuevo Laredo."

"This violence is spreading to our city," she wrote

Looks like it's about to be full on. How exciting that we'll have so many qualified candidates to clearly define their differing positions on how to make Texas' future brighter. HAR!!

What we mean is, this is going to be hilarious. Everyone is fully expecting State Comptroller Strayhorn to announce on Saturday. The Perry engine is already gearing up with the Carole Keeton Strayhorn is no threat messaging. But, as the Austin American-Statesman Reports today,

Strayhorn is no pushover; she outdrew every other statewide candidate in 2002, winning nearly 2.9 million votes against Democratic challenger Marty Akins of Marble Falls. Perry got 2.6 million votes in defeating Tony Sanchez the same year.

Hutchison campaign spokesman Terry Sullivan offered no clues but heartily handicapped Strayhorn going solo commando versus Perry: "Here's how she wins: She's not Rick Perry."

Again, Hutchison's office offers a major burn to Perry.

DemocracyFest 2005 will be held in Austin this weekend and is sold out, from what we understand. Check the site for last minute availability. If you'll be there, some random person pretending to be us will speak at the Blogger's Caucus. Hope he gets laid. More here.

Bluebonnet won't be attending (cheapskate), but she sends her best wishes!

According to today's Hotline, Senator John Cornyn has the lowest 'home turf' approval ranking of all 100 Senators.

Dear PinkDome:
Bob Nichols, he sets on TXDOT, Staples is on Transportation committee
also. Plus Nichols flew Staples around in all his campaigns.
Thanks for the interest, this campaign will be grassroots because the
big boys are against us.

The voters will win, watch and see.

Melanie Curtsinger
Campaign Manager for David Kleimann for Texas State Senate.

Not sure if this is true or not, but I'm passing it on anyway. From the Muckraker:

Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn personally asks you to BE HERE for a MAJOR ANNOUNCEMENT this Saturday. June 18th at 12:15 - 16th & Congress (Just North of the Capital).

afternoon update: It seems that the QR has posted on it, and everyone else is accepting this as rumored truth. Rumored truth - there's an oxymoron for ya.

Lonely after so many nights on the sofa in the governor's mansion, Governor Perry says he'll be calling a special before the end of June. [San Antonio Express-News, Quorum Report]

"I cannot wait to have everyone here for the summer. Yea!!" Perry squealed while clapping his hands at a fundraiser in San Antonio.

No, we have not been reading the Kinky Friedman or Chris Bell or any other candidates blogs. We do read the Perry blog every five minutes...oh wait. Anyway, we did spend a little time tonight in between tequila shots to read a few posts. Chris Bell's blog gets points for being 'on message' but Kinky's blog wins the overall prize for readability. It was like a goddamn short story collection.

Yes, the U.S. Senate did pass a resolution to apologize for not being able to pass anti-lynching laws in the United States for 50 years. It passed unanimously. Eighty-four Senators are co-sponsors of the resolution. Those are the facts.

It should not surprise you that John Cornyn was among the 16 that did not use the revise and consent rule to add his name as a co-sponsor. Whatever happened to the good ol' days of a lynch mob? My, my, my...times they are a changin'.

[edited: 8:30 a.m.]
Commenter says, Senate voted..it was unanimous and for everybody to just move on. Sure, we're moving on. This was a great thing the Senate did and it was only 50 years overdue. We're proud of the 84 senators that rushed to sign on after the fact as co-sponsors to make sure that just the 6 Senators that voted (that's how it was unanimous) weren't the only ones that could say they VOTED for the resolution. We just thought it would be cool if since it was, you know, unanimous the revise and extent rule could be used to add your name to the co-sponsor list instead of lying about it.

That's all. So, yeah, we're moving on.

David Kliemann for outstanding achievement in the field of populism and railing against insider politics in Austin. The Quorum Report has the press release.

Award was based on the following content:

However, last week, on Tuesday, June 7th at around 11:30 in the morning, I received a phone call from Senator Todd Staples.

He asked me to drop out of this race. He said this senate seat and I quote, "Has been promised to another man." According to Staples, who is not going to run for the senate again, he and many in Austin have already hand-picked his replacement.

Full release below:

When I posted the entry about the porn star Mary Carey dining at the White House I didn't expect you'd actually click through to her online porn site while working in the Capitol building. D'oh! Sorry, but staffers looking at online porn isn't something new. Pervs.

From a tipster today on possible candidates for The Cowardly Madla's Senate seat.

Two possible opponents for Madla, the Dem who flipped on HJR 6: Carlos Uresti and Robert Puente. Both are exploring primary challenges against Madla.

(We know we are all about the photos today, but come on...you so wanted to see that photo again!)

Either way, Chris Bell's exploratory committee is hard on the heels of its first grassroots fundraising campaign. It's so Joe Trippi I can't stand it. So MoveOn.org! So, so...tomorrow!

At $24,053 last time we checked they seem to be well on their way to reaching the modest goal of $30,000. We weren't in on the 'blogger conference call' last night because at 7 p.m. we are well into the liquor cabinet and talking politics before we get a full on drunk going is way too much to handle.

Sorry, we were thinking of a joke. Sadly, not a joke is the Marriage Alliance web site. Conveniently featuring a hilarious video message from Governor Perry standing in front of the Governor's mansion. (Where he spends most nights on the sofa) Perry pleads to the camera to protect marriage, so we obliged. We're protecting marriage as we speak by sleeping with both the husband and wife that live next door. It's the least we could do to help them out.

Visit the site, and make sure to leave a comment!! Bloggers love comments! More at ITPT.

For those of you in Austin that have some free time right now (ahem, scrabble whiz) and are wondering what to do around town and what you should know about Austin that you don't, check out the site Austinist. It's the latest in the 'ist sites created by Gothamist. The people over there probably drink a lot more than we do. Somebody drinks more than we do, right? We'll keep the link in our PD Other Reads list.

This should have been simply a Caption This Picture post, but we had not mentioned Phil "Abused Teenager Ninja Mutant Turtle" King's plan to raise the state sales tax or utility bills or, wait for it, both! King thinks it would be a good idea to let the voters of Texas decide.

Are you shitting me? Yep, voters always line up to vote for an increase in taxes. See...nobody likes tax increases. Even liberal 'whiners' and the really poor people don't like taxes. That's why we elect people to figure that shit out and make it happen and we gripe and bitch and then pay the damn taxes.

That's how it works, Phil. Now, shut your stupid pie hole and get back to Austin and fix the mess. Put it to a statewide vote, indeed! [FW Star-Telegram]

Mary Carey, porn star (and I love this part) former gubenatorial candidate will dine at the White House tonight.

Oh yeah. Wonder if she'll bring that dildo she holds so affectionately on her site. Think George and Dick are up for some light bondage and ass-play later this evening?

Who are we kidding, who's not up for light bondage and ass-play?
[via Americablog]

Governor Perry is being asked to apologize for suggesting gay veterans not come back to Texas. So far, he's receiving some angry requests from voters and groups to apologize.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

Gov. Rick Perry touched off unmet calls for an apology last week by saying gay veterans wishing to marry might be better off living in other states, but it's uncertain whether his comment will have political ramifications as he seeks re-election next year.

"Such a person has no business serving in office," A.J. Rogue, national president of the veterans group, said in an e-mail, saying Perry's comments "not only reek of McCarthyism and Naziism, they truly have no place coming from one of our elected representatives of government."

We don't know anything about science. Well, we do know that after four Red Bull and vodkas we're likely to throw up...is that science? Anyway, found this rant from a scientist that is as mad as hell and isn't going to take it anymore from the "creationists" so he's declaring a nerd war on them.

[via: Fables of the Reconstruction]

The New Life Church Pastor that asked his parishoners to not be so weird when the television crews come to film there. Non-Prophet has the hilarious responses from some of his parishoners.

KXAN reports that the Minuteman Project will be in South Texas this weekend to begin training for the citizen border patrol program they intend to start in October here in Texas. Governor Perry has shifted from his earlier position of 'almost inviting' them to Texas with a new and improved position (you know after they took a poll) and now says "I understand why people get upset about that. And the fact of the matter is, we shouldn't even be having to have the conversation that there are private citizens going down there and trying to make whatever their role is. The federal government needs to be stepping up and doing this for us." [KXAN-Austin]

So, it was all true. Rep. Pena's son was attacked outside a polling place by a supporter of mayoral candidate, Richard Cortez. Rep. Pena has a very thoughtful and level-headed post on his blog.

It reminded me of another one of my father's infamous sayings, "There are two things you don't fuck with, my money or my kids."

But this is why people always say such good things about thoughtful and level-headed people. You know, 'Thank God, cooler heads prevailed.' We're more of a reactionary and were more inclined to respond with, "Do we need to haul our country ass up to McAllen?"

Congressmen begin to test the waters of opposing the continued presence in Iraq without a firm withdrawal plan. Republican lawmakers in Washington are ever-so-softly beginning to express concern about a war that nearly 6 out of 10 Americans are already past 'concern' and entering the 'get us the hell out of there' phase. This comes out at the same time the words Military Draft are making their appearance more often.

The Quorum Report, known for its hot insider 'buzz', actually posts a fascinating tale of two staffers having babies on the very same day!

The Christian Wire Service, a reputable and non-biased news organization, reports that a CDC survey proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that gays are more criminal than any other group of people in the world.

The 1996 study by the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that was withheld from the general public because of its explosive content, found that gays more frequently engaged in criminality.

Now, it was just Saturday that we said "Yo we are not at war here" and by Monday we're like..."Oh shit, we totally are and I didn't even know it." Damn the luck.

The Texas Observer, in a scathing (do they write any other kind) account of Rep. Todd Smith's attempt to raise the cap on child support payments in Texas, explains how Rep. Dutton's own committee refused to meet and all his cozying up to the Speaker really got him nowhere.

When the bill to raise child support caps made its way back from the Senate, word is Dutton ensured its demise with some controversial amendments. When the Texas observer asked if perhaps his own child support order for his four kids had anything to do with the bills death, Dutton replied with this nugget:

â??What I have going on personally doesnâ??t have a motherfucking thing to do with nothing,â?? Dutton said. â??If thatâ??s what you are after, fuck you.â??

DMN columnist Holly Hacker (rather unfortunate name for a journalist, wouldn't you agree?) writes that Texas Higher Education leaders are by and large "pretty O.K., man" with the legislative session this year because they "totally got most of what we asked santa for."

Some might say that higher ed got what they wanted at the expense of K-12 that got, you know, the shaft.

Criticize Texas! And for what? The AAS editorial board attempts biting sarcasm with mention of recent Wall Street Journal editorials criticizing Texas.

Texas' top political leaders ought to be overjoyed at recent editorials in the Wall Street Journal â?? that well-known bastion of liberal thought â?? that asked: "What's the matter with Texas?" Then the editors got testy.

"But it's almost inconceivable that the Legislature would adjourn until 2007 without chopping property taxes. Skyrocketing appraisals are taxing Texans out of their houses and infuriated homeowners are ready to march on Austin," the Journal declared in its trademark piquant language.

The cherry on that sundae was an op-ed piece by J.R. Labbe, senior editorial writer of the Fort Worth Star Telegram, that was extremely critical of the governor who was once lionized on the Journal editorial page. Among the many harpoons in the Labbe piece was a dismissive description of Perry â?? a Republican for the past 20 or so years â?? as "a former Democrat."

In the Sunday Houston Chronicle, an article attacking Howard Dean, DNC Chairman was featured with what I'll post as an 'out-of-context' quote and by that I mean, entirely in context.

"...He's never won anything, as best I can tell," Cheney said

Uhm, I don't know Dean's political resume, but I think he won a Governor's Race, I think he may have won a primary or two and I also think he won the DNC chair. Compared to Cheney winning an election to Congress back in what, 1952 in a state with what? 200 people? Ok.

Cheney continues his long-standing position in this administration as Chief Propaganda Con Artist.

Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.

The Christian Evangelicals that declared war on America with tales of apopalyptic (sp?) results if Bush's agenda wasn't successful are seeing that America is waking up and saying, collectively, "WTF?" Chritians know that a war in Iraq under false pretenses is/was wrong and if allegations prove true there should be accountability. Christians know that religious persecution exists all over the world and by inserting religion into government policy we risk religious persecution here at home. Christians know that gay Americans (while Christians may say 'sinner') are not inherently evil or carriers of disease and deserve persecution. Remember, Jesus hung out with hookers and lepers. (And before the hate mail starts--Gays are not equal to hookers and lepers, I'm merely showing compassion of Christ for all God's children).

So, now..what's a good Christian to do? The administration and Texas governor are both continuing to whip this frenzy even as Christians find themselves thinking..'this is going to far.' and where will we wind up? The 'evil' liberals are also in a pickle. They are forced, even as Christians, to lash out against with strong rhetoric agains Christian politicians that fuel these 'war' in politics scenarios.

It is time for some Christian leaders to give us Christians an out. Give us a 'cooling off' period and a place to return to sanity one-by-one. Americans don't hate each other. We're just as guilty as the reactionaries on all sides. We've joined the fray with incredulous remarks made out of frustration. But, perhaps we are returning to sanity ourselves. We invite you to join us.

The DMN finally puts it in the newspaper: Perry thinks gay Texans ought to just move from Texas. We first were alerted by the LGRL of Perry's statement that got a little play on the news in Fort Worth and gained a little traction in the Texas blogosphere back on Tuesday. Kimberly Reeves even wrote about it in the Austin Chronicle on Thursday. The DMN is usually right on, in our opinion, but they were a little late to the party on this one.

In the DMN story, you can see Kathy Walt give a half-assed backpedal here with an 'Eh, we only hate the gays that won't vote for us anyway' remark. Perry is moving so far to the right that it begs KBH to enter the race as the candidate for moderate Republicans and give them an opportunity to take back their party this next election cycle. Hell, she may even wind up being the candidate for moderate Democrats if she plays her cards right. If an 'Anybody But Perry' mood develops in Texas like we saw last national cycle it should make the Republican Primary here very interesting.

[photo credit: CHERYL DIAZ MEYER/DMN]
Perry with Rod Parsley

Not a lot of posts today from me because I was on the Texas Bus System, otherwise known as Southwest Airlines. The two men in front of me were discussing politics and as my iPod battery died this is what I overheard and let out a 'damn straight' before I could help myself.

"I don't get it. I didn't move...the 'Right' moved. Now, I don't know where I fit in anymore."

From Valley Politics, a story concerning the family of our favorite blogging Rep.:

And we think politics is boring?

It seems that the McAllen Mayor's runoff is seriously heating up! Legislative Media reported that a Ric Godinez campaign worker got his nose broken by a supporter for Richard Cortez.

The altercation sent Aaron Leonel Pena, son of State Rep. Aaron Pena, to the hospital. But it gets better!!! His 9-month pregnant wife, who was present at the ass kickin', ends up going into labor!! You can't make this stuff up!!

You've probably heard it elsewhere by now, but if not, Rep. Keel ain't running for re-election. Mr. Keel, the man who earlier said judges threatened him, has announced a run for a appellate court seat. More at ITPT and The Quorum Report.

Sarah at Roman Candles has a deliciously funny post on the soap opera involving the lottery and all the lovely GOP members involved. I'd call it "One Life to Gamble" or "All my inflated lottery numbers" or "Days of our Lottery Commission". It's a circle of idiocy.

We've talked a lot about the complete failure of the 79th Legislature to fix school finance problems in Texas. You know, the thing that a judge said was unconstitutional? Well, here's the good news about our public education system in Texas:

The upside for school employees is that officials in some of the largest local districts, including Austin, Round Rock and Pflugerville, say they expect to have enough money to avoid layoffs and to replace teachers who have left their jobs.[AAS]

Damn, that's harsh. The good news is you probably won't lose your job. The bad news is there is no money for reducing class size, new textbooks, new facilities, electricity or football. (HA! Tricked you! There's always money for football in Texas!)

This still boggles my pea-sized brain. They say "Texas is Bigger Than France" and "Don't Mess With Texas" but when it comes to what should be our shining star. . . an incredible public education system, the best we can say is that we probably won't have to lay off our teachers?

We suck. No, I take that back; State Legislators, you suck.

The Quorum Report reports on the Federal three-judge panel that has ruled with the state on the 2003 redistricting challenge. We aren't surprised, but we do think Attorney General Abbott's statement that we should all just get over it and move on is a tad annoying. God, what a bad breaker-upper he must be. Ugh. Here's the ginormous .pdf file if you care that much.

Save Texas Reps has a great post about the shenanigans over at the State Lottery Commission and some rumors about Reagan Greer inflating the jackpot numbers to boost ticket sales. Fascinating read.

Has aligned himself with the loony likes of Rod Parsley. Our favorite Pollyanna describes the Perry Tent Revival in Fort Worth recently for the Austin Chronicle. The entire story is fascinating, but here's an indication of where we are headed in Texas politics:

Consider the words offered by televangelist Rod Parsley, who preceded Perry and praised him for his godly stand, saying the effects of the homosexual agenda in American were substantial. Most homosexuals were anything but happy and carefree, Parsley told the crowd â?? many suffer from low self-esteem and depression.

"Gay sex is a veritable breeding ground for disease," Parsley went on. "Only 1 percent of the homosexual population in America will die of old age. The average life expectancy for a homosexual in the United States of America, discounting AIDS, is 42 years of age. Their heterosexual counterpart is 75. A lesbian can only expect to live to be 45 years of age. Her heterosexual counterpart is 79. Homosexuals represent 2 percent of the population, yet today they're carrying 60 percent of the known cases of syphilis. We must not chance an untested social experiment with the security of our children." [Austin Chronicle]

But wait, we've got more. Here's an email sent out to members of the New Life Church as they prepared to be on television (after the jump). It's a plea from their pastor on how not to seem weird. Perhaps, we could add our own suggestions on how these Christocrats could not seem 'weird' and sent them to the good reverend.

As the first truck of radioactive waste rolls into West Texas, the Amarillo paper decides subtle and non-panic inducing coverage was appropriate. Here's the front page photo. We decided you could probably caption it better than they did.[Amarillo Globe News]

A report shows that the Houston Police "showed remarkable restraint and professionalism" when faced with protestors at the Halliburton war profiteer shareholders meeting.

For the purposes of this report, "remarkable restraint" means no protestor was beaten senseless while onlooking officers shouted, "fucking hippie" and "professionalism" means that no female protestors were felt up under the sweater but over the bra while being detained.

Once again the Legislature did not pass the 'Recorded Votes' thing. According to the DMN, there were only 10 more recorded votes this session than in 2003. (All of those were by Craddick running wildly around the Chamber pushing buttons)

All of that aside, there is the most hysterical attempt at explaining how you, too--an ordinary citizen--can see how votes were cast on legislation. With the directions the DMN provides we thought it'd be easier just to join Indiana Jones in search of the Holy Grail than navigate through this bullshit.

This is what we meant yesterday when we said Captain Kirk was running for Galactic Commander: Kirk Watson, the former Austin mayor who ran for attorney general in 2002, has been rumored to be trying for governor or lieutenant governor or for the Texas Senate seat held by Gonzalo Barrientos since 1985. [AAS]

Also in the same article, W. Gardner (W., is that the new trend? From now on we're J. PinkDome or JP Do) anyway...Selby insinuates that if you are thinking about running for office as a Democrat you better tell him now or risk not being able to raise funds to squash the all-powerful Republicans.

Wooooo. We're shaking! A.) Tell us whenever the hell you want to and B.) The Republicans should expect to hear a lot of Democrats will be running...this legislative session ought to bring them out of the friggin woodwork!

So, announce your candidacy y'all. Let's get crackin'.

One of the lighthearted moments in the otherwise dark debate on HJR6 was Senator Leticia Van de Putte and her proposed amendment to the definition of marriage to also require that heterosexually married couples be required to have at least some sex.

The Daily Kos picks up this idea and runs nationally with it to protect the sanctity of marriage. It stands to reason that with more sex within the confines of marriage would result in more intimacy in relationships, less prostitution, better mattress sales, and an increase in smiles amongst grumpy old white men.

Somehow you can tie this to the medical marijuana thing with the Supreme Court and all that but dude, we're totally lighting up a fattie and don't have time for all that reading.

But, the DailyKos story even has a poll about sex. Awesome. Although it's a little early to get my sex poll on.

More news about Houston legislative races from a tipster:

Ellen Cohen, President and CEO of the Houston Area Women's Center,will be a candidate for the Democratic nomination for State Representative, District 134, in 2006. This is the seat held by Republican Martha Wong which includes large parts of Montrose and the highest number of pro-choice women in the state. Good news.

The board of the women's center voted to give Ms. Cohen a leave of absence from her duties from January 1 thru November 2006.


Young Black Businessman Boris Miles will be a candidate for the Democratic Nomination for State Representative, District 146, versus longtime incumbent Al Edwards. This will be Miles' first foray into the electoral fray and it will be a tough one indeed as he will be going up against 26 year incumbent Edwards, also a member of the Democratic National Committee and a member of GOP Speaker Tom Craddick's team. Look for other candidates in this primary race in an overwhelmingly Democratic district

Craigslist...the new political forum!
Kinky Friedman--Interns needed
Reply to: russlorfing@hotmail.com
Date: 2005-06-02, 12:11AM CDT

Help Kinky Friedman run the career politicians out of town! We are looking for bright, energetic, and charismatic interns who are interested in social change and making the Lone Star shine again. We only have 5 positions left, so please send a resume to russlorfing@hotmail.com or call the campaign at 512.828.7579.

www.kinkyfriedman.com
* this is in or around Austin
* no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
* yes -- ok to transmit this posting into outer space

Perry is 'picking up the pace' on negotiating something for those durn public schools. Seems the criticism isn't stopping just cause he's travelling around signing stupid bills. If someone would just tickle Craddick's ass with a feather, we are sure this whole negotiation thing would go a lot smoother. [AAS]

Because today, we'll talk about something called, "The appearance of impropriety." At one time, people believed that not only could actions be improper but they could apear improper. In those old fashioned times, people had what are called 'ethics' and 'morals' and a sense of 'civic responsibility' but today, we call things like that 'distractions' and 'not being focused on the real issues of the country.'

See how stupid it sounds when we have to talk to people like children? Off the top of our head, here are a few examples of "The appearance of impropriety."

*Tom Craddick thanking TRMPAC for breaking the law so he could be Speaker.[Austin Chronicle]
*Congressmen having close ties with lobbyists that are part of the DeLay scandal.[NYT, sub requ'd]
*Lt. Gov. Dewhurst using Senate resources to create a web site to promote his agenda without disclaiming it. [PinkDome Archives]
*Supreme Court Justice Scalia going hunting with Dick Cheney when relevant cases are before the Court. [CNN]

Can you provide examples of "The appearance of Impropriety"? We'll give prizes to our best students!

A tipster tells us about a funny site in Ft. Bend County that seemingly exists to skewer everything DeLay related. Thought we'd pass it along for you bored folks to get a laugh. Also, you might get your hair did if you set a spell.

We hear a new challenger may face Martha Wong down in Houston and Gonzales may get a challenger out of the ever-popular Kirk Watson. We will have to get more on this. Not sure what the heck we were talking about.

Word is Ellen Cohen is considering a run against Wong. Here's what our tipster had to say: "Remember in 2003 when an amendment to the "informed consent" for abortion bill (HB 15) was offered to remove that nasty and absurd requirement that women be told they have an increased risk of breast cancer if they get an abortion. And remember when Martha voted against that amendment? (78th Legislature, Record Vote 383, Journal page 2015...just so you won't accuse us of misleading any one, Martha). As a breast cancer survivor herself, Ellen Cohen, may have something to say about that."

Here's what we know about Ellen. She's is the Executive Director of the Houston Area Women's Center (our domestic violence and rape crisis agency) and former ED of the American Jewish Committee-Houston. She spearheaded the building of a beautiful, state of the art women's shelter in Houston.

If you get something on Kirk, let us know.

Mark your calendars. Next weekend Austin hosts DemocracyFest 2005. On Saturday, June 18 at 5 p.m. is the 'Bloggers Caucus' where PinkDome has been invited to speak about Texas politics, drinking heavily, and provide all the tips that haven't been posted here. (Kidding..I won't drink until after I speak).
The registration is already full, so if you'll be attending make sure to attend the Bloggers Caucus to hear from folks like:
Rosemary Wetherold, an Austin freelance editor and roses on DailyKos.com; Robert Andrews, an Austin attorney and Othniel on DailyKos.com, Rep. Mark Strama, Dan Fletcher of lookingforward.com and me.

We heard the rumor about John Sharp starting an exploratory committee for governor like y'all did. We just couldn't believe it. We looked around for some information on Sharp. Seeing as how if we haven't heard about you in the past two weeks we don't know who the hell you are. So here's what we found.

In 1985 he was in the Legislature. With guess who? Rick Perry. The Free Market Pac's 1985 Texas Conservative Report ranks John Sharp as 73% Conservative and Rick Perry 64%. So, John was more conservative with his voting record than the Right Reverend Rick Perry. How did a democratic Senator out-conservative a Republican Representative in 1985? Sharp earned this rating by voting to ban local gun control, for missile defense, against a March primary, and for an anti-choice crackdown on abortion clinics.

And John wants to explore a run as a Democrat for Governor of Texas?

John, here's our advice...sit down and grab a popsicle. It'll be a great show but no one is really clamoring to invite you to the party.

Out conservative'd by Rick Perry? That's exactly what the Democrats in Texas want.

For a copy of the 1985 .PDF report, email me or I'll post a link to it this afternoon.

UPDATE: A.) Perry wasn't a Republican in 1985 (How many times do we have to tell you we don't keep up with Texas politicians?) and B.) As a commenter suggested we didn't know Chris Bell was running for governor so doubtful this came from his 'campaign' because there isn't a campaign, yet. Finally, C.) Here's the link to the .PDF file if you want to read it. 1985 sure it was a long time ago...but voting records never die.

Congressmen Lloyd Doggett, Lamar Smith and Michael McCaul are asking for President Bush's 2006 budget to include $1 million in funding for the demolition of the Intel building in downtown Austin. Apparently, the new federal courthouse that is supposed to go there can't get started until this eyesore is torn down.

In case you aren't familiar, Intel had grandiose plans to build a big fancy headquarters in downtown Austin but pulled out after getting a concrete skeleton up. It's a humiliating reminder of Austin's great Tech Bust of the 90's.

Well, except Susan Combs. Wonder if she's running for something? A guest blogger sends us a thorough analysis of the obesity epidemic in schools across Texas.

As statewide elected officials play musical chairs during the next election season to the tune of "Vote for the Weasels", you can bet that Ag Commissioner Susan Combs plans to climb her way to the top on the backs of fatties...and not just Carole Keaton Strayhorn's. Combs' issue du jour is combating the rising rates of obesity among our state's children, and the DMN has used a scientifically proven questionnaire to get to the root of the problem.

"The New Teacher Project (TNTP) is a non-profit consulting firm founded to address one of the central education reform challenges facing our public schools â?? the recruitment and selection of outstanding new teachers and the creation of school environments that maximize those teachersâ?? impact on student achievement.

Governor Perry to gay Texan veterans returning from Iraq: "Get your faggoty asses out of Texas."

Read the full LGRL Press Release after the jump. Call the governor and tell him what you think about that. Damn, Kathy you totally suck at your job.

We received an email from a journalist from San Francisco. She is currently working on a project where she travels to the red states and interviews people and is on a quest to understand America. What a great concept, because personally there is a lot about America we don't understand anymore. Her most recent entry is from the Perry Tent Revival in Fort Worth. Read the entire piece here, but here are a few of the Republican 'man on the street' interview excerpts:

Close the online scrabble window for a minute and check out The Red State's liveblog of the San Antonio Mayoral Runoff election today. It is kinda nostalgic for us, we remember our recent days of liveblogging.

If you are in San Antonio, get your sorry ass out and vote. There, I was being all civic and shit.

Those ugly ass signs at every intersection are illegal, but the cities really can't enforce any penalties for companies that violate the laws. So, you'd think a little bill to put some penalty or enforceability on it would be easy peasy, right? Nope. The 1960 Sun (whatever that is) reports that yet again, the ways the 79th Session sucked balls just keep coming.

Oh, you mean prescription drugs. On Chris Bell's blog, he points to the governor's inaction on the Pharmacy Bill. We know Perry's been busy posing for cute photos with Ted Nugent, pandering to Christocrats, taunting Craddick and pissing off Kay Bailey...but, he hasn't gotten around to signing a bill that would actually save Texans money.

As my daddy used to say, "That man couldn't lead a silent prayer."

Perry Press Secretary Kathy Walt slumbering peacefully or thinking..."Ok, so how do I get that bitch Kay Bailey called a lesbian in the Dallas Morning News?"

(Austin Monthly)

KBH--Officially not running for Governor.

"I think we need leadership to be shown now more than ever to do what is right for our state. Texas is the greatest state in America and I want us to be the example of how to do things right . . . And that's my goal and I hope that is what is shown by all of our elected leaders in the future."(AAS)

But, that is a major burn!

We're working on a way to defeat the Spam. You can still leave anonymous comments, but now you just have to enter a security code for your comment to appear. Hopefully, this will eliminate the 400 spam comments we've deleted today begging us to play poker online...admittedly the online strip poker did sound intriguing, but we digress.

See job description after the jump.

The Right Reverend Rick signed the parental consent bill paragraph at a church event and re-affirmed his faith committment to Christian values ability to pander to Christocrats with his support of the civil right bashing, discriminatory constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages (which is already illegal in Texas) this weekend.

Reverend Perry pandered whipped the crowd into a fervor saying that, "The issue is there is intolerance against Christians in America who simply want their voices to be heard,".

Thomas Jefferson wrote in his famous letter,

I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, thus building a wall of separation between church and state.

We ask Reverend Perry...what about the Jews? What about the "Big Tent" the Republican Party always talks about. We guess it's only big enough to put the Christocrats.

We'll meet the rest of you at the border as we become refugees, forsaken by our state government in favor of a Theocracy that excludes us.

Are you paying attention? Cause if you are not, you better start.

This morning we deleted 201 spam comments. Mostly for online cas*nos and Texas hold*em pok*r. If anyone would like to propose some real legislation, we'd be glad to write up a bill making it a capital offense to spam PinkDome with comments.

Some of y'all had previously commented that this was coming up and indeed it did! Yesterday our guvner Perry got together with his "Christian friends" and signed anti-gay and anti-abortion legislation at a Christian school. Good on you, Guv! Way to keep that separation of church and state! Way to piss off the liberal Christians (as well as everyone else)!

Great Perry quote: "We may be on the grounds of a Christian church, but we all believe in standing up for the unborn." Yeah, screw the gays and support the "unborn"!

So wrong on so many levels.

A reader submitted this photo from the Houston Chron of Ted Nugent with some pouty ex-model...oh wait! It's Governor Perry. The nicest thing I could say is what my mother would tell me when I pooched my lips out like that, "If you poke them lips out any more they're gonna drag on the ground." You may submit your own shocked reaction to Supermodel wannabe Perry's photo.

Let's imagine you work for a corporation. The division you are in charge of is bleeding money and violating some safety regulations and even a couple of employees were killed because the division had just some bad oversight and lack of attention by the parent company.

Ok, the executive management is pissed right? They come to you and say, "Fix this mess. Get it under control. Our brand is being maligned publically and we're losing clients." So you go to work on the problems. You decide they are really gross and hard. Then you come back to the executives of your company and say this:

"I started to fix it, but I didn't go far enough. I'll come back in two years and take another look at it."

Fired or not fired?

Ivins posts on the "accomplishments" of this Legislature. Best quote of the piece: "Craddick is the easy winner of this session's Number One Dickhead Award." And may we add, a very short one at that.

Loved this in the DMN Blog today:

Breaking: Hutch-O-Meter* drops following Slater exclusive
The DMN Hutch-O-Meter* took a reading this morning in the wake of Wayne Slater's exclusive about Gov. Perry's Rove-like plan to organize and mobilize evangelicals.

Results: The chance of Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's challenging Perry for governor next year has fallen to 75%. The reading had reached 100% on Tuesday, in the wake of the Legislature's failed attempt at school-finance reform.

Goes to show that this device is sensitive to developments.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
*Registered product of the Editorial Board of The Dallas Morning News. It has a margin of error. The percentage is based on a formula that takes into consideration those available with opinions at any one time.

I love the 'margin of error' part. Yeah, it's got one but why the hell would you wanna know what it is? HilARIous.

(courtesy Associated Press/Houston Chron)

Bwahahaha. We totally had milk coming out of our nose laughing so hard at that one. Somehow Rep. Wong bills that dealt with her district only seemed to generate opposition from 50 legislators that probably only travel to Houston for the great hookers and easily accessible drugs. You folks in District 134? 143? Whatever...you got a real winner there. Yep.

We don't find that very surprising, we've seen him...sometimes we wonder how he can understand how to find his ass with both hands and a map. So, it turns out the Chief Justice didn't threaten Keel.

What he did say was, "Keel, you sorry son-of-a-bitch. If you're petty high school girl revenge crap kills this bill you'll be made a laughingstock because everybody knows I'm a mild-mannered and respected jurist and you're a freakazoid."

So, business as usual.

Perry is signing the parental consent bill (Sorry, Phil) paragraph and (highlighting the) anti-same-sex marriage amendment in a Church. Some folks that violates the separation of Church and State and could even cost the Church its non-exempt status.

All this as Perry rallies the ultra-conservatives for the governor's race.
The DMN report says, in part:

Perry spokeswoman Kathy Walt dismissed the criticism, saying the governor has had previous government events at religious venues.

"This is a piece of legislation that overwhelmingly passed the Legislature," she sad. "It is a perfectly appropriate venue for the governor to have." (emphasis added)

Really Kathy? So your tiny little brain asked God about this and he said come on in and sign the biggest hate legislation since y'all tried to say negroes were 3/5 of a person and sign that shit in my house?

I don't think so. Idiot.

Surprise, Surprise. Our esteemed legislatures go home, take their kids to swim practice and their neighbors jump up in their face and say, "If you don't get your sorry ass back down to Austin and fix the shit you fucked up this session, I will personally find somebody to run against you next election."

Bewildered legislators, formerly puffed up with all their bravado reply, "I'm so ready to go back to Austin. It wasn't my idea to leave in the first place. Please don't hate me."

What'd y'all think your neighbors were gonna say when you got home? You had to know Tom Craddick hadn't called and twisted the arm of every Texan to blindly accept his power trip. Or did you?

Hilarious Story at DMN. Go read how pathetic Bill Keffer and Dan Branch sound as they try change directions so fast you get whiplash reading the article. Jessica Leeder at the DMN could totally go work for The Daily Show.

Andrew Dobbs has a pretty good essay over at BOR which addresses much more eloquently something we say a lot at PinkDome. Democrats need to stick together and the State Party should threaten primary challengers to those stepping out of line. Some think we're too harsh when we say that...but, when you're as out of power as the Democrats are in Texas if you don't stand united there is zero power. Stop being afraid of being a Democrat and start being afraid of not being a Democrat.

Everybody's making their moves, and we are positive we won't be able to keep up or really care until later. Todd Staples announces his intent to run for Ag Commissioner after Swinford says he won't run and Susan Combs says she's running for Comptroller and Carole Keeton Strayhorn says...oh wait...she didn't say anything yet, but the Republicans don't care because they don't like her.

King me.

Have you seen this video on the Internets about U.N. Ambassador nominee John Bolton? If not, take a gander and then watch your head explode!

Paying your hooker used to be just that easy, it's a little more complicated when it turns out it's the President. The QR turned us on to the Texas Observer story. Are y'all subscribing to these two pubs? Cause, you should.

Abramoff was so closely tied to the Bush Administration that he could, and did, charge two of his clients $25,000 for a White House lunch date and a meeting with the President.

Barbara Ann Radnofsky is running for U.S. Senate and starts off right away with a blog. Rock on with your bad self.

We love the comments from our readers. We love them even more when we are criticized. Here are a few of our favorites over the last few days:

"biased and ill informed" We say...and your point is?
"over-the-top anti-female" We say...shut up and get my dinner. Please, we're anti-everybody if they deserve it...if you'll recall it was PD that put Seaman's face on a cartoon penis.
"you little baby" We know you are, but what are we..Infinity!
"You are clearly misleading people" We'll be passing out Kool-Aid in the Rotunda today at 3, hope you can make it!

In the future, please be more creative. I had to go through so much trouble to find any comments hating on PinkDome before any of them were very funny or had the potential to be funny at all.

This entry prompted us to post our first song for your listening pleasure as your read the post. Click here to listen. (You'll so love it)

The Daily DeLay blog is spiking the Ethics Committee's Vitameatavegimen with a fax blast and phone blitz to demand an investigation by outside counsel of our very own Tom DeLay.

Click Here to sign the petition. Help us keep Texas in the humiliating glow of the national spotlight, please pick up the phone and take action. Without an investigation, our ability to post hilarious Tom DeLay quotes and photos will all but wither away this summer.

Call Ethics Chairman Doc Hastings in his district office in Pasco, WA at 509-543-9396, or his Washington, DC office at 202-225-5816.

Call Ranking Democratic Rep. Alan Mollohan at his district office in Wheeling, WV at 304-232-5390, or his Washington, DC office at 202-225-4172.

With your help, we can keep PinkDome and The Daily Show in material for at least a year!

The Tarrant County Democratic Pary plans to meet Governor Perry June 5 at the Cavalry Cathedral with a crowd to protest the agenda and outcomes of the 79th Legislative Session. Read the extended entry if you're in the DFW area and make your plans for some good ol' fashioned Governor bashing. We hear it's all the rage!

Lobby Duck and I did share a cocktail at the Continental Club Sine Die Party and there may or may not have been a mutual admiration, but there were no 'relations.'

This is my official statement on the matter and is not an invitation for any further incriminating photos of PinkDome to appear online. J., I'm talking directly to you.

"It's going to be an awfully hot summer," he said. "They can choose to spend it at home with their families or down in Austin with me." Perry said in a publicity stop in Tyler. Suh-weet.

So, sometime between now and the end of June we'll be back roaming the halls of the pink dome wondering how public education will come out on top.

Here's a great question posed by a reader:

Why has no one reported the crap that Buddy Jones and Hillco have been up too? They yell in DC about Delays lobby connections. How about Craddick making calls for his election as speaker from Buddy's house. Kings committee dinner....etc. Craddick also made sure of his godfather Beecheral's funding of Southwestern Med school where a Chair is named for Craddick. UT Southwestern got more money that all the UT Med Schools in Houston combined.

We don't know why no one is reporting about this. Let's ask our readers to provide some input, shall we?

Perry threatens a swift Special and says legislators, "should make plans for a long and uncomfortable summer when they go home". In other words, guess we'll see y'all sooner than we thought. Dammit.

The annual ROT rally of bikers will be in Austin this weekend and the Gay Pride events will also start downtown. We know where Chavez will be, but where will our other favorite legislators be?