Texas does it again

Continuing to live up to its reputation where the knuckle-draggers rule. The state executed a convicted murderer despite arguments that he was mentally impaired.

Tests administered to Mr. Woods over the years placed his I.Q. between 68 and 86, prompting a bitter debate between his lawyers and the state over whether he was too impaired to face execution. The state and federal courts repeatedly sided with prosecutors.

The debate reflects the gray area left by the Supreme Court in 2002, when it ruled that the mentally impaired were not eligible for the death penalty but left it up to state courts to interpret which inmates qualified as impaired.

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GOP Texas Gov. Rick Perry didn't know we were in a recession

Perhaps he was too busy fixing his hair to notice. Watch the video. Who does he sound like?

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Texas charging rape victims

This is sick. What is the matter with the people running that state? Read More......

It's time to pick a new name for Texas

As you know, Texas is now talking about seceding from the Union. Tom Delay, the former House Majority Leader who lost his job after being exposed as a criminal, is suggesting that Texas split into five separate states (which he says Texas is permitted to do), and then Democrats in Washington would be so incensed by the notion of ten new Texas Senators coming to DC that they'd kick Texas out of the Union.

My friend Chris has a great idea. Let's welcome dividing Texas up. It will be the biggest gerrymander in the history of the country. And along those lines, what should we call the five new Texas states, or five new Texas countries? What do you think? Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments, but you have to register with a real email address (it's the only way to stop the crazies, sorry).

More from Chris:

You know, the weird thing is that Delay’s right about Texas having joined the Union with permission to divide itself into as many as five states if it chose to do so.

I actually wouldn’t have a problem with it – but oh the games one could play with drawing the boundaries. It could be the most epic gerrymander in history. The area around Austin could potentially be a liberal Nirvana.

And, honestly, one of the biggest barriers to statehood for D.C. and Puerto Rico has been the fact that we’ve been stuck on a round number of states for 50 years. LOL.

So, what the heck? Let’s split Texas into five states (West Louisiana, South Oklahoma, East New Mexico, Nirvana, and Hell – the last of which would be Houston or wherever Tom Delay is living at the time).

And actually, that suggests the idea of a naming contest for the five Balkanized states of the former Republic of Texas.

So that gets us to 54. Then we could add Puerto Rico, D.C., the Virgin Islands, the Northern Marianas, American Samoa and Guam.

Which puts us at 60 – another nice round number that will make us feel all warm and fuzzy again.

Palau, of course, is completely screwed in this scenario, since they’d be 61, but if you want to make an omelet….

You have Chris' suggestions above for the new names of the five balkanized states of Texas. He of course left out Jesustan. Read More......

TX gov invites Limbaugh to move to Texas

It seems that Texas Governor Rick Perry, who isn't well-loved by conservatives, and who is whispered to have his own Lindsey Graham problem, is now seeking to solidify his support in the next election's primary by sucking up to GOP leader Rush Limbaugh. Not only does the GOP have a Limbaugh problem, but more generally, they have a conservative problem. The party is beholden to the far right, and its national leadership is either all far right or, like Michael Steele, in mortal fear of crossing the far right. Limbaugh isn't the cause, he's the symptom, of the GOP's woes. Their problem isn't that they have Limbaugh, it's that they love Limbaugh. Read More......

Hillary apparently thinks some women don't count

Hillary Clinton, champion of the blue collar, Jack Daniels' drinking woman is now trying to unseat delegates in Texas. You see, you can't claim that the only reason you're still in the race, after you lost, is because you want to see every vote counted, and then repeatedly try to stop people from having their vote count in Texas and Nevada, for starters. That makes you a hypocrite. It makes you an opportunist. And it makes you a liar. It makes you every nasty thing that the Republicans have said about you for years. Please stop proving them right. Read More......

Support Rick Noriega from Texas for US Senate

Put the Texas Senate race on your radar screen, and open up your wallets (please). Democratic candidate and Afghan war vet, Rick Noriega, is already running a very strong race against the GOP incumbent, John Cornyn, who is one of the nastiest and most right wing Republicans in the Senate (think: Santorum, but dumber).

Cornyn once said that violence against judges is understandable (remember that one?) And Cornyn defended Karl Rove's role in the Valerie Plame affair. Rick Noriega, on the other hand, has a 100% rating from NARAL, is good on gay issues, and more. You can give to Noriega by clicking on the blue box (right).

But what are his chances? Rather incredible, actually.

Last week, two polls came out showing that Noriega had moved to within four points of Cornyn:

1. Research 2000 for Daily Kos. 5/5-7. Likely voters. MoE 4% (9/24-26/07 results)

Cornyn (R) 48 (51)
Noriega (D) 44 (35)

That is nothing short of astounding. And lest anyone worry that it's an outlier, these numbers confirm a Rasmussen poll from earlier this week:

2. Rasmussen. 5/1. Likely voters. MoE 4% (No trend lines)

Cornyn (R) 47
Noriega (D) 43

Rasmussen elaborated:

It’s time to add United States Senator John Cornyn to the list of potentially vulnerable Republican incumbents in Election 2008. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey in the state find Cornyn leading Democratic state legislator Rick Noriega by just four percentage points, 47% to 43%.

Any incumbent who polls below 50% is considered potentially vulnerable. That is especially true when a little known challenger is so competitive in an early general election match-up.

We can help make Noriega a better known and better funded challenger.

Texas Democrats are energized this year. And, Noriega is the perfect candidate for his state. He’s a native Texan with an impressive career and commitment to public service. Rick is a veteran who has served in the U.S. Army and the Texas National Guard - including a fourteen month tour of duty in Afghanistan. Check out his website.

Rick Noriega is a candidate who can change the political landscape in Texas. Howie Klein interviewed Rick recently, and he is great on the issues you care about. Let's help him do it by clicking on the blue box, above, and donating to Rick's campaign. We've set a generous goal of raising $15,000 this week via the blog. We'll be reminding you throughout the week. And we're done with Rick, we'll hit another race, and so on. Thanks, guys. JOHN

PS By law, you can give a maximum of $2300 to Noriega. But honestly, even 25 or 50 bucks is appreciated. It all adds up. Read More......

Obama finally officially wins Texas

Honey, I shrunk your momentum.

Sen. Barack Obama has won the overall delegate race in Texas thanks to a strong showing in Democratic county conventions this past weekend.

Obama picked up seven of nine outstanding delegates, giving him a total of 99 Texas delegates to the party's national convention this summer. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton won the other two, giving her a total of 94 Texas delegates, according to an analysis of returns by The Associated Press.

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Bill Clinton reportedly terrified that Hillary is about to officially lose Texas

You'll recall that the media declared Hillary the winner of Texas before it was actually over. Texas had a primary and a caucus, and Hillary only won the primary. The winner of Texas is decided by adding the delegates from both the primary and the caucus. Come this weekend, we should find out that Obama really won Texas. A NY Daily News reporter accidentally got invited to a private conference call Bill Clinton was holding today with Texas delegates. Seems the campaign is terrified that people may finally figure out this weekend that Hillary lost Texas. Read More......

Texas poll shows tight races -- on both sides

Burnt Orange Report has the results of the Texas Credit Union League poll, which shows fairly tight races on both sides. Very surprising that the Huckster is within reach of McCain:

The poll was commissioned by the Texas Credit Union League, conducted Feb 11-13, with a MOE of +/- 4.9%.

DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY (Latest IVR Poll 1/31)

Hillary Clinton: 49 (48)
Barack Obama: 41 (38)
Undecided: 8 (10)

REPUBLICAN PRIMARY

John McCain: 45 (43)
Mike Huckabee: 41 (33)
Undecided: 5 (13)

And now for the interesting sub-groups and my analysis. It's here that we find something very surprising!

Even though Clinton leads by 8 points in polling statewide, based upon the following sub-samples, Obama would still come out with a delegate lead.

Burnt Orange dissects the numbers to show that, in fact, Obama could come out of Texas with more delegates based on the existing numbers. Worth a read. The complicated Texas delegate selection process is in a league of its own.

Burnt Orange is a terrific blog, and will be especially invaluable over the next couple weeks as we all try to figure out what's going on in the Lone Star State. A guiding principle during this election has been to trust the locals over the national pundits.

Key finding is that McCain isn't closing the deal with his base. It shouldn't be close at this point. Read More......