Having a hard time finding your favorite liberal DVD at the local video store? Well, Liberation Video is a new site catering to those that can't get enough of critically acclaimed documentaries and videos. Check out their site to get your fix.

We'd love to see "Bush's Brain" but we can't decide if that would be a comedy or tragedy.

PinkDome is a blog about politics. Texas politics, specifically. We wander around and comment on national stuff and every once in a while we jump completely oustide of that box. It never occured to us to become media watchdogs or critics of the mainstream press. But, like anyone else we turn to the newspapers. Why? Is it out of habit now? This morning we threw out some love to Karen Brooks. Here's why: Karen's honesty and good facts shine through in a world of mainstream media that is usually full of stories directed at someone with the intelligence level of Britney Spears. Story after story of such tripe and we begin to wonder is there anything worth praising.

What set me off on this topic again today? This bullshit is on the friggin front page of the Austin American-Statesman right now. We already got our "Tree Falling Story" this week from the DMN. Now the AAS has to have their own version. And look! The Statesman wants you the reader to guess why the tree fell!

We're not the fucking morons, AAS. You are. Quit treating us as if a good story on the latest Texas City refinery fire and rising oil prices or the decision by a Texas judge in the Vioxx case is not something worthy a front page splash. Tree falling, indeed.

While we here at Pinkdome do not officially endorse any candidate for governor (yet), we do like Chris Bell. Now that he is officially in the race, I wanted to mention a little thing I didn't include in the posted interview: the Bell campaign is looking for a theme song. There is a very in-depth post on his blog about possible song ideas. Unfortunately (as you can tell by the title of the post), most of the songs I know of that mention bells are Christmas songs. You know, "Christmas Bells are Ringing", "Silver Bells", etc.

On a completely different note entirely (but still pertaining to music), why am I the last to know that John Roberts was Peppermint Patty in a prep-school production of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"?

Happiness is . . .(fill in the blank)

We read the news so you don't have to. Or rather - we skim articles so you don't have to.

The AAS covers Dewhurst and his "poison pill" obsession. Okay, I paraphrased.

Dave McNeely's most recent op-ed starts out with this illustrious sentence: "Perhaps there is a new chairman for the Carole Keeton Strayhorn Booster Club: Rick Perry." so you know it's going to be good.

The Startlegram focuses on "the reluctant legislator", Rep. Bob Griggs, and his reaction to Grusendorf.

The Waco Tribune-Herald discusses how the special session has made Rep. Dunnam postpone a "major accident liability trial".

Yeah, it's slim pickin's today, folks.

(Austin Chronicle)

It's Friday, let's show some love. First, Karen Brooks latest Chamber Music is up this week. Could the DMN just give her more space, more frequency and well...just more everything. Consistently this is the best political piece in the DMN. Other newspapers in the state...pay attention.

Now to the Austin Chronicle. There's a tiny column about the blogs and we love that in our blurb the word "fuck" appears. So, the Chronicle decides its readers can handle the F word, but the Statesman doesn't think we can handle a Turd. Well, isn't that what most people think the entire Statesman newspaper is anyway?

Our blurb in the extended entry. We think we have a new tagline in the first sentence. Our beloved commenters get a shout out, too!

You know politics in Texas is bad when I can compare it to the dysfunction of my family. This mess up there in the pink dome is actually making my family holidays seem desirable! But, it is Friday morning and the weekend is upon us. Who's got the 'track changes' feature ready to go on Shapiro's new ed. bill? We'll have to compare it to HB2 and see what's what over the weekend. Here's a couple of things we know: The bill will have a new number! Good, it was time to put a new bag over that ugly girl's face anyway. What else do we know...Oh...Shapiro has slipped in the phrase 'Fuck you Tom Craddick' somewhere. It's like a Where's Waldo game. If you find it, you get a prize.

So are we hanging out this weekend? Or do we have to read this stupid new bill?

Not enough votes? Dewhurst lost control of the Senate? SBC flinging themselves around the Capitol today? Yep, such a loud sucking sound coming from over there I can hear it way up here in my ivory tower.

Yesterday morning I gave a speech at the Rotary Club that meets in the bowels of the Capitol (Thanks to Jason Stanford for the invite). I met Representative Bob Hunter and found him to be charming and very statesman-like. By statesman-like, I mean he talked earnestly about how partisanship can get in the way of good policy. I also directed him to Rep. Pena's blog and looks like Rep. Hunter has logged on for the first time. That's awesome.

NARAL Pro-Choice Texas (NPCT) is looking for someone experienced, dedicated, and pro-choice to fill a part-time Field Director position.

Apply info after the jump.

Bell has officially thrown his hat in the ring.

So now I have interviewed an official candidate for Governor. Sweet! Too bad I'm sorta anonymous, because I would totally brag.

Psst, Senator Shapiro we didn't want to yell this out to everybody that's why we are calling on the white phone. Listen...we heard today you're going to bring out SB2 again. We just had a few things to go over with you real quick, ok?

First...you know you usually look great so I hope today you are not wearing that God awful white denim thing again. That's not going to present you as, you know, a leader.

Next, when you're up there and Gallegos starts getting on your nerves...don't yell at him. It makes us cringe when you do that. Limit the eye rolling, too.

Oh and I guess last thing, could you actually defend the bill you're up there talking about? That'd be great. We all know it's the same shit, different day but come on...Act for me baby, ACT!

What else y'all got to say about SB2 and its apparent appearance today?

(Blog Synergy In Progress)
Inspired by Greg Wythe when he bestowed the title of Honorary Texan on Paul Hackett, Texas Bloggers, led by Burnt Orange Report, Off the Kuff, PinkDome, and Greg's Opinion are calling today upon all Texans (and friends of Texas) to join ranks and donate towards the very cause we have been arguing for this past week - Run Everywhere, because it's what our Party and our Democracy needs.

His success is our success, not just as Texas Democrats, but as
Democrats period.

"Paul Hackett is hereby granted "Temporary Texan" status from now and
election day in the Ohio 2nd (August 2). I'm pretty sure I have no
legal standing whatsoever to convey Texan-ship, but who am I to let
that stop me?"

Certainly not us, Greg. So join us today, in a special edition, Texas Thursday, for Honorary Texan Paul Hackett. Let's roll.

If you are, you're reading the wrong blog! But seriously now, on that great Statesman blog "Rich and Fred", Fred explains why they didn't publish yesterday and today's strip of Doonesbury. See, apparently the term "turd" is offensive. The AAS is among about 11 other papers in the nation who didn't publish these strips.

Garry Trudeau, the author of the comic (aka Jane Pauley's hubby), is defending his choice of terminology/topic:

Does Trudeau think many newspaper editors and readers are aware that "Turd Blossom" is a real nickname for Bush's close advisor, not one made up by the cartoonist?

"My assumption was twofold -- that many people already knew it, and that most others would infer it was real from the way I teed it up," said Trudeau. "I also felt that those in the latter group would be as tickled to learn of it as I was."

Just to give you a laugh, we got an email today from a pornographic web site that has listed us in their link page and would like PinkDome to reciprocate the link. We aren't, but I could not resist posting where PinkDome fell in their list.

BOR, ITPT, Off The Kuff, et cetera...how super jealous are you?

Phillip at BOR has posted an open letter to Rep. Grusendorf. If we had more energy, we'd do the same. Oh, here you go:

Dear Rep. Grusendorf,
I am very disappointed in you, but at least I didn't vote for you.
Your pal,
Bluebonnet

First, if it isn't it should be a sign of the Apocolypse that I'm even awake at such an un-Godly hour it should be. Do people really get up at 6:15 a.m. all the time? I'll be in the capitol this morning for little something at 7:30 a.m. (I'll tell you about it later)

While I'm there is there anything I should make a point to see? Like where the House of Representatives imploded yesterday? I wonder if there's scorch marks at the front and back mics.

I've still got the PinkDome Tax Plan here if someone wants to start drafting that up. I think we covered sales taxes and business taxes but we never got around to property tax relief. So, if you're an expert on that and have some ideas shoot them over to craft our proposal. At this point 100 monkeys typing in a room could come up with something so what the hell, we might as well give it a shot. Our readers are probably smarter than monkeys. (And by monkeys we mean the current House leadership)

Gov. Rick Perry said lawmakers need to put aside rancor and partisanship so they can come back on Wednesday and begin again on school finance and property tax relief.

There's more, but let's just look at this part. Republicans love nothing more than to throw out the word 'mandate' at every other opportunity and for once we think it applies. Eight votes FOR is not partisanship, dumbass...it's a mandate.

Back to the drawing board and quit sending around the same old shit.

Comments are now fixed, btw.

"Mr. Speaker, show me voting NO on HB 3" - Chairman Jim Keffer.

Only 8 ayes for HB 3, this one goes down in a blaze even more so than HB 2.

Right now, every jaw in the Capitol has dropped. After some particularly underhanded moves by the leadership, Representative Scott Hochberg passed his own plan for school finance. A collective brick was shit by leadership. Included in the amendment is greater property tax relief for most Texas homeowners than was included in HB 2. It also includes a full restoration of school employee health benefits, a larger teacher pay raise than in House Bill 2, and increases in compensatory education, bilingual funding, and facilities funding. After some debate it passed 76-67, a huge margin of victory.

After some scrambling, HB 2 went down in a blaze, final vote 79-62.

What went down today? People are still shaking their heads trying to figure it out.

To cut off debate on HB2. Carter Casteel was cut off mid-sentence and folks followed with righteous indignation. Eiland threw his amendments on the floor in disgust and spelled Bullshi(t) he left off the 't'.

We received three IM's with the same exact statement:
Keel is a fu*ker.

So, there you go. Another day in the House.

We are willing to wager that whatever tentative deal they had on HB2 it's dead now.

So says Moreno after Keel makes a bold move to cut off debate on HB2. Craddick won't recognize the members opposing the bill and now Moreno gets his only chance to catch a breather...a point of personal privilege. He gets 10 minutes to tell the House Republicans they are disrespecting the debate process. Will there be other points of personal privilege to follow? (That's the only point that Craddick can recognize before the motion to cut off debate and vote on HB2)

Let's watch together.

That's a direct request from a staffer. We just thought we'd pass it along. Staffers feel free to vent in the comments.

Ann Curry interviewed Lance Armstrong and he's not running for governor.
Curry: You do have political aspirations?
Armstrong: No, no ...
Curry: You're saying you have no political aspirations?
Armstrong: I'm not ...
Curry: You're not saying you have no political aspirations?
Armstrong: I don't know what I'm saying. We're going to elect a new [Texas] governor next year - I'm not running next year.

We're electing a new governor next year? First we've heard of it.

Yes, PD gagged when he read this post and does a little (BB: LOTS of) editing.

Google Alerts found this great story for me about Susan Combs' speech to the Texas Sheep and Goat Raisers' Association. We're wondering what Combs' position is on Rancher-Goat Love? Does she cover that in the speech?

My favorite Combs quote: "You've got to be aggressive in a 'perky' way. . ." Is this a sexual innuendo?

Bluebonnet says she may have voted for Combs. She's currently being treated for a serious mental disorder.

Pinkdome...never a place where you'll find the word 'cutesy' unless we're talking about someone's ass or rack.

The Dallas Morning News devotes a front page link to this most assuredly riveting story:

We wandered around looking for others. If you find some, send us the link. We would expect more headlines like this to be on the front pages of newspapers across the state.

The House passed the judicial pay raise measure yesterday. As you know, a lot of people criticized the House for A.) dealing with this and not school finance, b.) tying legislative pensions to judicial pay raises and c.) not recording their votes on a pay raise bill.

We think it's just because instead of educating our youth, we need judges to make sure the little uneducated thugs go to jail.

Ok, so judges deserve a pay raise. But, with the way things are going in the House I'm not sure any of them deserve a better pension. Most of them probably deserve 'early retirement'.

Instead of worrying about how your representative voted on this bill, why don't you figure out if they have the first friggin' clue what's going to be in HB2 this time around.

For the love of Christ...someone send us some tips. If we have to write about school finance much more we're going to turn into super-nerd. The ins-and-outs of property tax relief does not get us laid.

Thursday's the day? And we thought Shapiro was going to roll up her sleeves on the conference committee report and go back to work on a few things. You could tell she wasn't too passionate about bringing 2 to the floor last week.

I just realized how cryptic that would sound if you haven't been paying attention. Here's what we mean. HB2 is apparently back on the calendar for Thursday. (Remember the days when we used to actually look shit up before we posted it?) The other part about Shapiro is mainly wishful thinking.

For the life of me, I can't understand why this is going to be the 3rd (or is it 4th) time we're going to see these same pieces of shit that are HB2 and HB3.

Even the cable companies new message to get the Lege off of the SBC kick is to criticize them for working on SBC instead of schools.

Pitiful.

The White House is saying that documents pertaining to Roberts' work in past administrations are "out of bounds". They are so not . . . but we think Sen. Lieberman's facial hair should be. He looks like Gabby Hayes!

(source: Myway/AP)

From Population Connection:

The bill the House considered yesterday (ed. note: Tuesday the 19th, we're a little slow), H.R. 2601, the Foreign Relations Authorization bill, created a new program dedicated to fistula prevention and treatment and contained a provision authored by Rep. Joe Crowley (D-NY) to ensure the programs funded made birth control available. But, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), one of the most outspoken foes of contraceptives in Congress, offered an amendment, that was adopted 223-205, to strip contraceptives from the list of prevention measures included in new legislation. A change of only nine votes would have changed the outcome of the vote.

How did your rep vote on the Smith amendment?

I see that my great Rep. McCaul voted for the amendment. Thanks, Mike! (/sarcasm)

Our tipster notes: "Dems Henry Cuellar and Solomon Ortiz voted the wrong way (what IS the matter with Cuellar?), as did R woman Kay Granger (we should take her ovum away.)"

Is that what y'all heard? Hell, we're so bored with talking about property tax relief and sales tax increases and blah blah blah that we might come down there and vote for HB2 and HB3. I hope you bitches realize you are ruining our summer. And...by bitches I mean you Perry and Craddick. I'm totally exempting Dewhurst just to piss you off.

If you have heard other fantastic rumors about 79 Version 2.0 let us know.

These are actually from over the weekend.

San Antonio Express-News: "Parents of Texas schoolchildren have reached their boiling point. . . Fed up, the parents are taking a page out of the politicians' playbook and forming a political action committee of their own. The goal: to oust old guard lawmakers they say don't support public education."

Waco Tribune-Herald editorial: "It should not have come as a surprise to anyone that Gov. Rick Perry added telecom deregulation to the special session called to fix the state's broken school finance system."

Houston Chronicle editorial: "Parents, students, teachers and the vast majority of taxpayers would be better off if lawmakers would defy Gov. Rick Perry's latest work order and go home."

So, here we are again. How y'all doin? Bitter yet? Sure you are. But, let's keep our wits about us. Unlike the Republican consultant Ray Sullivan that said this to the DMN:

"If the Legislature can pump billions more into schools, provide some property tax relief and impose academic rigor and put schools on a firmer financial footing, they will be seen as great successes," Mr. Sullivan said.

Really? If monkeys could fly out of my ass I could make a few bucks on the carny circuit.

[Photo: DMN]

Dave McNeely has a great editorial out today, which basically repeats what we've all been saying about the special session(s): "they can't get there from here". It's sad that we've all gotten so fatalistic, but there it is.

Who needs a drink?

"We can solve this problem," said Rep. Jim Dunnam, D-Waco. "But we can't solve it with the same five people in the same back room excluding the people of Texas from the process."

Dunnam has higher hopes than we do. This will be the third time the lege looks at HB2 and HB 3. It stank in March, stunk in June and absolutely reeks in July.

How many times do we look at the same piece of shit legislation before someone says 'Hey, it stinks it here?'

Give us a break!

From Defamer, we learn that Tom Hanks will portray former US Rep. Charlie Wilson (Tx Dist. 2) in the upcoming bio-pic Charlie Wilson's War. Can Tom Hanks do Texan? I guess we'll have to wait and see. I have my doubts.

I'm actually not referring to the Texas legislature in the title of this post; I'm referring to the national Violence Against Women Act which is set to expire in September, unless Congress reauthorizes it. From 700Women.org:

VAWA of 2000 expires at the end of September 2005 and the remarkable gains weâ??ve made in ending domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking could come to a halt if Congress does not act quickly. With the reauthorization of VAWA, Congress has a unique opportunity not only to continue successful and vital programs, but also to expand on 10 years of progress to further the safety and stability of the lives of survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault and stalking.

It's official: Perry called another special (see the 'call' here) for tomorrow, & Whitmire has officially run out of things to say during his filibuster.

Latest topic he spoke of? "Hey Kenny (Armbrister), isn't it time to tell the people that we went to the same high school? But you ran with a much tougher crowd than me (hehehe)". Meh, I was honestly hoping for political fireworks tonight; the funniest thing tonight has been the fact that the Senate writes "Filibuster in Progress" for the TV caption. Gawd, somebody slap someone around & entertain us. My buzz is wearing off.

*Update*
12:02: My buzz has officially worn off. Filibuster is over. Senfronia, along with a motley crue of D's were at the rail, rallying Whitmire on. Sen. West goes up to the mike to bust Whitmire's balls & end the session. Yes, it is over, & according to the Gov we'll all be back tommorrow. But you know what? We're taking up property tax cuts first, not school finance. Yes, it is more important to put money in the pockets of the higher-ups, as opposed to funding our schools. Oh well, cest la vie.

12:45: According to QR: "Four bills will be referred to committee on the Senate side for a vote. Those bills will include the current House Bill 2 and House Bill 3, as well as the judicial pay raise and the telecommunications reform bill. Once the bills are voted out of committee, the Senate will adjourn until Monday. Speaker of the House Rep. Tom Craddick (R-Midland) is expected to appoint a special committee to address the tax issue." Finally, just as a thought, I wonder what new faces we'll see on the speaker's special committee. hmmm, something for yall to wonder about as the 2nd session nears.

I can't turn the TV from the Senate debate on HB2. I could be watching a newly arrived adult-themed video, but instead I'm riveted to Senator Shapiro admonish everyone that gets up to ask her questions. She's so bitchy!

Today's the last day of the 1st Special of the 79th Legislature. Celebrate the absolute pointless 30 days with your very own PinkDome t-shirt:
"The Governor called a Special and all I got was this lousy t-shirt!"

Clearly goes to Barbara Ann Radnofsky. We received her press release attacking Senator Hutchison for just 'rubber-stamping' the nominee to the SCOTUS. We thought, ok...that's expected from the Radnofsky campaign but then we laughed because all of the sudden there is a huge portion of the press release that reminds us KBH hates veterans.

Radnofsky has been tearing into KBH on this issue for some time now and it's hilarious to see her campaign as a pit-bull and staying on their message. Good for them. Ask Radnofsky a question about what she thinks about campaign finance reform and I'll bet you my liver in a frying pan she'll say KBH isn't taking care of our veterans. (Press release after the jump)

Have y'all been reading the comments suggesting we create our own HB3? Sadly, all the smart folks seem to agree it's time for a state income tax. But, the brilliant minds are working on ways to exempt beer and tacos for taxes. Good work folks, let's get this over to the Governor.

This email message is being passed around the House and someone forwarded it off to us. We're way to lazy to fix the fact that it is in ALL CAPS, so to spare your eyes and emotionally prepare you for it we've posted it in the extended entry.

I hope your favorite shows aren't on network TV at 8pm tonight. Bush will be announcing his choice for the Supreme Court at that time. I post this as a warning, but also as an excuse to post this wonderful picture:



C'mon, it's funny!! From AP.

Overheard from a broken hearted child today at the Capitol when a group of children yelled out to the governor who was at the time giving an impromptu press interview urging the passage of HB2 and HB3.

It's all about the children...unless, you know...they are actually around.

Wave to the kids next time. You're screwing them over, might as well give 'em a wave. Rude.

Lufkin Daily-News interviews Rep. McReynolds who says that unless the Lege does some fancy magic, public education is in a pickle. Okay, I paraphrased a little bit.

San Antonio Express-News wonders which is worse, having no bill or having this current one. And haven't we been saying that for a while now?

AAS covers last night's Senate fun, and includes this lovely picture from AP we had to share:



Why, Leticia, why? The hair looks great, but that outfit has got to go. Kisses!

Oh! School finance, now we remember. So, after we have a fragile deal on HB2 overnight, will HB3 squeak through?

Let's spend our morning doing something else. Let's forget HB2 and HB3 for a minute (dare to dream) and propose our own solutions to a.) school finance in Texas and b.) Taxes to pay for public education.

Our favorite proposals will win a dozen Tiff's Treats by 1:30 p.m. today! You can email us and we'll post your answer in the comment. That way we have your email to notify you win, but we can post your answer on the site anonymously.

We're going to take a little break this morning from the clusterfuck that is the state legislature and look in on Barbara Ann Radnofsky. On our post about the VA, Kuff commented that Radnofsky had been all over KBH about her record of attacking the veterans. We checked out her site and her blog and guess what? Barbara Ann's been busy since we last popped in.

She's running for U.S. Senate against KBH. Maybe you haven't heard. We've been paying a tiny bit of attention and are watching as she works her way throughout the state. There's some money coming in, there's some endorsements happening and best of all she has found a voice to do what we hear no one else doing---criticizing KBH. You can read her blog and get to know the campaign.

And, while we're at it did y'all all read David Van Os' comment on the Eminent Domain post? We enjoyed it, so scroll down and give it a read.

Oh, and Chet Edwards for Congress sent us an update on how much money they are raising. Good for them. But, here's a tip to all candidates: Put your web site address on your press releases, on your emails, on your voicemail and say it in your sleep! If you do not have a web site, get one!

So Bluebonnet had drinks with Chris Bell, and no other candidate for governor wants to take me out for a drink. That sucks. If any of you work for Carole Keeton or Governor Perry tell them we have just 10 questions.

Overheard in the House on Monday re: Hb2

"I was asleep when it came together and I was asleep when it came apart." --Rep. Joe Nixon

We're loving the brown and blue colors right now, so Andy Brown's new donor page is just fine by us.

You can click on that and give him some money, too.

Well, the National Conference of State Legislators is scheduled for August 16-20. We called up their headquarters in Washington, D.C. to ask how many Texas legislators were registered with staff and looks like Craddick's encouragement for folks to go turned out well. About 108 legislators and 41 staff members are slated to attend the conference. We are closing in on those pesky cancellation fees, though. Rumor has it they could be astronomical and would be paid by the state. You know, if for some reason there was a Special and they could not go.

We say let 'em go. Get the hell out of here. We'll accept volunteers to come up there to the pink dome in your place and we'll work out a helluva deal!

Well, for this post, we're talking about Love Field. In a flight of fancy (as I might punnily put it), I subscribed to Southwest Airlines rapid rewards e-mails (I only fly about once a year - if that much). I got one today that asked me to write my congresspeople about the Right to Fly Act (HR 2646) which will remove the Wright Amendment's restrictions from Love Field. Is Southwest seeing a light at the end of the tunnel? I will selfishly admit that any way the airline tickets can get cheaper, I'm for it. Well, within reason.

You can read more about it at Southwest's Set Love Free! site.

And yes, I like Southwest. I have had ill luck with other airlines (except for Northwest, they're okay).

RawHide and PinkDome get the same tip at the same time:
Rawhide: Craddick's probably going to release members from his arm twisting & tell them to vote their districts on HB3
PinkDome: rumors are that craddick is going to release R's on HB3 and let them vote their district.
PinkDome: haha, 123 jinx
Rawhide: Craddick will say he worked w/ the senate & signed off, & then 87 folks vote against the bill
PinkDome: ok, wait got another one
PinkDome: also, they may strip the finance part out of HB 2 (the tax relief), and just do their merit pay, school start date stuff....then leave a bunch of unfunded mandates for the districts to pay
Rawhide: Then another special called for Thursday.