The Texas Observer

Rove made the rounds of the Sunday talk shows today, a few days after he announced he’s leaving the White House at the end of the month. He told Face the Nation’s Bob Schieffer that he had been ordered to appear on the shows. Wonder why?

Was it the President: “Turd Blossom, every minute they are talking bad about you, they’re not talking bad about me.”

Or was it Chief of Staff Josh Bolton: “If they blame you for all our mistakes going out, it might give us a clean slate going forward.”

But the best line of the morning may have come from Matthew Cooper formally of Time Magazine in the reporter round-table after the interview. Cooper had just busted Rove for misleading guest host David Gregory in the previous segment by insisting he would never have revealed Valerie Plame’s identity as a CIA covert agent. A slightly exasperated Gregory wanted to know why Rove refused to apologize to Plame.

“Karl Rove never apologizes,” Cooper said. “That’s not what he does.”

As the economy and the infrastructure of our nation teeter, corruption and incompetence rein supreme in the government, and Iraq experiences ever-more horrifying atrocities of which the death and maiming of young Americans is but one part, what do you suppose it would take to make Karl Rove apologize?

It looks like President Bush, currently enjoying a “working vacation” on the wild preserves of Crawford Ranch, has caught a bit of the hunting bug. Pray this goes better than Dick Cheney’s last expedition. Rather than recklessly brandishing a shotgun, though, Bush seems to be indiscriminately wielding his executive-order pen. Today he released one titled “Facilitation of Hunting Heritage and Wildlife Conservation,” and it’s confusing because it’s so vague:

The purpose of this order is to direct Federal agencies that have programs and activities that have a measurable effect on public land management, outdoor recreation, and wildlife management, including the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture, to facilitate the expansion and enhancement of hunting opportunities and the management of game species and their habitat.

The order then provides a list of equally non-specific actions federal agencies should take, such as, “Consider the economic and recreational values of hunting in agency actions, as appropriate.” The only concrete enactment is a conference sometime in the next year to guage whether the goals of the order are being met. That should be scintillating.

So what in the world prompted this bit of Bush craziness? It looks like it was pre-emptive political CYA.

Bob Ricker, executive director of the D.C.-based American Hunters & Shooters Association, said he hadn’t even heard of the order until the Observer’s call tipped him off. But after checking things out, he’s hearing that “it’s basically political cover for Bush when he vetoes the Farm Bill.”

The bill, Ricker says, is “the key piece of legislation for hunting conservation,” and Bush is hoping this paltry order can prevent a backlash from hunters and other sportsmen, who have become major advocates for habitat preservation. Bush, for his part, has said the Farm Bill is too expensive. And even though hunting conservation is only a small part of the mammoth legislation, sportsmen are a constituency that Republicans are already trying to make amends with — before they get even angrier.

Ricker doesn’t think today’s offering will do the trick. “I think most hunters and most people who are pro-conservation will see right through it,” he said.

In case you haven’t noticed, Americans are downright obsessed with sexual ‘predators’. From NBC’s “To Catch a Predator” reality show to increasingly harsh sex offender laws, the nation is swept up in one of its periodic hysterias. In Texas, politicians heroically compete to see who can invent the most draconian punishments for sexual offenders. This year the Texas Legislature passed “Jessica’s Law,” a git-tough measure that imposes the death penalty for certain types of sexual assault. Who cares?, you might ask - these criminals are finally getting what they deserve. Good question, and who better to direct it to than a registered sex offender.

Tomorrow you get that chance. Instead of watching the Saturday morning cartoons, join “Joe” at Austin’s MonkeyWrench Books from 11am to noon for an in-the-flesh discussion of his “Life as a Sex Offender.” Permanently branded with a Scarlet ‘A’, “Joe” will discuss how sex offenders are subject to a lifetime of legalized discrimination and illegal harassment.

“He says in no way is he a predator,” said Ruth Epstein, VP of Public Education for the Central Texas chapter of the ACLU, who is sponsoring the event. With his back to the audience, “Joe” will tell the story of how what he says was consensual sex with minor girls became in the eyes of the law criminally deviant behavior. “Joe” will argue that the predator dragnet often sweeps up people that aren’t bona fide pedophiles, but rather adults and juveniles who sleep with people much younger than themselves.

“Questions from the audience are welcome,” says the press release. I’m sure there will be a few.

It’s a sad day for point-of-order fans at the Texas Capitol. The man who made a reputation this session for shredding bills with well placed challenges to parliamentary rules is moving on. The Houston Chronicle reported today that Republican state Rep. Robert Talton, the Sage of Pasadena, will give up his seat to make a run at CD 22, better known as The District Formerly Represented by Tom DeLay.

He joins a crowded field of Republican primary contenders. “Among those eyeing the seat are former Houston City Councilwoman and two-month U.S. Rep. Shelley Sekula-Gibbs; family court Judge James Squier and Pete Olson, U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s former chief of staff. Former Sugar Land Mayor Dean Hrbacek has formed an exploratory committee,” the Chron says. (Sekula-Gibbs is the gift that keeps on giving: you may recall she replaced DeLay for a month at the end of 2006, and within three days, seven members of DeLay’s staff had resigned in disgust.)

The crowded primary could play to the advantage of Congressman Nick Lampson, the Democrat currently enjoying Hot Tub Tom’s seat, said Matt Angle, founder of the progressive Lone Star Project. “Talton can be divisive,” Angle said, and in such a hotly contested primary, it’s expected that he won’t shy away from pointing out his opponents’ deficiencies. That would only buoy Lampson, no matter who the GOP nominates.

Certainly Lampson could use all the help he can get. The district is solidly Republican, which makes Lampson one of the most vulnerable Democrats in Congress. Angle said the district is solidly working class, and hasn’t been well represented by the state leadership — a key reason, Angle notes, that Talton himself was such a thorn in the side of Speaker Tom Craddick. Others, though, like Michael Hurta at Burnt Orange Report, worry that Talton will cruise to the nomination and make things tough on Lampson.

Then there’s the state House race left in Talton’s wake, which could present an opportunity for Democrats to pick up another Texas House seat. In addition to the district’s frustration with GOP leadership, Angle said his organization is predicting Hispanics to make up 25 percent of the district’s votes in ‘o8.

Talton’s departure will leave a void at the Texas Capitol. The anti-gay and anti-abortion rhetoric may well drop a few decibels, and many lawmakers won’t miss the kind of ugliness Talton espoused in 2005, when he fought hard to bar gays and lesbians from serving as foster parents.

But Talton’s passion also made for lively debates. He turned against Craddick because he genuinely disagreed with the authoritarian way the speaker rules the House. That animosity, paired with his knowledge of parlaimentary procedure, made Talton a real nuisance for the speaker. Every time Talton appreared at the back micrphone on the House floor last session, you could be sure that some drama was about to go down.

A coalition of cranky Democrats and Talton formed an an ideologically odd couple last session, with the Democratic caucus providing a lot of the research that produced Talton’s technical take-downs. For a good recap of how the two sides, who couldn’t be more philosophically opposed, came together, see this article in the DMNfrom April:

“Whether you’re liberal or conservative, you’ve got the same goal – it’s just how you get there,” Mr. Talton said. “What most of us are trying to do is allow everybody to have a say. … You shouldn’t be told to vote against your district.”

In spite of their vast philosophical differences, Democrats say they’re glad to have his help.

“Talton is ideologically consistent and solid and has more integrity than most people I know,” said Fort Worth Democratic Rep. Lon Burnam, one of the House’s most liberal members. “He is a key outsider. … He’s fearless in the number of spears he will throw.”

Brian Flood, the top watchdog at the scandal-plagued Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) announced his resignation late this afternoon. As HHSC inspector general — a post created in 2003 — Flood oversaw investigations of fraud and abuse across Texas’ multi-billion dollar health care safety net.

Earlier this year, Flood feuded rather openly with Gov. Rick Perry and HHSC chief Albert Hawkins after Flood released a highly critical report on HHSC’s two major privatization efforts. Those disastrous contracts , including the Accenture mess, cost the state hundreds of millions and deprived many families of benefits. Investigations by Flood’s office made Hawkins’ leadership of the agency look rather clumsy.

The reason for Flood’s departure late today is unclear. There was speculation at the Capitol during the legislative session that Flood was getting forced out because, according to some sources, he had embarrassed Hawkins, the governor’s ally. It’s worth noting that Perry doesn’t praise Flood personally in the HHSC announcement. The governor has appointed an interim IG.

The bill’s been in effect for a while, but Rick Perry ceremonially signed into law HB 3678, the so-called “Religious Viewpoint Anti-Discrimination Act,” in Sugar Land yesterday. The governor’s press release contained this nugget: “The bill, authored by Rep. Charlie Howard, does not expand religious expression in schools, but rather reiterates a student’s existing right to expression.”

So … it’s redundant with existing law? Pretty much. The final version of the bill doesn’t do anything really except lay out step-by-step, Supreme Court-friendly instructions for folks who want to slip benedictions into morning announcements and football games. That’s not how it was intended, though, asthe Observer reported back in June. All the messy details after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »

In the few hours since the Observer’s post yesterday detailing the shooting at KPFT 90.1, a progressive public radio station in Houston, the station’s blog has posted a number of new details:

– A donation page dedicated to paying for repairs is now up.

– A transcript of an interview that Democracy Now did with station manager Duane Bradley and DJ Mary Thomas, who was almost hit by the bullet, has lots of interesting info I didn’t know. The shell they recovered is for a 39 mm round commonly used in AK-47 assault rifles. The station thought the Plexiglas window the bullet blasted through was bullet-proof. And they’re going through the FCC to ask the FBI to get involved, since tampering with a public broadcast could constitute a federal offense (Ernesto mentioned this yesterday, but I forgot to include it).

The interview also has Thomas’s firsthand account of what must have been a terrifying few minutes:

Well, somebody — I could see somebody from the inside camera knocking on the door. So John, our — the person that was helping me, he went to the door to see who it was. And I told him — I said, “If you don’t know who it is, don’t let him in.” But anyway, when he got to the door, he found out that it was somebody that we knew that comes to the station. And while he was doing this, then a big boom came through the window right where I had just moved my chair from that window. And I fell to the floor, because I turned my head right quick, but then I saw the big hole, and I just fell to the floor and crawled into the next room in the next room and made a phone call to 911.

– A short documentary on the 1970 bombing of the station is now available online.

– For kicks, you can check out the many theories on the shooting from the fine folks at Free Republic, including the one that KPFT staged the shooting, assault rifle and all, as a publicity stunt. (Via KPFT’s Bald Heretic.)