FUBAR in the news: MSNBC's Ed Show

Ed Schultz of MSNBC's The Ed Show was kind enough to have me back last night, this time to discuss Rick Perry's family hunting camp, which of course as we know is now named RepublicanDooDooHead.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

You can see the entire segment here.

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Buzz from the TV show

On this week's Capital Tonight, I was asked about Rick Perry's current status in the Presidential race, following a terrible week for him in the news, but a pretty good week for him in the money race.

And featured on Capital Tonight this week is Laura Huffman, Texas State Director of the Nature Conservancy, who explained why Proposition 8, which is on this November's ballot, is a cool deal.

Why do I care what Prop 8 does? Glad you asked. Because we don't need any more of this, because we haven't noticed a whole bunch of extra water just sitting around lately, and because it doesn't cost taxpayers a dime.

You can watch this week's Capital Tonight in its entirety this Sunday morning at 11 am on YNN Austin, in San Antonio on Time-Warner Cable channel 90, or in other Texas markets on Time-Warner channel 888. Or watch it online any time.

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Molly Ivins can't cook that, can she? (book review)

I have a personal longstanding theory that the only real difference between a great journalistic news story, and a great bar story, is that one should never let accuracy get in the way of a great bar story. Otherwise, well done journalism is the same thing - just damn good story telling.

Ellen Sweets has managed to exceed both thresholds in her new book about Molly Ivins. It's both a fair accounting of Ivins, and a great extended bar story very well-told.

Stirring it up with Molly Ivins - A Memoir with Recipes by Ellen Sweets (foreword by Lou Dubose) is the most recent look into the life and times of a woman who is already well-documented, and Sweets tackles the topic from a unique angle - food. Anybody who knew Molly already knew she was a bit of a foodie, but when Sweets described to me a year ago her book idea of setting her Molly memoir in the kitchen, it frankly seemed like a bit of an odd, yet interesting idea.

But after reading the book it makes perfect sense, and it's a great read.

Admittedly, I have a sky-high number of conflicts of interest here: Molly Ivins was a close friend of mine. Ellen Sweets is a close friend of mine. And Ellen included me in the book. But precisely because of all of the above, I can tell you with high confidence that if you ever spent evenings with Molly, reading Ellen's book will give you the gift of spending one more. Even better, if you never got to spend that evening with Molly, you're in luck - after reading the book, you'll feel just like you did.

This is not your standard-issue cookbook, although it has a ton of recipes that I can't wait to try. But if your singular goal is life is to continue to avoid finding out first-hand whether the stove in your kitchen actually works, you'll still enjoy the book, assuming you love a good bar story about a fascinating, rowdy, complicated, and - at least to progressives and First Amendment advocates - inspiring Texas woman.

I loved Molly Ivins, and I loved this book. The last of it made me cry, the rest of it made me laugh, and the entirety of it made me hungry.

If you want a small taste (sorry) of Ellen's writing, courtesy of The University of Texas Press, here's one chapter near and dear to my heart, since it's about Molly and me. And after you read the excerpt, don't be a cheap-ass - buy the book.

Westward Ho, Ho, Ho


Molly and I had lots of plans, some sillier than others. One was to eventually relocate to Marathon, a little town in West Texas, and open a pseudo greasy spoon that would serve wonderful food. No white linen, no stemware, maybe not even matching plates and flatware. Just tables filled with pecan-crusted catfish, smothered chicken in onion gravy, perfectly roasted chickens, fresh-picked vegetables, cloud-soft biscuits doused with butter churned from the milk of local cows.


We would come up with menu ideas. My daughter, Hannah the Chef, would execute them, and I would greet guests pleasantly or otherwise stay out of the way. One sure offering would be coq au vin.


Close by our dream café Molly and I would pool our resources--hers substantial, mine meager--and plant a double-wide (hers) and a yurt (mine) on a patch of West Texas real estate in Marathon, where she did in fact buy a double lot. When her health took its final turn south, she ended up selling it to political strategist Harold Cook, a friend who, like a handful of other Austin renegades, was doing his part to Democratize that arid neck of the woods, as in "Let's turn Brewster County blue." In the best Molly tradition, it was the kind of sale ranchers probably did a century ago with a smile and a handshake. Like a lot of other friendships, this one evolved from a meal a long time ago.

Molly and me, unfortunately near the end

Cook was working at the time for Representative Debra Danburg, arguably the most liberal snuff-dipping Democrat in the Texas Legislature at the time. Molly, who was writing for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, stopped by the office to chase down some story or another. She and Harold struck up a conversation. One thing led to another and the two began to hang out, a coalition built on mutual political interests--solidifed, naturally enough, at a political event.


But let him tell it: "Debra had been scheduled to participate in roasting Glen Maxey [the first openly gay member of the Texas Legislature] at a fund-raising dinner for the Lesbian Gay Rights Lobby at Scholz Garten, but Debra had to cancel at the last minute, so I filled in. Molly was emcee for the event, and she introduced me as a legislative aide for Debra Danburg, which, she said, was "just like being Murphy Brown's secretary." (This popular and sometimes controversial 1990s sitcom was set in a newsroom where investigative reporter Murphy Brown was plagued by a string of hilariously inept secretaries, often portrayed by high-profile celebrities.)


"I started my speech by reading a mock letter from Danburg, which she'd supposedly written and which started out, 'Dear Glen, I hate it that I couldn't be with you and LGRL tonight. I would have been there if I could, but I got another offer that sounded like more fun, so fuck you.' Molly decided that anybody who would say the f-word in public was A-OK in her book, so we stayed late, got drunk, and after that I was a regular."


The friendship grew. Cook even made chili in Molly's kitchen, having learned to cook out of desperation and self-defense while a student at the University of Houston. Too broke to eat out and too proud to scrounge meals at his parents' house, he taught himself, delving into the kitchen bible of the \'50s and \'60s--the red plaid Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. He particularly remembers an evening when he made chili for her.


"She kept standing over my shoulder and tasting stuff, suggesting more of this or more of that. I told her I don't like backseat drivers and to leave me the hell alone and let me cook my chili."


Over the years the two spent time together in Marathon. She enjoyed piddling around, clearing cactus and moving rocks from point A to point B to make parking space. He became a piddling-around pal, primarily helping with the heavy lifting. Molly told Cook about wanting to build a writer's shack on the property, but acknowledged that because of her illness, the six-hour drive from Austin was just too much and she wouldn't use the house as much as she would have liked.


She decided instead to pool resources with her brother, Andy, for a place in the Hill Country village of London, only three hours away. They planned to have a few chickens, maybe a cow or two, and a vineyard, the results of which would be an insouciant Chardonnay bottled under the label "Château Bubba."


Molly offered to sell her piece of Marathon property to Cook because she felt he understood the spirit of the place and would care for it as she would have wanted. It would have been just like Molly to give it to him had Jan Demetri, her accountant, not intervened. Instead she sold it for the same sum she had paid for it several years before. Who knows how much it's worth now. But, once again, that was Molly.


Cook ponied up the cash, but they didn't even do a formal sale for at least another year or so--it was essentially a handshake deal in the best Texas tradition. There's an excellent chance that neither of them bothered with details long enough to find a notary public. Instead Molly insisted on a formal ceremony transferring "moral and spiritual responsibility for her property." This not-so-solemn rite was performed up the road, at the home of Ty and Kate Fain. It was originally scheduled to take place at the actual property, but the peripatetic West Texas weather refused to cooperate. Instead, at a New Year's Eve gathering Harold placed his left hand on a Texas State Directory and pledged to take care of the place and continue the frivolity and ridiculousness Molly had initiated.


As it's turned out, he has indeed built the writer's shack that Molly envisioned. The porch is almost as big as the cabin--to accommodate a crowd of friends sitting around talking politics, laughing and telling lies, just as Molly would have wanted.

(Excerpted from Stirring it up with Molly Ivins: A Memoir With Recipes by Ellen Sweets, Copyright ©  2011. Courtesy of the University of Texas Press)

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Dear Austin City Council:

I am writing to you today as a typical Austin voter, to thank you from the bottom of my heart for voting to oppose moving the City of Austin elections to November, which would by all accounts dramatically increase voter participation. I think we can all agree that this would be terrible.

A widely-expressed reason you have used for your opposition is that voters are already overwhelmed by, and uninformed about, November ballots, and this move would add to our already-burdensome task of basic citizenship.

You, wise council members, are exactly right. I am overwhelmed. My overwhelmishness is surpassed only by my uninformity.

Just like most other voters in Austin, I am a delicate little snowflake, very much in need of protection against such troublesome challenges like "electoral decisions." Thank you for seeing us as the morons that we are, and protecting us from ourselves. The task of going to a polling place and investing upwards of six to ten minutes electing the candidates of our choice is, frankly, an undertaking so utterly exhausting to contemplate that immediately upon completion of this letter of appreciation, I fear I may either have to take a nap or drink heavily.

An additional rationale you have used in your opposition is that in so doing, you fear you may violate the city charter. How wise of you to see through the shallow attempts of the Texas Legislature to mislead us, when they specifically wrote into the legislation prompting Austin's consideration of this move, in Sec. 41.0052c of the bill, that moving our elections to November will not constitute a violation of a city charter. Your rationale of simply re-inventing the truth to fit your agenda is courageous, and indicates to me that among the standard-issue elected officials in charge of our fair state, you're going to fit in around here just fine.

I'm especially proud of your courageous stand against saving taxpayer money. The fact that the city will have to spend hundreds of thousands in taxpayer money in failing to move the elections to November should mean nothing to you, so I'm happy that it doesn't.

Thank you so much for standing tall against those, like council member Mike Martinez, who naively think that increasing voter participation would somehow be a helpful for democracy. He was even quoted in the Statesman with the following, in the event you do not move city elections to November:

"There will be fewer women who vote. There will be fewer African Americans who vote. There will be fewer Hispanics who vote, and there will be fewer people of lower socioeconomic status."

While I agree with him as to the net result of your position, he says that as if that's a bad thing. I, for one, am proud that you know better. In fact, I honestly don't understand why you don't lead a move to return to the good ol' days - you know, that "limiting the right to vote to property owners" thing. Man, that was a bad-ass party, huh?

And speaking of non-property owners, let's not even get into a discussion about those kid bloggers over at Burnt Orange Report. They're trying to make all kinds of trouble for you over your courageous stand. Don't pay any attention to them - they're just part of the delusional crowd who thinks voter participation is somehow "cool." They probably have other similar socialist positions, like opposition to poll taxes and letting women vote and stuff. Those kids just need to get off our lawn.

In conclusion, to the four council members who support this courageous move to prevent more voting - Laura Morrison, Kathie Tovo, Sheryl Cole, and Bill Spelman - I applaud your courage. I urge you to continue to stand tall in preventing more of this nasty "participation" stuff from happening. I implore you to continue to listen to the sage advice of your political consultants, who are sure to have the best interests of the voters at heart as they advise you to prevent more Austinites from choosing their elected officials, at an additional cost to taxpayers.

I realize that subsequent votes on this measure may come as soon as this Thursday and Friday, so please continue to ignore the pleas of those who, perhaps even by clicking on the email contact links for your offices above, would try to lead you down the primrose path of increasing voter participation.

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Headline of the day so far

This is in keeping with the pervasive rumor that you just can't find a good Italian hooker these days.

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This college student...

...seems to be having a bear of a time at U.T. and seems destined to end up with grades about on par with Rick Perry's.

U.T.'s new motto: We're Texas. What starts here, changes the zoo.

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Perry's perpetual problems perplex

Republican primary voters need to make up their minds. When it comes to Rick Perry, they've been completely schizophrenic so far.

Are Perry's view so extreme right-wing that he's un-electable, as some first claimed, or is Perry too liberal for Republicans, as some pundits declared only a week later, after his debate performance in which he defended his support for in-state tuition for immigrants?

And speaking of those immigrants, is Perry too racially insensitive for Americans because of the former name of his family's hunting camp, or is he not racially insensitive enough to suit Republicans, because of the aforementioned immigrants and their aforementioned in-state tuition?

Neither conservative pundits nor conservative voters know what to do with Rick Perry. More notable, Rick Perry doesn't seem to know what to do with Rick Perry.

His opponents' efforts to attack him on every perceived slight has left Perry continually on the defensive, which has gotten him off his core message of job growth in Texas - ironically, the issue responsible for getting Perry to the top of the heap, and the one issue over which his opponents have yet to lay a hand on him. Wasn't this election supposed to be about the economy and jobs?

To the extent that Republican voters are now confused about Perry, his opponents' attacks have been successful. And if Perry continues to stay on defense, it may be fatal to his campaign.

I'm completely puzzled as to why Perry hasn't more aggressively tried to get back to his jobs narrative. Where's his jobs plan? What's his proposal to get the economy back on track, and translate his perceived "Texas miracle" nation-wide? When is his major keynote speech on the economy, which goes beyond his usual sound bytes and lays out serious proposals and explains his economic plan, and contrasts it with President Obama's performance?

Could it be - horror of horrors - that since Perry didn't really create those jobs (Texas businesses are to credit, not our aloof Governor), that he has no clue how to replicate Texas' success nation-wide? Did somebody finally inform Governor Perry that Republican Governor George Bush before him was equally successful in creating jobs, and Democratic Governor Ann Richards before Bush had astounding job numbers as well?

Could it be that somebody has finally informed Perry that Texas was a conservative pro-business state long before Rick Perry arrived on the scene, and just because Perry became the rooster who crowed about it, he's not the one who made the sun come up?

Could it be that Rick Perry has no vision, has no plan, and is the candidate who is a mile wide, but only an inch deep?

Every day, a new round of charges against Perry made by his opponents, or dug up by reporters, comes to light. Every day, somebody asks me if this is the end for Perry's campaign. And so far, every day I have said that I don't believe it is.

But sooner or later, it will be, if Perry stays on defense. Rick Perry can't be the "what the hell do you mean by that?" candidate, and maintain hope that voters will know anything about what he'll do about their greatest concerns.

Republican primary voters are going to have to decide what their priorities are, and Rick Perry's going to have to decide what his campaign is about. Otherwise, Perry will fade away.

Meanwhile, Texans cringe. Sheesh, back in the day, the Texan in the race would at least get himself elected President before completely embarrassing us. So far, Perry is way ahead of schedule.

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Weekly blog round-up

The Texas Progressive Alliance has no plans to move to the Southeastern Conference or the PAC 12 as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff notes that the federal court in San Antonio has issued an injunction preventing the state from implementing its new redistricting maps, and that until preclearance is granted it will draw its own maps to use for next year.

CitizenAndy has joined the dark side with his new blog Darth Politico. He'd appreciate if you checked out the new site, liked Darth Politico on Facebook, and subscribed to his feed. He's especially proud to have The Ghost of Sam Houston blogging at his site.

Letters From Texas explains why conservative pundits' Perry problems perpetually persist. Perfect.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that while Gov. Perry and the Texas GOP think all is well with the Texas economy that's far from reality, 2012 revenue estimate for Texas will be ìFlattish", dedicated funds trickery.

The "Move to Amend" Texas tour -- the effort to repeal the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision by constitutional amendment -- has stops scheduled in Bryan-College Station, Houston, San Antonio, Bastrop, Austin, and Corpus this week. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the details.

Over at TexasKaos, Liberal Texan has his say about Texas' latest assault on women: Family Unplanned: Texas Cuts Funding for Women's Reproductive Health Care. Check it out.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme tries on crazy shoes and rates the main GOP presidential candidates.

Bay Area Houston shows why Perry is weak and wrong on immigration.

Neil at Texas Liberal commented on welding and on the different ways that things are brought together based on a picture he took at the Houston Ship Channel.

McBlogger was a little surprised to learn from Rick Perry that Warren Buffett is clueless about the private sector.

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