10.29.09
A couple of items
Almost 3,500 had voted early [.pdf] as of Tuesday.
Here’s the list of Sunset review during the 2010 – 2011 biennium, 28 in all. Find the complete review schedule here.
We’ve had a massive redistribution of wealth over the last 50 years – from working Americans to the wealthy and super wealthy. Check out this graph from EPI, Money to spare for health care.
Can a Democrat still support Hutchison after this? If You Don’t Vote For Kay, Dick Cheney Will Shoot You In The Face.
The Dallas Observer asks the question, Rick Perry: Crazy or Crazy Like a Fox? Guess Which We Pick.
[Dallas Morning News editorialist William McKenzie] suggests three possible motives for Perry’s actions: He’s following his principles; he’s following a political strategy that marries no-holds-barred leadership with conservative values; or he’s just out of touch.
Let’s add a fourth possibility to that list: Perry is a cuckoo bird. Of course, that’s just Buzz spitballing. We’re just an ol’ softy liberal sort who kinda would like to know whether the state of Texas is executing innocents and who was appalled by Perry’s actions in the Corsicana case.
But it would be unfair to draw the conclusion that the governor is a bloodthirsty nut without doing some investigating, So, adopting the standards of Fox News, we posed our question to the most fair and balanced expert we could think of: Vince Leibowitz, chairman of the Texas Progressive Alliance and communications director for Democratic gubernatorial candidate Hank Gilbert.
“I think the crazy aspect of his campaign plays to…the far right wing of his party,” Leibowitz says. Perry’s strongman tactics in the Corsicana case might serve him well in locking up the wingnut vote in his primary battle against Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison. If he wins the primary, however, he’s going to have a hard time repositioning himself toward the center to appeal to voters who haven’t sipped “Perry-Aid…his own kind of Kool-Aid,” Leibowitz says.
“Trying to turn off the right-wing switch and returning to moderate is just going to be impossible,” he says.
The crazy genie is out of the bottle.