Here's our video coverage of the watch party.
The room gets crowded hours before Obama takes the stage, here everyone gets pretty quiet for Al Gore.
The closest anyone in Austin got to Obama tonight. Hilarious.
Here's our video coverage of the watch party.
The room gets crowded hours before Obama takes the stage, here everyone gets pretty quiet for Al Gore.
The closest anyone in Austin got to Obama tonight. Hilarious.
But that's not the only reason her name's in the news. Washingtoninan Magazine came out with its "Best and Worst" issue, compiled from surveys of 1,700 Capitol staffers. KBH made it into the "Meanest" category, placing second behind Sen. Barbara Mikulski, D-MD, and in front of Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA.
The Arizona senator is expected to announce his VP choice on Friday.
]]>John Edwards: Punchline The Texas Observer
Charlie Wilson's Warning Star-Telegram
Meet the Press Texas Monthly
Clinton to Hispanic Caucus Burnt Orange Report (video)
Wentz, Daughtry Stay Loose on Candidates Dallas Morning News
Hell Hath No Fury, But Denver Does Texas Observer
Also, since I had the time, I added my twitter badge to the right rail.
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The Obama-Strama buttons are totally tongue in cheek, but they do exist for any donors to his campaign who might be interested in getting their hands on one. But keep in mind they are as useless as those fishy "Obama-Bayh" bumper stickers that made news Friday afternoon.
]]>The Republican party of Texas hit back this afternoon, with an ad showing Barack Obama's brother in Kenya. They show a photo of him in a rundown type place, and the narrator asks, "If Obama cares so much about your family, why doesn't he take care of his own family first?"
Check it out:
Democratic officials say that Edwards was one of the few Democrats whose background was checked by Obama's campaign, and he was a finalist for the job.]]>Edwards is among a small circle of people mentioned, including Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine, Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius and Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware and Evan Bayh of Indiana.
Obama was expected to text message his choice later on Friday or Saturday.
Now his firm has put that notion into motion, with a response video online. Check it out and let us know what you think:
]]>The spectre of Fred Baron's now being brought into the US Senate race between Senator John Cornyn and challenger Rick Noriega. The Cornyn campaign wants Noriega to give the Baron money back, too. Here's the explanation:
Noriega unveiled his healthcare plan yesterday. The healthcare plan did not include anything about medical malpractice reform, and Cornyn's campaign says it knows why. Fred Baron. And other trial lawyers who opposed tort reform.
Baron, a Dallas based asbestos lawyer, and his wife Lisa Blue have given thousands to Noriega's cash-strapped campaign. They also held a fundraiser on June 16th at their Dallas mansion for Noriega so fellow trial lawyers could put additional dollars into Rick's campaign coffers.The Texas Democratic Party's getting nailed in the latest Cornyn missive, too. Baron is the largest donor to the Texas Democratic Party, giving more than a million to the party, and more than $3 million to a trust designed to elect Democratic candidates.Baron, trial lawyers and left-wing national bloggers are among the few who have shown any interest in Noriega's fledgling campaign. In exchange, Noriega apparently has agreed to turn a blind eye to medical malpractice liability reform.
"Baron and his trial lawyer buddies have bought and paid for" the Texas Democratic Party, according to Cornyn's spokesman, Kevin McLaughlin.
TDP Spokesman Hector Nieto responded to the charges, here's what he said, in part:
"Instead of resurrecting a non-issue like Fred Baron, why doesn't John Cornyn explain to the people of Texas why he voted six times against bipartisan legislation to expand the Children's Health Insurance Program? Every time a child goes to the emergency room because a parent couldn't afford quality healthcare, that parent can thank John Cornyn."
]]>TX Supreme Court Justice Nathan Hecht testified for somewhere between one to two hours today, before the Texas Ethics Commission. These meetings are closed.
Hecht's accused by Texas Watch of breaking campaign finance law in accepting about $100,000 in in-kind legal help. The help came from former Oprah attorney Chip Babcock in 2006, after he was admonished for endorsing Miers for U.S. Supreme Court (judges are prohibited from endorsing a candidate for public office, Hecht won on appeal by arguing US SCOTX nominees aren't candidates for office).
Since we weren't going to get into the hearing, the complainants from Texas Watch, the AP's Jay Root and Harry Cabluck, our KVUE photog Dathan and myself hung out in the hallways outside the meeting. We thought we had the front and back doors covered so we could get a comment from Hecht when he was finished. Here's a shot of Jay and Harry covering one door:
Hecht was too stealth for us. He made an amazing escape! Around 5pm, after staking out the meeting for almost four hours, Ethics Commissioner Wilhelmina Delco came out and said, "Oh he's BEEN gone. He was gone a long time ago." She said the justice's testimony went "fine".
The Ethics Commission left the situation pending, which means a formal hearing is likely to follow. The formal hearing is public, according to Delco. That beats spending the afternoon sitting in the hallway. People kept walking by with their frozen yogurt with unlimited toppings...killing me...
]]>Fred Baron, the largest Democratic donor in Texas, admitted last week to making payments to John Edwards' mistress for the past year or so. He said he used his own money, not campaign funds.
Now one Texas beneficiary of Baron's cash is being called out.
The Willco Republicans want House District 52 candidate Diana Maldonado to return $25,000 she received from Annie's List - a Texas PAC that helps elect progressive women. Annie's List received that same amount from Baron earlier this year.
"This toxic money that was laundered and paid to Maldonado is a dirty down payment on corrupt and immoral behavior," said Bill Fairbrother, Williamson County Republican Party Chairman. "Imagine the message this 'hush money' sends to our children. It says that if you make a mistake you do not have take responsibility for your actions."
"It is time for Maldonado to take responsibility and reject this contribution. If she fails to reject this contribution she is aiding and abetting this corrupt behavior."
]]>Noriega said this (listen to it here):
I was in Amarillo, Texas three days ago. Not to throw anybody under the bus, but it's just a fact. Three days ago I roll out my immigration plan, and I recognize that the other side has weekly or bi-weekly conference calls with news directors across the state. Two separate affiliates interview me. The news director sends them out with a list of questions, and this is the third time this happened, the questions were identical. Absolutely identical. And they had nothing to do with the merits of the plan. They had everything to do with how I parted my hair, did I say this when I meant that, all of these other diversions, all of these other issues, process questions that had nothing to do with the meat and potatoes about policy and about the differences in votes and opinions and how we move this state and this nation.I get his larger point, that there's too much coverage of campaign riff-raff/horserace and not enough coverage of the issues. But Cornyn could easily pick that bone with us, too. Especially when Noriega has been the beneficiary of most "horserace" stories this summer -- the poll stories, Big Bad John, Dave Beckwith, etc.
So that sentiment wasn't surprising. What stood out to me was an assertion that TV news bosses, aka News Directors, were meeting weekly with the Cornyn campaign, and this resulted in coverage that Noriega didn't like. We've heard campaigns blame the messenger a lot, claim that reporters are "in the tank" for one side or another. But it's taking your claim to a more sinister level to say that managers of television newsrooms "across the state" are collectively allowing the Cornyn campaign to direct their coverage.
]]>I cannot speak for all other Texas TV stations, but news directors in both Dallas and Houston confirmed they have NEVER had any regular conference calls with Senator Cornyn or his senate office. So what was that comment all about? I called Noriega's spokesman Martine Apodaca on Friday to make sense of things.
At first Apodaca stood by his bosses comments, saying that they believed news directors were having conference calls with Cornyn's Senate office. While Noriega said they were happening weekly or bi-weekly, his spokesman said they were happening occasionally.
"I think that happens occassionally and there are calls between the Senate office and NDs where they share information about Senator Cornyn," said Apodaca. "The calls influence the coverage."
When I asked him where this information came from, he said these calls have been going on for years.
I said my news director and the other Belo Texas news directors never knew about such calls, Apodaca amended his comments to say it was reporters having conference calls with Cornyn.
"Rick Noriega believes that there are calls that happen between the senate office and reporters," Apodaca said.
THAT is true. The Cornyn Senate office makes the Senator available at least once a week to talk about anything, Cornyn has done it for years. But News Directors don't go on these calls -- I'm sure they CAN -- but it's not a Cornyn camp to ND direct connect.
So when I asked whether Noriega stood by his assertion that news directors were meeting with the Cornyn camp, he said "no comment".
Apodaca finished with the larger point Noriega was trying to make, even though that point became muddled with a dubious claim about news bosses being controlled by Cornyn.
"Rick Noriega does not believe that there is collusion between the two but what he was trying to say was that he doesnt think the mainstream media is doing its due dilligence," Apodaca said. "I do not think that reporters should be asking questions verbatim from the Cornyn campaign."
]]>Last year, Joe Horn shot and killed two burglars who broke into his neighbors house. A grand jury decided not to charge him with anything. Here's the Houston Chron:
In his 911 call, Horn cited a newly enacted Texas law, the "castle doctrine," which authorizes the use of deadly force during a home invasion.Only the people in the grand jury room know why they didn't charge Horn, but the Texas penal code makes clear that using deadly force to protect yourself only extends so far -- to your own stuff.But Sen. Jeff Wentworth, who wrote the law, said it did not apply to Horn's case.
"It was not an issue in this case other than him saying incorrectly that he understood it to mean he could protect his neighbor's property," said Wentworth, R-San Antonio.
He said the castle doctrine simply didn't apply because, although the burglars were running across Horn's lawn, Horn's home wasn't under siege - his neighbor's home was.
"It comes from the saying `A man's home is his castle,' " Wentworth said. "But this wasn't his castle."
The Castle Doctrine won't give Oakes a stronger legal shield either, for the same reason.
"There's been a lot of confusion about this," said longtime Austin criminal defense attorney Keith Hampton.
Find the applicable parts of the law in the Texas Penal Code 9.41, 9.42 and 9.43.
]]>This video has only gotten 74 views on YouTube so far, but episode two caught the eyes of more than 1,000. Click and check out Hans playing video host. He's a natural! And how about that hair blowing in the wind... it even blows in the right direction! When wind blows at my live shots, I always wind up eating my hair.
]]>Up until recently, I also looked forward to "Chicken Fried Steak Day". And since the Capitol is a place where acronyms run wild, from here on out I will call it "CFS Day".
Chicken Fried Steak at the Capitol. Just $5.95. A better deal than that impostor Chicken Marsala.
I knew that CFS Day was on Tuesdays. So I would often try to wrangle someone to venture up the great walk to down some CFS.
That is, until I learned that Wednesday IS ALSO CFS day. So is Thursday! I bet if you request it, you could also get it on Fridays.
Outrage! How can you look forward to a meal that's so readily available?
]]>"Our priority is expanding our strong grassroots movement for change across the state so we can help Democrats up and down the ticket and win the White House in November," said Sepúlveda.
Sepúlveda is President and Founder of The Common Enterprise (TCE). Sepúlveda is a member of Obama's National Latino Leadership Council and served as a senior advisor for Bill Bradley's 2000 presidential campaign.
He will take a leave from TCE starting today to serve as State Director.
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