Now that’s a special interest group. Who are they? They are a group funded by Bob Perry, Speaker Craddick, Dr Leininger and their friends who think justice is a quaint anachronism. “Out of control courts”, “runaway juries”, “activist judges”: all of these are code for justice, but skewed to sound wrong.

The Texans for Lawsuit Reform PAC is all about corporate special interests. Special interests who want nothing but free reign to run roughshod over Texas and Texans. They can’t have courts, attorneys and the government standing in their way. You may have heard them shout about “free markets” and “de-regulation”. You’ve seen where unbridled de-regulation gets us. Credit default swaps imploding and Wall Street’s credit markets paralyzed out of fear of the unknown complexities of the global market.

Make no mistake, their Political Action Committee has an innocuous name, sounding like it is about one issue, out to protect small business - but it is the same old corporate power special interests in play. They have no interest in small business or entrepreneurship. Their bought and paid for representatives are there to serve their corporate masters first. It is not as obvious as all that to these representatives; they have been convinced of their righteous positions. These are the same interests who repeal environmental regulations, who care nothing for the “reform” to the Texas Franchise tax that rolled a steamroller over small business, and left a Mack truck size loophole for the energy producers industry to drive through.

They are after more than just than their pet lawsuit reform - what a good idea that sounds like! - we just need to put the brakes on those greedy trial lawyers. Surely they serve no decent social purpose, especially when we have government regulatory agencies to protect our families from greed… We don’t need the courts, for we have already achieved ubiquitous common decency; social consciousness in our corporate decision making. No, it is not pleasant to admit: our society is not that perfect, yet. We still need trial attorneys and the community organizations so many of them support, to crusade against the wrongs in society, and a jury of our peers to investigate and decide on matters of right and wrong. After all, didn’t our forefathers fight and die for this dear freedom, this tenet of our free society? Apparently, to these special interests: these old ideas are misplaced; outmoded. By any means necessary to knock them down; To reduce our government from three branches to two; and then perhaps to one.

And there it is, why I dare to stand up and serve.

The numbers are through Thursday, 10/30 Early Voting :

Known partisanship:
10,881 Republican
12,152 Democratic
15,998 Unknown

Look at the unknown partisanship breakdowns:
7,087 Men
8,742 Women - 55.23%

Allright! Women have picked backed up, and are leading men by 10 points in the turnout.

I still need people to phone bank, NOW. Virtual phonebanking is available. You can call from anywhere in Texas, and the script is right on your computer screen. My campaign will take care of all the setup for you.

I need to raise money for paid voter contact. Can you give now?

The numbers are surprising. Let’s review:

These counts are through Tuesday.

Known partisanship:
7,215 Republican
8,184 Democratic
8,873 Unknown

Look at the unknown partisanship breakdowns:
3,690 Men
4,271 Women - 53.65%

I had 12,000 voters down ballot for me in the March Primary, where we had 19,605 democrats turn out. That’s almost more votes than my incumbent received in 2006.

Make no mistake, we had a HOT republican primary, with big media buys, and tons of mail dropping. These are REAL Democrats, not ‘Rush Limbaugh’ voters. Our Republicans went to the Republican primary.

I’m in the sleeper urban race. If we can GOTV, we will pick up another urban seat in the Texas House, and further ensure Tom Craddick is retired.

I need people to phone bank, NOW. Virtual phonebanking is available. You can call from anywhere in Texas, and the script is right on your computer screen. My campaign will take care of all the setup for you.

I need to raise money for paid voter contact. Can you give now?

The numbers are surprising. Let’s review:

These counts are through Saturday.

Known partisanship:
5,772 Republican
6,620 Democratic
6,787 Unknown

Look at the unknown partisanship breakdowns:
2,823 Men
3,287 Women

I had 12,000 voters down ballot for me in the March Primary, where we had 19,605 democrats turn out. That’s almost more votes than my incumbent received in 2006.

Make no mistake, we had a HOT republican primary, with big media buys, and tons of mail dropping. These are REAL Democrats, not ‘Rush Limbaugh’ voters. Our Republicans went to the Republican primary.

I’m in the sleeper urban race. If we can GOTV, we will pick up another urban seat in the Texas House, and further ensure Tom Craddick is retired.

I need people to phone bank, NOW. Virtual phonebanking is available. You can call from anywhere in Texas, and the script is right on your computer screen. My campaign will take care of all the setup for you.

I need to raise money for paid voter contact. Can you give now?

Thursday Evening, October 23rd, 7:00PM
How Blue Can You Get? A Gala

Bring your green and help turn Tarrant County Blue.

The event will feature a silent auction (a suggested donation) and live auction items as well. Supporting the Tarrant County Democratic Party.
We have original works of art, Cowboys, Stars and Rangers tickets, wine packages, music, Democratic memorabilia, a signed copy of “An Inconvenient Truth”, etc. Lots of great stuff….

Cocktails and Hors D’oeuvres.
Tickets are a suggested 25$ donation per person.
Your support sustains the Party after the election.

Music by the James Hinkle Trio.

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Saturday, October 18th, All Morning

I’ll be there at 8am, before I go out blockwalking!

A.D.A. Terri Moore is flippin’ hotcakes and cooking sausage. Come join us at the IAM 776 Machinists Hall for this Campaign Fundraiser for local Democratic candidates for Tarrant County Judges and Sheriff.

Fundraiser to benefit Democratic Judicial and Sheriff candidates.

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The Tarrant County Chili Challenge for Change - our own little domestic debate on who makes the best Chili in town!

You must contact the county party, (817) 335-VOTE, to enter in the Chili Challenge.

Set-Up

• Challengers should arrive no later than 6pm on Wednesday night.  Doors open at 6:30 pm.
• Doors open at 4:30 for Challengers.
• Each Challenger will have their own small table and access to a power strip.
• Challengers may decorate their table however they wish.

Fixin’s

• We will provide bowls and spoons for eaters.
• We’ll also set up a table with plenty of cheese, jalapenos, and crackers.
• Challengers should provide chili, serving bowl or crockpot, and serving ladle.

Serving Size

• There will be five judges and hundreds of attendees.  We would greatly appreciate enough chili for 25-50 persons.  Whatever you can make is great.

Contest

• Five Judges TBA (Steve Maxwell and Marc Veasey are two of them)
• First Prize: $250 donation to chosen campaign
• Second Prize: $100 to chosen campaign
• Third Prize: 4 Tickets to “W.” at Movie Tavern

May the best chili win!

For info on rental of booth space, or media credentials:
Contact Brett Rosenthal 214 527 4017

The crowd was electric, all of the local television stations were set up with live shots. Local candidates, including me, and elected officials running for re-election paraded across the stage and greeted the crowd. Sherriff Lupe Valdez had a great response from the hall. Senator Royce West and Commissioner John Wiley Price gave all too brief, but energizing speeches. Bill Clinton followed and introduced Rick Noriega, and gave a heckuva rallying speech to boot. Former Tarrant County Executive Director, J. Nile Fischer, put it best: the President still has it, he made everyone in the event feel like he was talking right to them. You betcha!

I have to give special thanks to Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton for campaigning for Rick Noriega here in Texas. To all Democrats, I ask you to tell them: Thank You. You have given so much to this country, and you aren’t done yet, are you?

Tell Bill and Hillary we will not forget this!

“If you have enough access to [one computer] to be able to get out a screwdriver and monkey around without anybody looking then what you could do is you could replace the software inside the one voting machine,” he says. (So, if you hear any clanking in the booth next you, please notify an official.) Wallach says it’s more likely it would be a poll worker after or before the election who would get the type of access needed, but once one computer is corrupt, it doesn’t take long for all of them to be.

“There is also no evidence to suggest the absence of an attack like this having been attempted, because if somebody was successful, you’d never know,” he says. “That’s not the sort of thing that gives you warm fuzzies.”

My husband was a ‘Computer Scientist’ too, he’s been telling me for years about this sort of attack and how easy it would be for him to pull off, especially on a county election. He does think a properly architected system could be secure enough and would be feasible to design, if anyone ‘with a clue’ got after the problem.

So, that’s why they don’t let spouses be election judges…

Apparently bad design is not just limited to security of the election. The eSlate design is very confusing when it comes to straight party voting, and during early voting, that is the only option given voters. ‘entering’ your vote for a specific candidate will deselect them. Maybe a 2nd button for ‘don’t vote for this candidate’ other than the ‘enter’ used to cast your vote would have been a better design? Hmm?

I used to think that Michael Palin was the funniest Palin on Earth.

Can people watching her on TV not see that she’s basically learned certain speeches, and she does them very well, she has got a very good memory. But it’s like a nice looking parrot. Because the parrot speaks beautifully, and kind of says aw shucks every now and again, but doesn’t really have any understanding of the meaning of the words it is producing even though it is producing them very accurately and shes been in these training sessions with Cheney’s pals and she’s learned these speeches and the extraordinary thing is that so many people are taken in by it. And the truth is, that Sarah Palin is nowhere good enough, and if you lined up from Europe, left-wingers, centrists, right-wingers, you wouldn’t find 10%, you wouldn’t find 5% who think she’s good enough to run the United States. And she’s running as the partner of a 72-year old cancer survivor.

I mean Monty Python could have written this. And I’m sorry Michael Palin, to say that you’re not the funniest Palin anymore, but you are not.

Watch the video here.