Category: Uncategorized

Kinky Friedman turns in 169,574 signatures today to the Texas Secretary of State. That’s more than three times the required 45,400 signatures.
Here’s some other interesting facts on the signatures from Kinky’s website:

Facts About Kinky’s Petition Drive:
More than 169,000 total signatures
At least one signature from every single county (254) in Texas
More than 3,444 individual circulators
More than 4,892 individual petition parts
90% of signatures gathered by volunteers
10% of signatures gathered by paid volunteers who committed to 500+ signatures
Paid signature collectors received $1 per signature
No outside corporations were hired for the petition drive
All signature validation took place in-house, with data entry tabulated on a custom database designed especially for this effort
Up to 6 volunteers entering data up to 14 hours per day since March 9th

Dallas Blog reports that Murdoch, the head of Fox News, NY Post and the Weekly Standard, will be holding a fundraiser for possible Democratic Presidential candidate in 2008, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY.
Murdoch has been a huge backer of the Bush Administration and also endorsed Tony Blair in his campaign for Prime Minister.
Dallas Blog suggests that this may be a sign of Murdoch switching sides as a matter of convenience in anticipation of a Clinton presidency in 2009.

The Murdoch media entities have been closely identified with the neoconservative advocacy of the War in Iraq; and, more recently, his US publications have been pushing for military action in Iran. Mrs. Clinton has been supportive of the Iraqi war and has called for stronger action against Iran to address that country’s development of a nuclear capability.

From the Telegraph in Calcutta:

The decision marks an abrupt change for Murdoch, whose combative New York Post tabloid assailed Hillary during her successful run for the Senate in 2000.
His enormously influential Fox News television channel was once described by Hillary as part of a “vast Right-wing conspiracy”.
But with Hillary moderating many of her positions as she considers a run for the presidency in 2008 and with the Republicans taking a hammering in the polls, the time appears ripe for reconciliation.

Kinky Friedman is expected to bring 11 tightly packed boxes of signatures to the Texas Secretary of State in about 30 minutes (at noon today).
According to Pink Dome, Carole Keeton Strayhorn brought her 223,000 signatures in over 100 boxes and the SOS said Strayhorns campaign could have easily fit them all in 12 boxes.

Anyone else seen page 21A of the DMN today?
Crazy ad on there. Wonder who came up with that.

The Department of Defense announced today the death of a soldier who was supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Spc. Aaron P. Latimer, 26, of Ennis, Texas, died in Mosul, Iraq, on May 9. Latimer was assigned to the 562nd Engineer Company, 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, Fort Wainwright, Alaska.
This incident is under investigation.

From Capital Annex:

The Texas AFL-CIO’s endorsement of Democrat Chris Bell for Governor is more than just the “huge shot in the arm,” Bell says it is: it’s exactly what his campaign—and Texas Democrats—needed right now and goes a long way toward illustrating that Texans realize more of the same old regime in Austin isn’t going to fix the problems of our state.
The endorsement of the Texas AFL-CIO, a group of more than 220,000 Texas workers, also difinitively proves that this is a race between Rick Perry and Chris Bell—and that Strayhorn and Friedman are nothing more than the wildflowers along the highway leading to election day.