A GOP Rat In This Harris County Voting Machine Warehouse Fire?

Friday night at approximately 4 AM CDT the warehouse in which Harris County's 10,000 eSlate voting machines are stored mysteriously went up in flames and has county officials scrambling to find replacements for those machines before the October 18 startup date for early voting.

As of yet there hasn't been any announced cause for the fire, but there are a lot of things percolating below the surface of this that are making thinking individuals here in H-town go hmmm.

*The GOP controls the voter registration apparatus in Harris County and much of county government. Paul Bettencourt, the previous registrar was more concerned with nitpickingly purging the voter rolls as fast as peeps registered.

*Leo Vasquez, the current registrar lost in the GOP primary to an Anglo,and he's trying to prove in the limited time he has left in that position he's more 'conservative than thou.'

*As the largest city in the state, Houston and Harris County's 1.9 million registered voters provide about 15% of the total votes cast in any Texas statewide race.

*This city and county over the last two election cycles (2006 and 2008) have been ejecting Republicans from control of many of the judgeships and countywide offices.

*In the 2008 presidential election Harris County went blue for President Obama.

Factor into this situation the Harris County Republican Party along with their slimy cohorts at the state and national party have engaged in voter suppression tactics since 1984. It's something that I angrily discovered during that Reagan-Mondale presidential election year.

To add more intriguing food for thought to this political stew, a new right wing group in town suddenly starts singing the usual GOP song and dance about 'voter irregularities' and 'voter fraud'. Translation: their code words for 'too many non-white people and 'libruls' exercising their right to vote.'

Since ACORN isn't around for the conservafools to attack, their faux outrage has fallen upon a group called Houston Votes with Leo Vasquez claiming 'fraud' as well. Houston Votes called them on it.

We have a governor's race in which Rick Perry had a bitterly contested March three way GOP primary with Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchinson and teabagger Debra Medina that left many Hutchinson supporters with bruised feelings and reportedly Sen. Hutchinson herself pissed at Perry.

The Democratic nominee for governor in this cycle is former Houston mayor Bill White, who during his 2005 and 2007 mayoral campaigns captured an astounding 91% and 86.5% respectively of Houstonians votes.

White has attracted some support from Republicans tired of Governor Goodhair's occupation of the governor's mansion ever since Junior departed for Washington in 2001 and pissed over the primary results.

If you were a GOP strategist deathly afraid that an increased Houston turnout combined with other urban areas of the state and a pissed off Latino vote would be enough to make Bill White the first Democratic governor in the state since the late Ann Richards won in 1990, since we know the GOP will do anything to win an election, I could see someone in their ranks saying burn, baby, burn to that voting machine warehouse in order to attempt to depress the number of precincts available for voting in POC areas.

But I definitely smell a rat, and what kind of rat we'll find out later.

Welcome back home to Texas politics, Moni.

Deadline Coming For 2010 Black Weblog Awards

The August 31 midnight deadline for voting in the 2010 Black Weblog Awards is fast approaching, and as you know I'm a finalist in the 'Best LGBT Blog' category.

This is a Republican election, so you can vote once per day until Tuesday. According to the latest newsletter I've received from the esteemed webmaster, several categories are very close voting total wise.

Renee's Womanist Musings was nominated for 'Best International Blog', so show her some ballot love as well

If you've voted for me already, I thank you. If not, I humbly ask that you take just a few moments to do so.

We'll know the winners next month, and I hope I'll have good news to report.

M&M's Elections

While we have a more important one happening in the States on November 2, M&M's is giving you an opportunity to vote for your fave spokescandy until July 15.

It's a vote early and often affair, so you get to vote once a day until that date. It's also part of a sweepstakes that pays $50K to the Grand Prize winner.



There have been over 3 million votes cast so far, and if you're curious as to which spokescandy is leading right now it's Green with 23% of the votes cast.

Yellow is seconds with 21%, Orange at 19%, Blue at 19% and Red at 18%.

As to who I voted for? The estrogen based spokescandy of course.

Go Get Your Vote On!

There are primary elections in several states today, and if you reside in one of them, time for you to take a few moments out of your day and participate.

Voting is not just for racist GOP leaning teabaggers, it is your voice for way of changing the status quo. When you are part of a minority group, sitting out an election is NEVER an option.

So take the first steps in ensuring an idiot free Congress. Go to your nearest polling place and get your vote on.



And if you need some motivation, here's the Isley Brothers 'Fight The Power' to get you in the mood for doing so.

If you need more motivation than that, remember the Tea Klux Klan will be motivated to vote not only in the primary, but wants to put the same GOP do nothings back in power that caused our country's problems in the first place.

So go handle your civic business. Your city, your state and your country will thank you for it later.

Why I Can't Stand The NRA-Part II

I don't call the National Rifle Association the 'Neocon Racist Assciation' or other less flattering names for nothing. But at the same time, I admire their ability to 'scurr' congresscritters into backing off on or efficiently killing any gun legislation they don't like

While I don't have a problem with people exercising their Second Amendment rights to own guns, I draw the line at assault rifles that only have the purpose of killing mass quantities of human beings in a short amount of time.

I also don't see the harm in requiring background checks and short waiting periods for people that wish to purchase guns o ensure they are mentally stable enough to do so or aren't convicted felons.

But you can count on the NRA gun fetishists to do something extremist and racist in their zeal to pimp for the firearms industry, scare 'real Americans' and put more guns in their hands.

Another exhibit of their racism just happened the other day in relation to the District of Columbia's long time efforts to get a voting representative in Congress.

The District of Columbia has not had representation in Congress since it was established in 1801. At the time of its creation, leaders were concerned that the nation's capital not be located in any one state.

DC residents can vote in presidential elections, serve in the military, and pay taxes but don't get the opportunity to vote for a congressional representative to help determine how those dollars are spent.


In 1978 a constitutional amendment was passed by Congress that would have granted the city a House vote, but it died because was not ratified by a sufficient number of states in the allotted time.

If the District of Columbia were majority white, the Republican Party, the conservative movement and Fox News long ago would have been championing the cause of DC voting rights and screaming bloody murder about the 'unfair and unconstitutional' disenfranchisement of large numbers of 'Real Americans.' But since it's majority African-American, they don't care.

To add insult to injury, the NRA and their GOP acolytes couldn't resist whipping out their white privilege card and using this an an opportunity to jack with DC's strict gun laws.

As a condition for DC getting what it wanted in terms of federal representation, Republican lawmakers attached amendments to Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton's bill designed to weaken those gun laws.

"We just had nine kids shot by an assault rifle in our city," said D.C. councilmember at large Phil Mendelson, speaking about a recent drive-by shooting in Southeast D.C. that left four dead and several wounded. "Under the gun amendment, weapons like the AK-47 would be legal… That's unacceptable."

Several members of the DC City council in addition to Del. Norton were not happy about the games played with the DC Voting rights bill

"We should not trade a piece of democracy for a piece of democracy," said council member Michael A. Brown, who chairs DC's committee on statehood and self-determination. "It was a bad deal for the residents of the District of Columbia," he said of the bill's gun control provisions.

As always, the struggle continues.

Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) suggested that unrelated issues such as gun rights — are once again holding up an agreement to bring the D.C. voting bill to the floor. Hoyer had originally hoped to bring the bill to the floor this week, but now believes the legislation may be done for the year.

Hoyer said he's "profoundly disappointed" that the legislation will not be brought up, but said the bill should be about voting rights, not local D.C. crime issues or adding a House seat for Utah. Both these issues have held up D.C. voting rights in the past.

Delegate Norton said, "We have begun to develop new strategies to get a voting rights bill through Congress that can pass. "I am full of promising ideas about how to move forward not only on voting rights but on every right D.C. residents are entitled to as American citizens."

This despicable political drama adds another layer to the negativity that many African Americans feel towards the NRA and ossifies the impression in our community that they are a racist organization.

And it's another reason why I can't stand the NRA.

Election Day-Let's Get Busy And Vote!

Today is election day in many locales around the country including my beloved hometown. If you haven't done so, then go get your vote on now.

You have no excuse not to if you're a progressive wanting systemic change. Dropping out of the system because you're pissed at the peeps in power is NOT an option.

There are ballot initiatives that help and hurt this community. There are progressive candidates for public office that deserve and need our support.

Just consider it a practice run for the 2010 midterm federal elections next November.

Bottom line is that if you want progressive policies, you have to vote for progressive politicians to carry them out.

If you don't like your choices, then get involved with your local party and help choose better candidates. If you think you can do a better job than the politician you dislike, then run for public office yourself.

The Decisive Black Vote

'One of the most basic weapons in the fight for social justice will be the cumulative political power of the Negro. I can foresee the Negro vote becoming consistently the decisive vote in national elections.'

Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

One of the things that is bugging me about how quickly African-American voters got slandered for the passage of Prop 8 in California, is how silent those same peeps have been about how decisive the Black vote was in terms of getting Barack Obama elected to the presidency. Dr. King's prescient comments about how decisive the African-American vote would become played out in this election.

How decisive?

*Without the Black vote, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia and North Carolina wouldn't have turned blue.

*Colorado, Florida and Nevada wouldn't have without the tag team of Latino and African-American voters

*Pennsylvania stayed blue because of it

*Mary Landrieu owes her reelection to the Senate in 2002 and 2008 to Louisiana's African-American voters.

*Saxby Chambliss wouldn't be facing a runoff in Georgia

*Missouri wouldn't have been as close or stayed in play without it.

Bottom line, if we have the juice despite having 6% of the population of California clustered in nine counties to be blamed for the passage of Proposition 8, then conversely, African-American voters are responsible for flipping six states that Bush won in 2004 and electing President Obama.

I've Voted-Now It's Your Turn

I've done my civic duty, now it's time for you to do yours. If you haven't voted, please do so.

If you need to know where your precinct is, click on this link

"There's no question that in the next thirty or forty years a Negro can also achieve the same position that my brother has as president of the United States, certainly within that period of time."

Robert F. Kennedy, May 1961

Depending on where you live, you'll have until 6 or 7 PM to cast your ballot. So let's do this. Get your vote on. There's history to be made today.

Last Day To Register to Vote

Today is the last day you can register to vote in this historic and critically important election. If you're not registered to vote, please do so.

If you are, double check your registration, especially if you are in a state or jurisdiction with GOP registrars or secretaries of state to insure you haven't been involuntarily purged from the voter rolls.

And if you're lucky enough to be in an early voting state and have made up your mind about this election, vote.