Stupid Season: Like Javelinas In Heat

Like a political episode of Itchy and Scratchy, the candidates for Texas governor are whacking each other over the head with successively bigger and nastier allegations. 

My take so far is that I’m annoyed at all of them.

Chris Bell lost me when he started running commercials about the “Texas that’s in our hearts.”  Whenever I see a politician making doe eyes at the voters and talking about what’s “in our hearts,” I grab my wallet because the bastard is trying to distract you while he’s reaching for it.  Further, I find it rather ironic that someone who’s taken millions of dollars from a trial lawyer has the nerve to call the current governor corrupt. 

Not that Rick Perry is above reproach when it comes to the appearance of corruption.  The trans-Texas corridor deal has a bit of a whiff surrounding it.  I do have to give Perry credit for the “one giant Washington liberal” commercial against Bell, though.  But then Bell opened himself up to it with the silly BellZilla commercials with him sitting on the capitol building or standing next to the skyscrapers in downtown Austin. 

I still don’t know what Kinky Friedman stands for, other than gambling and putting Willie Nelson in charge of energy/transportation policy.  I guess that’s not a bad choice, since all we have to do is keep Willie well stocked with prime bud and we won’t hear from him until the next election.  cool smirk  I can also credit Kinky for the title of this post (or at least part of it).

Carole Keeton Strayhorn lost me when she was endorsed by two teachers’ unions.  This was doubly reinforced by the constipated, angry teacher commercial that those unions have been running.

What a mess.  I guess I can fall back on my single issue of interest for guidance, which means Perry, as he’s signed the car-carry legislation and opened up reciprocity considerably since he came to office.  He also seems to be pissing off the right people on immigration.  I still don’t quite trust him, though.  He’s just a bit too slick (and there’s the ever-persistent undertone that there’s nothing much under the hair).

Anyhow… I think I’m going to have to avoid answering the phone and only watch TV in DVR mode until the election is over.  The phone calls and incessant negative ads are just getting to be too irritating.

10 Comments

  1. David Flores says:

    I have no faith in the status quo of electing full-time politicians.  I have cynically concluded that politicians have only one primary goal….to be elected primarily by saying whatever is necessary to maximize the number of votes they garner.  I would like to see Kinky elected governor not necessarly because I agree with his platform….but rather, as a litmus test of how a non-politician would run our state.  I see his victory and subsequent performance as a way to assess an “outsider” vis-a-vis a career politican.  If he does a great job, it may spark something this country needs…less partinsanship, more independent thinking… If he does a poor or mediocre job then I’ll be left with only the hope that there exists another type of leadership somewhere that will give me confidence in our electoral process….I hate being so cynical but that is how this disappointed voter feels….
    David

  2. Rob Hinojosa says:

    It’s understandable that you don’t know much about Kinky’s stances because major media outlets have chose to suppress his message in my opinion.  Where are the exit polls?  Where are the reports of record turnouts so far?  If you’re serious about learning more about Kinky and where he stands, visit:

    We Beg to Differ
    http://www.kinkyfriedman.com/2006/10/we_beg_to_differ.html

    And check out his interview with all the issues:

    http://media1.dfw.swagit.com/s/chron/Houston_Chronicle/10202006-2.high.asx.html

    What do you think about voter turnout so far?

    Early Voting Tracker
    http://www.getkinky.org/?p=108

    Kinky’s campaign has been dependent of voter turnout since the beginning.  What are your thoughts?

  3. Rob,

    I have to give you credit for the fastest find of a blog entry on my site by someone on behalf of a candidate.  cool smirk 

    I took a look at some of his position statements.  Aside from the annoying use of PDF (this is the WEB, folks, get with the program!), I guess he has a few interesting ideas.  I’m not, however, keen on the idea of state-funded healthcare for anyone, though (but I guess I don’t get a win on this issue, since I can’t support the anti-war, anti-American, LP anymore).

    Does he have any numbers on states where gambling was legalized to show how much revenue that might be generated?  If he thinks it will fund schools, then I’d like to see some actual numbers.

  4. Rob Hinojosa says:

    Hey Aubrey,

    It was just a coincidence on the timing.

    About health care, the plan is modeled after Minnesota’s who currently leads the nation among many health care stats.  We have to pay for it somehow.  It’s cheaper to keep people healthy than to try to cure illnesses.

    This gambling idea is local option.  So if Galveston (whose experienced a 255% early voter turnout increase up to the 4th day) wants casino gambling to help with their county’s schools, and the voters approve, they get it.  Gambling will help counties that want it like Nueces, Galveston, and others who want it.  Kinky throws out estimates of 8-10 billion a year, although I haven’t looked for links.  This would inturn then free up that money that was currently going to those counties.

    Have you seen his idea to take sports funding out of education and let local businesses and the private sector sponsor sports.  This could also potentially free up 15% of schools budgets.

    About my previous question, what do you think about voter turnout?

  5. I’ve been hearing rumblings of increased early voting.  But not having been to the polls yet myself, I’m not sure what sort of people are turning out.  I do recall in the 2004 elections that (at least around here) the high early turnout came from the Republican base.

    Not sure what it means now.  I’m probably going to wait for election day myself, though.  There’s just something about the ritual of going on election day.

  6. Malinda777 says:

    I SO AGREE with you on all the negative advertising.  I’m sick of it all too.  Our local candidates should all be in prison if the ads have any truth to them.  I’m a native Texan, and you guys have some colorful candidates too this year smile 

    That Kinky is a goof, but hey, we have WORSE in office now.  At least you don’t have the bad sperm son of Jimmy Carter running! smile

    You have a great blog here, and I appreciate you coming by Blah Blah Blog – The Soap Box

  7. Jim Carson says:

    I was all set to hold my nose and vote for Carole, until I heard her say that she would kill the new power plants as soon as she got into office.  So I held my nose and voted for Slick, despite his stupid plan of smoking our way to better schools and replacing a little of our property taxes (federally deductible) with a business tax (virtually invisible, and sure not deductible.)

    There’s already been an outsider experiment—his name was Jesse Ventura.  I would call the experiment a failure because he didn’t seem to have a well-defined set of principles on which to govern, which left him at the mercy of career staff and the legislature.  There is reason to believe Kinky would be similarly overwhelmed.

    Getting new revenue from casino gambling is just another in the long line of creative ways to fleece people, like sin taxes and lotto.  But even if it were a viable solution to a shortage of revenue, we don’t have a shortage of revenue.  We have an excess of government ambition.  I’ve heard Mayor Mommy on a radio show just giddy at the idea of casino revenue.

  8. Rob Hinojosa says:

    If you haven’t honestly visited those links I provided or have not honestly tried to understand what all the fuss is all about, you might think Kinky was a goof, and more than likely you had already made up your mind from day one.  We’re not targeting you, although we welcome you to our victory party and we welcome your input on government as all sides should be represented.  Ventura made MN #1 in health care, but like Kinky says,“didn’t know wrestling was real and politics if fixed.”  The way Kinky will make change is by fulfilling the job description and powers it provides:

    the bully pulpit
    http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/html/exec/0200.html

    the message power
    http://texaspolitics.laits.utexas.edu/html/exec/0600.html

    Both parties have had their chances.  It’s not unreasonable to crave something different is it?  You don’t have to agree with Kinky on everything, but if you search around, you’ll find something that hits home.

  9. Rob,

    Are you responding to Jim or to me with that last bit?

    As for targeting, I think you were doing so, although I wasn’t going to call you on it until you brought it up.  My logs show that you arrived at my site via a Blogger search for Kinky Friedman, which returned this post on the first page yesterday (it’s since moved down).

    Anyhow, I looked at Kinky’s site and read the FAQ’s (even if they were PDF’s).  I’m still not terribly impressed.

    Also, in your first post, you stated that the mainstream media is ignoring his message.  I don’t doubt that’s true, but why isn’t his “Beg to differ” message in his commercials?  Why am I hearing bible readings and platitudes about the word of a cowboy?

  10. Rob Hinojosa says:

    I was responding to everyone sort of.  I do occassionally search Kinky Friedman into blogger to see what’s going on in blogger world, and comment on some articles.

    We Beg To Differ was released after the commercials were made and after some nay sayers kept saying the camp has no substance, well We Beg To Differ.  That’s how that came about, and you probably will see something about it in the last media buy.  Not sure though, but the camp has had a lot of success with the article up to this point, from what I can tell.