Big Jolly Politics

After listening to three Libertarian Party candidates last Thursday at the Kathie Glass for Governor Meet and Greet in Webster, my biggest impression wasn't the candidates themselves but was that this isn't your daddy's Libertarian Party. I doubt that the icons of libertarianism would even recognize many of the positions that these candidates are taking in their quest for office.

At this point, I'd have to say no, she will not. But first, I'd probably have to tell you who she is and that is part of the problem - not a whole lot of name recognition and not a whole lot of press, which equals bad news for any candidate. She is the Libertarian Party candidate for Governor of Texas this year - betcha didn't know that, did you?

With the political season slowly drawing near, I decided to head over to the monthly meeting of the Clear Lake Area Republicans to see what they were up to. After all, the election to rid the country of Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House is (as I type this) 103 days, 15 hours, 10 minutes, and 41 seconds away. That will be a great day in the history of the US, I promise you. Perhaps we’ll rid ourselves of a Democratic controlled Senate as well, that would certainly be icing on the cake. Anyways, I went to see what CLAR was doing to prepare for Victory 2010. Heck, I even tried to join their club. Tried. To. Join.

I often talk about retail politics being the hard work that few candidates enjoy because it requires a ton of effort and energy. Some candidates hate it so much that their campaigns falter and wither away - think Fred Thompson. Republican congressional candidate Roy Morales is the rare bird that actually enjoys this type of campaigning and is quite good at it, which is how he slips under the radar of some of his opponents. Workers leaving the Lyondell plant on Sheldon Road in east Harris County were greeted with this yesterday afternoon:

Press releases come and go daily about any number of subjects. Fellow blogger Rorschach (visit Red Ink Texas) responded to one via email and I thought that both the press release and his follow-up comments about it were interesting and think that you might also.

Okay, I admit it and you already know it if you've read BJP for any length of time: I like Harris County Judge Ed Emmett. Period. Which puts me at odds with a few on the uber right, a lot of D_n followers, and Democratic Party loyalists. And that makes me happy because I should be at odds with those folk. So when I saw Chris Moran's "Emmett offers to find arts funding amid county budget cuts" this morning, I was major bummed out. Gonna have to rip someone I like. Because my idea of good government doesn't include spending taxpayer money on the arts.

Normally, I wouldn't bother to pass on stuff like this because there are way too many people talking about it that know a heck of a lot more about it than I do. Yeah, I know, sad but true. But somehow, I ended up on California Sen. Barbara Boxer's email solicitation list and it can be quite amusing. Or, as in the following emails, they bring me a little smile and a little bit of hope.

One of the "fruits" of the political activism of the Tea Party and 912 groups has been the emergence of, gasp, community activists of the conservative bent. Last night I attended a meeting organized by Terrence Boggs, certainly one of the more active of these new community activists. Yeah, I know he probably cringes at me calling him a community activist but what else would I call him? Patriot? So yesterday.

I received the following message in my email today from the Texas Tea Party PAC.   I found it utterly amazing that the Tea Party is now trying to influence the activities of the local churches.    The message in the email was: