What is it with elected Republicans in understanding that people have the right to assemble and listen to their “leaders” speak? The Rove-driven White House has made it a common practice to keep those who have different views or opinions from the President (or VP, or Secretary of Defense, etc.) away from public events.

Texas Governor Rick Perry seems to be dancingto the same tune these days. On Tuesday the Governor was in North Texas to attend the dedication of a new highway in Denton and Collin counties. The public event was staged at a nearby middle school where Perry appeared with numerous elected officials from the local muncipalities and counties. The Democratic candidate for Denton County Commissioners Court, Amy Manual, was barred by security at the door.

The public has a right to see their leadership in public venues. The public also has a right to challenge the leadership in an open forum. The Republicans obviously understand this very clearly and obviously wish to remove another set of rights from the electorate.

Rick Perry has ordered a special election to replace Tom DeLay in the U.S. House. After months of saying that he would not hold a special election the Governor has had a change of heart and has ordered that the election take place on November 7.

Perry says that his change in heart came after all legal avenues to remove DeLay’s name from the Nov. 7 general election ballot ended in defeat for Republicans resulting in a massive write-in campaign to elect his replacement.

DeLay, who resigned in June, was elected in the March primary as the Repblican candidate. But since he resigned after the primary the courts have ruled that his name must remain on the ballot. DeLay argued that since he no longer lived in Texas, much less the district he represented, he should not be permitted to stay on the ballot. The courts, rightfully, acknowledged that DeLay’s case was no different than if the candidate died between the primary and the general election.

As a result of this wrangling, the GOP was forced to mount a write-in campaign to elect a Republican to the seat. The problem here is that the method of voting within DeLay’s district is electronic. Entering a write-in candidate on the ballot is very confusing since the space is limited to 25 characters (including spaces and hyphens), and the voter must enter the candidates name in completely. The local GOP managed to filter their choice down to a Houston city council member. Her name? Shelley Sekula-Gibbs.  Actually having voters remember the correct spelling and hyphenation will be a long shot at best.

In a show of how desperate the GOP is to keep this seat in the red,  Rick Perry has now decided to hold a special election in which Shelley Sekula-Gibbs’ name will actually appear printed on a ballot. So, when voters go to the poll on November 7 in DeLay’s district they will need to vote twice.

The special election move is a stroke of genius, politically speaking, since it helps voters remember the write-in candidate’s name. But from a citizen view, Rick Perry is an absolute mess. He has denied the people of the Sugar Land district representation in the U.S. House long enough, and until the legal options ran out he was fully prepared to leave that seat open until next January. Proving again that Perry does not care about the people, he only cares about his own political aspirations. In fact, given Perry’s record on everything (which is nothing really), I would say that he has done a remarkable job of failing Texas just as W failed Texas and now the United States.

Wake up America!

The Huffington Report and Taegan Goddard’s Political Wire are putting the magic number for Democrats to win back control of Congress at a net 15 – 20. That means that Democrats need to win all of their exisiting seats in the House and gain an additional 15-20. Unfortunately, Democrats are facing tough battles on four key seats, and facing some stiff competition on four more. One of those that Democrats could (not likely, but still a possibility) lose is TX-17 (FYI- W’s Crawford Ranch is in this district) currently held by Democrat Chet Edwards.

This race is of special interest because of the shameful performance of the GOP challenger Van Taylor on “Hard Ball” last week. I was recently traveling through this district and can gleefully report that I did not see one sign or billboard supporting Taylor, while Edwards signs were quite numerous.

If a stand-up guy like Chet Edwards is facing competition from a candidate like Van Taylor, then it should prove that these guys need all the help they can get.

Hats off to all of those that worked so diligently this week over at TPMmuckraker to identify the Senator responsible for placing the “secret hold” on important legislation that would have provided a public database of all pork barrel legislation passed in Congress.

The culprit, it turns out, is the king of all pork barrel legislation, Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. That’s right, the man who threatened to quit his job in the Senate if $453 million previously appropriated to two bridges in Alaska (one affectionately referred to as the “bridge to nowhere”) was reappropriated to hurricane Katrina disaster recovery.  The very same man that described the Internet as a series of “tubes”.

The reason for Stevens’ hold on the bill? He is concerned over the projected $15 million price tag. Go figure!

While I think that the $15 million price tag seems a little outrageous, I am more concerned over the fact that it was this Senator who had the nerve to stop the bill from proceeding.

According to an article on Forbes.com, the death toll in Iraq of U.S. soldiers has reached 2,629 as of midnight (Iraq time) August 28.

Within the same article is a breakdown of military deaths by our “coalition” partners:

Britain            115 
Italy                 32
Ukraine             18 
Poland               17 
Bulgaria             13 
Spain                11 
Denmark            4 
El Salvador         4 
Slovakia             3
Estonia              2
Netherlands        2
Thailand             2
Australia            1
Hungary            1 
Kazakhstan        1
Latvia                1
Romania            1 

Wow! Exactly a year ago the neo-con religious leaders of the un-free world were citing God’s displeasure with New Orleans and the annual Southern Decadence gathering that was about to begin when hurricane Katrina paid a visit. Well, this year it looks like God is very upset with Florida (home of W’s brother Jeb, and a slew of other nut jobs from the right), Georgia, and the Carolina’s (home of many, many religious fanatics).

 Hmmmm…..

Everyday it becomes increasingly clear to me that the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate are run like some druken frat house.

As is being reported on a number of sites, the Senate was prepared to vote a piece of legislation that would create a database of government spending that is open to all citizens to help determine where all of the pork barrel spending goes.

The night before the legislation was to be voted on by the entire Senate, a Senator placed a “secret hold” on the bill that prevents it from reaching the floor for a vote. A witch hunt, the likes of which have not been seen in some time, is now underway in the blogsphere to determine who this secret Senator is. TPMmuckracker has a tally sheet underway.

 Thus far, my favorite comment from a Senator’s office came from Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R- GA):

Saxby Chambliss’ office gave me a, “No senator would answer that question, I mean, come on, it’s a secret.” I replied that “Johnny Isakson’s office gave an on the record ‘No’; is Senator Chambliss willing to state publicly that he is not the mystery senator?” The answer was a “No, he will not state either he is or is not.” I stated my displeasure at his wishy-washiness, thanked the staffer, and hung up.

Since when did a democratically elected body have the right to say “it’s a secret”? And if this is a normal function within the rules of the Senate, why haven’t Democrats used this tactic on every piece of trash legislation that the GOP has put forth in the last ten years?!