Day: January 3, 2006

  • Orange Bowl Overtime Thought

    Wow!

    Overtime continues but, geez! sometimes it must suck to be a kicker.

    So far a shanked extra point that changed the course of the game by Florida State, a missed field goal at the end of regulation that could have won it for Penn State, and blown field goals by both teams in the first overtime. Ya think anybody is talking to these two guys on the sidelines right now? Not a chance; they’re trapped in their own little haunted worlds.

  • Tonight’s Reading: Steyn on Demographics

    Okay, so I’m running behind. I’m muddling through the lengthy latest from Mark Steyn, in which he pegs the key weapons the radical Islamist movement hopes will bring about the downfall of the West — our own obsession with multiculturalism, misplaced tolerance and diminishing birthrates — while watching Florida State and Penn State slug it out in the Orange Bowl and doing laundry.

    So far, I’d have to say the piece is certainly a must-read and I’d like to discuss it further, though that probably won’t happen tonight. For now, I’ll recommend Protein Wisdom‘s Jeff Goldstein’s commentary on Steyn’s effort.

  • Carnival of Liberty XXVII

    This week’s installment of the Life, Liberty, Property community’s Carnival of Liberty is up over at Louisiana Libertarian. Go read another fine collection of posts from a libertarian slant.

  • Strayhorn Files as Independent for Texas Governor

    Well, the mystery is finally over and the GOP path to the 2006 gubernatorial nomination for incumbent Rick Perry has been cleared as Carole Keeton Strayhorn, current state Comptroller and the only threatened in-party challenger, has filed to run as an independent.

    Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn ended speculation today by announcing she will run for governor against Gov. Rick Perry as an independent.

    “It’s time to shake Austin up,” Strayhorn, who is now serving as a Republican officeholder, told reporters today, the filing deadline for the 2006 elections.

    “Governor Perry may be doing the best he can, but after five years, we have learned he is not the strong leader we need to put Texas above politics,” she added.

    Satirist Kinky Friedman already has announced as an independent candidate for governor.

    The major candidates in the Democratic primary are Chris Bell of Houston, a former congressman, and Bob Gammage, a former Houston congressman and Texas Supreme Court justice who now lives in Llano.

    Strayhorn, who was first elected comptroller in 1998 as a Republican, had announced in June that she would challenge Perry for the Republican gubernatorial nomination. But last week she refused to dismiss speculation that she would run as an independent to avoid Perry’s strong popularity in the GOP primary.

    […]

    To get on the ballot as an independent, Strayhorn will need to collect the signatures of 45,450 registered voters who cast ballots in neither party primary or runoff. The signatures will have to be collected between March 8 and May 11.

    Anticipating Strayhorn’s independent candidacy, Perry spokesman Robert Black last week said it would demonstrate “the latest desperate act of a politician who has no core convictions or guiding principles.”

    The lady had little chance in the GOP race and chose probably the worst option of the many before her.

    This post is actually more of a eulogy for a political career, at least on a Texas state-wide basis. After the revelation of a strange Strayhorn campaign contact with Democrat candidate Bell’s wife, Strayhorn has decided to jump the Republican ship. Having already switched from Democrat to Republican, Strayhorn can now be cast as a turncoat by both parties.

    Assuming both Strayhorn and Friedman meet the ballot requirements for an independent candidacy, it should be an interesting race for third place between the two and the Libertarian party candidate.

  • Quote of the Week, 3 JAN 06

    Nothing is more exhilarating than to be shot at without result.

    —Winston Churchill