January 2012
14 posts
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Dead Voters in South Carolina
You may remember this reply to a post claiming 953 dead people voted in S. Carolina’s GOP primary.
Luckily, the Executive Director of the S. Carolina Election Commission testified on this issue.
According to her testimony, 37,000 people in the state have been identified as deceased. Of those 37,000, only 953 ballots have been cast in the names of those deceased. Based on this finding, they...
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953 dead people voted in the South Carolina GOP... →
Actually, these ballots were not cast in the GOP primary on Saturday, so the headline is just wrong. The S. Carolina AG informed the Justice Department about these votes in a letter sent to the Justice Department on Thursday (Source). The letter also does not specify which elections, but it would not likely have been this year’s primary since the discovery came about as a result of extensive...
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Book Review: Reagan's Comeback
Gilbert Garcia’s Reagan’s Comeback: Four Weeks in Texas that Changed American Politics Forever is a highly enjoyable read that captures essence of the Republican Presidential primary in Texas in 1976 between Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Having read John Knaggs Two Party Texas and Sean Cunningham’s Cowboy Conservatism, which both talk about Reagan’s entry into the world of...
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Book Review: Dan Moody
The only thing I love about the NFL playoffs is that it allows me ample time to read; I can turn mute the tv, read a book and still keep up with the action. As such, I’ve been able to finish two books about two different Texas governors. Today I read Dan Moody: Crusader for Justice by Ken Anderson. Elected in 1926, Dan Moody became the youngest governor in Texas history. To achieve this...
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TX Prison Rodeo Arena Demolished →
This, along with the news that Dublin Dr Pepper will no longer be bottled, are sad, sad news for Texans, because two pieces of our history are coming to an end (well, hopefully Dublin Dr Pepper will be back). It would be nice to be able to invest in shoring up the structure and making it safe so that we could preserve this piece of history.
Further reading:
Texas Prison Rodeo
Demise of...
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Book Review: Allan Shivers
I’m still reading T. Harry Williams’ Huey Long and V. O. Key’s Southern Politics in State and Nation, but while I’ve been reading those, I finished reading Allan Shivers: The Pied Piper of Texas Politics by Sam Kinch, Jr. and Stuart Long. It’s not the best written biography I’ve ever read, but it’s a decent introduction to the man who lead Democratic Texas...
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Endorsements: What Are They Worth?
Both CNN and Washington Post have discovered that endorsements do not have much impact on the outcome of the election, i.e., they don’t influence voters choices significantly.
It’s something I’ve said before, but apparently a new survey from Pew has gotten the attention of the media.
So, if endorsements don’t mean anything in terms of voter choice, why do candidates announce them so frequently?...
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Craig James Admits Wrong Doing →
No, not in relation to this rumor, but the wrong doing he admitted to did occur at SMU.
According to the Dallas Morning News, James said he accepted gifts while he was playing football at SMU, which he said was an insignificant amount, but he wouldn’t say how much money or what kinds of gifts, so I can only assume he means: not as much as Eric Dickerson and no gold TransAm. James claimed that he...
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Impeaching Sen. Blount
Usually when we think about impeachment proceedings, we think about Presidents, etc. and not Senators, but they can indeed be impeached. In fact, in 1797, the U.S. House of Representatives impeached Senator William Blount of Tennessee. This was the first time that a bill of impeachment was passed. He was impeached for conspiring with the British to conquer parts of Spanish Florida and Louisiana...
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McCain: SCOTUS Politically Ignorant →
An interesting complaint from the man whose campaign finance reform legislation lead to the growth and proliferation of 527’s (including corporate and union donations), not to mention all the other soft money loopholes in his masterpiece of legislation.
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