Photoset
February 23, 2012
2 notes

I posted McArdle’s Dawn at the Alamo earlier, and after I did, I wanted to share an interesting tidbit about the two McArdle paintings that hang in the Texas Senate chamber. You can learn a lot hanging out in the Texas Senate - mostly about politics - and in the process, I learned that McArdle painted his deceased son into both scenes (he is identified by the yellow circle). Most tour guides don’t point it out, but a few do, especially the afternoon tours when there’s more time to roam around the chamber.

You can learn more about McArdle here.

Tags: Texas art Henry McArdle Senate Austin

Link
January 13, 2012
11 notes
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 didn’t have the maturity to turn it down.  He has tried to distance himself from the scandal, and it’s always been suspected he received payments from boosters (like Eric Dickerson and other members of the Pony Express).  Now he has finally admitted to accepting those payments.

James also won’t take any responsibility for the death penalty the NCAA applied to SMU’s football program in the wake of the pay for play scandal, which James was admittedly a part of while he was playing football there.  He told reporters, “Everything that went down on SMU happened five years after I was gone, and I had nothing to do with it [accept for the fact that I was being paid to play football, which is against NCAA rules].”

Regardless of whatever else happens in this Senate campaign, at least Craig James has been exposed for the cheater we all knew him to be.

For those who may be a little lost, Southern Methodist University was involved in a pay for play scandal in the 1980’s which rocked college football.  You can read the background here.  ESPN’s 30 for 30 series recently produced a documentary about the scandal, including interviews of James and other SMU players.  The documentary was titled Pony Excess, and you can find it on sites like PirateBay, etc., or you can order it from Amazon.com or ESPN.

Any other future posts about the Texas Senate race will probably consist of nothing but bashing Craig James for his many, many sins against Texas football, as well as football in general through his work as a talking a-hole on ESPN.  I just really can’t stand that guy, and neither can most college football fans.

Tags: politics football Texas Senate 2012 primary

Text
January 07, 2012
11 notes

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 (Source). The Senate expelled Blount, and eventually began trial proceedings; however, at the time, the Senate did not have a sergeant-at-arms and were unable to enforce their order that Blount attend his trial, so this impeachment case lead to the creation of the Senate’s first sergeant-at-arms. The Senate ultimately dismissed the charges as Blount refused to leave Tennessee and attend his trial - even after the sergeant-at-arms was directed to arrest him (Source).

Just an interesting little tidbit of American history I learned about tonight; hope you enjoy.

Tags: politics history impeachment Senate

Link
December 17, 2011
15 notes
Sanchez Quits the Senate Race

Retired Lt. General Ricardo Sanchez - the great hope of the Democratic Party to try and take advantage of the presumed demographic shift in Texas - has dropped out of the U.S. Senate race. The reason why Sanchez is getting out of the race: poor fundraising (also lost his home in a fire which sucks). Basically, this leaves the Democratic Party with no one worth a damn running for U.S. Senate (not that Sanchez had much of a chance this year anyway). According to Burnt Orange Report, the Democratic candidates for Senate are Sean Hubbard and Daniel Boone (zombie Daniel Boone?). No clue who either of these guys are, and their fundraising is probably worse than Sanchez’s. What makes this even better (or worse - depending on your perspective): the Texas Democratic Party launched a new Latino outreach program a day before their leading Latino candidate drops out of the highest profile race in the state this year.

You can read my previous posts about Sanchez here, here, here and here.

The Democrats still have time to field a new candidate thanks to the agreement reached yesterday over the new primary date. Some of the in-state Hispanic leaders may be courted to run, e.g., Leticia Van De Putte - State Senator from San Antonio - was a name mentioned earlier this year as a possible U.S. Senate candidate. However, these local leaders may prefer to bide their time, which would be wise.

EDIT: According to the FEC, Hubbard has $585.75 coh, Boone is even worse at $260 coh, and Sanchez had $118,970 coh (had only raised a little over $243k).

Tags: politics Texas Senate 2012 Democrats primary

Link
December 13, 2011
7 notes
Craig James Pays to Play

ESPN college football announcer (some might say analyst, but this would imply that Craig actually knows what he’s talking about) Craig James is going to announce his campaign for U.S. Senate on Thursday (too bad the filing deadline got extended). James has been talked about as a candidate before, but now he’s actually going to run for the office. The best part about James running for office is that he will not be in the booth calling any bowl games (football without having to listen to Craig James - I thought that was only possible through mute). Craig’s campaign will probably end up like this (that’s Craig on the left):

Tags: politics Texas football Senate Craig James ESPN