Just returned from a quick dash out shopping for stocking stuffers here in Austin.  In the parking lot I noticed a car with an Obama '08 bumper sticker.  The woman who exited the car could have been any Austin Democrat.  

I smiled and complimented her on the sticker - she laughed and said thanks - who is your candidate?

I replied that I am currently backing Edwards but being lobbied hard by my 20 year old son for Obama and my mother in the Ozarks for Clinton.

I thanked her for helping me overcome the trauma of seeing my first Huckabee and Fred '08 stickers yesterday.

Just stopped off for Ruffin to heat up some Gumbo on the way to move into his apartment. Ruffin is excited to be leaving the Austin Convention Center, and to have a place of his own in Austin for now. We located a couple of place settings of dishes and some silverware. Some salt and some Ivory Liquid. And a spare mixing bowl. Ruffin is taking his cot and bedding from the Convention Center for now. Austex54 is bringing him a mattress tonight.

Ruffin says, "Hello, and God Bless all of you. Please join me in New Orleans for Mardi Gras. I appreciate everything you have done for me in Austin. It feels Good to have my own place for now, and I think I can work the bus lines, and find a job or two."

Welcome to the Austin Kos Live Blog of the New Orleans Survivors Gunbo and Jambalaya Friday Evening Gathering from Othniel's Digs.
About Twenty Folk who recently relocated to the Austin Convention Center from New Orleans are gathered with the Austin Kos group for Gumbo and Jambalaya prepared by Karry, a chef at Pascal Manales restaurant in New Orleans, using pots borrowed from Wink, a local Austin Resturant. He started cooking yesterday so that we could enjoy this feast tonight, complete with pound cake for dessert.

We're going to take turns saying a few words...

When invited to comment, Karry said, "Nawwwww."

This just in from Austin!

As many of you aware, thanks to janet strange, the Austin Kossacks are working hard to make sure the blogging community is an effective and important part of DemFest this weekend in Austin.

The Republicans have launched an insidiuos attack designed to stop us in our tracks, but we have foiled Tom DeLay!

Thanks to the intrepid reporting of John Kelso of the Austin American-Statesman we were alerted Tuesday morning to the presence of a ten foot python spotted swimming in Shoal Creek a few yards from the Othniel apartment.  Immediatley I made the connection between this snake and Tom DeLay.

During the debate over Texas' anti-Gay Marriage Amendment on the floor of the Texas State Senate late last month, Senator Leticia Van de Putte (D-San Antonio) proposed a radical amendment to the resolution Republicans were sponsoring in order to get their proposed Constitutional Amendment protecting Traditional Marriage before Texas voters.  Senator Van de Putte's radical proposal was, that if the State Senate truly was concerned about protecting the institution of marriage, the proposed Constitutional Amendment should be amended to require that all couples in a heterosexual marriage be required to have at least "Some Sex" in order to strengthen the institution of Marriage.  Now this is truly a radical proposal.  Unfortunately it was met with dismay if not astonishment by the Republican majority, and the brave Senator was required to beat a hasty retreat back to her Alamo.

More below the fold.

roses suggested I pass along to everyone here a Letter to the Editor I had published in this morning's Austin American-Statesman concerning the recent filibuster compromise:

Cornyn loses relevance

One of the biggest losers in the Senate compromise on the filibuster appears to be Sen. John Cornyn, who was essentially reduced to wailing on the Senate floor about the agreement. By adhering to the strict line demanded by Majority Leader Bill Frist and James Dobson, Cornyn sadly missed the boat when the new senate power-brokers, led by Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham, resolved what could have been a devastating crisis. Let's hope our junior senator can find some Texas independence and avoid becoming increasingly irrelevant in the senate.

Cross-posted at Booman Tribune.

More below the fold.

An assault on the Right to Vote by requiring Voter identification was narrowly averted on the floor of the Texas Senate about 1:30 this morning when Democrats used a parliamentary maneuver and a threatened filibuster (Remember these?) to derail a House Amendment to SB 89 which would have required voters under 85 to present two forms of identification at the polls in order to cast non-provisional ballots.  Representative Mary Denny (R-Flower Mound) began her assault on the Right to Vote early in the current session, but her effort earlier was blocked when Democratic Senators united to prevent her bill from being heard in the State Senate.  Sadly, she was able to attach her bill as an amendment onto other legislation late in the Session, despite the strenuous objections of Democrats like Mark Strama (D-Austin).

Many of you know by now that I am an Austin, Texas, lawyer focusing on constitutional law, and that I live in Austin with my 17 year old son who is a college freshman here.  Today (May 19, 2005), the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs will be hearing public testimony on the proposed Amendment to the Texas Constitution banning same-sex marriage and other arrangements "similar to" marriage, possibly including common law or informal marriage which is recognized in Texas.

My son has prepared written testimony for submission to the Committee, and is working with several of his college friends who are also doing so.  I wanted to share his testimony with you, as a proud Dad.

Yesterday Judge Joseph F. Bataillon of the United States District Court for the District of Nebraska, sitting in Lincoln, issued his opinion in Citizens for Equal Protection v. Bruning declaring the Nebraska Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex unions unconstitutional.  You can read the opinion here:

Opinion of the Court

This is a truly significant ruling.

First, despite all the blather from the right, this is not an "activist judge" opinion.  It is almost wholly based on Romer v. Evans, and the Judge simply followed the law.  The Lawrence v. Texas opinion is only cited once in the case.

Harper's May Issue (not available on-line) has an excellent story by Chris Hedges called "Feeling the Hate with the National Religious Broadcasters."  In it Hedges quotes Frank Wright, President of the NRB, as telling a convention in Anaheim recently about "a late-night private tour of the Capitol in which he and a group of other pastors stopped and prayed over Hillary Clinton's Senate floor desk," and notes the crowd roared its approval.

How dare they!  I am so offended for Senator Clinton, whom I believe to be a good woman and a good Senator, and whom I accept as a fellow believer, that my heart aches.

This indignity has got to stop.  No one deserves the abusive invasion of having her desk "prayed over" by those who vilify her.

On May 5th Judge Alexander Williams, Jr., (D-Maryland), a Clinton appointee, released his opinion in Citizens for a Responsible Curriculum v. Montgomery County Public Schools, Case AW-05-1194.

CPR is an organization supported by Jerry Falwell, Tony Perkins and others, which challenged a proposed revised curriculum for sex education in the Montgomery County Public Schools which would have positively addressed the issue of homosexuality.

This is an important Establishment Clause case, and I thought I would address it as a lawyer who has handled constitutional claims.

On this date in 1970 four students were killed on the campus of Kent State University in Ohio.  I was a high school junior in Memphis at the time, and was profoundly impacted by the Massacre, as were many members of my generation.

Please pause for a moment to remember these students.

I just got back form the Texas Capitol.  The bad news is that the GOP dominated Texas House approved sending a constitutional amendment to voters this fall defining marriage as between one man and one woman and banning even civil unions by a vote of 102 to 29.

The good news is that the Democrats who spoke in the debate forcefully and energetically called the amendment bigoted, hateful and discriminatory.  

There is a good summary of the late night coverage (including Comedy Central nad SNL) of DeLay in this morning's Austin American-Statesman:

http://www.statesman.com/news/ co...delayjokes.html

"Late-night TV comics have discovered the pugnacious ex-exterminator from Sugar Land and are helping to make DeLay into a household name -- and not in a good way."

Drip, drip, drip.

On April 14th, a Texas House committee unanimously approved a bill, HB 254, restructuring sentences for possession of low amounts of marijuana (under two ounces) in Texas.  Fines and drug abuse awareness classes would replace jail sentences under the proposed law for most offenders.  The bill should go to the full house soon.

The Texas legislature is under a lot of pressure to reduce jail and prison overcrowding, and this bill may well pass.  As a Criminal Defense attorney in Austin, I can attest that it is badly needed.  The Fort Worth Star Telegram has a report:

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/news/legislature/11406856.htm

My 17 year old son and I just got back from hearing Senator Kerry and Congressman Lloyd Doggett speak here in Austin, primarily on children's access to health care.  It was great.  Kerry did state an agenda on children's health care and he tied it to stopping further tax cuts for the ultra-rich - on valuing families instead of letting someone dictate a family's values.  

He managed to work the word DELAY into the Republican agenda over and over again, and the importance of insisting on ethical values in congress.  Both he and Doggett addressed DeLay's redistricting of Texas, which Doggett survived.

Kerry also slammed Frist for presuming to tell people what God thinks, although I cannot recall Kerry's exact words on this.  It sure felt good to hear him do it and to hear everyone roar in unison when he did.  Kerry spoke about the values he grew up with in his family and his Church requiring him to value children and their health over tax cuts for the wealthy.