Today is the first day of early voting in Texas.  I went to the courthouse annex to vote, a place we affectionately call CountyMart because it’s an abandoned old WalMart.  You feel like you’re in a BF Skinner experiment in there – no windows, all mazes.

Anyway, I was a happy woman before I even entered the building because Bubba got up early this morning and put this in the parking lot.

For those of you new here, local Democrats around here make bets on when Bubba is going to end up in the emergency room during the campaign.  They know it is going to happen, but they bet on when.  Let’s see, more than once he cut himself and had to get stitches while cutting zip strips.  He broke his hand one year and put up five more signs before he went to the emergency room because he wanted to finish before dark. His hand was the size of a Easter ham when he got there.

Last election, he got chased by a vicious chicken while we were block walking in Arcola and I could not stop laughing long enough to help him.  Bubba grew up in the city.  I didn’t.  He tripped and fell face first in a church parking lot while leafleting on a Sunday morning.  Oh yeah and he got chased by a National Inquirer reporter once, which is a whole ‘nother story.

So, it’s officially election season in Texas and it’s my job to keep Bubba out of the emergency room.  Y’all wish me luck.

No kidding, CNN Breaking News Alert on my phone.

Rep. Ron Paul of Texas to end active campaigning in GOP presidential race but will continue efforts to win delegates.

Silly me.  I thought that was what he was trying to do when he was actively campaigning.

Thank you Louie Gohmert.  You can always count on Louie.

Although there are more conservative Republicans grudgingly endorsing Romney and polls show that more tea party activists are coming to accept Romney as their candidate, there is strong evidence that there remains a great deal of distrust, which could dampen enthusiasm on the campaign trail and create tensions if mishandled. According to Congressional Quarterly, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert told reporters, “I am not as excited as I am desperate” to elect someone other than Obama.

Can somebody please put that on a bumper sticker?

Thanks to David for the heads-up.

Barr / Willie 2016?

Take a deep breath and think about a Green Party ticket with Roseanne Barr and Willie Nelson.

Okay, now you just HAVE to get a Twitter account.

Thanks to Deb for the heads-up.

Texas Teacher Retirement fund lost $99 million dollars by investing in a Las Vegas casino owned by a Rick Perry donor and political fundraiser host.

And there were some damfools freely walking the streets who wanted to elect him President of the United States of America.

Okay, first jump over the hurdle of the Texas Teacher Retirement Fund, overseen by Perry appointees, investing in an activity that’s illegal in Texas.

But when you do clear that hurdle, you land in this mud pit.

When Gov. Rick Perry wanted to hold a fundraiser in Las Vegas last fall for his nascent presidential campaign, he reached out to Frank Fertitta III.

Fertitta was chairman and chief executive officer of Station Casinos, the largest operator of gaming halls that cater to Las Vegas residents. He and his younger brother, Lorenzo, had met Perry a few times and donated $5,000 apiece to him in 2007.

The Fertittas made their contribution shortly after the Perry-appointed board of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas approved a $100 million investment in a leveraged buyout of Station Casinos. Nearly all the money was later lost in Station’s bankruptcy.

Perry claims that the retirement fund money loss had nothing, nothing I tell you, to do with all the financial political favors the Fertitta brothers give him.

Frank Fertitta

Yep, it’s just pure damn coincidence that every time we lose money in Texas, you can trace it back to one of Perry’s donors walking away with stuffed pockets and pushing a wheelbarrow filled with Texas taxpayer cash.

The Texas teachers’ fund and other large institutional investors began to write down the value of their investments in Station.

Yet the Fertittas kept rolling. They announced a $10 billion casino development in Las Vegas, their biggest ever. With Station trying to renegotiate with its lenders, Frank Fertitta III paid $28 million for an oceanside home in Laguna Beach, Calif.

Do you think Frank Fertitta is going to let Texas teachers come retire at his $28 million beach house?  Is that the plan?

I swear that Texas elected Fredo as Governor.  I swear we did.

Okay, as a special Mother’s day treat, I offer you this speech by a typical Nebraska woman against gay marriage.

I would provide a translation but I don’t speak Batcrap Crazy.