As long timers know, every election I work on the Ballot Board.  That’s the board that certifies the ballots by mail as being legitimate and then opening them all to be counted.  It’s tedious but important work.

It takes from 8:00 – 5:00 all week long and Tuesday for a while, too.

I was hoping that Da Chipster could take over for me this week but something has come up for him so you guys are pretty much on your own.  If nothing else, I will put up a couple of chat posts during the day so you can chat among yourselves about the news because I’m not getting news at all until I get home.

More later … first dinner.

(Please feel free to steal this for your Facebook page!)

Thanks to John.

George W Bush’s ethics lawyer and former supporter of Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, and John Kasich, delivered the knock-out blow in the pages of the New York Times this morning.

Richard W. Painter thins it’s a Hatch Act violation for Comey to be openly campaigning for Donald Trump.

Thanks to Deb for the heads up.

Just when you thought the gay marriage issue was kinda over … oh no.

After coming out on the losing end of a U.S. Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage, Texas Republican leaders are now looking to the Texas Supreme Court to narrow the scope of that landmark ruling.

Gov. Greg Abbott, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Thursday filed an amicus brief with the Texas Supreme Court urging the all-Republican court to reconsider a Houston case challenging the city’s benefits policy for married same-sex couples. It appears they’ve set their eyes on the Houston case as a way to limit the effect of the high court’s ruling.

Okay, so here’s the deal.  Lawyers for the State of Texas are throwing paper at the lawyers for the City of Houston over whether or not gay people who are married are really, you know, married.  And who is paying for all those damn lawyers?  Not the Republican Party, that’s for sure.

Houstonians are being asked to foot the bill for both sets of lawyers to fight each other, at the state and local level.  Ain’t that just like Republicans — they never met a battle they are unwilling to fight with your money. It’s like cock-fighting with lawyers.

This is the damn Lawyer Full Employment Act.

Plus, it’s just wrong.  These guys are waaaaay too concerned about what gay people are doing.

It’s over.  The Supreme Court has ruled. Spend my tax dollars on something that will improve my life, not the Texas Bar Association.

Thanks to Rikon Snow for the heads up.

East Austin yesterday.

Thanks to Vickie for the heads up and the great photography!

Remember how Donald Trump got rich by not paying his vendors?  It was a business model for him to rip off small businesses and then tied them up in court if they tried to collect their money?

It’s happening again.

Trump hired pollster Tony Fabrizio, the Republican pollster and consultant Democrats fear and hate the most, is now stiffing him for $750,000 because Fabrizio gave Trump news that Trump didn’t want to hear.

According to one adviser, Kushner [Trump’s son-in-law and campaign manager] told pollster Tony Fabrizio during the convention that the campaign didn’t need to conduct focus groups. “ ‘I can tell from the applause what’s working,’ ” Kushner said, according to this source. Kushner, through a spokesperson, denied having said this, but it is in keeping with the go-with-your-gut approach of the Trump campaign. According to the adviser, Trump rejected television ads on Benghazi and the economy that tested the best with focus groups. “I know what works,” Trump told his team. (According to a source, Trump ad-maker Rick Reed quietly withdrew from the campaign in October.)

Here’s the deal:

So, Trump is going to stiff Fabrizio.  That right there makes a Democrat’s heart leap for joy!

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.