Much has been said about the Texas precinct caucus method for selecting delegates to the national convention, as a look at the recommended diaries today attests. Rather than get into the detail elaborated on in these diaries, which I agree is important, and in response to the many chicken-little's berating our system (sorta like the worry of where to bank your money after you win the lottery, as you'll see on the flip), I'd like to discuss the big picture, as a former Democratic county chair for many years who actually worked the Texas caucus system. And I'd like to start by saying the system is brilliant. That's right, brilliant, as I explain below.

Well it's official. My candidate, John Edwards is out. I grieve for him, as he gave it all he had for the disadvantaged and shut-off. But the intrigue now builds. The polls tend to show a momentum change for Obama since South Carolina. Yet John's withdrawal today changes all that. Where will we go?

Flip to vote (and no cheating from the Obama and Clinton crowd, hear?).

Much has been said over what the results of the special election run-off in the Texas 23d CD tell us about party voting patterns amongst Mexican-American voters. There is certainly much to say here, as the Latino population in the US is the fastest growing demographic group, and it is only a matter of time before the 'ol demographics bite the Texas Rs in the ass if these voters stay in the Democratic column. Come do some analysis with me after the fold.

The re-counting of the votes in 9% of Mexico's voting stations is in the 5th and final day, as ordered by Mexico's electoral court. Mexico's La Jornada, tells us how it's going in this self translated account I've included on the jump.

David Wallace, the Mayor of Sugarland, Tom DeLay's home town, has thrown his hat into the write in ring, announcing that he will oppose Nick Lampson. What are his chances?

Check out the flip.

Well, well, well, we're getting noticed big time. I guess we're cutting too close to the bone, and it's starting to hurt the establishment. Jonathan Gurowitz, a winger columnist for the lean-right San Antonio Express and News is all foamed up over our language.

My, my, my.

The Houston Chronicle reported today that federal Judge Sam Sparks is on the verge of declaring that Tom DeLay "withdrew" from his congressional race, rather than became ineligible. Sparks stated that he will issue his ruling to this effect as early as next week. The effect of this? Delicious! Check it out under the fold.

Way too many people are heaping scorn on undocumented immigrants by calling them lawbreakers. The House wants to make felons of more than 11 million immigrants in one fell swoop, and felons of the millions of American relatives, care providers, and friends of these immigrants.

But there is a simple solution. Check it out on the flip.

That's right Chris Simcox, Jim Gilchrist, and their patron Tom Tancredo are out-and-out racists. And those aiding or sympathizing with the Minutemen are abetting racism. Are you offended? Do you think I'm over-stating? Tough!

See what I mean below:

High school students are teaching us about fighting for our rights. Won't you join them?

Election day is tomorrow.This race looks like it's going to be a squeaker. Kos has called it the perfect storm for the turncoat Henry Cuellar. It is an ideal race for the Kossack community to tip Henry over. There are no other races to divert our attention tomorrow. A few hundred votes massaged out of South San by us can pull it out for the progressive Ciro Rodriguez. We've pulled out our credit cards for Ciro, and helped make him competitive. Now it's time to pull out the votes for him.

Read how to do it on the flip.

The common wisdom is that in order to overturn the results of the last cycle (when he lost by 58 votes), Ciro Rodriguez will have to do a better job of turning out the vote in his home base of Bexar County (San Antonio), and hope that the opposite happens in Webb County (Laredo), the home of closet Republican Henry Cuellar. Well, early voting is over in the primaries, and the totals for both counties are in.

See the results below the fold.

Ciro Rodriguez lost his reelection race to turncoat, closet Republican, Henry Cuellar by a mere 58 votes in the last cycle. He accomplished this by gaining an 86%-14% vote advantage in that part of Webb County within the 28th Congressional District. Henry swamped Ciro in Laredo, despite Laredo's liberal, true-blue, voting history, because he is the home-boy. But Henry can't possibly do better in Laredo, where his voting record has been highly publicized. The turnout in Laredo, nonetheless, is a key to this race, and so far it looks good for Ciro. Check-out why below the fold.

The Republican budget cuts to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Commodity Surplus Food Program have hit my community hard. The Republican budget cuts are literally driving poor elderly people to their deaths.

More on the flip

Provisional ballots can be key to a successful GOTV effort, yet many people appear confused as to how provisional ballots are used. I'm a lawyer who has reviewed the Help America's Voters Act (HAVA), and who has extensive experience both conducting elections and organizing field work in political campaigns. I'd like to offer some thoughts on how we can use HAVA to spike our GOTV effort a bit.

Certainly our kids in Iraq, more than anyone else, want to come home. Instead this is what they got from Donald Rumsfeld, according to the AP this morning:

Pastordan's invaluable diary on this community, and Kos' recent main-pager on the changes we are going through have led me to reflect. Why do I spend so much time on this site? I was exposed to blogging by the Dean website, and migrated to dKos after his candidacy blew-apart. I haven't been able to stay away since. Why?

1. Information -- This is the first place I check to find out what's going on in the world. NYT, WaPo, etc., have all been relegated to afterthoughts. The best news can be found here.
   
2. Support for the Effort -- This site allows me to help out in swing states thousands of miles away, and provides me with advise and support from activists throughout the country.
   
3. Fund the Effort -- Thanks to Dean, I saw the potential of using the net to generate and focus funding on behalf of progressive Democrats. DKos has now taken up a lot of the slack. I'm on board because I see a whole community pulling with me, and realize that my $50.01 goes a long way.
   
4. Camaraderie -- Sometimes discussions go from politics to all kinds of interesting stuff that tickles my fancy.

Why are you addicted to dKos?