Photo ID on the Texas Lege agenda?

Don’t tell me Speaker Tom “Kid” Craddock didn’t see the Supreme Court ruling today upholding Indiana’s photo ID law for voters. This is the DeLay-type wedge issue that he thrives on.

The SCOTUS 6-3 vote had two separate votes, a majority and a concurring decision.

The law “is amply justified by the valid interest in protecting ‘the integrity and reliability of the electoral process,’” Justice John Paul Stevens said in an opinion that was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy.

The hardcore right of Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas wrote a concurrence.

David Souter spoke for the opposition of himself, Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Stephen Breyer:

In dissent, Souter said Indiana’s voter ID law “threatens to impose nontrivial burdens on the voting rights of tens of thousands of the state's citizens.”

Stevens’ is the vote that most surprises me. Maybe he was on the fence and jumped off when Roberts told him he could write the opinion, and craft it narrowly.

Update: Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst has already come out blazing with a promise of a 2007 do-over in trying to ramrod a voter ID bill past the Texas Senate.

Will he go so far as in the mid-decade redistricting fight and try to suspend the rules of the Senate?

Rice crunch hits Dallas

A lot of outsiders probably thing of metropolitan Dallas as a white/black/Hispanic city. Not so true.

Due in part to tech companies like Texas Instruments and EDS, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has a sizeable Asian community, definitely sizeable enough to clearly distinguish Koreans from Indians.

So, it’s no surprise the worldwide rice crunch is hitting Big D.

The weird thing is, according to one agricultural analysis, this is a result of increasing prosperity in developing nations:

“This price spike has not been driven by a bad monsoon or some other weather phenomenon like people might expect,” said Nathan Childs, an economist and expert on the world's rice supply. “The easiest way to explain it is in terms of supply and demand.”

The price of rice began to rise last year when India, Vietnam, China and later Egypt imposed various restrictions on the export of rice.

Each country had its own reasons, but in India and China, Mr. Childs said, the price spike was actually caused by economic prosperity.

As tens of millions of people shifted into the middle class, they began eating less rice and more meat, poultry and dairy products. Rice that used to feed the poor increasingly ended up in the bellies of livestock. Rice supplies dwindled, and prices rose. Government leaders, hoping to keep supplies up and prices low, imposed export bans.

Small consolation to the Indians, Vietnamese and Chinese here in metro Dallas.

Fake IDs and pregnancies latest for FLDS Mormons and AWOL Rick

Texas Child Protective Services claim 31 juvenile females from the YFZ compound at Eldorado, age 14-17, are pregnant.

The FLDS disputes the claims; a spokesman says at least 17 of that number are actually adults. The state, in turn, disputes that, saying it disputes custody.

Meanwhile the state’s guarantee of individual custody hearings by June 5 is a crock. That’s seven weeks away.

Meanwhile, Gov. Helmethair, the man formerly known as Rick Perry, continues to be hugely AWOL on this issue. Has he said more than half a dozen words on this issue in the last two weeks?

Just what of Jeremiah Wright is Obama distancing himself from?

Well, possibly all sorts of things, if you look at the complete text of what Wright said to the National Press Club. Not that Obama needs to distance himself, let alone be offended by Wright, as he said he was earlier today, after hearing about Wright’s NPC speech.

Again, that speech. Here’s some highlights to which Obama might have, rightly or wrongly, objected.

1. Noting that the “chickens coming home to roost” of his Sept. 16, 2001 sermon was a quote of Iraq’s Ambassador to the U.S.? Or for continuing to defend its use and context?
2. For claiming Farrakhan was attacking Zionism, not Judaism? Or refusing to throw him under the bus?
3. For telling Obama himself that, if he got elected, Wright’s standard for him as the agent of the government would be no less than for previous presidents?
4. For noting that Obama doesn’t go to church that often, or as Wright told a reporter, “About as much as you do.”
5. For indulging in AIDS conspiracy theories? (Which is one area, Rev. Wright, where you ARE “wackadoodle.”)

But, let’s look at the rest.

No. 1 — without saying we “deserved” 9/11, which Wright didn’t either, he nonetheless has a lot of truth here.

No. 2 —Louis Farrakhan. Is he really anti-Semitic? Well, at the least, he is not as anti-Semitic as he has been made out to be. Despite mainstream media claims, he did NOT say “Judaism is a gutter religion.” Yes, he did warn people making threats against Jesse Jackson after his 1984 “Hymietown” comment that if anything happened, he would fight fire with fire.

And, in that case, some prominent Jews, including Net Hentoff, were perfectly happy pouring some gasoline on the fire.

That said, is Farrakhan anti-Semitic to some degree? Yes, but no more than he is anti-gay. Whether Jews or gays should feel more problem with that is an open question.

No. 3 — Maybe Obama is afraid Wright will indeed hold him to that standard.

No. 4 — I guess Obama doesn’t “praise Jesus” as much as he would like us to believe. Maybe less than Hillary Clinton, though I’m sure more than John McCain.

Of course, when your “bodyguard” includes Marion Berry you have opened yourself indeed to “wackadoodle” comments, Rev. Wright. (At the same time, Dana Milbank showed himself as a mainstream media hack with this piece.)

Doorknob, why can’t we have an atheist president?

Pander alert – Hillary joins McCain on gas-tax free summer

Hillary Clinton, running roughshod over the fact that lost billions of dollars would torpedo her “jobs, jobs,, jobs” campaign, has joined Schmuck Talk Express™ in callinf for a summer suspension of the federal 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax.

Let’s say this went through.

What would she and Schmuck Talk say on Labor Day?

“My bad that you got this new sticker shock?”

That’s especially if the gas-tax suspension encouraged more summer driving, thereby driving gas prices even higher.

As for making up the lost money, she proposes a new “windfall profits tax” on oil companies. More pandering, especially to people who believe in a Big Oil conspiracy instead of talking about Peak Oil.

Hillary Clinton, running roughshod over the fact that lost billions of dollars would torpedo her “jobs, jobs,, jobs” campaign, has joined Schmuck Talk Express™ in callinf for a summer suspension of the federal 18.4-cent-per-gallon gas tax.

Let’s say this went through.

What would she and Schmuck Talk say on Labor Day?

“My bad that you got this new sticker shock?”

That’s especially if the gas-tax suspension encouraged more summer driving, thereby driving gas prices even higher.

As for making up the lost money, she proposes a new “windfall profits tax” on oil companies. More pandering, especially to people who believe in a Big Oil conspiracy instead of talking about Peak Oil.