David Van Os has a few questions for Greg Abbott:

[PDittie]

Texans have a Constitutional right to uncorrupted government that serves and benefits the people instead of power-hungry political dictatorships. Texans most especially have a right to expect the state’s chief lawyer to be independent of any such taint.

Texans have a right to know that wheeler-dealer Republican political operative John Colyandro, a central figure in the Tom DeLay-TRMPAC money-laundering scandal that funneled large sums of corporate dollars into the hands of Texas Republican candidates in the 2002 general election, served on Greg Abbott’s campaign payroll during the same time frame in 2002.

Texans also have a right to know that Greg Abbott is one of the favorite candidates of Bob Perry of Perry Homes. Bob Perry is one of the biggest financiers of Karl Rove’s favorite political tactic of maligning the opponent with insults and lies. For example, he financed the so-called "Swift Boat Veterans" in their 2004 smear of decorated veteran John Kerry. Since 2001 Bob Perry and his wife have contributed over $570,000 to Abbott's campaign accounts. In the month of December 2005 alone, Perry gave Abbott $50,000 in one payment.

This might explain Abbott’s unswerving allegiance to the Rove-Bush-DeLay political machine, such as when he gave prompt legal clearance in 2003 to DeLay’s power-grabbing redistricting scheme - from which the U.S. Supreme Court has accepted an appeal on constitutional and voting rights grounds and will conduct expedited argument on March 1.

No doubt Abbott’s cronies in the Rove-Bush political machine will give him the best hatchet men Republican money can buy to smear me with their usual lies in their desperation to stop me from restoring the Attorney Generalship to the people.

Greg Abbott would do better addressing questions he needs to answer, such as the still-unanswered inquiry I sent him over 3 weeks ago about his Constitutional duty to investigate Rick Perry’s toll-road schemes. Abbott also needs to tell Texans about the connections that brought and kept John Colyandro in his employ at the same time Colyandro was taking care of Tom DeLay and TRMPAC, as well as why one wealthy right-wing Houston homebuilder continuously showers him with so much green. The people will await his answers, but they won’t be holding their breaths.

www.vanosfortexasag.com

[Vincardog]

1. K & R

[babylonsister]

2. Oh, ABB-OTT!!! Where are you? Rec'd! nt

[UrbScotty]

3. K&R (nt)

[bostonbabs]

4. kick

[lavenderdiva]

5. Kicked and Recommended!!

Hey, PDittie- we miss you!

:kick:

[sonias]

6. kick and Jim Hightower quote for DVO

Jim Hightower recently sent this to the DVO campaign

"Democracy is up to us. Always has been. By 'us' I mean the ordinary folks who've banded together over the decades each one doing what they could, to bring a little more democracy to our land and to take a bit more power back from the greedheads and boneheads. Now is the time for us to stand up again, for today's 'Powers That Be' have become radically regressive, running roughshod over the rest of us. The only antidote is 'us.' Good candidates are available to challenge the forces of ignorance and arrogance,
but they are helpless and doomed to defeat if they stand alone. Rather than watching and waiting for them to succeed, you and I must volunteer our energy and talents to the cause. Together, we'll all succeed."
--Jim Hightower

Now let's pitch in folks. Give your time or give your money, but let's keep this Democracy train running.
www.vanosfortexasag.com


Sonia

[PDittie]

7. More on this (Texarkana woman charged)

Letter to the Editor, Texarkana Gazette:

Dear Editor:

In the recent indictments of Texarkana City Councilwoman Willie Ray and two other citizens by Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott, the charges are alleged misdemeanors for picking up completed mail ballots from voters and carrying the ballots to place them in the mail for the voters. No voters are claimed to have illegally or fraudulently voted, and nobody is claimed to have forged or falsified a ballot, a signature, or a vote. So why does Attorney General Abbott trumpet in his statewide press release and on his website that he has achieved indictments for "VOTER FRAUD?"

The alleged misdemeanors occurred in the 2004 elections, yet it took over a year to hand down indictments right before the 2006 primary elections. Could indicting a popular East Texas African-American community leader for "voter fraud" right before early voting starts be part of a Republican attempt to scare Texas minority citizens from participating in the political process? There is a track record to consider -- the events of Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 leave little doubt of the Republican Party's agenda to suppress and intimidate minority citizens from voting. If Ms. Ray indeed committed a misdemeanor as alleged, she should be appropriately punished. However, to take over a year to complete an investigation into a relatively simple misdemeanor allegation, to leave Ms. Ray in the dark for over a year through a process that did not give her an opportunity to tell her side of the story to the grand jury, to exaggerate the seriousness of the allegation in a statewide publicity splash, and to time the indictment and publicity splash to the eve of the 2006 election cycle -- these factors tell those with eyes to see exactly what is taking place. The Texas Republican Party's minority voter suppression program is well underway.

Lest anyone doubt that Greg Abbott is a top crony in the Texas Republican Party's power machine, consider this: during Abbott's 2002 election campaign for attorney general, Republican political consultant John Colyandro was one of the top operatives on Abbott's campaign payroll. The same John Colyandro has been indicted for his activities in the Tom DeLay money-laundering scandal that took place during the same time frame that he was working on Abbott's payroll. Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, one of Rick Perry's biggest contributors and who financed the "Swift Boat Veterans'" scurrilous attack on John Kerry during the 2004 presidential race, showers some of his most generous largesse on Greg Abbott. From 2001 through 2005, Bob Perry and his wife gave over $570,000 to Abbott's campaigns. In the month of December 2005 alone, Bob Perry gave $50,000 to Abbott's re-election campaign for attorney general. And in 2003, it was Abbott's ruling as attorney general that gave Rick Perry, Tom Craddick, and David Dewhurst the permission to proceed with Tom DeLay's redistricting power grab. The Republican power machine is a private club that has been running roughshod over Texas citizens for too long, and Greg Abbott is a charter member.

The rule of law must be applied fairly, even-handedly, and impartially, with no agenda but the pursuit of justice under the Constitution and the law. Distorting the rule of law for the sake of private power agendas is not the conduct of democracy, it is the conduct of despotism. The elections of 2006 are a time for change in Texas.

David Van Os
Democratic Candidate for Texas Attorney General

[Baby Snooks]

8. Abbott and Perry

More like Abbott and Costello except the joke's on us - truly scary to realize the amount of money Bob Perry has used to control the political process in Texas. It raises a real ethical question with regard to all of the politicians in both parties who have taken money from him but there is something particularly wrong with an Attorney General taking that much money from him.

Greg Abbott can use the "Al Gonzales 'Why Should I Publicly Recuse Myself and Admit There May Be a Conflict-of_Interest Excuse" of the "career" attorneys on the staff actually making the call on a matter but in reality the Attorney General does have the power to quash a complaint and given the history of lawsuits filed against Bob Perry and Perry Homes which suddenly came to an abrupt halt, in part because of the commission which now "regulates" the homebuilders and a myriad of changes in laws which now protect the homebuilders instead of the consumers, it raises a question of who Abbott serves when he takes $570,000 in campaign contributions from a man whom his office has investigated previously. And obviously won't investigate again. Not while Abbott is in office.

Texas apparently was for sale. And Bob Perry apparently bought it.

Bob Perry is a good reason to tell all of our representatives that if they continue to vote "off the record" that they will be looking for another job next time around.

And that should apply to the Democrats as well as the Republicans.

[texastoast]

9. Go David!

I sent money and bought bumper stickers.

[PDittie]

10. Thank you so much, tt

I spoke with the party chair in Walker County last week and DVO will probably swing out there in the early part of the summer. Would you PM me regarding any Montgomery County events in May or June?

[texastoast]

11. Let me email

and find out what's coming up.