Representative Tom DeLay has won his appeal for a new judge to preside over his trial on Ronnie Earle’s shopped-around indictments.

State Judge Bob Perkins, who has made campaign donations to Democrats, will be replaced by another judge, said C. W. Duncan, the judge deciding the recusal motion by DeLay. That judge was not named Tuesday.

Obviously the second judge saw that a jurist who donates to a rabidly leftist organization like MoveOn, which calls Tom DeLay part of a “culture of corruption” in Washington, has compromised his own objectivity when the man himself appears before his court.

One thing that really bugged me about Cragg Hines’s awful column today was his comment that the spousal notification provision at issue in Planned Parenthood v. Casey would result in women being “ordered about like the kids.”

Really. Compelling a woman to simply notify her husband that she’s having an abortion (and the law of most states presumes that the child is his — the marital presumption of paternity) is the equivalent of treating women like children. Please. You can’t even claim that the statute was overbroad, as it included exemptions for cases where there was potential for spousal abuse. All it held is that the guy has the right to know — not that he even had a say in the matter.

Alito’s opinion was simply that the notification requirement was not an “undue burden” on a woman having an abortion. Is that really an unreasonable view?

This is what they do to 8-year-olds who steal bread in Iran. [WARNING: Disturbing photos.]

[Hat-tip: Lou Minatti]

Pat Robertson caught a lot of flack for suggesting that the United States should consider obliging Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s declamations that America wants to assassinate him. Now Mr. Chavez, in his infinite generosity, has returned the favor by condemning U.S. Halloween celebrations as “terrorism.”

"What they have implanted here, which is really a ‘gringo’ custom, is terrorism," Chavez said, quoted in the local press. "They disguise children as witches and wizards, that is contrary to our culture."
Chavez often lashes out at the US government, which he has described as "terrorist" and accused of plotting his assassination.
His comments came after authorities in Caracas recently seized pumpkins, cardboard skeleton costumes and other traditional Halloween items inscribed with anti-Chavez messages.

Could it be that we were distracted from the real issue, Mr. Chavez’s Castro-esque behavior, by the hubbub over Mr. Robertson’s comments?

Risawn has a brilliant idea for a t-shirt, sure to offend those who would impose Sharia on Western democracies:

Crusader pig!

Hopefully, she could print up stickers with scratch-and-sniff bacon flavoring. Mmm…

At least that’s what Cragg Hines thinks. In today’s column, the Chron political columnist tries to paint Supreme Court nominee Sam Alito as a far-right-wing wacko, while slapping the president’s supporters with the same brush:

IF you like machine guns, you’ll love Sam Alito.

Nice to know we’re starting off with a good, healthy dose of rabid fear-mongering.

In upholding a restrictive Pennsylvania abortion law in 1991, even the increasingly conservative 3rd Circuit refused to go along with one of the legislatively approved provisions: to require a woman to notify her spouse, in almost all instances, before an abortion. To emphasize his position, Alito wrote a dissent to spell out his approval of the spousal-notice section.

The Supreme Court said on review that the provision would impermissibly give a man "the kind of dominion over his wife that parents exercise over their children."

So, all you women who want to be ordered about like the kids, sit down right now and urge your senator to get aboard the Alito bandwagon.

But what’s that compared to a president’s need to restore his political health with about the only constituency that’s sticking with him amid a mounting death toll in Iraq, an energy crisis and the indictment of Republican chums Tom DeLay and Scooter Libby?

Got that? 43% of American adults are machine-gun-toting, spouse-stomping extremists. Probably racist, sexist, homophobic evangelical Christian supremicists, too. But at least those 43% don’t print ethnic slurs in major metropolitan newspapers:

Alito, a rock star to conservatives who scuttled Bush’s nomination of Harriet Miers, is so in the mold of Justice Antonin Scalia, Bush’s archetype of a supposedly strict-constructionist justice, that he’s known as "Scalito" � little Scalia or Scalia lite.

State Representative Fred Hill (RINO-Richardson), recently received a "Legislative Watchdog" award from the Texas Association of Counties, in appreciation of his carrying their water fighting property tax relief for Texas homeowners. To our eyes, the statuette appears to be a bulldog– and thus, LST would like to share with its readers some of "Fred Hill’s Bull", a series of thoughts and reflections by the tax-and-spend lobby’s favorite Austin insider.

Dr. Kevin Whited. Political Scientist. Blogger. Searching for a way to tap into the "ideal state" the Houston Chronicle claims to have.

Then an entirely predictable overdose of liberal bias and shoddy journalism alters his body chemistry.

And now, when Kevin Whited grows angry or outraged, a startling metamorphosis occurs.

The creature is driven by rage, and pursues senior columnists and management.

• Robison: Prop 2 proponents really no different than KKK
• Chron’s Casey has the pulse of GOP and taxes
• Chron’s Cohen breaks promise with readers

Mr. Cohen, don’t make him angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s angry.

With a picture to inspire you…