The Houston Chronicle’s Moonbat Lefty Sunday columnist Austin bureau chief Clay Robison displays a classic little bit of bias this morning [emphasis' added by LST]:

Long-running hostility between the Texas Association of Counties and a taxpayer advocacy group flared anew Thursday after the county group torpedoed the advocates’ plans to stalk its state convention.

An Austin hotel canceled the Americans for Prosperity’s reservation of a room booked for Aug. 16, the first day of the TAC convention, after the county group said it feared its long-scheduled meeting at the same hotel would be disrupted.

Courtesy Merriam-Websters:

Main Entry: stalk
Function: verb
Etymology: Middle English, from Old English bestealcian
To pursue quarry or prey stealthily… to pursue obsessively and to the point of harassment

Clay’s article offers zero evidence that Americans for Prosperity reserved their room in a “stealthy” manner. And even if they had, it isn’t clear to me why one person or group ever has a moral or ethical obligation to get permission from all of a hotel’s other patrons before booking a room in that same hotel.

Or does he think that AFP protesting peacefully outside of the hotel, or offering the media and general public an opinion that dissents from TAC’s position constitutes “stalking”?

One can’t help but wonder what Robison might have written back in the 1950’s and 60’s, when all those those darn Negros were busy “stalking” Woolworths lunch counters and harassing the hard-working folks down at the bus station.*

But perhaps I’m wrong. For the problem, it seems, is not simply disagreement with TAC– it is the very real threat of VIOLENCE!

Americans for Prosperity has a lawsuit pending against the county organization over use of tax dollars for lobbying and has been a strong advocate of lowering the cap on property reappraisals, a move TAC opposes.

“We did inform the hotel … that they were going to protest out front,” TAC spokeswoman Elna Christopher said.

She acknowledged the competing group’s right to protest but added: “We were concerned about security. We didn’t want any fistfights. We didn’t want any shouting.”

My goodness– just who is this foul-mouthed mob of ruffians threatening to disrupt the security of TAC’s convention with obscenities and fisticuffs?

LoneStarTimes.com has obtained a picture of their intimidating and violence-prone ringleader:

 

 

Naturally, she sees things differently.

Peggy Venable, Texas director of Americans for Prosperity, which claims 16,000 members statewide, said the county group was “trying to silence us, to bully us” over issues important to taxpayers.

She said the group wanted to use the room at the Renaissance Austin Hotel for a news conference and a workshop.

She said Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Paul Bettencourt, an outspoken supporter of lower appraisal caps, had been among speakers invited.

Venable said a contract for the room was signed last week. She said a hotel representative told her office late Wednesday that her group wouldn’t be allowed to use the room on that day because TAC had objected.

And can you blame TAC? Just look at this photo of Venable from an earlier Americans for Prosperity riot, where she was captured on film deploying her infamous “Taxpayer Pointy-Fingers of Death” to cast a curse upon chief TAC flack Jim Lewis.

 

 

Here’s the rest.

Christopher said the county group had booked the hotel two years ago. Hotel officials declined to comment.

According to e-mail provided by Christopher, Americans for Prosperity had promoted a rally — billed as a “Texas Tea Party” — outside the hotel on the convention’s opening day.

“Taxpayers need to establish a large presence and make their voices heard with TAC, the media and our legislators,” the announcement said. It said TAC’s conference agenda was to teach county officials “to oppose appraisal caps, revenue caps and taxpayer friendly legislation.”

Venable said Thursday that she had planned to hold the rally elsewhere in Austin.

Now, she said, “We will likely be doing something that will focus on them denying us access to the room we had contracted.”

Christopher said Americans for Prosperity is a “fringe” group that seeks to “demonize local government.”

She said county officials, at their convention, will be briefed on numerous issues important to them and their taxpayers.

Stay tuned to LST for what promises to be entertaining updates on this developing story…

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* A cheap shot, yes, but too good to pass up.