Politex

Dallas pastor passed over for NAACP head job

Rev. Frederick Haynes of Friendship-West Baptist Church in South Dallas will not be the new head of the NAACP, according to CBS 11 news.

Haynes told a reporter with the station that he was apparently passed over for the prestigious job because he had insisted that he continue to remain leader of Friendship-West while taking over the reigns at the NAACP.

"The church was a deal breaker," Haynes said in a text message, according to CBS.

Haynes plans on holding a press conference at his church this Sunday.

UPDATE: The group picked 35-year-old former news executive Ben Jealous.

-Aman Batheja

Eightball with Barack Obama

Some say he was just trying to score points with working class voters. But when Democratic hopeful Barack Obama on Monday picked up a pool cue in a West Virginia bar and started running balls, he was simply following a long, proud and very presidential tradition.

Consider this: George Washington reportedly won a game of pool in 1748; John Quincy Adams installed a table in the presidential quarters in 1828; and Abraham Lincoln extolled the virtues of pool as a "scientific game lending recreation to the otherwise fatigued mind."

Even Founding Father Thomas Jefferson was said to have a table at Monticello.

But Obama should also be careful about pocketing balls for political gain. After Adams used his own money to purchase a pool table, his political opposition in 1828 took him to task for installing "gambling furniture" in the White House.

How am I the possession of so much ridiculous trivia? Don't even ask.

-- R.A. Dyer

Military bases may ban Playboy, Penthouse

A Georgia Congressman has filed a bill that would block the sale of certain men’s magazines on U.S. military bases, including local bases like Fort  Hood in Killeen and Sheppard Air Force Base in  Wichita  Falls

U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Ga. wants magazines like Playboy and Penthouse (sorry, you'll have to look up their sites yourself) to stop being sold at Army Air Force Exchange Service stores, arguing that the skin mags are partly responsible for a rise in sexual assaults in the military and other problems.

Grassroots supporters of the bill are also concerned because children visit the stores. They want the bases to only sell items that could pass muster at a Wal-Mart.

Soldiers interviewed by Stars And Stripes say the magazines are good for morale and no, it's not just because of the articles.

Says a refreshingly frank Sgt. Simon Brown of Daytona Beach, Fla., "It’s not all about the pictures, although 80 percent of it is."

Here's the text of the bill complete with an anatomic rundown of what kind of nudity Broun says is and isn't acceptable.

-Aman Batheja

LBJ like you've never heard him: 1968

Here are some of the telephone conversations that were released today at the LBJ Library in Austin:

This clip   

   features a conversation between the president and Postmaster General Larry O'Brien, just days before LBJ bows out of politics for good. He sure doesn't sound like he's gonna quit.

This is the one   

   where LBJ tells U.S. Rep. Wilbur Mills that the country is basically going to hell and he needs the congressman to get behind his tax-and-budget plan.

Click here   

  to hear the president talking with Chicago Mayor Richard Daley about the need for federal help to quell the riots after the MLK assassination.

-- Jay Root 

LBJ touted re-election days before quitting: tapes

Apart from the turmoil in Vietnam and the drama that unfolded after the MLK assassination, President Lyndon Johnson found himself grappling with his own political future in the early part of 1968. Of course, LBJ stunned the nation by announcing, on March 31 of that year, that he would not seek re-election.

But the recently released recordings of LBJ's telephone conversations show that LBJ was touting his own re-election and taking steps to organize his campaign just days before he put an end to his long career in elective politics.

In recordings of conversations on March 23, the president speaks excitedly and confidently about winning re-election as he attempts to convince U.S. Postmaster General Larry O'Brien to take charge of his campaign.

"We haven't got much time,'' Johnson tells O'Brien, urging him to use the power of the White House to get waffling Democrats on his side. "I think you can pass out some chits. It's never been done in this administration before, but I think you can just say, now you've got a deposit, you can write a check on me and I’ll honor it ... We’re playing for keeps here and let’s write this thing up.’’

Check back here shortly for some of the raw audio! You're going to want to hear this.

-- Jay Root

A "continuous nightmare:" LBJ tapes from 1968 released

Lyndon Johnson, after he left office, once observed that 1968 “was one of the most agonizing years any president ever spent in the White House.’’

“I sometimes felt that I was living in a continuous nightmare,’’ he said.

Now some of those tumultuos moments, captured on tape, are coming to life with the newest release of the president’s telephone conversations. Among the topics covered during some 13 hours of tapes from the first four months of 1968: Rising dissatisfaction with the war in Vietnam, his decision not to run for re-election and the assassination of Martin Luther King.

“These first four months were a particularly turbulence-filled period,’’ said Claudia Anderson, supervisory archivist at the LBJ Library in Austin, which released the tapes Thursday. “A lot happened.’’

In one conversation that touched on the national unrest, Johnson can be heard nudging powerful U.S. Rep. Wilbur Mills to embrace a package of tax increases and budget reductions, then working its way through Congress, to avoid economic disaster.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get the sentiment for it until you go to tellin’ the country that, by God, it’s dangerous. Now if you don’t feel it’s dangerous, I just  think we’re going to hell,’’ Johnson told Mills. “I think we’re in the most dangerous thing I ever saw in my life and I think it’s going to blow right in our face.’’

Stay tuned. More to come.

-- Jay Root

Methodists tout an underground railroad for illegal immigrants

  Immigrant rights were once again the focus of passionate discussion among participants that the United Methodist General Conference. The conference is being held in Fort Worth. On Thursday, participants attended a rally and asked lawmakers for comprehensive immigration reform.

During a press conference Friday, leaders of the church discussed the role of churches as sanctuaries for undocumented immigrants. Some likened the movement to the Underground Railroad. The United Methodist Church Policy gives congregations the option to offer sanctuary to migrants facing deportation. Immigrants live in churches where they are fed and clothed. In some cases, the sanctuary effort has also involved other religions.

"It's something that local congregations have to want for themselves," said Elliot Wright, information officer for the General Board of Global Ministries. Wright said there are not any United Methodist churches in Texas offering sanctuary to undocumented people.

There have been high profile cases in Chicago and California.

None so far in Texas.

-Diane Smith

Cheney's reflections

Fly fishing just got more interesting.

Ever since a photo of Vice President Dick Cheney was posted on the White House web site -- saying he was fly-fishing in Idaho --people have been eying the reflection in his dark sunglasses.

Some people say it's a far cry from fishing because they believe the reflection resembles a naked woman.

What do you think?

-- Anna M. Tinsley

Al Sharpton and Pat Robertson agree on something

Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the sermon yesterday at Friendship West Baptist Church in Dallas. Sharpton was there in honor of Dr. Freddie Haynes' 25th anniversary as senior pastor. Haynes is on the shortlist to take over the NAACP.

In his introduction, Haynes praised Sharpton for his civil rights work and his presidential run in 2004.

“This year, as we are energized about excitement and expectation about a movement of hope and change, please understand that whenever someone walks through a door, it’s because there was somebody else that opened up that door,” Haynes said. He called Sharpton's barn burner at the 2004 Democratic National Convention one of the greatest speeches in the history of the Democratic Party. (If you don't remember it, you can see and hear it here.)

During his 40-minute sermon, Sharpton spoke about a commercial he recently shot on the environment at the urging of Al Gore. Gore's $300 million campaign is focusing on unlikely allies in the fight against climate change including Toby Keith and the Dixie Chicks. Sharpton said other ads will include Nancy Pelosi with Newt Gingrich and Rupert Murdoch with Ted Turner.

Gore asked Sharpton to appear with Pat Robertson. The crowd giggled at the thought of these two men working together.

“I thought about how Robertson and the Christian right had been aligned in attacking me for years," Sharpton said. "Used me as the poster boy of what’s wrong in America. I get down...to Virginia Beach. When we got to the beach where we going to cut the commercial, Rev. Robertson shook my hand and he (said he) admired how I stood up for what I believe"

But don't think Sharpton and Robertson are now best buds. Sharpton continued that the new odd couple and Gore grabbed lunch before the shoot.

“Al Gore, former vice president, Nobel prize winner. Pat Robertson, big conservative televangelist. They looked at their menus and ordered their food....My mama used to make me read that scripture that "He prepare a table before you in the presence of my enemies..."

And the crowd went nuts.

-Aman Batheja

Noriega caucuses, but doesn't commit

Rick Noriega, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate who was hoping his razor-thin majority in Tuesday's primary would hold up and help him avoid a runoff with perennial candidate Gene Kelly, was among the many caucus-goers at his polling place in Houston.

But the five-term state lawmaker did not state his preference in the presidential race between New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois. Noriega said his fence-sitting had nothing to do with the fact that the outcome of the Texas presidential primary was still very much in doubt when he signed in at the caucus.

"I'm holding off (on aligning with either candidate) until I get a firm commitment from one or the other that they will be back in Texas for the fall campaign to fight alongside of me to win this state for the Democrats," Noriega told PoliTex Tuesday night.

It might be tough to fault Noriega for his indecision on whom to support. Clinton went on to win the popular vote in the primary, but Obama appeared to be dominating the post-primary caucus process, So both candidates can make some claim in bragging rights for Texas.

But whether the Democratic presidential nominess ever crosses into Texas again remains an open question. Texas has been a rock-steady Republican state in presidential races since 1980, so few Democratic nominees for president have spent any quality time here during the last seven or more campaign cycles. Whether the Lone Star State will be in play this go-round is still subject  to debate.

-- John Moritz

Voting irregularity?

A reader to webfeedback@star-telegram.com writes, and we answer:

"My precinct 3333 on  Maplewood Church in North Richland Hills at 7:15am had a line going to the door.

"It wasn't until the line went out the door and people were standing in the cold that a polling volunteer came out. He said there was no waiting in the Republican line.

"When I reached the sign-in tables, I noticed that the polling place was divided with five volunteers on the Republican side and no waiting.

"There were only two volunteers on the Democratic side to handle the long lines.

"After I was handed my ballot and headed to vote, I remembered no volunteer stamped my registration card for the caucus this evening.

"The reply was, 'You didn't ask for it to be stamped.'

"The precinct captain stepped in from the Republican side and told the Democratic volunteers they are supposed to stamp every registration card without asking.

"I wondered how many Democratic voter cards had not been stamped for caucus participation from 7am until 7:45 (the time I reached the table).

"Does this mean a Republican advantage in the caucus this evening? Or does it not matter at all?"

Answer: It doesn't matter. You can vote without your voter registration card as long as you show another form of ID -- on the back of the card it says, "You may vote without your certificate by showing another form of identification" At the precinct conventions, the precinct leaders will have a list provided by the election judge of who voted in the primary. Only people who voted in the primary can participate in the precinct convention.

It's explained here.

-- Richard Stubbe

Walk right in

My wife just voted at the Keller Lions Club, Pct. 3040, at 8:30 a.m. and she says there was absolutely no line. No one.
--Paul Bourgeois

And they're off!

Polls are open. This is Thomas Auditorium in Haltom City.

The roads are clear. The countdown to 7 p.m. (when polls close) is on. But it may not be that simple, if the fretting officials are to be believed. BTW, if you're looking for info on where to vote, what all the fuss is about, what the candidates actually have to say, look here. And of course check back on the blog all day - we're up and running, too.

Actors getting in on the Obama act at UTA

Who isn't rallying around here? UTA's public affairs office just sent out a release saying that TV stars ors Sophia Bush of One Tree Hill and Adam Rodriguez of CSI Miami are scheduled to be on campus this Friday to turn out the vote for Barack Obama. See them at 5:30 p.m. in the Palo Duro Lounge of the E.H. Hereford University Center, 300 W. First St.  The event is being sponsored by the student organization University Democrats and is open to the public. 

- Kristin Sullivan

Hutchison on another Republican VP list

With John McCain's nomination all but settled, Republicans are trying to figure out who he will pick as his running mate. Steven Thomma of McClatchy's Washington D.C. bureau draws up a list of possibilities. Four governors make the list, but not Texas Gov. Rick Perry. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is on it and here's Thomma's assessment:

Pro: Offers a gender balance to the ticket and wins handily in mega-state.

Con: Support for financing embryonic stem-cell research worries social conservatives. Also, she's probably more interested in running for governor.

Steve Campbell

Foster kids stuck with state workers: Perry email

Those internal emails from Gov. Rick Perry's office, saved from the shredder by a pesky citizen activist, continue to make news. The AP, after combing through some of the messages, has just broken a story about a "disturbing" trend at Texas Child Protective Services.

Agency honchos said in a legislative hearing last week that CPS had made "great progress" in curtailing the practice of foster kids sleeping in government offices. But internal emails cited by the AP give another side to the story: the number of children being supervised overnight at shelters by CPS workers has gone up.

The internal e-mails from Perry's office were obtained by open records activist John Washburn. The Milwaukee man has been fighting since November against the governor's policy of destroying electronic messages every seven days. Washburn got the first batch of records last week. 

-- Jay Root

Blackwater controversy reaches North Texas

A former Texas National Guard member who lives near Fort Worth is emerging as the central figure in an international controversy over an allegedly unprovoked shooting by Blackwater security guards in Baghdad. The New York Times reports today that Paul Slough, 28, is believed to be the heretofore unnamed "turret gunner No. 3" implicated in the Sept. 16 shooting that left 17 Iraqis dead in a confrontation with a convoy of Blackwater security guards.

Blackwater has defended the actions of its guards in the incident, contending the that its personnel were defending themselves. But the Pentagon, FBI and Iraqi government have considered it one of the most outrageous examples of unprovoked violence by private security contractors in the war-torn nation, the Times reports.

Neither Slough nor Blackwater would comment to the Times, but ABC News recently posted a statement to investigators that was attributed only to "Paul" that claimed the shooting erupted when he feared "for my life and the lives of my teammates."

-John Gravois

He got out just in time

Dozens of Stephenville residents say they saw mysterious, fast-moving lights across the night sky earlier this week but Rep. John Carter, R-Round Rock, left, who represents the area, is taking it in stride.

“I am not surprised … we have illegal aliens coming into Texas all the time,” said Carter.

However, Stephenville native Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Dallas, right, may have a special connection to the sightings, reports The Hill, a newspaper that covers Capitol Hill. 

“Call it clairvoyance, but Congressman Hensarling and his family left Stephenville before his third birthday,” said Brad Dayspring, a spokesman for the Republican Study Committee, chaired by Hensarling. “Some might think that is coincidence and others might believe that he knew the UFOs were going to visit, but one thing is for certain — the truth is out there.”

Hensarling's third birthday was in 1960.

-- Maria Recio