when i say "delay", i don't mean the election...

[rone]

... i mean our favorite little prairie poop named Tom.

In May 2001, Enron's top lobbyists in Washington advised the company chairman that then-House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Tex.) was pressing for a $100,000 contribution to his political action committee, in addition to the $250,000 the company had already pledged to the Republican Party that year. DeLay requested that the new donation come from "a combination of corporate and personal money from Enron's executives," with the understanding that it would be partly spent on "the redistricting effort in Texas," said the e-mail to Kenneth L. Lay from lobbyists Rick Shapiro and Linda Robertson.

Gerrymandering... it's FAN-tastic!

Comments

[ex-askesis860.livejournal.com]

If, two years ago, you had said that the Enron collapse, the California energy crisis, and Austin's redistricting were all connected in a plot that involved Tom DeLay, you'd have been a conspiracy nut. Looks like the tinfoil hat crowd has some catching up to do.

You know what really burns my ass, though? My city (the fifth largest in Texas) no longer has any federal representation, and a lot of so-called conservatives who live here are happy about it. These people don't deserve democracy.

[ronebofh.livejournal.com]

Whoa, whoa. How the hell do you not have federal representation (Senators notwithstanding, i assume)?

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Everyone deserves democracy, it's just that sometimes it's because they need it to BITE THEM IN THE ASS.

It's rare that I express real political schadenfreude but this is one of those times. A little less than four years ago I said that the only people the 2000 election had really taught me to hate were Trent Lott and Tom DeLay. I'd say "one down", but that's not exactly true, since Lott's still in office.

[palecur.livejournal.com]

Fucking gerrymandering -- that, and the goddamn abortion that Diebold's made out of electronic voting, are among the few things that I find most righties and most lefties can agree fucking suck. Can't someone write up some software to produce maximally geographically contiguous, evenly divided by population districts? Where's that miscreant mskala when you need him? The topology doesn't seem too intimidating at first blush.

Population_of_State:X
Area_of_State:Y
Number_Districts:Z
For i = 1 to Z
{draw the district containing X/Z people that has the smallest possible total perimeter, for all districts)

Or something like that.

[vspope.livejournal.com]

If I get to see DeLay being frogmarched into a squad car, I will need new pants.