Vote for Kinky Friedman

I think he's wrong when he says that crack "creates violence," but still...simply decriminalizing marijuana would make such a tremendous impact in terms of cutting back on ruining peoples' lives that that alone would be worth a vote. I think do, however, also think his views on "protecting the border" are scary.

Texas finds other ways of clearing room in prisons: executing everyone.

I'll cast a proxy vote for you, Ed. Kinky's the most fun thing to happen to Texas Politics since Ann Richards' speech about Shrub at the Democratic National Convention (the "born with a silver foot in his mouth" remarks).

Jeff in Austin

like the pedophiles and the politicians

What a cracklin' wit.

That's a knee-slapper I tell ya.

Guy's a laff riot

Sorry to rain on the parade, but Kinky's been running hard to the right lately. Scarily so.

He's announced that he would sign a bill that bans abortion in Texas as soon as Roe v. Wade was overturned. He called NO refugees "crackheads and thugs". He thinks our immigration policy is based on politicians beholden to Hispanics, and backs the Minutemen.

Vote for Chris Bell, and let Kinky just be for fun.

I really enjoy reading Kinky Friedman - but as a politician, I am not nearly so convinced. And the idea that marijuana should hold some sacred place above all other illicit drugs is ludicrous. Considering that we're losing the whole drug war and marijuana is just a tiny part of that his reasoning is entirely faulty. And the only violence I have ever heard of involving crack, is directly related to it's illicit nature. Pot smokers may not be violent because getting stoned kind of takes the desire out of most people. People high on crack are virtualy incapable of violence. I'd vote libertarian before I'd vote for him.

I really enjoy reading Kinky Friedman - but as a politician, I am not nearly so convinced. And the idea that marijuana should hold some sacred place above all other illicit drugs is ludicrous. Considering that we're losing the whole drug war and marijuana is just a tiny part of that his reasoning is entirely faulty. And the only violence I have ever heard of involving crack, is directly related to it's illicit nature. Pot smokers may not be violent because getting stoned kind of takes the desire out of most people. People high on crack are virtualy incapable of violence. I'd vote libertarian before I'd vote for him.

Hey, guys, it's not like he's gonna win. :-)

I've been sold since I heard his position on gay marriage. He said gays should be allowed to be just as miserable as the rest of us ... For all the negatives, I really do think he's the best candidate running. And I live in Texas, so I get to vote for him. Yeeeee-haw!

You definitely don't want to vote for Kinky. He's as conservative as they come, and he blew a whole in his own campaign by cussing up a storm during an interview where he made it clear that having any kind of plans for office amounted to so much gibberish. In his opinion, having a plan for public office is just lying because you never can rely on actually accomplishing anything.

Oh, and did I mention he's as conservative as Bush?

It's better just to ignore him so someone else has a better chance of beating Dubya's pigeon, Rick Perry. This state desperately needs change, and neither Kinky nor Perry can offer that.

Sorry, but that should have been "blew a hole"... The thought of that man as governor got me so worked up I couldn't even write coherently (or should that be "less incoherently"?).

Bush is conservative?

Kinky's fun, yeah. But at heart he's a Republican. I understand he's also for prayer in schools, and I can't find anything to indicate he's in favor of science over creationism in public school science classes. Go see here, for example: http://atheism.about.com/b/a/240344.htm

Maybe we should wait on the endorsement.

In the meantime, with the sole exception of legalizing marijuana, Chris Bell is a great candidate who would be the best governor out of the four people running seriously. Give him a look.

On Wednesday, September 13, 2006, the Dallas Morning News published an Associated Press interview with Kinky Friedman. Kinky tried to downplay the racist nature of his recent unfortunate comments saying that the black hurricane refugees in Houston from New Orleans were "thugs and crackheads":

Friedman last week said he would provide $100 million to Houston, or any other city facing similar crime problems, so Houston could hire 1,200 new police officers to deal with crime and weed out the "crackheads and thugs" among the thousands of Katrina evacuees from New Orleans who relocated to Houston.

Roundly criticized as a thinly veiled attack on blacks from Louisiana, Friedman said Wednesday his proposal "was not in any way racist."

"How can you possibly regret that, telling the truth?" he asked. "I am not a racist, I am a realist. ... I never said what color their skin was. .... I'm smarter than that."

Yet on September 9, 2006, Guillermo X. Garcia with the San Antonio Express-News Staff reported on a question-and-answer session with Kinky and directly quoted him:

In answer to a question, Friedman said the comments do not indicate that he holds racist views. Rather, he said they demonstrate his ability to take on a subject the other candidates won't touch.

"Racism was here before I came around," he said. "I am just trying to bring up these issues within the (expletive) society."

Later, he said: "As it happens, the crackheads and thugs who remain in Houston after Katrina happen to be black; that's fact."

This latest lie follows Kinky's previous lies about his past claims that he vote for Ann Richards and Al Gore and against the Constitutional Amendment rejecting equal marriage rights. Here is one such false claim:

Susannah McNeely: ... after your bid for Justice of the Peace in '86, you said you were leaving "that worthless tar baby that is politics" to the young people. What happened that changed your mind and prompted you to run for governor of Texas?

Kinky Friedman: Nothing changed my mind, that's still correct. This is not a political campaign. It's a spiritual one--a spiritual calling.
...
SM: So does this idea of the honorable cowboy have anything to do with why you threw your support behind President Bush in this last election? You did, didn't you?

KF: Yes. I did in this last election, but I didn't vote for him the first time.

SM: Who did you vote for in 2000?

KF: I voted for Gore then. I was conflicted. . .but I was not for Bush that time. Since then, though, we've become friends. And that's what's changed things.

SM: So it's your friendship with him that's changed your mind about having him as president more than his specific political positions?

KF: Well, actually, I agree with most of his political positions overseas, his foreign policy. On domestic issues, I'm more in line with the Democrats. I basically think he played a poor hand well after September 11. What he's been doing in the Near East and in the Middle East, he's handling that well, I think.

Kinky statements about his past votes have proven false based on Kinky's public Kerr County voting records:

"Quite often, I did not like my choices," Friedman was quoted as saying in Friday's Dallas Morning News....

"The voting record doesn't look strong, but my voting record is better than Dick Cheney's," he said....

According to Kerr County voting records, Friedman voted in the 2004 presidential general election but not in any other contest since 1994.

And I just saw for the first time his newest (or latest, or first, or whatever) political ad. He quotes heavily from the bible before saying he wants to be our shepherd, spiritually and politically, and that Texas doesn't need just another politician in the governor's mansion. Be afraid.

Kinky will be elected by a huge margin, probably with over 50% of the vote.

Why? Because he's the only candidate who has Texas values.

Kinky is the only candidate who has stood up for the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps who are protecting our borders when the politicians fail to protect them.

Kinky is the only one who gives a damn about unborn life.

Kinky is the only candidate who is not afraid to call a spade a spade, so to speak, and the only candidate who will speak the politically incorrect truth that the government isn't fixing the border because politicians are too afraid to offend Hispanics and Houston isn't fixing its crime problem because the politicians are too politically correct to admit that "as it happens, the crackheads and thugs who remain in Houston after Katrina happen to be black; that's fact." I want a governor who will speak the ugly truth rather than the repeat the politically correct fairy tale.

We need to stand together against RINOs like Perry and liberals like Strayhorn and Bell.

Texas values? I've lived here for 40 years -- my whole life -- and can assure you he's as far from my values as one can possibly be. He's an intolerant racist who thinks he can tell women what they can and can't do with their own bodies and believes the only solution to immigration is placing armed soldiers on the borders and shooting people as they try to enter the country. Oh, and did I mention he's a racist? This state would do better by putting Bush back in the governor's mansion -- and that's a horrifying thought. Besides, anyone who uses too much profanity to mask their own ineptitude is undeserving of such responsibility and trust as is inherent in the Texas governorship. We can do a lot better even if it is by choosing the lesser of multiple evils.

Jesus Christ, you people are taking this post WAY too seriously. I thought his comment about letting pot users out of jail to make room for politicians was funny and I joked about wishing I could vote for him. That was not an invitation for pro- and anti-Kinky activists to give stump speeches about him. Shut the hell up already.

It's probably because you don't live here, but this is actually a very critical issue. That said, you're right: this was not the best place to discuss the culture war over how to govern a state as large as Texas, especially since our governors never become despotic presidents who rampage the world in search of conquest and plunder while violating the very foundations of our nation.

The preceding snark attack notwithstanding, you're absolutely correct. I apologize. Really.

yeah hes from austin, and you don't see too many republicans there. I love kinky and am definately going to vote for him. Texas needs to get out of her bible hugging ways and get the boot out of her ass, its a shame that pride has corrupted a state like texas and produced an idiot like bush as well. I vote kinky for kicks, texas has been serious(ly f***ed up) for to long. :)