Kinky Friedman running!
[his politics sound kind of sucky though]
Kinky: ‘New Texas revolution is coming’ 08:52 AM CDT on Friday, May 12, 2006 By WAYNE SLATER / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN - Entertainer Kinky Friedman declared himself a serious candidate for governor Thursday with 169,574 signatures - four times the number he needs to challenge Gov. Rick Perry in November.
“Fix your bayonets now, because the new Texas revolution is coming, folks,” Mr. Friedman told supporters from the steps of the secretary of state’s office.
Mr. Friedman, a singer and mystery novelist running as an independent, delivered his petitions with a flourish.
He arrived at noon amid a flotilla of vehicles that included a pink trailer bearing a giant cowboy hat and a red, white and blue vintage car emblazoned with a Kinky Friedman logo.
Flanked by supporters holding boxes of petitions, Mr. Friedman opened an envelope in the style of Oscar night and announced the number of signatures to the cheers of about 100 people.
“It’s a big number,” he said. “It tells me that it is not, as Rick Perry’s staff said, the ‘Keep Austin Weird Crowd.’ It’s the ‘Keep Austin Honest Crowd.’”
Thursday was the deadline for delivering signatures to the secretary of state to get on the November ballot. Fellow independent candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn turned in 223,000 signatures on Tuesday.
When a reporter noted that Mrs. Strayhorn had more signatures, Mr. Friedman joked: “Of course she got more signatures than we did. She got all her ex-husbands to sign.”
At the same time, Mr. Friedman said he and Mrs. Strayhorn represent “a lot of people who are very unhappy with what’s going on in Texas.”
Mr. Friedman said he hopes his independent candidacy will transcend a partisan politics that has left some people in both parties disillusioned and disengaged.
“There’s a feeling that the Republicans have left Ronnie Reagan way behind as the Democrats have left JFK,” he said.
Supporters waved handmade signs, one of which said, “Republicans + Democrats = Sheep.”
Mr. Friedman said he seeks to steer a middle ground between “the far-right religious wing” of the GOP and “a far-left politically correct wing” of the Democratic Party.
“It’s real easy to say what I stand for,” he said. “I stand for prayer in school. I stand for getting the politicians out of politics. And I stand for really focusing on the two big problems that face our state: education and immigration.”
Asked about the school-finance measures under consideration in the Legislature, Mr. Friedman said he opposed using the budget surplus to fund public education rather than a permanent source of money, such as casino gambling.
State law requires that an independent candidate submit 45,540 signatures from registered voters who did not vote in the primary. The secretary of state must certify the petitions.
A spokesman for Republican Secretary of State Roger Williams, who knocked Mrs. Strayhorn’s petitions as disorganized, praised the Friedman effort.
“The organization they turned them in certainly makes the process easier,” said Scott Haywood, who predicted it would take five to six weeks for certification.
Also on the November ballot will be Democrat Chris Bell.
No independent has been elected governor of Texas since Sam Houston in 1859.
After delivering the petitions, Mr. Friedman, wearing a black frock coat and carrying a cigar, waved goodbye to the crowd.
“May the god of your choice bless you,” he said. “And onward through the fog.”
May 16th, 2006 at 11:04 am
Kinky’s thoughts on border security and other foreign policy issues is RIGHT ON THE MONEY!
Kinky discussed his ideas the illegal Mexican alien problem with the Texarkana Gazette:
“Mexico is not a poor country…all of these politicians are afraid of offending Hispanics. I want the border off the evening news until we get something resolved.”
Kinky’s right! And he’s been saying that Mexico ain’t poor for better than a year now. Here’s a another story out of the Kilgore News Herald, where Kinky says “Mexico is not a poor country.”
Here’s some other interesting stuff out of that Kilgore News Herald story:
“I am going to see non-denominational prayer and the Ten Commandments put back in the schools.”
Friedman said the Ten Commandments might have to be called the ten rules or something similar but they need to be back in the schools. “They say this is part of my wussification campaign but, as my spiritual advisor Billy Jo Schafer says, “If you don’t love Jesus, go to hell.”
One of Friedman’s most unusual ideas addresses border security.
He proposes creating what he calls the Five Mexican Generals plan. As he lays it out, the border with Mexico would be divided into five pieces with a Mexican general responsible for each. A $1 million trust fund would be created for each general.
“When I talk about the five Mexican generals, people think I’m joking but I’m dead serious,” said Friedman. “I will divide the border into five jurisdictions, assigning one Mexican general to each and providing a trust fund for that general. Every time a person crosses illegally, we subtract $5,000 from the trust fund.”
Kinky also spoke with Ruminator Magazine about his thoughts on Bush’s foreign policy:
Ruminator: 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?
Kinky: Yes. I did in this last election, but I didn’t vote for him the first time….I was not for Bush that time. Since then, though, we’ve become friends. And that’s what’s changed things.
Ruminator: So it’s your friendship with him that’s changed your mind about having him as president more than his specific political positions?
Kinky: Well, actually, I agree with most of his political positions overseas, his foreign policy….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 is Awesome!