Election 2012: Texas Dems Send Hoax Message!

2012 is destined to be a big election year and is not just starting to heat up but to actually get weird ...

Like just about everyone else in America with email, I regularly receive political messages that are, to a lesser or greater extent, hoaxes. In mid-January, I received a many-times-forwarded message with the subject “Congressional Reform Act of 2011” (see Debunking 'Congressional Reform Act of 2011' on the Religion, Politics, and Sex site). On the surface, this appeared to be a typical piece of Tea Party/neocon invective that was unexceptional in any way; it started off with the obvious lie that it had originated with Warren Buffet, and then went on to call for a number of “common sense” responses to problems that don’t really exist, etc., and looked like something that had been making the rounds on Facebook a few days earlier. When I looked to see if I could tell where this message had originated, however, I was struck by a genuine surprise: It had, by all accounts, been sent out by the Chair of the Democratic Party of Comal County, Texas!

“While I personally do not fully agree with all of these suggestions, they are a good place to start,” this good lady writes at the beginning of her message. In that the contents of the message were ultimately written by the kind of people who make Democrats feel nervous about living in Texas, I would imagine that she would not agree with them. Why things she does not agree with would be “a good place to start,” however, I have no idea.

The idea that the leader of an organization representing besieged Democrats in a frighteningly Red state would be sending out rightwing literature was too much for me to accept and so I immediately sent her an email message to let her know I had received it. I expected she would probably let me know that she had been a victim of identity theft, but figured there was also a slight chance she would embarrassedly admit to accidentally disseminating something she had not bothered to verify (or even read very carefully to ensure it was in keeping with her party’s ethos).

When I had not received a reply after three days, I followed up with her again, once again emphasizing that I was a jouranlist and intended to publish an article about the hoax to which she had, one way or another, been party. As of this writing, however, she has still not had either the sense or the courtesy to reply to me or my readers.

Seemingly coincidentally, right after I sent my first message to the Chair of the local Democratic organization I received a friendly and somewhat solicitous message from a gentleman who shared her last name. A little investigation revealed that this individual is currently running for a U.S. Senate seat, that he is also a member of the Democratic Party of Comal County, and that he is, in fact, the husband of the woman who had sent out the message being discussed here. We traded a few messages but, when I asked him about the email message that had originated with his wife, it went quiet at his end and our correspondence ceased.

And so, in the absence of any kind of a response, I am left to conclude that the most recent rightwing hoax to cross my desk originated with … a local office of the Democratic Party. This is certainly not an auspicious way for an organization of this sort to start off any year -- all the less so one in which we are about to experience a heated national election cycle in which political organizations that hope to prevail will need to be on their game.

Two Years Ago This Month: Chupacabra Alert!

In January 2010, news reports broke about an ostensible chupacabra that had been found dead on a golf course in the north Texas town of Runaway Bay, Texas! The local Wise County Messenger newspaper reported that the “brown, earth-colored creature is hairless with oversized canines and elongated padded feet with inch-long toes tapered with sharp, curved claws. The creature also had long hind legs.” A careful examination of this monster, however, revealed it to be a raccoon that had been rendered hairless by mange. The Runaway Bay city council nonetheless followed up by voting in the chupacabra as the new town mascot.

Read about the "Legend of the Chupacabra" in the "Mayhem" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

Three Years Ago Today: Zombie Alert!

Early on the morning of Monday, January 19, 2009, commuters in the state capital of Austin were surprised the see the dire warnings “ZOMBIES AHEAD” and “ZOMBIES AHEAD! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!” on two large electronic signs. The messages had been posted sometime the night before.

Read more about this apparent prank in "Zombies Ahead!," a chapter in the the "Mayhem" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

41 Years Ago Today: Sharpstown Stock Scandal Starts

On January 18, 1971, attorneys for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a lawsuit in federal court in Dallas alleging stock fraud against a number of influential Texans, including Houston banker and real estate developer Frank W. Sharp, former Democratic state attorney general Waggoner Carr, and former state insurance commissioner John Osorio. The suit also named Sharp’s corporations, including the National Bankers Life Insurance Corporation and the Sharpstown State Bank. By the time the events these actions were initiating had played out, the state government would be shaken to its core and a number of promising political careers would be destroyed.

Read more about the Sharpstown Stock Scandal in the "Scandal" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

10 Years Ago This Month: Lay Resigns as Head of Enron

Ten years ago this month, in January 2002, Kenneth Lay resigned as chairman and chief executive officer of Enron, posts he had held since 1985 following the collapse of the corporation. Lay was ultimately convicted of 10 counts of wire fraud, securities fraud, and making false and misleading statements and was facing decades in prison when he mysteriously died and was buried in a secret location, prompting speculation that he faked his own death and thereby escaped justice.

Lay's exploits are described in "The Enron Scandal," one of the chapters in the "Scandal" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

11 Years Ago This Month: Clinton Pardons Cisneros

Eleven years ago this month, in January 2001, as one of his last official acts as president, Bill Clinton pardoned U.S. Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros. After a four-year federal investigation, the former mayor of San Antonio had been indicted on 18 charges and convicted of lying to the FBI about how much money he had paid his mistress, gold-digging whore Linda Medlar.

Cisneros is one of the characters covered in "Paying for It, Lying About It — And Getting Away With It," one of the chapters in the "Sex" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

106 Years Ago Today: Birthday of 'Alligator Man' Joe Ball

On January 7, 1896, Joe Ball, who went on to become known variously as “the Alligator Man,” “the Butcher of Elmendorf,” and “the Bluebeard of South Texas,” was born. A boogeyman of Texas folklore, Joe Ball was a World War I combat veteran and bootlegger who, after Prohibition, opened a watering hole called the Sociable Inn in Elmendorf, Texas, just southeast of San Antonio. Beside it he built a pond where he kept five alligators, charging people to see them, especially during feeding times, when he threw them live dogs and cats. Animals were not the only things he was feeding his reptilian pets, however, and from 1936 to 1938 he is believed to have killed more than 20 women and disposed of the remains of most of them in his pond. His apparent victims included his barmaids, former girlfriends, and even his wife.

Ball is one of the characters covered in "Texas Ser'yall Killers," one of the chapters in the "Murder" section of Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State!

See also "Strange Family Ties: Man Discovers Mother Killed by Joe Ball"!