Their natural habitat

Next door kids' yard: fraternity boys, owner kid's dad is a mayor in a metroplex SE of here and actually thought he could run for Tom DeLay's old seat, but his campaign (never very promising) was eight-six'd when it became apparent that they'd Photoshopped his head onto a thinner body. Not bad kids, though they made our lives miserable for the first year until I started documenting the behavior and then sent Dad a registered letter describing the evidence. Haven't had a problem since.

The McCain-Palin signs are sprouting in our neighborhood, at what strikes me as an odd (very tardy) time. Typically and in past years, this entire state, county, and city have been a Republican shoo-in. But this year, as a result I believe of a very real fear & loathing growing in the Republican base, the local Club-for-Growth assholes (developers, realtors, and other Good Old Boys) are realizing there's a seismic shift coming, and that they might actually have to work to keep the county red. They'll probably succeed--but it's a bunch of resource-money that can't be spent elsewhere. And, to my opinion much more important, the visibility for the first time of a Democratic/progressive presence in this town--Obama rallies on the courthouse square, Obama T-shirts and bumper stickers on campus, a plethora of Obama ads on the tube--is changing the underlying power dynamics.

For eight years Dharmonia and I have avoided political bumper stickers on our car: not because we were intimidated or shy about sharing our political opinions, but rather because even a "Dissent is the highest form of patriotism" bumper sticker could get your tires slashed. The Republican "moral majority"--really, a sense of inevitable entitlement and arrogant Good Citizen hubris--was so great that punks thought they could so operate with impunity. That is clearly shifting in this cycle, and Dems/progressives are clearly feeling empowered, even in this Reddest county of the Reddest state.

I'm quite sure that the frat boys next door didn't go out and either locate or even place this sign--there's a local Repub organizer just down the block and I'm quite sure he/she/it knocked on doors volunteering to place the signs (curious but not surprising that they didn't knock on our door). The frat boys are way too lazy, passive, and entitled to take such effort.

But I love that the sign is posted in the middle of the unkempt yard that they're too lazy, passive, and entitled to take care of--because down in Sugar Land there were always Brown People who came and took care of it for them--and I love that the guy who planted the sign put it right next to a fire hydrant. Right where the neighborhood dogs would piss on it.

Metaphor for the GOP this cycle: deep in the weeds and realizing they're about to get pissed on.