November 8, 2004: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Writing - Malaysia: Humor: Daily Texan Online: One of Kinky Friedman's unique policy initiatives is his "Texas Peace Corps," where famous, influential people such as Pat Green, Willie Nelson and Laura Bush would get involved in public life - not as mere celebrity spokespeople but people who are "ready to give a little bit more." They'd go to public schools whose music programs have been stripped and play songs to inspire children to learn music.
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November 8, 2004: Headlines: COS - Malaysia: Writing - Malaysia: Humor: Daily Texan Online: One of Kinky Friedman's unique policy initiatives is his "Texas Peace Corps," where famous, influential people such as Pat Green, Willie Nelson and Laura Bush would get involved in public life - not as mere celebrity spokespeople but people who are "ready to give a little bit more." They'd go to public schools whose music programs have been stripped and play songs to inspire children to learn music.
One of Kinky Friedman's unique policy initiatives is his "Texas Peace Corps," where famous, influential people such as Pat Green, Willie Nelson and Laura Bush would get involved in public life - not as mere celebrity spokespeople but people who are "ready to give a little bit more." They'd go to public schools whose music programs have been stripped and play songs to inspire children to learn music.
One of Kinky Friedman's unique policy initiatives is his "Texas Peace Corps," where famous, influential people such as Pat Green, Willie Nelson and Laura Bush would get involved in public life - not as mere celebrity spokespeople but people who are "ready to give a little bit more." They'd go to public schools whose music programs have been stripped and play songs to inspire children to learn music.
Kinky enough to be Texas' governor
Mystery writer, columnist and performer Kinky Friedman aims to run for office to fight 'the wussification of Texas'
By Alexis Kanter
This April, the Kinkster's gonna die, or at least his character will in the last of Kinky Friedman's running series of 17 mystery novels. His fans may be upset, and they may protest, but the good ones will know that his efforts will be better spent in the real Kinkster's race to the position of Texas governor.
Yes, in 2006, Kinky Friedman, mystery writer, performer, humorist and Texas Monthly columnist extraordinaire will, if all goes well for him, be the next elected governor of Texas. All he needs at the moment are some mean bumper-sticker sales, a serious commitment from voters and a chance to "let that Lone Star shine again."
In his efforts to "fight the wussification of Texas," 60-year-old Friedman wants to show the governor's job does not have to be run the way it's been. Inspired by country singer Pat Green's independent musical success in Texas, Friedman says he hopes to "bring about a revolution in politics the same way Pat has with music."
With his mystery novels, his columns, recording and performing in his country band, Kinky Friedman and the Texas Jewboys, and his extensive network of connections, including the current and past presidents of the United States, Friedman understands some may not see him as the typical gubernatorial candidate.
Running as an independent will be hard enough in a state which sticks to party candidates - especially when it's against political heavyweights, such as the state's current Republican Gov. Rick Perry and possibly Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison or Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn.
But Friedman says Texas is fed up with these politicians, and he's ready to ignite some change.
"I'm very committed to the idea," he says, of running for governor. "I can't help being what I am."
Un-political politician
Friedman is as Texan as you can get - he even wore his black cowboy hat to one of President Bill Clinton's formal galas.
And he lives on a spacious ranch, about 15 minutes outside of Kerrville, which also houses several horses, donkeys, turkeys, pigs, roosters and more than 50 dogs, all donated to the ranch. Friedman has operated the Utopia Animal Rescue Ranch out of his home for seven years, and with the help of donations from people all over the world, the animal ranch rescues various animals from abandoned or abusive homes and puts them up for adoption.
Friedman likes to call his rescue ranch a "never-kill sanctuary," and his love for animals is a serious aspect in his run for governor. One of his gubernatorial goals is to make killing animals illegal and increase the enforcement of spay and neuter programs.
Tackling the "broken criminal justice system" is also high on his list. He plans on having the well-known Houston defense lawyer, Richard "Racehorse" Haynes, help fight the system that put Max Soffar on death row for 23 years. The subject of one of Friedman's recent Texas Monthly articles, Soffar confessed to a triple murder at a Houston bowling alley but recanted the confession, and many people, including a number of Houston-area law enforcement officers, think he didn't commit the crime. Friedman says this sort of thing should not be allowed to happen in Texas. Yet, Friedman says, he's not "anti-death penalty. I'm anti-the-wrong-guy-getting-executed,"
Underfunded education is another issue that gets Friedman talking.
His solution? Join 18 other states and legalize gambling, but fund education with it.
Friedman acknowledges that Texas' former governor Ann Richards unsuccessfully attempted to do the same thing and admits that he's not entirely sure how this will work.
"I'll look into it, and I'll get someone who will," he says.
One of Friedman's unique policy initiatives is his "Texas Peace Corps," where famous, influential people such as Pat Green, Willie Nelson and Laura Bush would get involved in public life - not as mere celebrity spokespeople but people who are "ready to give a little bit more." They'd go to public schools whose music programs have been stripped and play songs to inspire children to learn music.
Instead of the slew of negative campaigns we saw recently, Friedman plans to campaign unconventionally, without spending money to badmouth the other candidates and by using free media.
"I want to give young people who've never voted the chance to vote for somebody, not against them," he says.
And it's not just Democrats who have had it with the Texas government, he says.
"I think a lot of Republicans are fed up, too. This is not a Democratic thing at all."
Friedman says he identifies with such famously independent politicians as George Washington and Davy Crockett - both of whom did not belong to a particular party.
"Those are the kind of un-politicians I aspire to be," he says.
The Friedman administration
While he may not have the extensive political resume which Perry and other gubernatorial hopefuls may boast, Friedman does have a caravan of colorful people ready to help him out. Magicians such as Penn and Teller, as well as David Blaine, have reportedly told Friedman they will come to Texas and "make my opposition disappear."
Willie Nelson is another big supporter, and Friedman wants to make Nelson part of his administration. He says he wants Nelson to head the Drug Enforcement Agency and help Texas agriculture.
"I think he'd be great," Friedman says. "He really loves the farmers, and he understands them."
Friedman's already found a source for political advice in the Bush family.
"George Bush has told me he'll be my one-man focus group," he says.
Friedman wants first lady Laura Bush to spearhead education initiatives in Texas. He calls her one of his friends, and she recently flew in from Europe to help host a benefit at his ranch.
"I think Laura wants to see literacy and education advance in Texas, and boy, it needs to advance, because we're right on the bottom of the heap," he says.
And, perhaps less famous than his other political appointees, Friedman plans to include his hairdresser in his administration. Farouk Shami, a Palestinian hairdresser, has previously collaborated with Friedman to produce Farouk and Friedman's Olive Oil, the first olive oil to come from what they like to refer to as the "Holy Land."
The olive oil is "to show [Yasser] Arafat and [Ariel] Sharon how it can be done when we work together," Friedman says, and the proceeds go to helping Israeli and Palestinian children affected by the conflicts in the Middle East.
And Shami's involvement in the Friedman administration?
"Farouk will be my ambassador to Israel," Friedman says.
As for the other jobs and positions in the governor's office, Friedman wants young, fresh, college-aged people.
"If they're smart, they could do it," he said.
But basically, Friedman's platform relies on the fact the he's a breath of fresh air, which, he says Texas sorely needs.
"We just don't need career politicians lying to us anymore," Friedman says. "I think we're all fed up with it. That's what I'm betting on."
Time for a change
The governor's race is still two years away, and whether Friedman's name will appear on the ballot, remains to be seen.
Richard Murray, a political science professor at the University of Houston, says the good deal of unhappiness with the current government would be something of a plus for Friedman.
But Murray says running as an independent in Texas - which has never had an independent governor - will make it very difficult to match the other candidates who'll be spending up to $20 million on media promotions.
But, Murray notes, since Friedman is "an entertaining and interesting guy," he'll likely get a lot of free press.
Jesse Ventura, Minnesota's former independent governor, beat party candidates, but he may have had an advantage by being elected as the mayor of a medium-sized city before his run for governor, Murray says.
When asked whether Friedman could win, Murray said, "I wouldn't bet on it."
But Friedman says his inexperience will be more beneficial to Texas than its current "career politicians."
"By the time a person's been in politics his whole life, that's too long to be in office," he says. "He's forgotten why he wanted to be there in the first place."
What Texas needs, Friedman says, is a viable and charismatic candidate - someone like him.
In the midst of political parties fighting each other left and right, Friedman sees this as an ideal time to come forth with another alternative. Politics today are serious, and though Friedman knows he's not, he says his commitment to becoming governor is.
"On one level, we're just saying, 'Why not have a little color and a little humor' in what's become a very grey, boring, office, and on another, is 'What if it turned out to start bringing some real change?'"
KINKY FRIEDMAN
On literature
Inspired by Georges Simenon who wrote a series that started every book with a street address rather than a plot, Friedman began writing in 1984 in New York.
Friedman published his first mystery novel, "Greenwich Killing Time," in 1986. It was rejected 26 times before being published.
Part of Friedman's inspiration to continue writing came from an experience grappling with a man who was mugging a woman in New York. The New York Post headline the next day read "Country Singer Plucks Victim from Mugger."
"I saw that as a sign I should keep writing," Friedman said. The last of his mystery novels, called "Ten Little New Yorkers," is coming out in April. In this final novel, the Kinkster dies.
"There's a fine line between fiction and nonfiction, and I believe I snorted it in 1978," Friedman said.
Friedman prefers the works of authors such as Paul Theroux, Charles Bukouski, Robert Louis Stevenson or Oscar Wilde.
"I value truth very highly, because I write fiction, and to write good fiction, it has to be the truth," Friedman said.
On college
Kinky graduated from UT in either 1965 or 1966 (he's not sure) with a degree in Plan II. On his college experience, Kinky said:
"I don't remember much of it [college], 'cause I don't remember the first half of my life ... which is good."
"My sister always said a good childhood is the worst preparation for life. Plan II's probably the second worst preparation for life."
"It [Plan II] was a program mainly distinguished by the fact that every student had some form or other of facial tic."
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Story Source: Daily Texan Online
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