Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Socialism is putting out fires in Los Angeles.

Why do we need socialism to put out wildfires in Los Angeles? Why not let the free market put out the fires? Why not let private companies hire the firefighters and charge the residents for putting out the fires that may destroy their homes?

As the flames race down the hill toward your home, a private firefighting company would be there to charge you a fee for evacuating you and putting out the fires. You would need to provide a credit card for the service.

What about the people who cannot afford firefighters? Well, they should "grow up" and pay up to keep themselves and their homes safe from the fires, and if their homes go up in flames, well, that's just the invisible hand of the free market.

And the corporate firefighters are not allowed to use taxpayer-funded roads to get to the fires or public water systems to put them out. You simply cannot expect private firefighters to compete with a public service. They have to make a profit.

Less government, lower taxes, more freedom.

This has been a public/private service announcement.

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

The Weekly Wrangle

It's the week before Labor Day, the weather is measurably more pleasant, and the Texas Progressive Alliance is hard at work bringing you the best of the Texas blogosphere. Here are this week's highlights.

The Texas Cloverleaf wonders why only one person showed up to a budget meeting where taxes are being increased in Denton County. No tea bags left?

Neil at Texas Liberal offered the fullest extension of the back of his hand to opponents of Houston's Ashby high-rise.

TXsharon at Bluedaze wonders what Governor Perry is thinking to appoint a global warming denier as the highest environmental official in Texas at a time when polling shows Americans support Obama on reducing greenhouse emissions and when the EPA has just confirmed water contaminated with hydraulic fracture fluid. Maybe the question should be: Does Perry think?

South Texas Chisme wants you to know that Medicare is a PUBLIC heath care option. Ciro, stand up. Henry, wise up.

Bay Area Houston has video of Republican Pete Olson punking himself at his own town hall meeting while trying to use a sick kid for political gain.

Lightseeker over at TexasKaos insists that we not hold health care reform hostage to solving the struggle for reproductive choice. See this and more in his posting: Abortion Wars, Health care and Private Enterprise.

Off the Kuff analyzed some policy papers from Houston's leading mayoral candidates, examining Gene Locke's crimefighting plan, Annise Parker's education plan, and Peter Brown's energy plan.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts about the good news health care reform would bring to TX-31 and Williamson County.

Setting a date for the eventual US Senate special election is all about the MoFo, according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

This week, McBlogger asked a very good question... Why do we even care about Joe Lieberman?

At Texas Vox, Citizen Sarah reports on Houston mayor and Senate hopeful Bill White's energy security policy, per his panel at Netroots Nation. Video included.

Teddy at Left of College Station covers the Chet Edwards town hall on health reform live from the Brazos Center, and then shares his thoughts on it, and why a vocal minority is against health care reform. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines: remembering Senator Ted Kennedy.

Monday, August 31, 2009

Sunday Funnies on Monday

A recurrence of vertigo took me down yesterday (but it can't keep me down). Here are your non-Kennedy comics ...






Saturday, August 29, 2009

Setting a date for a special Senate election

It's going to be a real special, and it's going to favor the guy who gets to pick when -- the governor. Harvey Kronberg's got the goods:

The Lege in recent years has chipped away at the number of uniform election dates to the point where only two now exist – in May and in November. That trend could end up playing a factor in when the special election to replace Kay Bailey Hutchison’s Senate seat might occur.

The next two uniform election dates are Nov. 3 and May 8. To meet the earlier deadline, Hutchison would have to resign her seat and Gov. Rick Perry would have to issue an election proclamation by Sept. 28.

Several factors would argue against Hutchison resigning so soon. The first is that her “no” vote is needed by Republicans in Washington on health care and cap and trade legislation. The other consideration is more local. Republicans don’t want a Senate special election to fall on the November election date because it coincides with contested municipal elections in Houston. That would give Houston Mayor Bill White a boost, possibly enough to lift him into a runoff.

It would also seem that May is out as an option as well, if just for Perry to avoid the politics of a multi-candidate Senate election from spilling into his primary war with Hutchison.

Those factors would seem to argue for a later resignation, perhaps in October, and an emergency special election. Perry has almost carte blanche when setting an election date if he deems an emergency justifies holding the election on a non-uniform date.


Hutchison has indicated she will leave in the fall, which to me would preclude both November '09 and certainly May '10. But Harvey suggests ...

Some thinking has it that Perry would call the special election between Thanksgiving and Christmas with a runoff in early January. An early special election would play to the advantage of the best funded candidate -- presumably Lt. Governor David Dewhurst. Plus, conventional wisdom has always held that Republicans enjoy an inherent advantage in turning their voters out in special elections, even if they are not in holiday seasons.

I would have thought January for a February runoff personally, but an election during the holiday season is certainly no oddity. In SD-17's special, held on the traditional November election day last year, the runoff was on December 16. And getting this out of the way by January lets everyone focus on the March party primaries.

Some interesting scuttlebutt regarding other statewide candidates is beginning to bubble up, and our blogger's alliance has a conference call with Hank Gilbert coming Saturday morning. So a regular posting schedule around here is forthcoming.