Monday, June 21, 2010

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance was unable to attend summer solstice celebrations at Stonehenge this morning, but welcomes the official start of summer anyway with a cold beverage and the highlights from the past week's blogging.

There is no way in hell Txsharon could pick just one post from this hellish week in the Barnett Shale, so she did a recap, at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

San Antonio hospitals are dumping seriously ill homeless patients at Haven for Hope. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees Republicans hating health care for the poor. How selfish and cruel can a group of people be?

Off the Kuff examined some data to get a handle on Rick Perry's performance with Latino voters in the 2002 election.

The update on the Green Party's bid for the ballot, including Perry campaign operative Dave Carney's latest lie, is at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs.

Bay Area Houston has More on Driving Ms Daisy-Harper-Brown and her scandal.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw reminds Smokey Joe and Old Box Turtle what their jobs are, in Earth to Joe Barton and John Cornyn: You are not Lobbyists.

Neil at Texas Liberal offered up a post with two examples of folks voting across party lines. Neil says political parties provide a useful shorthand for voters and says people should support a slate that has the same general outlook and goals.

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Serving up crow at Smokey Joe's Cafe


Excellent op-ed from the Denton Record-Chronicle.

We should all cut U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Ennis, a little slack. When he apologized Thursday to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the harsh treatment BP was getting for causing the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States, Barton was simply following a cardinal rule of politics: Once bought, an honest congressman stays bought.

Barton has been in the vest pocket of oil, gas and other polluting industries since the mind of man runneth not to the contrary. In Congress, he is the champion of any industry that can erect a smokestack, befoul a free-running stream and write a fat check to a political campaign.

God Damn that liberal media.

House Republican leaders backed away from Barton and his “apology” like a mess of crawdads. They reportedly took Smokey Joe to the woodshed even as the hearing was still in progress and threatened him with expulsion from the House subcommittee should he not retract his statement.

Which, of course, he did, with one of those patented nonapologetic Washington apologies.

We feel a measure of sympathy for Joe Barton. His lickspittle pandering to the head honcho of BP on Thursday was no worse than what he had done for much of his congressional career. It was as though he did not know that the object of his fealty had just inflicted grave harm upon this country through greed and neglect. It was as though he were pimping for Typhoid Mary.

And I left out some of the best parts.

In other apology-related news, Barton has taken to hiding in his basement:

The day after Rep. Joe Barton became a household name -- and a source of ridicule for late-night comics -- by first apologizing to BP and then retracting his apology, the Texas Republican appeared to go underground.

A phone message said his Washington office was closed, although press secretary Sean Brown eventually e-mailed that aides were, in fact, at work, but that there would be no further comment.

[...]

Barton is in a safe Republican district, although his Democratic opponent, David Cozad, mocked Barton in a web page, joebartonwouldliketoapologize.com, that has the lawmaker apologizing for many things, including bad World Cup calls.

If you're feeling generous, throw a few shekels at Cozad and let's see if we can't make Barton's district a little less safe.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

On behalf of all Texans ...

... I apologize for Joe Barton. He is as venal and corrupt as a Texas Republican comes. And since he is so "ashamed" and "doesn't want to live in a country" where we hold corporations responsible for their mistakes, then I invite his sorry ass to GTF OUT of MY country.

A staunch conservative who has a long record of backing oil industry interests, Barton apologized to BP CEO Tony Hayward for the "shakedown" the Obama White House pulled on the company. (Barton has received more than $1.5 million in campaign donations from the oil industry, according to Open Secrets, a nonpartisan watchdog group.) You can watch the video here:



"I'm not speaking for anybody in the House of Representatives but myself," Barton explained, "but I'm ashamed of what happened in the White House yesterday. I think it is a tragedy of the first proportion that a private corporation can be subjected to what I would characterize as a shakedown. In this case a $20 billion shakedown."

Wrapping up, Barton said: "I apologize. I do not want to live in a country where any time a citizen or a corporation does something that is legitimately wrong, is subject to some sort of political pressure that is, again, in my words — amounts to a shakedown, so I apologize."

Joe Barton's Democratic opponent is David Cozad.

Update: And wipe that 10W-30 off your mouth when you say "misconstrued".

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Greens ballot bid update

Wayne Slater:

A top Republican lawyer has been hired to represent the Green Party in a lawsuit in which Democrats want to know who bankrolled a petition drive to put the party on the ballot. ...

Andy Taylor, a Republican redistricting lawyer with ties to Tom DeLay, John Cornyn and Rick Perry, will represent the liberal Green Party. It's unknown who's paying him. Neither Taylor nor Green Party state coordinator Kat Swift returned telephone calls. The hiring of Taylor is the latest in a series of GOP connections to the Green Party effort.

Taylor represented GOP efforts to beat Democrats in legislative races in 2002 to clear the way for a DeLay-backed redistricting plan. He has represented DeLay's political action committee, Texans for a Republican Majority, and the Texas Association of Business, which spent corporate money that is banned in Texas races to elect legislative candidates. He was a top aide to then-Attorney General John Cornyn. And he has defended Republican candidates in political cases. As a lobbyist, his clients have included top GOP money givers such as Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, the governor's biggest campaign contributor (no relation).

Taylor also led the losing effort to unseat Hubert Vo and re-seat Talmadge Heflin in 2004. This scumbag is a Republican-exclusive hired gun. Every billable hour is spent advocating the legal causes of the GOP. And he doesn't do pro bono, either.

The Lone Star Project:

Any doubt that the Green Party of Texas is willingly being used by high profile Republicans with connections to Rick Perry can now be set aside. With an ethical cloud hanging over the Republican-Green Party petition collaboration, notorious GOP attorney Andy Taylor has signed on to represent a Green Party of Texas Co-Chair. ...

Perhaps most interesting is his relationship with Rick Perry. Andy Taylor has such a close relationship with the governor that when Perry was looking to fill vacancies on the Texas Supreme Court, he asked Taylor to interview “potential candidates and [assess] their strengths and weaknesses.” (Source: Texas Monthly, February, 2005)

One other thing: Dave Carney is a big fat-ass liar. Surprise!

Rick Perry's chief political strategist now acknowledges that the consultant who spearheaded the petition drive for the Green Party in Texas is somebody he's worked with in the past. But Dave Carney says he didn't work with him to put the Greens on the state ballot this year. ...

But Ross Ramsey at the Texas Tribune got a different reaction when he caught up with Carney at the state GOP convention this weekend in Dallas. Carney said he and (GOP consultant Tim) Mooney had worked together in the past after all, but are no longer in contact: "I couldn't pick him out of a lineup, and I haven't seen him, emailed him or talked to him on the phone in years."

Horseshit and corruption all around. Par for the course for the GOP, and the Green Party is coming due for a name change to the Watermelon Party; green on the outside, red on the inside.

Perry campaign punk'd

Mark Miner, Rick Perry's douchesack lickspittle campaign spokesperson, tried to pull another little Republican dirty trick yesterday, scheduling a press conference outside the Bill White campaign's Austin office with a generator marked "BTEC". But he was greeted by about fifty White supporters, including one in a chicken suit, calling once again for the governor to debate, and yes, the media got it all (thanks, Elise Hu-Stiles at the TexTrib):



More from Burnt Orange and the Statesman. See the Flickr slideshow here.

Tuesday, June 15, 2010

"Touchdown Jesus" struck by lightning and destroyed by fire

So I'm taking this as evidence that God is a soccer fan.

MONROE, Ohio – A six-story-tall statue of Jesus Christ with his arms raised along a highway was struck by lightning in a thunderstorm Monday night and burned to the ground, police said.

The "King of Kings" statue, one of southwest Ohio's most familiar landmarks, had stood since 2004 at the evangelical Solid Rock Church along Interstate 75 in Monroe, just north of Cincinnati.

The lightning strike set the statue ablaze around 11:15 p.m., Monroe police dispatchers said.

The sculpture, 62 feet tall and 40 feet wide at the base, showed Jesus from the torso up and was nicknamed Touchdown Jesus because of the way his arms were raised, as though reaching out to catch a football. It was made of plastic foam and fiberglass over a steel frame, which is all that remained early Tuesday.

Doesn't the Bible say something about "all things being consumed by fire"? Heed the word, Christians.

Monday, June 14, 2010

Rick Perry's immigration problem

He's trying to avoid it by being coy, but the teabaggers and associated wingnuts he depends on to get re-elected aren't going to let him. From his statement of April 29, in the wake of Arizona's SB 1070, which essentially outlawed everyone who "appears" to be undocumented:

I fully recognize and support a state's right and obligation to protect its citizens, but I have concerns with portions of the law passed in Arizona and believe it would not be the right direction for Texas.

That's diametrically opposed to the majority of delegates at the just-concluded RPT convention, and with most of those who will vote Republican in the fall.



Texas Republicans adopted another get-tough policy on immigration and bilingual education Saturday that some say will make it hard for the party to attract Hispanic voters at a time when the Texas population is turning increasingly Latino.

The platform encourages state lawmakers to create a Class A misdemeanor criminal offense “for an illegal alien to intentionally or knowingly be within the State of Texas,” and to “oppose amnesty in any form leading to citizenship for illegal immigrants.”

Texas Republicans also want to limit citizenship by birth to those born to a U.S. citizen “with no exceptions.” The platform calls for the end of day-labor work centers and emphasizes border security, encouraging “all means … (to) immediately prevent illegal aliens.”

The party's education platform calls for the end of federally sponsored pre-kindergarten, and opposes any mandatory pre-kindergarten or kindergarten.

“We believe that parents are best suited to train their children in their early development,” it says.

Bilingual education should end after the third year, according to the platform, and non-U.S. citizens should not be eligible for state or federal college financial assistance.

More from Christy Hoppe at the DMN, who pointed out the problem for Republicans ahead of their convention last weekend.

Rick Perry has a Latino election strategy, but it's flying squarely in the face of these recent developments, national trends, and the inexorable cultural shift. He continues to catch flak over the slightest perceived missteps in policy.

The question is not whether Latinos will vote for him -- none in their right mind will buy this head fake from the governor -- but whether Latinos will turn out in sufficient numbers to vote against Perry and his party, and whether any of the conservatives wailing about not voting for him over this issue will indeed follow through on that threat.

Meanwhile, the cost to real people and their families continues to rise.

San Antonio valedictorian faces deportation

Hispanics abandon Arizona, fleeing economy, immigration law

Arizona's next target: children of illegal immigrants

"The price that we pay": Undocumented immigrants and taxation

Update: Kuffner adds a prediction.

The conclusions I will draw are that Perry is certainly capable of getting a third or better of the vote in heavily Latino areas (throughout the state), and that if his efforts aren’t matched by something at least as strong, he will do well enough to make a Democratic victory all but unattainable.

Texas voter fraud cases in past eight years can be counted on two hands

Sometimes I really like it when Karvey Kronberg screams.

OUT OF MORE THAN 20 MILLION GENERAL ELECTION VOTES, LESS THAN 300 VOTER FRAUD REFERRALS HOUSE COMMITTEE TOLD

Actual instances of voter impersonation prosecuted with state involvement can be counted on two hands

House Elections (ed. note: this would be the Texas House committee on Elections) held another hearing today on voter fraud and as in previous hearings on the topic, state officials told lawmakers that reported instances of voter impersonation (the kind that a photo ID bill is designed to catch) constitute a tiny fraction of the number of voter fraud cases that are investigated at the state level.

A witness from the Attorney General’s office told the panel that since August 2002 nine cases involving illegal voting have gone through the complete indictment process and were fully resolved either through a guilty verdict, plea deal or a dismissal of the case.

Nine closed cases. Out of more than twenty million votes cast. Over the past eight years.

And how many legitimate votes do you think were NOT cast, because overzealous Republican precinct election judges violated the law by demanding ID at their polls?

This is the only purpose of a voter ID bill; to suppress turnout. To keep people that they don't like voting FROM voting. Because Republicans LOSE when more people vote. And they know it.

Update: Voter ID fight appears certain

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance salutes that grand old high-flying flag as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff takes a look at an alternate universe in which the DeLay-engineered re-redistricting of 2003 never took place.

Captain Kroc at McBlogger is not at all impressed with all the cross-Atlantic chatter regarding British Petroleum and their oopsie in the Gulf.

Bay Area Houston has photographic evidence that the Republican party convention was invaded by dickheads.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why a Hidalgo election is allowed to stand after so many fraud allegations.

The Republican Party of Texas is either under siege or on a crusade, depending on the POV of Dave Mann at the Texas Observer and Wayne Slater of the DMN. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs just thinks they're a bunch of gun-and-Bible-clinging bed-wetters.

TXsharon has a video of water from a private well that was contaminated from hydraulic fracturing a Devon Energy Barnett Shale gas well, at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

WhosPlayin has been analyzing discipline data obtained via open-records request from Lewisville ISD, and find finds that the data reported to TEA through the PEIMS system regarding fights and assaults might be vastly under-reported. (0 reported last year, but 750 so far this year by mid April.) TEA explains that districts may choose to report some of those incidents as "violation of local code of conduct".

Three Wise Men takes another look at the current outlook of national and state races in the midterms.

Libby Shaw over at TexasKaos shines a light on an article that really should get more attention. "....37 of the 64 judges in the Gulf region from Texas to Florida, have financial ties to big oil and gas." Check out the rest : Most Judges in Gulf Region Have Financial Ties to Oil and Gas.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about Renew Houston. This proposed ballot initiative for the 2010 Houston ballot would dedicate money for wastewater removal. Yet it is funded by regressive means, and appears to add no progressive green solutions to Houston's wastewater removal strategies.