Monday, September 29, 2014

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everybody read at least one banned book last week as it brings you this weeks' roundup of the best blog posts from the left of Texas.

Off the Kuff presents interviews with two of the many dynamic and well-qualified Democratic women running for legislative offices this year: Rita Lucido in SD17 and Susan Criss in HD23.

Libby Shaw, writing for Texas Kaos and Daily Kos, laments the dire consequences of voting Republican or of not voting at all.  Oh come on Texas, surely we can do better than THIS?

WCNews at Eye on Williamson claims Greg Abbott's latest TV ad is full of dissembling: Abbott's Fundamentally Dishonest Transportation Ad.

Eric Holder was certainly not as bad as Alberto Gonzales, but his tenure as US attorney general still did not merit a passing grade, at least according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Neil at All People Have Value said there is no inherent conflict between involvement in traditional politics, while at the same time looking for non-conventional protests and movements as a way to move society in a better direction. APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

Though the new routes are far from being finalized, Texas Leftist shares that Houston METRO has now fully committed to the System Reimagining Plan. After this week's vote by the METRO board, there's no turning back.

Texpatriate had a questionnaire from Harris County DA candidate Kim Ogg (who also debated the Republican incumbent on Sunday morning teevee) and passed along a few more names thrown into the hat for Houston's 2015 mayoral election.

Bay Area Houston wonders why Greg Abbott sat in traffic for a decade before figuring out something needed to be done about it.

BlueDaze has documentation revealing the air pollutants from fracking in Denton, while Texas Vox notes that Texas waters are already polluted, toxic, and unprotected.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Socratic Gadfly reported on the continuing financial challenges of newspapers large and small.

jobsanger relates the news about the powerful capitalists who insist that the minimum wage must be raised.

The Rag Blog follows up on the scandal involving an East Texas church.

Eight Feet Deep passed on a few headlines from Southeast Texas, including John Travolta's surprise appearance at a Beaumont gym.

SciGuy gives us a look at Russia's astronaut training facility.

Newsdesk reports on Rep. Dawnna Dukes' abortion disclosure.

The Great God Pan Is Dead argues for the elimination of art fairs.

Texas Clean Air Matters cheers Austin and San Antonio's leadership in clean energy.

Andrea Grimes points and laughs at Breitbart Texas.

The Bloggess encourages you to support your local no-kill animal shelter.

The TSTA blog calls out Greg Abbott for lying about his authority as AG to settle the school finance lawsuit.

The Current has more reporting on the shady practices and uninformed advice at crisis pregnancy centers.

Scott Braddock tells the tale of a wingnut catfight.

Finally, our old friends at BlueBloggin are getting ready to make a comeback.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Abbott recovers $1.4 million of TEF funds... into his campaign account

Is there a corruption tolerance limit that can be exceeded?  I suppose we'll find out.

Republican governor nominee Greg Abbott has collected more than $1 million in campaign contributions from beneficiaries of a state business fund cited in a scathing audit for lax oversight of taxpayer dollars.

[...]

An independent audit released this week found the Texas Enterprise Fund awarded $222 million to entities that never submitted applications or promised to create jobs.  The picture that emerged from the state auditor’s report was of an agency that, at least in its early years, gave away taxpayer money without proper evaluation or consistent criteria.

Abbott has received at least $1.4 million in contributions from beneficiaries of the enterprise fund since 2003, according to state records.

Three investors in the biotech company Lexicon, which received $35 million, are Abbott campaign contributors — businessman Robert McNair and chemical executives William McMinn and Gordon Cain. McNair has given $463,000 to Abbott, McMinn $110,000 and Cain $60,000.

Well, there goes my rooting for the Houston Texans any longer.

Update: More in greater detail from Carol Morgan at the Lubbock Avalanche Journal.