-- I wish I could write satire like this. (Except it's not, of course.)
Seemingly thinking brushing and flossing is for Socialists, Dr. Ben Carson, on the campaign trail in South Carolina, has lost two teeth while in the state.
Carson was eating breakfast at Tommy’s Country Ham House in Greenville, South Carolina, and according to TMZ:
“The good doc stared into his plate, thought for a second then discreetly placed the errant chomper into his shirt pocket.”
via TMZ
At the South Carolina Freedom Summit, Carson joked about losing a couple of his teeth while in the state. He said:
“They said [South Carolina] was a pretty rough-and-tumble place. But I lost two teeth since I’ve been here… This one went out last night, this one went out — but I also had a chance to see two very fine dentists here in South Carolina, so it’s very good.”
via TMZ Is anyone else concerned that his teeth are falling out at such a high rate? That doesn’t seem normal.
Neither does being a brain surgeon who doesn't believe in climate change.
-- Senatah Huckleberry J. Butchmeup will drone you just for thinkin' about hooking up with ISIS.
"If I'm president of the United States and you're thinking about joining al-Qaida or ISIL—anybody thinking about that? I'm not gonna call a judge. I'm gonna call a drone and we're gonna kill you."
He wasn't kidding around, either. Graham doesn't think the Iraq war was a mistake, does want 10,000 troops there. But with regard to extrajudicial assassinations, perhaps Miss Lindsey inadvertently dropped a state secret: can anyone confirm that Lockheed Martin has been working on one of those Pre-Crime time machine thingies?
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie offered a vigorous defense of post-Sept. 11 surveillance tactics on Monday, backing existing programs and calling for an expansion of intelligence-gathering capabilities even as Congress seeks ways to rein in the programs.
Christie, who spent seven years as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey before he was elected governor, said that he had used provisions of the Patriot Act in pursuing terrorists after the Sept. 11 attacks and argued that the country must not weaken its anti-terror and surveillance laws.
"We need to toughen our anti-terror and surveillance laws to give our services the legal mechanisms to do their job," he said in a foreign policy-themed speech.
Last week more than 300 House members voted to end the NSA's bulk phone records collection program and replace it with a system to leave the data with telephone companies and allow the NSA to search the data on a case-by-case basis. The supporters of ending the program include Democrats and Republicans, and even the NSA doesn't object to having private companies store the data.
Independent reviews have found that the bulk collection program did not foil a single terrorist attack.
But Christie slammed those pushing reforms as "intellectual purists" and insisted law-abiding citizens had nothing to fear from the surveillance efforts.
"The vast majority of Americans are not worried about the government listening in on them, because it hasn't happened. They are worried about what happens if we don't catch the bad people who want to harm our country," he said.
Stay tuned for Rick Perry and Donald Trump and Rick Santorum in a couple of weeks, folks. These three clowns were just the warm-up band.
Update: There's always going to be at least one conservative malcontent who doesn't think anybody's got big enough balls to be the commander-in-chief.
Former Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who served under all 44 presidents plus two you don’t know about, told Morning Joe Tuesday morning that the 2016 field so far can suck a foreign policy tailpipe.
“Particularly on the Republican side, most of them have not been in jobs that required them to know anything or be involved in foreign policy,” Gates said. “A couple have been in the Senate two or three years. So my hope is that as the campaigns unfold and as time goes along, they will flush out their views and we’ll see something impressive.”
"Flush out their views". Surely he meant 'flesh'. Otherwise that's so classically Freudian that I wish I had read it at The Onion.
“On the Democratic side, I’m sorry that Secretary Clinton has not come out in favor of the trade agreements,” he added, referring to the Trans-Pacific Partnership currently dividing the Democratic Party.
“And so I -- basically what I’ve said is that I’m not seeing a lot of courage out there and I’m seeing a lot of very simple solutions to very tough problems.”
Still can't believe that Texas Republicans elected a confessed felon the state's top law enforcer.
Ken Paxton earned thousands of dollars by referring his private legal
clients to a financial adviser now accused of “unethical and fraudulent
conduct” by the state, records obtained by The Dallas Morning News show.
Paxton,
now Texas attorney general, did not tell them he was getting paid. He
steered his clients to a financial adviser who had declared bankruptcy
and who now faces losing his state license over questionable business
dealings.
Paxton’s referral agreement with Frederick “Fritz”
Mowery, the head of McKinney-based Mowery Capital Management, has
created a yearlong political and legal headache for the Republican
attorney general. He acknowledged last year, in the middle of his
statewide campaign, that he violated state securities law by failing to
register as an agent for Mowery. He paid a $1,000 administrative fine in
April 2014.
Failing to register can also be a third-degree felony under state
law. Complaints by a watchdog group have led to a Texas Rangers
investigation and appointment of special prosecutors.
Because there's not a Public Integrity Unit in the Travis County DA's office any longer -- because the outside folks in charge will be under enormous political pressure to whitewash it -- Paxton isn't going to be investigated, unless you count the appearance of such as an actual one. This is a similar arrangement to police internal investigations of shootings of unarmed black men. "We investigated ourselves, and found we did nothing wrong."
A Paxton aide said Paxton was unaware of Mowery’s financial trouble and business conduct. Mowery, reached by The News,
deferred to his lawyer, who declined to comment. In court proceedings,
the attorney has acknowledged his client’s mistakes with paperwork and
other matters but said he did not defraud his clients.
Court
transcripts, documents and interviews reveal new details in what started
as a verbal agreement between Paxton and Mowery in 2004. The two
had met serving on a nonprofit board together, and both had offices in a
small building in McKinney. Paxton agreed to send law clients looking
for a financial adviser in Mowery’s direction. If they signed on as
customers, Mowery would split their management fees with Paxton for as
long as they remained clients.
But most of the clients say they
were not told of the fee referral arrangement; nor was the state, as
disclosure regulations require.
Just your basic financial-advisor ripoff.
In a five-day administrative court hearing in early March, the Texas
State Securities Board alleged that Mowery engaged in
misrepresentations, conflicts of interest and breach of fiduciary
duties.
The allegations include that Mowery used a high-cost
brokerage firm for his clients’ equity trades, and also had a separate
business arrangement with that firm that paid him more than $1 million
over seven years. The state contends the arrangement was a conflict of
interest that could have cost his clients thousands of dollars in fees.
The
two judges who heard the case against Mowery are likely to make their
recommendations on sanctions, if any, to the State Securities Board this
summer.
Rick Perry is expected to announce he is running for president of the United States on June 4, less than three weeks from today. Do you think that would be happening if he had any concerns whatsoever about going on trial?
The Texas Progressive Alliance doesn't need hindsight to know that invading Iraq was a tragically stupid decision as it brings you this week's roundupof the best lefty blog posts from last week.
Off the Kuff is pleasantly surprised to hear that the Houston Metropolitan Transit Authority and US Rep. John Culberson have reached an accord in their longstanding feud over funding for light rail in Houston.
Letters from Texas provides a step-by-step guide to using your hypocrisy to justify your bigotry.
Libby Shaw, at Texas Kaos and contributing to Daily Kos, calls it like she sees it when Congress cuts Amtrak's budget within hours of the deadly train wreck outside of Philadelphia last week: Republican Austerity Kills. Literally.
Julian Castro is Hllary Clinton's pick for running mate, according to Henry Cisneros. That suggests a Latino will also be the vice-presidential nominee of the Republicans. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs thinks that might be the most interesting thing that could liven up an otherwise completely predictable 2016 presidential season.
Egberto Willies (happy birthday, dude!) instructs progressives to make the case to Democratic senators that free trade deals impact American lives more than they do corporate bottom lines.
TXSharon at Bluedaze wants Texas Republicans to understand that while they may not mind living next door to a fracking operation... what if it was a strip club instead?
jobsanger lists the lies Texas Republicans want our children to learn.
Dos Centavos wonders if the discussion surrounding the separation of the Harris County jail administration from the sheriff's office is a prelude to privatization.
And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
Texas Clean Air Matters examines what Tesla's Powerwall home energy storage battery means for Texas.
Better Texas Blog names the least worst way to under-invest in schools, college access and health care systems.
Stephanie Wittels Wachs documents her efforts to get the Legislature to require insurance companies to cover the cost of hearing aids for children under 18.
The Lunch Tray calls self-regulation of kids' food advertising a "doomed effort".
Paradise in Hell warns us that the anti-gay crowd isn't going anywhere.
Joe the Pleb at BOR had a podcast about Blue Bell, barbecue sauce, and some less savory Texas traditions, while the SA Current also reported its horror at Governor Abbott's professed "most important ingredient" of barbecue. Is he really Texan? Has anyone seen his birth certificate?
In a different vein, Bay Area Houston questions Abbott's intestinal fortitude.
The Quintessential Curmudgeon sees some winds of change that blew through Amarillo city hall in this year's municipal elections.
BEYONDBones explains why you should care about endangered species.
The Texas Election Law Blog tracks what has happened to election law-related legislation so far this session.
Last, Fascist Dyke Motors calls in sick -- err, e-mails in sick when she really isn't.
That's if there is no special session, of course, and the odds are good that one will be called to address the budget if the current Cold War between the House and the Senate prevents a compromise. So with a lot of business remaining and a short time to get it done, this checklist from Progress Texas is a great place to both keep up and take action.
Now that the House has officially passed its deadline to introduce
new legislation, we’re going to start heading over to more Senate
committees as they hear bills that have already moved through the
House. Here’s a recap on how awful these bills are:
HB 3994: the
very harmful bill that attacks abused and neglected teens’ access to
abortion and requires all people seeking abortion to have a government
ID, is set on the major state calendar on Wednesday, May 13. For more
information on why judicial bypass is a safety net for teens, read this blog post from Emily Rooke-Ley, Hotline Coordinator at Jane’s Due Process.
HB 416: Relating
to requiring personnel of abortion facilities and certain other
facilities performing abortions to complete training on human
trafficking. This bill would require abortion providers and all staff
that come in contact with patients to complete a mandatory human
trafficking training. First, abortion providers already provide this
training to staff. This training should be required of other health
providers who are far more likely to encounter trafficking survivors. Here’s more on the true intentions of this bill.
We’ll see you Monday. Don’t forget to wear your orange!
Follow the action on the Twitter hashtag #TrustTX.
Not talking about the White House chances yet. Just the Democratic ticket (and the yard signs, the bumper stickers, and all that swag).
Henry Cisneros, who was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for former President Bill Clinton, adds more fuel to the growing fire that former San Antonio Mayor and current HUD Secretary Julián Castro is at the top of Hillary Clinton's list of potential vice presidential running mates.
"What I am hearing in Washington, including from people in Hillary Clinton’s campaign, is that the first person on their lists is Julián Castro," said Cisneros, according to the transcript of an interview taped with Univision's Al Punto.
The public affairs show airs on Sundays at 10 a.m. on Univision 23-WLTV in Miami.
"... They don’t have a second option," said Cisneros, "because he is the superior candidate considering his record, personality, demeanor and Latin heritage."
Who said it first? I know I said it 18 months ago. If you're thinking progressive, though, you'd still be mistaken. Castro is as centrist and cautious as they come. Still, the race in Texas would be exciting, liven things up a lot for Democrats down the ballot, like Pete Gallego for one. Should help the Ds a great deal locally, especially if Ed Gonzales runs for Harris County sheriff, for another.
The GOP would have to match that, so my early money goes on a Walker-Rubio ticket. I'm guessing Ted Cruz is less likely to be involved because he's just too nuts for moderate conservatives (sic). And it's about 18 months until we vote in November of 2016, so remember you heard that Republican pairing here first.
Update: The Hill, via Pensito Review, list the ten Senate races Democrats are mostly likely to flip in 2016. Wisconsin moved to the top of the list with Russ Feingold's announcement last week.
Update II: If you prefer a more cynical take on Clinton-Castro 2016, then read Joe Concha.
-- "Big Tex" Cecil Bell's anti-gay marriage bill died at midnight, but may rise as a zombie if it can find a live one to latch onto.
Bills he has authored this session would do everything from taking the ability to issue marriage licenses away from county clerks to stripping salaries from local or state employees who issue same-sex marriage licenses.
Bell's strongest bid fell short Thursday night when House Bill 4105, a bill that would have forbidden state or local governments from using public funds to issue same-sex marriage licenses, failed to pass the House before midnight — the deadline for House bills.
Enough Republicans had signed on as co-sponsors to guarantee the bill's passage had it reached the floor, and Democrats spent Thursday prolonging debate in an attempt to run down the clock and prevent Bell's legislation from being heard — a practice called "chubbing." They were ultimately successful.
While the bill is now dead, Bell is not out of moves. He could still attempt to attach an amendment to a related Senate bill.
"From my perspective, no bill is dead as long as there are are other bills in front. You just have to find something that's germane," Bell said after passage of the House deadline spawned hope among opponents that the measure is done with for this session. “The session still moves on.”
Marriage equality advocates remain on watch to destroy its brain. More on how it went down last night, and the ramifications moving forward, from RG Ratcliffe at Burkablog.
It was a very dumb bill from the start, and mismanaged by its
supporters even by the low standards of the Texas Legislature. It was filed very late—literally on the last day a bill could be filed,
March 13—and then it sat around. By the time it was eligible to come to
the House floor, it was so far back on the calendar that it became easy
for Democrats to talk and talk and talk—a tactic known as “chubbing,”
for some probably ungodly reason—until the midnight Thursday deadline
for considering yet-unpassed House bills.
Immediately, the posturing began. Democrats celebrated the death of
4105 as a triumph of legislative cunning and tenacity. Conservatives bashed House leadership while simultaneously claiming the bill’s existence was evidence they were “#StillWinning,” even if the bill got hara-kiri’ed. On Friday, the overwhelming majority of the House GOP caucus pledged their undying support of traditional marriage in a flowery letter. They wanted the bill to have passed so bad, they said.
It makes perfect sense for the Democrats to claim total victory here,
especially since they will have few other chances this session. Gay
marriage and gay rights are a huge issue for the party, though it’s hard
to predict the practical consequences of Bell’s bill given that the
Supreme Court soon might effectively sweep away the relevant statutes.
And Democrats certainly were a major reason why the bill died: Chubbing
isn’t as tough as filibustering, but they did smart work over the last
week to slow the process just enough.
But if they hit a home run here, it’s because they got an easy pitch.
Most House GOPers, whatever their other faults, still know a stupid
bill when they see one. There’s a general level of acknowledgement in
many quarters—even among some social conservatives—that the increasingly
Sisyphean struggle against gay marriage is a lost cause, and a
distraction from causes the godly folk really care about, like abortion.
(Importantly, the business lobby, the Legislature’s one true Almighty
Power, is tired of these shenanigans.)
In other words, if House Republicans wanted this to pass, it would have.
