Stupid Republicans, Vol. 47

It's only Tuesday but several inmates have escaped the asylum and I need to start getting 'em rounded up.  Let's begin here in H-Town, with a little problem that actually originated in Austin.

The official who oversees more vehicle registrations than anyone else in the state gave the Texas Department of Motor Vehicles a failing grade Monday after another error surfaced in its new inspection and registration system.

"It is having an adverse effect on my ability to do the work of the taxpayers," Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector Mike Sullivan said of the state's administration of the new single-sticker system, which took effect March 1.

The latest error, discovered Friday, involved incorrect bills sent to 321,927 motorists with April registrations coming due. Of those, 83,541 were in the eight-county Houston area, including 56,965 in Harris County.

The confusion led to long lines at local tax offices, frustrated motorists and haggard county staffers.

"I've got people demanding to see me and calling my office," Sullivan said. "This is a state issue, but the county tax assessors are the face of this... (Motorists) are angry and frustrated, saying they'll never vote for Mike Sullivan again. I'm a big boy, I can take it, but I feel bad for the people coming in."

This is not the Republican county tax-assessor's fault, but the people complaining about "never voting for Mike Sullivan again" are the same people who think they can solve the problem by voting for another Republican.  In other words, the definition of insanity.

There are some who want to blame Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) for introducing the legislation that made this happen.  That's well and good, but unless Republicans in the legislature all abstained from voting for the bill, then they stamped it with their bicameral majority approval.  This is called, in Republican phraseology, 'taking personal responsibility', which Republicans instruct others to do but avoid doing themselves.

While the DMV screws everybody up and over, the DPS is warning state senators about glitterbombs.

The first rule about glitter bombs, if you work in the Texas Department of Public Safety, is you do not talk about glitter bombs. "DPS does not discuss security-related matters or investigations," the agency vaguely told us in an email statement. (Subject line:"Inquiry about Glitter Bombs.")

But there appears to have been a minor, glitter-sized leak in the department. On Friday, The Texas Tribune said it obtained an email that a Department of Public Safety official sent to state senators. The email contained an unsigned attachment warning of a glitter-bombing threat among our society's most dangerous groups: the gays and women. "Glitter Bombing: Weapon of Choice for Gay Rights, Pro Choice Advocates," the Tribune said the unsigned attachment was titled. 

Couldn't the legislators just use their newly-installed panic buttons in case they get assaulted with arts and crafts by women and gay people?  And whatever happened to the terrorist threats of jars of poop and pee?

Now I know what you're thinking: the DMV and DPS bureaucrats personnel behind these clusterfucks and conspiracies are not ALL Republicans.  I'm certain that's just as correct as saying that Republicans are not all racists, either.

Let's move on to DC, where 47 Republican senators -- where have we heard that 47% number before? -- have decided that they will not be bound by any nuclear agreement Obama negotiates with Iran, and sent Iran's leaders a letter to that effect.  That's called 'trolling the Logan Act'.

It wasn't enough for a Republican Congress to invite a foreign leader to speak to them -- an appalling violation of diplomatic protocol at best -- over the objections of the executive branch just a week ago.  They had to go a little bit further this week to disrespect and de-legitimize the office of the executive.  They may think they're just dissing Obama, but if a Republican ever manages to get elected president again, there's going to be some payback.  There's going to be payback in some form or fashion no matter what.

When Republicans are saying publicly you have lost, you have probably disgraced yourself.

There has never been an instance in which an organized partisan bloc in the legislative branch disregarded the separation of powers in order to publicly and intentionally undermine US foreign policy. Disagreements over foreign policy have often been bitter, but they have been tempered by an understanding that they can be resolved by elections. I may not like a president, but undermining the office itself will haunt me when my party finally wins.

It seems clear that many Republicans have lost their belief that the party can compete for the Presidency. No other logic explains their willingness to burn down the office itself. The demographic realities are brutal and the Blue Wall looms large. This kind of behavior will only get worse, and more dangerous, in 2017.

The best response, however, came from the Iranian foreign minster, who sees right through the GOP's game.  He was, after all, educated in the United States, and appears to understand US constitutional and international law better than most of these Republican senators.  And just think: Republicans might nominate someone for president in 2016 who does not have a college degree.

Finally, and speaking of Republicans who really don't understand anything at all, why is someone who has never sent an e-mail in his entire life sitting on the Senate technology subcommittee?

You already know the answer: because he's a dumb fucking Republican who got elected by some of the dumbest fucking Republican voters in the nation, that's why.

Cannabis speeds up, passes gay marriage

Kirsten Gillibrand, Rand Paul, and Cory Booker will introduce a Senate bill to legalize medical marijuana under federal law (today), various outlets are reporting. This bill would mark an unprecedented push to legalize medical use drug on a federal level. We've seen a handful of states (and the nation's capital) legalize recreational marijuana over the last two years, and about half the states have a medical marijuana program, but the proposal — called the "Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act" — would be the widest attempt at legalization yet.

You know what's been happening in Texas and other states, but obviously federal law -- which ceased being enforced at the end of last year -- would trump efforts to slam on the brakes.  As with Obamacare and gay marriage, regressive conservatives would have to shift their focus from prohibition to repeal.  From the WaPo, linked above:

The proposal will be unveiled at a 12:30 p.m. (Eastern) press conference on Tuesday, which will be streamed live here. Patients, their families and advocates will join the senators at the press conference.

We'll see how fast the bill moves, but I never thought I'd see the day.  Without the organized Christianist objection movement that marriage equality has spawned, I would expect to see passage and then few if any court challenges after the fact.  To be resolved in the (perhaps hastening) future would be decriminalizing possession by those without medical conditions, and at some point, something that comes close to unfettered legalization.

That would be real progress, but today counts as a big step in the right direction.

The Weekly Wrangle

The Texas Progressive Alliance is all about springing forward as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff sadly reminds a fifth-generation Republican who doesn't want to lose her Obamacare insurance subsidies that Greg Abbott doesn't care about her at all.

Libby Shaw, writing for Texas Kaos and contributing to Daily Kos, heard the president give one of the most memorable and moving speeches of our lifetimes.

From WCNews at Eye on Williamson: Dan Patrick wants to bust the spending cap without having to pay politically for busting the spending cap, in GOP Wants To Change The Rules In The Middle Of The Game.

"What the BLEEP happened to hip-hop?" asked PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Texas ranks 43rd in the US as a place to live for children. That's what happens when Republicans run the place. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme says pro-life is just another way to say 'I've got mine, who gives a rat's behind about you!"

Texpatriate shared some thoughts on the Israeli-Iranian question following Netanyahu's speech to Congress.

Egberto Willies quoted T-Dubb-O asking you to see the world through his eyes.

Bluedaze and Dos Centavos have the Texas legislative alerts posted for this week: HB 540 on March 11, and SB 185 this morning.

Texas Vox features the citizen lobbyists who went to the Lege to advocate for local control.

Texas Leftist observes that while the state's coffers are flush, Texas cities are having to go into debt to provide necessary public resources.

 Uber is just payday lending on wheels, according to John Coby at Bay Area Houston.

And Neil at All People Have Value -- who has spent a lot of time looking up at the sky lately -- catches a picture of a plane flying between overhead utility wires.  APHV is part of NeilAquino.com.

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

Grits for Breakfast applauds Ted Cruz's flop-flop on marijuana, and Trail Blazers wonders if Greg Abbott could be the Texas version of former CA Gov. Pete Wilson.

The Rivard Report documents the crowded ballot that awaits San Antonio voters in May, while Randy Bear does the same for the charter amendments, and worries about trying to make changes in a low-turnout context.

Texas Clean Air Matters echoes the US military's call to diversify our energy options and shift more toward a clean energy economy.

Socratic Gadfly translated Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson's take on future oil prices.

To commemorate March as Women's History Month (and yesterday as International Women's Day), Free Press Houston asks Houston to make a few things happen.  And in that vein, nonsequiteuse asks Free Press Houston to cancel the Summer Fest appearance of R Kelly.

The Lunch Tray would be happy to have celebrities market vegetables to kids.

Paradise In Hell declares that the real threat to marriage in Texas is serial heterosexuals.

BOR highlights the 2014 Texas League of Conservation Voters National Environmental Scorecard.

Better Texas Blog puts Texas' Medicaid spending in context.

Fascist Dyke Motors published her enemies list.

Hair Balls points to Texas Monthly, which says all the things we've been thinking about those terrible Chron.com slideshows.

And Chris Hooks at the Texas Observer would like to remind you that Open Carry Texas -- Tarrant County or otherwise -- are not your father's gun nuts.

Sunday Funnies

Fifty years after

That's Cong. John Lewis, in the right foreground above, getting beaten. And below, in 2010.

The Edmund Pettus Bridge -- which the protestors crossed and where they were greeted by the Alabama state police with billy clubs and tear gas -- was named after a Confederate general and a Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan.  He was also a United States Senator, serving two terms at the turn of the last century.  He was a Democrat, of course, before all the racists and bigots moved over to the GOP, a trend which took root in the 1954 Supreme Court decision known as Brown v. Board of Education, and began in earnest after LBJ signed the Voting Rights Act in 1965.  The Southern Strategy was employed by Barry Goldwater in 1964, but weaponized by Richard Nixon and George Wallace in 1968, and accelerated further during Ronald Reagan's terms, helped along by his political strategist, Lee Atwater.

And now you at least understand why there will be no Republican leaders -- well, one current leader, it seems, and a few other members of Congress, and W and Laura Bush --  in Selma today.

There will likely be hundreds, perhaps thousands, who will commemorate and recreate the march across the bridge -- but not the televised police assault at the bottom of it, which shocked a nation into action.  And just an hour to the north of Selma, in Shelby County, they aren't really celebrating.  There isn't much to celebrate in Ferguson, Missouri either -- yet -- nor in Madison, Wisconsin, where another unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by police.  On #BlackOutDay.

How long?  How long must we sing this song?

TransGriot with more.

Not no but hell no on TX Medicaid expansion

Yeah, you too, Schwertner.

Leading Texas Republicans on Monday asked the Obama administration for greater flexibility to administer Medicaid — a move that has gotten little traction in the past — while reiterating that they would not participate in an expansion of the program under the Affordable Care Act.

“Any expansion of Medicaid in Texas is simply not worth discussing,” state Sen. Charles Schwertner, R-Georgetown, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health and Human Services, said at a press conference.

Let those nasty poor folks die.  Face down, in a ditch, by the side of the road for all he cares.

Lisa Falkenberg kicks him right where he deserves it.

It's one thing to turn a blind eye to nearly 6 million uninsured Texas adults and children, to ignore the highest uninsured rate in the nation, to leave 1 million low-income Texans languishing in a health insurance no-man's land where they can't even get coverage through the Affordable Care Act because Texas refuses to expand Medicaid eligibility.

It's another thing to laugh in their faces.

[...]

"This trajectory is clearly unsustainable," the letter says, and then accuses the Medicaid program of continuing to "crowd out" funding for other needs such as education, transportation and water. Last time I checked, it wasn't poor people or the federal government proposing billions in tax cuts over the adequate funding of education, transportation and water.

[...]

What's worse about this latest effort is that it follows a growing chorus - a bipartisan chorus - of local, business and medical leaders calling for the state to expand Medicaid eligibility requirements.

That group includes the Texas Association of Business, the Texas Hospital Association and even a board approved by Perry himself - the Texas Institute of Health Care Quality and Efficiency.

These groups aren't taking these positions because of their love for President Obama. They realize it makes good business sense for Texans, and especially our children, to have health care. They realize that the costs of caring for the uninsured are being passed on by insurers and hospitals to those of us who do have insurance. They realize it makes no sense for Texas to pass up $100 billion in federal funds that we could draw down over a decade if we invest in expanding Medicaid services. They realize other conservative states have found a way to expand Medicaid, along with measures to promote personal responsibility, such as premium sharing and co-pays.

As an update to my January post "Kansas-sippi Here We Come", it develops that even KS Gov. Sam Bareback Brokeback Brownback is reconsidering Medicaid expansion in the Jayhawk State because of the austerity trainwreck he's caused.

To be sure, the governor isn’t officially on board, at least not yet. But Brownback was willing to say yesterday, “I haven’t said we’ll take it. I haven’t said we wouldn’t.” In this case, “it” is Medicaid expansion through the ACA.

And as you’d probably guess, the Kansas Republican has never said anything close to this before.

Texas Leftist finishes the takedown.

As Falkenberg outlines, this letter is far from a request to the Obama Administration.  It’s a ransom note.  Anyone who is hopeful that the Texas legislature is looking to do the right thing by our state would be wrong.  Instead, this week makes clear that Republican lawmakers wish nothing more than to endanger not only our poorest citizens, but state hospitals, and our whole healthcare system.

These morons that got elected last November in the lowest electoral turnout since the Great Depression want to take us back to the 1930s as fast as they can.  The saddest part to me is that this is what it is going to take to get them voted out of office: full, complete, unadulterated disaster and ruin.

Like bad medicine, maybe we can get it washed down quick.  Before too many people die from their poor decisions, their bigotry, and their hate, that is.

Schleifer's 'Horseshoe'

If you're not on it, get on it.

-- The very latest and biggest: "Mayor, firefighter pension trustees reach agreement".

Mayor Annise Parker and Houston's firefighter pension trustees have reached a deal that would lower the city's payments for three years, a move that would mark an abrupt reversal for the mayor.

The announcement came late Thursday from the fire pension board, whose leaders for years have fought any mention of changes to benefits as Houston's enormous pension burden has continued to grow. The pension fund estimates the city would pay $77 million less over the next three years. 

As Teddy has speculated on Twitter, how will this affect the signature issues of people like Bill King?  Stephen Costello has already jumped up and called it "a bad, bad, deal", so you know he's not going after the city employees' union endorsement.

-- The latest: Marty McVey is in.

Private equity executive Marty McVey said Thursday he would reinvigorate Houston's international business ties if voters elected him mayor this fall.

McVey said at the formal launch of his campaign he would usher in a new era of international investment in Houston, which he pledged to make a "visionary city."

"We have to take Houston to the world. The world has always come to Houston," McVey said at Mr. Peeples, a restaurant in Midtown. "It is now time that we take our place on the international stage."

The White House in 2011 appointed McVey, who has donated to many Democratic political campaigns, to an advisory board for the United States Agency for International Development.

McVey said that economic development stimulated by international trade would bring in the dollars to allow the city to address its most pressing problems.

"We don't have the ability to fix the potholes and fix the pensions because the city doesn't have the revenue to do so," McVey said.

McVey said he would bolster the city's economic development office and recruit international businesses to Houston, adding that he drew policy inspiration from former Gov. Rick Perry.

Potholes and pensions.  I believe the man who would be King has already staked out that acreage.

Now previously I had said that McVey might be the most liberal guy in the race so far, with Melissa Noriega in his corner (Navid Zanjani has already quit, however).  He spoke on 97.9 The Box about the tragic events of Ferguson, Missouri in December, while everyone else was taking an emotional breather as the DOJ worked on its investigation.  You may have heard something about that report this week.

But if McVey is inspired by Rick Perry's business initiatives, then I just threw up in my mouth.  And not a little.  Because even Greg Abbott has decided to go in a different direction than that.  A quick perusal of McVey's Twitter feed shows a lot -- and I mean a lot -- of business "initiatives", including oil (not striking USW workers) and immigration (from the Silicon Valley perspective, and not the border children one).  Heavy sigh.  Forget this guy; pro-corporate free-trading neoliberals are NOT on the menu even if there are a handful of them in the mayor's race.  Third tier is where McVey was, is and remains.

The best:  The fundraising invitations on display from King, Oliver Pennington, and Costello, who is now going by 'Steve' (more manly I suppose, like McQueen or Stone Cold Austin).  See if you can spot the dupes on those lists.  I mean, the duplicates.

Second best: "Eric Dick, who is trolling us on Facebook."

I'm going to have to up my snark game.  In that regard, see Stace's post, which elbows me in the ribs about the source of last week's rumor concerning Sheriff Garcia; i.e. "a self-proclaimed mayoral campaign staffer of the republatino who’s rumored to become a perennial candidate if he runs a third time", and the comment from someone posted at the OP who loves Abel Davila a little too much.

March is roaring in like a lion.  How am I ever going to find the time to rank MLB players for my rotisserie baseball drafts, and research college basketball teams for picking an NCAA bracket?