The Texas Progressive Alliance sure hopes that Harris County has a disaster recovery plan for the loss of its voting machines as it brings you this week's blog roundup.
Meet Jeff "The Trucker" Evans, an unemployed 49-year-old whose unemployment benefits were restored by Congressional Democrats after a Republican filibuster caused the payments to temporarily cease. Eye On Williamson explains how misdirected Tea Party anger causes Jeff the Trucker to vote against his economic best interest.
Among the issues that voters are concerned about during the midterm elections, energy may not be a deciding factor in how they cast their votes. However, energy is often considered to be a component of the economy, and the economy will easily be the most important issue during the midterm elections. According to a recent Gallup poll, 30% of those survey said that the "economy in general" is the most important problem facing the country, and 28% said that "unemployment/jobs" are the most important problem. Where do each of the candidates for Congressional District 17 stand on the issue of energy?
According to his campaign web site, Flores believes that America should focus on fossil fuels and develop "more of our own oil, natural gas, oil shale, clean coal, and geothermal resources." Also, Flores argues that nuclear power should be developed and we should eliminate "barriers to create new nuclear power plants" because "it is proven to be safe, clean for our environment, and a cost effective energy source." However, Flores does endorse alternative energy and states that "expand incentives to allow more wind, next generation solar, and other energy technologies to emerge." While Flores states that he supports alternative energy he also is against Cap and Trade and argues that it would "stifle domestic energy development, kill our economy, and cause the export of American jobs."
Edwards makes the case on his campaign web site that there "is no one silver bullet to ensure more energy independence" and that it "includes more domestic production, research on renewable energy and clean coal technology, robust expansion of America's nuclear power and sensible conservation." Also, Edwards supports "tax incentives such as oil depletion and intangible drilling costs" as well as supporting "domestic gas producers to use hydraulic fracturing," and Edwards also supports "increasing nuclear loan guarantee programs."
Part I addressed the invasive and dangerous power and influence of billionaires Charles and David Koch and Rupert Murdoch and their powerful grip on the GOP, especially its tea party wing.
As we have learned from recent national media reports, barring Fox cable TV "news" of course, self-serving billionaires have invested millions of dollars in a single minded effort to support right wing causes, especially the tea party wing of the Republican party. The main goal of the pervasively powerful corporate potentates is to seek out and find political tools and loyal enablers that will carry their water.
The Republican Party has enthusiastically clicked its heels, while courageously stepping up to selflessly volunteer to serve the potentates of money, power and influence. In so doing the GOP also showed its unbridled willingness to throw everyday Americans into the ditch if such abandonment of constituents better serves the Party's corporate masters.
At least we can now understand the rationale for the Republican servants willful and stubborn obstruction of legislation that would fuel our economic recovery.
The GOP enabling shills have snapped to attention because the puppet masters have given its talking points to lawmakers ranging in rank from Mitch McConnell to John Boehner to half-term governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, and TX Gov. Rick Perry the Secessionist. The billionaire ventriloquists that speak through the voices of Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh, understandably yearn for a return to the unfettered Wall St. days of W.
H/t to Disarray over at Daily Kos for the above video.
After reorganization, investigation, firing most of the staff, bringing in a 'reform minded, progressive administrator, TYC remains at the middle of a storm of controversy.
Texas Youth Commission still plagued with problems, advocacy groups say In a formal complaint asking the U.S. Justice Department to investigate, Texas Appleseed, Advocacy Inc., the Center for Public Representation and the National Center for Youth Law said the commission is unable to ensure the safety of the 1,700 youngsters it incarcerates because of operational flaws, including inadequate staffing, improper restraints and excessive force.
The complaint also alleges that:
• Youths are not being provided proper medical and mental health care and educational programs.
• Youths are improperly restrained to keep them under control, and excessive force has been used on several occasions.
• High numbers of youth-on-youth assaults continue to plague the agency's lockups in Beaumont and Corsicana - which last year won the dubious distinction in a federal report of having the second-highest sexual assault rate in the country among youth prisons.
"Our recent visits to facilities indicate broader systemic problems that TYC leadership has not resolved," the complaint states. "These problems are not isolated to specific sites, but exist throughout TYC's system of lockdown facilities."
I betcha that except for GOP minority leaders and Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck and FOX Fake News, most members of the Republican tea party wing has no clue that it has major billionaire exploiters, puppeteers and ventriloquists that pull its strings, yank its chains and grows "frogs" called GOP/tea party political candidates. The frogs, according to Koch/BP/FOX/GOP spokesmen are spawned in order to serve and rubber stamp the private agenda of Koch Industries, BP and other corporate power houses.
Many of us have expected as much from the extreme far right given former U.S. House Speaker and lobbyist Dick Armey and his involvement with the rage fests of last summer over health care reform. Richard Scott and his Conservatives for Patients' Rights movement joined forces with Armey, all in a effort to foment fear and uncertainty about health care reform. Fat cats and pimped out shills for the health care industry, Armey and Scott threw the health care needs of the majority of the American people into the pits of denial and poverty.
But Dick Armey and Richard Scott are nano size potato players when compared to the far reaching tentacles of the power, money and influence of the Koch brothers of Koch Industries.
a very long time ago. He and his revolving door of donors and cronies have entrenched themselves comfortably in a tightly controlled gated compound that is filed with lavish opulence fit for kings and queens. There is a swimming pool, cabana, servants, a collection of fine wines and exquisite cuisine. The gates into and out of Perry's community are impenetrable. Not just anyone can live or go near Perry and his cronies. One must first apply for residency. A board comprised of the Governor's appointed community officials decide who deserves to live among their ranks. Usually one is deemed deserving if one donates generously to Perry's political campaign coffers and those who give the Governor advice on potentially profitable real estate.
Those living outside of the compound must support it by providing the Governor with a salary that includes benefits. Outsiders are also expected to cover the costs of the Governor's housing expenses and security detail. In exchange for all of these benefits, the Governor agrees to serve the people as their public servant. A Governor's mission is to serve all of the people in his or her state, not just those that voted for them.
Unfortunately for most Texans Perry may have taken an oath to serve but he has largely ignored his job description. The only ones served in Texas so far are Rick Perry and his cronies.
In the ten years that he has performed as Governor, Rick Perry has made himself a very wealthy man. Meanwhile our K-12 schools rank second to last nationwide and we have the highest number of uninsured residents. In 2002, Rick Perry promised that he would start cracking down on insurance companies but in 8 years, he's done little more than accept $1 million in campaign contributions from the insurance industry. Ten of his staff members have made out grandly too as all have earned millions serving as lobbyists for insurance companies.
This past Saturday's edition of the Houston Chronicle discloses the financial histories of both of the gubernatorial candidates, Rick Perry and his Democratic opponent Bill White.
It is inevitable that my most of the young ones I teach will parrot the opinions of those who love and care for them. There is nothing sinister in this fact, it is how we all begin in life. I think it is my purpose not to convert them to my views, but to challenge them to think through what they believe and the real world grounds for those beliefs.
This year, the first hot button issue for one of my more curious students was the Arizona immigration law.
I want to share the fruit of the subsequent exchange as it recapitulates the national debate rather nicely.
He was under the impression that the Arizona law was put in place to solve a problem. He could not understand why simply being asked for your driver's license was such a big deal.
Let's put the entire issue in perspective, as I tried to do for my student.
The biggest transfer of wealth in modern U.S. history very likely took place during the Bush Administration, 2000-2008. During these dark and terrible days, the Bush Administration emptied the U.S. Treasury into the pockets of Wall St., big business and 1-2% of the wealthiest Americans. In the process Bush Co. threw the rest of the population to the dogs.
Today in the late summer of 2010, middle and working class Americans can barely hold on. Folks are still out of work. There are hardly enough jobs and people continue to lose their homes. Are the Republicans slapping one another on the back congratulating themselves for successfully accomplishing their mission?
One would think so considering the Party's voting records in the U.S. Congress over the last 18 months. For the Republicans have done nothing but obstruct, stonewall and the filibuster each and every piece of legislation that would throw an economic life line to the American people.
In in my previous diary I had committed a terrible sin of omission.
I had charged that the Republican Party is so completely bereft of constructive ideas and solutions that the Party has little to offer other than the scorched earth politics of divisiveness, hate and fear.
A reader, however, had responded with a mild complaint. It seems that I had been terribly unfair to the Republican Party for I had failed to include the Party's numerous and sterling accomplishments over the years. After careful thought I must admit that the reader is 100% correct. And so to be fair this post is dedicated to showing some of the GOP's accomplishments since President Ronald Reagan's era. There is no doubt that Republican policies and ideologies since President Reagan through George W. Bush have had a significant impact on just about every level of our society.
Below is the reader's list of twelve of the GOP's very finest governing ideologies.
The GOP obviously has little of substance to offer to the voters because the Republicans are far more focused on fanning the flames of controversy than they are with crafting solutions to repair our busted economy and create new jobs.
Republican politicians must have absolutely no constructive ideas or rationally based proposals for meeting the challenges of our financial miseries and woes. The sound of silence coming from the GOP campaign in this regard has been deafening for some time.
The Republican Party has refused to participate in crafting constructive legislation on any level, no matter what has been placed on the table.
Health care reform.
Hell no. Let patient's die so health insurance companies can improve their profits.
Finance Reform.
Hell no, Please God no, HELL NO! Our closest and dearest donors, YIKES, we mean friends, live on Wall St.
Hold BP responsible for the horrible mess it made in the Gulf of Mexico.
You must be bleeping kidding? Are you Democrats NUTS? Oh God, we are doomed.
Texas Republicans crawled on their knees, groveled and begged BP for forgiveness.
We love you, Big Sugar Daddy.
So, what is a Groveling Minority Party of No Solutions, No Substance, No Ideas to do during an election cycle?
The Party's puppet masters, spin doctors and ventriloquists have crafted a plan and it is so typically Republican that it would be laughable, were it not so very potentially dangerous on both a domestic and foreign policy level.
A plan that only the desperate and self-serving could construct: Unleash McCarthyism at its very worse.
Gin up conflict. Throw barrels of gasoline on a wedge issue that pulls at folk's emotional hot buttons. Distract and terrify the masses with manufactured issues that have little basis in reality. Pit people against one another. Divide and conquer. This is part of the GOP strategy and has been for some time. What else has the GOP to offer voters? Tax cuts for the rich? Endless oil wars with the Middle East? The enabling of Wall St. to behave more as gambling casinos than banks and investment firms? More BP catastrophic oil spills in the Gulf?
Eventually the GOP's ineptitude and hate baiting has got to come back and smack it between the eyes. It has already alienated many African Americans especially during the right wing's ruthless witch hunt after ACORN and later the character assassination of Shirley Sherrod. Now it is on a crusade to demonize Hispanics with the Republican's disgusting rhetoric about repealing the 14th Amendment. And most recently the GOP has just lumped all Muslims into one category, i.e. all are terrorists. Next the GOP will declare another ideological warfare on Asians for God knows why.
The latest ginned up GOP hoopla of distraction is based on the construction of a mosque in lower Manhattan near Ground Zero, the scene of the 9/11 attacks in 2001.
Last Sunday I made a marvelous discovery. John Culberson has an opponent in District 7. She is Lissa Squiers. Please go by her website and check out her excellent qualifications! See them here
If feels good to know that I can vote for someone else beside the man who...
On the Issues: Civil Rights
Voted NO on prohibiting job discrimination based on sexual orientation. (Nov 2007)
Voted YES on Constitutionally defining marriage as one-man-one-woman. (Jul 2006)
Voted YES on making the PATRIOT Act permanent. (Dec 2005)
Voted YES on Constitutional Amendment banning same-sex marriage. (Sep 2004)
Rated 7% by the ACLU, indicating an anti-civil rights voting record. (Dec 2002)
Rated 0% by the HRC, indicating an anti-gay-rights stance. (Dec 2006)
Rated 19% by the NAACP, indicating an anti-affirmative-action stance. (Dec 2006)
Drugs
Rated 20 by NORML, indicating a "hardon-drugs" stance. (Dec 2006)
Education
Rated 33% by the NEA, indicating anti-public education votes. (Dec 2003)
Energy
Rated 0% by the CAF, indicating opposition to energy independence. (Dec 2006)
Rated 5% by the LCV, indicating anti-environment votes. (Dec 2003)
Defense
Voted NO on restricting no-bid defense contracts. (Mar 2007)
Voted YES on allowing electronic surveillance without a warrant. (Sep 2006)
Voted YES on continuing intelligence gathering without civil oversight. (Apr 2006)
Voted YES on federalizing rules for driver licenses to hinder terrorists. (Feb 2005)
Federal duty to provide missile defense . (Dec 2000)
Rated 0% by SANE, indicating a pro-military voting record. (Dec 2003)
Religion
Rated 0% by the AU, indicating opposition to church-state separation. (Dec 2006)
Neil at Texas Liberal noted that you can register to vote in three languages in Harris County. No matter what the Republicans and the Tea Party folks hope for, we live in a diverse city, county, state, nation and world.
The Republican Party from President Ronald Reagan through G.W. Bush and its tax policies have broken the backs of the middle and working classes. It has also broken city and state governments. I guess the Republican Party's crusade against big government is to totally destroy it, all in order to feed the interests of million and billionaires.
Anderson Cooper of CNN busted Texas U.S. House House Rep. Louie Gohmert for lying about so-called "terror babies" on the floor of the U.S. Congress. Cooper also accused Gohmert of fomenting fear using false information. Gohmert apparently cannot handle the truth and facts very well.
Gohmert's complete temper tantrum can be viewed here. It certainly is an ugly sight to behold.
Oh boy. Rick Perry must have his tail tucked tightly between his legs for fear and desperation appear to have taken our Governor hostage.
According to the Statesmen.com political reporter Jason Embry, Governor Rick Perry will skip meetings with the state's editorial boards.
But we've got an exclusive: Perry will not meet with newspaper editorial boards leading up to his faceoff with White, Perry spokesman Mark Miner said.
"We've made the decision that a better use of the governor's time is to talk directly to Texans and reporters throughout the state," Miner said, adding that the Perry campaign will also continue to use social media extensively.
Whoa. The Governor can't take the heat from reporters that are not pre-screened and chosen in advance?
Perry will field questions from reporters after his public events and in interviews. What he won't do is go to newspapers around the state and spend an hour or more at each stop answering questions from editorial writers, editors, publishers and whoever else sits in on those meetings.
So, why is Chicken Rick too chicken to face editorial writers, editors and publishers?
Is Rick Perry stooping to the arrogant level of Facebook, Twitter and Fox "News" only Drama Queen Sarah Palin and the desperate Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle who literally runs away from reporters? Are the three of them completely terrified of being held accountable for their statements and actions? Or do the three of them believe none are accountable to anyone at all?
King Rick Perry, a typical coward and Republican leader refuses to take responsibility for his own failings and short comings. The Governor has been in charge for ten long years and his track record reveals that he made few viable overtures in efforts to address the bloated but the conveniently ignored elephant in the room.
For eight of the ten years that Rick Perry has served as the Governor he had open access as well as a friendly relationship with then President G.W. Bush. Did the Governor go out of his way to prevail upon the President to ask Congress to do more to secure the Texas border? Did he push the President to demand comprehensive immigration reform when the Republicans held the majority in the U.S. Congress? Did Governor Perry work with border sheriffs and lawmakers to craft comprehensive and sustainable solutions on a state level?
No, of course he did not. Like most Republicans, Rick Perry loves cheap labor and he willingly turned a blind eye to the border problem.
Whether it is funding for the border or for schools Rick Perry obviously believes he can do whatever he wants with both federal and state taxpayer money. Apparently the hard work of the legislating process that includes debates, votes in Congress and in the Texas Legislature mean absolutely nothing to King Perry.
Now that it is an election year with the race tightening between the Governor and Bill White, Rick Perry desperately seeks a scapegoat on which to blame his failure to act boldly where border security is concerned. So, what is the Governor's cowardly solution? Play the blame game. Pin his sins of omission on President Obama and the Democrats.
Way to go Rick Perry.
Unlike Rick Perry, Democratic candidate Bill White does have a plan for potentially effective solutions. Though border security is a federal issue, there are steps that border state Governors, Congressmen and law enforcement officials can take on a state level.
"While the federal government has failed in its essential responsibility of securing our borders, Rick Perry has failed too. For ten years, Perry has failed to get the resources we need. For ten years, Perry has failed to be an effective advocate for our state, no matter what party has a majority in Congress, no matter who is President. As governor, I will set politics aside on border issues, and take action. I'll work with everyone from the President and our Texas congressional delegation to border governors and local law enforcement. We will find a solution so that daily, lawful business across the border thrives and communities remain safe," said Bill White.
Perry's record of failure on the border includes his $4 million pet program of border cameras which has yielded only 26 arrests. In April, Perry was slammed by border area congressmen for failing to allocate to the border sufficient federal dollars given to the state. In March, Perry "activated" a secret border plan without consulting local leaders, and elected officials and law enforcement criticized the governor's approach.
Perry consistently uses false border crime statistics despite being called to the carpet for it and has become infamous for his election year posturing. This month, Perry even went as far as falsely claiming that bombs were exploding in El Paso, harming local businesses and security efforts.
According to GOP Minority leader John Boehner, we the American people must work until we are 70 years old before we can draw social security benefits. Republicans also intend to impose perpetual tax cuts for the wealthiest of the wealthy Americans.
The Republican Party that racked up a mind numbing deficit during the W. years is now obsessed about the growing deficit.
I guess the GOP lawmaker's teabagging ventriloquists have taken total control of the message machine now that the opposition party is in charge. This is especially true since most Democrats, though not all, are working on behalf of the American people.
Over the past several days GOP lawmakers have railed about cutting spending and all voted against extending unemployment benefits for the jobless based on the party's hypocritical and pretentious "grave" concern for the deficit. At the same time, Republicans in Washington are committed to continuing the W. tax cuts to the rich despite the fact that tax cuts would add to the deficit substantially, maybe to the tune of $100 billion.
Credibility apparently no longer matters.
Ronald Reagan Republican economists Alan Greenspan and David Stockman insist that continuing tax cuts with borrowed money could be disastrous. Stockman went as far to call the GOP economic strategy as
vulgar Keynesianism robed in the ideological vestments of the prosperous classes.
Paul O'Neill, U.S. Treasury under W. Bush, essentially said the same thing. W. and Cheney, by the way, had fired O'Neill because he had the nerve to oppose Bush's hair brained tax cuts and war in Iraq. Maybe that is the time in which the GOP started its purge of moderate and sane Republicans.
John Boehner completly ignores the Republican economists and he continues to cry out for extending the Bush tax cuts while screaming about spending and the deficit at the same time.
The Texas Progressive Alliance is pretty sure its invitation to President Obama's events in Texas were lost in the mail, and we will keep saying that to ourselves as we bring you this week's blog highlights.
