republicans argue that we need unsafe jobs that will endanger our environment

The House narrowly approved a sweeping plan to crack down on offshore drilling Friday, despite objections from Gulf Coast lawmakers and oil industry advocates who said the measure would slash U.S. jobs and curb domestic energy production.

But, in a rebuke of the Obama administration, the House also voted 216-195 to reject its drilling moratorium and lift the ban for rigs that satisfy newly imposed safety and environmental requirements.

Guess how republicans voted.

B'bye to Eric Von Wade

Nueces County's quality of life has just improved.

“Despite our long association with Eric Von Wade, feedback from our listeners and research conducted within the community helped us determine that we were not adequately fulfilling the needs of our listeners,” Rodney Brown, the station’s general manager, said in the statement. “We truly value our relationship with the community and strive to bring more and better opportunities to fulfill our obligation to bring compelling content to our loyal listeners.”

What? Nobody needs a douche bag? Make way for a syndicated talk show douche bag. The right wing echo chamber might as well reduce the number of people saying the same propaganda lines.

republican cronies are among the most despicable people

republican bedfellows:

• Corporate CEO's who care about their yachts more than the safety of their workers. 
• Corporate CEO's who care about who has the most toys more than about a living wage for their workers.
• Insurance CEO's who care more about their profits than the health of American children.
• Military provider CEO's who care more about their profits than the health and safety of our troops.

republicans can't wait to turn America into a third world country of corruption and misery where only a few have the means to a decent life.

Here's today's example of some guys only a republican could love:

Dallas billionaires Sam and Charles Wyly were prolific donors to Republican campaigns for two decades, but the brothers lowered their profile in recent years as prosecutors investigated whether they used offshore trusts to hide stocks and other assets, according to campaign finance records and interviews.

The Securities and Exchange Commission sued the Wylys on Thursday, accusing them of using sham entities to hide $550 million in trading gains between 1992 and 2004. The lawsuit is the culmination of a six-year investigation that became public as early as 2005, when Bank of America acknowledged it was cooperating with authorities.

Hidalgo JP indicted for truancy arrests

Hidalgo County Justice of the Peace Mary Alice Palacios’ legal problems mounted Wednesday, a day after she became the focus of a federal civil rights lawsuit.

An Hidalgo County grand jury returned a criminal indictment against the embattled judge charging her with official oppression in her work with truant students, District Attorney Rene Guerra said.

In March, a Monitor investigation revealed that Palacios had sent dozens of teens to jail for terms as long as four months on legally questionable grounds.

Celis claims ignorance in misuse of law enforcement badge

Celis should know that there are requirements in place to keep a law enforcement credential up to date.

Prosecutors say he used a Duval County reserve deputy badge in 2007 after his law enforcement commission was suspended in 2003. Defense attorneys have said the badge was issued to Celis by former Duval County Sheriff Santiago Barrera and that Celis believed it still was valid.

There can be no doubt that a County Sheriff knows what it takes to keep law enforcement credentials. Now wonder he isn't in office anymore.

Another republican in ethics trouble over Perry land deal

Actually, ethics and republicans don't line up any more at all.

The lawmaker involved in a questionable land deal with Gov. Rick Perry failed to disclose ownership or sale of the property to the Texas Ethics Commission, an apparent violation of a state ethics rules, according to a review of his personal financial statements.

State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, didn’t list his September 2000 acquisition of the waterfront lot on Lake Lyndon B. Johnson in the disclosure form he filed for that year. He also didn't note a year later the fact that Perry purchased the property from him in 2001, the documents show.

Why aren't they all in jail?

Must you tell the bus driver exactly what you're going to be doing at the end of your ride?

I've been thinking a lot about the Austin bus driver who refused to drive a woman to Planned Parenthood, because he was against abortion. He was, rightly, fired. Now he is whining that his religious rights have been violated. How would a bus driver know that a woman was going to Planned Parenthood for an abortion? She might be getting a check up. Would everyone climbing on the bus have to describe the purpose of their visit to see if the bus driver approves enough to drive them to their destination? Could a bus driver refuse to drive a fat person to Baskin Robbins Ice Cream?

Here's another whack job. An Eastern Michigan University grad student refused to counsel a suicidal student, because doing so would affirm homosexuality.  She got fired and then sued.  She lost.

Judge temporarily blocks controversial portions of Arizona's 'papers, please' law

The law will still take effect Thursday, but without many of the provisions that angered opponents — including sections that required officers to check a person's immigration status while enforcing other laws. The judge also put on hold a part of the law that required immigrants to carry their papers at all times, and made it illegal for undocumented workers to solicit employment in public places.

Rangel should resign

We don't need corrupt people of either party in the Congress.

New York Democrat Charles Rangel made a last-minute effort Tuesday to settle his ethics case and prevent a House trial that could embarrass him and damage the Democratic Party.

The talks between Rangel's lawyer and the House ethics committee's nonpartisan attorneys were confirmed by ethics Chairman Zoe Lofgren, D-Calif. Lofgren said she is not involved in the talks, and added that the committee's lawmakers have always accepted the professional staff's recommendations in previous plea bargains.

Will Hidalgo have a special election for Commissioner?

Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra believes the set of statutes that govern how to fill a vacated county commissioner seat are open for interpretation.

A team of attorneys in the Texas secretary of state’s election division says otherwise.

The interpretation of requirements contained in the state’s Election Code is central to Guerra’s recommendation that Hidalgo County commissioners fill the last two years of former Precinct 1 County Commissioner Sylvia Handy’s term through a nonpartisan special election to be held Nov. 2, the same date as the state’s general election.

ACLU sues over Hildago County over truancy jailings

Francisco de Luna spent 18 days in jail last year for a list of offenses as minor as wearing saggy pants to school.

Elizabeth Diaz was kicked out of her high school for excessive absences — all incurred during the two weeks she spent locked up for missing class.

Both teens admit they broke the rules, but a state civil rights organization now says neither should have been incarcerated for it.

Texas does disservice to its children

What can you expect with 'me first' republicans in charge who would rather have a new yacht than help a starving child eat. Pro life my a**.

Texas ranked 34th nationally in a new study of children's well-being, the 2010 Kids Count Data Book. That's the same ranking as last year but an improvement over the state's lowest rank, 39th in 2006.

Advocates for children noted that these measures include data from before the nationwide recession in 2008 and said they suspect children are worse off now than the figures show.

Perry worker helped get Green Party on the ballot

A local Republican operative who helped put the Green Party on the Texas ballot was working at the time for Gov. Rick Perry's re-election campaign.

Perry spokesman Mark Miner said Tuesday, as he has before, that the governor's campaign was not involved in the Green Party petition drive.

Who believes Perry when he says he didn't lie?

Good interview with El Paso County Sheriff over at the Texas Tribune

Check it out.

It appears there is some conflict between Sheriff Wiles and El Paso Chief Allen.

El Paso County Sheriff Richard Wiles has released a statement in response to El Paso Police Chief Greg Allen's comments during city budget hearings on Monday that were critical of sheriff's deputies.

During the budget hearing, Allen mentioned the preliminary talks between the county and the city to consolidate the two law enforcement agencies to save taxpayers money. Allen then questioned if sheriff's deputies would be prepared to be police officers if the consolidation came to pass.

republican Texas State Senator appears to have committed voter fraud

What else do you call it when you are voting in two states at once?

The newest member of the Texas Senate, Brian Douglas Birdwell, voted in the November 2004 presidential election twice, choosing between George W. Bush and John Kerry in Tarrant County, Texas, and again in Prince William County, Va., according to election records in the two states.

Voting in the same election twice is a third-degree felony in Texas.

What's more, Birdwell's record of voting in Virginia from 2004 through 2006 would seem to place his residency in that state, not in Texas, which could imperil his spot in the Legislature. Birdwell voted a Virginia ballot in November 2006; if that's enough to establish him as a Virginia resident, an issue that can only be settled in court, it means he's not eligible to serve in the Texas Senate until at least November 2011.

Psst. voter id would not have caught this type of infraction.

Target is spending big bucks on electing a republican governor in Minnesota

Keep that in mind when you think about spending your money.

Here's something Target Corp. isn't advertising in its Sunday circular: The discount retailer is now a major donor to a group backing the Republican candidate for Minnesota governor.

Why is Rick Agosta a SBOE board member if he doesn't have the time?

Agosto's absence, after a brief appearance for roll call Friday morning, was especially noticed because he'd previously questioned [a vote to spend $100M for charter school facilities]. His vote on Thursday against the plan effectively put it on ice. But with his absence Friday, his on-again, off-again alliance with the board's more conservative faction and an ethics complaint (resolved last week in Agosto's favor) that have colored his tenure, he became an easy target.

Here's a headline that makes you think twice. If you live in San Antonio.

'Agent Orange not stored at Kelly'

My paranoid self says 'you wouldn't tell me, if it was".

The deadly chemical dubbed Agent Orange — used by the U.S. military during the Vietnam War in herbicidal warfare and getting renewed media attention — was never stored at the former Kelly Air Force Base, local U.S. Air Force officials said.

A member of the community around the former base posed the question of past storage of the herbicides and defoliants known as Agent Orange at the last meeting of the Kelly Restoration Advisory Board (RAB). The meeting was staged July 13 at the former base, now an 1,800-acre industrial park renamed Port San Antonio.

The Texas Tribune continues their great coverage on Texas voting patterns

It's a tale of four counties. Two of them are the largest Latino-majority and Democratic-leaning counties in the state, and they rank near the bottom when you compare the size of their voting age population to the actual number of people who show up at the polls. The other two are growing suburban counties with larger Anglo populations that tend to lean Republican and produce some of the highest turnouts of eligible voters anywhere in Texas.

The El Paso Times and The Texas Tribune ranked the state's 50 largest counties by comparing the number of people who were old enough to vote in 2008 and 2006 with those who actually cast ballots. El Paso and Hidalgo counties ranked in the top 10 for the size of their voting age populations but dropped to the bottom 50 in a ranking of their voter turnout. Collin and Fort Bend counties, which are similar in size to El Paso and Hidalgo, were it the top five for their voter turnout two years ago.

One can dream that this year the voters in the Valley will turn out in large numbers. Heaven knows that the republicans are doing their level best to goad them into doing it.

Greg Abbott wastes taxpayer dollars to help polluters and Rick Perry

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott on Monday filed a legal challenge to preserve the state's control of an air-permitting program.

The suit filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is the latest move in a struggle between the state and Washington over how Texas regulates air pollution from major industrial facilities.

Perry has been howling about this. It's about time Texas is brought into compliance with long standing pollution standards. Psst. Air flows from one state to another. It can't be a state's rights issue.

The Texas Education Agency fudges dropout numbers

republicans are allergic to inconvenient facts.

The TEA last week touted a dropout rate of 9.4 percent for the high school graduating class of 2009. But the agency's own report shows that class, which started with 392,051 ninth-graders, had dwindled to 280,044 students by the time it graduated three years later, creating a combined dropout and attrition rate of nearly 29 percent.

The San Antonio-based Intercultural Development and Research Association put the statewide dropout/attrition rate of the class of 2009 at 31 percent, and said it's much higher for Hispanic and African American students and for large urban school districts.

How will the new DA throw the Mauricio Celis case?

The new DA is a Perry appointee.  10 points against her.  The new DA fired good people and hired her cronies.  110 million points against her.  Who could possibly trust her to run an honest prosecution.  I'm betting she'll do what's good for herself and her cronies.

Celis is being tried on allegations that he used a reserve deputy badge after his law enforcement commission was suspended.

Celis is politically connected.  In Texas, justice is not the least bit blind.

Will South Texas get a new Congressional seat?

South Texas is almost assured of gaining a Congressional seat when state legislators convene next year to redraw district lines that reflect population growth shown in the 2010 Census, state Rep. Aaron Peña said this past week.

The real fight will be determining where the district lines will be drawn.

The republicans will do their best to disenfranchise Democratic voters.  There is no doubt of that.  Doing what's right or fair is not part of a republican's psyche.

Is Rick Perry fudging on food stamps for the poor?

Would Rick Perry lie? Check.  Would Rick Perry let people go hungry?  Double check.

Frustrated Texans in need say they continue to face hurdle after hurdle as they struggle to get food stamps and feed their families. Advocates charge that the state is fudging the number of processed applications to show greater success than is actually occurring.

The Texas Tribune wonders when Texas Latinos will go out and vote

The republicans are doing their best to motivate the Latino vote.  Against them.  The racist Tea Partier antics are sure to wake up many.

Latinos are the "sleeping giant" of Texas politics — a phrase repeated so often that it has become a cliché.

Nearly 37 percent of the state's population of about 24.8 million people is Latino, but almost any political expert will tell you that the group does not fully exercise its strength in elections. Pinpointing if and when Latinos will begin wielding their voting power is a challenge.

“It's the $64,000 question,” says Bob Stein, a political science professor at Rice University. “If you're biblical, it's like the [coming of the] messiah.”

Politicians often speak of the Latino population as a mystical group that must be captured before it awakens. The prize is a massive number of votes for the person who can figure out how to move the group to the polls. Scores of candidates, political parties and interest groups spend millions of dollars each year trying to determine what would happen if the group decided to exercise its strength in the next election.

In the current gubernatorial race between Republican Gov. Rick Perry and Democrat Bill White, analysts and others wonder what might happen if more of the state's registered Latino voters turned out at the polls.

It's Monday TPA blog roundup time!

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes Lois the corpse flower a restful and well-earned dormant period as it brings you this week's blog highlights.

WhosPlayin posted a document explaining the link between benzene and natural gas drilling and production operations, and examining a few recent air quality studies in the Barnett Shale.

The Texas State Board of Education helps their cronies out and undermines public education with one swift move to support Charter Schools with our money. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees hedge fund operators racking up the $$$.

Off the Kuff took a look at campaign finance reports for Harris County candidates and State Reps. Along the way, he answered the burning question "What kind of man subscribes to Glamour magazine?"

This week, Hank Gilbert continued to dominate Todd Sleazy Staples. See the latest at McBlogger.

Eagle Ford Shale residents already have water impacts from fracking and now eminent domain is headed your way. TXsharon is trying to warn Eagle Ford Shale residents to learn from mistakes made in the Barnett Shale on Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Over at TexasKaos, lightseeker brings together evidence on Rick Perry's governing sytle in Rick Perry - Death before Bad Image ! Do the Dirt With Bureaucracy! [Updated] .

Neil at Texas Liberal spent the week on vacation in Seattle. While in Seattle, Neil took a boat cruise that went through the Ballard Locks on the Lake Washington Ship Canal. These free government built and operated locks are used by all types of commercial and pleasure craft. As they use this free government service, I'm doubtful that any boat owners go on about socialism or insist on paying what a private business would charge to use the locks.

The right wing unleashed a frenzy of race-baiting last week, from the continuing assault on Ill Eagles to the New Black Panther Party contrivance to the Andrew Bretbart/Shirley Sherrod dust-up. They struck gold with the last one, but all parties involved -- from the White House to the NAACP to FOX News -- ended the week with egg on their faces. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs summarized the sordid affair.

On July 21st Three Wise Men celebrated six years on the intertubes. Here's Xanthippas with a retrospective, and some thoughts in general about why we do what we do.

Corpus Christi Caller Times hack still using 'Democrat' as an adjective

After seeing republican partisan hack Jaime Powell's column actually cover Democrats, I thought she had been corrected. Apparently not. You can see her choke with this sentence 'Standing up to give testimony to lawmakers, former state Rep. Gene Seaman, a Republican, referred to a Democrat-led redistricting effort in 2001.' Democrat-led. One way to get around using the word Democratic. But, Powell just loses it in the next sentence: 'Seaman reminisced about how Democrats tried to draw his district’s boundaries in Corpus Christi Bay and the Nueces River inland to Rio Grande City, which would have been favorable to a Democrat challenger.'

Seaman, if you recall, was a sleazy, arrogant a** who was voted out of office.

Was Sharon Keller's rebuke legal?

Given three options for dealing with charges against Judge Sharon Keller exoneration, censure or removal from office the State Commission on Judicial Conduct threw proceedings into disarray July 16 by choosing a fourth path.

For the first time in its 45-year history, commissioners with the investigative agency voted to issue a "public warning," which might sound like a censure but is not.

Censures are meant to denounce a judge's "offending conduct." Warnings, a lighter punishment, are considered to be a remedial step to deter similar misconduct from judges, according to Supreme Court rules.

The difference goes far beyond definitions, however, raising questions about how Keller's expected appeal will be conducted and prompting her lawyer to explore other legal avenues, including challenges alleging that the agency exceeded its authority or violated the Texas Constitution.

She should have been removed from office. Vote all republicans out of office. Save us the future grief.

Here's a headline every Texas voter should see

'Murky land deals mark Gov. Rick Perry's past'

Sounds like the Rick Perry we've all come to know.

Three years after Gov. Rick Perry's biggest real estate score, questions persist about whether the governor benefited from favoritism, backroom dealing and influence-buying.

Yup. That's the Rick Perry we know.

SBOE oks $100M of permanent school fund for crony capitalists

The vote was close - 7 to 6.

But there is no specific plan yet for using the funds, and the motion approved by board members on a 7-6 vote would make such action contingent on approval from the attorney general or legislation that sanctions the idea.

Why money for facilities?

Charter School companies have all the breaks from government except for the facilities rent. What to do? Give away public school money to help cronies with their rent.

CEOs like Bexar County republican DA Susan Reed

What's not to like? republicans like to make sure cronies get taxpayer money. The owner of the Spurs receives lots of taxpayer help, not to mention the GM CEO. Both just love them Susan Reed.

The rest of us should vote for Reed's Democratic opponent, Nico LaHood.

Texas Border Coalition wants parity with Canadian border staff

The Texas Border Coalition wants shortages in the number of Customs and Border Protection inspectors working on the southern border addressed in the same way it has been on the northern border.

The TBC, which represents border communities from El Paso to Brownsville, has fastened on to a new report issued by the Government Accountability Office which shows that there are sufficient CBP inspectors on the U.S.-Canadian border.

Transgendered widow denied husband's death benefits

So, when DOMA is finally over turned and this woman's marriage is finally recognized as legal, will she get back pay?

A judge Friday agreed to temporarily bar the allegedly transgendered widow of a Wharton firefighter from spending or collecting his death benefits.

State District Judge Randy Clapp ruled after hearing from Nikki Araguz that she received a check for $60,000 on Thursday, about a 10th of the total cash expected because of Thomas Araguz's July 4 death in an egg farm inferno.

Pity the sea turtles released to our oil polluted Gulf

Federal biologists are releasing thousands of endangered baby sea turtles into the western Gulf of Mexico, betting that by the time the silver dollar-sized swimmers make it to the oil-fouled waters of the eastern Gulf, BP will have cleaned up its goopy mess.

Maybe Santa Claus and the tooth fairy will be there to help them swim.

Will the Chinese be investiging $20M in Corpus Christi?

Aviation Industries of China hasn’t yet begun to tap into the North American wind energy market. But it plans to do that and might do it from the Coastal Bend.

Rick Perry cuts college funds much more than agency funds

Why do republicans hate public education so much? Because, they prefer ignorant people. Just look at Perry's base.

The community college district is not alone in its pain. Gov. Rick Perry has ordered all state agencies to cut 5 percent of state dollars out of next year's budget, forcing them to slash quickly. In the upcoming biennium, Perry has asked colleges to plan for an additional 10 percent cutback, a reduction educators say will hit their core mission: teaching.

How can a city have NO female police officers in this day and age?

Yet, 20% of the Valley's law enforcement agencies do not.

Four of the 20 Rio Grande Valley law enforcement agencies — Alton, Edcouch, Palmhurst and Progreso — have no women officers.

Obama eats crow over firing of Sherrod

Good.  Obama needed to call and personally apologize to Shirley Sherrod.

Flooded with apologies from everywhere, Shirley Sherrod got the biggest "I'm sorry" of all Thursday — from a contrite President Barack Obama, who personally appealed to the ousted worker to come back.

Sherrod, who was forced to resign on Monday because of racial comments she made at an NAACP gathering, was asked by Obama to rejoin the federal government and transform "this misfortune" into a chance to use her life experiences to help people, said White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

Did Obama learn that he shouldn't throw good people under the bus just because Glenn Beck or some other republican operative might whine if he didn't?

Why would a republican care if BP sent 500,000 pounds of toxins into our air?

Yes, this is an election year and there's no harm in appearing to give a rat's a** about the environment. Or, maybe the AG is trying to make nicer with the EPA. It certainly isn't because it's the right thing to do.

The attorney general’s office is investigating a 40-day chemical release at BP’s Texas City refinery that sent more than 500,000 pounds of pollutants — including high levels of benzene — and other material into the air after a unit failure in April, state officials said.

The refinery ultracracker’s hydrogen compressor went offline April 6 and was not repaired or restarted until May 16, according to a filing with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

Lamar Smith, avowed Tea Party man, stands up for Arizona's 'papers, please' law

Why don't they just call it the 'White man first' Party?

“The Obama administration is wrong to sue the state of Arizona,” said Rep. Lamar Smith of San Antonio, the ranking Republican on the House Judiciary Committee and one of 81 lawmakers who filed a friend of the court brief in U.S. v. Arizona.

Man acquitted of hate crime in Galveston

Did the jury think it was ok to break a gay man's jaw?

A man acquitted Wednesday of hurling concrete rocks at gay patrons inside an island bar said he has no animosity toward his brother, who testified against him.

“He’s still my brother, and I love him to death,” Lawrneil Henry Lewis said after a jury found him not guilty of two counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon with hate-crime enhancements.

So, the article focuses on whether or not the guy's mad at the brother for testifying?

The Corpus Christi Caller Times thinks a slap on the wrist is fine for Sharon Keller

Hey, it was just an unimportant guy's life at stake. Who cares about that?

Will Obama's justice department allow Texas to dilute Hispanic voting power in the Valley?

If Fox News complains, all bets are off. Are the republicans going to make thinner bacon strip slices? I don't think for a minute that the republicans care a bit about 'communities of interest'. republicans only care about themselves and their power. The redistricting will reflect what the republicans think that they can get away with. The question is, will the DOJ allow the South Texas Hispanic voting power be diluted? Alternatively, instead of 'cracking', maybe South Texas will be 'packed'. At least packing will provide for Hispanic representatives.

Pioneer Hi-Bred sued for poor working conditions, illegal pay rates

Twenty migrant farmworkers filed a federal lawsuit this week against Iowa-based seed corn producer Pioneer Hi-Bred International Inc., which they say bound them to live in unacceptable housing and paid them only a fraction of what they were promised for a season’s worth of labor.

Pioneer recruited the farmworkers from throughout the Rio Grande Valley last summer to detassel corn in Indiana, according to papers in the case filed Tuesday in the U.S. Southern District Court of Texas.

Slavery is still against the law isn't it? Maybe not.

How much money do Texas taxpayers owe Nolan Ryan?

Nolan Ryan must think public money is his own ATM machine. His career, his TV commercials aren't enough. He set up a welfare sting called the Hooks baseball team to drain money from Nueces County.

Keeping the Texas Rangers in bankruptcy court by delaying the Aug. 4 auction will hurt the team and maybe even cost them slugger Josh Hamilton after this season, Hall of Fame pitcher Nolan Ryan told a federal bankruptcy judge Wednesday.

Ryan said he was testifying in his capacity as the team's president, although he and Pittsburgh sports attorney Chuck Greenberg have the endorsement of Major League Baseball to buy the Rangers and want to close the deal soon. The sale was delayed for months by angry creditors and is now part of a contentious bankruptcy case.

How does Nolan Ryan have any credibility in these matters?

Obama apologizes to Sherrod. Sort of. Maybe not so much.

Progressives and others in the Democratic base are used to getting thrown under the bus by Obama. Why not loyal, hard working employees?

This time, his administration was forced to apologize Wednesday to a black woman it had fired the day before after hastily accepting a smear from a conservative website that used selectively edited video to accuse her of racism against a white farmer.

How could Glenn Beck and Fox News come before a loyal, decent, employee?

Texas republicans declare themselves to be certified batsh*t crazy

Eight Texas GOP members, including three from North Texas, have joined the House Tea Party Caucus, which made its Capitol Hill debut Wednesday.

Reps. Joe Barton , R-Arlington; Michael Burgess, R-Lewisville ; and Pete Sessions , R-Dallas, are among the 35 Republican House members in the group, spearheaded by Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota.

...

Texas has more members in the caucus than any other state. Rounding out the Texas contingent are Reps. John Carter , R-Round Rock; John Culberson, R-Houston; Louie Gohmert , R-Tyler; Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock; and Lamar Smith , R-San Antonio.

Racist? Check. Living in the middle ages? Check. Immune to facts and logic? Check.

$100M from Permanent School Fund to go into crony pockets

Charter School companies have all the breaks from government except for the facilities rent. What to do? Give away public school money to help cronies with their rent.

State Board of Education member David Bradley, R-Beaumont, thinks Texas' charter schools deserve better than the strip malls, warehouses and vacant churches some of them call home — but the SBOE's lawyers told him and other members Wednesday to proceed cautiously with his proposal for the state to invest about $100 million in facilities to rent to charter schools. The lawyers advised the board to get an opinion from the state attorney general's office or risk litigation down the road.

No problem. Litigation in Texas is a joke. The republicans have completely fixed the 'justice' system for themselves and their cronies.

More here.

Are environmental groups giving up or just being pragmatic?

Leading up to next year's legislative session, Texas environmentalists have adopted an avowedly pragmatic strategy for winning tougher control of industrial air pollution through the Sunset Advisory Commission's review process: They teamed up with a consummate state government insider — a former commissioner of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality — to craft recommendations. They’re speaking with a unified voice. And they’re pursuing what they say are limited changes to existing practices, not ideal goals.

Cronies win again. For Texas republicans, it's cronies first. Citizens' health is not a priority. This is frustrating. How do you win concessions from somebody who won't negotiate in good faith?

Why republicans won't be electing Hispanics Bush Jr. is recruiting

The new group, co-founded by George P. Bush (son of Jeb, nephew of George W.), seeks to recruit, elect, support and defend Hispanic Republican candidates and elected officials in Texas, where Hispanics represent 37 percent of the population.

But at a time when an Arizona law has emboldened Republicans nationwide who are opposed to reforms giving illegal immigrants a streamlined path to citizenship and when one statewide officeholder in Texas with a Hispanic surname couldn't survive his GOP primary, the political action committee is certain to face challenges.

"We just need to do a better job of reminding our Latinos that Republicans don't have horns and don't all live in country clubs," Jacob Monty , a member of the board of directors, said at a news conference Tuesday marking the group's formal launch.

You can lead the batsh*t crazy crowd to the polls, but you can't make them vote for a person of color.

How to kill public schools and help a crony at the same time?

Give Permanent School Fund money to charter schools. Charter school operators get tax breaks, but have to pay rent for facilities. How to get the taxpayers to pick up the tab for your largest business expense? Give Permanent School Fund money to charter schools.

Clinton era tax breaks make hedge fund owners investors in charter schools where their money can double in 7 years.

The result is, you can put in ten million dollars and in seven years double your money. The problem is, that the charter schools end up paying in rents, the debt service on these loans and so now, a lot of the charter schools in Albany are straining paying their debt service--their rent has gone up from $170,000 to $500,000 in a year or--huge increases in their rents as they strain to pay off these loans, these construction loans. The rents are eating-up huge portions of their total cost. And, of course, the money is coming from the state.

Hidalgo fairs poorly in education study

Releasing its “State of Metropolitan America” study on Monday, the Washington, D.C.-based Brookings Institute ranked the McAllen-Edinburg-Mission area — which comprises all of Hidalgo County — 98th among the country’s 100 largest metro areas based on the proportion of residents age 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree.

Bus driver claims it's against his religion to allow women access to Planned Parenthood

An Austin bus driver who was fired for refusing to drive a passenger to Planned Parenthood is suing his employer for religious discrimination.

What a piece of work this guy is. He's the perfect picture of republican theocracy.

Oil cleanup in the Gulf is causing environmental damage

The 5,600 vessels taking part in the oil spill operation on the Gulf of Mexico make up the largest fleet assembled since the Allied invasion of Normandy, according to the Coast Guard.

Hordes of helicopters, bulldozers, Army trucks, ATVs, barges, dredges, airboats, workboats, cleanup crews, media, scientists and volunteers have descended on the beaches, blue waters and golden marshes of the Gulf Coast.

That's a lot of propellers, anchors, tires, and feet for a fragile ecosystem to take, and a tough truth is emerging: In many places, the oil cleanup itself is causing environmental damage.

You can thank BP and their corporatist supporters in our government, aka republicans and blue dog Democrats.

Why did Obama's admin believe Fox News?

Didn't we learn anything from the ACORN witch hunt? No one should believe a word Fox and its republican operative friends say.

The NAACP, which initially condemned [Agriculture Department's director of rural development in Georgia Shirley] Sherrod's remarks and supported her ouster, later said she should keep her job. The civil rights group said it and millions of others were duped by the conservative website that posted partial video of her speech on Monday.
...
"It hurts me that they didn't even try to attempt to see what is happening here, they didn't care," Sherrod said. "I'm not a racist. ... Anyone who knows me knows that I'm for fairness."

What happened should hurt every fair minded person.

Transgender discrimination surfaces in court

The family and ex-wife of a Wharton firefighter killed in a huge blaze at a local egg farm have filed a lawsuit saying that his widow shouldn’t get death benefits because she was born a man.

People will sometimes stoop as low as they can go to get what they want.

Safety in the Gulf has been ignored for decades

Oh, the corrupting influence of really big business coupled with corrupted corporatist republicans and their corporatist friends, can anyone say blue dog.

The Houston Chronicle reviewed 66 blowouts in the Gulf of Mexico — one of the most dangerous places on Earth to drill for oil — and found that time and again, federal investigators' calls for improvement were either largely ignored or delayed amid industry consternation.

What's killing Texas turtles

Pollution might be your first thought.

A potentially deadly virus that attacks some types of sea turtles has turned up in coastal bend waters.

Until recently the virus, which causes tumors on the turtles, had only been seen in the Florida Keys.

Perry's Texas cuts education funding

republicans are trying to kill public education. No taxes. No services. No public education. Two classes - the 'me first' haves and the millions and millions of have nots.

Plans to adjust the University of Texas-Pan American’s curriculum may run into a roadblock as the state slashes budgets to compensate for a $18 billion shortfall.

Hoping to produce more graduates that the area’s workforce needed, UTPA President Robert Nelsen requested a study to take stock of needs for the region’s higher education system.

The final report completed in April, just four months after Nelsen took office, showed that the supply of school teachers, nurses and civil engineers from UTPA and the University of Texas-Brownsville failed to meet the Valley’s annual job openings.

Life is not a zero sum game. Without educated people working together to make life better, life is not better.

Did election workers rig a June 19 runoff election?

The NAACP wants to know.

Seventeen NAACP members representing the Galveston and Houston branches met with Galveston County’s Voter Registrar Cheryl Johnson last week to discuss problems that voters, particularly those who live in District 1, experienced during the 2010 city council election.

David Miller, president of the Galveston chapter of the NAACP, said voters who were registered to vote in District 1 were given District 2 ballots, and some voters were told the polls were closed or the elections already had been won.

Miller also complained about the county’s practice of placing voters “in suspense,” though Johnson said that policy shouldn’t have affected the election.

Psst. The author of this article started with 'voter irregularities'. That's a 180 degree wrong frame of the issue. The voters weren't irregular. The election workers, if the accusations are true, were 'irregular'. Calling voter fraud is a republican meme used to disenfranchise Hispanic voters.

After lots of bad border news, El Paso gets to brag

Most of the 15 largest cities in Tarrant County expect budget shortfalls, but none is as daunting as Fort Worth's -- $77 million, or 15 percent of its current general fund.

That's more than the projected shortfalls reported by Dallas, San Antonio, Austin and Arlington, as well as the budget gap officials recently closed in Houston.

The big exception statewide is El Paso, which is not expecting a shortfall, according to a city official.

It's Monday TPA blog roundup time!

The Texas Progressive Alliance has never lost containment and needs no relief wells as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Neil at Texas Liberal visited the Houston Museum of Natural Science and took a picture of the corpse flower. The flower will smell like rotten flesh when it blooms. This has been a major topic of conversation in Houston over the past week.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme is happy that over 700,000 Texans will now be able to get health insurance despite the negative efforts of John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison.

Bay Area Houston has alot to discuss like the Socialist Republican the Freedom Kissing in the Galveston GOP and the WARTS of America.

Off the Kuff wrote about a new report on water conservation from the Sierra Club and the National Wildlife Federation.

McBlogger wants to know, Why is Todd Staples whining about Hank Gilbert being mean? Wasn't Staples the one who personally leveled personal attacks before the primary was over? Turns out, Staples can't really give a punch or take one.

Renew Houston's Stephen Costello had a 'come-to-Jesus' with the Harris County Democrats at their Brown Bag Luncheon last week. Open Source Dem was in attendance and filed a report, posted at Brains and Eggs.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is totally irritated by endless political talking heads. Republicans refuse to define the term ENTITLEMENT, because it is what they target to slash. They will only speak in very broad terms. Answer That Question Republicans!

WhosPlayin reports that Lewisville's City Council narrowly overturned the administrative suspension of new gas well permitting, but did go ahead and order staff to review the City's ordinances to see if there is room for improvement.

The republican party is run by the anger and hate of the batsh*t crazy base

The Republican wave carries along a group that strikes a faux revolutionary pose. “Our Founding Fathers,” says Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sharron Angle, “they put that Second Amendment in there for a good reason, and that was for the people to protect themselves against a tyrannical government. And in fact, Thomas Jefferson said it's good for a country to have a revolution every 20 years. I hope that's not where we're going, but you know, if this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies.”

Sharron Angle, Sarah Palin and Rand Paul are the face of the republican party. These are the people that republicans want in office. If they're not elected, then ... Democratic elections are not the last word to them.

The author of the above article laments the lack of leadership in the republican party. The problem started with the republican reaction to the Civil Rights Act. Racist Democrats became racist republicans. Nixon and Reagan fanned the flames and married the libertarians and neocons to the racist and religious. That explosive, faith based group was easily manipulated with gay bashing and theocratic pleas. Now look at what you have. John McCain dancing to the tune of a bunch of mad fiddlers.

Wentworth hedges his bets with Texas A & M.

Sen. Jeff Wentworth said Saturday he will seek re-election in the November general election and then decide whether to take a high-level job with the Texas A&M System.

Wentworth seems even more self absorbed than your average politician.

I saw this headline and thought it was opposite day

'Perry’s In Sugar Land Fighting Hunger By Taking Part In August ‘Houston Restaurant Week’ Benefit'

For a second I thought that Rick Perry was in Sugar Land fighting hunger in Texas. How can that be? Rick Perry and his fellow republicans not only don't give a rat's a** about hunger, they think the poor deserve to be abused.

This year, Perry’s Steakhouse in Sugar Land will be among more than 100 restaurants through the greater Houston area taking part in the effort, which helps raise funds for the Houston Food Bank.

Rick Perry's reputation as Scrooge remains intact.

BISD desperately trying to stop retaliation trial from proceeding

A federal judge has denied an emergency stay in a trial to determine whether four members of the BISD Board of Trustees fired former chief financial officer Tony Juarez because he went to the FBI with information about an alleged conspiracy to manipulate the district’s stop-loss insurance contract.

U.S. District Judge Andrew S. Hanen on Wednesday denied an emergency motion by the trustees and the Brownsville Independent School District to stay the case pending an appeal but said they can refile such a motion any time before Aug. 5, the date of the final pretrial conference in the case. To do so, however, they would have to pinpoint an issue that is actually subject to such an appeal, the judge said.

I hope we find out what happened.

Perry's campaign gets to keep over half of donation said to be illegal

Sounds like a pretty great deal for Perry.

Democrat Chris Bell of Houston lost his 2006 election challenge to Gov. Rick Perry, but financial reports released Friday show he won $426,000 in a lawsuit settlement from Perry's campaign over what he had claimed were illegal political donations.

Perry's campaign in the final days of the 2006 election received a $1 million donation from the Republican Governor's Association without disclosing the source of the RGA money.

After a Houston Chronicle report in January 2007 showed the money likely came from Houston homebuilder Bob Perry, no relation to the governor, Bell sued the RGA, Perry's campaign and campaign treasurer Richard Box.

Sharon Keller gets reprimanded. So what?

I guess that's a little something.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Presiding Judge Sharon Keller was publicly rebuked by a state judicial commission Friday for blocking a condemned man’s lawyers from filing a last-minute appeal in 2007, but she will keep her job.

The State Commission on Judicial Conduct’s “public warning” to Keller came nearly three years after convicted murderer Michael Wayne Richard was executed.

The commission said the public warning was issued “in condemnation” of Keller’s conduct, which it said “casts public discredit on the judiciary or the administration of justice.”

The republican crony lovers in the Texas Supreme Court have already destroyed any sense of justice. Defense lawyers have been allowed to sleep during a murder trial. What is there left for Keller to discredit?

Del Rio using imported wasp to remove cane

It remains to be seen what new problems the imported wasps cause.

A tiny wasp imported from the Mediterranean may help in the city’s stated goal of eventually eradicating “carrizo” cane from the banks of local waterways.

The Del Rio City Council Tuesday night approved the release of “Arundo wasps” along San Felipe Creek as part of a project to study the wasps’ effects on the invasive river cane.

I have a question. How can a city council decide to unleash a new creature on our environment? Can any city in the country do that? Or, is it just Texas? Got to say the wasps do sound better than dropping herbicide from helicopters.

More here.

Port of Corpus Christi says Las Brisas requires a TCEQ permit change for the port

The Port of Corpus Christi's chief engineer said in testimony filed Friday that the port might have to get a new state permit or amend its current one to accommodate the Las Brisas Energy Center.

"It is my understanding that any change to our existing facilities, including any change that would increase the throughput of materials through our existing facilities, must be authorized by (the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality)," said Frank Brogan, deputy port director for engineering, finance and administration.

Why are we still talking about adding such pollution to our environment?

Democrats' health plan to help over 700,000 in Texas alone

The federal government is now taking applications from Texans who have been denied insurance because of pre-existing conditions, offering premiums for as little as half the cost of similar coverage offered by the state.

The new federal health plan, called the Pre-Existing Condition Insurance Plan, doesn't require a one-year wait for full coverage to begin, as the state plan does.

As many as 716,000 Texans may be eligible, second only to California's 847,000, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office. Nationwide, as many as 4 million are eligible, the GAO estimates.

Take that in you pipe and smoke,right wing ditto butts.

More on suit against Texas Open Meetings Act

What do these city officials want to hide? Why do these city officials want to conduct business in the dark?

A three-judge panel ruled that the Texas law regulates the content of speech by limiting what officials can talk about — in this case, public business. But such content-based limits are illegal, the judges ruled, unless they promote a compelling government interest in the least restrictive manner available — an intentionally rigorous and difficult-to-meet standard.

Houston CPS lets down kids 50% of the time

A major problem, which was cited by [Texas Department of Protective Services Commissioner Anne] Heilgenstein and found in the review of the Houston office, was the overwhelming caseload faced by investigators -- a caseload that Heilgenstein said has now shot up over 50 percent in just the past year.

You get what you pay for. republicans would rather give tax cuts to the rich, than pay to protect vulnerable children. What was that about pro-life? Yeah. Right.

Del Rio Mayor and city manager at war?

City Manager Frances Rodriguez apparently believes the rumors that the Del Rio City Council, now led by Mayor Roberto “Bobby” Fernandez, wants to fire her.

But Rodriguez has put the new mayor and council members on notice that she won’t go without a fight.

Following Tuesday night’s eight-hour-long city council meeting, Councilman Mike Wrob gave the Del Rio News-Herald a copy of a “cease-and-desist” letter sent to City Attorney David Sorola July 8. That letter, in turn, has been distributed to the new mayor and to the other members of the city council.

Did Jeff Wentworth's tantrum payoff with a Texas A&M job?

I say tease him again and lets see what happens. YouTube is fun.

State Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, confirmed Wednesday that he’s thinking about taking a high-level job with the Texas A&M University System that would bring his long legislative career to an end.

Wentworth said he hasn’t yet decided because he and A&M System Chancellor Mike McKinney only began discussing the potential job Sunday. Wentworth and McKinney served together in the Texas House 20 years ago.

Cities challenging Open Meetings don't have Greg Abbott's support

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott yesterday filed a brief defending the constitutionality of the Texas Open Meetings Act after several Texas cities and local officials challenged the law’s constitutionality in federal court.

What are those cities trying to hide from the public?

Cornyn, face of the party of 'no', will vote 'no' on Kagan

John Cornyn also voted against allowing rape victims the right to have their day in court. Anyone who would vote to shield rapists isn't going to vote for a woman to be on the Supreme Court.

Travis County DA investigating Green Party petition

The damage has already been done. The Green Party is on the ballot. The Green Party has damaged its image. In the past, I have voted for Green Party candidates. No more. Will somebody be going to jail? Or, will a slight slap on the wrist fine be the cost of doing business 'punishment'?

In a statement to the cable news service News 8 Austin, the the DA's office said its Public Integrity Unit has the Green Party matter under review.

Texas Border Coalition gets a new chair

Hidalgo’s mayor [John David Franz] took over the chairmanship of the Texas Border Coalition on Wednesday.

Congratulations and good luck.

State Farm to raise auto rates

Hey, this is Texas where companies are supreme. Just look at who's running the state and our Texas Supreme Court.

State Farm is raising auto insurance rates an average 2 percent next month for the nearly 3 million drivers it insures in Texas, citing rising medical costs as the primary factor.

Sure, poke at health care costs. The republicans will eat that up. Never mind that the Democrats tried to cut rising costs. Nope.

Galveston tar balls ARE from BP well

Is that good news or bad news? At least it wasn't a new monster.

Test results have confirmed tar balls found on a second Texas beach are from the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill, U.S. Coast Guard officials said Tuesday.

The tar balls were found on vegetation that had washed up on a Galveston beach last week, Coast Guard Chief Warrant Officer Lionel Bryant said. Tar balls located July 5 on McFaddin Beach, a stretch of coast east of Bolivar Peninsula, were the first confirmation that crude from the massive BP oil spill had reached Texas shores.

Weren't we originally told that plant coated stuff was organic?

In what universe are Levi Johnson and Bristol Palin like Lady Di and Prince Charles?

The Houston Chronicle strikes a vein of absurdity on their front page online.

First comes love, then comes marriage — after the kid. It's like Lady Di and Charles for the GOP.

I guess the Chronicle is acknowledging the batsh*t crazy world of a republican.

Number of Hispanic businesses soar nationwide

The number of Hispanic-owned businesses in the United States grew at a rate more than double the national average during a five-year period ending in 2007, says a federal study released Tuesday.

The total number of U.S. businesses increased by 18 percent to 27.1 million in that period, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Census Bureau report. Hispanic-owned businesses increased by 43.6 percent in that five years to 2.3 million. That represents 8.3 percent of the total. The survey did not count farms.

Time for Perry to mouth words about education

republicans are doing their best to kill public education.  Perry has already been caught out for diverting money out of public education. Fellow republicans on the state of board of education think it's the middle ages. Debbie Riddle said out loud what all of today's republicans think:

"Where did this idea come from that everybody deserves free education, free medical care, free whatever?" she demanded in a legislative hearing. "It comes from Moscow, from Russia. It comes straight out of the pit of hell."

Only someone not paying any attention can believe that Perry has any decent intentions with respect to the education of our children.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced a proposal to reduce the state's dropout rate by giving a $1,500 tax break for businesses that allow employees time to earn a high school diploma or GED.

Perry wants to cure the dropout rate by - ta da - giving money to businesses.  There's a republican for you.  All about the cronies and nothing about the children.

Perry emphatically endorses Arizona

Perry decides to go with the 'I hate brown people' crowd.

Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that he won't attend a meeting of border state governors if it isn't held in Arizona, which some of the participants are boycotting in protests of the state's tough new illegal immigration law.

For 27 years, governors representing U.S. and Mexican states along the border have met to discuss common interests. The annual conference rotates location, and this year it was slated to be held at a Phoenix resort.

But all six Mexican governors wrote Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on June 30 saying they would refuse to visit her state because of the immigration law, which they said promotes "ethnic and cultural prejudice."

Everybody survived La Marque city council meeting

Though city council members Monday continued to disagree with the mayor about interfering in the city’s day-to-day business, they held their peace long enough to discuss controversial agenda items and finish an entire meeting.

The meeting was marked by a few tense moments, particularly during discussions on items Mayor Geraldine Sam added to the agenda. Council members, however, thoroughly discussed each of Sam’s items — including curbing escalating legal fees and reviewing compensatory time for city employees — while sticking to their positions that elected officials ought to stay out of the city’s day-to-day business, leaving those responsibilities to City Manager Eric Gage, not Sam.

Good for them.

Another headline you don't want to see

'2 El Paso Judges Indicted, Again

'Suspended District Judge Regina Arditti already faced a misdemeanor nepotism charge, and Manuel Barraza had been convicted earlier this year on federal bribery charges. Both were indicted Monday on state charges of bribery and abuse of power.

The indictments, obtained by ABC-7, allege judge Barraza provided judge Arditti's son, Dante Vance, a bailiff job in Barraza's Criminal Court Number One. In exchange, Arditti's indictment alleges, she hired Barraza's sister, Sally Mena, as court coordinator in the 448th District Court.

More on piece of work Barraza here and Arditti here.

Evidence showing drug maker knew dangers of its drug 11 years ago

Why don't CEOs go to jail? Really. If you know that an action you are performing will lead to multiple deaths, isn't that a crime?

In the fall of 1999, drug giant SmithKline Beecham secretly began a study to find out if its diabetes medicine, Avandia, was safer for the heart than a competing pill, Actos, made by Takeda.

Avandia's success was crucial to SmithKline, whose labs were otherwise all but barren of new products. But the study's results, completed that same year, were disastrous. Not only was Avandia no better than Actos, but the study also provided clear signs that it was riskier to the heart.

But instead of publishing the results, the company spent the next 11 years trying to cover them up, according to documents recently obtained by The New York Times. The company did not post the results on its website or submit them to federal drug regulators, as is required in most cases by law.

One 'justice' for the poor, quite another for corporations and their CEOs.

Get ready for a contentious La Marque city council meeting

The tenuous peace among La Marque’s warring city council will be tested tonight by several repeat items requested for the agenda by Mayor Geraldine Sam. Last week, council members agreed to the initial outline for a resolution designed to keep previously decided issues from repeatedly coming up on future agendas.

That resolution won’t be voted on formally until the end of the month. So, tonight, items that bitterly have divided the council once again will be on the agenda.

Valley Hospitals rated poorly

The Rio Grande Valley’s hospitals rank poorly in patient satisfaction surveys, below both the state and national averages, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Local hospitals ranked below the Texas average in all 10 categories measured by the department, according to a Monitor analysis of the data. Valley hospitals also ranked below the national average, which is lower than the Texas average, in nine of 10 categories.

It's Monday TPA blog roundup time!

The Texas Progressive Alliance doesn't need to go to South Beach to form a dream team. We've had one all along, and here are the highlights.

Off the Kuff wrote about the problems of how we deal with the mentally ill in the criminal justice system, and a pilot program in Houston to handle the "chronic consumers" more efficiently and compassionately.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals judges weigh their religious beliefs and superstitions against a defendant's religion?

Bay Area Houston says that conservative politicians in Houston have declared an end to the "Tax and Spend" name calling in Houston.

TXsharon made a statement at the EPA Hydraulic Fracturing Hearing in Ft. Worth and used industry's own studies and statements to prove that hydraulic fracturing needs federal regulation under the SDWA. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Nat-Wu triumphantly returns to Three Wise Men to write about the possibilty of a double-dip recession and even a third depression on the economic horizon.

Lightseeker ponders Who is Killing our Democracy? as he examines the links between the latest numbers scandal from the Texas Education Agency and the larger issues of the death of public understanding and civil conversation. Check it out : Who is killing our Democracy?

Campaign season is always a blast, especially watching the Democrats beat the fool out of the Republicans. This week, McBlogger take a look at a nice solid beating Hank Gilbert gave Sleazy Todd Staples.

Neil at Texas Liberal is glad that the Green Party will be on the 2010 Texas ballot. Voters deserve options.

There's a few reasons why Voter ID just won't fly in Texas, and PDiddie has them at Brains and Eggs.

School districts in Texas are facing an extraordinarily tough year, financially, due to state funding formulas and falling property values. As one North Texas school district considers a tax rate increase, WhosPlayin takes a light-hearted look at some of the dire consequences if we don't raise school district tax rates.

This week at Left of College Station, Teddy covers the closed meetings, closed books, and the lack of information between the Bryan City Council and BTU. Also, a look at why white America may be in a recession but black America is in a depression. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

Is the GOP a Baptist organization?

This Bud Kennedy article sure makes it sound like that. Title says 'Winning strategy for GOP: Don't lose Latino vote' while the story starts with Baptists.

The Southern Baptists have immigration figured out.

If Baptists want to be part of the future conservative majority, public policy chief Richard Land said last week, they'll need Hispanic believers' support.

The article ends with

"The people who have been anti-immigration have lost every one of these arguments. They lost it with the Irish in the 1830s and '40s and turned them into Democrats for three generations. ... They lost it with the Italians in the 1890s. ... Do they want to do it with the Hispanics, too?"

[Richard Land] wants Southern Baptists to be winners.

Apparently, the GOP is 100% Baptist.

Is confusion over oil on Galveston beaches deliberate?

Where did the Galveston tar balls come from?

The Coast Guard will announce if oil found on beaches originated from the Gulf spill only after forensic tests are done, Coast Guard Capt. Marcus Woodring said.

As many as 70 ships port in Galveston every day, and any could have brought the tar balls, Woodring said.

“We’re not sure we’re ever going to determine where the Galveston tar balls came from,” Woodring said.

Setting up for someone to avoid liability? Lets see.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Patterson said definitive test results should be back Monday or Tuesday indicating the source of the two different substances found along Texas' coasts since July 3 — whether all or some of it came from the BP spill.

Were Texas City firefighters cheated out of pay?

Fifty-nine of Texas City’s firefighters have sued the city, claiming they are owed hundreds of thousands of dollars in back pay.

The lawsuit claims the city miscalculated overtime pay and failed to pay firefighters for time spent in required training.

How does BP's need to cover up trump freedom of the press?

Texas City’s policies on responding to journalists taking photographs or video near petrochemical facilities are under review after a photographer was detained while on assignment covering BP, officials said.

Freelance photographer Lance Rosenfield was in Texas City on July 2 to get photos in and around BP’s Texas City refinery for ProPublica, a nonprofit media outlet. ProPublica is publishing a series of stories in a joint investigation with PBS’s “Frontline” on BP.

The Austin-based photographer said after he had wrapped up his work, he was followed to a gas station by a BP security officer and then questioned by a Texas City police officer.

Why is government security more helpful to BP than to our citizens?

What is the new pollutant that has hit Galveston beaches?

Scientists remained puzzled Friday about freshwater plants coated with a sticky substance the color and consistency of peanut butter that washed up on the Gulf of Mexico shore in Galveston and on the Bolivar Peninsula beginning Thursday evening.

“We’re not saying it’s associated with release from the Deepwater Horizon spill until the lab confirms it,” Andy Tirpak, coastal fisheries program specialist for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said. “We are all kind of scratching our heads saying, ‘What the hell is this? We’ve never seen anything like this.’”

This is not good. What about the cr*p they've been using to disperse the oil?

Monsanto Co fined for selling banned seed in Texas

The seed was mislabeled. Accident or on purpose? You decide. Moot point now. The ban and the deed is done.

Hidalgo Commissioner Handy goes to prison

Former Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy was sentenced to 2.5 years in prison this afternoon on charges of harboring illegal immigrants and tax fraud.

...

The judge noted her continued refusal to accept responsibility in determining her sentence. He once again gave her an opportunity to accept responsibility for criminal activity he described as “obvious.”

“Ms. Handy, you just don’t get it. You refuse to be honest with yourself and be honest with the court and to be honest with anyone who ever believed in you,” Hinojosa said. “We can’t continue this charade that you didn’t know anything.”

B'bye.

Is familial DNA matching the same as racial profiling?

The Texas Stand Down Project has some posts (here and here) on the implications of familial DNA profiling. Does the government have the right to use the DNA of a son to implicate a father in a crime? Are family members' privacy invaded when a search is performed on CODIS to match a suspect's DNA? Is this the ultimate racial profiling because a disproportionate percentage of African Americans are in the database?

I can't see what's wrong with the familial search. Lets look at a different search technique that has been used since people have looked for the perpetrators of crime: description matching. Suposing a witness describes a tall, red headed male with curly hair and brown eyes as the person who committed the crime. Police will look for people who match that description. How often have innocent people been stopped and harassed who only partially match a description? DNA has the potential to be extremely precise and orders of magnitude less likely to result in harassment of the wrong person. If you think that description matching in criminal investigations is ok, then why is familial DNA matching wrong?

Who could be surprised that republicans blow money they don't have on their cronies?

The republican base is surprised at Texas GOP cronyism and lack of fiscal responsibility in building a quarter of a million dollar debt. 'We don’t need high-priced consultants all the time you know…' Nobody does.

Gotta like this headline

'Perry on defense with farm group'

That headline should be expanded to include all Texans

.Gov. Rick Perry delivered a patriotic speech to the Texas Farm Bureau on Thursday, but gave short shrift to the property rights issue that caused a split between him and one of the state's largest agricultural organizations.

Democratic challenger Bill White earlier delivered what sounded like a point-by-point legal argument for why the Farm Bureau should turn its back on Perry. Topping the list was the governor's 2007 veto of a bill to limit land condemnations through eminent domain, a bill the Farm Bureau had lobbied to pass.

Perry's speech gave the appearance of indifference to Farm Bureau anger, and his lack of contrition led some in the Republican-leaning audience to say they will consider voting for White this fall.

Perry probably sounded indifferent to the farmers because he is. Perry is a republican and they only care about themselves.

More oil on Galveston beaches

A U.S. Coast Guard crew collected small oil samples entangled in freshwater plants that washed ashore Thursday on Galveston Island near 51st and 53rd streets.

A portion of the beach in front of the San Luis Resort was sectioned off as samples of the caramel-colored material were being gathered.

Not good.

TEA cheaters

Criss Cloudt understandably grew defensive last week as she tried to explain to a group of legislators how a student who got absolutely every question wrong on a TAKS writing test could be scored as passing it.

Cloudt was in the hot seat because she is the Texas Education Agency's associate commissioner in charge of the "accountability system" that administers the TAKS test and ranks schools and school districts on a four-tier scale from "unacceptable" to "exemplary."

She was also in the hot seat because the man presumably most responsible for instituting the controversial new "Texas Projection Measure" that is producing such absurd results, Education Commissioner Robert Scott, failed to show up. But that's another story. Today we look at the ways that Cloudt appeared to try to mislead Houston state Rep. Scott Hochberg and his Appropriations Subcommittee on Education, and how Hochberg repeatedly called her on it.

Good for Hochberg. Of course, he's a Democrat. Democrats actually care about education.

Judge over turns parts of DOMA - Houston Chronicle ignores ruling

I wondered what the Houston Chronicle had to say, but couldn't find anything about this important ruling on the front page of their website. I did find these articles which are apparently more important to the editors:

'Octopus Paul picks Spain to win World Cup'
'Longtime fan Snoop Dogg seeks cameo on British soap opera'
'Larry King, wife withdraw divorce filings in LA'
'New gadgets make kitchen work easier for savvy chefs'

For those Houston Chronicle readers that might actually be interested in some news about this ruling, you can check here, here and here.

Note: Sister paper, the San Antonio Express News front page online, ignored the story, as well as the Austin American Statesman, the Fort Worth Star Telegram and the Dallas Morning News.

It's official. Civil rights rulings about a controversial issue are not important. In Texas.

Texas AG gets tough on east coast insurance company

Texas Watch called attention to the deception.

The Texas attorney general on Thursday ordered insurer the Travelers Cos. Inc. to stop running a television advertisement that he called deceptive.

In a news release announcing a cease and desist order, Attorney General Greg Abbott said that the Travelers ad improperly tells Texas homeowners that they should buy additional automobile insurance to prevent losing their homes.

"Texans are protected by robust homestead laws that insulate homeowners from the losses depicted in Travelers' advertisements," Abbott said in the release.

GOP lobbyist epitomizes republican ethics

The party of 'me first' is exemplified in this jailed lobbyist.

After the Bexar County Sheriff's Office sought to release [W. James] Jonas on Friday (to make room for other inmates), state District Judge Michael Peden instead ordered he be returned to jail on a civil contempt finding and that Jonas be released only if he pays a $100,000 cash bail.

...

Judges have not bought Jonas' claims that he's insolvent and have held him in contempt seven times for violating more than 340 court orders, according to court documents and his ex-wife's attorney.

Apparently, Jonas would rather go to jail than pay child support for his kids.

Coal plants lose a round

Two Texas administrative law judges have sided with environmentalists against a permit for a new coal- and petroleum coke-fired power plant in Matagorda County.

The judges found that Houston-based White Stallion Energy Center's plans for a 1,200-megawatt plant failed on three points, including the quality of the data used to make conclusions about air quality in the area.

Environmentalists who oppose the White Stallion plant said the judges' ruling did not go as far as they would like, but it possibly delayed the project by as much as six months.

Will the corporatists ultimately win?

Democrats cede to corrupt Texas Supreme Court

republicans on the court have no shame. Cronies first. Justice? What's that? Who cares? republicans are always the party of 'me first'.

The Texas Democratic Party cleared the way Wednesday for Green Party candidates to remain on the November ballot by dropping its state Supreme Court challenge to the legality of the Greens' ballot access petition drive.

But the Democrats said they'll continue their lawsuit at a lower-court level in an effort to get civil penalties in the case.

The lawsuit against the Green Party will continue. Let the sleazy actions of the Perry bots and the Green Party officials be exposed for what they are.

More GOP ties revealed.

A Republican consultant with ties to Gov. Rick Perry is the latest in a growing number of GOP operatives described in court documents as helping the Green Party get on the Texas ballot.

Anthony Holm, whose political-consulting firm represents Gov. Rick Perry’s campaign and the state GOP, said Tuesday that he talked with Green Party officials numerous times in recent months about fielding candidates.

What should be done about releasing turtles to the Gulf?

An environmental group wants the Padre Island National Seashore to stop releasing Kemp’s ridley sea turtle hatchlings because of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

But seashore officials said Wednesday the releases are required and not doing so could hinder their natural instincts.

But think about the poor BP officials who just want their lives back. Lets go yachting!

Here's a headline you don't want to see

'New special prosecutor named in case of city officials'

District Judge Stephen Williams has named yet another special prosecutor in the cases of Victoria Police Lt. Ralph Buentello and former city attorney David Atmar Smith.

Williams issued an order on Tuesday appointing San Antonio attorney Terrence W. McDonald as the new prosecutor, replacing Port Lavaca attorney Jerry Clark, who held the position since June 21.

Buentello and Smith, whose cases recently came out of abatement, are fighting perjury charges stemming from the 2008 sexual abuse investigation of former Victoria County Sheriff Michael Ratcliff.

DA Steve 'Hissy Fit' Tyler got all over people for letting sunshine into the investigation of Hissy Fit's chief aid and former Victoria Sheriff. Just going by his actions, Tyler doesn't seem to think the rape of an underage boy in custody is a big deal.

La Marque harmony

At last. For now.

Those attending Tuesday’s La Marque council meeting got to see something few had witnessed in about six months — compromise.

The often fractious council took what started out as divisive issues and found middle — and in one case higher — ground, agreeing to revise a resolution that would have clamped down on the mayor’s ability to bring issues before the city council.

Four of the five members also decided a move to remove Keith Bell as mayor pro tem was not the best thing if the council was going to “start the healing process.”

The Corpus Christi Caller Times wants us to lay off TCEQ

Sounds a lot like Rick Perry coming to the defense of BP. Bwahhaaa.

Brownsville Mayor's license to be suspended

On Tuesday, [Brownsville Mayor Pat] Ahumada waived a state administrative hearing on the suspension – a result of his May 11 arrest on suspicion of driving while intoxicated and refusal to take a Breathalyzer and field sobriety tests.

Suspension is almost assured. Ahumada will probably be driving anyway.

Ahumada said that when an order suspending his driver’s license is entered, he would seek an occupational license to allow him to drive to and from work.

Sounds like cuckoo land.

This current DWI charge is Ahumada's third. Ahumada is batting 500 with one previous DWI dismissed.

Criminal court justices show prejudice

A convicted murderer is appealing his sentence claiming his religion was used to obtain the death penalty. The judges, instead of looking at whether or not his claim has a basis, visit their own prejudices about the man's religion.

"I mean, come on, boil it all down, the Church of Satan?" Judge Michael Keasler said. "You've got to be kidding me as to how that's good, because Satan himself, at least as far as Christian doctrine is concerned, is the epitome of what evil is. If somebody chooses to align themselves with something like that, it certainly would seem relevant."

Keasler uses his own religious view of Satan to evaluate the defendant's religion. The second judge, out of the three, is no better.

Musing aloud, Judge Lawrence Meyers asked if Satanism should be considered a religion at all, because religions revolve around worshipping a higher power. "Satan's not an almighty being," Meyers said.

Who's the third judge? The infamous Sharon Keller. I kid you not.

Here's the deal. If the defendant's religion was used, then the prosecutors must provide proof that the religion, in and of itself, will cause the defendant to be a danger. The man's religion should not be the issue. The man's danger to society should be.

DA brings La Marque woes to a grand jury

A grand jury? Really?

Galveston County District Attorney Kurt Sistrunk confirmed that his office has received “numerous complaints and spoken to a number of individuals” about the city of La Marque. He did not confirm how many or who filed complaints with his office, but said his office had more than 8,000 pages of evidence to review.

Based on public comments, Mayor Geraldine Sam and Councilwoman Connie Trube have taken items to the district attorney.

The two officials are on opposing sides of a divided council.

Cornyn and Olson want 'drill, baby, drill' as oil reaches Texas beaches

The environment be damned. Literally.

U.S. Senator John Cornyn and U.S. Representative Pete Olson will be in Stafford today as part of an effort to “take a look at the impact the Obama Administration’s deepwater drilling moratorium is having on local small businesses, jobs, the local economy, and our nation’s energy security.”

What about the damage done to other businesses from the oil spill? What about the health of our citizens? Drill, baby, drill. republicans only care about themselves. Why wait for drilling to be safe? Why look into safer energy sources?

Tar balls found on Bolivar Peninsula and Galveston’s East Beach during the holiday weekend were reliably traced to the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the U.S. Coast Guard and state officials said Monday.

The discovery makes it the first such confirmed report on the Texas coast.

The Coast Guard and the Texas General Land Office were notified by residents Saturday about tar balls found on Crystal Beach, Capt. Marcus Woodring, Coast Guard sector commander for Houston/Galveston, said.

Meet the new Senate redistricting committee

Dewhurst drew some criticism on the opinion pages over the weekend for his appointments, or, more to the point, for his non-appointments. The 11-member committee has four members from the Houston area (Patrick, Huffman, Williams, Gallegos) and two from Dallas (West and Carona) but none from Fort Worth, the Austin area or San Antonio.

...

The full committee: Seliger, Gallegos, Eltife, West, Williams, Patrick, Huffman, Carona, Zaffirini, Hinojosa, Estes.

I don't expect Dewhurst to do the right thing. He's a republican. They don't care about the citizens. republicans only care about themselves.

Galveston gets first Gulf spill tar balls

You knew it was just a matter of time.

Here's a headline you don't want to see

'Valley lawmakers say their region doesn't have a monopoly on corrupt politicians'

Take a deep breath and think about that headline.

State Rep. Tara Rios Ybarra, D-South Padre Island, was indicted last month on charges she engaged in Medicaid fraud in the course of her work as a dentist and accepted thousands of dollars in kickbacks. She has maintained her innocence since her arrest. The allegations come less than a year after state Rep. Ismael “Kino” Flores, D-Palmview, was indicted by a Travis County grand jury on charges of failing to properly disclose hundreds of thousands of dollars in personal income. Neither Flores nor Rios Ybarra returned calls seeking comment.

Neither rep is on the ballot for November. I say good riddance to corrupt politicians of either party. Lets eliminate the corporate toadies - 100% of the republicans and ~25% of the Democrats.

The Galveston County Daily News joins beltway bubble heads

The Galveston County Daily News thinks that the Tea Party is 'the most influential force on the political landscape this year'. You're a little late. The beltway bubble heads have down graded the Tea Party. (More on the decline here.)

So, 18% of the populace is 'the most influential force on the political landscape this year'? Really?

The Daily News did have the sense to quote Texas Progressive Alliance star blogger John Cobarruvias later on.

“Those are some angry people,” John Cobarruvias, a Democratic Party activist and author of the Bay Area Houston blog, said. “They have a lot to be angry about. Their party really screwed this country up.

Well said, John.

BP's victims in 2007 want a new deal

They may want to cash those checks sooner rather than later.

Now, the toll of the dead in BP-related accidents includes at least 14 more — 11 of those lives snuffed out in the April 20 Deepwater Horizon disaster and three others in subsequent incidents at the Texas City refinery.

Leining and various victims' attorneys have asked the U.S. Department of Justice to revoke the terms of a 2007 plea deal the company reached as part of a criminal prosecution of the deadly Texas City accident. Ample evidence that BP never fixed the refinery as promised - including the three additional fatalities in other accidents - provides proof the company can't be trusted, they say.

People's lives are just a cost of doing business. Destroying the environment for millions is just a big inconvenience. Lets go yachting.

It's Monday TPA blog roundup time!

The Texas Progressive Alliance wishes America a Happy 234th Birthday as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

TXsharon is not the only one who thinks CHK shareholders are getting drilled by the Shale Gas Shell Game. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

Off the Kuff talks about how to really put the unemployed back to work.

"You knew you were at the Texas Democratic Party Convention when ..." at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs.

The Texas Cloverleaf shows you the difference between good and evil in Texas.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees a clear difference between the Democrats who want to solve problems and republicans who want to visit their idea of the 1700s.

Neil at Texas Liberal spent the week in Cincinnati. This being the case, Neil offers up for the round-up a post with a picture of a retaining wall in a Cincinnati park that was built by the New Deal-era Works Progress Administration in 1940. Sarah Palin can't serve a full term as governor, but the work of government sponsored jobs programs lasts across the decades.

Left of College Station returns after a June hiatus, and Teddy writes about the mainstream media and the culture of underexposure, and Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

AP propaganda on health care

I can just see the lazy reporter taking the copy from the 'conservative' think tank operative. 'Health care overhaul may mean longer ER waits, crowding'

Oh, the logic: More people getting health care means that the shortage of primary care doctors becomes more obvious. No notion that people without health care artificially lessened the hit on primary care doctors. Nope. The focus here is that the 'haves' will have to share scarce health care resources with the previous 'have nots'.

Why not concentrate on the real problem - a shortage of primary care doctors rather than rail on the new demand?

Coastal Bend shows difference between mad hatters and common sense

The Nueces County Democrats met to think about the future. The Dems forged a party platform with these top 4 issues: the environment, education, jobs and fiscal policies. Those items in that order makes perfect sense.

The mad hatters on the other hand took a trip to the 1700s.

The Rolling Tea Party started this afternoon at the Nueces County Courthouse where organizers read the Declaration of Independence and Bill of Rights.

History and rights are important and it is the 4th of July. But, lets think about the pressing problems of today, not King George. Lets build on what we have, not tear down everything to bring us back to where we started.

Has a drug cartel compromised the US consulate?

Whether or not the gang leader is telling the truth doesn't change the fact that our political institutions are vulnerable to money and corruption. Just look at the republicans in Texas who would sell their own mothers for their cronies. It's time to legalize drugs and take away the profit motive. Make drugs safe as the can be. Offer rehab.

The suggestion that drug gangs may have infiltrated the U.S. diplomatic mission runs counter to previous statements by U.S. Embassy officials that Enriquez was never in a position to provide visas and worked in a section that provides basic services to U.S. citizens in Mexico

See previous post.

High ranking Harris County police officer fired

The man Sheriff Adrian Garcia hired to police his deputies was fired two months ago after an internal investigation concluded he was "preoccupied" with female subordinates and sought to entice them with favors.

It was not the first time Maj. James Kirk faced an investigation that centered on his treatment of women, according to a report obtained by the Houston Chronicle through an open records request.

The Texas Rangers investigated a complaint of sexual harassment/official oppression by Kirk while he worked for the Polk County sheriff's office in 2003, according to the Harris County sheriff's internal investigation.

With a record like that, how could Kirk be selected by the current Sheriff to police deputies?

Mexico makes arrests for consulate deaths

An alleged gang leader arrested in Juárez told Mexican authorities that a U.S. Consulate employee and her husband were targeted for assassination because the woman provided visas to a rival gang.

Officials said Friday that Jesus Ernesto Chávez Castillo, 41, described as a top Azteca gang member who led hit squads, is suspected of ordering the slayings of Lesley Enriquez Redelfs and her husband, Arthur Redelfs, both of El Paso.

Lloyd Doggett holds Perry's feet to the fire over federal education funds

The proposal would allow the federal government to give money directly to school districts, provided Perry certifies that the federal support will not replace the state money. Perry must also agree not to proportionally cut education funding more than any other item in the next budget.

While the measure includes $10 billion in education funding nationally, Texas is the only state that must make such a certification before receiving the federal funding. Texas school districts stand to receive about $820 million in funding to hire additional employees.

Congressional Democrats pushed for the provision after Texas received more than $3 billion from the government in 2009 to boost education funding, only to see Perry not use the funds to augment the education budget.

You knew the Texas Supreme Court would make the corrupt decision

The Texas Supreme Court like the US Supreme Court in Bush v Gore took the corrupt, partisan road in siding with the Green Party's corporate funding. republicans do not believe in democracy. republicans believe in power by any means. Check out the republican candidate for Senate in Nevada who is on record 3 times advocating 'second amendment remedies' if things don't go the republicans' way at the ballot box.

The Texas Supreme Court kept the Green Party's hopes alive Friday, allowing the party to certify candidates while it reviews whether illegal corporate money was behind a petition drive to get on the ballot.

The high court overruled a district judge's order blocking the Green Party from fielding candidates in the fall. That cleared the way for the Green Party to meet a Friday deadline and send its list of candidates to the secretary of state.

Foiled in air pollution, TCEQ tries it hand at increasing water pollution

Where and when people swim is the new basis for water quality standards set by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

The new rules could mean lower bacteria standards for water bodies such as the San Antonio River, and that has local authorities and environmentalists worried it will allow the state to become lax about making the water clean enough for kids to play in.

Until now it was assumed almost all water bodies in the state were potential swimming holes and needed to be held to the highest standard, or plans needed to be in place to clean them up.

What a bunch of a**holes!

Jose Menendez to discuss patient dumping by area hospitals in San Antonio

Upon reading a recent San Antonio Express-News story that chronicled multiple instances of patient dumping by local hospitals at the Haven for Hope homeless shelter — some with IVs still attached or too debilitated to walk or speak — state Rep. Jose Menendez, D-San Antonio, felt a visceral reaction.

“I was very disappointed and actually disgusted,” he said. “To hear there was even a remote possibility that area hospitals would consider discharging a medically fragile person just for the fact they were indigent or mentally disabled, it's just sick.”

...

So he has decided to take action. Later this month, Menendez and several other civic leaders who support his decision will convene a round-table group involving hospital officials, state agencies, Haven staff, and staff from other homeless shelters and mental health centers to come up with short-term solutions to the patient dumping.

Of course, Menendez is a Democrat. republicans would want to know how to extend the practice to other cities. Psst: If patient dumping is illegal, who's going to send the culprits to jail?

Now that the EPA is checking up on TCEQ what about Las Brisas?

Texas republicans still love their cronies. Instead of denying the permit, TCEQ sent part back to the administrative judges for review. Texas Vox says 'TCEQ Decides That Regulating Pollution Isn’t Their Job'

Yesterday the TCEQ remanded the air permit for the proposed Las Brisas petroleum-coke plant back to the State Office of Administrative Hearings. What they didn’t do is require the facility to do what’s called a case-by-case analysis of MACT (Maximum Achievable Control Technology) for Hazardous Air Pollutants. In effect, TCEQ (the agency tasked with protecting people and the environment from pollution) is not going to require Las Brisas to do a proper analysis of their pollution control!

More here and here.