Texas state rep says 'YouTubes are infallible'

You wonder why Texas is becoming the laughing stock of the entire nation. Here's a republican icon for ya'.

Though the Obama campaign produced a certificate of live birth from Hawaii and the director of Hawaii's Department of Health confirmed Obama was born there, [Leo] Berman, in all his searching, says he’s found little information to reassure him about the president. “The latest rumor I hear, and I don’t know if this is true or not,” Berman said, “is that he’s used about 25 different Social Security numbers.” Asked where he gets his information, Berman cites e-mails and online video clips. “YouTubes are infallible,” he said.

Whatever his reasoning, he is not alone in desiring such legislation. “He’s not swinging by himself,” said Chris Elam, a spokesman for the Republican Party of Texas. “There’s a platform plank out there.” In fact, there are platform planks for many of Berman’s most attention-getting legislation. And recent polls indicate that his immigration initiatives have strong support among Texans.

Yup, crazy Berman is mainstream republican.

'Advocate' for Texas environment is polluters' crony

Who even bothers to be surprised anymore, let alone shocked. Texas is a crony state.

A prominent Washington lawyer long connected to conservative causes is helping craft legal strategy for the State of Texas as it fights federal proposals on health care and environmental regulation.

The lawyer, David Rivkin , is working for free, but his firm, Baker Hostetler , represents at least one major health care company and several oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil, that have pushed for lighter regulations.

republicans promote their cronies, not the general welfare.

psst. Rivkin is NOT working for free. His efforts have real costs for Texans and their children.

republican buget cutting means big hurt for rural, poor Texans

Aren't rural Texans the republican base?

Cuts proposed to state Medicaid funding could mean reduced access to medical care throughout rural areas in Texas, according to doctors and rural hospital advocates.

Dr. Mike Henderson of Childress told the Austin American-Statesman that cuts could close the obstetrical unit at Childress Regional Medical Center, the only hospital within 100 miles of Childress that delivers babies.

Forced sonograms. Check. Actual health care for mothers delivering babies? No way.

Black kids get harsher treatment in Texas schools

Black students in Texas are much more likely to be kicked out of their regular classrooms than children of other races when the decision is left up to school administrators, according to state data from the last three years.

Racism is alive and kicking kids.

republicans want to rip children out of families and kick them into foster care

In early drafts of the budget, there are 460 agency missions, known as “strategies,” with two zeroes beside them, meaning they would be totally eliminated.

This is the story of one of those: The 6-year-old push at CPS to save huge foster care bills for taxpayers by using limited stipends to nudge relatives, godparents and even good neighbors to take in abused and neglected children. In the current budget cycle, the program is spending about $17 million and provides payments to parents of nearly 12,000 children.

republicans always penny stupid and pound idiotic.

It's Monday so enjoy another TPA blog roundup!

The Texas Progressive Alliance would like to thank the Academy for this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff published an interview with Chris Barbic, founder and CEO of the YES Prep charter schools, which included a discussion of what the looming budget cuts will do to charter schools.

Doing My Part For The Left is having a greeting card event. Refinish69 thinks it is time to Send Republican Senators and Representatives a Greeting Card to thank them for the work they are doing.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that the he GOP's wish is coming true - the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer, Plutocracy, or the 30 year class war on working and middle class Americans.

Nat-Wu analyzes the Tucson shootings and the guns on campus bill before the Texas legislature.

From Bay Area Houston: "Teabaggers are the most dangerous, ignorant, disrespectful bunch of people on the planet."

No one fails quite like Mucous.

The Texas Cloverleaf speaks out against concealed firearms on Texas campuses.

Public Citizen's TexasVox asks who the real sacred cows are in the Texas and Federal budget, replying that the obvious answer are the corporate welfare queens making profits off fossil fuel subsidies.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme calls out the Dallas Morning News for siding with the Koch brothers against hard working people.

Lightseeker over at TexasKaos thinks he knows what game the Republicans are playing at and what the Democrats are trying in reply. Check out Shock and Awe and The Democratic Strategy Going Forward.

Redistricting endangers several Texas House representatives, Democratic as well as Republican. The mapmakers may need long knives instead of sharpened pencils (since we can all do maps online now). PDiddie at Brains and Eggs summarizes the opening of "negotiations".

Neil at Texas Liberal discussed the fact that he will soon be taking an airplane trip.

The media can't hide what's going on in Wisconsin from the people in Wisconsin

What happens when 'up is down' coverage meets 'they're trying to take away my livelihood'?

Did you think there wouldn't be more toll roads in Texas?

republicans love the idea of having cronies in control of essential services and our infrastructure. Better to have someone thinking about making profits than someone promoting the general welfare.

Dallas is used to calling itself the toll road capital of Texas. But the state’s highway chiefs voted Thursday to advance the next stage of a grand toll road project encircling Houston that could dwarf even the most ambitious plans seen in North Texas.

The project, known as the Grand Parkway, could stretch 180 miles through seven counties and become the first private toll road built in Texas’ largest city, where until now toll roads have been built by the county toll authority.

Flour Bluff schools deny LGBT club

Local activists claim Flour Bluff High School's principal is refusing to allow a club for gay and lesbian students and discriminating against homosexual students and their supporters.

The school has until Monday to approve a student club supporting gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender students or local advocates will demonstrate in front of the campus.

Is it legal to deny this club? Flour Bluff says they can ignore the Equal Access Act.

Citgo gets a 'cost of doing business' fine

You may get asthma or cancer. Gabriel Alvarado got a fresh dose of hell.

Citgo Refining and Chemicals Co., which operates two refineries in Corpus Christi, received a $303,294 fine from TCEQ for water and air violations from a 2009 fire.

The incident caused injuries to more than 60 percent of employee Gabriel Alvarado's body and also is being investigated by the U.S. Chemical Safety Board.

republicans think government in your uterus is more important that the budget shortfall

republicans think women should die rather than get an abortion, but rapists who impregnate them should be given the benefit of the doubt.

Democratic leaders criticized the bill and especially the Republican supermajority in the House for making it a priority when the state is facing a massive budget hole. It would take an estimated $27 billion more than lawmakers currently have to maintain current services.

“Instead of spending their limited time and efforts on extremely difficult impending budget cuts, Republicans are fast-tracking nonemergency legislation requiring a woman to obtain a sonogram prior to having an abortion, regardless of medical protocol and physician advice,” said Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston, Democratic caucus chairwoman.

republicans hate women.

Texas' reps in Congress hate clean air for constituents

But, love them cronies who pollute.

If there was any doubt that Texas Republicans’ hostility to climate-change regulations and mainstream climate science now also prevails in the GOP at large, it was resoundingly laid to rest over the weekend.

Voting essentially along party lines, the Republican-controlled U.S. House by 235-189 passed a spending-slashing budget resolution that took aim at the Obama administration’s new regulations for greenhouse gases and at key programs to advance climate science. The measure would fund the federal government through September until the end of fiscal 2011.

TWIA said former employees acted badly so we had to give them great severance packages

Here's a great example of republican logic.

Two former employees of a state windstorm agency had to be given severance packages to ensure they would cooperate and give testimony in legal matters involving the agency, even though there was cause for termination, the head of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association told lawmakers Tuesday.

Then, there is a little matter of 'meeting' at the most expensive restaurants possible and letting TWIA pick up the tab.

During Tuesday’s hearing, lawmakers discussed the $60,000 in fees -- TWIA paid $35,000, records show -- paid to state Rep. Todd Hunter, the mediator of the Hurricane Ike case, as well as the agency's hiring of a PR firm, and questioned Oliver about whether the agency was being as transparent as it should be.

Parties to the mediation hung out at the Four Seasons and pondered dinners at Ruth's Chris Steak House, III Forks and McCormick & Schmick's, records show.

Texans poll majority racist

And, Texans poll anti- US Constitution

Texas voters are willing to end automatic citizenship for the U.S.-born children of undocumented immigrants, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll. It also found them willing to crack down on immigration in a number of other ways — punishing employers who knowingly hire illegal immigrants, taking in-state tuition away from immigrants' children, opposing a path to citizenship for immigrants who are currently in the country illegally and cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities.

The Dallas Morning News sides with the Koch brothers and against the rights of workers

The 'structural problem' the editors refer to is the voice of labor. Clearly, only billionaires like the Koch brothers have rights or the ability to make money.  Working people are so dirty.

State records also show that Koch Industries, their energy and consumer products conglomerate based in Wichita, Kan., was one of the biggest contributors to the election campaign of Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, a Republican who has championed the proposed cuts.

Even before the new governor was sworn in last month, executives from the Koch-backed group had worked behind the scenes to try to encourage a union showdown, Mr. Phillips said in an interview on Monday.

No doubt the new Wisconsin governor cares more about cronies than promoting the general welfare.

What this says is that the State of Wisconsin can sell or contract out management of state-owned heating, cooling and power plants without the requirement that bids for such a sale or leasing be solicited so as to maximize what the government can pocket through such an arrangement.

Put another way, the state can pick who they want and make whatever deal they want without anyone else having a chance to bid on the deal.

You have to admit- that is pretty unusual. States typically have a strict responsibility to maximize any such sale or least to fulfill government’s obligation to get the best deal possible for the people of the state.

Oligarchy here we come. Perhaps, we are already there.

Texans march against racist immigration law

Organizers from the Reform Immigration for Texas Alliance said that about 3,000 people of varying ages marched on the streets to the Capitol, and several hundred of them stuck around for a rally and to visit legislators.

Javier Parra said he was part of group of 400 people from McAllen who came to try to persuade members of the Legislature not to back some 60 immigration bills that he said are anti-immigrant, anti-family and anti-law enforcement.

Particularly, Parra said, he is opposed to a bill that would establish a law in Texas like the one in Arizona that allows police to detain or question anyone who they think is in the country illegally.

Why are we still building that d*mn fence?

Why do we have to give bigots and xenophobics sop after sop? Sure they're going to have temper tantrums. Who cares? Let them.

Local officials worry that a fence project proposed by Customs and Border Protection near UTEP may leave a flood-control structure isolated, inaccessible and an easy target for vandalism.

"It is one of our most important structures, where we receive our water coming down from the American Canal," said Jesus "Chuy" Reyes, general manager for El Paso County Water Improvement District.

Stupid gestures that enforce racism and reward bullies have bad direct and horrible indirect consequences. It's time we stop feeding the trolls.

Texans are gloomier than other Americans

Too bad for Rick Perry's presidential aspirations.

Voters are glum about the direction of the country, divided on the direction of the state and generally more negative than positive about the state of the nation's — and their families' — economic situation. They disapprove of the job President Barack Obama is doing and are split about evenly in their approval and disapproval of Rick Perry as governor. Those numbers line up with their views of Congress (not good) and the Texas Legislature (split).

Not all Texans are racist idiots

Five busloads of El Pasoans will join thousands of Texans today in Austin in a rally aimed at getting Republican lawmakers to stop supporting immigration bills that rally organizers consider racist, one of the organizers said Monday.

Psst, El Paso Times. Your headline is grossly misleading. Immigration reform today means a path to citizenship, not harassing, racist, pro profiling messes.

Brownsville ISD super hangs on to job. For now.

Lack of a quorum caused the cancellation of a special BISD school board meeting on Monday at which superintendent Brett Springston could have been placed on administrative leave and an acting superintendent appointed.

Will republicans favor charter schools in their funding equations?

Well, duh. Charter schools are a means to funnel taxpayer dollars into private CEOs' pockets. What do you think?

As the Texas Legislature weighs cutting $5 billion from public education next year, school districts have made attention-grabbing proposals about possible layoffs and school closures. But charter school administrators, who already operate with less state funding, hope to avoid those drastic measures.

While lecturing women, the Dallas Morning News says republicans went too far on abortion bill

The writers of this editorial express a 1950's view of women as children. But, even they think republicans went overboard.

[State Senator Dan] Patrick claims that his goal is the “empowerment” of women by making more information available to them. A sonogram would be required within two hours of the planned abortion, during which the doctor would take the patient on a virtual tour of the fetus’s anatomy. The fetus’s heartbeat would be made audible.

Even if the woman objects, this ritual would be imposed on her. “This bill was never intended to force a woman to do something she doesn’t want,” Patrick insists, adding that “the hand of God” played a role in his bill. If the woman doesn’t want to watch the sonogram, she can avert her eyes, he says. If she doesn’t want hear what the doctor is saying, she can simply “tune it out.”

Dan Patrick is loathsome.

Corpus Christi police screwed out of their retiree health benefits

Ask yourself how the city of Corpus Christi let this happen.

The Corpus Christi Police Officers Association health trust fund, established in 1989, was meant to bridge the gap between officers' retirements and their eligibility for Medicare.

The trust collected about $60 a month from active-duty officers who decided to participate and used it to pay the premiums on the city health insurance for retirees.

As medical costs grew, the trust fund couldn't keep up with its obligations, said union President Mike Staff, who also is one of the fund's controllers.

Can anyone say public option? Single payer government health plan? No, because the cronies in the insurance and health care business need their billions more than you need basic health care.

Firing hundreds of thousands of teachers is a terrible economic move for our country

Not to mention the impact on the education of our kids, aka our future. republicans love their ideology and their power. To hell with reality. So what if breaking up unions and a Democratic base hurts our country. Power is much more important than preserving the general welfare.

It is not yet known how much Texas school districts will have to cut in lieu of the state’s multi-billion dollar budget gap, but no scenario exists that does not result in thousands of education jobs lost.

In the past, if one school system was cutting, another was hiring. If educators were willing to move to other states, there were jobs and children to teach.

This time, experts say there are not many places for laid-off teachers and other school staffers to run — because states everywhere are going through the same painful process.

It's Monday so enjoy another TPA blog roundup!

The Texas Progressive Alliance stands in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin as they bring you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff examines the Perry/Combs slap fight over Amazon's decision to leave Texas rather than pay taxes.

Letters From Texas reports on a note a pregnant woman sent to Texas state Senator Leticia Van de Putte, as the Senate prepared to pass the sonogram bill, and as the woman prepared to leave for the hospital to deliver her baby. Surprise #1: the woman is against the bill. Surprise #2: so is her father. Surprise #3: her father is another Texas state Senator.

This week the Legislative Study Group released an updated version of the "Texas on the Brink", Eye On Williamson had this to say about how for Texas to get off the brink, we must fight for the impossible.

A gaggle of Houston bloggateers met with Metro's CEO and board members and discussed the many changes the transit authority has completed in the past year. PDiddie from Brains and Eggs was there and filed a report.

Libby Shaw explains what the Texas GOP means by shrinking government over at TexasKaos. Give a read to Texas GOP "To Shrink Government to fit inside a Woman's Uterus".

Neil at Texas Liberal looked at some early campaign advertising by incumbent Houston Mayor Annise Parker and considered if Mayor Parker's record matched her claims.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why republicans dislike women so much.

This week at McBlogger, your punishment is your reward!

Texas escalates fight againt Planned Parenthood

There can be no doubt that the fight against Planned Parenthood is coordinated.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott just released two opinions expected to force Planned Parenthood out of the state's Women's Health Program, which provides family planning, but not abortions, to Medicaid patients.

In the first opinion, Abbott said that under state law, the Health and Human Services Commission "may not contract with entities that are affiliates of entities that perform or promote elective abortions." (This means, effectively, that HHSC can't provide women's health services through a Planned Parenthood branch — even if that branch doesn't perform abortions — because it's "affiliated" with clinics that do.)

republicans just hate women. Let them be barefoot and pregnant.

Should exiting Texas Windstorm execs get $160k packages?

In republican logic they should. Who cares if they earned it or even did a decent job. Were they cronies? Were they upper management? A yes to either question means a yes to a big payoff.

State lawmakers plan to grill officials of the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association on Tuesday, following the revelation that the insurer is paying more than $160,000 in severance to two top claims supervisors who left in December.

Hispanic numbers soar in Texas

Census data released Thursday show a robust statewide population spurt the past decade — adding more than 4.2 million residents, or 20.6% — attributed primarily to Hispanics such as [Jose Villagran, 39, first-generation Mexican American,] minorities born in urban centers but quickly spreading to suburbs and rural areas across the state.

El Paso county now is 82% Hispanic.

Hidalgo County grew 36%.

Hidalgo County added 205,000 residents in the past decade, a booming population rate that mimicked statewide growth among Hispanics.

But the county’s increase wasn’t enough to maintain its decade-old position as the state’s seventh-largest county, reigniting concerns that the U.S. Census Bureau missed thousands of colonia residents during the decennial headcount.

More here.

Texas hates women

How else do you explain the sonogram abortion bill? Clearly, republicans don't care about children or they wouldn't cut Medicaid, public education and slow roll food stamp enrollment.

Women in Texas must be offered a fetal sonogram and hear a heartbeat before having an abortion under legislation approved by the Senate on Thursday.

The legislation, hailed by abortion opponents as a way to entitle women to more information, would be in addition to a 24-hour waiting period and state-dictated medical information that already are required.

And, by 'medical information' they mean crazy stuff that rolls around in their pointy little heads.

Will former Port Aransas Court employee be charged with embezzlement?

The court's administrative secretary was accused in the second audit report of using several schemes including skimming and falsifying computer records and receipts to misapply at least $85,532.

Another fight between the batsh*t crazies and the greedy corporate b*st*rds

The old time republicans, aka greedy corporate b*st*rds, used to rule the roost. George Bush found out the hard way that the batsh*t crazy folks are now in charge when he tried immigration reform. The GCBs wanted cheap labor. The racists couldn't stomach the idea of a brown person becoming a US citizen. You know who won that battle.

The Texas Association of Business is whistling in the wind, if they think that republicans value public education. Not anymore. Who needs an educated workforce.

'Texas Association of Business urges lawmakers to protect education funding'

Want more proof that the republican party is full of racists?

I know you didn't, but here's another data point. (H/T to the BurntOrangeReport).

When I ran into [Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams] yesterday, it appeared conservatives have not made much progress on [reaching out to the African American community]. Ahead of me was a CPAC attendee rushing past, as they are wont to do in this giant place.

"Hey, are you Herman Cain?" the young man asked Williams, referring to another African American conservative running for federal office and attending CPAC.

I asked Williams if that happened a lot.

"Not really," he told me. "A lot of people think I'm a waiter."

Texas AG goes after the Google

The Texas attorney general's office on Tuesday disclosed a set of demands it made last year seeking information from Google Inc. as part of an antitrust review that was triggered by complaints by small websites about how they were ranked in the Internet giant's search results.

There's more.

Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott's office has requested an array of information from Google Inc., including the company's formula for setting advertising rates, according to a demand for documents by state antitrust officials.

The antitrust investigators also are seeking Google documents that show "manual overriding or altering of" search result rankings, according to Texas's civil investigative demand.

This headline misses the bigger point

'State Lawmakers Differ On Law Enforcement's Role In Immigration Checks'

Some republican lawmakers are driven by racism. The rest of the republican lawmakers are driven by the racism of their batsh*t crazy base. The racists and their minions will provide any gesture of hate towards brown people. The only aspect of public policy these lawmakers are attending to is harassment of non-white looking people.

Illegal immigration to the batsh*t crazy crowd, is the existence in the United States of people other than those of their choosing.

The 'ignorance is demanded' crowd are after your children

Studies show that abstinence only education does not work as well as ... EDUCATION. The batsh*t crazy crowd doesn't care about facts or reality. They go by the batsh*t seat of their batsh*t pants and make stuff up.

A pro-abstinence group called on CCISD trustees Monday to rescind their January approval of sexual education that it claims is influenced by a local family planning agency.

Some advocates of abstinence-only education object to Family Planning of the Coastal Bend, formerly known as Planned Parenthood, providing resources to the district’s human sexuality curriculum.

Now the leaders of the batsh*t crazies have targeted Planned Parenthood for extinction. The lying, hate-driven attack against ACORN and voting rights for the poor worked so well, they are now after Planned Parenthood. As for your kids? Propaganda and a life of long hours, hard work and no health care in between many, many pregnancies.

Here's a headline I never thought I would see

'Texas penalizes colonia developers in Cameron County'

Did somebody forget to write a large check to the Texas GOP? How often does Bob Perry get hassled by state agencies?

The sum will be refunded to property buyers Alonzo Peña and Mirthala Peña, the final judgment reflects.

The developers also agreed to pay the state $54,000 in civil penalties, $57,850 in attorney’s fees and investigative costs, and $1,789.85 in litigation costs.

According to the state’s lawsuit against the developers, they sold properties to the Peñas without water and sewer connections or the required bond for installation, Abbott said in a written statement.

Texas Comptroller’s Office refuses compensation to wrongly convicted man

The Texas Comptroller’s Office has denied compensation to Anthony Graves, who spent 18 years on death row before a special prosecutor determined he was innocent and authorities dropped capital murder charges against him.

The state determined that Graves, 45, who could have received as much as $1.4 million had he been deemed eligible, should receive nothing because the words "actual innocence" didn’t appear in the document ordering his release, according to a letter the office sent to Graves’ attorney, Nicole Casarez.

I'm surprised they didn't execute him anyway.

What will El Paso do without $100M in state funding?

El Paso will be devastated if the state cuts more than $100 million in services and funding to this community over the next two years, local officials said Monday during a news conference.

Of course, Texas insurance rates are too high. You live in the land of crony capitalism.

Seven and a half years after State Farm Insurance was first cited by Texas officials for excessive homeowners rates, the legal battle resumes this week — with hundreds of millions of dollars and perhaps the future of the state’s regulatory system in the balance.

The Texas Department of Insurance will try to convince a judge that the state’s largest insurer owes its policyholders at least $310 million plus interest for overcharges. The state’s public insurance counsel maintains that the figure is closer to $1 billion.

...

Until the Legislature takes concrete action to give the commissioner stronger authority to regulate the insurance market, [Alex Winslow of Texas Watch] said, “We’re going to continue down this path where insurers can dictate terms and keep the state tied up in court for years on end.”

Under state law, insurance companies can automatically raise rates once they notify the state. Consumer advocates want to make the companies seek prior approval of rates, but there is little appetite for that in the Legislature. Gov. Rick Perry has said the current system is working to increase competition and keep rates down.

Texas, where cronies are king and republicans don't give a sh*t about you.

Texas wins worst of the worst awards

While Rick Perry basks in the benefits of crony capitalism and misogyny, the rest of the state suffers. Here's any example.

Despite having the highest birth rate, Texas has the worst rate of women with health insurance, and the worst rate of pregnant women receiving prenatal care in the first trimester, according to the report commissioned by the Legislative Study Group, a liberal-leaning research caucus in the Texas House.

Barefoot, pregnant and without health care. That's how republicans like 'their' women. As for the babies? Who cares as long as the woman remains pregnant.

FEDS are looking into our power outages

Are the Bush corporate cronies still in charge?  Are the cronies still pervasive throughout all of our government the agencies? Will the FEDS promote the general welfare or the crony welfare?  We shall see.

Late Monday, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ordered an inquiry into the outages in Texas and other Southwestern states. The agency said it was concerned about the reliability of both electricity and natural gas and wanted its staff to report as soon as it could on what happened and how to keep it from recurring.

Essential services should not be run by people whose primary motives are profits, not the general welfare.

As for ERCOT ...

Another concern centers on the composition of ERCOT's board. The Sunset Commission staff report on ERCOT recommended that the agency have a fully independent board, saying: "Although the Board makes critical decisions affecting Texas’ $34 billion competitive electric market, industry stakeholders with financial interests in these decisions hold a majority of votes. ERCOT is unique as being the only transmission system operator in North America to not have a fully independent board."

In Texas, the fox always runs the hen house.

Here's a headline I never thought I would see

The republican propaganda machine is pervasive. Want older workers to stay on the job and off social security? Then, put out stories in the newspaper about how seniors love to work and will wither in retirement. Put out stories declaring social security undermines our economy. Put out stories about how the only solution to our budget woes involves privatizing social security. Put out stories saying the demise of Social Security is inevitable. You've seen it countless times. Slogans and stories trump facts and reality.

But, what's this? 'Cutting Medicaid harder than issuing soundbites, senators learn'

There are glimpses of reality in the minds of ideologically crazed republicans?

If kidney dialysis treatment is cut, Medicaid patients with renal disease would show up very ill at hospitals, said Charles Bell, deputy executive commissioner for health services at the Health and Human Services Commission.

“Without the dialysis, that individual would actually go into an emergency situation,” Bell, a doctor, told a Senate Finance Committee panel studying Medicaid.

Really? Without dialysis people get very ill? Who could have possibly guessed.  I'm sure the republicans are just thinking 'let them die'. There are death panels and the republicans are presiding.

You knew you were paying too much for electricity, didn't you?

republicans like to have their cronies make a profit off of essential services.

Texans have paid $11.5 billion more for residential electricity than the national average under deregulation in “a massive drain” on the economy, two consumer groups claim in a report that raises troubling questions about how the state’s power supply is managed.

No money for teachers or financial aid, but hey - the guys in charge get a big raise

In the republican world, the rich deserve all of the money and the rest don't merit a public education. Best to enforce and enhance a class system so that the rich can imagine that they're really better than you.

Four top officials of the Texas State University System received raises of more than 10 percent two years in a row, with one of the officials getting 22.6 percent and 19 percent increases, according to system records.

Crony is as crony does.

Texas republican attack of rural schools goes after their base

I know republicans hate public education. They prove that over and over and over again. But, will the republican base like their kids roaming their homes and streets 24/7 without jobs or a good idea in their heads?

For the residents of [Miles a] tiny West Texas farming community, the school district is central to their identity, history and way of life.

"There's a wonderful feel about a small community," said Glenda Lacy, the keeper of Miles' history. "I wouldn't want to be anywhere else."

Miles, however, faces a serious threat to its survival from the school budget cuts being mulled in the Texas Capitol.

Lawmakers are considering a two-year budget proposal that does not cover $10 billion owed to school districts under current law, which would amount to a 14 percent reduction in total state and local education spending.

It's Monday so enjoy another TPA blog roundup!

The Texas Progressive Alliance is slowly thawing out as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

This week on Left of College Station, Congressman Bill Flores gives talking point answers to softball questions. Also, a look at the Republican attack on birthright citizenship both nationally and in Texas, and how Republicans are undermining Texas’ economic future by cutting education funding today. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

Off the Kuff reads an op-ed about how the budget should be balanced and detects a shift in where the center of the debate is.

TXsharon says, "So what," to another attempt by the Big Gas Mafia to avoid regulation of hydraulic fracturing.

Eye On Williamson points out that it's not what Gov. Rick Perry said in his "State of the State" address, but what he didn't say, Un-meaningful measures.

Lightseeker reports on the coming coverup of the multi-billion dollar shortfall in educational spending in The once and future lie: Schools are in financial trouble because they have too many paper pushers. Check it out out over at TexasKaos.

This week, McBlogger takes a look at some bipartisan craziness that's sure to clog up our courts forever.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants every parent to know Republicans hate teachers and public education.

Rick Perry spent time in California and Washington DC over the past week, returning to Texas briefly to give his "state of the state" address. Which revealed that he lives in a state of delusion. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs points out that the emperor is unclothed.

Bay Area Houston says Trusting Rick Perry with fiscal responsibility is like trusting a convicted child molester with the keys to a daycare.

Letters From Texas observes Republican priorities around the country and in Texas, and concludes that Republicans are at war with women.

Neil at Texas Liberal notes that having planned all the harm they can on health and education, Texas Republicans are now going after history and the arts. Neil also posted on comments made by Texas State Senator John Whitmire. Senator Whitmire made the astute point that average citizens themselves are going to have to organize and fight back if they want to stop the worst of what Republicans have planned for Texas.

TexasVox notes that TransCanada has already started condemning land in Montana for the Keystone XL pipeline to bring the world's dirtiest oil to Texas refineries: is Texas next?

John Cornyn wants Jon Kyl's whip position

Texas Sen. John Cornyn, the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, is running for the No. 2 position in the GOP Conference, an aide told POLITICO Friday.

“Let there be no mistake about it: Sen. Cornyn is running for whip,” a senior aide to Cornyn said.

How can Texas make it even less likely people want to be teachers?

Sure, we already have the low pay, consistent humiliation and degradation. What's left? Health benefits.

The Legislature’s initial state budget proposals calling for the closing of four community colleges caught many lawmakers off guard. But what largely escaped their attention — the slashing of health benefits across all such institutions — is what concerns community college officials the most.

Not only are republicans against public education, they're against accessibility to health care. Why do republicans hate citizens so much?

Who was Perry trying to benefit with his $10K degree

Humm. It most certainly would involve an online course provider. Who does Perry know that provides online education materials? This isn't a new gig for Perry. He was pushing online ed last year, too. Not everybody likes the courses offered by an approved online charter school.

The Texas Virtual Academy at Southwest Charter Schools of Houston and K12 Curriculum Team Up to Provide Anti-Science Education for Texas Grades 3-8 Online Distance Education Students

I smell cronies, indoctrination and death to public education.

The Texas Tribune says we already have a $10K college degree and the republicans are poised to kill it.

South Texas College is one of three community colleges in Texas — the others are Brazosport College and Midland College — authorized to offer a Bachelor of Applied Technology degree. It’s a real, honest-to-goodness bachelor’s degree, designed for students who already have an Associate of Applied Science — a technical degree that often doesn’t transfer to traditional universities. It can be leveraged into middle management positions or even the pursuit of a master’s degree. And the cost tends to be in the $10,000 range.

...

The House’s base budget not only eliminates all funding for Brazosport, it eliminates funding for all of the state’s Bachelor of Applied Technology programs. And even if that were not the case, efforts to expand the program are likely to be met with strong resistance. The opposition comes from those who believe the role of community colleges is strictly to provide affordable, two-year associate's degrees, and from universities that want to protect their turf.

More discussion of a $10K degree here.

Here's a good headline to see

'Bexar Met offers whistle-blower his job back'

How did he get fired in the first place?

[Gilbert Herrera's lawyer Alex] Katzman said the agreement was unacceptable, as finance director Jesse Morin, who fired Herrera, is now part of a three-person team running BexarMet, and Herrera would need a plan to ensure he would be protected from harassment.

BexarMet doesn't need a man who did what Morin did running the place. How does that look when BexarMet is trying to regroup?

Another worker death

The body of a contract worker, who was reported missing Tuesday after explosions at the Enterprise Products storage plant in Mont Belvieu, was found Wednesday, officials said.

republican job plan: abortion police

House Republican leaders have made new restrictions on abortion one of their top priorities, pushing a divisive issue to the forefront of the congressional agenda.

If every woman who might possibly be fertile is required to have a baby sitter (no pun intended), that would end unemployment in the US. The baby sitter could check every month to see if the woman is pregnant. If a pregnancy is detected, then the woman would require around the clock supervision to ensure her pregnancy results in a birth. No need to worry if the baby is born alive or if the baby has access to education or health care afterward. The focus is on keeping women pregnant.

Will republicans trade today's cuts in prisoner health care for expensive lawsuits later?

Is any prison sentence in Texas going to be equivalent to the death penalty?

Health care in Texas prisons is already so abysmal it borders on being unconstitutional, according to a report released today by the Texas Civil Rights Project. The cuts lawmakers are now considering, they said, will almost certainly spark lawsuits that could cost Texas more money than it would spend to simply improve the system.

"Cutting the budget for prison health care will be a disaster for taxpayers of the state," said Brian McGiverin, an attorney with the Civil Rights Project.

republicans don't care about justice. Just don't get in between a republican and their favorite crony.

Tea Party favorite got greedy with Windstorm funds while he was supposed to be a watchdog

In four years, the co-chairman of oversight of a state insurance agency made more than $300,000 off the company he is supposed to oversee on behalf of consumers in Texas.

State Rep. Larry Taylor (R-Friendswood), a veteran member of the House Insurance Committee and the co-chair of a subcommittee that oversees Texas Windstorm, is also an insurance salesman who receives commissions for selling insurance policies from the company. Windstorm is the state’s insurer of last resort.

republicans don't care about promoting the general welfare. republicans are too busy promoting their own interests.

Essential services for you, a 'business decision' for them

Home much can a CEO get you to pay for electricity? When greedy business men never can get enough money, how much is too much for you to fork over?

The shortage of natural gas to electric generators during last week's rolling blackouts was the result of a business decision by some generators, not a general curtailment of gas because of freezing weather or state rules, a gas industry veteran told the Texas Railroad Commission on Tuesday.

You know that greedy CEOs don't care if you die or your children suffer when a few extra dollars in their pocket are at stake.

Too bad the republicans in charge like their greedy friends instead of promoting the general welfare.

Coprus Christi may take Packery Channel improvement money for private developers

The Island Strategic Action Committee wants to use the voter-created Tax Increment Financing District to pay for projects such as street improvements on Whitecap Boulevard and utility infrastructure to entice developers. Those projects weren't in the original plan floated to voters.

Another day, another college tuition increase

Because, republicans in the Texas legislature refuse to adequately fund public education. Why should they? republicans don't believe anyone but the rich, aka their kids, should go to school.

A projected state funding loss of at least $6 million for Del Mar College means school officials may consider a tuition increase, a tax rate hike and program reductions, officials said.

"The solutions are very few, and they are serious," said Lee Sloan, the college's vice president for administration, finance and student services.

More attacks on higher education for the poor

The rich deserve to have their kids go to college while the poor obviously do not.  Because, republicans have all that sense of entitlement without a drop of common sense.

Shawn Johnson graduated from Texas A&M University with a bachelor’s degree in accounting and a master’s in management information systems nine months ago, but he hasn’t forgotten the day he found out about what one state senator calls a "a 20 percent backdoor secret tax" on those paying for college. At 5:48 p.m. on Friday, May 28, 2010, he received an e-mail from the school’s business office letting him know that a significant chunk of his tuition money had been used to ease the financial burden for other students.

All that can should go to college. The more educated the people, the better off the country is. Except, if you want to be a third world country with sharply delineated classes. Except, if you need really poor people to feel better about yourself.

We, and by we I mean the public, need to fund public education. Too bad the republicans hate every attempt to do just that.

The Brownsville Herald tells the truth about Social Security

I am so sick of the right wing propaganda about Social Security appearing in various media reports like a drum beat. Kudos to the Brownsville Herald for telling us the truth.

Sometimes people don’t give themselves enough credit. But if you work and pay Social Security taxes, you’re earning credit for yourself every payday — credit that will pay off later in life when it comes time for retirement, or in the event that you become disabled and are unable to work; credit that can help your family if you die early and need to provide for those who depend on you.

You qualify for Social Security benefits by earning Social Security credits when you work in a job or are self-employed and pay Social Security payroll taxes.

Social Security payments are an earned benefit.

Do you want hungry, mentally unstable prisoners?

State prison officials are considering a budget-cutting plan to lay off more than 1,000 workers , close three drug treatment centers including one in Burnet and reduce the number of meals fed to prisoners on weekends.

Hundreds of parole and probation officers would be among those laid off. And a slimmed-down menu for prisoners proposes sliced bread instead of hamburger and hot dog buns, powdered milk instead of dairy milk, one dessert per week instead of two and only two meals — brunch and dinner — on Saturdays and Sundays instead of three.

This isn't even penny wise, but it sure is pound foolish.

Can Dewhurst win the republican nomination for Senate?

One wonders if Dewhurst could survive if all the batsh*t crazies vote.

Several Republican Senate hopefuls in Texas have declared early in order to gain ground on Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst while his attention is focused on business in Austin.

Dewhurst is widely considered the favorite to succeed Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas), but the next few months could prove crucial to his candidacy as he plays a key role in managing the Legislature.

republicans are ever so sneaky about killing public education

Rick Perry wants colleges to offer a degree for $10K including books.  Say what?  Could that even be done with online classes and no teacher support?  Wouldn't secure exam testing for 40 or so classes cost more than that?  With just a midterm and a final per class that would be at least 80 tests per student.  At just $100 per test you've blown $8K.  Don't even begin to think about writing and grading papers.

Texas Senators bluster while someone tells the truth.

During his testimony, Education Commissioner Robert Scott said that determining what money he would ask to be restituted in the final budget was akin to asking "a guy on the operating table whether wants his heart or his lungs back." Scott said his No. 1 priority was to restore funding to the Foundation School Program, which provides money for the state's core education programs. After that, he requested "bare bones" financing for instructional materials and money in the final budget for awards for teacher excellence — something he said would be important as teachers face possible reductions in pay and furloughs.

Psst, Mr. Scott, either funding elimination will do the job, i.e. kill the patient.  As for helping the poor get a degree?  That is exactly opposite of what today's republican wants.

Aid to students will likely also be on the chopping block. Without continued funding for tuition assistance, outreach, mentorship programs and other tools to get underserved student populations in college — and keep them there — experts say it will be difficult to maintain progress toward a better-educated generation.

“That’s going to make it tougher all the way around. We still need financial aid,” said Brown of the Higher Education board. “The people who had a lot of money were already going to college.”

The batsh*t crazy republicans don't care about providing educated workers to the greedy corporate b*st*rd republicans.  Ooops.

Rolling blackouts getting attention

Two points that republicans will want to ignore. America needs a serious infrastructure upgrade. Each penny spent on improvements is worth thousands down the road (no pun intended). And, essential services should not be based on a private business profit model. Both infrastructure and the availability of essential services promote the general welfare.

So, what is being said about the blackouts? Take down price protections for consumers. What lessons did we learn from Enron?

There will be bluster at the Texas Railroad Commission. Bluster at the Texas Senate. And, bluster in general.

republicans can bluster all they want without touching the basic problem. All republican policy focuses on profit for private individuals. No consideration is left over for promoting the general welfare. There is just one minor problem for the republicans. People like and need their basic services.

DPS loses 150 guns

Gun safety isn't important, is it?

A 24-foot boat. A $74,000 piece of radio equipment. More than 150 handguns and rifles.

Those are just a few of the nearly 1,500 items that the Texas Department of Public Safety reported stolen or lost in the last decade, according to information obtained by the Texas Tribune under public records laws. Together, the items the agency lost track of — which also include computer equipment and protective gear — are valued at more than $3.2 million and were often bought with taxpayer money.

Some of the items might have been found, warehoused or sold, a department spokeswoman said, but the agency’s inventory system is so poor it is hard to know exactly what assets are actually missing. “We haven’t had the tools we need to keep track of stuff very well,” said DPS spokeswoman Tela Mange.

European drug manufacturers might temporarily stop Texas executions

A combination of market forces and European objections to the death penalty have left the nation’s busiest execution chamber with only enough of a key drug — sodium thiopental — to use for two convicted murderers scheduled to die later this month.

Like most of the 35 states that have the death penalty, Texas has relied on a three-drug cocktail: sodium thiopental, an anesthetic to render the inmate unconscious, and two drugs to stop the heart and lungs and cause death. Last month, the only American producer of sodium thiopental, Illinois-based Hospira Inc., announced it would stop selling the drug, which it planned to manufacture in an Italian plant, after Italian authorities wanted a guarantee that the drug would not be used in capital punishment.

Here's a headline that made me blow my coffee

'Can a Pro-Choice Republican Win in Texas?'

With today's republicans denying an abortion to save the life of the mother, and calling rape victims 'accusers', you have got to be kidding.  Oh, for the days of the middle ages when the technology and freedom didn't exist.

It's Monday TPA blog roundup time!

The Texas Progressive Alliance is hoping for a swift and player-friendly resolution to the NFL labor situation as it brings you this week's roundup.

Bay Area Houston submits a press release from Rick Perry: TX Gov Rick Perry puts the Chupacabra on emergency legislation.

Off the Kuff conducted an interview with Houston City Attorney David Feldman to discuss the upcoming Council redistricting process.

Harold at Letters From Texas poked fun at the Texas weather on both Wednesday and Friday.

While the Big Gas Mafia is pumping diesel fuel into the ground in the name of national security and energy independence, they have been quietly planning to ship a bunch of it to China. TXsharon wants you to think about who profits and who pays for this so-called "clean energy."

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes privatizing essential services promotes profits not the general welfare. The Corpus Christi Caller Times pretends (or not) to be all stupid about the rolling blackouts.

Texans came to the shivering realization last week that the energy capital of the world can't keep its lights on. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs provides the reveal.

How bad is the diaster that Perry wrought? Libby Shaw spells it out over at TexasKaos . See Governor Rick Perry Lays a $30 Billion Rotten Egg on Texas.

Public Citizen asked a series of questions over at TexasVox about our rolling blackouts: who's to blame? (hint: coal and natural gas) who saved our bacon? (hint: renewables) and who profited?

Eye On Williamson informs us that GOP Williamson County Congressman John Carter wants to increase the amount of mercury in our air, Rep. Carter wants to increase corporate profits by harming nature.

It's always good to know that someone is sticking up for the stupid and belligerently ignorant. McBlogger offers his thanks to Speaker Boehner for being that someone.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote last week on the release---after many months---of the video tape of a number of Houston police officers beating up 15 year old Chad Holley. The public has a right to see this video. Houston's political leaders should be less concerned about Houston's image and the unlikely prospect of civil disorder, and more concerned with high rates of poverty in Houston that help drive young people to crime.

Corpus Christi Caller Times says no one could have foreseen a statewide freeze

Not ERCOT, not AEP, not local officials, not state officials can be blamed for the rolling blackouts. Nope. And, don't even begin to think that someone might make a profit from the event. Nope. Nothing to see here. Just move along.

We suppose we could join the apparent clairvoyants who fault AEP and ERCOT for not foreseeing and preparing for the entire state to freeze, but we won't.

No one could have predicted this freeze? Except all of the weather forecasters. As for the long term planners, isn't a statewide freeze an event that should be taken into account? The standards for public officials at the Caller Times is way, way too low.

Citgo sued for denying overtime pay

A class-action lawsuit filed this week claims that the Corpus Christi Citgo refinery purposely classified people as supervisors who weren't so that it didn't have to pay overtime.

The suit was filed in Corpus Christi's U.S. District Court by six current and former employees who live in the Corpus Christi area.

What happens when essential services are controlled by people who profit?

[Lt. Gov. David] Dewhurst praised the industry's response but said he was frustrated that it did not appear better prepared for the extreme cold.

"I don't want to step on any toes in the deregulated market," Dewhurst said. "At the same time, I feel an obligation to 25 million Texans that nobody freezes."

Any investigation will put a complicated power system that is largely deregulated (except for electricity transmission) under the microscope. Lawmakers will have to decide what they can, or should, do when an essential service such as electricity is no longer regulated.

Deregulation and privatization of essential public infrastructure means profits are always in the equation while promoting the general welfare is not paramount.  With republicans, promoting the general welfare is dead last.  With an emphasis on dead.

Expect to see the frail and the elderly dumped onto Texas streets

Business owner after business owner warned Wednesday that proposed cuts would shutter their operations serving Texas’ disabled children and frail adults.

The grim warnings came as the Senate Finance Committee opened two days of public comment on GOP leaders’ two-year, $158.7 billion budget proposal.

The spending blueprint would reduce payments to some social service providers by more than 30 percent.

“I don’t know that I’ll be able to stay in business,” said Jerre van den Bent, owner of Dallas-based Therapy 2000, a 3,000-employee agency helping children with developmental disabilities.

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

'U.S. Rep. Hinojosa files for personal bankruptcy'

U.S. Rep. Rubén Hinojosa quietly filed for personal bankruptcy last month with $2.9 million in debt he traces to a loan he backed to his family’s closed food processing company.

The Mercedes Democrat, who spent 20 years as president H&H Foods before being elected to Congress in 1996, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Dec. 18 after Wells Fargo Bank sued to recover $2.6 million related to a loan he gave the company.

Are the rolling blackouts another case of Enron economics?

Texas Vox has suspicions. I don't put it past the republican crony capitalists and their filthy ethics.

Public Citizen and Sierra Club called on Governor Perry and the Commissioners at the Public Utility Commission and the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, (ERCOT) to investigate the cause of the outages and the response by the state’s regulated and unregulated electrical utilities and who profitted.

In the early hours on Wednesday, prices on the wholesale electricity market shot up 66 times from 3:00 AM through 11:00 AM and the electricity companies made millions overnight as electricity prices rose to the cap of $3,000.

John Fainter, who heads the Association of Electric Companies of Texas, told the Texas Energy Report that such price spikes cannot be immediately passed on to ordinary customers in the competitive market who have fixed-rate contracts, but you can bet that eventually ratepayers will pick up that cost and some generators will rake in a windfall.

republicans in charge should promote the general welfare rather than promote the profits of their cronies.  Time after time after time republicans choose their Enron-like friends.

Here's an official explanation.

State Sen. Troy Fraser, R-Horseshoe Bay, in a phone call with the Tribune today, stressed that conclusions are still tentative but said a chain reaction of problems involving the state's coal and gas plants appeared to be the cause — and wind plants were having trouble, too. So far no blackouts have been ordered today.

In any case, expect more of the same.

At 10 p.m. Thursday, AEP Texas was instructed by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to conduct rolling outages in the Rio Grande Valley due to the loss of power generation.

Or, maybe not today.

What do republican Latino lawmakers do when their party is just so racist?

If you are a Latino republican, then you are basically thinking about what's in it for you. Aaron Peña is a case in point. They have no shame.

Peña is among a handful of new Latino Republicans in the Texas Legislature, and they are taking a careful walk through the minefield of hot-button immigration and cultural wedge issues that are sure to spark debate — and possibly legal reforms — in the Legislature this year.

Blah blah blah. What's in it for Aaron?

Audit of UT Medical Branch reveals problems

Expected to be made public sometime today , the report by the State Auditor's Office also alleges that the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston charged the state's prison health care program for more than $16.2 million in costs not directly related to prisoner care, spent more than $6.6 million in two years for items that were not allowed under the prison contract and handed out $14.1 million in pay increases over three years while reporting that the program had a $95.1 million deficit.

In one case, the audit discloses, 40 employees of the prison medical division of UTMB received bonuses last November for which they were not supposed to be eligible — one receiving a payout of $125,460 — at a time when state agencies had been ordered to cut spending by 15 percent to staunch a predicted $27 billion budget shortfall.

ERCOT got a new controlling system. You got blackouts.

Less power.

“Severe weather has led to the loss of more than 50 generation units — more than 7,000 (megawatts), and additional units are continuing to trip offline due to the extreme cold temperatures,” Ercot said in a news release.

Drug company gets zinged for Medicaid charges

In what state officials describe as a record-setting verdict, a Travis County jury found Tuesday that a global drug manufacturer misrepresented prices to the state's Medicaid program and said the company should pay the state and federal government $170.3 million.

A crony capitalist has to pay? Will the republicans faint?

Wanna buy a troubled refinery?

'BP puts refinery with history of disasters up for sale'Disasters, death and lingering health hazards don't matter when greedy corporate CEOs want to get and keep money.

Expect less for our children when education is slashed

Greedy, 'I've got mine' republicans don't care if Texas goes to hell in an hand basket.

Voters made it part of the Texas Constitution in 1876: The Legislature shall establish and maintain the University of Texas as "a university of the first class."

So much for respecting our constitutions.

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

'Former Sullivan City police chief, co-defendants, plead guilty to federal drug charge'

Does anybody believe that our politicians are immune to bribery or intimidation from drug cartels? It's time to legalize drugs and take away the profit motive.

Everybody's got to be somewhere. Even the homeless.

Late last year, Dallas police led the way along White Rock Creek to a homeless encampment near Garland Road where squatters had tents, tarps, furniture, bikes and pets — and piles of garbage scattered in the brush.

Expect more homeless families as we continue to experience the republican economy.

Why does the Texas Tribune say already earned pensions are 'fair game'?

Is it fair game to raid my IRA? Is it fair game to come into my house and take items I have purchased? If the answer to either of the previous questions is no, then why is it ok to take ALREADY EARNED money from a retiree?

Why are republicans using your tax dollars for the Super Bowl?

The private business owners that control our tax dollars are already making a mint of this Super Bowl, why do they need a penny more?

A state trust fund that uses tax money to help communities play host to major sports events is distributing its largest grant yet for Super Bowl XLV: $31.2 million.

How many school teacher salaries is that?