Who knew you couldn't pay your property taxes with campaign funds?

If you're a republican, ethics and rules are for other people. You know. Those poor people without connections

.Texas Court of Criminal Appeals Justice Lawrence Meyers, in a tough GOP primary campaign against Presiding Judge Sharon Keller, said Wednesday that he will correct financial statements showing that he used campaign funds to pay property taxes on his Austin home.

The payments, Meyers said, were appropriate reimbursements for campaign-related expenses that were mislabeled as property tax payments of $3,286 this past summer and $2,929 in 2009.

Mean changes by republicans cause suffering for the elderly poor

Why do republicans call themselves Christians when they are so mean and selfish to the poor?

Dr. Bruce Malone, a partner at the [Austin Bone and Joint] clinic, has been an orthopedic surgeon in Austin since 1977. He also is the president of the Texas Medical Association, which deals with doctors across the state. A top concern in the foreseeable future for that group is doctors soon having to choose between paying for what some patients cannot or turning those patients away altogether.

"No Medicare. No Medicaid. It would be a disaster,” he said, shaking his head, referring to Jan. 1, when the policy change goes into effect.

How many other Texas republicans doubled billed expenses?

I'll bet a lot of them did. Look at the signs.

Take state Rep. Mike "Tuffy" Hamilton. Over the last three sessions, legislative travel vouchers show the Mauriceville Republican charged the state more than $16,000 for mileage — the equivalent of 60 trips between Austin and his East Texas district. He also used his campaign credit card to buy $5,400 in fuel on trips between those two cities. And at least once, he billed both his campaign and the Legislature for the same conference registration.

State Rep. Wayne Christian’s expense reports include similar duplications. In the last few sessions, Christian, R-Center, charged the state more than $16,000 for mileage between Austin and his district, while using $7,000 from his campaign to buy fuel at gas stations between Center and Austin. He reported at least $2,500 in expenses that appear to have been billed both to his campaign and to the Legislature, including airline tickets and conference stays.

Boo hoo for Rick Perry

Forgetting Lawrence v. Texas after 'writing' about it in his book and railing about it as governor is strange. Maybe he does have early onset Alzheimers. Or, he could just be that stupid and uncaring.

He ends the year treading water. His boots — “Freedom” and “Liberty” — might as well be named “Oops” and “Dang.” Even if he pulls out of this, it’s been embarrassing for him and for his home state.

He took the family name out into the world and made a hash of it. Texas was still recovering, in some quarters, from George W. Bush’s presidency — the idea that a pair of Tony Lamas and a twang were the first two signs of the apocalypse.

Those outside Texas think our memories are short, that our mental engines are a couple of quarts low. That whenever we see a new problem, we hide our checkbooks and start researching biblical rationalizations.

And, he is going to lose big in Iowa.

Texas schools sue for support

republicans want to kill public education. They have gotten a great start by underfunding them.

The legal fight over Texas' school finance system is shaping up to become the largest of its kind in state history.

Texas' largest school districts — including Austin, Houston and Dallas — joined the fight Thursday when they and 60 other districts, including Round Rock, filed a lawsuit that claims the method for funding Texas public schools is unconstitutional. It is the fourth such legal challenge filed against the state in recent months.

In all, more than 3 million students go to school in districts that have signed on to one of the four lawsuits. That total exceeds 60 percent of the state's public school population and dwarfs any of the past legal challenges.

republicans want the 1% to pay no taxes while getting as much of everyone else's tax dollars they can sneak by.

Corpus Christi TWC still fighting with local TV stations

KRIS-TV wants you to lobby the city council. That's strange. Shouldn't you lobby KRIS and Time Warner Cable?

Rick Perry believes in states rights, except when inconvenient for him

republicans just drip hypocrisy.

Rick Perry's campaign has filed suit in federal court challenging the constitutional validity of Virginia's ballot access rules. The Texas governor was notified last Friday that he had failed to submit the requisite number of valid signatures from registered voters in the Commonwealth and would not appear on the March 6 primary ballot.

I don't think Rick Perry will be elected anything, ever again

Rick Perry has sunk to the depths of the republican muck.  If you're raped and pregnant as a result, Perry will force you to carry your rapist's child.  Then, Perry and his republican friends will wash their hands of all responsibility and leave you to feed, clothe and educate the child on your own.  Psst.  Don't let the kid get sick.

The good news is that Perry has so thoroughly embarrassed Texas,  he couldn't get elected dog catcher.  The bad news is that Rick Perry has all that pension money he took early with which to sit out his old age.

Ron Paul is not a principled man

Ron Paul either lied when he printed a series of racist newsletters or he is lying now. Either way he is a liar and most likely a racist. Ron Paul sounds just perfect for the batshit crazy republican base. Selfish libertarian views of the world coupled with authoritarian views on women and minorities. Sounds great. Except, the military industrial complex along with the rest of the greedy corporate world don't like Paul's views on war and business. Ooops, as Perry would say.

The batshit crazies should rally round Paul.  Go for it.

The joy of fracking

Oh, what chemicals can we add to our ground water? Water fracking includes radioactive strontium. Lovely. Is propane fracking better?

Jadela Oil Corp., a Canadian exploration and production company, fractured its El Indio No. 1 horizontal well in Maverick County near Eagle Pass with more than 5,000 barrels of liquid propane and butane, a process known as gas fracking.

Enjoy the TPA blog roundup!

The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone is enjoying their holiday as it brings you the last roundup of 2011.

Last week's House Republican cave-in on the payroll tax cut extension is intertwined with the Keystone XL pipeline: both have to be decided upon again in 60 days. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has some discussion about the implications.

Bay Area Houston thinks Maybe Travis County DA Rosemary Lehmberg should resign.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted the Occupy Houston response to felony charges for some Occupy protestors who took part in civil disobedience at the Port of Houston. This is matter that should be of concern to all progressives, political advocacy groups, and civil libertarians.

Federal court judge Sam Sparks gave an early Christmas present to Texas microbreweries and their customers last week. Off the Kuff explains.

At TexasKaos, Lightseeker reports on the end of the year signs that the war on public education is reaching a critical juncture. Read his report : Public Education in the Crosshairs - Is This the End?

Texas Republicans disallow a crony capitalist tax break letting public schools keep money. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme can tell it's election season. You know Republicans love their cronies and hate public education.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson says it's time for the people to be the focus of our politics and government, and we must start doing What's good for the people of this state.

BossKitty at TruthHugger - is very pleased with Congressman Lloyd Doggett. The Texas Republicans are still trying to mess with Lloyd's District. Bosskitty shares an example of how Lloyd responded to an email concerning the HR 10 vote. UPDATE: Response to HR 10 Consequences

Nueces County District clerk having problems implementing system

A republican fishing expedition?

An audit of accounts in the Nueces County District Clerk's office says organizational problems, accounting weaknesses, questionable hiring practices and other findings could jeopardize the county's ability to administer justice.

But District Clerk Patsy Perez's chief deputy, Gerald Garza, responded that the audit merely bolsters his boss's long-standing, unfulfilled requests for more staff. Garza attributes inefficiencies to problems implementing a new $6 million software system.

The motive of the audit "was not to help our office but to tear it down," Garza wrote in an 18-page response to the 14-page report.

The wayback machine calls Ron Paul liar and a racist

Those pesky old pieces of information from the past.

Rep. Ron Paul has tried since 2001 to disavow racist and incendiary language published in Texas newsletters that bore his name, denying he wrote them and even walking out of an interview with CNN on Wednesday. But he vouched for the accuracy of the writings and admitted writing at least some of the passages when first asked about them in an interview in 1996.

Some issues of the newsletters included racist, anti-Israel or anti-gay comments, including a 1992 newsletter in which he said 95% of black men in Washington "are semi-criminal or entirely criminal."

Valero gets rejected by TCEQ

What can a crony count on in this world? Normally, a republican wouldn't hesitate to throw children's education under the bus to support a tax break for a corporation. Though, Rick Perry is running for president.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality has rejected Valero Energy Corp.'s request for retroactive tax exemptions at six refineries, a ruling that relieves many municipal and school district officials.

An affirmative decision would have required local governments already crunched by lean budgets to pay back millions of dollars to the company, which officials feared would set a precedent for other industries to file similar requests.

Valero should try again after Perry is crushed. republicans want to kill public education anyway.

Another day, another Texas colleges raises its tuition

Why? Because republicans are trying to kill public education. Fox News isn't enough to make everybody dumb.

Tuition at the University of Texas-Pan American could rise by more than 5 and 7 percent over the next two years for undergraduate and graduate students, respectively.

If the UT System Board of Regents approves UTPA President Robert Nelsen’s proposed tuition and fee changes in March, undergraduate students who currently pay $3,054.77 for a 15 credit hour course load would shell out $159.67 more by fall 2013.

Nueces County judge won't allow public document as evidence

WTF?

A contract for the demolition of the Memorial Coliseum won't be allowed as evidence in a legal dispute between the city and preservationists, a judge decided Tuesday.

Without that evidence, the preservationist group known as Friends of the Coliseum can't rely on an argument attorney Abel Cavada has worked to build for months about why his clients shouldn't pay the city a $30,000 bond they agreed to post in a previous lawsuit.

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

'5 Sheriff's Office employees out after failed drug tests'

Five Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office employees are no longer employed after violating the department’s alcohol and drug policy.

Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño announced the four terminations and one resignation in a news release Monday morning.

The Sheriff's employees should be fired. With that said, it is past time to legalize drugs. Take away the profit motive. Keep firing employees who take drugs, if such action negatively impacts their jobs. Throw DWI or DUI offenders in jail.

RIP to Texas trees

I didn't know Texas had that many trees.

A preliminary state estimate says as many as a half-billion trees died this year across Texas from the drought persisting across much of the state.

Sinton school district to build wind turbines

Cool!  They plan to save $50K annually.

It's Monday blog roundup

The Texas Progressive Alliance is all about the wassailing as it brings you this week's blog roundup.

Off the Kuff has a look at candidate filings in Harris County as of what was once the deadline date.

BossKitty at TruthHugger - sees the grim side of a corporate ruled America, is that Climate Change Controversy May Be A Conspiracy and we are the targets.

BlueBloggin - Special interests are really not very special when they represent mindless, dangerous attitudes of corporate extremists, who don’t want to be accountable for their actions. Let Me Sell you A Lie – EPA Consequences of The REINS Act – H.R. 10 shows that corporations really do own America's lawmakers.

Bay Area Houston says Rick Perry is one rotten bastard.

Death sentences and the use of the death penalty are hitting record lows. Mostly because of the corruption and injustice in our criminal justice system. It's led WCNews at Eye On Williamson to wonder, Is the death penalty dying?

Third-party presidential candidates may make some noise and perhaps even some news in 2012, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw gives us the headsup on the latest episode of Rick Perry, fraud and hypocrite. Check out: Double Dipping Rick the Hypocrite.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes Greg Abbott called the US Supreme court to poop on Texas' politicians and voters. That's a republican for you.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote a post considering the life of the real St. Nicholas. St. Nicholas was a foe of the death penalty who was said to have brought back to life children who had been cut up and were going to be pickled.

McBlogger takes on PolitiFact's pathetic attempt to beat up Congressman Lloyd Doggett.

Refinish69 from Doing My Part For The Left wonders Do They Know It's Christmas in Washington or anywhere else in the world.

Galveston Bar Association president resigns after his disbarment

That's a headline for you. What were they thinking to elect such a guy?

Bruce Mauzy had been resigned Tuesday after the State Bar of Texas made Mauzy's disbarment public.

Is TSTC is trouble?

Hopefully, not.

Texas State Technical College-Harlingen has been warned that it could lose its accreditation if it does not make changes to its programs.

A college spokesman said errors were made in its report to authorities and its accreditation is not in jeopardy.

The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges published a list of action items taken at its Dec. 5 meeting, including institutions that received warnings.

"This action by SACSCOC is based on the calculation of faculty-to-student ratios, distance learning program length, and its assessment of student learning outcomes," TSTC Associate Vice President for Student Learning Adam Hutchinson wrote in an email. "Upon review, TSTC has identified errors in its reporting to SACSCOC that resulted in the warning status."

Nueces County feeling the pain for republican commissioners' greed

What happens when republicans over reach?

Nueces County commissioners on Wednesday questioned how much they're spending on attorney's fees in the county's effort to defend its redistricting maps before the U.S. Department of Justice.

Shame, shame on the republican commissioners.

republicans vote to raise Medicare premiums while holding line on taxes for millionaires

republicans want to kill Medicare anyway.

Raising taxes on millionaires may be a non-starter for Republicans, but they seem to have no problem hiking Medicare premiums for retirees making a lot less.

The House is expected to vote Tuesday on a year-end economic package that includes a provision raising premiums for "high-income" Medicare beneficiaries, now defined as those making $85,000 and above for individuals, or $170,000 for families.

MALDEF says Texas not properly financing schools

That's because republicans want to kill public education.

Disparities in education funding in Texas have reached levels not seen in two decades and low-income students who are learning English are particularly affected, according to a school finance lawsuit filed Tuesday.

The lawsuit, brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund , is the third in recent months to challenge the constitutionality of Texas' school finance system.

Time Warner Cable is being an ass in Corpus Christi

I'm glad I can get local stations off the air.

KRIS-TV has given Time Warner Cable consent to continue to carry KRIS-TV, CW South Texas, KDF, and KAJA. But, in an apparent attempt to gain leverage in the negotiations for a new long-term agreement, Time Warner dropped the stations in the early morning hours on December 13, 2011.

"Make no mistake about it," said Tim Noble, President and General Manager of KRIS-TV, "Time Warner has all the legal rights it needs under federal law to continue to carry our stations. Time Warner and Time Warner alone decided to drop our stations."

Another guilty verdict in Abel Limas bribery/racketeering case

When are we going to see banksters in jail?

Jaime Munivez, a former investigator with the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office, pleaded guilty Tuesday in federal court to two charges of extortion.

The charges stem from an investigation into Jose Manuel Longoria, who served as the middleman in a racketeering scheme involving former 404th state District Judge Abel Limas. Longoria and Limas have pleaded guilty to extortion and racketeering, respectively.

The plea agreement between Munivez and the U.S. Attorney’s Office notes that the FBI’s investigation into Munivez revealed that he continuously received money from Longoria, who ensured that the former investigator would “piso (bribe) payments.”

Is Greg Abbott shitting on us to stop Ron Paul

From the Burnt Orange Report discussing the recent collusion with the US Supreme Court to screw Texas minorities out of their voting rights:

Moving the GOP Presidential primary election to after April 1 could have an impact on the eventual Republican nominee -- per RNC rules. primaries held before April 1 must award their delegates proportionally. Primaries after April 1 can be winner-take-all.

A Texas republican primary with lots of votes for Ron Paul would count, if the vote is held in March. These votes don't count if held in April with Ron Paul losing by a bit.

Texas universities seek to raise tuition. Again.

Another advance for the republican goal to kill pubic education.

Texas students planning on attending a state university next year should get ready to dig deeper into their pockets for that education.

Several of the state's universities -- including the University of Texas at El Paso -- are expected to propose tuition hikes for the coming biennium after state lawmakers slashed higher education funding by nearly $1 billion to help close a $27 billion shortfall.

UTEP next week will be among the state institutions that will submit plans to their governing boards asking for permission to raise tuition by up to 2.6 percent for undergraduates and 3.6 percent for out-of-state and graduate students for each of the next two years.

Texas can't exclude Planned Parenthood

Will Texas screw the poor children instead?

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has rejected Texas’ request to run a family-planning program that excludes certain providers, like Planned Parenthood. But federal officials approved the state’s request for a waiver to expand Texas’ Medicaid managed care program statewide.

Nueces County Democratic chair is right to be concerned about US Supreme Court meddling

The republicans are seeing their prospects for power dwindling what with their clown car candidates and changing demographics. republicans have pushed redistricting to select the voters instead of the voters selecting the candidates to its limits. Now its up to the partisan US Supreme Court to save the republican bacon.

[Nueces County Democratic Party Chair Gerald] Rogen said the long-term consequences, however, may come in the form of eroded support from voters who may feel increasingly pushed to the side in what is a complex, litigious process.

The Nueces republican party chair wants the discriminatory intent of the republican legislature to hold sway.

“We hope the court will either restore the original district lines of the Legislature, or at the very least, make revisions to the district court panel’s maps which are more in tune with the legislative intent,” Munisteri said in a statement issued Friday.

The republican intent couldn't be more clear: screw minorities.

Abbott's real ploy is to gut the Voting Rights Act

What can you do when the demographics are against you and you want to keep power?

As if the current situation were not complex enough, the state of Texas’s lawyers are pondering the possibility that they will file a new challenge in the D.C. court, claiming that a key section of federal civil rights law — known as Section 5 — is unconstitutional because it interferes too greatly with states’ control over their own election systems. Indeed, much of Texas’s legal complaint about what the courts have been doing up to now with its redistricting efforts is based upon claims that Texas’s sovereignty as a state is being seriously eroded, and that the state is actually threatened with loss to the judiciary of control of its own election processes.

Section 5 figures very prominently in what all three of the courts now involved will be doing as the Texas cases unfold further, and a fresh constitutional challenge to that provision will only add a new layer of uncertainty, at least in the proceedings in the D.C. District Court.

Gutting the Voting Rights Act is the real reason for this current Supreme Court mess.  

Greg Abbott will be like the man who murdered his parents then asked for mercy because he is an orphan.

The NY Times sucks on Texas redistricting/Supreme Court saga

I don't read the New York Times anymore. Judith Miller and her cohorts showed the NY Times for what it is. There are occasionally good stories, I don't doubt. As for editorials, Paul Krugman is the best. But, this Time article by Manny Fernandez just sucks. My problems with the piece?

1. Manny highlights the fact that the San Antonio judges maps favor Democrats while the legislature's map favors republicans while delaying and softening the fact that 90% of the new population growth is Hispanic.  Doesn't mention the 90% figure, for example.  Bad, bad Manny.
2. Manny makes it sound like the Justice Department is a bad guy for delaying approval.  WTF?  Texas republicans deliberately bypassed the DOJ.  Not mentioned.  Bad, bad, bad Manny.
3. Many doesn't note that the Judges in Washington and in San Antonio were majority republican.  Bad, Manny.
4. Manny doesn't mention the partisan aspects of the US supreme court's actions.  Gore v Bush anyone? Bad, Manny.
5. Manny doesn't mention the possibility of the Supreme Court justices using this action to weaken the Voting Rights Act through comments in their ruling.  Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, bad, Manny.
6. Many doesn't mention how horribly messed up our Texas election cycle is now - Two primaries or one?  Overlapping voting periods? Redrawing precinct maps between elections?  Screwed up party convention schedules.  Bad, bad, bad, bad, bad Manny.

To top off the ugliness of this story, Manny gives a shoutout to Aaron Peña.  Manny Fernandez and the NY Times suck.  The right wing brought down the gray lady years ago.  We are stilling getting the stink from that fall.

It's time for the TPA blog roundup!

The Texas Progressive Alliance is too busy with last minute Christmas shopping to come up with a clever intro as it brings you this week's roundup.

SCOTUS has issued a stay and scrambled the 2012 elections again. Off the Kuff tries to make sense of it.

BossKitty at TruthHugger - it's business as usual for Texas politicians want to tilt the voter tables in their favor by gerrymandering - US Supreme Court May Like New Texas Gerrymandering.

Occupy went to Washington and comes to Houston on Monday, December 12. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs follows along.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that there's a corporate hand up the back of many GOP legislators in Texas, Texas GOP legislators are corporate puppets.

At TexasKaos Libby Shaw explans how the GOP is killing the U.S. economy and the American Dream.

Neil at Texas Liberal made one post, and then another detailing the trip of recent Green Houston City Council candidate Amy Price to Washington with Occupy Houston.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme calls out the US Supreme Court for the corrupt hijacking of the Texas elections.

The US Supreme Court is totally corrupt

How else can you read the decision to throw out the recently redrawn Texas House, Senate and Congressional maps.  2/3 republican judges approved in two different court settings.  The DOJ said the original maps were discriminatory.  The republicans on the Supreme Court are acting as republicans for republican interests.  Throwing out a decent map and thereby throwing Texas elections in chaos has no defense.   The Supreme Court is preparing to toss out the Voting Rights Act.

Here is my only question:  Did the Texas republicans collude with  the republicans on the Supreme Court ahead of time with respect to the Texas republicans?

This court is so corrupt, that I think they did collude to rob Texas voters of the basic right to vote for the representatives of their choice.

The Supreme Court will decide Texas redistricting

Apparently, making George Bush the president wasn't damage enough. Disgusting.

Texas republicans want insurance companies to make a bigger profit

The Texas Department of Insurance, aka lapdog of the insurance industry, wants bigger profits for its cronies.

Texas Insurance Commissioner Eleanor Kitzman picked up a fight started by former Commissioner Mike Geeslin, who applied to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for a waiver from a provision in the law that requires insurers to spend no more than 20 percent of customers' premiums on administrative costs and profits.

Specifically, the Insurance Department is asking that the requirement be phased in for companies that sell policies to individuals and small businesses. So in 2011, those insurers would have to spend 71 percent of premiums on medical care and quality improvement efforts. That would become 74 percent in 2012; and 77 percent in 2013 before hitting 80 percent in 2014.

Employer beware of hiring students from unaccredited religous schools

If you're an employer, be sure that the people you are hiring come from an accredited school. You know, one that teaches reasoning and science.

The Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, which monitors implementation of state policies, currently does not have an official complaint process in place for students who question the value of their institution’s credentials.

In June, the board requested an opinion from Attorney General Greg Abbott on whether it had the authority to put one in effect.

In the same request, the board sought a legal opinion on the requirement to include religious institutions, given the Texas Supreme Court’s opinion. An opinion from the attorney general is expected before the end of the year.

HEB Ministries (the acronym stands for Hurst-Euless-Bedford and has no relation to the Texas supermarket chain) is the church that oversees Tyndale, which has about 200 students enrolled every semester, most of them online.

Tyndale’s run-in with the coordinating board began at the institution’s commencement exercises in June 1998, when graduates received a combined 34 awards with designations like master of arts, doctor of philosophy and “bachelor level diploma in biblical studies." Tyndale was then, and is now, by choice, unaccredited and does not have a certificate of authority from the state to operate.

Will Cameron County Comissioner face assault charges?

Sounds like she should.

The Cameron County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether assault charges will be filed against District 2 Commissioner Jessica Tetreau Kalifa.

The DA’s office is expected to make a decision in the next two to four weeks considering whether to pursue the matter further, officials said. As of Thursday, the DA’s office was still interviewing witnesses.

Brownsville police arrested Tetreau Kalifa in September on a charge of assault, stemming from family violence, according to public records. She allegedly assaulted her 58-year-old husband after she overheard him say the way he thought about a girl.

The San Antonio Express News frames issue of bigotry wrong

The headline says 'Firing of Macy's worker pits freedom of religion vs. GLBT rights' WTF? NO! Unless freedom of religion is defined as being allowed to act any way you want under any circumstances as long as you call that practicing your religion. Want to kill your children and puppies in front of a kindergarten class? No problem. As long as you call that the practice of your religion.

A former Macy's employee who said she was fired for refusing to let a transgender woman use the women's dressing room at the Rivercenter mall location is trying to get her job back.

The case, pitting freedom of religion in the workplace vs. corporations' growing acceptance for the rights of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people, has attracted national attention.

...

Johnson said the manager told her transgender people are free to select which fitting room to use. She replied that the policy was against her religious convictions.

Refugio Sheriff sued over strip search

Two Refugio women have filed a lawsuit against Refugio County Sheriff Robert Bolcik and two of his deputies over claims that the officers illegally strip searched them on the side of the highway in plain view of oncoming traffic.

Plaintiffs Brittah Williams and Jessica Mascorro claimed Bolcik, who was elected sheriff in November 2008, along with deputies Jeff Raymond and Shelley Haertig, both of whom are named as defendants in the lawsuit along with Bolcik, violated the plaintiffs' Fourth Amendment rights, which guard against unreasonable searches and seizures.

See story.

Karl Rove speaks to Corpus Christi Chamber of Commerce

The corrupt Karl Rove tells the corrupt chamber of commerce members that the corrupt republican party is going to do just fine in November.

After the republican party operatives carefully selected, fluffed up and played to racist, religious fanatics they are now reaping the joy. The entire republican party base is nuts.

More charges against BP

When will BP executives go to jail for what they did? I'm waiting.

Federal regulators have issued a second set of violations against BP for activities related to the blown-out well that led to the deaths of 11 rig workers and the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement issued five violations Wednesday. The violations claim BP failed to conduct an accurate pressure integrity test and failed to suspend drilling operations "when the safe drilling margin identified in the approved application for permit to drill was not maintained."

Former state rep to face charges before state bar

This is tacky.

Former state Rep. Jim Solis faces disciplinary action by the State Bar of Texas’ Commission for Lawyer Discipline after being accused of soliciting clients at a funeral home through a third party.

Solis has already been convicted in bribery, racketeering scheme.

Solis was convicted of aiding and abetting former state District Judge Abel C. Limas in a bribery scheme, and Limas has been convicted of racketeering.

Where or where will the odious Blake Farenthold run?

This guy is a doufus.

U.S. Rep. Blake Farenthold says he is definitely running for Congress in 2012 but has yet to decide which district to run in.

The Corpus Christi Republican represents Congressional District 27, which runs along the Gulf Coast from Nueces County to Cameron County. However, under a new court-ordered map his residence is in Congressional District 34, which runs from Nueces County to Bastrop County and includes a portion of southwest Harris County around Katy.

“I am running for re-election but I am waiting to decide whether to run in District 27 or District 34,” Farenthold told the Guardian. “Right now my house is in District 34. If I was going to run in 27 I think I would be house hunting. I feel like you need to live in the district you represent but I want to see what the courts finally draw.”

Will Rick Perry be charged for conducting a campaign on government phones?

These women were found guilty for a similar offense.

A jury has convicted a North Texas district clerk and two employees of abuse of office charges over campaign work done on county time.

A judge Tuesday then sentenced the women to probation.

Texas Tribune has a food stamp map of Texas

Look at the number of children on food stamps and weep for our country.

Did Rick Perry campaign for cash on state phones?

Phone records look like it.

Time and again, Texas Gov. Rick Perry picked up his office phone in the months before he would announce his bid for the presidency. He dialed wealthy friends who were his big fundraisers and state officials who owed him for their jobs.

Perry also met with a Texas executive who would later co-found an independent political committee that has promised to raise millions to support Perry but is prohibited from coordinating its activities with the governor.

An Associated Press review of Perry's phone records and daily public schedules reveals a chronology — at times, minute by minute — of the governor's meetings before his campaign launch. Texas state ethics rules prohibit use of state phones for campaign purposes. Perry officials said the talks were for official business.

BP points finger at Halliburton

I would like to see executives from both companies in jail. Why don't business executives go to jail for screwing up this badly?

BP in a high-stakes court filing on Monday accused Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence about the quality of its cement slurry that went into drilling the oil well that blew out last year and caused the nation's worst offshore oil spill.

BP accused Halliburton of having intentionally destroyed evidence about possible problems with its cement slurry poured into the deep-sea Macondo well about 100 miles off the Louisiana coast. An oil well must be cemented properly to avoid blowouts.

Also in the documents filed in a New Orleans federal court, BP accused Halliburton of failing to produce incriminating computer modeling evidence. BP accused Halliburton of claiming the modeling is gone.

Why does the state hospital system employ doctors with sexual misconduct charges in their pasts?

Because, Texas republicans only care about themselves and their cronies. Taxpayers be damned. The vulnerable among us can just curl up and die.

On the heels of allegations that former Austin State Hospital psychiatrist Charles Fischer sexually abused children in his care, an American-Statesman investigation has found that the state hospital system currently employs at least three doctors with a documented history of inappropriate and in one case criminal sexual behavior.

According to records with the Texas Medical Board, three male psychiatrists have been punished for inappropriate sexual relationships. One of them pleaded no contest to sexual indecency with a child in the late 1980s. The other two were sanctioned by medical boards in the 2000s after they were accused of having sexual relations with adult patients they treated before working at the state hospitals.

Disgraceful.

Edcouch-Elsa fires its new school superintendent

More money spent on looking for a new superintendent and dealing with this firing. Maybe, they'll improve their vetting process.

The 4-2 vote came five months after Delfino Aleman was hired to take over the embattled district, which has faced financial pressures from past hiring practices and state budget cuts.

Aleman's firing comes after a San Antonio-based law firm and a retired Texas-based superintendant found discrepancies with Aleman's conduct since he took control July 1.

Suit against TCEQ for whopping crane die off

Does any state have a worse crony capitalism environment?

The state's river water management is being challenged by an Aransas County group that claims the state is partially to blame for a 2009 whooping crane die off.

The Aransas Project, a nonprofit group that advocates responsible water management for the Guadalupe River, filed a federal lawsuit last year claiming the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality violated the Endangered Species Act by not providing adequate freshwater inflow from the river basin into San Antonio Bay system.

The organization claims the commission's mismanagement resulted in harm to the last wild flock of endangered whooping cranes, which spend each winter at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge.

Texas republicans win another victory for ignorance

No books for you. republicans like their constituents stupid.

The South Texas Library System and the other regional systems were set up in 1972 to support public libraries in every corner of the state. This past session,[Alice] Nixon, now STLS system coordinator, watched in dismay as lawmakers signed the death warrant for those regional systems. The STLS and other regional libraries saw their funding eliminated as part of $15 billion in cuts in state funding in response to a massive budget shortfall.

Despite republican efforts to the contrary, others are enjoying the benefits of a library.

The first thing Sara Guerra’s daughters asked her when they woke up Saturday morning was whether they would get to go to the library.

Guerra has taken the 5- and 7-year-olds for story hour and crafts projects several times since the San Juan Memorial Library opened Nov. 12.

"Now it’s our Saturday thing," Guerra said.

Disgraced former Hidalgo Commissioner to face new charges

Send her away for a long, long time.

Sylvia Handy is set to make her first public appearance since she stepped into a federal prison camp more than 14 months ago.

The former Hidalgo County Precinct 1 commissioner is the focus of a new set of felony indictments brought in state district court by sheriff’s investigators.

It's TPA blog roundup Monday!

The Texas Progressive Alliance thinks that if Herman Cain had just married all those women he could be where Newt Gingrich is today as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff provides a little perspective about redistricting and the political outcome of the ongoing litigation over it.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson says it's time for a new direction for the Texas Democratic Party, A tremendous opportunity to create a new Democratic Party in Texas.

McBlogger says that Judge Rakoff threw a big wrench into the sweetheart deals some of the banks have been getting from the SEC.

Bay Area Houston has information if you want to Contact the Judge about State Representative Joe Driver's sentencing.

Refinish69 has a few suggestions since The Holiday Season is Here!

BossKitty at TruthHugger - Is more comfortable with Crop Circles than the Frankenstein Tea Party the Koch Brothers created. Why the Tea Party is like a Crop Circle.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw summaries the choices presented by the Republican presidental hopefuls in An OOPS, Serial Flipper Flopper, Adulterers, a Sourpuss and a Scared Spin Doctor. It would be funnier, if it were not all true.

Mitt Romney's path to the GOP nomination got considerably rockier in the past week, and that was before Herman Cain failed to deliver in 30 minutes or less. The rise of Newt Gingrich is however a dilemma for conservative fundamentalist Christians, as PDiddie at Brains and Eggs observes. Can they get behind a nominee who believes that marriage should only be between a man and a woman who does not have cancer?

Neil at Texas Liberal took a walk along some railroad tracks in Houston. On this walk, Neil encountered both solid and metaphorical aspects of life.

Newt Gingrich is the perfect representative of the 1%

Has Newt Gingrich said 'let them eat cake' yet? Gingrich did say that poor children should be janitors of their schools and that poor children have no worth ethic. Gingrich is trying to take us back to the days when 'welfare queen' was the rally cry of the rich republicans against the poor. There were lots of people on temporary assistance who needed a hand, including parents with children. No so many welfare queens. Gingrich is now complaining about food stamps buying trips to Hawaii.

You know Newt really does want child labor laws changed so that the rich can exploit them.  That's why Newt wants red cards for immigrants, too.  Cheap labor without rights.

Newt is using the best tactic power grabbers have is to split the opposition. The rich overloads toss a bone and want the rabble, unwashed masses to fight over it while they have a 12 course gourmet meal themselves. This tactic worked well in the 90's, when income inequity was not so pronounced and we were not in a serious economic slump.

Are today's people going to fall for this crap or see it for the sneering, ruse of a sick, greedy, power-hungry man?

Disgraced former Hidalgo Commissioner's cohorts in court

Justice can seem slow.

Eight of nine alleged co-conspirators of former Hidalgo County Commissioner Sylvia Handy went before a judge Monday morning to face formal charges in connection with a scheme that stole thousands of dollars from county coffers.

Handy’s co-defendants faced 139th state District Judge Roberto “Bobby” Flores after a grand jury indicted them — along with Handy, who is expected to face formal charges next week — earlier this month.

The indictment came two months after the Sheriff’s Office made its investigation into the “phantom employee” scheme public.

The odious Warren Chisum is running for Railroad Commission

The only thing Chisum should run for is the exit.

Departing state Rep. Warren Chisum made his plans official Wednesday to run for a seat on the Texas Railroad Commission in the spring Republican primary.

Here's how republicans can quickly kill public universities

Make no mistake, the Texas Public Policy Foundation is no friend to public universities. No doubt that republicans want to kill all public education. Every bit.

A co-chair of the committee, state Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, cited a recommendation from the Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank whose higher education proposals she has openly opposed, that was delivered to legislators prior to the recent legislative session. It called for lawmakers to “study the feasibility, the pros, and the cons of placing universities under sunset review.”

Most state agencies go through the high-stakes process every 12 years. Their operations are scrutinized and the Legislature decides whether they should continue to operate. If legislators don't act to keep an agency in sunset alive, it shuts down.

Veronica Gonzales calls it quits

Too, bad. This is after Annie's List was poised to help.

Add state Rep. Veronica Gonzales, D-McAllen, to the list of legislators who won't be seeking re-election next year.

The DOJ is looking at the Nueces County maps

Good idea.

The conflict centers around Commissioner Mike Pusley's Precinct 1 that now includes two affluent, white voting precincts — 42 and 63 — located in Lamar Park and along Ocean Drive, where, according to state election data, seven of every 10 registered voters vote. The precincts had been included in the area belonging to 3rd Precinct Commissioner Oscar Ortiz.

Hernandez said moving these areas into Pusley's precinct means Hispanics there will not be able to elect someone to represent them.

Bend over for State Farm

Living in a crony capitalist state like Texas means having much higher insurance rates.

A new regulator has allowed State Farm to charge higher rates and deductibles in Texas.

State Farm Insurance on Thursday was authorized to switch many of its 1.2 million homeowner policies to a higher deductible.

The Dallas Morning News reports Commissioner Elanor Kitzman, who took office in August, found no reason to reject the increases. State Farm sought the changes in September.

The new minimum deductible is 1% of the home's value. $1500 for a $150,000 seems really high.

San Benito Mayor gets petty

Current Mayor has a grudge against the guy who served as an interim Mayor. Grow up.

Mayor Joe Hernandez said he will not acknowledge past Mayor Jack Garcia at a ceremony scheduled for Friday to honor the city’s past elected officials.

During the ceremony, part of the city’s observance of its centennial, Hernandez said he won’t recognize Garcia as a mayor when he reads a list of past elected officials who are invited to attend.