After this week's big announcement, Texas Leftist is left to wonder... Did the Dallas Morning News editorial board incorporate facts into it's Endorsed process for Governor? If so, maybe this week's decision for Greg Abbott would have went the other way. Clearly DMN should've taken a few minutes to read their own paper.
Within a few hours of a SCOTUS ruling on a case that essentially gutted Section 5 of the Voter's Rights Act last year, TX Attorney General Greg Abbott immediately enforced one of the most restrictive voter ID laws in the U.S. This Voter ID law had been previously blocked by a federal court.
The decision will have immediate practical consequences. Texas announced shortly after the decision that a voter identification law that had been blocked would go into effect immediately, and that redistricting maps there would no longer need federal approval. Changes in voting procedures in the places that had been covered by the law, including ones concerning restrictions on early voting, will now be subject only to after-the-fact litigation.
The Texas Voter ID law makes it difficult for 600,000 citizen who are poor, elderly, homeless, minorities and college students to vote. Out of state students who attend Texas universities or colleges can no longer use their student IDs to vote. They have to either bring a U.S. passport (if they have one) or they must drive to a nearby DPS and apply for a state ID. They will need birth certificates. Senior citizens who were born at home may not have birth certificates. Poor folks very likely do not have the money or transportation to obtain a state photo ID. In less populated areas a DPS could be a long drive from home. And in a state that swears by small government, it means robust services for its residents is lacking. One can wait three hours in a Houston DPS for a simple driver's license renewal.
Of course, the groups mentioned above are more likely to vote Democratic.
The Texas photo ID law is so harsh that lawyers for the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in a federal court in Corpus Christi. The case went to trial earlier this fall. Judge Nelva Gonzalez Ramos recently struck it down with a damning assessment citing the current law as the same as those enacted after the abolishment of slavery. The kinds of laws that prevented blacks and others from voting.
"The Court holds that SB 14 creates an unconstitutional burden on the right to vote, has an impermissible discriminatory effect against Hispanics and African-Americans, and was imposed with an unconstitutional discriminatory purpose," Gonzalez Ramos stated in her lengthy ruling issued Thursday. "The Court further holds that SB 14 constitutes an unconstitutional poll tax."
The law is deemed downright un-American by LULAC.
"The history of voter discrimination in Texas is well documented. Literacy tests, poll taxes, redrawing of electoral lines and other mechanisms have been used to intimidate minorities from voting," stated Brent Wilkes, national executive director of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), which has been fighting voter ID laws. "These efforts are un-American in that they are an assault on the democratic principles upon which this country was founded."
Among those who are hurt the most by the brutal Texas Voter Photo ID Law.
The Texas Progressive Alliance celebrates the advance of marriage equality and looks forward to the day when it comes to our state as we bring you this week's roundup.
So there was this ad about a guy in a wheelchair on teevee last week. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs thinks that people observing Texas politics that don't live in Texas just don't get it.
As crunch time arrives, Texas Leftist wants voters to know just how far out in the political fringe we have to put Republican Dan Patrick. So far out, this week he started running against Rick Perry. Plus, don't miss my interview with the only sensible candidate in the Lt. Gov. race, Democrat Leticia Van de Putte.
Neil at Blog About Our Failing Money Owned Political System wrote about the two ebola cases in the United States. BAOFMOPS is one of many worthy pages to review at NeilAquino.com.
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
As most of us know by now the vast state of Texas has closed down 80% of its abortion clinics thanks to a hard right ideological Republican Legislature that wishes to imposes its beliefs and religious values on all of us. Especially women with no or little means.
In August U.S. District Judge Lee Yeakel (a G.W. Bush appointee) blocked the requirement that all abortions must take place in ambulatory services centers or mini hospitals. He wrote that such obstacles will reduce meaningful access to abortion care for many women.
When viewed in the context of the other state-imposed obstacles a woman faces when seeking an abortion in Texas-including a sonogram requirement, a waiting period, the reduced number of abortion-performing physicians resulting from the admitting privilege requirement-the court is firmly convinced that the State has placed unreasonable obstacles in the path of woman's ability to obtain a previability abortion. These substantial obstacles have reached a tipping point that threatens to "chip away at the private choice shielded by Roe"... -
Chipping away at Roe V. Wade has been the far right's goal since the law's inception. Greg Abbott and Texas Republican lawmakers are more than willing to help the process along.
Greg Abbott immediately appealed Judge Yeakel's ruling to a federal appellate Court, the hyper conservative 5th Circuit, which agreed with the state. The 5th Circuit's decision leaves one of the largest states in the U.S. with eight abortion clinics.
During the first recent gubernatorial debate in September Greg Abbott tried his best to side step questions about equal pay or answer questions as to why his policies don't do enough to protect women. But Mr. Abbott did step up to admit that he is Catholic and therefore pro-life.
Fine. That is his choice and right. But it does not mean he and other lawmakers like him should be able to interfere with a woman's liberty that includes her right to choose. Nor should Mr. Abbott and his ilk be allowed to impose their will, through an unnecessary and harshly restrictive law, on a woman's family planning decisions. If Greg Abbott was really pro-life as he claims, he would do far more to help the living. Especially the poor who struggle each and every day to barely survive. And if he really believed in personal freedom and liberty he would let women decide for themselves.
Greg Abbott, while promoting his religious beliefs, may have forgotten a small bare bones fact of American history and why many of us ended up in this country. For more than a few of our ancestors fled here in order to escape religious persecution and/or political retribution.
But religion is merely a convenient curtain behind which Mr. Abbott can hide. If Mr. Abbott were a true Catholic he would remember that Jesus embraced a message of love and forgiveness. He urged all Christians to show mercy for the poor. I know of Catholic priests who have advised their female church members to follow their conscience where family making decisions are concerned.
Unfortunately the opposite of compassion for the poor is true because the restrictions of the anti-abortion law imposes enormous hardships for women with little or no means. And yet access to abortion is quite easy, affordable and simple for wealthy women in Texas. This is the Republican way.
In a recent interview about the anti abortion law Greg Abbott insisted that the lack of access to women's health clinics are manageable inconveniences.
Greg Abbott smugly mused that a drive of 230-250 miles is a mere inconvenience for women. I guess women in the small government state of Texas have the personal freedom and liberty to drive 230-250 miles because Greg Abbott and his Republican colleagues want to impose regulations on our female reproductive parts and decision making capabilities. According to Greg Abbott corporations are more human and deserving of rights and freedom than women.
Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) and his colleagues wrote in the memo that "the vast majority of Texas residents" still live "within comfortable driving distance (150 miles)" of an abortion provider. For the women who live in the farther-flung regions of the state, such as the low-income Rio Grande Valley near the Mexico border, Abbott wrote, "abortion can be accessed by driving approximately 230-250 miles -- an inconvenience, but still a manageable one."
What would Mr. Abbott know about manageable inconveniences? After he suffered from a tragic accident in which he could no longer walk, Mr. Abbott filed lawsuits against those who played a role in the accident that disabled him. He won handsomely and has therefore more than enough resources to take care of his needs for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, as a state associate Supreme Court justice and Attorney General, Greg Abbott has blocked the same access to the same resources for other disabled victims.
What would Greg Abbott know about a mother of three in South Texas in which she and her husband survive on the salaries of three minimum wage jobs?
From WCNews at Eye on Williamson. The question remains, is something like the Texas Enterprise Fund scandal enough to get voters to change their mind about Greg Abbott and the GOP? If not then what would it take?
Wendy Davis delivered a damning speech on Thursday at the University of Houston in which she charged Greg Abbott with greed, crony capitalism, his and Austin's culture of corruption. Davis did not mince words. Most of us have heard about various cases of Rick Perry's and Greg Abbott's shoddy underhanded dealings but when Wendy exposed all of them at the same time, it became glaringly clear that Austin is infested by a revolving door of sleaze and creeping corruption. Politicians are using taxpayer funds to enrich their crony donors who, of course, give back generously to them. We the wee ones are not only left out of the process, thanks to a lack of oversight and transparency, but we also get stuck paying the price in more ways than one.
Wendy Davis's speech is driven by the recent state audit of the Texas Enterprise Fund that revealed hundreds of millions of dollars were given to firms and universities that did not even submit grant proposals. Greg Abbott worked tirelessly to keep the use of these funds hidden from public view. In fact he even tried to cover up how the funds were being used. And to put a cherry on top of this lovely sleaze sundae Greg Abbott received $1.4 million from some of the TEF's recipients.
One reason Rick Perry and Greg Abbott promote small government is because there are not enough cops on the beat to keep up with crooks like them who can easily rob the cookie jar of every last crumb. Next time we hear a politician extol the virtues of small government we should remember that this is coded language that means taxpayers are going to be robbed blind while fat cats get richer. It's the Republican way, after all.
This latest scandal surrounding the TEF reminds us of CPRIT, the state's taxpayer funded Cancer Research Institute. In this situation the unethical behavior was so blatant and criminal that Nobel Laureates and highly respected scientists quit their jobs there. And once again Greg Abbott had turned a blind eye to the pillaging and looting of CPRIT's funds. A familiar pattern by now, the top administrator had awarded grants to institutions without oversight or proper review.
One cannot help but wonder what Rick Perry and Greg Abbott are doing or have done to other taxpayer funded pots of money. A full blown audit of every budget is long overdue.
Meanwhile please join us on the Wendy Davis campaign trail. See how hard we are working to elect a much needed breath of fresh air to the Governor's mansion. Texas voters should have had enough by now and we refuse to take the sleaze, the greed and the corruption anymore.
Breaking. 9:06 p.m. October 3. The Houston Chronicle endorses Leticia Van de Putte as Lt. Governor.
The differences between the candidates this year could hardly be more stark. State Sen. Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio, the Democratic candidate, is not only knowledgeable and experienced but also congenial and easy to work with. Her Republican opponent, state Sen. Dan Patrick of Houston, is divisive, disruptive and self-aggrandizing.
Snip.
Van de Putte, a moderate Democrat of Mexican descent, is a mother, grandmother and small-businesswoman. She was elected to the Texas House in 1990 and the Senate in 1999. The exact opposite of Patrick, the 59-year-old lawmaker has earned the respect of her colleagues in the majority-Republican Senate. They know she'll work with them.
Oh come on Texas. Who on earth doesn't love Leticia?
Meanwhile, check out what we have been doing on my turf in Houston this week.
The Texas Progressive Alliance hopes everyone read at least one banned book last week as it brings you this weeks' roundup.
Off the Kuff presents interviews with two of the many dynamic and well-qualified Democratic women running for legislative offices this year, Rita Lucido in SD17 and Susan Criss in HD23.
Eric Holder was certainly not as bad as Alberto Gonzales, but his tenure as US attorney general still did not merit a passing grade, at least according to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.
Though the new routes are far from being finalized,Texas Leftist shares that Houston METRO has now fully committed to the System Reimagining Plan. After this week's vote by the METRO board, there's no turning back.
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
Really, voters? Really? Are we going to continue to re-elect crooks, liars, cowards and snake oil dealers to our top state offices? Are we really going to turn a blind eye to Rick Perry's unlawful bullying and his reckless irresponsible management of state funds to the point he can run as a viable Republican Presidential candidate in the 2016 primary?
It is like this. Our Governor has been indicted for a crime. For the abuse of power. Rick Perry said he did nothing wrong (does anyone remember Tom Delay?) but a grand jury disagrees. Rick Perry called his indictment a political witch hunt. Except the prosecutor is a G.W. Bush Republican appointee. Not all jurors were Democrats. Some of them don't even vote.
"I don't think there's any reason why Mr. Perry should be treated any differently from any other citizen who's required to be in court," special prosecutor Michael McCrum said of a request by Perry's lawyers that he be allowed to skip a pretrial hearing.
"He's asking for special favors, and as far as I'm concerned, he's not entitled to it," McCrum, a San Antonio lawyer, said in an interview.
Besides looking askance at Perry's courthouse booking rally, McCrum referred to him "smirking."
"I've never seen a defendant make such a mockery of our system of justice," he said.
Power corrupts.
The arrogant lawless one who wants to run for POTUS might be a crook in more ways than one. For it seems that a fund Rick Perry controls, the Texas Enterprise Fund, has doled out millions of dollars to firms and universities that didn't apply for TEF grants.
AUSTIN - The first independent audit of the Texas Enterprise Fund shows that the governor's job-creating fund awarded $222 million - almost half the money granted - to entities that never submitted applications or specific promises to create jobs.
The 98-page report by the state auditor, released to lawmakers Thursday, paints a picture of a $500 million fund that, at least in its early years, gave away taxpayer money without a set evaluation process or a consistent criteria.
Early grants were awarded to companies or universities without their submitting formal applications, and some large projects were never required to create a single job - although that is the legislative mandate by which the fund was started.
Numerous contracts showed inconsistent requirements, weak compliance monitoring and led the auditor to state that it cannot verify many of the jobs or investments that were credited to the program.
It seems to me that the Texas Enterprise Fund became a cash cow for Rick Perry as a means to reward his donor cronies. Pay to play politics at the expense of Texas taxpayers. Way to go Rick. But this lack of transparency and abuse of taxpayer funded projects seems to be business as usual among Rick Perry and his donor cronies. After all, look at what they did to the taxpayer funded Cancer Institute CPRIT.
Critics have complained that the Texas Enterprise Fund was a loosely controlled treasure trove for Perry to dole out state money to favored projects. The audit did little to dispel that.
Had not Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis authored the bill requiring the audit of the TEF, this siphoning off taxpayer funds with no oversight would have continued. There is a reason why the Texas GOP favors small government. There aren't enough cops on the beat to keep up with the crooks.
It should be obvious to all why Texas needs Wendy Davis as its next Governor.
Alas, Rick Perry is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to charlatans, cowards and silver forked tongue snake oil dealers. Check out Wendy Davis's opponent Greg Abbott.
Harold Cook sounded some cautionary notes about the Perry indictments.
Libby Shaw at Texas Kaos notes that a little ol' indictment is not stopping Rick Perry from a POTUS run in 2016. Swaggering through New Hampshire to kiss the Koch boy ring, Rick Perry plays W., redux. Cowboy Diplomacy Redux: Rick Perry Plays the Fear Card.
Why can't Obama be more like LBJ and just get some things done, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs wondered. But just in a facetious way; if we ever had another president half as badass as LBJ, we'd come to regret it.
Neil at All People Have Value went to the Texas City Buc-ee's. Neil wishes that trendy restaurants in Houston had a sign up like at the Buc-ee's saying that staff made a wage higher than minimum wage. All People Have Value is one page of many at NeilAquino.com.
With students and teachers going back to school this week, Texas Leftist has an assignment for everyone. Is your school district one of 600 suing Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP-led legislature?Consult the list and map to see. Here's a hint... It's not just the schools in blue counties.
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
The terrorists are coming! ISIS may already be here! ISIS makes Al Qaeda look like nice guys! These savage barbarians are after all of us. No one is safe!!!! HELP!
Only Rick Perry can save us! After all, he's proven how tough he is by sending National Guard troops to the Texas/Mexico in order to scare away five year old children refugees.
Everyone knows by now that Rick Perry has been indicted on two counts of felony charges for his abuse of power while serving as the Governor of Texas.
No one knows whether or not the case will end up with a conviction. But two things are certain. Rick Perry is an arrogant bully and he is running for POTUS in 2016. And he is not about to let a little ol' indictment get in his way. Trash the jurors who indicted him as partisan hacks. Distract the masses by ginning up the fear among his base of folks who will easily swallow the Kool-Aid. Kiss the rings of the Koch boys, the campaign coffers will swell and all will be well.
Except that Rick Perry is lying. Again. The Pentagon took issue with Rick Perry's notion that terrorists are sneaking into the U.S.
On Thursday, Gov. Rick Perry issued a pretty alarming warning. Terrorists from the Islamic State - one of the nastiest, most brutal terror groups ever - could be sneaking into Texas across the Southwest border at any time, thanks to the Obama administration's failures in Iraq and in securing the border.
This morning, the Pentagon press secretary, Navy Rear Adm. John Kirby, said there's just no evidence of that - though it's something to keep an eye on.
"I've seen no indication that they are coming across the border with Mexico. We have no information that leads us to believe that. That said, we do know they have aspirations to hit western targets and it's something, as [Defense] Secretary Hagel said yesterday, that we've got to take seriously and with have to try to be ready for it," Kirby said today on CNN.
Mexico is none too pleased either with Rick Perry's tall tales.
Mexican officials are unhappy about Perry's comments. They were eager to flag Kirby's response, and this afternoon they issued their own stern rejection of the governor's warnings.
"Mexican authorities have no record of the presence of Islamist extremist groups or individuals in Mexico," said Ariel Moutsatsos, minister for public affairs at the embassy in Washington. "We take all possible measures to impede any terrorist activity in our territory."
Noting that U.S. and Mexican officials share information constantly, he added, "There is no indication that would even suggest what Governor Perry has claimed. The U.S. State Department, in its most recent report on terrorism in the world, dismissed the idea that any international terrorist groups were operating in Mexico, and in recent hours the Pentagon also publicly denied having any indication leading them to believe that terrorists are crossing into the United States from Mexico.
One would think after eight years of Bush Co. and its disastrous foreign policy fiasco, cowboy diplomacy would never find its way back on any table.
But Rick Perry does not do and say things on, for and behalf of the people of this country and our best interests and security. It's all about Rick Perry and the acquisition of power and wealth. For himself.
Texas is a low voting state. There is a reason why we get stuck with the worst of the worse.
Harold Cook warns us to keep a sense of perspective on the Rick Perry indictment.
Texas Leftist keeps wondering when the national media is going figure out that Texas could be a swing state today if enough people were actually voting. Plus clarifying Wendy Davis' stance on LGBT equality issues, and what we can expect if she's elected.
Greg Abbott likes to promote himself as a small-government fiscal conservative. But his actions hardly support his claim. For Greg Abbott's frivolous fights with the federal government have cost Texas taxpayers millions of dollars. This is money that could be put to far better uses. Such as much needed funding for education, healthcare, infrastructure and more robust social programs for the economically disadvantaged.
For Greg Abbott small government must mean no regulation or barriers for corporate interests. The same is not true for individuals and their rights, however.
Greg Abbott's most recent fight over the Voter ID Law and Redistricting has cost over $2 million and we are still counting.
WASHINGTON - Texas has now spent more than $2 million defending its law to require photo identification to vote and its redrawing of political boundaries, officials said after federal judges sided against the state in both cases last week.
And taxpayers' outlays will grow as Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott appeals both cases to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Worse, Greg Abbott is squandering taxpayer dollars on efforts to disenfranchise some of us by making voting more difficult for particular groups.
Luis Vera, general counsel for the League of United Latin American Citizens, called the legal fight a "solid waste of money."
"It's continuous, nonstop litigation, and each and every time the courts find that the Legislature intentionally discriminates against Latinos and African-Americans," Vera said.
Within hours of last Thursday's decision, Abbott said the state would take the fight to the Supreme Court, where he is "confident" of victory.
Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP, thanks to the support of powerful and deep pocketed contributors from within and outside of the state, are letting their donors control every agenda and decision made in Austin. Greg Abbott and the Texas GOP want to keep it that way. And the only way to do that given the state's changing demographics is to suppress voting rights.
The pervasive stench of politics.
Greg Abbott has filed twenty seven lawsuits against the federal government since President Obama became President. This compares to three lawsuits against the G.W. Bush administration.
Greg Abbott defends his costly lawsuits by claiming the federal government is trampling upon the rights of Texans.
"The way I see it, the federal government has a fight with Texas," Abbott said.
Abbott's critics see it differently.
"Someone's made a decision; they have to draw a line in the sand or fight the EPA at every turn," said Charles Irvine, a Houston environmental lawyer who has faced off with Abbott in court.
"It's just a huge waste of government tax dollars fighting this fantasy battle with the federal government," said state Rep. Jessica Farrar, D-Houston.
Abbott denies any political connections with the legal actions, but some suggest the political calendar may suggest otherwise.
"Looks and smells like a political decision," said Irvine.
The fact of the matter is, it is Greg Abbott who is on a crusade to trample upon the rights of voters while he continues to make us pay for it.
If Republicans remain in the majority voters can expect all of the same. Including the tea party crazies who hide their corporate whoring behind fear mongering rhetoric. We can count on living in a state that offers an uber friendly business environment in which its interests and influence can and will dominate the state's agendas and drive its decisions. But some of this will always come at the expense of the interests and needs of far too many residents.
The Texas Progressive Alliance is glad to live in an age where we can zap political ads on TV if we want to as it brings you this week's roundup.
Off the Kuff wonders why AG Greg Abbott didn't just have his own lawyers testify in the latest lawsuit against HB2 given how much they coached their witnesses.
Glenn Hager, Tea Party candidate for Texas Comptroller, was caught in the act. Bay Area Houston has the video.
After being told all summer that "nobody pays attention until Labor Day", PDiddie at Brains and Eggs had to wonder if we had suddenly jumped ahead a month on the calendar.
Texas Leftist shares the truth about Medicaid expansion. Right now, Texas taxpayers are subsidizing healthcare benefits for other states, while millions of our people suffer without health insurance. Also make sure to check out Wayne's guest column in CultureMap discussing the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance.
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
When one looks more deeply into Greg Abbott's decisions and rulings we learn just how much the Attorney General will automatically default to the side of business and corporate interests over those of its victims and its potential victims. Whether cases or lawsuits involve rape victims, the victims of a chemical plant explosion, the victims of medical mal-practice or the victims of an insurance company's deceptive and discriminatory practices, Greg Abbott will stand by the abuser.
When a company failed to check the background of one of its door to door salesman, a sexual predator on probation, Greg Abbott, as an associate justice on the Texas Supreme Court, said the company had no duty toward the victim. Fortunately a majority of the justices disagreed with Greg Abbott.
In a more recent decision on the necessity for chemical plants to make their dangerous contents known to the public, Greg Abbott ruled on behalf of chemical plant secrecy over the safety of their surrounding communities.
According to an editorial written in the Waco Tribune Greg Abbott's decision on behalf of chemical plant secrecy raises questions about his candidacy.
Abbott's siding with chemical companies against neighborhood residents raises serious questions about his candidacy. He should reconsider the entirely preventable disaster in West, figure out for whom he's working and reverse his decision in favor of the public. If he doesn't, state lawmakers with some guts should do so for him.
Gregg Abbott's decision likely had much to do with one of his campaign donors, a member of the Koch family.
Good luck trying to connect state Attorney General Greg Abbott's stunning, out-of-the-blue decision to block from communities formerly accessible information about potentially dangerous chemical facilities in their neighborhoods and The Dallas Morning News' revelation that thousands of dollars in campaign contributions to Abbott come from the famous Koch family, whose holdings include widespread chemical interests. Whatever the truth, the appearance is damning.
Punishing victims seems to be a habit for Greg Abbott. For he has also ruled on behalf of a hospital that protected one of its neurosurgeons who had maimed and killed some of its patients.
If Abbott's position is upheld, the patients would have a much harder time winning a suit against Baylor. One of the plaintiffs' attorneys, James Girards of Dallas, criticized the attorney general's motion.
"I think it's absolutely insane that he has chosen to defend the hospital that enabled this ... sociopathic neurosurgeon to wreak havoc on its patients," Girards said. "I hate to think he's doing it to pander to the medical lobby."
Kay Van Wey, a Dallas lawyer who filed two of the suits, also attacked the attorney general. "Mr. Abbott is making it clear that his priority is to protect hospitals, not the patients they harm," she said.
Is Greg Abbott pandering to lobbyists and donors or is he simply a heartless and cruel whore for himself?
In yet another ruling on behalf of business interests and those who donate to his campaign, Greg Abbott laid down for Farmer's Insurance Co. While representing the state in a lawsuit against Farmer's Insurance Greg Abbott accepted political donations from the firm.
A wink, a nod and tacit promise to go easy?
Naturally, many of us were outraged when the public learned Abbott accepted money from a firm he sued on behalf of the state of Texas.
The donations have led to charges that Abbott has "not fairly represented homeowners in Texas" in the suit, reaching a settlement that allows Farmers to charge homeowners too much and not pay interest on millions in excessive premiums.
When the case was finally settled Greg Abbott deferred to Farmer's Insurance over Texas consumers.
In 2003, soon after Abbott took office, a preliminary settlement was approved. The settlement was quickly appealed by advocates for consumers, who argued it was too lenient on Farmers Insurance.
The settlement is still pending, and was brought to light again in April at a Travis County district court hearing. Judge Scott Jenkins called the state's settlement "deferential" to Farmers and questioned why it "allow[ed] the insurance giant to avoid paying interest on millions of dollars in excessive premiums" that it owed to policyholders.
Said Jenkins, "You don't just have to lay down to Farmers. Farmers has had the benefit of all that money for more than a decade and the consumers haven't."
Ordinary citizens and everyday consumers deserve a level playing field in the state. On all levels. If any of us should become the unfortunate victims of criminal negligence or corporate deceptive and discriminatory practices or medical mal-practice we can certainly depend upon Greg Abbott to throw us under the bus. In a New York nanosecond.
The Democrat in the race for Harris County judge abruptly quit the race last week, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs saw that as a pity for one candidate and his party and an opportunity for another.
Frustrating as it may be to see abject failure from state political leadership to address ongoing Border challenges,Texas Leftist Is still heartened and inspired to witness such an extraordinary response from Texas faith communities. I wish someone would remind Austin and Washington that basic humanity should ALWAYS come first.
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
It seems to me that many, if not most members of Congress more than deserve to get fired in November. This would include some so-called "Centrist" Democrats. (I am talking to you, former W. kissed surrogate, Henry Cuellar.)
It should be obvious to most of us by now that a peanut gallery of middle school children are rebelling against or outright sabotaging the people's business in the U.S. House of Representatives. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the American people are in favor of immigration reform that supports a path to citizenship Ted Cruz's tea party army of teenagers will have none of it.
Recent polling shows that the majority of Americans have little respect for and quite frankly and understandably loathe the current U.S. Congress. Its current approval rating stands at a breathtaking low of 7%.
Actually 7% seems pretty generous to me. This leaves me to believe the 7% are comprised of the usual right wing Obama bashing bigots, sore losers, xenophobes, misogynists as well as those who benefit from a do nothing government: the Koch boys, oil and gas lobbyists, Wall St. insiders, anti-Social Security and Medicare lobbyists, the NRA, ALEC and other greedy players who would love nothing more than to empty the U.S. Treasury into their pockets.
Such happened during the W/Cheney years in 2007 and 2008 and so the greed masters remain ever hopeful. After all, this current Congress has worked very hard to diminish the American people's faith in our government. Ted Cruz and his sorry ilk smash the place to smithereens and then they turn around and blame the President and the evil doing federal gubmint for the mess they made.
Canadian born immigrant Ted Cruz is only too happy to accommodate the fat cats and his far right ideologues. At the expense of the plight of children who are fleeing the violence in their Central American countries.
Meanwhile, over 50,000 children are seeking refuge in our country. How are we going to take care of them?
What is the chief government saboteur Ted Cruz's solution for these children other than deportation and a certain death or kidnapping into human trafficking ?
It takes a coward to scapegoat children.
Background: Under current law, refugee children fleeing Central American violence can stay with family or sponsors while their immigration case is processed instead of being forced to remain in temporary shelters overcrowded kennels. In practice, that's what happens in a majority of cases.
I think you'd be hard-pressed to find a decent human being who thinks there's anything wrong with that law or policy. Unless, of course, you're a House Republican. Then you start having fantasies about how all these illegal refugee kids are invading America, aided and abetted by their illegal sponsors, and so now we need to start making people show their proof of citizenship or at least legal status, otherwise this country will be overrun and our freedom destroyed and we'll all get thrown into FEMA camps. Or something.
The notion of decent humanity does not enter into the realm of a right wing master of shameful deception.
Weaving, Conflating and Deceiving
Only cowards would scapegoat children.
Ted Cruz and right wing extremists at the Heritage Action "think tank" can be counted on to blame the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program of 2012 for the recent influx of children refugees from Central America.
I mean, what else can a Party of hate based sore losers do?
The obvious question raised by all this is whether DACA can actually be blamed for the crisis. I mean, if Ted Cruz and the hard-right flank of the House GOP are ready to scuttle what could be Congress' last chance to address the border crisis before they all skip town for a month, they'd better have a damn good reason, right?
Well, they don't. There's little cause to believe DACA has anything to do with the surge of unaccompanied minors crossing the border, and there's zero reason to believe it is the primary driver of the mass migration. Conservatives are attempting to capitalize on the chaos and end an immigration program they dislike.
The Heritage Action group relies, as usual on deception and fuzzy math.
Oof, that lede causes physical pain. Anyway, when Needham writes "the numbers are undeniable," what he means is "the numbers are undeniable so long as you don't really look at them too closely." It is true that Obama created DACA on June 15, 2012. It's also true that the number of minors crossing the border spiked between 2011 and 2013.
What Needham carefully omits is precisely when that spike began: the autumn of 2011, several months before DACA was signed into existence. "Beginning in October 2011, the U.S. Government recorded a dramatic rise - commonly referred to in the United States as 'the surge' - in the number of unaccompanied and separated children arriving to the United States from these same three countries - El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras," a recent report from the UN's High Commissioner for Refugees states.
Busting the right wing snake oil dealers. Twisting the facts to suit a hateful agenda, as usual.
And that's just it - what it comes down to ultimately is that Needham, Cruz and other conservatives are trying to conflate misinformation about DACA with DACA itself. They're arguing that the program should be scrapped because people in Central America may have misconceptions about it. "Rather than creating the clarity necessary to dispel the myths and rumors, the Obama administration is now considering expanding its so-called deferred action program to millions more," Needham writes.
When the program was signed into the law, the parameters were fairly clear: It applies only to immigrants brought into the country as kids before June 2007. There was, however, a substantial portion of the conservative political and media world that did their level best to scream as loudly as possible that the White House had just declared amnesty for young undocumented immigrants. So maybe the White House isn't to blame for the lack of clarity.
So, while the GOP has spent the summer screaming about the crisis at the border, its members are now congratulating themselves for doing nothing about the humanitarian calamity at our nation's doorstep.
Congressional nihilism has created a vacuum. Now it's President Obama's job to fill it, to keep his promise to end the border crisis and find ways to redirect immigration enforcement and protect possibly millions of families from unjust deportation. Of course, regardless of what he does, the system will still be marked by chaos and pain. And the hard-liners will scream at any action he takes.
Wait a minute. The U.S. House Republicans voted to sue the President for his use of executive powers. Despite the fact that President Obama has issued the fewest of them when compared to his predecessors.
Is there a psychiatrist in the house?
November cannot get here soon enough. It's time to send the middle schoolers home to their mommas for a hard spanking and long-term grounding.
If one is not registered to vote. Please do so immediately if not sooner.
Texas statewide candidates have been separated at birth from their fraternal twins: Junior Samples and Jim Hogan, Archie Bunker and Sid Miller, Glenn Hegar and Jethro Bodine, Greg Abbott and Dr. Strangelove. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs admits that once you stop laughing, it's a kind of a scary thought that these guys stand even the slightest chance of getting elected.
It's no surprise to Texas Leftist that Marriage Equality makes economic sense for the Lone Star State. But thanks to a new report from the Williams Institute, we finally have numbers to show just how much business Texas is losing.
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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.
If any pot knows when to call the kettle black, it is John Cornyn. While he blames the President and Democrats for doing absolutely nothing about the humanitarian crisis at the Texas/Mexico border, it is actually Big John himself who has blocked federal judicial appointments to the Texas benches. One of the ongoing problems with the border crisis is the lack of federal judges to swiftly hear and rule on immigration cases. As a result of Republican obstruction, the backlog is years long. The Texas federal courts have had four or five vacancies for over 1000 days.
Yes indeed, Texas Senators John Cornyn and Ted Cruz have blocked all and every attempt to mitigate the problem at the Texas/Mexico border. As Democrats have learned over the years, we can always count on the Texas GOP to deny justice to all deserving people. They also have issues with voting rights and women's rights to boot.
Big John said he and Ted Cruz are working on it when in fact they are waffling, dragging their feet and are doing jack squat except point fingers away from their obstruction. The do nothings would rather blame their irresponsible behavior on the President.
But the process for approving a new district court judge, per longstanding tradition, begins with a senator making
recommendations from his or her state to the president. The president then works with that senator to get at least some of the nominees confirmed -- the idea being that those senators, regardless of party, are motivated to advocate for nominees from their states. The White House may look at other nominees on its own, but typically won't move forward without input from home state senators.
Texas has one of the worst judicial vacancy rates in the country, due in large part to its senators simply not making recommendations to the White House. Cornyn and fellow Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (R) haven't moved to fill seven vacant judicial slots. One of those slots has been empty for 1,743 days; another has been without a nominee for 1,044 days, according to data recently published by the Alliance for Justice, a left-leaning association of more than 100 organizations focused on the federal judiciary.
Senator Patrick Leahy called Cornyn out for his pure BS.
"Based on 38 years experience here, every judgeship I've seen come through this committee during that time has followed recommendations by the senators from the state," Leahy said. "You have to have recommendations from the senators, especially since I've been chairman, because ... as the senator from Texas knows, if senators have cooperated with the White House and the White House sends somebody they disagree with ... I have not brought the person forward, even when it's been importune to do so by the White House."
Snake Oil at its Worse
John Cornyn does nothing to advance judicial nominations to the Texas benches while he grandstands about political malpractice.
"Unfortunately, it looks like we're on track to do absolutely nothing," said Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the second-ranking Republican. "Which to me, is the definition of political malpractice."
There he goes again. The pot calls the kettle black. But then again John Cornyn is known for his forked tongue. He will say he is for something he actually voted against. Let's visit the Violence Against Women Act. John Cornyn said he is for it and yet he voted against it.
According to Big John:
"An unacceptable national backlog of untested rape kits has compounded the pain for too many victims of sexual assault over the years. Today, we take a significant step toward reducing that backlog.
"I'm pleased with the wide bipartisan support the SAFER Act received and with the President's signature today, law enforcement can begin working immediately to test outstanding kits and see that justice is served."
Except oh wait. John Cornyn voted against the Act.
Well, not so fast, sucker. Because while Cornyn may have once upon a time supported the SAFER Act, it is merely one element of the Violence Against Women Act that President Barack Obama signed into law once the House finally got around to passing the full, comprehensive, yes-even-women-who-aren't-straight-or-white-can-be-abused version. And that would be the version Sen. Oh So Proud of Himself didn't vote for. But seeking credit for passing legislation he voted against is all the rage among Republicans these days. Several Republicans in the House have recently applauded themselves for supporting the Violence Against Women Act-even though they voted for the fake Republican version and voted against the real version that was signed into law.
But that's what it means to be a Republican these days. When you have the opportunity to do the right thing, and you choose not to, and that choice makes you look like, oh, like maybe you don't give half a damn about women who are raped and abused, well, just lie and pretend you did the right thing anyway. Problem solved.
That's right, John Cornyn will lie and pretend he did the right thing while he hopes none of us notice. But some of us have noticed and we have for some time.
John Cornyn obviously cannot be trusted to represent the interests and needs of Texans. Change is long overdue.
Let's stand up for ourselves and vote a straight D ticket in November.
We deserve far better than the likes of John Cornyn and his even worse side kick, Ted Cruz.
As the federal trial over Texas redistricting began, a series of GOP e-mails outlining their anti-Latino mapping strategy was revealed. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs observes that the ooutcome won't be known for months, and the decision won't affect the 2014 midterm elections, but the case for the Republicans looks very grim.
Who would have ever thought...? I must admit I had to read the article's transcripts and watch the video twice to make sure I wasn't dreaming.
This has been a tough week for Rick Perry's interviews with the mainstream media. Fox's Brit Hume chopped Rick Perry up yesterday. Apparently Mr. Hume had it up to his eyeballs with Rick Perry's cowboy talking points.
Last week an ABC News anchor cut off Rick Perry's conspiracy rant against Obama, immigrants, drones and hurricanes.
