The office of Governor, Lt. Governor, and Attorney General in Texas on the GOP side of the ballot will be occupied by the same people that have been on it for the two previous cycles. It’s scary to think that if Texas voters don’t make a change these same people will occupy these offices for 12 straight years (14 plus in the case of the Governor), if they reelected and serve out their terms. The way they’ve been mishandling our state government for the last 8 years they don’t deserve another term.
Whether any of them will finish their term is up for debate. Perry, many believe, will try and move to the national stage in 2012. It’s doubtful the Lt. Gov. and AG are relishing staying in these same old jobs, they would rather “move up”. It’s likely one of them will run for KBH’s Senate seat if she doesn’t run again. And of course if Perry moves on then Dewhurst would become Governor.
“Texas leaders will continue to do everything in our power to fight this federal excess and find ways to protect our families, taxpayers and medical providers from this gross federal overreach.” -Texas GOP Gov. Rick Perry commenting on the passage of health care legislation.
I’m wondering what it’s going to take for my former colleagues in the Texas press corps to call out Rick Perry for using the term “socialism” over-and-over to describe the insurance reform Congress passed last week.
Either Perry and reporters covering him don’t know what socialism is (and I doubt that), or Perry again is pushing Tea Bag propaganda, and the press is too lazy or too intimidated to challenge it.
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Journalists can’t stop politicians from issuing statements, but they can – and should – challenge them and include clarifying context in their reports when statements and sound bites push outright lies. Last week, the Associated Press and others quoted Perry (without questioning it or providing context) saying, the legislation “crosses over into the line of socialism.”Socialism, for anyone who slept through 11th grade, is an economic system where the means of production are owned either by the government or directly by the workers. The Socialist Party USA actually opposed the reform bill because it does just the opposite.
See how easy that is to point out that a politician is making false claims. It isn’t that hard, and it’s a big part of the political press and it’s struggles over the last several decades, which brought on bloggers as such a viable alternative.
But back tot the post about our governor and the press. The post surmises that Perry is trying to slink out of talking about health care, and other Democratic-friendly issues like education, and the environment. What it comes down to is will the press will let him?
The question is whether White can package those issues for voters so they draw simple distinctions between him and Perry that are consistent with White’s own record. And whether news reporters continue to let Perry get away with terms like “socialism,” which misrepresent the truth, inflame public sentiment and question the credibility of the governor and news organizations that are covering this aspect of his campaign.
Let’s hope the Texas press laziness ends soon. We won’t hold our breath, or quit reading blogs, that’s for sure.
Among Carter’s concerns spelled out in a March 21 press release: “The bill also provides full federal funding for abortions…”
Carter spoke after a clutch of anti-abortion House Democrats agreed to vote for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act after President Barack Obama said he’d issue an executive order referring to continuation of a ban — begun in the late 1970s and annually reaffirmed by lawmakers — on spending federal funds on abortions except in cases of rape, incest or to save the life of a woman.
The law prohibits federal subsidy funds, intended to help people afford health coverage, from being used to pay for abortions except in those exceptional cases. Obama’s order includes a provision to ensure that insurers offering coverage through state-level insurance exchanges charge customers separate premiums to cover abortion services.
Obama’s order also revisits past decisions by Congress to bar community health centers from using federal funds to provide abortion services outside of the exceptional circumstances. His order directs federal officials to “ensure that program administrators and recipients of federal funds are aware of and comply with the limitations on abortion services.”
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Last week, PolitiFact.com rated as True a House member’s statement that the new law doesn’t provide for publicly funded abortions.
All told, this review leaves us agape at Carter’s overreach. That is, the law does not provide full federal funding of abortions–and that’s clear.
Carter could have edited his blast. Instead, he makes an unsupported ridiculous claim.
We rate his statement as Pants on Fire.
In other words Carter’s a liar, he’s been called on it, and he still won’t correct the record. Thou shalt not lie… except when it is politically expedient.
The controversial contact between the county and WMI, to run the landfill – which was passed on March 3, 2009 – provides for the county to “hire a qualified and independent Oversight Inspector,” and the contract requires WMI to contribute $50,000 toward paying for that service.
After a seven-month delay following approval of that contract, the county finally issued the RFP to hire the inspector, and apparently four firms responded by the Nov. 4, 2009 deadline. After almost a year has passed, no oversight inspector has been chosen.
A county source told media – and it was duly reported – that the county received proposals for this oversight inspector “totaling upwards of $200,000 a year.”
That figure is more than suspect. There is no way the equivalent of one full-time job, even if performed by a qualified engineer, should cost that much.
Either the county did a terrible job in constructing the Request for Proposal, or in trying to negotiate a final contract – or both.
But, in ether case, the $200,000 figure doesn’t speak well for the county’s ability to oversee the landfill or perform effective fiscal management.
This letter was signed by both Democratic candidates for county commissioner Jeff Maurice (Precinct 4) and Jim Stauber (Precinct 2).
Over a year ago, Hutto-area residents were hopeful that the process of developing the master site plan and master recycling plan for the Wilco landfill would finally present an opportunity for the community to have long-promised meaningful dialogue with the county on ways to address the landfill’s negative impact on local economic development and quality of life. Instead, for the past year, these plans have been drafted without any public input. The notion that the county just wanted to create a starting point for discussion (and that it took a year to do so) is laughable. The starting point was apparent to everyone a year ago.
These proposed plans contain very little that is new or innovative. Worse, they still fail to address the community’s main concerns about the negative effects of the landfill height (as tall as the Jonah water tower) and its massive 575 acre footprint. Colorful graphics of a new “entrance” with a few trees and a new sign may make for good press, but they don’t come close to addressing the real issues. Even those parts of the plans that appear to offer benefits are short on detail and lack any commitment whatsoever.
There’s much more in both letters and you can read EOW’s previous reporting on the landfill master plan here.
Neil at Texas Liberal visited a Walgreen’s in suburban Chicago in the week just past. While there he took a picture of chocolate praying hands and of a chocolate cross that are on sale for easter. Maybe these items are for people who adhere to the Chocolate God Theory.
Matt Stiles looks at Census data and notes a political point.
Seven Texas counties — Rockwall, Williamson, Collin, Hays, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Denton — are listed among the nation’s 30 fastest-growing areas, according to U.S. Census Bureauestimates released [Tuesday].
They are also Republican-voting counties, according to results in the 2008 general election. Sen. John McCain won these counties by a 20-point margin, well over 240,000 votes.
It’s actually a hair shy of 260,000 votes – Stiles had missed Rockwall County in his initial post, and though he added it in for an update, he did not re-do the math. There’s a bit more to this than that, however.
Despite an official estimate by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) to the contrary, some critics of the new health reform legislation — such as Rep. Paul Ryan and former CBO director and McCain campaign adviser Douglas Holtz-Eakin — charge that it will not reduce federal budget deficits because it relies on budgetary gimmicks or games. Careful analysis of these charges shows them to be misleading or inaccurate. They do not withstand scrutiny.
if you want to lose a few hours at work, he has an interesting blog at NBA Hoops Hype that he delivers in Faulknerian stream of consciousness about his condottiere pro basketball career. His basketball career is done after an interesting ride playing in China, Korea, Puerto Rico, and Turkey to name a few.
Don’t worry about his post-basketball plans. He has a petroleum engineering degree from Texas, speaks five languages, and will probably be running the offshore Nigerian oil business in short order.
On almost every index of quality of life, or wellness, or deprivation, there is a gradient showing a strong correlation between a country’s level of economic inequality and its social outcomes. … This has nothing to do with total wealth or even the average per-capita income. America is one of the world’s richest nations, with among the highest figures for income per person, but has the lowest longevity of the developed nations, and a level of violence — murder, in particular — that is off the scale. Of all crimes, those involving violence are most closely related to high levels of inequality — within a country, within states and even within cities.
No one is surprised that our congressman, Rep. John Carter, garnered a starring role in this brief highlight clip. Thank you, Rep. Carter, your unfocused outrage is only exceeded by your irrelevance.
Maldonado was running 4th out of 28, but in the past two days the other Representatives have been working hard. You will need to give up your email address to vote, but Sen. Watson assures us these addresses will be shared only with Maldonado. The whole point is to show off the great organization and grass roots support of the Maldonado campaign. Show your support and start getting involved in Maldonado’s re-election campaign in any way you can.
