Greg Abbott

Greg Abbott Not Totally Afraid of Lady Parts, Takes on Big Pharma Over Vaginal Mesh

Future Texas Governor Greg Abbott hates nothing more than he hates abortions, Planned Parenthood and other women's-health-related things, leading the Texas Democratic Party to describe him as "public enemy number one for women in Texas." But now, in a major national fight pitting women's health adv ... More >>

Greg Abbott Decides That Spanish Speakers Are Worth Courting, Does So

Greg Abbott debuted his first general election campaign ad Tuesday, bucking his party's recent trend by at least attempting to appeal to Hispanic voters. The ad, which can be seen in full below and features Abbott's mother-in-law and sister-in-law, was aired on Univision during Mexico and Brazil's ... More >>

We Get it, Greg Abbott: Your Wife's Latina

Greg Abbott has made it clear: He is not using his Latina wife as some sort of "prop" to woo Latino voters, and he's outraged that a Lubbock City Council member may have suggested otherwise. Never mind that the only verification of the councilman's comment came from an anonymous source quoted by a c ... More >>

Ted Nugent, Greg Abbott's New Campaign Pal, Has a Thing for Underage Girls

Later this morning, gubernatorial hopeful Greg Abbott will stumping at a Tex-Mex joint in Denton. At his side: rocker/conservative troll Ted Nugent. For a candidate aiming to be taken seriously, Nugent, who has called President Obama a "subhuman mongrel" and "piece of shit" who should "suck on my m ... More >>

Greg Abbott Is in a Wheelchair. Can We Move On Now?

Yesterday, with the state's attention still glued to Wendy Davis' Trailergate, competing groups attempted to roll Greg Abbott's wheelchair into the gubernatorial debate. First came James O'Keefe's latest undercover video showing a Battleground Texas volunteer identified as attorney Lisa Wortham (th ... More >>

Wendy Davis Didn't Actually Mock Greg Abbott for Being Paralyzed

When campaign fundraising totals for the Texas governor's race were announced on Tuesday, Wendy Davis' team celebrated that their $12.2 million haul bested Greg Abbott's $11.5 million. Abbott's team accused her of "fuzzy math" for counting $3.5 million donated to the Texas Victory Committee, which s ... More >>

Texas Gubernatorial Candidate Calls for Statewide Ban on Red-Light Cameras

Imagine you're Tom Pauken. You're running a long-shot gubernatorial primary campaign against Attorney General Greg Abbott, who is better known, better funded and has already been christened "The Gov" by Texas Monthly. How can you possibly elbow your way into the narrow space to Abbott's right? You ... More >>

Texas National Guard Still Denying Marriage Benefits to Same-Sex Couples

If a same-sex marriage happens outside of Texas, but no law in Texas was there to recognize it, did the marriage ever even happen? Earlier this year, a state senator asked Attorney General Greg Abbott to weigh in on the question in light of all the same-sex couples employed by municipal government ... More >>

State Troopers' Union Says It's Getting Busted by Texas AG Greg Abbott

Casting Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott as a union buster isn't tough to envision. At least that's the narrative the Texas State Troopers Association is pushing in a recent lawsuit filed in federal court. It argues Abbott and the Department of Public Safety are bent on "breaking apart a public se ... More >>

Greg Abbott: Obama Is Forcing Texas to Hire Convicted Felons as School Teachers

Last April, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issued enforcement guidance No. 915.002, more commonly referred to as the "Consideration of Arrest and Conviction Records in Employment Decisions Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964." Few people paid attention. One of those who did ... More >>

Greg Abbott Crowdsourced Ideas for "Making Texas Even Better," and They Are Wonderful

As his bid to become Texas' next governor ramps up, Attorney General Greg Abbott is turning to constituents for ideas for "making Texas even better." Since Abbott is a serious candidate, and since he wants serious suggestions, he turned to the premiere forum for nuanced political discourse and reaso ... More >>

Greg Abbott Wants to Stop a Bankrupt North Texas Dating Site from Selling Customers' Personal Info

True.com has always been a study in contradictions, an upstart dating website promising "a wholesome environment for courtship" while rather shamelessly inundating the Internet with ads featuring photos of scantily clad women and, in one alleged case, a dead soldier. For a time, the paradox worked. ... More >>

Wendy Davis Is Running for Governor

It's official. Wendy Davis, the Fort Worth Democrat who rose to national prominence during her summer filibuster of abortion legislation, is running for governor. She made the announcement just now in the Haltom City auditorium where she graduated from high school. Already, pro-life groups are read ... More >>

Texas v. Obama, Part XXX: Greg Abbott Pledges Lawsuit Over U.N. Arms Trade Treaty

The goal of the U.N.'s Arms Trade Treaty -- of fostering international peace and cooperation and "reducing human suffering" -- is laudable. Its methods, which basically consist of asking countries to monitor gun exports so they don't wind up in the hands of terrorists and other malevolent actors, ar ... More >>

Surprise! Texas GOP Candidates Don't Support Gay Rights -- or Do They?

Every week or so, managing editor Patrick Williams disappears into his office and reemerges a cranky, nicotine-addicted, third-person-referring superhero we like to call Buzz. So The Associated Press last week reported the results of a survey it sent to the top Republican candidates for statewide o ... More >>

Greg Abbott, Eying Governor's Mansion, Comes Out Against 16-Year-Old Dachshunds

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott should have learned by now that running for governor requires far more caution and cunning than suing the federal government. He's already stumbled twice since mid-August, first when he took the mind-melting step of joining forces with the Obama administration in a ... More >>

Congressman Marc Veasey Is Suing the State of Texas to Stop Enforcement of Its Voter ID Law

The dust still hadn't settled on the Supreme Court's decision to strike down a key part of the Voting Rights Act when Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott dispatched a press release announcing that the state's voter ID law, which the courts had up put on hold, would "take effect immediately." It was ... More >>

Greg Abbott's Domestic Partner Benefits Ruling Greeted With a Shrug

At first glance -- and second, and third -- Attorney General Greg Abbott's opinion on Monday that cities, counties, and school districts are barred by the Texas Constitution from offering health benefits to the domestic partners of employees would seem to be a stumbling block on the road toward equa ... More >>

Attorney General Greg Abbott Rules that Domestic Partner Benefits are Barred by Texas Constitution

Voters didn't mince words in 2005, when they added Article I, Section 32 to the Texas Constitution. "Marriage in this state shall consist only of the union of one man and one woman," it says. "This state or a political subdivision of this state may not create or recognize any legal status identical ... More >>

Texas Sues the Feds, Part Infinity: Greg Abbott Wants to Take Greenhouse Gas Challenge To Supreme Court

Last summer, Texas, Big Oil interests, the automotive industry and other assorted industrial polluters were dealt an unambiguous defeat in a legal challenge to dismantle greenhouse gas regulations. The Feds, a federal appeals court panel ruled, were "unambiguously correct" for setting limits on carb ... More >>

Greg Abbott Backs DNA-Testing Bill, Continues Unprecedented Streak of Reasonableness

Greg Abbott's acting strangely. It wasn't even two weeks ago that the Attorney General seemed to have given up his day job suing the Obama administration and just started trolling liberals full-time. But then, in a turn that was completely unexpected, Abbott was seized by an bout of reasonableness ... More >>

The Titus County Attorney Wants Texas Attorney General to Help Him in His Fight to Keep Bringing His Old Dachshund to Work

Titus County is a little spot on the far northeastern part of the map, comprising some 32,000 people total. Belle is a infirm, chocolate-colored, 16-year-old dachshund. She also lives in Titus, and it appears that she's made an enemy. Belle's person is named John Mark Cobern; he also happens to b ... More >>

Abbott Goes After Watkins! It's The Demagogue vs. The Nose Thumber in a Cage Smackdown! Who Cares!? Not Me!

The big news in local politics today is supposed to be that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has publicly slammed Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins over how his office handed of a civil suit. Yeah. Sorry. Somehow this doesn't rise quite to the level of man-bites-dog for me. More like ... More >>

Attorney General Greg Abbott Has Stopped Lawyering, is Now Just Trolling Liberals

Attorney General Greg Abbott posted the above political ad to his Facebook page this afternoon. We present it without comment, other than to wonder if Abbott and Glenn Beck have ever been seen in the same place together. Think about it.

Attorney General Greg Abbott Just Challenged President Obama to a Skeet Shooting Contest

Last week, in an interview with the New Republic, President Obama said something about his love for skeet shooting, the subtle art of throwing a clay disk up in the air and shooting the hell out of it. "Up at Camp David, we do skeet shooting all the time," the president told the magazine. He was tr ... More >>

Texas AG Announces "Choose Life Advisory Committee" to Distribute Money Raised by Those Anti-Abortion License Plates

In May of 2011, in the midst of various other anti-abortion measures, Texas lawmakers approved SB 257, authored by Representative Larry Phillips, a Republican from Sherman, and Senator John Carona, a Republican from Dallas. The bill allowed for the sale of state-issued specialty "Choose Life" licens ... More >>

After Chest-Thumping Over International Election Observers, Greg Abbott Admits Texas Sovereignty In No Danger

In an exercise in states' rights fetishization, the Texas Legislature tasked Attorney General Greg Abbott with figuring out whether international organizations are usurping Lone Star sovereignty. If you'll recall, there was an ugly scene leading up to the 2012 presidential election, wherein Abbott, ... More >>

Greg Abbott Invents War on Christmas, Declares Victory

Despite its vaguely official-sounding name, the Christmas Bureau of Austin & Travis County is not a branch of local government. It's a nonprofit charity, one that purports to help needy individuals and families during the holiday season. That seems to be what the organization did from 1964, when it ... More >>

Rick Perry Gave Greg Abbott a Gun For His Birthday, Because of Course He Did

Yesterday was Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's 55th birthday, and it brought with it the question of what to give a man who has selflessly devoted his life to suing the federal government. A PACER gift card to cover all those pesky filing costs? A guaranteed slot in the Republic of Texas' cabine ... More >>

Texas Nationalist Movement Would Like to Secede Now, Please

Everyone has their own way of coping with or celebrating the results of last night's election. For his part, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott doesn't appear to have made good on his threat to arrest any European election monitors (who are, by the way, due to give a news conference in Washington t ... More >>

The Washington Post Sees Striking Similarities Between Greg Abbott and Vladimir Putin

At first blush, it wouldn't seem that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott have much in common. The former is an ex-KGB agent who, through a bizarre combination of dictatorial repression and sheer animal magnetism, has cemented his status as Russia's de facto leade ... More >>

Texas AG Greg Abbott Warns Hillary Clinton to Keep European Election Monitors from Messing with Texas

On Tuesday, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, in a bit of international chest-pounding, sent a strongly worded letter to the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe threatening criminal charges if the group carried out a hinted-at plan to show up in Texas come November 6. ... More >>

Harris County Is Drowning in Drunk People's Blood. Dallas, Thankfully, Is Not

Last week, Harris County District Attorney Patricia Lykos asked Attorney General Greg Abbott for some advice. County law enforcement has dutifully taken blood samples from suspects in certain intoxication-related offenses (driving drunk with a child in the car, for one) as required by state law. No ... More >>

Rick Perry: "Aliens" Still Not Eligible for Public Benefits In Texas

It's a pretty basic equation: When the Obama administration does something, Governor Rick Perry's against it. When at all possible, his administration will refuse to implement in Texas whatever policy change the feds have made. Expanding Medicaid? He's not going to do it here, no matter how many mil ... More >>

AG Greg Abbott's Daughter Killed Something, and He Posted a Photo to Prove It

That girl you see above with the gun and dead antelope (or is it an oryx? Unfair Park is baffled by nature) blackbuck is Audrey Abbott. That guy you see in the Jeep, grinning, is her dad, Attorney General Greg Abbott. I don't really have a lot to add, save what our AG wrote on his Facebook page. "Pr ... More >>

Feds Think Texas's Voter ID Law May Be Racist, So the State Sues to Implement It Right Away

Given Texas's dicey history with electoral rights, the Obama Administration has expressed concern in recent months about the state's new Voter ID law, which requires voters to bring government-issued identification to the polls. So the state, naturally, is suing to put the new and allegedly discrimi ... More >>

State Maps Stayed, Texas AG Abbott Now Wants Supremes to Delay Candidate Filing Period

Carol Kent's hoping to run for House Disrict 107, if there is a House Distict 107.​As we were leaving the office Friday, word came down that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (and former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement) got what they wanted from the U.S. Supreme Court: a ruling that, for now, ... More >>

As Promised, Texas AG, Paul Clement Have Asked Supreme Court to Stay Court's New Maps

​Yesterday we gave you the heads-up: Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has brought in former U.S. Solicitor General Paul Clement to try to throw out what they claim are the federal court's "unlawful redistricting maps." And, right on cue, they've filed their emergency stays with the U.S. Supreme ... More >>

Paul Clement's To-Do List Just Got Longer As He Tries to Toss Texas's Redistricting Maps

​On Wednesday we got our first look at the new-look Texas maps drawn by the court, which is attempting to rectify the U.S. Department of Justice's concerns that the state Legislature is attempting to keep Hispanics from voting for Hispanic candidates, especially in Dallas-Fort Worth. To which Texa ... More >>

Now Objecting to the Sale of Your Texas Rangers: Attorney General Greg Abbott, Comptroller

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott​Once again, the Texas Rangers Baseball Partners Information Site provides us with a wealth of morning must-reads -- chief among them, the 12-page objection filed yesterday in Fort Worth bankruptcy court by the Texas Attorney General's Office and the Texas Comptro ... More >>

A Few Do's and Don'ts Learned During the 2010 Republican Party of Texas Convention

Photos by Patrick Michels​Happy Sunday, Friends! While you were out having a nice, relaxing weekend full of neighbors and sun and beers and loveliness, I was at the 2010 Texas Republican Party Convention having a blast talking about 'Murka and stuff. It was a fun- and camo-filled two days, but I'v ... More >>

Governor Rick Perry 's Lame Statement About Child Support Tells Us All We Need To Know About Republican Ally Greg Abbott

Danny Fulgencio​In the current paper version of Unfair Park, we detail the lengthy battle between Robert O'Donnell and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, who extinguished O'Donnell's child support collection business after several courtroom victories. Despite the efforts of Abbott and his off ... More >>

In the War of Attrition Waged by the Texas Attorney General Against Robert O'Donnell, There Were Unintended Consequences

Texas AG Tells Cali Women to Take Their Fuel Magnets and Blow 'Em Out Their Gas Tank

Three years ago, we ran a piece in the paper version of Unfair Park about a scam called BioPerformance Fuel -- otherwise known as mothballs you were supposed to drop into your gas tank to rev up mileage per gallon. The Texas Attorney General didn't take kindly to that. Which didn't stop two Californ ... More >>

Just Because, Texas Watchdog Sifts Though AG's Open Records Opinions

Just to see what's open and what ain't these days, Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles sifted through a stack of November 12 rulings handed down by Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott's office concerning open records requests. Today, she posts the results.About half of the opinions concern requests gen ... More >>

Dallas Sues Texas AG Abbott Over An Observer Open Records Request

Back on February 20, I filed an open records request with the City of Dallas to get information about the convention center hotel project, along with any communications between Mayor Leppert and council members regarding Lynn Flint Shaw, the former DART board chair who was killed by husband Rufus le ... More >>

Strong Arm of the Law

Why is Greg Abbott smiling? Something to do with watching an old lady bathe, mebbe? If you're old, a minority and a Democrat who loves your country enough to vote regularly, you should draw the blinds when you take a bath, 'cause Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott and his boys might be peeking. Well ... More >>

Not so public

Don't read over a fibbie's shoulder

Our Pal

We'll never tell, despite the Supreme Court

Tax Dollars at Work

Hey, armed robbers need bullets, too!