Perry Turns His Back On Unemployed Texans

It has been in the news, first that Texas Governor Rick Perry would refuse to accept the $555 million in federal stimulus money that would go directly to relieve the very folks who are suffering from the Republican-incepted financial crisis, then how he was going to think about it some more.

Well, he thought about it, and falling in line behind South Carolina governor Mark Sanford, Rick Perry slammed his fist on his desk today and said “Ditto!”

Leaving tens of thousands of Texas unemployed workers (voters) in the lurch.

And I thought he wanted to run for re-election next year. Geez, just goes to show you how wrong you can be about these things.

But not to be concerned - yet, the fat lady has yet to clear her enormous throat.

The state legislature has yet to have a final say, and today, by a 5 to 1 vote in the Texas House’s Appropriations Committee, they voted to accept the federal stimulus offer.

Republican Chairman of the committee, Jim Pitts, broke with his party, and its state leader, and voted for the federal funds. His colleague, Myra Crownower (R - Denton) held to her Republican principles that dictate total obedience to the party at the expense of Texas families, some of them Christian families, who are now in dire need of some extended benefits that the economic recovery package would provide.

The matter moves to the state house.

At issue, then, is whether the Texas House can scrounge up one more Republican vote to accept the federal funds.

What happens next is fairly obvious with a Senate that is controlled by a 19-12 Republican majority. We should see few surprises.

So one thing is for sure. The business favors and incentives that Texas has provided to enable mass migration of Americans to the state are still in force. Businesses can feel safe that Texas government will see to their best interests, and not those of their employees.

Ironic, though, that the recent mass migrations of workers to Texas due to its state government’s anti-labor pro-business perspective has been singularly responsible for the nonstop demographic shift that will one day ensure the election of a Democratic majority in the near future.

Texas Senate Passes Voter ID Bill

We have Bob Sargent to thank for putting this whole voter ID thing in perspective.

So surprise, surprise, the Senate voted to pass the bill, SB 362, by a vote of 20 to 12.

That's one more vote than usual because when the Senate meets as a "committee of the whole" the Lt. Governor gets to vote, too.

This vote, then, goes down as the Senate equivalent of a runaway girl's basketball game score.

Fort Bend ISD BOT has 5 Candidates for 2 Positions

As mentioned here, last Monday was the last day to file to run in any city or school district office that is up for election this coming May 9^th.

In Fort Bend ISD, the Position 6 seat that was open on news from the announcement by Trustee Steve Smelley that he will not seek another term has three, count ‘em, three candidates. And not surprisingly, incumbent Sonal Bhuchar, occupying the Position 2 seat on the board will face opposition in this contentious school district.

The open Position 6 seat is being sought by Republican Precinct Chair Marilyn Glover, Consultant Bruce Albright, and Electrician and perennial candidate, Rodrigo Carreon.

Sonal Bhuchar is being opposed by Carlos Cain, a local school activist who has been, in the past, a very vocal opponent of recent school bond issues.

So who are these people, but more importantly, who is the “anointed one” that the board majority wants to be their new colleague on Position 6?

Well Rodrigo Carreon needs no introduction. He ran for the last open seat on the Fort Bend BOT, opposing David Menendez, getting 25% of the 10,354 votes cast (yes, voter turnout in school board elections are notoriously low). Carreon is a fixture at the Fort Bend ISD Monday evening board meetings, and always has a word of advice or a matter of interest to bring to the Board’s attention.

He is a community activist writ large.

So, no, he’s not the one that the BOT wants to join them.

Bruce Albright, lists himself as a Consultant. He is listed in the district’s “Ebriefs” newsletter as having addressed the Board with his concern with the process that is used in assigning parking spaces to students at Dulles High School. Albright felt that the process was not fair. [See Update below]

Marilyn Glover is all over the map when it comes to Fort Bend educational things. Not only is she an elected Precinct Chair for Precinct 2025 (Missouri City), she is currently a Director of the Fort Bend Regional Council on Substance Abuse. She joins a bi-partisan crew who support Mayor Allen Owen of Missouri City. She is (was?) on the Advisory Board of the Literacy Council of Fort Bend County. She is listed as an 8-year member of the Fort Bend County Chamber of Commerce (under Vanguard Insurance Brokers), and on the 2004 Council of Resources for the Fort Bend County Women’s Center. She is listed as an Advisor on the CAC Advisory Council for the Child Advocates of Fort Bend.

She is also proudly listed as a Republican Precinct Chair that supported the candidacy of former Sugar Land Mayor Dean Hrbacek for U.S. Congress. You remember The Dean? The one who had his head photoshopped onto the body of (allegedly) David Wallace.

So, what, I ask, are the chances that the “One” we are looking for, is the latter of these three?

Position 2 Trustee Sonal Bhuchar faces opponent Carlos Cain.

Now that’s a name and a half.

Not only is it alliterative, but both “C” sounds are “hard.” The name speaks like a nuclear chain reaction.

Like the devil himself has come to call.

So who is this guy, Carlos Cain, and what does he bring to the table? Well, he also lists himself as a Consultant living in Sugar Land (honestly, is there anyone but Rodrigo with an honest to goodness job title? What are all these consultants doing running for a non-paying job?).

Carlos Cain, it would appear, is the local county seer. Way back in 2007 Cain went on record as opposing the Fort Bend ISD bond issue to raise funds to build new high school, middle school and elementary school campuses. Growth projections in the district showed that at the current rate of growth, FBISD would be bulging at the seams, and would need these new facilities within 10 years in order to stay ahead of the population curve. Here is what he wrote in FortBendNow:

"If We Build It, Will They Come?”

“What if they don’t come?”

“As a concerned parent and voter I have been reviewing the FBISD bond issue on the November ballot. I believe they are overstating the future needs of Fort Bend ISD and the cost of this “potential” growth. Who will pay for this? WE WILL! Every tax payer in FBISD. If passed, the new bond issue would push FBISD debt to approximately 1.5 Billion dollars. That is ($1,500,000,000.00). Think about it, and call 832-859-5783 for more information.”

That is, clear back in October of 2007 Carlos Cain foresaw the housing crisis and the downturn in real estate sales everywhere, including Fort Bend County.

Cain has also come to the conclusion that the Board of Trustees propose inflated bond issues so that unspent bond money can be used “for purposes other than what was initially approved by voters.” Former FBISD Chief Operations Officer Mike Seale as well as Superintendent Timothy Jenney have labeled these accusations as “false.”

Fort Bend ISD voters were not swayed by Cain’s arguments, however, despite his singular effort in organizing robo calls to 2,200 homes in the district. In November 2007 voters approved the massive $428 billion bond issue by 65% to 35%, with over 16,000 votes cast.

Now, come to find out, Cain was spot-on correct. Not about the financial gyrations that he was accusing the Board of going through. About the “will they come” thing.

According to Fort Bend County projections, “they” stopped coming.

Now, I have to ask this: will Carlos Cain take credit for the downturn in real estate sales in Fort Bend? Or is he just the unwelcome bringer of bad, bad news? Or is this guy’s far-sighted vision just the beneficiary of pure dumb luck?

UPDATE: A campaign website has appeared for Position 6 candidate Bruce Albright (thanks to an anonymous tipster). It is here.

Who is Testifying at the Senate Hearing on the Voter ID Bill - - - and Who Is Not.

The call out to the public to come to Austin today to give testimony before the Texas Senate on the Voter ID bill, SB 362, currently being considered, was a rousing success. At last count, 120 individuals signed up to address the Senate. At 3 minutes allocated for each, that is 480 minutes of individual testimony.

That’s eight hours.

Minimum (will more speakers sign up yet?).

Plus the minutes spent between speakers.

So the public, intensely interested in this veiled attempt at voter suppression in Texas, in a state that threatens to turn over the majority to Democrats for the first time since 2003, has reacted with the righteous indignation that the bill deserves.

Contrast that to two individuals who will not be showing up to give testimony in this upcoming debate: Texas Attorney General Gregg Abbott, and Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade.

Abbott says testimony represents a conflict as he will be having to defend the law in court when it gets challenged.

Andrade is out of town on a previous commitment.

I guess no one told Hope Andrade that this bill, if enacted into law, will have a singular effect on her office, and her ability to carry out her responsibilities in running the state’s elections. It will be people at the bottom of the Elections tree that will be having to enforce the restrictive Voter ID rules. It will be her people who will turn voters away from casting their votes at the polls.

But Andrade had a previous engagement.

Abbott, I can understand. This sleight of hand that he proffers, that he cannot comment on a bill that he is all set to support in the courts, gives one pause. Does this mean that he doesn’t really support the bill and cannot comment on it because he must do so in court? That would make more sense.

Fact is, Abbott not only supports the bill, he provides the paltry ammunition that is the bill’s reason for being: there is voter fraud in Texas and this bill will prevent that.

Fact is, if he shows his face in the Senate, he will be open to questions from Democrats who will ask what results came of his $1.4 million investigation in voter fraud in Texas. The answer, I hear, is truly embarrassing.

The point is, 120 (or so) private citizens thought it important enough to make their views heard, and probably went out of their way to do so. Getting time off on a workday is not an easy thing to do.

Abbott and Andrade would have been paid to testify.

But, those are the priorities.

Obvious, isn’t it, that there is no chance for this legislation to be defeated in the Senate, huh? Republicans are just biding their time

And ducking their responsibilities.

Nothing new under the sun.

Voter ID Debate Set to Begin Tomorrow

All year it has been like an approaching maelstrom. The Voter ID Bill, also known as SB 362 authored by Republican State Senator Troy Fraser (R – Horseshoe Bay) is set to be debated, and individuals who want to give testimony against this bill are being solicited to appear tomorrow and be heard.

The first thunderclap was a rule change in the state senate. The usual 2/3ds rule, where a bill cannot be considered in the state senate without a 2/3 majority vote, was waived on the second day of the 81^st Legislature. Now, and for this matter only, this will require only a simple majority in the Senate for the bill to be brought to the floor.

It will be remembered that during the last legislative session, a similar voter ID bill was turned aside in the senate by a single vote, that of State Senator Carlos Uresti, who took a gamble with his very life and had his hospital bed trundled into the senate to cast his vital “No” vote to prevent the bill from being debated in the Senate.

Senator Uresti was recovering from a very recent liver transplant operation.

So the bill is a shoe-in in the state senate, with a 19-12 Republican majority.

The state house, though, is a whole different animal.

With a very tight 76-74 majority in the House, Republicans are less assured of a victory there.

Especially given the past performance of two returning Republican State Reps, Rep. Delwin Jones (R – Lubbock), and Rep. Tommy Merritt (R - Longview). Both Jones and Merritt voted against the 2007 Voter ID bill.

This article in the Austin American-Statesman reveals that while neither of them will say how they will vote in the upcoming foecal storm, saying that they are going to wait and see what happens in the Senate, Jones has said in the past that poll workers would be harder to recruit if they were required to ask for the proper photo ID from voters, adding “I haven't seen any strong evidence of illegal voting.”

By the same token, Senator Merritt seems to be equally lukewarm to the notion of having a voter ID law in Texas: “The party is not focused on what's important to the people.” Of greater interest to his constituents, claims Merritt, are “economic woes, the decline in their 401K funds and how to survive in retirement”

And it is true that there is no evidence of voter fraud in Texas, the condition that SB 362 seeks to remedy. Despite the excessive efforts of Texas AG Gregg Abbott, who has, according to reports, spent $1.4 million investigating alleged voter fraud cases throughout the state, he has yet to come up with a single voter fraud case. Abbott has not seen one successful prosecution, only a bunch of harried senior citizens of the minority persuasion.

That and a set of suspect documents from South Texas. Documents suspected to be doctored.

Whatever the outcome, tomorrow will be a display of vintage Texas Politics, the politics that make you cringe when the Legislature comes in session, and the politics that make you wish for a real legislature made up of people who spend all of their time in public service.

And are paid a living wage for the service.

McLeroy’s Evolution Vendetta: Tempest in a Primordial Soup Tureen?

The State of Texas, through its State Board of Education, has for years enjoyed a singular place in the nation’s struggle to bring a quality education to all Americans. Because Texas acts as a unit in its school textbook ordering policies, publishers are usually more attentive to the wishes of how Texas SBOE members think content should be presented in these texts. It’s more expensive, you see, to make separate printings tailored to the desires of each individual state.

That being said, let’s switch to the Texas SBOE’s most recent restructuring of how English Language Arts are to be taught in Texas, a rendering that is a fait accomplît, and to the ongoing effort to revamp the state’s Science curriculum.

Over the strong objections of experts in the field of English instruction, the state board adopted last May new rules that are widely held to be from old school or traditionalist views of English language instruction.

The back-to-basics view is that grammar is a separate subject from reading and should be taught separately. Recent research shows that reading for comprehension and acquisition of grammatical skills go hand in hand. Remembering by rote the rules for grammar does not help a student read for comprehension.

But the state board was not finished. Since late last year the state board has begun to tackle the onerous chore of revamping the states science curriculum. Most disciplines of science have been treated with an almost blasé approach. Not so in Biology.

In Biology, the central principle of evolution has come under fire by this traditionalist board that is nearly dominated by creationists. While a recent aggressive move to include the “strengths and weaknesses” or even the “sufficiency or insufficiency” clause in evolution instruction, where students are required to make judgments on the strengths of evolution as an explanation for species diversity – a skill for which any K-12 student is woefully unprepared for – has been turned aside by a board majority, the fight is not over.

So says SBOE President and Dentist, Don McLeroy.

Set to be finalized this month, Don McLeroy promises to maintain a tough stance on acceptance of “evolutionary dogma” in the biology curriculum, as seen in this article in today’s Austin American-Statesman.

McLeroy has a new argument, no doubt cobbled together by any given pro-creationist think tank, that wishes students to make still more uneducated judgments, this time comparing cell structure to natural selection.

From the Austin-American Statesman:

“In addition to asking teachers to engage Texas students in a discussion of how gaps in the fossil record might undermine the notion of common ancestry, McLeroy says he will ask board members to adopt a curriculum standard that would ask students to explain how the complexity of cells does or does not support the idea of natural selection, an explanation of how organisms evolve.”

Asking a graduate student these questions might yield some strongly supported remarks in these regards, remarks that would probably not be to the liking of McLeroy and others of his ilk, but asking a 9^th grader to make these comparisons are sure to serve only to confuse.

McLeroy is asking students to reflect on a finished product, a somatic cell, and speculate on whether evolutionary processes could possibly have brought that about. In the face of sheer ignorance, which is what you do face at the 9^th grade level, the outcome is guaranteed.

This reminds me of an unattributed quote:

“Give me a child for the first seven years, and you may do what you like with him afterwards.”

That is, the earlier you can hurl ignorance at an empty vessel, or a child, the less work you have later to convince them of your beliefs.

Bringing me back to my original thought, that things mandated in Texas are necessarily carried across state borders by virtue of Texas’ monotlithic textbook purchasing policies.

Not so this time.

Textbooks in Texas are purchased through the state’s “Permanent School Fund” a thing that sounds, well, permanent, but a thing that isn’t anymore. This is because the Texas Permanent School Fund is invested in the stock market. And guess what? The “permanent funds” have gone the way of countless thousands of 401Ks – rendering them somewhat impermanent.

Texas may not have the funds to buy textbooks this year. At least not on the scale of prior years.

Given that, how much would I, in the position as a textbook publisher, rely on the renderings of a narrow-minded and somewhat backward-looking penniless state school board?

Exactly.

Nada.

I’ll Say It: Rush Limbaugh for President

Let’s get real. Who is the best fit for the Grand Obstructionist Party in 2012? Who can the Party of NO put up to oppose the juggernaut that is the Obama Administration?

Sarah Palin? Give me a break. Besides being a woman, and no self-respecting white-haired puffy Republican man would ever want a woman for anything other than a cabinet post (keeping in mind that every Cabinet title starts with “Secretary of”), Sarah Palin brings no constituency with her, other than the 900,000 who prefer to live in darkness and twilight most of the year.

Other than Palin, all we have are a bunch of 1990’s retreads.

And Joe the Plumber.

OK, so let’s jump to the next generation. Eric Cantor, Republican congressman from Virginia has been making lots of noise lately. He is king of the one-liners, it seems. His comment that “‘I told you so’ politics won’t bring bipartisanship” has been oft quoted and repeated.

Eric Cantor.

Wait. Isn’t he Jewish?

Yep. Not only is he Jewish, but he is the only son of Abraham currently serving in Congress.

So, no. They will have to take a pass on Cantor. No Christ Killers in the Oval Office yet, at least not ones sent there by the Republican Christian Evangelical base. That would be too much for them to take.

And Bobby Jindal, the GOP’s own paean to ethnic diversity is a non-starter. Not after fumbling the ball in his near on air head-to-head joust with Barack Obama the evening of Obama’s address to the joint House and Senate last week.

Who does that leave? Who could possibly raise the Grand Obstructionist Party’s standard against “the Democrat menace?” Well, isn’t it already obvious? All you have to do is watch the news . . . and read the political cartoons. There is only one person capable of leading the Party of No to victory in 2012.

And that person, friends and neighbors, is Rush Limbaugh.

He is the perfect fit. And I’m not just talking about his 4XL shirt size. I’m talking about how he so neatly fits in with the Republican notion of truth. Of how careful Republicans are these days in forming opinions before checking their facts.

Take for example the case of Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack R-Palm Springs, former wife of Sonny Bono, who knew she had Barack Obama dead to rights when, in her attempt to oppose his stimulus package, decided to pounce on the president’s "pet project", the “Mag-Lev train from Disneyland to Las Vegas”, ordering her aide to “get him the bill, it's right there, show him.” Only to have her aide have to return to her and report “it’s not in the bill.”

Now that is what I call making sure of your facts before checking on them. Something that Rush Limbaugh has demonstrated time and time again. As a matter of fact, the facts that are most often repeated by the GOP office holders these days are the facts that they get from Rush Limbaugh or from Fox News. Limbaugh and Fox, the daring duo of truth in the right-thinking media. And who is Rush Limbaugh’s equal in Fox News? Why none other than Sean Hannity. That icon of the low hairline. He of the dragging knuckles.

So why not?

Why not propose the Republican Dream Ticket for 2012. Rush Limbaugh/Sean Hannity.

A ticket for the ages.

A one-way ticket to political oblivion.

Obama to Lift Federal Ban on Use of Embryonic Stem Cells; Floodgates of Discovery About to Open

It’s all over the media, on TV, radio and in print. It’s here at The Chron. On Monday, President Barack Obama will fulfill a campaign promise to lift the federal ban on use of federal funds for the purposes of embryonic stem cell research.

An eight year hiatus in what is arguably the most important scientific work in human history is about to be brought to a close. An incredibly short-sighted, politically-charged issue with evangelical religious roots has all but halted important biotechnical research that has important promise for the quality of life, and life itself.

Now here is the good news. Scientists have not spent the past eight years sitting on their hands waiting for the ban to be lifted. They have continued their research, written the protocols, and have everything queued. Once the ban gets lifted, and scientists are free to use whatever might best help solve their issues, the floodgates of discovery will open.

A year from now, I wonder, what breakthroughs will be announced? What previously hopeless condition in the human condition will be solved by miraculous cures, all brought to you by human embryonic stem cell research?

Monday March 9th is Last Day to File For May 9 Elections

That’s right. It is just around the corner. Anyone who wants to stand for election in local school boards or in city elections need to get their paperwork filed by the end of the business day on Monday March 9^th.

This also means that if you have moved since the last election, and are new to the area, you need to register to vote by March 9^th in order to be eligible to vote in these very low turnout elections.

If you vote in these elections, then I probably don’t have to remind you.

In Fort Bend ISD, there is one open seat on the Board of Trustees. Steve Smelley, currently occupying Position 6, has announced that he won’t run for re-election. In order to run for Position 6, you must reside on the eastern side within Fort Bend ISD’s boundaries.

The dividing line between East and West is shown on the right. Where it really lies is really up for grabs as this map, lifted from the Fort Bend ISD information page on trustee elections, is of almost no help.

Position 2 is also up for this years’ election. The position is currently held by Sonal Bhuchar, who, it is understood, will be running for re-election.

Lamar CISD will be holding elections for 4 of its Board of Trustee members. These are now 4-year terms as discussed at this LCISD web page.

Trustee positions for Districts, 1, 2, 3, and 6 are up for election this year.

Longtime Trustee Jesse Torres will seek re-election in District 3 as announced in the Fort Bend Herald., as is Kathy Hynson of District 1 also announced in the Herald. The board’s Vice President, Sam Hopkins of District 2 is also running for re-election. No announcement could be located in regard to board president Michael Richard’s re-election intentions.

While these positions seem mundane, and do not pay a red cent, the importance of local school board elections are often underplayed. School boards decide tax rates. They decide how tax money is to be spent. They choose who district superintendents are to be.

Tip O’Neill said it best when he emphasized how local elections, while not as sexy as national elections, are the important ones that all voters should be concerned with:

“All politics is local.”

UPDATE: I hate loose ends and the fact of the matter is, the FBISD map is virtually useless as a tool to help someone decide whether they are living on the East Side or the West Side of the Fort Bend Independent School District. So I have taken matters into my own hands. If you look at the two little squiqqles in the Brazos River trace, the ones that occur just inside the East Side boundary, you can conclude that the line crosses the river at the inner bend of the second squiggle. Taking that to Google Earth, I have determined that the East/West boundary falls on a line of longitude, specifically 95 degrees, and 35 minutes West.

No thanks are necessary. Public service is its own reward.

Pete Olson Responds: Why He Won't Vote For the Employee Free Choice Act

So every once in awhile I get an email blast from my teachers’ union, the American Federation of Teachers (an AFL-CIO affiliate), asking me to take action on this or that bill coming up in Congress. The other day I was asked to send a message to my US Senators and Congressman regarding the Employee Free Choice Act that is coming up for consideration.

The Employee Free Choice Act is an act that will allow trade unions to organize within places of business by amending the National Labor Relations Act.

In its current form, the NLRA allows a union to be certified as the “exclusive representative of bargaining unit employees” that is, the organization that represents employees who want to enter into collective bargaining with their employer, by means of what is called “card check” or by secret ballot. Everyone knows what secret ballot is, but what the H-E-Double Hockey Sticks is “card check?”

Card check is where a majority (50.1%) of workers at a workplace sign a document saying that they want to form a union with union X representing them. This sounds all well and good, but the trouble with card check is that, under current law, the employer need not recognize the express wishes of its workers through a majority sign-up “card check” petition and can require a secret-ballot vote overseen by the NLRB. This allows an employer to refuse to allow employees to form a union, even though a majority of them signed a document saying they wanted to.

The Employee Free Choice Act takes that option away from employers, allowing formation of a union under card check rules. If employees do not want to go the card check route, they may still vote by secret ballot, but in the end, employers are taken out of the loop. Employers will have no say about whether employees will or will not form a union if the Employee Free Choice Act passes.

So I asked my 3 representative in Congress, Senators John Cornyn and Kay Bailey Hutchison, and my Congressman, Pete Olson, to vote for the EFCA.

Knowing, of course, that they would never do this. No way, no how.

I just wanted to make my political point, and I never expected a response, although I solicited one from each of them.

Imagine my surprise, then, when I received the canned response from Pete Olson, the one written to answer all of those who are, as he believes, stooges of “unscrupulous union bosses.”

Here is his most helpful reply:

March 5, 2009

Dear Friend,

Thank you for contacting me regarding legislation to undermine the secret ballot in union organization elections. It is good to have your thoughts on this important issue.

Under current law, workers deciding whether to form a labor union at their place of employment have the right to cast their vote in secret. The so-called Employee Free Choice Act would allow unions to organize by simply submitting a public list of supporters. Workers who oppose unionization could be bullied and harassed by union bosses to sign public pledges of support, without recourse to the confidentiality of the ballot box.

Let me be clear: I believe this is not only bad labor policy, but un-American. Citizens of our country have died to protect the fundamental right to cast a confidential, freely-chosen ballot. Historically, the labor movement has done much to improve unacceptable working conditions - it's a shame that some unscrupulous union organizers should seek to bring the specter of intimidation and hostility into the workplace to further their own ends.

Again, thank you for taking the time to contact me. I am honored to represent you in the U.S. House of Representatives. If you have any additional questions or concerns, please feel free to contact one of my offices or visit my website at www.house.gov/olson.

Very respectfully,

Pete Olson
Member of Congress

So let me get this straight, Pete. It’s the “unscrupulous union bosses” that bully employees into signing the petitions, and it’s management that serves as a check on these unscrupulous people and invalidates a petition when they feel the signatures were coerced. Is that the picture you are sending me?

If so, I think I smell a rat. In whose self-interest does management act the company or the laborer? I think you are giving management far too much credit for protecting the poor downtrodden worker. It is labor that suffers at the hand of management, not at the hands of unions. Last time I looked it was labor hitting the unemployment lines, not management.

And where did you ever dig up this model of the “unscrupulous labor boss?” Whose book of lies has that myth been hatched? I’ll tell you exactly where this idea came from. It came from a book written by a prolific western writer named Walter V. Woehlke called “Union Labor in Peace and War” published in 1918. One of its chapters discusses how unions in the West are being influenced by Bolsheviks. You can read about it here.

Your information, Congressman Olson, is a little dated.

And I’ve heard of cherry picking the truth, but isn’t this going just a little too far? Comrade Lenin has been gone for some time, Pete. The Soviet Union is now a despotic capitalistic society.

Times change.

Join us, at some point, in the 21^st century. The view is fine from here.

Cornyn “On Good Faith Disagreements”

Here is what my US Senator said today about the possibility of establishing a “Truth Commission,” as proposed by Senator Patrick Leahy. A body that would look into allegations of abuse of power by the Bush Regime.

“The idea that this so-called Truth Commission would somehow resolve the good-faith disagreements ... is just asking us to believe in the tooth fairy.”

Now it is possible to get behind the realpolitik stance of moderate Republican Arlen Spector, who said that Democrats “can walk in the front door” of the Justice Department and “ask directions to the relevant filing cabinet.” Mainly because that is happening already. Day by day new revelations are coming out about all sorts of unconstitutional legal opinions proffered by Justice lawyers after 9/11. Really all we have to do is look in and see what has been filed.

But Leahy is also correct. This needs to be a matter of public investigation, and should be bipartisan, or if you will, non-partisan.

But that won’t happen as long as you have brainiacs like John Cornyn in there stirring up the pot, calling acts and deeds that were arguably illegal if not immoral, “good faith disagreements.”

Did Josef Stalin have a good faith disagreement with the people he and his surrogates sent to the gulags?

With the people he had double tapped in the basements of Lefortovo Prison?

Honestly, if the disagreement is one of “good faith, ” let’s say, the good faith disagreement that waterboarding is a form of torture, I can figure out a good way to settle the disagreement.

Let’s set up a chamber in the basement of the Capitol, and let’s line up all the ladies and gentlemen of Congress who have a “good faith disagreement” that waterboarding is not really torture, John Cornyn can stand at the head of the line. Let them in the chamber one at a time, then stuff a wet rag down their mouths, tie them to a board so their feet are slightly elevated over their heads, put a wet cloth sack over their heads, and then poor water in their mouths through the sack.

All the while asking where they planted the bomb.

And not stopping until it is found out where it is.

My guess is we will have a few fewer “good faith disagreements” by the time we go through that line.

TxDOT Will Use 53% of Taxpayer Stimulus Money For Toll Roads

Take a look at County Commissioner Richard Morrison’s website “As the Court Turns” for the latest news on how TxDOT and Rick Perry plan on using taxpayer-supported Economic Recovery money, also known as “The Stim,” to improve Texas’ transportation system.

“The Texas Transportation Commission (TxDoT), appointed by Gov. Perry, has recommended that the East Region; including Beaumont, Bryan, Houston and Lufkin receive $431,516,770 for transportation projects. From this amount over 53%, or $231,000,000, will be spent on the construction of toll roads. These recommendations ignore the federal law that requires these funds to be spent in economically distressed areas and ignore the will of ordinary Texans who are opposed to our tax dollars being spent on Toll Roads and see these schemes as a type of double taxation.”

Rick Perry is living in a fantasy world. In Rick Perry’s World, Texans live to toss handfuls of coins into toll booth receptacles so they can blissfully drive their SUVs down foreign-owned and maintained (and now, apparently, taxpayer-supported) pay-as-you-go toll roads. In Rick Perry’s World, Texans admire foreign corporations that can wheedle taxpayer money out of the hands of the Obama Administration. In Rick Perry’s World, Texans love them some toll road.

Is this guy nuts?

Didn’t Texans of all colors and stripes outright reject any notion of a Trans Texas Corridor to the effect that it is now DOA? Didn’t Fort Bend County voters roundly reject any notion of a toll road (as in Section C of the Grand Parkway) in the last election when they rejected a Republican toll road cheerleader running for the Commissioners Court?

The only thing that galls me more than this gross misuse of Economic Recovery funds is the fact that we stand to lose this money when the Feds see how Texas state government plans on mishandling and totally mismanaging this money.

Causing me to wonder if it all isn’t on purpose. Does Perry want to purposely lose this money just as he wants to reject the federal funds for unemployment benefits?

No, frankly, I think I am giving Governor Perry far too much credit for analysis. Quite frankly, these days when you look into Rick Perry’s eyes, all you see is the back of his head.

Will You Walk Into My Parlour Said the Spider to the Fly

Will you walk into my parlour?" said the Spider to the Fly,
'Tis the prettiest little parlour that ever you did spy;
The way into my parlour is up a winding stair,
And I've a many curious things to shew when you are there."
Oh no, no," said the little Fly, "to ask me is in vain,
For who goes up your winding stair can ne'er come down again."

- From “The Spider and the Fly” by Mary Howitt

You know, the last time that a very popular Democratic president was asked to come to Texas, a president who despite his national popularity, had very unfavorable ratings in said state, it was none other than John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

And nothing good came of that November trip.

So it comes as no surprise that junior senator from Texas, John Cornyn is the first to offer President Obama a personal tour of Laredo. Laredo, the safest city this side of Mosul.

Quite frankly, I think Barack Obama has better things to do than to kneel to John Cornyn’s egotistical grandstanding. It makes me wonder whether Cornyn has thrown in a personal tour of Cornyn’s own hunting lease, where they will cruise around in Cadillacs with the rag tops down so they can shoot game at will. I hear that Kennedy was especially taken with that act of pure Texas culture.

No. I’m pretty sure that Barack Obama can take care of these matters at his level, in talks with Mexican President Felipe Calderon. Let’s let John Cornyn rub elbows with the Laredo locals and swap lies with the Federales. That’s his bailiwick and I’m sure he’s good at swapping lies.

And let’s let Obama do what he is good at.

Developing and communicating policy.

Does Wall Street Want Obama to Fail, Too?

A random thought crossed my mind as I was reading about the 12-year low 6763 Dow-Jones average posted today, first time below 7000 points since the Internet evolved from ARPANET (thanks to Al Gore).

I was wondering whether Wall Street players want, as Rush Limbaugh and his dittoheads want, for Barack Obama to fail.

If so, they are certainly in the driver’s seat as it is their actions that drive the stock market, and everyone’s 401K with it.

Do you think?

Paying the TAKS Tax

Don’t fret, members of the Grand Obstructionist Party, there really isn’t a TAKS tax, not one that requires monetary remuneration, anyway.

The TAKS tax is one where students and teachers alike surrender their souls for another pointless round of endless questions, hours of non-stop silence, and indescribable boredom.

“Boredom” cannot completely describe the TAKS experience.

Call it “boredom with prejudice.” That’s closer, anyway.

The Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, round one, English Language Arts, is set to go for tomorrow. Students are being told to get a good night’s sleep and eat a good breakfast. Not mentioned, but certainly understood, is that they should refrain from playing Halo3, Counterstrike or World of Warcraft until 3:30 am.

Mainly because what they are in for is a grueling 4 hour (at least) experience that will determine whether some of them, 11^th graders actually, will be able to claim their diplomas next year. As for the rest of them, I am still trying to figure out what possible incentive there is for doing well on their versions of the TAKS test. Unless the district, or the school site has thought about it, there is no incentive.

That doesn’t mean that there are no consequences. However, happily, for the students anyway, is there are no repercussions to them if they were to randomly bubble their answers, or engage in the time-honored tradition of “bubbling C.”

No, the consequences are all on the school and the district. Why? you may ask. Because the state’s annual campus and district ratings take into account not only the exit level TAKS scores, where there are student sanctions for doing poorly, but all level s of TAKS scores. That’s right, even though there are no consequences for poor performance on a TAKS test by 9^th and 10^th graders, that doesn’t mean that schools are off the hook in terms of their ratings, based on those test scores.

And for students, TAKS is such a boring test, why not “bubble C” so you can get back to reading the novel you were reading during all your classes?

Add to this the fact that TAKS has already been identified as the worthless test that it is, and has been voted out of existence by 2011. Students entering high school next year will not take a TAKS test . . . ever.

No, instead of 4 TAKS tests, students will, starting next year, take 16 End of Course tests.

Quadruple your fun. Now that’s what I call an improvement.

Canadian PM: We Are Not Going to Win Afghan War

This is what Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper told CNN’s Farid Zakaria on Farid Zakaria GPS this afternoon:

"We are not going to win this war just by staying. My own judgment is, quite frankly, that we are not going to ever defeat the insurgency. We have to have an Afghan government that is capable of managing that insurgency and improving its own governance.”

I’ve been wondering about that myself.

Historically, no one has ever had much success getting Afghans to knuckle under to foreign rule.

Most recently, we had the Soviet Union armies see defeat in Afghanistan. Some argue that they lost their will in their defeat by Afghan Mujahideen fighters, and this contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union.

Sure the Soviets were ultimately defeated by the US and Middle East nations helping and arming the Afghan Mujahideen.

But it took 10 years.

And the Mujahideen never let up.

Before that we had the English. The English fought three wars in Afghanistan between 1839 and 1919 and in the end, in 1919, they left, ceding back all of the territories that they had controlled.

As a matter of fact, war is part and parcel of Afghan history. As the PM observed, Afghan insurgency is historically a way of life there.

So in the end, I find myself in agreement with PM Harper. Afghans have time and the terrain on their side. All we can really hope for is to have a stable government in Kabul. A government whose legitimacy will be constantly questioned as long as we have a single pair of boots on the ground there.

In other words, the best thing we can do for the government in Afghanistan is to get out and stay out.

Yes, President Obama is dead wrong to increase our presence there. He has listened to the wrong people, and has accepted their ill-advised opinions.

When You’re a Jet . . .

Perhaps it’s because territoriality is one of the more primitive of human instincts, but I find it curiously refreshing that today’s high school students, vis-à-vis northern Fort Bend County’s Cinco Ranch High School students, have much in common with their grandparents’ generation.

Either that or they, and their grandparents, have and have had much way too much time on their hands and had little else to concern them.

Which seems odd, since from what I can gather from the news, there is much that should concern them. Like where they will be getting a job, or if they will be able to go to a university. Or to war.

But in the news today we find a dust up between Cinco Ranch High School students and students from the other high schools in Katy ISD. It seems there are some students, who write for the Cinco Ranch newspaper who object to students from other high schools spending their leisure time at “their places.” “Don’t they have their own places to go,” they ask.

Well when some of their grandparents were grappling with issues like the construction of the Berlin Wall, the lowering of the Iron Curtain, the Cuban Missile Crisis, and whether Banning the Bomb would be a good idea, others of them, like those characters that entertained us in “The West Side Story,” were arguing over turf.

Much like they are now in Katy.

From FortBendNow:

“The article rhetorically asks ‘Don’t they have their own places to go?’ It also contained student quotes suggesting that Cinco Ranch hot-spots such as LaCenterra and popular fast food establishments ‘belong’ to Cinco students.”

To these students, all I have to say is

When you’re a Jet
You’re a Jet all the way,
From your first cigarette
To your last dyin day.
When you’re a Jet
Let ‘em do what they can
You got brothers around
You’re a family man.
You’re never alone
You’re never disconnected
You’re home with your own
When company’s expected
You’re well protected

Then you can put your head in the sand
While your folks get laid off
And the banks go up end
When you’re a Jet
You. Stay. A. Jeeeeeeeet.

And, by the way, can we please reestablish the draft and get these kids out of the malls and into the streets where they need to be?