Texas Lottery Voted into Extinction

Today in the Texas House of Representatives the state lottery was voted out of existence. People were surprised that there were so many, on both sides of the aisle, who were opposed to Texas running its own numbers game. Apparently, from what I read here in the AustinAmerican-Statesman, there were enough state reps on both sides of the aisle who were morally and ethically against state-sanctioned gambling.
 

“After voting against the bill, state Rep. Steve Toth, R-The Woodlands, tweeted: “Th’s was nothing more than a tax on the poor.’”

A tax on the poor that sends a billion dollars a year into the state’s education coffers.

But the House voted 65-81 against a sunset bill to continue the state lottery commission for another 12 years and now one wonders what is going to happen to all the funds presently in the lottery treasure chest what with no commission to oversee its distribution.

But that isn’t the half of it. When the state instituted the lottery, with the stipulation that the proceeds go to public education – a win-win – state budgeting for education was pared back to take into account the fact that another source of funding was now in place.

A zero-sum game.

So now, one can argue that the state is now under-funding education by a billion dollars a year, and has not made a move to rectify that gap by shoveling more state funds into education. And the way things are going in Texas, I wouldn’t expect the state legislature to make good on the gap anytime soon.

Oh, and also included in the bill is the fact that no charitable organizations can raise funds with bingo games at churches and veterans halls. Not anymore.

But knowing Texas, they’ll probably fix that one with another vote as we go forward.

Millions for churches, but not one penny for education.

Define WMD

Today we learned that the Marathon Bomber, 19 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was charged with using a weapon of mass destruction, a federal capital offense.
 

Not murder.

But not a war combatant either.

But I find it truly ironic, and just a little illogical, that the Tsarnaev brothers made crowd-killing bombs and ignited two of them in a crowd, but the total death toll was 3. Granted there were nearly two hundred injured, but these wounds range from severe amputations to flesh wounds.

And three deaths.

But that’s a weapon of mass destruction, yet a Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle equipped with high-capacity magazines is not considered a weapon of mass destruction, even when we recently lost 27 souls to the madness of Adam Lanza and his mother’s AR-15.

I sometimes tire of trying to make sense of a senseless world.

Terrorist?

Is it just me or does anyone else out there think that trying the confused young man who left a bomb at the Boston Marathon as a terrorist is a bad idea? What if he isn't a terrorist? What if that can be proven in a court of law? What if all he is is a hero-worshiping acolyte of his older brother?

Case in point. His older brother charged at the police with an explosive-filled vest. The older brother was willing to die. The younger one hid in a boat and eventually gave up. This is not what terrorists do. Terrorists blow up bomb vests, underwear, their shoes or the cars they are driving. They don't cower all day in a boat.

I think that making a political point, in this specific case, is a bad, bad idea.

If they go through with this, what is to stop the government from redefining all crime as terrorism?  Any crime, except for victimless crimes, are, after all, inflictors of distress on someone. That is what terrorism is and what it is meant to be.

Someone has to come to their senses and stop mollifying the breast-beating Republican Senators who are screaming about not Mirandizing this boy and trying him as an enemy terrorist.

Murderer yes. Terrorist no.

1 Picture = 10,000 Words

Because He's an Asshat

It’s All Rights and No Accountability

Well that was a close one.

The Manchin-Toomey 2^nd Amendment Preservation Bill was filibustered by Republicans and Democrats alike in the US Senate yesterday. The bill to partially tighten controls over gun ownership will not come to the Senate floor for debate. Not now anyway.

And I can’t be more relieved.

The bill was flawed at its inception in that it only slightly extended the number of gun exchange events that would require a criminal/mental background check. Adam Lanza would still have had his mama’s Bushmaster semi-automatic rifle available to him to shoot his mother, twenty babies and six educators if this bill were law before Sandy Hook happened.

The bill was touted by its authors as a bill to guarantee 2^nd Amendment rights, and I completely believe it. It makes gun ownership more palatable. It puts some accountability in the system. But this week the Senate voted yes on opaque gun ownership and no on accountability.

And that suits me just fine.

You see, this hardline stance will one day blow up in the faces of gun nuts. We will continue to see death and carnage with the gun lobby enabling wanton and bloody behavior. Someday, I think, someone is going to say “Enough” and really mean it. Someone is going to take another look at the 2^nd Amendment and see it for what it is, the only right that is a conditional right.

The right is conditional. The first clause in the 2^nd Amendment says it all. The truth in the late 18^th century was that a “well-regulated militia” actually was necessary for the security of the nation. The militia helped kick the British out of the Colonies. But there are no more well-regulated militias anymore. They are as extinct as the dodo bird. Therefore, one could argue, the only reason to include a right to bear arms in our constitution is no longer a reason.

We need to repeal the 2^nd Amendment or reword it. I like this wording.

“Since a well-regulated militia is no longer necessary for the security of the nation, but people still do have the right to life, no private individual has the right to keep and bear arms.”  

School Daze

You know, we really are having a school board election in the school district that I live within. We really are.

But that would come as a big surprise to those candidates who have filed to run in the May 11^th election, but as of yet, have not filed a campaign finance report.

As of today, of the 6 people running for 2 positions on the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees, only 3 of them have filed the month out campaign finance report.

I like to read these reports to help make my mind up as to which set of construction company owners I want to have representation on the school board.

Jim Rice, an incumbent for Position 3, has filed an actual campaign finance report.

He has thousands of dollars at his beck and call. The guy has a giant war chest for someone running for a position that pays nothing. He raised over 16 grand and spent over 7 grand, mostly on consultants.

But 4 days after the filing deadline, his opponent, Venesia R. Johnson has yet to have a link to her campaign finance report posted at the Fort Bend ISD Trustee web page.

In Position 7, two of the 4 candidates have filed papers. Rodrigo Carreon was first to file an affidavit that states that he has no intention of raising any funds or spending any funds greater than $500 which is the limit allowed by the TEC.

Cynthia Lenton Gary filed an expense report with a bunch of zeros in it for the period covering 3/11/2013 to 4/11/2013 and the link was updated to the Fort Bend site yesterday.

But the two other candidates, Keciana Enaohwo and incumbent (no less) Dave Rosenthal have not filed. Rosenthal is one candidate that I know for a fact has campaign expenditures because his signs are popping up all over the county. I know Rosenthal has some lucre, but not how much or from whom.

Now it could just be that the people who maintain Fort Bend ISD’s website are simply unable to keep up with the vast workload that goes into scanning a hard copy and posting a link to the PDF. Or it could really be that the 3 candidates have really not filed a campaign finance report. That might be of interest to the TEC which is a “fine” organization. Or if the former is the case, the District needs to know that this is a real election and failing to post relevant information on the school board candidates is a poor service to their “clients.”

The Ides of April

Two bombs went off today at the Boston Marathon finish line.

 

Two are known to be dead, and there are tens who have been injured.

 

One unexploded bomb was found under the marathon review stand.

 

But I checked and checked, and no one appears to be going off half cocked blaming al-Qaeda. Except for the fact that the bombs are being characterized as "IED-like."

 

The term Improvised Explosive Device has typically been associated with Islamic terrorists. But people are keeping mum, so far, on their opinions as to the bombs' origin.

 

And rightly so. Remember, we might have a War on Terror but terrorists come in all shapes and sizes. The first thing I look at is date, not opportunity. Today is April 15th. Tax Day. Today is also Patriot's Day in Massachusetts. The day when the Minutemen faced off against British Regulars in Lexington.

 

Last I heard, Islamic terrorists don't have an axe to grind in either of those events.

When Regulation is Bad

A new/old bill has been filed in the Texas legislature to forbid invasive pat downs at TSA checkpoints in airports. The feds have already said that if such a law is passed and enforced in Texas, it will mean the grounding of all planes coming into Texas.

 

But I think we are all missing the point here. On the one hand we have Teapublicans decrying invasive searches at airports, but at the same time defending the right of criminals, and the insane, to buy a semi-automatic rifle and high capacity magazines.

 

Because one act is invasive, but the other is a senseless case of government overreach.

 

Richard Reid, the "shoe bomber" who set the stage for requiring all Americans who wish to board a plane in America to enter the secure area shoeless has set far more precedence than Adam Lanza, who gunned down 20 babies in Connecticut late last year.

 

Because of Richard Reid, we must all remove our shoes if we want to fly in America. But because the NRA wants to defend the rights of Adam Lanza to keep and bear a weapon of war and high capacity magazines, absolutely nothing has changed in gun ownership laws.

 

Yeah, they have thrown us the bone of having the issue debated in the Senate, but is anyone really hopeful of passage of a universal background check. If you are, you have not been paying attention.

 

They. Won't. Allow. It.

To Twit or Not to Twit

OK, everyone is blogging this story today but I simply can't resist a good belly laugh.

 

Congresstwit Steve Stockman (R - Outer Space) has just tweeted (or should I say twitted?) his latest campaign bumper sticker. Seen below

 

 

How incongruous. Supporting the ultimate invasion in personal freedom, a woman's freedom to make decisions about her own body, by touting the unlimited distribution of firearms. In this case, firearms for fetuses. Because one must never infringe on one's right to keep and bear arms, but if you choose to have an abortion, well now, missy, that's not part of my religion so that one is a great big no.

 

Steve Stockman, unfortunately, is a congressman from the state of Texas, a state that also boasts sending the likes of Joe Barton and Louie Gohmert to those hallowed halls. 

 

These three jokers - and let us not forget Ted "Carnival" Cruz -   make Texas voters look like blithering idiots.

If Men Were Sluts....

I get all my news from Comedy Central and today three hilarious Comedy Central "news reporters" posed in a photo shoot displaying their bods in the genre of present-day models who make prostitutes look absolutely prim and proper.

 

 

 

 

I blame Madonna, Britney Spears and Christine Aguilera for spearheading the undoing of the feminist movement in America.  

Why Would ANYone Want to Teach in Texas?

Why?

Why, when we have two Republican State Reps in Austin right now filing bills that will not only reduce retirement benefits to teachers,  things that they have come to expect as a done deal, but also reduce their health insurance benefits?

Why would anyone even think of going to school to teach in Texas?

The Teachers Retirement System (TRS) is the only retirement system that teachers are allowed to participate in. Social Security is available to teachers in only a few places in Texas.

So TRS has a monopoly here.

But two bills, SB 1458 in the Senate by Sen. Robert Duncan (R-Lubbock), and its companion in the House, HB 1884 by Rep. Bill Callegari (R-Katy) have been filed to raise to age 62 the minimum age for retirement with full benefits and decent health coverage. Right now the age is 60, and one must meet the ”rule of 80” which is a combination of age and number of years teaching.

These are benefits that are already earned by teachers and snatch them away without due compensation. This isn’t even legal in the private sector. But it seems that the conservatives who run state government have an eye to further degrade education in Texas by making it increasingly undesirable.

But that’s not all. If one retires before the minimum age, pensions would be cut 5 percent for each year prior to age 62, even for employees who meet the rule of 80, and only catastrophic health coverage would be provided. Have high blood pressure because of 30 years teaching in public schools? Thanks, but the cost of the meds to keep it under control is all on you now.

And as I intimated earlier, no one worth his or her salt would want to take on extra work, lower pay than in the private sector, no respect, and now even retirement benefits that are being cut back.If equivalent cuts in Socials Security and Medicare were being contemplated in Congress people would be screaming bloody murder. But to do the same thing to teachers, apparently is not a big problem.

Why would ANYone want to teach in Texas?

 

 

Tuesday "Gun Meme Palooza"

This is the make or break week for gun control people tell me. Whether or not to allow to the floor for debate or an up/down vote on universal background checks for potential gun owners is all the rage in the Senate. Whether or not the House will even bring it to the floor because Speaker Boehner doesn't want his NRA-bought caucus to register a Nay vote for all to see in wonderment for a bill that 90% of Americans desire to see pass.

 

So I am noting this occasion with what I am calling "Gun Meme Palooza." Photos and images gleaned from the internets.

 

Here goes.

The Catholic Church: Losing Parishioners One Soul at a Time

Today I am reading that yesterday Detroit Catholic Archbishop Allen Vingeron told his parishioners that if they supported same-sex marriage, that they had in effect, committed self-excommunication. This is sort of like Mitt Romney’s self-deportation – not something one normally wants to do but circumstances warrant the act.
 

How does one excommunicate oneself? What rite do you perform? Or do you do as countless millions of recovering Catholics do and simply stop attending mass?

Archbishop Vingeron, you know was repeating the words found in a blog posting last month by a theology professor. The professor, as expected, was very technical in his assertions:

“Catholics who promote ‘same-sex marriage’ act contrary to Canon 209 Section 1 and should not approach for Holy Communion per Canon 916.”

And you know, it is my guess, that Britain’s former sovereign, King Henry VIII got the same sort of message from Pope Clement VII. If he wanted to disobey the Catholic Canon on marriage and marry Anne Boleyn, well maybe Clement went all 209/916.

Resulting, of course, in an independent Church of England – a new addition to the Protestant Movement.

So all you same-sexer Catholics out there do have a refuge from the fires of H-E-double-hockey-sticks. Just do what Henry VIII did and found your own Protestant church.

Or better yet, if that is an inconvenience, just take your tithes to the Episcopal Church in the United States of America. I hear they are more tolerant of beliefs that go against the Canons. They also perform same-sex marriage.

Win – win.

Sequester Ending Cancer Treatment a Cruel Joke

On April Fool’s Day this year reductions in Medicare payments for cancer drug treatments resulted in thousands of cancer patients being turned away from cancer clinics because it was too costly to administer the expensive drugs.

No fooling.

Citing a 5 percent enforced reduction in drug payments, this effectively meant a 33 percent decrease in clinic profits, meaning that many clinics would go out of business in 6 months.

I remember when the Teapublicans were whining and complaining about the Death Panels that Obamacare was going to institute. Well, Teapublicans, guess what. You got your wish. We are now living in Libertarian Heaven where your taxes didn’t rise and grandma is going to die of her cancer because you guys don’t want to pay for her cancer drugs.

Have a nice day.

45 Years Ago Today

 

45 years ago today, April 4th 2013, James Earl Ray aimed his hunting rifle at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and then shot and killed him in Memphis, Tennessee.

 

"Rosa sat so Martin Could Walk, Martin Walked so Obama Could Run, Obama Ran So Our Children Could Fly"



OK... Ditto. Just Ditto.

This is a short one today because I am in the thrall of brilliance.

 

Someone just summarized what it is to be a progressive liberal in this day and age, and what it is to be a conservative.

 

So... yeah.... Ditto. Just Ditto.

Louie Gohmert On Line Drawing

Congresscreep Louie Gohmert (R – Batguano Crazy) has delivered another oeuvre for us progressive liberals to celebrate. It seems whenever Gohmert opens his mouth bat-sourced nitrates fall out and we liberals are driven to exaltation and prayers of thanks to Baby Jesus.

 

In a conference call for Tea Party Unity, Gohmert made the logically impossible comparison between gun ownership, gay marriage and beastiality.

No, I’m serious. This man has no equal for brain farts.

Quoth the Gohmert on gun magazine size:

“Well, once you make it ten, then why would you draw the line at ten? What’s wrong with nine? Or eleven? And the problem is once you draw that limit; it’s kind of like marriage when you say it’s not a man and a woman any more, then why not have three men and one woman, or four women and one man, or why not, somebody has a love for an animal?”

And the good news is that this nonsense doesn’t seem to have an end. Teabagger pols are in competition to corner the market on nutcase logic that redefines, on a daily basis, what constitutes the moral compass of the New Republican Party.

Sick of Pain at the Pump? Ask a European

Americans are such spoiled children. These days practically all you hear from Americans is how much they are paying for gasoline. Americans, being the provincial people that they are, have no idea what real pain at the pump is.

 

And no I am not defending the oil and gas industry. They can well-afford to cut their margins and still make a gazillion dollars for their stock holders. I am just here to observe the hidden truth that gasoline prices could be a whole lot worse.

Most of what Europe pays in excess for gasoline is partly due to higher taxes and partly due to supply. They tax the H-E-double hockey sticks out of their gasoline. California is a piker compared to the taxes Europeans pay. But then there is simply very little local supply available in Europe. Americans still enjoy abundant local supply.

And the problem is also that we are now competing on a developing world market for resources, and we pay a higher price to attract supply away from Asia.

So yeah, prices are up but so is everything else, partially fueled by the increased costs of transportation.

So buck up Americans. It could be a whole lot worse.

Getting STAARed

The STAAR End of Course tests began today with a vengeance. STAAR stands for, they tell me, State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness, but what it should be called is STEWED: State of Texas Exercise in Wasted Educational Days.

 

Not knowing how other school districts are handling it, the one whose borders I live within dedicated the entire day to one EOC on one subject for one grade level. During testing times, other grades either met for class – but did nothing – or crowded into mass meeting areas to wait around.

Classes resumed in the afternoon, but whether anything was done depended on an individual teacher’s schedule.

All of this will go on for another seven days, then later on, TAKS testing will occur for all high school juniors. Three more days where nothing gets done.

That, friends and neighbors, is ten days of standardized testing. With a mere 80 days of instruction in the spring semester, that is a 12.5% reduction in the number of days of instruction.

Your tax dollars at work.

And finally friends and neighbors, the Texas Legislature is currently considering severely curtailing the number of required End of Course exams, reducing the number to seven. If passed this year, that means that the test being taken this week will not be included in a student’s graduation requirements.

Making a waste of a day a complete waste of a day.