Replacing Anthony Weiner

As I write this, they are showing now former Congressman Anthony Weiner’s last hurrah in front of the hot lights as he resigns from congress for the crime of “sexting,” at least that is the reason that the media keeps on reporting. Actually this is not true.

Anthony Weiner showed poor taste in sending images of himself to young women, and poor judgment, but that isn’t why he is resigning. He is resigning because he could no longer be a fully functional congressman who could serve his constituents effectively. The spewers of hatred and vilification were not going away.

No, the only thing to my mind that Anthony Weiner is guilty of, besides bad taste, is concocting one lie after another to everyone around him and to party leaders.

As I mentioned it before coming up with a complete fabrication is bad, retelling it over and over to your friends, peers and party leadership is worse. But I still thought he could weather this out and serve out his term. Then his district would be eliminated in the 2012 election.

And obviously this was mainly in view of the fact that his constituents would lose their voice in congress until a special election could be called, something that takes several months.

But listening to the hecklers in the crowd, you could see that he was never going to weather this because the storm was here to stay.

What the hecklers’ motivation was is anyone’s guess, but I don’t rule out Republicans hounding him out of office so they could get a chance win the seat back in a low turnout special election. It nearly worked for them in 2009 when (now) Senator Kirsten Gillibrand’s congressional seat nearly went to a Republican who lost by a mere 726 votes.

Now we all have to move on and wonder how long it is going to take for a special election to be called and who will run in it. I don’t expect the district to be flipped because not only is NY-9 an urban district but also has a fairly comfortable 10% voter gap between Democratic voters and Republican voters. And while Gillibrand was re-elected to her seat in 2008 with 62% of the vote, this mostly rural district was traditionally Republican. Her win in 2006 was an upset, retiring a 4-term Republican.

So Congressman Anthony Weiner is no more, so now maybe the hecklers can go and crawl back under their rocks and the rest of us can talk about two wars and economic recovery. Oh, and not to forget to mention the end of public education, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. You know… those red meat Republican issues I will be bringing up from time to time.

Texas Lyceum Poll: Concern About Education is Up

The Texas Lyceum has been doing an annual poll since 2007 on the issues of the time. It is, you could say a snapshot of what the Texas public has most concern about. Things change so rapidly now that last year’s non-issue becomes this year’s hot-button issue.

And this year’s poll, being released between Tuesday and today, found here, is no different.

This year’s poll, for instance shows that for the first time since it has conducted the poll Texans are more concerned about education than they are about the economy. More concerned about education than they are about immigration.

Texans, it seems, have been paying attention.

I wonder if timing had something to do with this? The poll was conducted over an 8-day interval from May 24^th to May 31^st, just at the same time the SB1/HB1 was being worked on, and the Education budget was getting worked over.

Note the graphic. This is a summary of the hot-button issues that Texans have identified from one year to the next, with the budget shortfall not shown before 2010 probably because Rick Perry said there wasn’t going to be one.

In 2011 nearly double the number of Texans who view immigration as their number one issue see education as the current issue of concern to them. On another graphic found in the PDF the trend is clear over the past three years that an increasing number of Texans think that Texas is on the wrong track (58%), while Texans who see their state going in the right direction still trend south (28%).

Now here is what I am wondering: I wonder how much Texans relate between these two poll questions, and I wonder whether they want to do something about it at the polls next year.

Memorable Moments of the Republican Debate

I managed to sit through the 1^st official Republican presidential debate last night even though I would have rather sat for 2 hours watching a static-filled screen and listened to white noise.

The frustrating thing about the whole thing is that Republicans were allowed to spew absolute falsehoods unchecked and uncorrected for all that time. Here are some of the memorable quotes and falsehoods that went unanswered because no one was there to answer them.

Mitt Romney: “I can't wait to debate (Obama) and say, 'Mr. President, if, in fact, you did look at what we did in Massachusetts, why didn't you give me a call and ask what worked and what didn't.”

Could it be, perhaps, that President Obama didn’t need to call him because he had Ezekiel Emanuel on his staff to go to with questions? Romney may have signed the bill into law, but Emanuel was the architect of Romneycare.

Tim Pawlenty: “And this idea that we can't have 5 percent growth in America is hogwash.”

Well, perhaps since a 5% sustained growth per year over a decade has never been achieved in modern times - even under the Clinton and Reagan boom years the growth rate never exceeded 4.9% - calling Pawlenty’s economic “plan” hogwash is not so off the reservation.

Michele Bachmann: “Unlike how the media has tried to wrongly and grossly portray the Tea Party, the Tea Party is really made up of disaffected Democrats, independents, people who've never been political a day in their life, people who are libertarians, Republicans -- it's a wide swathe of America coming together.”

…that will never poll over 22% of registered voters.

Herman Cain: “This economy is stalled. It's like a train on the tracks with no engine and the administration has simply been putting all of this money in the caboose. We need an engine called the private sector.”

Which is it? Either the auto industry isn’t in the private sector, or the auto industry is stalled on tracks?

Newt Gingrich: “As each new state becomes right to work, they send a signal to the remaining states, don't be stupid ... If you believe in the 10th Amendment, we ought let the states learn from each other. And the right-to-work states are creating a lot more jobs today that they heavily unionized states.”

Unions brought us child labor laws, the 40 hour work week, workplace safety standards, and so much more that we take for granted these days. They made the very existence of the middle class possible. "Right to work" is a euphemism for "Right to fire you."

Ron Paul: “There shouldn't be any government assistance to private enterprise. It's not morally correct, it's not legal, it's bad economics. It's not part of the constitution.”

Not part of the constitution… Know what else is not in the constitution Dr. Paul, government support of the exploration of the moon, yet we have NASA.

Pre-Abortion Sonogram Law Challenged in Federal Court

The Center for Reproductive Rights just filed a lawsuit in federal court in Austin on behalf of abortion providers, challenging the legality of the recently passed oppressive Sonogram Law. It will be remembered that the Sonogram Law requires all women seeking an abortion in Texas must undergo a sonogram 24 hours before her scheduled abortion (or 2 hours before the abortion if she lives 100 or more miles away from the abortion service provider).

I have been expecting this but I was surprised at their angle of attack, something that I doubt the lawyers and other non-medical people in the Legislature probably didn’t think about.

You see, I would have gone at this law head-on. It is oppressive, invasive and an unwarranted intrusion on the privacy of a human being. It is Big Government writ large fueled by evangelical religious fervor.

It is so obvious.

But no, they don’t attack it that way. Remember the lawsuit was filed on behalf of abortion service providers: medical doctors and medical clinics. Here is their angle of attack.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“The Act profoundly intrudes on the practice of medicine, forces physicians to deliver ideological speech to patients, and treats women as less than fully competent adults,” the lawsuit says.”

“Under the law, signed May 19 by Gov. Rick Perry, a woman cannot decline to hear the sonogram description, though she may opt out of viewing sonogram images or hearing the fetal heartbeat.”

“‘The Act will force physicians to violate basic standards of medical ethics by compelling them to disregard the wishes of patients who do not want to receive this information,’ the lawsuit said.”

Brilliant.

Congressman Weiner Needs Jesus

Now this should come as no surprise to some of us, particularly we jaded observers of the ongoings of human events, but apparently according to Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. President of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, it seems clear that Congressman Anthony Weiner should come to Jesus as there is no treatment for sin.

No, I swear, he tweeted it.

"Dear Congressman Weiner: There is no effective "treatment" for sin. Only atonement, found only in Jesus Christ.”

The sheer opportunism that this represents is enough to turn my stomach, and believe me I have had ample opportunity to have my stomach turned of late.Now as someone who does not profess or practice a religion, this sort of comment makes me uneasy. When Tiger Woods got into so much hot water because of his (real) affairs, he was admonished by the Fox evangelical Brit Hume that he would be well-encouraged to drop his Buddhist beliefs and come into the light. This made me uneasy. But Buddhists and the Christians haven’t really had a historical knockdown drag out like the Christians and Jews have. So if Hume’s remark to Tiger Woods on his religion could strike me with disquiet, imagine how a Christian leader’s similar remark, on the Internet, to Anthony Weiner, a Jew, would strike me.

But thanks be to Jesus Christ, Savior of the World, that not all Christians are of like mind, that not all Christians prioritize the truth of their religion over the falsehoods of others. Me too, I like the idea of having multiple deities to call on. Here is part of a resolution that the United Church of Christ adopted in 1987:

“Faced with this history from which we as Christians cannot, and must not, disassociate ourselves, we ask for God's forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ. We pray for divine grace that will enable us, more firmly than ever before, to turn from this path of rejection and persecution to affirm that Judaism has not been superseded by Christianity; that Christianity is not to be understood as the successor religion to Judaism; God's covenant with the Jewish people has never been abrogated. God has not rejected the Jewish people; God is faithful in keeping covenant.”

If anything, all Dr. Mohler’s tweet does, as far as I am concerned, is to reaffirm to me that this “history” is still not a part of history. It is still with us.

God help us.

Get Ready for the Claw Fest

The quote often attributed to Ronald Reagan, but is actually attributable to then-chairman of the California Republican Party, Gaylord Parkinson is appropriate here:

“Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican.”

And why is it appropriate? It’s appropriate because we are poised on the brink of the wholesale rejection of Parkinson’s Rule. Tonight is the first Republican Presidential debate to be held in New Hampshire and hosted by CNN, and others.

And why is this you ask? Well it is in the best interest of each candidate to let the voter know of the differences between them. This, for the most part has not been possible in the past because the Republican Party has been this monolithic organization that marches in lockstep. In the past, this makes Parkinson’s Rule possible.

Not so anymore.

I’ve always said that the Democratic Party is a big tent group. We are diverse and we come in many shapes and sizes. The Republican Party, by contrast has been the party in lock-step agreement. Not so anymore, not so. The Republican Party has become such a big tent organization that it might be better to pitch several small tents.

Which is what I think they are doing.

Several cases in point:

Tim Pawlenty, struggling to emerge out of obscurity, has hit pack leader Mitt Romney with the notion that his state healthcare plan was the model upon which “Obamacare” was based. He calls it “Obamaneycare.” Teabaggers are going to hate that.

Not that they are going to love Tim Pawlenty for making this observation.

Mainly because Pawlenty has also attacked their darling, Michele Bachmann, pointedly observing that it wasn’t Michele Bachmann he was talking about. How you do that is a mystery to me. The quote:

“I'm not speaking about Michele Bachmann here but I’m not running for comedian-in-chief or entertainer-in-chief. You know, if people want to have that be the main consideration, they should go to a Broadway show.”

Was he speaking about Michele Bachmann? You know he was.

And what will Newt do? Anyone’s guess. Newt is down for the count and he doesn’t even know it. His staff walkout has all but rendered him impotent. He could become the loose cannon that upsets the whole applecart.

Unless Michele Bachmann beats him to the punch.

Will Sanctuary City Bill Mobilize Hispanics Next Year?

Probably the single most divisive issue in the Republican Party in Texas right now is the fact that Rick Perry has made it a priority that the legislature passes a Sanctuary City bill.

Norman Adams who heads up Texans for Sensible Immigration Policy finds that he and his group must oppose the Governor’s wish for passage of this anti-Hispanic bill, and for good reason. The number one demographic increase in Texas that is responsible for Texas acquiring 4 additional seats in Congress is the Hispanic population.

If they are to stay in power, Republicans must curry favor with this population, not something that is going to happen anytime soon if as Adams says since “Hispanic voters will not support a party that wants to deport their mother and father.”

Yeah, I guess I would be a little averse to cast a vote for a Republican given that kind of result.

But it goes even further. It goes to the economy. Witness what SB 1070 did to Arizona’s economy. Arizona lost business through both active and passive boycotting.

“If you want to find out if we can actually survive deporting these people, go look at what has happened in Arizona. They are in the biggest economic collapse of history,” he said. “Apartments are empty, houses are being repossessed and strip centers are half empty. It’s terrible.”

Yeah, I had to find a way to incorporate that quote somehow.

Now the only question I have goes back to the title of this post. Hispanics are notorious for not showing up on Election Day. The phenomenom is unexplainable. But I have to ask will passage of a Sanctuary City bill in the legislature be of sufficient motivation for Hispanics to get out and vote this time?

If so, the Texas GOP may just shoot itself in the foot with this bill.

A notion I relish.

How Would Jesus Vote?

It seems God is a Republican. How else can you explain the fact that He has endorsed three, count ‘em, three Republican presidential hopefuls. And how on Earth (or in heaven for that matter) does God get off choosing 3 and not one? Is it the whole Holy Trinity thing?

It’s true. According to the Daily Intel the Lord God has been caught red-handed apparently endorsing the campaigns of Herman Cain, Rick Santorum and Michelle Bachman.

And Michelle Bachmann hasn’t even declared her candidacy – not yet anyway. The Omniscient One must know she is in even though we don’t.

Herman Cain knew way back in 1999 that God wanted him to run. But even better, last year God sent him a text message of encouragement.

Rick Santorum? Rick’s wife told a reporter last month that “we believe with all our hearts that this is what God wants.”

Michelle Bachmann pretty much spells it out this way: if she runs at all it’s because God wills it. Going Santorum’s wife one better Bachmann said this: “I will not seek a higher office if God is not calling me to do it. That's really my standard.”

You have to love the gall of God, or Jesus, or the Holy Spirit, Whoever is for whomever, to give the Holy Nod to not one but three Republicans.

And you know, this pretty much puts the kibosh on anything constructive coming out of Rick Perry’s Pray In this coming August 6. With God’s political loyalties split up between 3 other presidential candidates, how is He going to possibly be there to listen to the prayers of Rick Perry’s invitees to his prayerfest that he calls “The Response?”

And what is behind “The Response?” Well apparently our problems are too big for us to solve by ourselves. We need The Lord and Savior of the Universe to get His hands dirty and solve them for us. Guess so. If the Texas Legislature can’t get it done we need to go to the A Team.

Hope they’re up to it and not spending too much time on the campaign trail.

LULAC Files Redistricting Lawsuit

It might just as well be 2003 all over again. That is the year that LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens) filed suit challenging the legality of the 2^nd in a decade reapportionment and redistricting engineered by Tom DeLay to maximize the number of congressional seats in the Texas delegation to be occupied by Republicans.

The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court who came down on the side of LULAC, and Texas 23 district boundaries had to be redrawn to more accurately reflect the demographics. LULAC cited the 1975 Voting Rights Act which forbids just that kind of racial discrimination.

Well guess what, the Solomons map, the one that apportions Texas 4 new congressional districts in a wildly anti-Hispanic way is being challenged by LULAC along the same lines as CD 23’s boundaries were drawn.

This year it is even more heinous what the Republicans have done. Texas’ population growth can be directly correlated to the growth in its Hispanic population, which is why Texas got 4 more House seats. Yet the way the map is drawn, 3 of the 4 seats split the Hispanic communities and will most likely elect Republicans. Only one district will be a Democratic one, and very, very, heavily Hispanic.

So naturally, LULAC filed suit. And when LULAC files a lawsuit, odds are very good that they will win. They are very good at this.

But you know, this time I think it won’t come down to another Supreme Court decision. This time I think the Obama Administration’s Department of Justice is going to be taking a look at this map and use the authority given to it by the VRA to reject it outright.

It certainly would be a great way for the Obama Administration to issue another public smack down on Rick Perry.

Sarah Palin, The Movie, Coming to a Theater Near You

Well if you weren’t aware of it before, Former Half Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin has had a biographical movie made of her. And announced today is news that it will premiere across the country, or at least in Iowa, on July 15^th.

It will be entitled “The Undefeated.”

It has that title because you may not have been aware of this, but Sarah Palin, with her running mate John McCain, actually won the 2008 Presidential Election.

To give you an idea of what you will see when you flock to the theater in July, take a look at this 40 second teaser.

I know, words cannot describe this movie. OK, let me try. Action packed. A thrill a minute. Brilliant.

I wonder if they are going to include footage of the Kenyan pastor who prayed over her so that she would win in her race to become Alaska’s governor.

Oh, you forgot about that one? The one who prayed that Jesus save her from the witches?

People can’t make things up about Sarah Palin because the truth is funnier than fiction.

Are You Better Off Than You Were 2 Years Ago?

Remember this famous concluding speech that Ronald Reagan delivered in his last debate with President Jimmy Carter? Many have claimed that this speech won Reagan the election.

It probably didn’t help that the inflation rate was high, mortgage interest rates were skyrocketing upward and Iranians were parading American hostages in front of cameras every day after their supposed rescuers crashed and burned in the Iranian desert.

So midway through President Obama’s term everyone is wondering who will utter those words in the 2012 election, and when.

So I thought about it some and have come to the surprising conclusion that, yes, I am better off than I was 2 years ago when Barack Obama inherited 2 wars and the worst economic downturn since 1929.

And no, I’m not.

I’m not better off than I was 2 years ago because the Republican economic policies trashed out my 401K. I’m not better of than I was 2 years ago because the 2010 elections brought a TEA Party-tinged Republican super-majority to Austin and they spent 140 days taking away my rights, and continue to vote to take away my salary and make it necessary for me to do more with less support in the classroom.

All of the reasons I am not better off than I was 2 years ago can be laid right at the feet of Teapublicans (Teabaggers and Republicans).

But all of the reasons that I am better off than I was 2 years ago are very much because of what Democrats have done.

Thanks to the Affordable Healthcare Act I can now consider retirement in a couple of years because I will be able to enroll in the affordable healthcare plans available at the exchanges.

Thanks to the bailouts the economy didn’t implode and my 401K somewhat recovered. That I still have a job is very probably because of the Obama Administration and the slim majority Democrats hold in the Senate.

So when you hear those words uttered by whoever winds up with the task of unseating the smartest president we’ve had since Jack Kennedy –and you will most definitely hear those words - do an honest evaluation, remembering not only what losses you suffered, and what gains you enjoyed, but who furnished what.

Draft Wendy Davis for US Senate

There is a “Draft Wendy Davis” group now up on Facebook. You can find it here. You can join but you have to be approved. I just sent my request. I hope they let me in.

Here is why Wendy Davis would be a perfect choice to run against David Dewhurst or Dan Patrick, the two Republicans that are expected to duke it out for the nomination: her recent successful filibuster against a bad public education bill threw her into the limelight. When parents (who are also voters) go to the polls in November 2012 they will have had to live with what Dan Patrick and David Dewhurst supported and Wendy Davis opposed. They will be so ready to vote against these people who sold their children’s education down the river.

There is another reason, though. The guy who is being put out there as the Democratic nominee, General Sanchez, has a couple of problems following him around. One problem is called Abu, the other is called Graib.

Really? We want to see those photographs of stacks of naked Iraqis again on a Republican hit piece? You know that would be coming if Sanchez is the nominee. This is Texas after all.

And finally, it looks like the State Senate district boundaries are going to go against re-electing Senator Davis. We’d lose this very excellent and effective State Senator because of Republican gerrymandering. But the district’s loss would be Texas’ gain.

And now I see that there is a “Draft Wendy Davis” on Twitter. Google it. I don’t twit.

Solar Flare and Things to Come

Wow. Did you hear about the massive solar flare that erupted from the surface of the sun yesterday morning? Here is a photograph of it at its largest extent before most of the billions of tons of material fell back to the surface of the sun.

But even though this is quite possibly the largest solar flare ever observed it should have minimal impact on Earth because of where Earth is presently in its orbital path. Earth should receive cosmic particles at a very oblique angle. They say that it should enhance the Aurora Borealis and they do expect some disruptions in communications sometime on the 9^th of June.

Speaking of which, I continue to wonder what we are getting ourselves into with the way we depend more and more on cellular communications and global positioning systems. Now from what information I have gathered, we are due for another solar max late next year to early 2013. A solar max occurs once every 12 years and extends over several months.

This is when sunspots appear. Sunspots are magnetic storms. This is when The Sun outputs more cosmic radiation – the kind that can disrupt communications systems on Earth. Trend-wise it looks like the next solar max will not be very severe – more akin to the severity of the one that occurred in 1928. But this is my main point: never in history have we had a solar max AND a cellular/wireless system that nearly everyone over the age of 7 depends on.

Really, communications-wise, the potential for some real interesting times may just be ahead of us.

On Being (A) Weiner

It just dawned on me that one way Congressman Anthony Weiner could sign his name is "A. Weiner" – something I doubt he has ever done. You know, I don’t sit in judgment on Anthony Weiner’s flaws because we all have them. And I am pretty sure that his lack of judgment is more unfortunate than unlawful. But there are some political realities that need to be considered.

Weiner has damaged his integrity not by sending a photo of the Member’s member to some Texas floozy who seems to be enjoying her 15 minutes of fame, but by laying it on a practical joker. Essentially by pure fabrication of an event that never happened. When you do that people lose all trust in you.

Weiner has in effect made himself ineffective. A non-entity who will have to stay under wraps and quiet for the rest of his term. How unfortunate is that when this particular congressman was known for his emotional outbursts that competed with Alan Grayson’s in volume and outrage.

No, Anthony Weiner should not quit. He will not be expelled, he broke no law. Not like Louisiana’s senator, Sen. David Vitter. Vitter broke the law and is still voting in the Senate. If Vitter quits I’ll rethink my opinion on Weiner quitting, but not until then.

No, Weiner should stay in office and serve out his term quietly. His constituents deserve representation in congress. My former congressman, Tom DeLay quit and left me unrepresented in congress for months on end – not that my views were very well represented by DeLay. But most of Weiner’s constituents, 61% of the voters in his district do have views that he needs to represent.

And the New York state legislature needs to redraw the congressional district boundaries, and subtract Weiner’s district. New York actually declined in population and will lose 2 congressional seats in the next election. One of the districts that needs to go is Weiner’s Brooklyn district.

Problem solved.

What Would Wendy Davis Do?

As promised, here is the video of Texas State Senator Wendy Davis (D – Fort Worth) addressing a crowd of 200 teachers who came from as far away as Corpus Christi to protest passage of bad budget bills that will spell the end of public education as Texas now knows it.

Senator Davis, you may recall, made a bit of news on the penultimate day of the 82nd legislature when she got up and spoke for a little more than an hour, filibustering SB 1811 into the trash heap of bad bills.

Responding Rapidly in Austin

So I got a call Friday evening from Anthony. Actually he left a voicemail message. Anthony works for the Fort Bend Employees Federation (aka The Teacher’s Union) of which I am a proud member. He told me that they were organizing a “Rapid Response” protest at the state capitol building in Austin and would I like to go along.

I sat and thought about it for a few minutes ticking off the reasons not to go: been there twice this year already for two other rallies, now with the senate rules no longer in force these bad bills are destined to pass so what’s the point. I didn’t end there but you get the point. But then I thought – what else are you going to do on Monday, watch the grass grow? I also enjoyed my two previous trips and knew the conversation up and back would be interesting. Besides, this protest was going to be held inside – in the rotunda.

So it became a no-brainer and I called Anthony back and told him I would go.

So now I am just back with a camera chip full of photos and videos. Videos will need some time so for now I’ll just post some of the photos.

So here’s what we did. Entering through the East Entrance we were and our possessions were examined by state troopers.  I managed not to set off the alarm.

Then up the stairs to a 2^nd floor room where we encountered something close to 200 people listening to speeches. Then we all filed out of the room and spread over the entire 2^nd floor balcony area under the rotunda and cheered, clapped, chanted, listened to speeches (Wendy Davis, the new heroine of the Senate spoke for about a minute – video tomorrow).

Then we sang.

You read it right. We sang.

It was an adaptation of “The Eyes of Texas” (which is, ironically, an adaptation of the song “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad”). Explicitly stated: our eyes are upon the legislature and yes, we vote.

Then we did it one better. We sang and marched around and around the rotunda, first on the 2^nd floor balcony, then on the ground floor, rotating counterclockwise (you know, to the left) then back upstairs where we gathered outside the entrance to the House of Representatives. Where we chanted, clapped, yelled, and yes, sang again.

Tourists were taking photographs of us.

Then we all quietly filed into, and filled nearly all the available seats on east side of the visitor’s gallery to make our presence known to the State Reps, and observed the Reps who had just started the afternoon session at 1:00, hard at work.

State Rep Donna Howard came to the podium and announced our presence to the Members, listing the organizations present and the many counties from which we had traveled that day to be there. We all stood up and waved, and some of the Members actually gave us a clap.

Then we all smugly sat down having been recognized by our state’s legislative  body.

Then after addressing some questions by Rep Elliott Naishstat over Perry’s veto of the bill to tax online sales (aka the Amazon.com bill) – he wants a vote to overturn the veto – the legislature abruptly adjourned.

Our eyes were upon them, but I guess they were having none of that.

Still, we all agreed that it had been fun and it was a good thing to see the Teacher’s Union taking it right to Austin, that votes to end public education as we know it have consequences, and that we will not let this be forgotten next November.

Photographs follow:



Here we are in the Rotunda. Some of us brought signs. All of them were spelled correctly.



There were lots of us. I counted 50 over a 90 degree angle and multiplied by 4.



Sign Number 1. Note the diversity of this crowd.



2nd Sign. The covered word is "Expect"



State Rep Roberto Alonzo giving a speech of encouragement.



Sign Number 4. Never met a home schooled State Rep that I liked.



Sign Number 5. My absolute fave.



Shouting out at the doors to the House of Representatives. This trooper was either describing the catch he pulled in this past weekend or issuing distance instructions to one of our number.



Terror in Sugar Land

In my previous posting on the strange but predictable turn that the race for a seat on the Sugar Land City Council has taken, I mainly wanted to comment on where I suspected the anonymous flyer came from.. There is a faction of the Republican Party in Fort Bend that can only be characterized as meaner than 10 acres of snakes and it is from that general area that I suspect the flyer was created.

What I didn’t comment on, because I was not aware of it, because it wasn’t in the media, was the fact that this particular act was in reality an act of terrorism. Terrorism in that the Ahmed family has now been targeted by every diseased mind in the county.  Terrorism in that, as Democratic County Chair Steve Brown has said in the media, this cannot help but discourage South Asians and people not of the Christian faith from seeking public office.

Yesterday I received an email message forwarded to me by a friend from the mother of Farha Ahmed. In it she described things that were not reported in the media that people need to know. It is making the rounds in Sugar Land and elsewhere so I thought I would give it a boost and repost in on this blog so that my 7 readers can also see what is going on in Sugar Land.

Forwarded email message follows:

Dear (Name withheld)  ,

As a Mother what would you do?

I brought up my daughter, Farha Ahmed, right here in our area. I raised her with the kind of values we Texans cherish: dedication, honesty, integrity, love for our country, and standing up for what’s right.

Farha is now a mother herself, and she and her husband, are raising my grandchildren with the same set of principles that I worked so hard to instill in her when she was a little girl. I love my daughter fiercely and I am so proud of the strong woman and leader she has become.

So when I saw this disgusting hateful mail piece it made my blood boil. These untrue filthy lies being spread about my Farha made me ill! Imagine how you would feel if someone came after your child like this?

Because of this mailer, the Sugar Land police department dropped by Farha’s home to make sure she and her family were okay. I want to thank them personally.

And it was their kindness that turned my anger to sadness and now concern. As hard as it is to see Farha called a terrorist, it is almost as hard to believe that someone from our town could be the one to do it. You would never think that a race for Sugar Land City Council could bring out the worst in people. I know I didn’t expect it. Hatred and lies have no place in Sugar Land, and shouldn’t have a place anywhere in our politics.  

I hope that none of you reading this ever has to know how it feels when the police knock on your door to make sure that no one has attacked your family. Your kids. Your grand-children. This started off as a simple  race for a City Council seat, but now, it is a referendum on whether Sugar Land is the kind of place where this behavior is tolerated.

Regardless of who you plan to vote for, I hope you’ll get out there and vote. It’s the only way to stand up and send a message that this kind of negative politics is poison.  Now, I’m biased, but I think Farha’s running for Sugar Land City Council to make this a better place for all of us.  So, as a Mother, and as a citizen, I’m asking you to stand-up against ignorance and hate. I’m asking you to stand-up and go vote.

Believe me, it’s what your Mom would want you to do.

Your Neighbor,

 Talat

Talat Ahmed

Farha’s Mom

P.S. Please forward this letter and attachment to like minded friends - Thank you. 

Sugar Land Haters Continue Unabated

Now I don’t live there, but I go there from time to time and let’s just say that if you want to see some bat guano crazed Republicans in action, attend a Sugar Land political function. Texas Republicans, they say, occupy a narrow far right spot on the political spectrum. A faction of Sugar Land Republicans occupy a place so far to the right it makes Genghis Khan look like a socialist.

And why do I bring this up? Well it seems the Republicans have themselves a runoff election for a spot on the Sugar Land city council. A Republican runoff in that both candidates have served in various Republican functions. And last week an anonymous mailer was sent to voters in the district accusing one of them, Farha Ahmed, as being the lawyer who defended Aafia Siddiqui, aka “Lady al-Qaida” in a New York federal criminal trial where she was accused of trying to shoot US soldiers in Afghanistan.

An accusation that would be interesting if it weren’t for the fact that Ms. Ahmed is not a criminal trial lawyer, not licensed to practice law in New York, and not licensed to try cases in federal court.

In other words an unbelievable smear campaign tinged with racism and religious zeal. In my own humble opinion it has the right wing Evangelicals’ brand on it, even though it is an anonymous flier.

And how do I come to this conclusion? Read the statements of the two heads of the two Republican Parties in Fort Bend County, conservative Gary Gillen (former Republican county chair) and ultra-conservative Rick Miller (current Republican county chair).

Gillen: …because Sugar Land has always prided itself on its diversity and this is obviously a smear campaign. So it really is shocking, it’s below the dignity of Sugar Land.

Miller: Voters should look into the allegations on the flyer before they make their own decisions about how to vote.

Any question in your mind?

How the Texas Legislature Can Ignore a Mandate

OH, now I see. I’ve been wondering these past few months how the Texas legislature can ignore a constitutional mandate to provide adequate funding for public education. By passing budget bills that shorts public education by a whopping $4 billion, the legislature seemingly has violated Article 7 Section 1 of the Texas State Constitution which says:

“Sec. 1.  SUPPORT AND MAINTENANCE OF SYSTEM OF PUBLIC FREE  SCHOOLS.  A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”

Seems pretty clear to me that what they did and what they are still trying to do is unconstitutional.

But now I have my answer. It seems that the lawmakers were cognizant of the fact that their budget is unconstitutional, because one of the bills they are working on in the special session is to pass a law making it okey-dokey to underfund public education.

From the Austin American-Statesman:

“Written into law is a guarantee that schools would get enough money to provide a basic, foundational education for each student. That obligation has dictated what the state has put into the Foundation School Program to cover growing enrollment and a changing student population.”

“But the school finance plan now under consideration by legislators wipes that guarantee out and makes future appropriations dependent upon how much money is available rather than how much is needed.”

So, OK, they make this constitutional by changing the law that mandates that they fully fund public education. After the fact, but that seems to be the plan.

Now I have a new question and pardon my ignorance. This is a part of the constitution. Changing the wording in the constitution is essentially amending it. Don’t constitutional amendments all have to be approved by the voters?

On Vetoing Additional Revenue for Texas

You see, it has become a central thesis in my blog posts this year that Texas Republican legislators and those in the Executive Branch have become so tax averse that they not only refuse to add to the taxation instruments available to them, like taxing people and corporations who have avoided paying their share, they actually act to cut taxes even further.

Texas takes in less money than it needs to fund the services that they are constitutionally mandated to pay for. And the reason is clear: Republicans have been taken over by the TEA (Taxed Enough Already) Party. The TEA Party is actually a Libertarian movement – that is a movement by those who have political and economic ideas that can only be characterized as delusional.

First let me take care of something that has been nagging at me for awhile. TEA stands for Taxed Enough Already. That is, the taxes that they pay are simply enough. No more. Cutting taxes further simply makes no sense, then, in their message, unless their very party name is a victim of the fuzzy thinking that goes with their ability to correctly spell in their hand-painted signs.

TEA Partiers, then, aren’t for tax cuts. Or maybe they are.

But the thing that really and truly amazes me is that a gaping loophole in sales tax law, closed in a Republican-written bill passed and sent to the Governor’s desk was vetoed today by Governor Perry. Perry vetoed a law that would have allowed Texas to collect sales taxes from online vendors on items sold to Texans, effectively denying Texas the ability to collect millions of much-needed dollars.

Swear it’s true. Read about it here.

But it gets even better. Imagine denying the state of these millions of dollars of revenue and at the same time slamming local Texas vendors who compete with online vendors, but are at a disadvantage because goods bought online do not have a sales tax, goods bought from traditional Texas vendors do.

And today the story got even more interesting because language from the vetoed bill was just inserted in a “fiscal matters” bill that will be considered in the special session that Perry himself called. If Perry is truly serious about not taxing online sales, he will have to veto the entire “fiscal matters” bill, something he may not want to do.

A sad state of affairs that Governor Perry has to be pushed and pried into doing the right thing for Texas.