Texas Politics

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2008-02-07T15:30:00.001-08:00

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Burnt Orange Report: :: 19th District of Texas--Ricketts vs. Naugahyde--Attend the Rally!!

2006-06-15T15:30:00.000-07:00

Burnt Orange Report: :: 19th District of Texas--Ricketts vs. Naugahyde--Attend the Rally!!

I just posted this on BOR. Click the link to read the rest.

Robert Ricketts will be holding a rally in Abilene on Tuesday, June 20th. LubbockDem promises something great is going to happen at the rally. Everyone who is in the area needs to come out and hear Robert, our next congressman from the 19th district.

When: Tuesday, June 20th 5:30 to 7:00 pm
Where: T&P Depot 1101 North First - Abilene

Robert Ricketts, who is running for congressman in the 19th District of Texas, is the real thing. When elected he will serve as a citizen legislator, with only the interests of his district and its citizens in mind. Ricketts is on the right side of the issues--our

Van Os for Texas Attorney General :: In David's Own Words: Notice to Big Oil: I'm coming after you

2006-04-30T18:02:00.000-07:00

Politically, I think this is brilliant. In terms of policy, I've got some questions. But I'd always rather have the populists running on the D ticket than on the I ticket. If you truly think you are an Independant or Populist, please look to David Van Os first, then consider Strayhorn and Friedman. I know the races are different. The values stay the same. Vote Democratic.

Van Os for Texas Attorney General :: In David's Own Words: Notice to Big Oil: I'm coming after you: "Texas was the second political jurisdiction in the world to enact an anti-trust law. We did it in the 1880s. Our then Attorney General, James Stephen Hogg, drafted the bill and persuaded the legislature to pass it. This was at least 10 years before the U.S. Congress enacted the federal Sherman Anti-Trust Act.

We still have a strong state anti-trust law. The primary enforcer is supposed to be the attorney general. Enforcement is virtually nil under Greg Abbott.

As Texas Attorney General I may not be able to do much about what the Oil Giants do to the people of New Jersey or Iowa, but I'll have a hell of a lot to say about what they do in Texas. Further, the corporate headquarters of the biggest of the Oil Giants, Exxon Mobil, is in Irving, Texas. I'm going to use every tool at my disposal, most importantly the anti-trust law and the consumer protection law, to take on the oil tycoons over what they're doing to the people of Texas. Unlike Greg Abbott who filed a few consumer protection charges against a few small-time retail outlets, I'm going to go to the core and break up the big boys' party at the sources. "

Taylor County Democrats: GOP Legislature About to Vote Themselves a Massive Tax Break

2006-04-30T17:56:00.000-07:00

Taylor County Democrats: GOP Legislature About to Vote Themselves a Massive Tax Break: "Why does it surprise me that GOP politicians are voting themselves a tax cut, raising taxes on small business, smokers and the poor, and doing nothing for the public school children of Texas? I guess it really doesn't. The Texas GOP has no shame, no point where they won't go to enrich themselves. Vote. Register voters. Make sure they vote. It starts in your neighborhood and your precinct. We have the power. Vote.

MySA.com: Metro | State: 'The average state senator would get property tax savings nearly four times the $512 that an average San Antonio homeowner would get under a proposal working its way through the Legislature.
"

Taylor County Democrats: FortBendNow: Tom DeLay Replacement Candidates Bump Up Against The Perry Factor

2006-04-30T17:41:00.000-07:00

Taylor County Democrats: FortBendNow: Tom DeLay Replacement Candidates Bump Up Against The Perry Factor: "Fort Bend Now once again provides some brilliant original reporting. All Democrats need to be analyzing this piece, and how it relates their own precinct politics. We must have our groundtroops in order.

FortBendNow: Tom DeLay Replacement Candidates Bump Up Against The Perry Factor: 'As the clock ticks toward Tom DeLay’s expected resignation announcement, insiders and outsiders alike continue spilling ink speculating on the favorite frontrunner replacement candidate.'"

Off the Kuff: Why you should never say "How could it get any worse?"

2006-04-29T19:19:00.000-07:00

I refrained from posting about this story, since it wasn't really Texas related. But if a great liberal Texas blogger like Kuff posts it, then it is Texas related.

Off the Kuff: Why you should never say "How could it get any worse?": "With every lousy poll that comes out for the Republican Congress, you have to think that some of them have asked themselves if it were possible for things to get any worse. If so, I have bad news for them. How does a prostitution scandal grab you?"

Taylor County Democrats

2006-04-26T17:18:00.000-07:00

Taylor County Democrats

Fort Bend Now has caught one of the most important stories about grassroots politics in Texas, and I want to make sure it doesn't stay under the radar.

Why is this story important? Because both parties have become complacent about politics as usual. Lots of Republican precinct chairs are vacant in Fort Bend because everyone trusted or didn't care about the good old boys in power. The GOP ruled, and that was good enough.

Lots of Democratic precinct chairs in Taylor County (Abilene)are vacant as well. Because we acted like a bunch of whipped yellow dogs. The Republican party had taken over. No way we could beat them in Red Texas. We whined and yelped, and like dogs bit**ed, but did nothing to rebuild the party. There is no excuse, however.

We can't run a 50 state strategy. We can't run a 254 county strategy in Texas. We are the people, and we need to run a strategy based on every single precinct, in every state. If you are a county chair for the Democratic party, I challenge you. If you have a precinct that had only one Democratic voter, you need to convince that person to be county chair. We must have a precinct chair in every precinct.

There isn't a county in Red Texas that doesn't include a voting Democrat. There shouldn't be a county that doesn't have a county chair.

Click through and read this story. Grassroots politics counts. Especially when it matters.

DeLay Replacement Process Shines Light On Precinct Chair Vacancies - FortBendNow: "As Republican Party officials in four counties prepare for the impending resignation of U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay, increasing attention is focusing on a seemingly mundane side issue: Precinct chair vacancies.

But with precinct chairman about to play a key role in naming DeLay’s replacement in the race against Democrat Nick Lampson for Congressional District 22, vacant precincts – and how or whether they will be filled – have become an election issue.

The reason involves politics and math."

Taylor County Democrats: Capitol Annex » Leininger Must See The Writing On The Wall

2006-04-22T12:13:00.000-07:00

Taylor County Democrats: Capitol Annex » Leininger Must See The Writing On The Wall: "Capitol Annex picks up on something I wrote about for Burnt Orange Report. I believe that one of the reasons Susan King squeaked out a victory in the GOP primary is because she was the Parent PAC candidate, and Kevin Christian was the recipient of Leinginger money. Moderate Republicans are on the rise. Read the rest of this great piece.

Capitol Annex » Leininger Must See The Writing On The Wall:"

Cities learn from blackout

2006-04-18T16:48:00.000-07:00

Dallas Morning News | News for Dallas, Texas | Latest News:

The GOP keeps telling us everything changed after 9/11. I agree. The government has become totally imcomptent. We can't handle our own energy shortages, much less anything caused by terrorism. Big Energy is just looking for more welfare. We need to rid this country of welfare queens. Let's start with Exxon and Haliburton.

"Monday’s rolling 15-minute blackouts caught some cities, police departments and Dallas Area Rapid Transit off guard, leaving them with no warning of when or where neighborhoods and traffic signals would lose power.
Also Online

ERCOT: Electric supply OK today

At DART, one of the first indications of power supply problems came when staffers in the rail operations nerve center looked at their wall-sized control board and started noticing electricity disruptions up and down the lines.

'We didn’t receive any notice. We just started experiencing it,' said DART spokesman Morgan Lyons.

TXU Electric Delivery began the blackouts as soon as it received a directive from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the state’s electric grid operator, said TXU spokeswoman Carol Peters.

'We notified the police as soon as we knew,' she said. 'It was a fast-moving, dynamic situation. We had to act quickly to avoid a blackout.'"

Texas Politics

2006-02-17T17:43:00.000-08:00

Texas Politics: "Texas Monthly Fallen Heroes--The 203 Texans who have given their lives in the Iraq war."

Media previews

Registration-free viewing for the press.

I'm a blogger, and that makes me part of the media and the free press. I did cop the link from Daily Kos, though. The upcoming issue of Texas Monthly has short profiles and pictures of the 203 Texans that have fallen in the Iraq war. We must remember them. I've never served in the military. I'm very proud of my father's 20 years of service with the USAF, including a tour of duty in Vietnam. I'm proud of my own service as a public school teacher. But supporting the troops is not synonymous with supporting the administration, as much as they would have us believe it. Read below the fold for the link.

So click this link to Texas Monthly, and pray, or meditate, or curse the gods. Whatever you want to do. Just remember the troops. They paid the ultimate price for each and everyone of us.

I just edited this post so it pointed to the first page of the Texas Monthly article.

DeLay, fighting an indictment in Texas on charges of illegal fundraising while facing scrutiny by federal prosecutors in Washington for his ties to convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff, raised $181,851 between Oct. 1 and the end of the year. That amount brought the total raised for his legal defense fund in 2005 to $590,520 — significantly more than the $439,550 recorded in 2004.

But during 2005, DeLay's legal expenses topped $1 million, said Brent Perry, a Houston attorney who administers the fund.

"We paid out well over $500,000 in legal fees (in 2005)," he said. The payments would leave DeLay owing lawyers at least $500,000, a figure Perry said was probably low.

Dick DeGuerin has to just love Tommy boy.

Texas Grand Ole Docket

2006-01-31T15:15:00.000-08:00

Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo, has started a great new feature, TPM Grand Ole Docket. Here I've highlighted those in the docket with a Texas Connection. Click throught to Josh's site to see how the GOP in Ohio and California are in it deep, and unfortunately a couple of Dems in Louisiana. Josh writes:

The Grand Ole Docket tracks trial dates, court appearances and sentencing hearings for players in the current array of national political scandals. But not just any crook can make it on the Docket - it only tracks perps who've been named by prosecutors in indictments or plea agreements.

Be sure to check back periodically as the investigations continue.

And here is the Texas Hall of Shame, and what a lovely bunch they are.

Click here to go to Blue Texas to see the Texas Hall of Shame. The code wouldn't play well with blogger.

Off the Kuff: Raising taxes on college students

2006-01-31T10:22:00.000-08:00

Off the Kuff: Raising taxes on college students: "Rep. Chet Edwards has some bad news for college students and their parents: A massive cut in student financial aid is buried in a reconciliation bill that could be voted on in the House as soon as Wednesday. Take a look at what's coming, and call your Congress member if you think this is as bad an idea as it sounds."

I think the GOP has forgotten that the middle class does vote.

DeLay focuses on re-election, swipes at critics - Politics - MSNBC.com

2006-01-30T16:07:00.000-08:00

DeLay focuses on re-election, swipes at critics - Politics - MSNBC.com: "Confident of his chances in a tough November re-election race, former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay blasted the “runaway prosecutor,” dismissed fallout from a disgraced lobbyist and said he remains focused on pushing a conservative agenda in Congress.

“We've had an 11-year run of a Republican majority doing things that I’m incredibly proud of — cutting taxes, strong national defense, welfare reform, balancing the budget, paying down on the debt. I mean, one thing after another, we've been effective on it and the Democrats don't like it,” DeLay said in an interview on “Hardball with Chris Matthews.”"

I'm sure Tweety Bird Mathews threw Delay a softball set of interview question. And Matthews has his own ties to Abramoff. But how does any reporter keep his job when he just ignores flat out lies like the bit high-lighted in red above. This needs to be pointed out to Lampson. I see a campaign commercial here. I'm glad I live in the reality-based community, where I can spot the GOP's up is downism for what it is.

News 8 Austin | 24 Hour Local News | HEADLINES | District 48's unexpected election results

2006-01-30T12:38:00.000-08:00

District 48's unexpected election results: "

Donna Howard's near victory in the special election earlier this month was stunning.

It's a district designed to elect a Republican. Todd Baxter's resignation and the immediate special election were designed to help a Republican. Other Republicans were discouraged from getting in the race to avoid confusing the voters.

Yet when the smoke cleared, Ben Bentzin scored a lower percentage than when running against Senator Gonzalo Barrientos in a decidedly more Democratic Senate district three years ago.

The Bentzin campaign explains that Howard dropped five mail pieces linking their candidate to Tom DeLay. Other Republicans in the district complain that the mechanics of getting out the Republican vote were poorly executed.

That is all no doubt true, but it misses a bigger point."

Read the rest for the details, but here's the bigger point.

:...the story of the first election wasn't exclusively about Donna Howard and the Democrats. It was also about Republicans crossing over because they wanted someone to represent them, not Craddick."

Burnt Orange Report - Texas Dem Congressional Delegation Calls for Cancellation of State Lobbying Contract

2006-01-29T17:52:00.000-08:00

Burnt Orange Report - Texas Dem Congressional Delegation Calls for Cancellation of State Lobbying Contract: "Surprise, surprise, there seems to be a connection between the K Street Project and the Governor's mansion. The K Street Project is/was a DeLay/Abramoff scheme to get the lobbying companies that populates Washington's K street to only do business with Congressional Republicans.

In today's Statesman, the Texas Democratic Congressional delegation called on Gov. Perry to cancel a contract with Todd Boulanger and his firm. It has come to light that the state has awarded a $330,000 contract to represent the states interest on legislation. Todd Boulanger is a close contact of Jack Abramoff, who has plead guilty to charges that he defrauded clients."

The roots of this scandal run really deep, and the Dems need to keep shoveling until the GOP tree of corruption withers and dies.

THE WAR WITHIN

2006-01-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

THE WAR WITHIN:

"BATTLE SCARS: The photo of the ‘Marlboro Man’ in Fallujah became a symbol of the Iraq conflict when it ran in newspapers across America in 2004. Now the soldier has returned home to Kentucky,where he battles the demons of post-traumatic stress
The photograph hit the world on Nov. 10, 2004: a close-cropped shot of a U.S. Marine in Iraq, his face smeared with blood and dirt, a cigarette dangling from his lips, smoke curling across weary eyes.

It was an instant icon, with Dan Rather calling it 'the best war photograph in recent years.' About 100 newspapers ran the photo, dubbing the anonymous warrior the 'Marlboro Man.'

The man in the photograph is James Blake Miller, now 21, and he is an icon, although in ways Rather probably never imagined.

He's quieter now -- easier to anger. He turns to fight at the sound of a backfire, can't look at fireworks without thinking of fire raining down on a city. He has trouble sleeping, and when he does, his fingers twitch on invisible triggers.

The diagnosis: post-traumatic stress disorder."

Pair fight to show Dems can win Texas

2006-01-29T13:55:00.000-08:00

Denton Record-Chronicle | News for Denton, Texas | Texas/Southwest

They might be fighting for the right to come in third – or even fourth – in the race for Texas governor, but that doesn't mean Chris Bell and Bob Gammage are going through the motions.

Rather, they're scrambling to convince voters that the race can be won by a Democrat – if not by the other guy.

They take similar positions on school finance, taxes and social issues. But that's where the similarities end.

Mr. Bell, a former congressman, pitches himself as the "candidate of the future" who has plans to lower school dropout rates and make college more affordable.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bob Gammage (left) answers questions during the first stop of his campaign tour in Sugar Land.

Mr. Gammage says he's "a messenger" about a state government that's in bed again with big political donors.

Mr. Bell is almost professorial in his approach, reading from handwritten notes on school-binder paper at the Alamo last week. (He has two sons in grade school.) In five minutes, he was through.

He believes he'll win because Democrats appreciate his courage for jumping into the race last February.

"I was the only one out there carrying the message about the need to continue the fight, not to give up just because 2004 wasn't a banner year for Democrats," he said.

Mr. Gammage is a dynamic speaker who says he felt compelled to run after recognizing there was no Democrat in the race with a "fire in the belly and energy in their blood."

That fervor won over at least one voter last week in Corpus Christi for the former state Supreme Court justice.

Anybody have a horse in this race yet. I haven't decided.

Burnt Orange Report - Weekend Governor's Race Round Up

2006-01-29T13:39:00.000-08:00

Burnt Orange Report - Weekend Governor's Race Round Up: "Mexican-American Democrats of Texas Endorse Bell
The El Paso Times reports today that Chris Bell has picked up his first endorsement going into the Democratic Primary. The Mexican-American Democrats of Texas endorsed Bell for governor of Texas. The endorsements are starting to pile up in the Chris Bell camp. After looking at the Gammage website, the only endorsement I could find was from Rep. Jim Dunnam of Waco."

The interesting part of this post is the comments. The liberal blogosphere that reads Burnt Orange seems to be strongly behind Gammage.