Neither O'Quinn nor the passenger who also died were wearing seat belts...
Sad story.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Big anti Rick money man dies in tragic car crash...
John O'Quinn was one of the top trial lawyers in the world... and he funded Chris Bell's campaign against Rick in 2006 to the tune of well over a million dollars. He funded other Democrats all over the state and the country... the Houston Chronicle wrote up a profile of O'Quinn with the good and bad all included (link).
CQ reporting... New Texas GOP Chief Wants Straight Scoop From Senator
This story getting national buzz (link). Excerpt follows...
The new leader of the Texas Republican Party wants Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison to clarify if and when she plans to resign to concentrate on her bid for governor.
Cathie Adams, who was elected party chair Oct. 24, prefers that Hutchison's plans be known by Jan. 4, the candidate filing deadline for the March 2 primary.
The Jan. 4 date is noteworthy because some Republican officeholders on 2010 ballots might want to run for Hutchison's seat in a special Senate election that her resignation would spawn. Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst presently is running for re-election, but he's seen as a potential candidate for Hutchison's seat.
"It would help the people of the state of Texas to know more clearly, especially by Jan. 4, because if she resigns after that, we're going to throw things into quite an unknown," Adams said, according to the Austin American Stateman.
Under Texas law, the special Senate election would be held on May 8, though Gov. Rick Perry, could invoke emergency powers to schedule it for a different date.
Hutchison said this summer that she planned to resign in October or November, though she's backed away from that schedule, saying that she wants to participate in the Senate's consideration of health care policy. In running for governor she is not required to resign from the Senate, to which she was elected in a 1993 special election and re-elected in 1994, 2000 and 2006.
At least five Republicans are presently seeking the seat: state railroad commissioners Michael Williams and Elizabeth Ames Jones; Roger Williams, a former Texas secretary of state; state Sen.Florence Shapiro; and Andrew "Cas" Castanuela, an Air Force veteran.
Republican Rep. Joe L. Barton, who represents Texas' 6th District, might also seek the seat.
The Democratic candidates are Houston mayor Bill White andJohn Sharp, a former state comptroller.
Adams is supporting Perry over Hutchison in the anticipated primary.
I sometimes forget about Joe Barton. There is also Dan Patrick as a name that is thrown around sometimes...
Don't forget Tom Leppert either (link). Excerpt follows...
Hunt skeptical about Leppert Senate buzzNobody is talking about the elephant inside the City Council horseshoe.
Mayor Tom Leppert looks likely to run for the U.S. Senate, if Kay Bailey Hutchison resigns her seat to focus on running for governor against incumbent Rick Perry.
Leppert would have to resign as mayor to do it, and if he does, two council members are immediate contenders to replace him – Angela Hunt and Ron Natinsky.
Hunt, though, says she doesn't believe the hype.
"I don't have my 'Hunt for Mayor' signs ready to go," she joked.
Could be a real cluster...
Friday, October 30, 2009
Rick makes news that nobody picks up...
Rick made some potential news on the Lou Dobbs show with his criticism of Michael Chertoff's border security efforts (link). Excerpt follows...
DOBBS: You have five patrolled ports of entry into the state, as you know. Do you think homeland security Janet Napolitano is doing enough to secure the borders? And we'll limit that just to the state of Texas.
PERRY: And neither did the previous homeland security director.
DOBBS: Michael Chertoff.
PERRY: Neither one are doing enough. We've asked this administration for 1,000 National Guard troops to come, put boots on the ground. We haven't gotten an answer. There's a conflict between the department of defense and homeland security about who's going to pay for it. I don't care who's going to pay for it, just get the troops on the ground. Let's use the technology available. Why not fly predator drones up and down that border region. They're training drones anyway. They're practicing for the real deal. Let's use them, take that data, use it to help on our homeland security.
Rick criticizing the Bush administration for failing at border security? Sounds pretty newsworthy. I am surprised nobody picked this up... probably because nobody saw it because it was on CNN...
Kay not endorsing Doug Hoffman...
Rick made waves yesterday by endorsing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman in the New York special election for the United States House of Representatives. The liberal Republican has Newt Gingrich and a few other Republicans behind her, but for the most part the conservatives of the Republican Party are endorsing Hoffman... Palin, for example...
Kay is not taking a position either way (link)...
Hutchison isn’t picking a candidate in the New York race. “She’s focused on Texas,” spokesman Joe Pounder said.
Kay has chosen not to take a position on other issues in the past, but this one is a no brainer. The Republican in the race is endorsed by the Daily Kos... that is all you need to know.
I have to think that Kay will regret not just saying she supports Hoffman...
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Rick with the Texas Rangers...
Somehow this photo op was bad for Rick according to Kay's team...
OK...
(link)
Excerpt follows...
It didn't take long after Gov. Rick Perry gathered on the south lawn of the state Capitol for a photograph with Texas Rangers that a video appeared on the Internet. And not in a good way.
About 120 of the state's 144 Texas Rangers - all wearing those customary light colored rancher or cattleman's hats - posed for photographs with the governor.
"The Rangers wanted a picture, so we managed to find some time," one of Perry's high-ranking aides explained.
The Rangers always organize a group photograph with the governor but none apparently has been made with Perry since he took office nearly nine years ago.
So they spent about 30 minutes for the picture taking.
Someone from the Kay Bailey Hutchison camp showed up with a video camera and put the event on YouTube.
Then they attacked Rick for sending Texas Rangers to the border. Why highlight that?
Rick endorses Doug Hoffman...
I received this email today from Rick... he is joining Sarah Palin and other prominent conservatives in endorsing Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman over liberal Republican Dede Scozzafava in the 23rd Congressional District of up state New York...
Dear Friends and Supporters,
A New York Special Election? Why would Texans care about that?
The special election in New York's 23rd Congressional district next Tuesday could send a message to the Washington, D.C. establishment that conservatives must stand for our principles: limited government, lower taxes, and free enterprise.
I am supporting Doug Hoffman, the only real conservative in the race. I urge you to join me in supporting Doug by contributing generously to him at his website today!
http://www.
doughoffmanforcongress.com/ Doug Hoffman is the true conservative candidate in NY-23, and he needs your help today to put him over the top! He wins if he can afford to turn out his voters next Tuesday.
There is a reason that our party lost power in Washington, D.C. A lot of folks went to Congress wearing the Republican jersey, but far too many played the game like Democrats. People all around Texas— and frankly, all around this country— are fed up with the federal government running up trillion-dollar deficits and mortgaging our kids' future. From Obamacare to cap-and-trade, there are simply too many critical issues at stake right now to send yet another rubber stamp for this administration to Washington.
Electing Doug Hoffman will send a clear message that cannot be denied: conservatives must stand on principle.
I hope you will contribute to Doug online right now. He is in a great position to win this election. He just needs the resources to get his conservative message out and turn out his conservative voters.
God Bless,
Rick PerryPaid for by Rick Perry, 1010 Colorado St., Austin, TX 78701, and not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.
Very interesting for any sitting Texas Republican governor to buck the party and endorse the Conservative Party candidate in another state... but we live in interesting times...
Is the NY-23 race a proxy for Rick and Kay in 2010?
I read a lot of conservative blogs in my spare time, and I think I am seeing a potential meme emerging about NY-23 and the Rick/Kay race...
Around the country, conservatives are rooting for Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman to beat Republican Dede Scozzafava in the 23'rd congressional district of New York (link)...
Yesterday we polled on next Tuesday's elections, and the overwhelming majority of junkies (that would be 97.3 of us junkies) believe we'll pick up NY-23. We like that because we're Democrats, and haven't held the seat since it was redistricted in the early '90's.
But there is another story here, and it relates to the soul of the Republican Party as they find their footing. We've talked before about whether the possibility that the Perry-Hutchison gubernatorial primary will be a parable for the battle between the right and the far right, but this is certainly the opening act. MUCH more so than either New Jersey or Virginia.
Scozzafava is the perfect villain for conservative online activists around the country, and when her race is over you have to wonder where they will turn their attention toward... if Rick and his peeps can capitalize on this they could rake in some serious online money... so far they have not said anything that I know of about supporting Doug Hoffman... probably to avoid 2012 presidential speculation...
Another major blog Powerline blogs about the parallel some too (link). Excerpt follows...
The Republican elites have their own road map, of course, the same one that detoured us over that cliff a few years back. Their plan goes roughly like this. Vote for Charlie Crist in Florida over conservative Mario Rubio. Unseat the conservative governor in Texas in favor of someone more moderate like Kay Bailey Hutchison. Raise money and campaign for a Congressional candidate in New York State who is more liberal than the Democrat in the race.
Let John "the media is my base" McCain redefine the Republican Party in his image (how many electoral votes did he win again, against a relative novice?). Oh, and turn the other way while Senator Lindsey Graham, who told us he was "Mr. Conservative" to get elected, works on a climate change bill with John Kerry (D-France). We need to do these things, our strategists tell us, in order to win an election. Then once we're back in power, we'll be conservatives again, they promise. Where have we heard that before?
The Republican Party may indeed be making some gains against the Obama Democrats, but that's not because we suddenly became geniuses. And it's not because we are hiding our conservative lights under bushels. If we are pulling ahead it's because the Democrats are in charge now, and their failings - currently at least - are more pronounced than our own.
Even Paul Burka picked up on this parallel (link). Excerpt follows...
I listened in fascination as the caller argued that conservative voters should support Hoffman instead of Scozzafava. It was the same purifying instinct that you see from folks here like Michael Quinn Sullivan and Cathie Adams, the new Republican party chairman.
[SNIP]
As long as conservatives believe that moderates in their own party are the enemy, Republicans will continue to lose ground nationally (if they have any ground left to lose). And Texas is not immune. There is a very real danger that Rick Perry’s attacks on Kay Bailey Hutchison, if successful, will continue to drive the moderate R’s out of the party into the independent column, accelerating the possibility that a Democrat could win the general election. Oh, wait. The D’s would have to field a credible candidate. Never mind.
I think Burka may be operating on a 2006/2008 mindset... conservative ideas are back on the rise, and people are truly angry and fed up with all the Republican moderates caving into Obama and Pelosi and Reid on things...
Hot Air blog hinted at the parallel as well and blogged a video of Dede (link)....
Kay is not as liberal as Scozzafava, but by Texas standards she has shown herself to be a lot less conservative than Rick. I think as long as the Republican primary is about who is more conservative she has a major up hill battle on her hands... because the winner of the March primary is basically the winner of the general election... sorry Hank Gilbert and others...
Kinky wants to mess with Texas...
Funny video from Ken Herman at a Kinky Friedman event (link)...
Is Kinky for real? Or is he just running to promote his books and cigars?
A trip through YouTube...
Just looking around at some of the videos on YouTube about Rick and Kay that might have been overlooked...
This guy has a lot of facts wrong, but he thinks Rick and Kay are both less than stellar... Rick is a "RINO in waiting" while Kay is a full blown RINO...
This video has Rick as a baby crying about secession... pretty weird....
This video is some footage I have not yet seen from Rick's trip to Israel...
This video is from 2007 when the DREAM Act was a big debate...
This video is also from 2007 and has Kay speaking about immigration reform...
This video has Kay with Senator Kit Bond of Missouri talking about cap and trade...
Interesting what you can find on YouTube...
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Is Bill White going to jump into the race against Rick if Kay doesn't actually go through with this?
The Dallas Observer caught up with senate hopeful Bill White and they came away with the impression that he might not be 100% sold on running for senate if Kay stays as senator (link)...
There's a lot of talk that if Kay doesn't leave her seat, you'll switch to the governor's race. Is that a consideration? Have you ruled it out?
I think that Senator Hutchison is going to do what she said she's going to do. You don't have marriages with contingency plans. You don't plan on somebody not showing up for the wedding. We're on course, and I believe that she's going to do what she said she's going to do. She's running for governor, and I think to win for governor, she needs to campaign full time. I think she believes that too. That's what she's told her donors, and that's what she's told people who've urged her not to quit.
But let's say she doesn't quit and you have to make a decision at the filing deadline.
Honestly, it's not something I think about at all. I just think about how we win this race. That's an honest answer.
You honestly haven't thought at all about it? There has to be people who've talked to you about it.
Oh, yeah. People talk to me about it every day. The way I was able to run marathons is just, you're training everyday. The way that we're able to build up a grassroots organization is focus on task. The reason I was able to do a good job as mayor is we concentrated on job growth, cutting traffic congestion, cutting crime, improving the neighborhoods and running the government efficiently -- those five things.
Bill White's best chance... just like Kay's... was probably 2006 or 2008... I sense that the tide is going to be flowing against a Democrat in 2010...
Democrat Bill White remember was the first to claim he knew when Kay was going to resign... because she told him when... meanwhile none of the other Republican wannabes have any clue...
File under "how did I miss this?"
I am not sure how I missed this last week, but Rick went on the Kudlow show to discuss whether or not he was a supply sider... Kudlow took a rather adversarial tack with Rick, and I can't imagine that Rick was happy with the appearance (link).
Kay's peeps saw an opportunity and pounced... Jason Embry ran down their claims...
Perry made a couple of claims that are worth revisiting.
As Perry and host Larry Kudlow were discussing the state’s lack of a personal income tax, Kudlow asked him about taxes on business. Kudlow said, “You do have corporate revenue taxes as far as I know and they have been raised.”
Perry said, “They have not been raised. As a matter of fact, we lowered them in 2006, it was a 4 and a half percent rate on our franchise tax, we moved it down to 1 percent. So I hate to disagree with you there. You know for a fact that Texas is a low-tax state.”
When Perry and the Legislature came up with a new franchise tax in 2006 to offset cuts in school property taxes, sure, the rate lowered. But that rate was assessed on something entirely different under the new tax. The old franchise tax captured 4.5 percent of earned surplus (also known as profit). The new tax captures 1 percent of total revenue minus the cost of goods sold or minus total compensation.
The point of all that was that the Legislature didn’t simply lower the rate of the tax, which is a conclusion one could draw from Perry’s comments.
Perhaps the more significant change in 2006 was that the new franchise tax was applied to many more businesses than the old loophole-ridden franchise tax. Using the projections that were in play at the time, the new tax was created so that businesses would pay, in total, $3.39 billion more per year in franchise taxes, because many businesses had been paying nothing under the old one.
That’s a large number, but it can’t be looked at in a vacuum. Because while franchise taxes went up by $3.39 billion (according to the projections at the time), property taxes on businesses went down $3.04 billion, leaving a relatively small net tax increase on businesses. And here’s the most important piece — it was passed in order to give homeowners an annual property-tax savings of $2.79 billion per year.
Here’s one other statement from Perry’s interview Thursday that’s worth revisiting: He said that in 2006, “we cut our property taxes by one-third.” He then repeated it a few seconds later.
That’s a little too simple a way of putting it. The state cut tax rates on school district operations by one-third, but that didn’t affect other aspects of property-tax bills, such as county and city taxes and taxes levied (with voter approval) to build more schools. And the one-third cut hasn’t fully held up because school districts have had to increase their tax rates to pay for operations. Plus there is the issue of rising appraisals, which Perry said the Legislature needs to address.
The Hutchison campaign put out information last night saying how much state tax collections have increased over the last couple of years. But what the campaign didn’t point out is those state taxes have gone up in order to make possible a larger cut in local property taxes.
I realize it probably seems like we’re a little too fixated on that 2006 special session here at FR World Headquarters. But it’s clear that in this Republican primary, we’re going to continue to return to the question of whether the Legislature cut taxes or raised them in 2006. The overall answer is that, taken on the whole, taxes were cut. It’s why we have a structural deficit. But obviously the debate can be sliced any number of ways.
Kay's peeps didn't pass Jason's comments around, so they were obviously not happy with his analysis. I think the real issue is complicated, but you can make it very simple. Did Rick raise taxes? No. He signed a net tax cut. Did it turn out that way after the local authorities raised appraisals to counteract the property tax cuts? Not really. Did tax watchdog groups support Rick's tax reform? Yes, Grover Norquist of Americans for Tax Reform has repeatedly stated that you can't punish a politician for comprehensive tax reform that includes supposed tax hikes as long as the end result is a net tax cut...
Kay's team is really sticking with the notion that Rick raised taxes, but the record shows that business tax rates went down, the tax base was expanded to include more businesses. Simultaneously there was a property tax cut.
Neither of those things worked out exactly like anyone planned... property taxes went down, but local governments found a way to get their money... meanwhile business taxes did not bring in as much revenue as predicted and the legislature raised the exemption to 1 million dollars anyway...
I think Rick's peeps are walking into a trap by not responding to Kay's claims that he raised taxes substantively... by not responding it is giving Kay the ability to go to people like Larry Kudlow and say that even Rick isn't denying it...
From my estimation Rick and Kay are both good on taxes, both are not as good on sin taxes, and if we are going to pretend that Rick's tax reform was some kind of tax hike then we will never ever ever see serious reform that allows for a "fair tax" or a "flat tax." Why go out on a limb to fight for tax reform when you will just be accused of raising taxes?
Cheney endorsing Kay...
Former Vice President Dick Cheney is endorsing Kay for governor (link). I agree with The Patriot Room blog...
Wow. Gotta see the reasons for this one. Cheney rarely makes the wrong call when it comes to conservatives versus moderates, so this is a head-scratcher.
I am betting the Bush team are sick of hearing about Rick bash Washington and bash bailouts and even "Republicans who acted like Democrats" over the past several years... Rick is also famous for saying "George was never a fiscal conservative" back in 2007 about President Bush.
This is definitely a big endorsement... it depends on how much they use Cheney... is he raising money, is he out there giving speeches, or is he going to play behind the scenes? Same goes for all endorsements I suppose...
The former VP versus the 2008 VP candidate is an interesting angle... Cheney vs. Palin... lots of things at work here....
After the way that Newt Gingrich endorsed Dede Scozzafava and got a lot of blow back from the conservative base, it is interesting that Cheney would endorse the moderate instead of the conservative...
96% of Rick's appointees are filled and not lapsed... 4% are serving beyond their expiration dates...
I criticized Matt Stiles and Elise Hu for their Texas Tribune story that quotes heavily from Barry Scheck and other anti death penalty advocates after massaging some numbers to seem like a really big deal (link)...
I produced this pie chart showing that 96% of Rick's appointments are serving in their usual terms without incident and that a small 4% are serving beyond their term's expiration date... this is all based on an open records request of Rick's huge number of appointees on a single date in time...
I also called on Hu and Stiles to just release the raw data, and I appreciate that Matt Stiles did release the data... you can download it here.... http://bit.ly/2EYGxa.
Looking through it there is a lot of personal information about each appointee and it has the date that their terms expire... a random sample of examples of positions with expired terms include...
Branch Pilot, Brazos-Santiago Pass Bar and Tributaries
Dental Hygiene Advisory Committee
Branch Pilot, Sabine Bar, Pass & Tributaries
Branch Pilot, Galveston Bar & Houston Ship Channel
OneStar Foundation
On-Site Wastewater Treatment Research Council
Teacher Retirement System of Texas Board of Trustees
Arts, Texas Commission on the
Some of these have definitely been filled... others I am not so sure about... I am honestly not totally sure what else to gather from this data... maybe someone else can make more out of it...
The surviving victim in the Willingham case: "This man murdered my daughters and I am sick of people defending him."
There is one real surviving victim in the Cameron Todd Willingham case. Willingham's ex-wife, Stacy Kuykendall, the mother of the three children who were murdered. She has been maligned by the media and basically called a liar by editorial boards of various newspapers for suggesting that Willingham was indeed a monster, that he did confess, and that he was a murdering scumbag who cursed her out and made obscene gestures at her as his last words.
Dave Montgomery published another comment from Kuykendall this morning (link). Excerpts follow...
But ex-wife Stacy Kuykendall said Tuesday in an e-mail that she stands by her statements over the weekend: "I wrote nothing but the truth. This man murdered my daughters and I am sick of people defending him."
To read her statement yet again, read this previous blog (link). Excerpt follows...
He told me repeatedly in obscenity-laced language that he hoped I would "rot in hell" and attempted to maneuver his hand, strapped at the wrist, into an obscene gesture.
Clearly my blogs on Willingham have touched a nerve with some in the media, some on Kay's team, and even my buddies (okay maybe that is going too far) over at Burnt Orange Report, but this is the way I see it...
Stacy Kuykendall's story and a lot of other facts do not fit into the prevailing narrative the media wants to paint... they are therefore ignored for the most part. Instead you have Anderson Cooper, Rachel Maddow, Chris Matthews, and a bunch of other "I want to change the world" reporters thinking this is their big story that will get them credibility and awards. Editors and producers are seeing that this story is selling newspapers and attracting eyeballs on television...
If I am seen as "pushing Rick's talking points" then so be it. If anything I am being far more aggressive than Rick's peeps on this issue. For whatever reason they tried early on to avoid being perceived as pushing too far... this entire story escalated into this daily headline stealing grind because they apparently thought the overwhelming facts of the case... the 9 appeals including ones to the United States Supreme Court, the statements from witnesses and victims and others involved at the time, Willingham's propensity to beat his wife, the other evidence in the trial, the entire city of Corsicana including the local Corsicana media defending the handling of the case... would all stand on their own merits. That never happens. Journalists don't care about facts. It is all about spin, and Barry Scheck's Innocence Project people were out there spinning a lot harder than Rick's people early on.
The truth is that this story turned into a big crazy "cause" and stayed that way until Rick himself called Willingham a monster and Rick's peeps pushed out this video from the Fox DFW...
It was only then that the story started including some of the facts... including statements from the real victim Stacy Kuykendall... it was only then that supporters of Rick had any ammo to fire back at the anti capital punishment protesters disguised as journalists....
I am sorry that upsets certain people, but that is how I see it.
Reality check on Willingham... no report definitively said it wasn't arson...
Peggy Fikac points out something that Anderson Cooper, Chris Matthews, Rachel Maddow, and other liberal commentators should acknowledge (link). Excerpt follows...
No report has decisively said the fire was not arson. Recent expert reports say arson cannot be proven. The Forensic Science Commission's investigation could help resolve that question. Perry had the right to replace the commission members whose terms were expired, but it's also true that he could have allowed them to continue serving until their work was done in order to expedite the investigation.
Read that again...
No report has decisively said the fire was not arson. Recent expert reports say arson cannot be proven.
Why is it that new reports say it cannot be proven one way or another whether it was arson? Well because new techniques exist and there is no way to use those techniques in 2009 when the evidence was collected in 1991. The fire would have needed to happen recently and the evidence would need to be collected according to the new methods...
The fact remains that no report definitively claims it was not arson. At the time the case happened they checked the house and found there was no faulty wiring or anything like that... all signs pointed to arson, and Willingham was convicted and his 9 appeals upheld because of an overwhelming volume of evidence against him...
SHOCKER Dog bites man... Rick appoints people who have worked for him previously...
A very lengthy inside baseball process article from Jason Embry (link). Excerpt follows...
Governors historically hand out spots on key boards and commissions to like-minded men and women who have found great success in the private sector. It usually helps if the prospective appointees have helped governors campaign or raise money.
But Gov. Rick Perry, in a departure from at least his two most recent predecessors, has added a new wrinkle by repeatedly turning to members of his own staff to sit on the small panels that lead agencies such as the Texas Department of Transportation, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality and the Public Utility Commission.
I almost expected to read the article and find a hit piece against Rick for this as if it were some kind of scandal, but it is just a really tedious process piece that nobody outside of the Austin political bubble will even finish reading.
Yawn.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Peggy Venable argues for Prop 11....
Venable endorsed Rick over Kay... she argues that Prop 11 is important to vote for (link)...
Some would have you believe that Perry's 2007 veto of House Bill 2006 should result in the defeat of this measure because it fails to include everything that was in that doomed bill. Even the Farm Bureau isn't buying that logic. That veto might have cost the governor the Farm Bureau's endorsement this campaign cycle, but the Farm Bureau is strongly in support of this constitutional measure. It recognizes that this does not give it everything they it like, but it certainly advances private property rights protection.
Here is how Proposition 11 would amend the Constitution in four primary ways:
\• It would define the term "public use," rather than leaving the definition of that term up to court interpretation.
\• It would specify that the taking of property for the purpose of economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes is not a public use.
\• It would provide that property taken to eliminate urban blight must be done on a parcel-by-parcel basis.
\• It would require that any future power of eminent domain granted requires a two-thirds vote of the Texas Legislature.
So, why a constitutional amendment instead of statutory reform? The U.S. Supreme Court, in rendering the Kelo case, overturned years of precedent and changed the definition of public use now found in both the Texas and U.S. Constitution. To prevent further erosion of property rights in Texas, there had to be a constitutional fix to the definition of "public use."
The definition used in Proposition 11 defines both what public use is and reiterates what it is not.
Public use does not include the taking of property for the primary purpose of economic development or enhancement of tax revenue purposes. That's protection we don't have if the proposal fails.
But, the proposed amendment goes even further to prevent the taking of property to eliminate urban blight except on a parcel-by-parcel basis. This will stop local governments from declaring a few pieces of property as blighted and then taking all the property in an area for a development project.
Passage of private property protection has been a long time coming in Texas. Passage of Prop. 11 will send a clear message to legislators that the issue is of utmost concern to the voters.
Failure to pass the measure will let them know there is no need to continue to work on the issue because the people making the most noise will not even be content with a victory.
She makes a good point... it seems like the people who oppose this "because it doesn't go far enough" are cutting off their noses to spite their faces... will anything ever make them happy? Maybe never ever building any road ever again?
Jim Dunnam and Kay versus David Dewhurst and Rick...
Jim Dunnam is basically the leader of the Texas House Dems, and he keeps winding up on the same side of the issues as Kay. Back when all of the unemployment insurance stuff was going on, Kay and Jim Dunnam were echoing each other... this was one of the major things that pushed me once and for all away from Kay and toward Rick...
Rick can be counted on to stand up to the Dems... Kay echoes the Dems on a lot of policy battles... especially on spending...
Last week Dewhurst wrote (link)...
While other states struggle with overwhelming deficits, Texas has created a model for the rest of the nation to follow that is based on living within its available revenue. The state cut taxes a net $4 billion per year in 2007 while fostering a predictable regulatory environment that allows business to thrive and continue to make Texas the No. 1 job creator in the U.S. over the past two years.
Although this year's session took place in the context of significant turmoil in the global marketplace and economic upheaval in Texas and across our country, the Legislature successfully shaped a balanced state budget that meets the needs of Texans and sufficiently funds essential programs and agencies through the next two years.
Working together, we crafted and Gov. Rick Perry signed a balanced budget that has left our state prepared to tackle the challenges that lie ahead. Not only did we balance our budget without raising taxes, we cut taxes for more than 40,000 small businesses and left our Rainy Day Fund untouched so we can once again balance our budget in 2011.
This week Jim Dunnam wrote (link)....
Up is down. Left is right. Black is white.
It applies to Alice once she fell down that hole and walked through the looking glass.
It applies equally to our Republican leadership in Texas.
Watching Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst accept and spend President Barack Obama's stimulus money like drunken sailors then attempt to hide/rationalize/deny/avoid that fact, is getting more and more surreal and humorous — and more and more sad.
First, Perry slammed the stimulus and all its works in the Washington Times last February. However, he neglected to state that he had written a letter to Obama asking for the money just a day after Obama signed the bill. The ink wasn't even dry, and Perry had his hand out.
(Read the letter Perry wrote Obama on Perry's Web site: http://www.rickperry.org/perry-letter-to-obama.)
Next Perry told The Wall Street Journal that Texas wanted nothing to do with Washington and said our balanced budget is proof we can do it without outside help. He omitted the awkward fact that the stimulus money Perry got from Obama is what Texas used to balance its budget.
A Rick vs. Kay proxy op ed war is going on, and Dewhurst has Rick's back and Jim Dunnam has Kay's back. Dunnam is a much more colorful writer than Dewhurst and the base is not thrilled with either of them but they will go with Dewhurst every time over their arch enemy Jim Dunnam...
A rare positive editorial about Rick's education plans...
The Dallas Morning News praises Rick for T-STEM Academies (link). Excerpt follows...
What do you know? A real, live idea has emerged in the Republican race for governor. Instead of the hourly whack-the-opponent news releases from the Rick Perry and Kay Bailey Hutchison campaigns, Perry recently announced plans to double the number of T-STEM academies across the state.
When I talk to Rick's peeps about where Rick is vulnerable, I will bring up suburban moms who care mostly about education but identify themselves as Republican... those should be for Kay...
They push back pretty hard and say that Rick has expanded funding for education by whatever big percentage, and student aid for college by a million percent, and this and that... they don't think Rick gets nearly enough credit for putting so much money into education... it is the big issue in which he decided to expand funding for...
To be honest all of that extra spending on education doesn't do much for me. In fact it is probably a negative thing for me.... getting a positive editorial from the Dallas Morning News is also not really a good thing in my opinion.
What does impress me on Rick's education policies is that he has pushed for much more prominent accountability programs and merit pay to shake things up. He has also pushed to require school districts to publish their checkbooks on the internet...
73% of GOP Voters Say Congressional Republicans Have Lost Touch With Their Base
This had to catch the attention of the Rick and Kay campaigns (link). Excerpt follows...
Just 15% of Republicans who plan to vote in 2012 state primaries say the party’s representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing Republican values.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 73% think Republicans in Congress have lost touch with GOP voters from throughout the nation. Twelve percent (12%) are undecided.
[SNIP]
Republican women are nearly twice as likely as men to say their representatives in Congress have done a good job of representing GOP values. Younger voters tend to be less critical than their elders.
Being a Washington insider right now is political poison. Kay truly has become a creature of Washington after almost 17 years there... she made all kinds of promises on ethics reform and term limits back in the early 1990s... and subsequently broken all of those promises. She criticizes the revolving door of lobbyists but has lobbyists on her staff and many members of her staff become lobbyists...
Kay talks one way in Texas and votes another way in Washington... Republicans are angry at Washington insiders, and I think Rick and his team need to refocus the attention on the fact that she is not just a senator but truly a typical Washington politician just like all the others that are why Republicans fell hard on their face in the past few years.
Rick vs. Kay competition making Republicans stronger... or vulnerable?
Anna Tinsley in the Ft. Worth Star Telegram makes the case that there will be fallout from the battle between Rick and Kay (link). Excerpt follows...
Texas Democrats watching the state’s top two Republicans fight for their party’s gubernatorial nomination are glad that Gov. Rick Perry and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison have apparently abandoned the Republicans’ 11th Commandment, established during Ronald Reagan’s run for California governor in 1966: Thou shall not speak ill of another Republican.
And they hope that the GOP gubernatorial battle creates enough division within the party to help Democrats in the general election and for years to come.
"There probably will be so many bad feelings . . . that it will benefit the Democratic Party," said Steve Maxwell, chairman of the Tarrant County Democratic Party. "For now, we’ll sit back and watch. It’s only going to get better."
Republicans say Democrats shouldn’t get too comfortable, because this gubernatorial race — pitting Perry, governor since 2000, against Hutchison, senator since 1993 — will energize, not divide, their party.
"It’s a spirited race, and sometimes that’s good," said Stephanie Klick, who heads the Tarrant County Republican Party. "One of the things that’s fair game in any campaign are issues."
I think I agree with Stephanie Klick... a spirited race could bring in new energy to the party in Texas... I have heard from campaign characters on both sides that new donors are coming in, new volunteers, new leaders... Rick's peeps stress to me that they have blown the doors off of every fund raiser they have had...
I think if you try to measure which side is more negative it was clearly Kay for many months... Rick hardly ever even mentioned her name... then Rick pulled about even during her announcement tour with a fun set of gags carried out by the Young Conservatives of Texas... then Kay got banned from google for inserting secret metatags about "Rick Perry gay" among other terms... they also set up anonymous fake YouTube accounts and started showing up at all of Rick's events... I think it's pretty hard to top the gay rumor one though for any campaign at any time... that will scar Kay for a long time...
I think the supporters of the two sides will get over their person losing and back the winner, but there will be damage no doubt... it would be naive to say the new energy will entirely cancel out the new weaknesses from the internal strife...
Reginald Blanton is not your martyr either...
At the risk of turning Rick vs. Kay into a pro death penalty blog I can't avoid commenting on Reginald Blanton... he is scheduled to be executed today, and anti death penalty groups are taking up his cause as the next martyr.
How dumb are these people?
Robbie Cooper over at Urban Grounds tells it like it is (link). Excerpt follows...
On April 9, 2000, Carlos Garza was found lying unconscious in his apartment from two gun shot wounds to his face. He died on the way to the hospital. Garza’s door appeared to have been kicked open.
Two days later, following her arrest after an altercation with her boyfriend, Robert Blanton, LaToya Mayberry told the police that she had information about a murder that had occurred a few days before in an apartment complex and that Robert and his twin brother, Reginald Blanton, were involved in the homicide. Mayberry stated that she, Robert, and Reginald went to Garza’s apartment, where she waited in the car. Mayberry said she heard “two loud booms,” which she indicated she knew had to be the two brothers kicking in the door to Garza’s apartment. She then heard “two more booms,” which she said she knew to be gunshots because she had heard gunshots before. She said Robert and Reginald then returned to the car, and they drove away. Reginald had some jewelry in his hand, including two necklaces, which he later pawned for $79.
Mayberry later asked Robert what had happened. Robert told her that the door was kicked in, Garza came around the corner and asked what they were doing, and Reginald shot him. Reginald looked around the apartment for drugs, but found none. He shot Garza again. Reginald said he took one hundred dollars from the apartment.
A Texas jury sentenced Blanton to death for killing Carlos Garza. And on October 27, 2009, Blanton will pay for his deadly crime with his life.
I really don't want to get into a daily death penalty blog, but what is it with these anti capital punishment people making martyrs of these scumbags?
Monday, October 26, 2009
Rare for Rick to let his appointees languish... at least 96% of Rick's appointees replaced right away...
Elise Hu and Matt Stiles are trying to win their co Pulitzers for investigative journalism... they have a story written together for the Texas Tribune based on an open records request of appointees and which ones had lapsed or reappointed right away (link). Excerpt follows...
The appointees with expired terms represent just a fraction of the roughly 2,400 people serving now. The 103 people serving after their terms were up had overstayed their terms, on average, more than 100 days when the other commissioners were ousted. Several had overstayed their terms more than a year, the records show.
OJ attorney Barry Scheck who runs the Innocence Project is convinced that Willingham is his best shot at finding a wrongly executed man and therefore overturning the entire death penalty sees only the 4% as the issue...
"These numbers are disturbing because, contrary to what Gov. Perry said, it was not a regular practice to remove these commissioners so quickly and on the verge of a very important hearing," said Barry Scheck, co-director of The Innocence Project, a group that helps the falsely accused. "It's more evidence that Gov. Perry's actions were not to get to the scientific truth of the matter but were self serving and calculated for political advantage."
Hu and Stiles led with this quote instead of the raw numbers... in this new age of decentralized journalism they should really have provided what they found under the open records request... just post the raw documents so bloggers and other citizens can examine for themselves...
Most bloggers don't want to do or don't know how to do open records requests... or we have real day jobs that get in the way...
Apparently the number of expired appointees is actually lower than 4% too but Rick's peeps didn't have time to crunch the numbers themselves...
Chris Cutrone, a Perry spokesman, reviewed the list Monday afternoon and said some people with expired terms had been replaced or reappointed since September 30. The office did not have time to research each appointee's status, however.
It seems like a quick call over to the appointments division at the Capitol could have yielded some positive results for Rick on this issue... if 20 of the 103/2400 had been replaced you are looking at 97% vs. 3%. If 50 had been replaced you are looking at 98% vs. 2%.
I guess that is not a huge difference... 96% replaced on schedule vs. 4% pending appointment or confirmation is a pretty giant number and shows that Rick's reasoning for replacing the board members of the forensic commission when their terms were up was backed by the numbers.
I bet if you looked at vacancies for Obama right now it would be higher and will be higher even when he leaves office in 2013... from my experience there are a lot of worthless boards and agencies that frankly do not need anyone... some agencies only meet every other year or once a year... some are just wastes of government money and should be allowed to lapse and not be reauthorized during sunset reviews... this goes for the state level and the federal level both...
If 4% of positions being unfilled on a given day means aspiring co journalists have carte blanche to give capital punishment opponents Barry Scheck and Rodney Ellis a prominent platform to rant, I'd hate to see the kind of article that would have been written if the number had been a still low 8%.
That co Pulitzer remains elusive...
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