How Can The AG Claim Victory In Voter Suppression Case Settlement?
May 29, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
I was only slightly amused to read headlines late yesterday afternoon noting that “both sides claimed victory” in the voter suppression lawsuit that was set to go to trial in Marshall yesterday. (Capitol Annex almost drover over to Marshall to liveblog the trial, in fact).
The fact is that the victory belonged to Democrats–and Texas voters–not the Texas Attorney General. That’s actually something pretty easy to figure out. Why? Because the AG’s office was the one proffering the settlement agreement. The Attorney General of Texas typically does not offer forth settlements in which they give the farm away (or come close) if they think they have a winnable case. Clearly, the AG’s office didn’t think they could win a trial in which an elderly activist would have testified that AG-men were peeping at her in the shower.
Via our friends at the Lone Star Project, here are the nuts and bolts of the settlement agreement (followed, of course, by our analysis):
Delegation Challenges Heard Across The State
May 28, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
The Temporary Credentials Committee of the TDP has begun the process of holding hearings across the state to attempt to unscrew some of what got screwed up during county and Senate District conventions across the state in late March.
Of course, the MainStream Media tells us this is going on, but nothing about what actually happened:
Greg Abbott’s Campaign Cash
May 28, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · 1 Comment
Back in 2002, everyone knew that Greg Abbott wouldn’t be content staying as Texas’ Attorney General for too long. In fact, some were surprised he didn’t make a move up the political ladder in 2006.
Now, the Dallas Morning News is taking notice of the fact that Abbott just happens to have more cash on hand than any other GOP politician:
Third Biennial Blogger’s Caucus Set For June 5 To Kick Off TDP Convention
May 27, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
The Texas Progressive Alliance
Proudly Presents
The Third Biennial Blogger’s Caucus
Thursday, June 5, 2008
8:30 p.m. - Midnight
The Cedar Door
2nd and Brazos
Austin, Texas
Come and have a drink with the best and brightest from the Texas Blogosphere.
Texas Progressive Alliance Blog Round-Up: Monday, May 26, 2008
May 26, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
It’s Monday and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s weekly round-up.
refinish69 at Doing My Part For The Left is trying to understand why John Cornyn is such a…..
McBlogger takes a look at an email from Republican Chair TinaFish begging for money.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders how the Webb County elections administrator can claim one recount where the votes didn’t change vindicates their work on the Sheriff’s recount where 160 votes flipped.
BossKitty at BlueBloggin tell us how truck owners and operators are delving into long-ignored gas saving subjects like aerodynamics, slower cruising speeds and all the snake oil scams to increase mileage. This could lower your food prices and consumables;
Lightseeker of Texas Kaos applies his powers of analysis and persuasion to the question of What Can Be Done to Keep the Momentum for Change Going? What’s going on in your precinct to organize for November?
WhosPlayin’s grbtexan posted some “rules” guaranteed to invite feminine wrath.
State Rep. Myra Crownover wants West Texas to have their very own radioactive waste dump. North Texas Liberal has the story.
Vince at Capitol Annex notes that the word around Austin is that Rick Perry is planning on calling a Special Session of the Texas Legislature prior to the November elections. You won’t believe why.
Chris Bell is widely rumored to be considering a run for the Texas Senate seat being vacated by Kyle Janek, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs joins the call to encourage him to do so.
Social wing nuts are up to their old tricks, as the TX State Board of Education give the finger to teachers and parents alike this past week. On a 9-6 vote, your kids get a decade’s worth of grammar lessons etched on a napkin.
lightseeker over at TexasKaos takes on the question of what to do with all these new Democratic/Progressive activists and voters? Are they doomed to grow quickly disillusioned , retreating into political cynicsm again ? What can be done to keep the momentum for change going?
Gary D at Easter Lemming Liberal News last week blasted Texas Railroad Commission Chairman Michael Williams, Texas Monthly Blogger Paul Burka and Senator John ‘Forget the Alamo’ Cornyn because he is not bitter but sometimes he gets angry.
Governor Reportedly Pondering Special Session To Curtail Power Of Sub-Regional Planning Commissions
May 23, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
There are rumblings in the Capitol that Texas Governor Rick Perry is looking at the possibility of calling a Special Session of the Texas Legislature to curtail the power of Regional Planning Commissions.
Why? Because Sub-Regional Planning Commissions have become the latest weapon in the arsenal of opponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor.
Perry is reportedly considering calling a special session on transportation issues with altering Chapter 391 of the Texas Local Government Code being the session’s number one priority.
Chapter 391, the codification of the Regional Planning Act of 1965 codified by the 59th Texas Legislature, has a proviso that has become particularly nettlesome to proponents of the Trans-Texas Corridor, Chapter 391.009(c):
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In carrying out their planning and program development responsibilities, state agencies shall, to the greatest extent feasible, coordinate planning with commissions to ensure effective and orderly implementation of state programs at the regional level.
Because these commissions are considered political subdivisions of the state, they are on equal footing with state agencies like TxDOT.
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One Sub-Regional Planning Commission in particular, the Eastern Central Texas Regional Sub-Regional Planning Commission, has become a particularly nettlesome thorn in the side of TxDOT. They have demanded, in a 28-page missive, that TxDOT conduct another Environmental Impact Study specific to their region. TxDOT, of course, is required under the National Environmental Policy Act, to conduct an EIS, and the current Draft Environmental Impact Study for TTC-35 is, according to the ECTRSRP, “deficient in issue analysis.”
Whether Perry will call the special session or not remains to be seen, but Austin sources tell Capitol Annex that the issue has been discussed between TxDOT and the governor’s office.
The funny part, however, is that the existing sub-regional planning commissions would be grandfathered, but legislative action could severely clip their wings and possibly stop new SRPCs from either forming or acting so boldly.
Of course, if Perry does call the special session, conventional wisdom says he will extend the call to include a GOP pet issue: Voter ID. This, of course, will be in part to usurp Lt. Governor David Dewhurst, who has been carrying the Voter ID banner of late.
Radioactive Waste Dump In Your Town? Thank Your Friendly Neighborhood Texas Republican State Representative & Piles Of Radioactive Cash
May 21, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
Today, three commissioners appointed by Texas Governor Rick Perry will decide whether or not to approve a license for a huge radioactive waste dump in West Texas that the state’s environmental experts have already said will likely contaminate groundwater.
Although the good folks of Andrews County, where the waste will be dumped, seem to be blind to all of this (maybe they are excited about those jobs, which probably come with a nice case of glow-in-the-dark cancer), but it is clearly an environmental disaster for Texas.
How, exactly, did Texas become the favored dumping ground for radioactive waste? It’s thanks to your friendly neighborhood Republican state representatives.
Back during the 78th Texas Legislature in 2003 (the first one where the Texas House was under GOP control), the Texas Legislature passed House Bill 1567 which allowed for the disposal of “low-level” radioactive waste from other states right here in Texas. A slew of Republicans in hotly contested races this year including Betty Brown (R-Terrell), John Davis (R-Houston), Dwayne Bohac (R-Houston), Myra Crownover (R-Denton), and Linda Harper Brown (R-Irving) voted to make Texas a glowing, leaking, radioactive waste dump. [CSHB 1567: Record Vote 316, Day 53, Texas House Journal, 78th Texas Legislature, p. 1713-17-14].
Where Will The Money Come From To Pay For The Polygamist Raid?
May 21, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
Those of us who follow the state budgeting process have been waiting for a few weeks now for “the other shoe to drop,” so to speak, concerning the raid on the West Texas polygamist compound. I think most people realized that the state would be paying a heavy price tag for the affair. Of course, because of the way district court systems are set up and funded in Texas, the county where the raid occurred will pay a big price, too. The latter is something a lot of people don’t realize, as they assume the costs for all things judicial magically flows directly from the state’s coffers.
Of course, it doesn’t:
With court costs expected to top $2.25 million — even before lawyer fees are included — legal proceedings from April’s raid on a polygamist group’s ranch near Eldorado promise to be a budget buster for rural Schleicher County.
The county of about 3,000 people, with an annual budget of $3.9 million, cannot hope to handle the expense alone, District Judge Ben Woodward said during a Senate Finance Committee hearing Tuesday at the Capitol.
“I’ve come here to run up the red flag for the judiciary branch,” Woodward told the committee. “We need resources.”
Most of the expense will be borne by Schleicher County, where more than 450 children were removed from the Yearning for Zion Ranch in April and placed in foster homes across Texas.
Most court costs are related to the ongoing Child Protective Services custody cases, but the estimate also includes expenses related to anticipated criminal charges, Woodward said.
For what it is worth, $2.25 million is a figure that probably won’t even scratch the surface if the county figured in all the costs related to criminal charges. Trying a bunch of child sex abuse cases won’t be cheap, and the most significant expense will probably be for court appointed criminal defense attorneys. I have no idea what the hourly rate indigent defenders are allowed to charge (a rate set by the district judges in the area is for non-capital offenses), but even if it is a paltry $40 per hour, $2.25 million won’t cover both the civil and criminal costs if a large number of the sect members ultimately charged (again, assuming a large number are charged) require court appointed counsel.
SD 17: Chris Bell Takes A Serious Look
May 21, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · Leave a Comment
Via the Statesman, we hear more about Chris Bell’s potential bid for the senate seat soon to be vacated by Sen. Kyle Janek (R-Houston), who will step down next month:
One thing I was wondering about–Bell’s campaign debt from his gubernatorial run–was put to rest in the Statesman piece:
A potentially significant wrinkle: Bell has resolved nearly $42,000 in outstanding bank loans he reported on his gubernatorial campaign committee finance report filed in January.
“We negotiated a settlement of the amount of interest owing with the bank,” Bell said. “We will pay $26,000 as full and final settlement of the amount owing and that will be the end of it.” The money will be paid from his gubernatorial campaign kitty.
Bell is probably the most serious Democratic contender at this point. Though the Statesman story mentions State Rep. Scott Hochberg (D-Houston), sources tell Capitol Annex that Hochberg has made up his mind not to seek the seat.
Nueces County Republicans’ Trashy Tactics Backfire
May 19, 2008 by Vince Leibowitz · 1 Comment
The Republicans Party in Nueces County is doing their best to attack State Reps. Juan Garcia (D-Corpus Christi) and Abel Herrero (D-Robstown) in hopes of damaging the pair in anticipation of the November general election.
And, as usual, the GOP’s smear tactics have backfired in fine fashion.
The Nueces County GOP sent out a mailer in Nueces County demanding that Garcia and Abel return contributions from controversial businessman Mauricio Celis.
Evidently, however, the Nueces County GOP didn’t do much fact checking. It just so happens that Garcia had already donated the funds he received from Celis to a state-of-the-art rehab facility in San Antonio treating injured and disfigured American servicemen.
This, of course, is just the latest in a series of idiotic happenings and mishaps that are part of the Nueces County GOP’s ongoing targeting of Garcia:
