TX HD 55: Delisi Resigns From Texas House

State Rep. Dianne White Delisi (R-Temple), who had previously announced her retirement and did not seek re-election this year, resigned form the Texas House of Representatives effective today. More at Quorum Report.

Pete Sessions: Nevada’s Newest Congressman

Wick Allison over at D Magazine’s Frontburner blog has up a great post telling us exactly why Congressman Pete Sessions may be having those lovely Vegas strip club fund-raisers.

It’s to cash in on money from professional gamblers, who love Sneaky Pete’s stance on unlawful internet gambling:

For example, there’s self-described “professional poker player” Howard Lederer and his wife Susan with a combined donation of $10,000. Andrew Bloch, another “professional poker player,” gave $4,000. Doyle Brunson tossed some more chips on the table with another $4,000. Barry Shulman was in for $2,000, and Linda Johnson matched up to $500.

Well, well, well. Ol’ Pete’s really able to pack in money from everywhere, isn’t he.

Think John McCain’s $520 Shoes Are Audacious? Try John Davis’ $1,500 Boots

John McCain’s $520 Ferragamo shoes have been the buzz of the blogosphere this morning, but in Texas, a $520 pair of shoes for a lawmaker is nothing. After all, everything is bigger in Texas and one ethically-challenged State Representative, John Davis (R-Houston), recently spent a cool $1,537.15 on his foot ware.

Nobody in Texas can really begrudge anyone–especially a macho member of the Texas Legislature–a a nice of boots. But Davis didn’t pay for his boots out of his own pocket. He paid for his boots with money he collected from lobbyists, political action committees, and right-wing donors who filled his campaign coffers.

That’s right. Lobbyists and PACs for corporations like Reliant Energy, Dow Chemical, Accenture, British Petroleum, Cigna, Merck, and Phizer filled John Davis’ campaign warchest to the brim and he used the cash to buy a $1,500 pair of boots. Houstonian Bob Perry of “Swift Boat Veterans For Truth” fame is also a Davis campaign donor whose cash helped line Davis’ coffers to help him afford boots that cost three times as much as John McCain’s loafers.

Using campaign cash for personal expenses like foot ware is illegal under Texas law. That’s why Davis tried to disguise the expenditure in his campaign finance reports by misreporting the name and address of the boot shop where he bough the boots. The Texas Ethics Commission caught up with Davis’ free-wheeling spending and slapped him with a hefty financial penalty for his boot purchase.

This election cycle, Texans finally have the chance to give John Davis “the boot” once and for all. Longtime educator Sherrie Matula is running against Davis. Sherrie is endorsed by TexBlogPAC, and her campaign is on fire in every sense of the word.

Although much of the “bricks and mortar” Democratic establishment wasn’t paying attention to her race until she reported more cash-on-hand than her opponent this month, the Texas Netroots was, which is why they’ve named Davis “The Most Endangered Texas Republican You Don’t Know” (see videos here, here, and here.) The GOP establishment has already taken notice of Davis’ precarious position–none other than Mr. Contempt of Congress himself, Karl Rove, is coming to Houston to raise money for Davis in a couple of weeks.

Help the Texas Netroots give corrupt, ethically challenged John Davis the boot. Drop some change Sherrie Matula’s way. Texas Democrats only need five seats to reclaim the Texas House this November, and the Netroots aims to make Sherrie Matula one of the five.

Texas Congressman Pete Sessions Held Fundraisers At Vegas Strip Club

I can’t say I’m surprised to learn that Texas Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Dallas) has been holding fundraisers at Forty Deuce, a strip club in Las Vegas described as “even more back-alley than the original that inspired it, discreetly hidden just off the casino floor.”

From MarketPlace via AmericaBLOG:

In the past three years, unions and corporate executives contributed more than $77 million to these leadership PACs according to Federal Election Commission reports. Lobbyists kicked in millions more.

Working together, Notzen and Pete Sessions run one of the more successful PACs on Capitol Hill and last spring, Notzen’s company planned an event for Pete Session’s PAC in Vegas: a fundraiser at Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce.

Sessions: That’s right, we do a Las Vegas fundraiser every year and not only raise money, but see Las Vegas. It’s a beautiful town.

Henn: Forty Deuce is a strip club.

Sessions: You know, I’ve never seen that. It is what I would call a burlesque show where there’s a woman who comes out and has a dress on… Uh, she never get’s naked. There’s no nudity, there’s no nudity in there.

This is how the club’s owner, Ivan Kane, describes his brand of burlesque.

Ivan Kane: The key component would be to have girls who were dancers taking their clothes off, not just girls taking their clothes off.

Sessions spent more than $5,000 at Kane’s club that night in March, according to federal disclosures. Those reports show Sessions spent another $2,100 on his hotel.

Officially, Pete Sessions’ leadership PAC picked up the tab, but just days before the party at Forty Deuce, casino interests donated $5,000 to his PAC. Payday lenders threw in another $2,500.

Some might quibble with the Congressman’s taste, but Sessions and the other attendees say the event was tame. It was all fully disclosed and none of it violated a single law. In fact, Pete Sessions’ party in Vegas was cheap in comparison to what other members of Congress routinely spend on golfing or skiing or chartered jets.

Sessions: It’s hard for me to know what is normal or regular any more. I mean I’ve seen people that do things half way around the world.

In fact, Sessions runs one of the least wasteful PACs in Washington. In three years, he raised more than a million dollars and given away more $800,000 to colleagues running in elections. Other leadership PACs don’t do nearly as well.

Since 2005, these accounts have raised more than $188 million, but the lion’s share of that cash was never spent on federal election campaigns. Instead, more than $100 million was spent other things like consultants or staff or just having a great time.

Seriously, Mr. Morality, Pete Sessions, has been having fund-raisers in a strip club. How is that for irony?

Texas Congressman Pete Sessions Held Fundraisers At Vegas Strip Club

I can’t say I’m surprised to learn that Texas Congressman Pete Sessions (R-Dallas) has been holding fundraisers at Forty Deuce, a strip club in Las Vegas described as “even more back-alley than the original that inspired it, discreetly hidden just off the casino floor.”

From MarketPlace via AmericaBLOG:

In the past three years, unions and corporate executives contributed more than $77 million to these leadership PACs according to Federal Election Commission reports. Lobbyists kicked in millions more.

Working together, Notzen and Pete Sessions run one of the more successful PACs on Capitol Hill and last spring, Notzen’s company planned an event for Pete Session’s PAC in Vegas: a fundraiser at Ivan Kane’s Forty Deuce.

Sessions: That’s right, we do a Las Vegas fundraiser every year and not only raise money, but see Las Vegas. It’s a beautiful town.

Henn: Forty Deuce is a strip club.

Sessions: You know, I’ve never seen that. It is what I would call a burlesque show where there’s a woman who comes out and has a dress on… Uh, she never get’s naked. There’s no nudity, there’s no nudity in there.

This is how the club’s owner, Ivan Kane, describes his brand of burlesque.

Ivan Kane: The key component would be to have girls who were dancers taking their clothes off, not just girls taking their clothes off.

Sessions spent more than $5,000 at Kane’s club that night in March, according to federal disclosures. Those reports show Sessions spent another $2,100 on his hotel.

Officially, Pete Sessions’ leadership PAC picked up the tab, but just days before the party at Forty Deuce, casino interests donated $5,000 to his PAC. Payday lenders threw in another $2,500.

Some might quibble with the Congressman’s taste, but Sessions and the other attendees say the event was tame. It was all fully disclosed and none of it violated a single law. In fact, Pete Sessions’ party in Vegas was cheap in comparison to what other members of Congress routinely spend on golfing or skiing or chartered jets.

Sessions: It’s hard for me to know what is normal or regular any more. I mean I’ve seen people that do things half way around the world.

In fact, Sessions runs one of the least wasteful PACs in Washington. In three years, he raised more than a million dollars and given away more $800,000 to colleagues running in elections. Other leadership PACs don’t do nearly as well.

Since 2005, these accounts have raised more than $188 million, but the lion’s share of that cash was never spent on federal election campaigns. Instead, more than $100 million was spent other things like consultants or staff or just having a great time.

Seriously, Mr. Morality, Pete Sessions, has been having fund-raisers in a strip club. How is that for irony?

Texas Has Lost More Than 200,000 Jobs To China Since 2001

A report released this week by the Economic Policy Institute shows that Texas has lost more than 200,000 jobs to China since 2001 as a result of the United State’s growing trade deficit to that country.

According to the report, Texas has experienced a net job loss of 202,900 due to growing trade deficits with China since 2001–with more 34,100 of those jobs lost last year alone.

In terms of net job loss by state, Texas ranks second out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia only to California, and is actually far ahead of many “Rust Belt” states in terms of job loss directly attributable to the China trade deficit.

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House Panel Votes To Hold Karl Rove In Contempt

Wonder if this will hamper his fundraising efforts in Texas? More here, here, here, and here.

AG Abbott Rules That School District Summer Day Camps Need Licenses

Leave it to Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott to determine that Texas school districts need licenses from the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation to run summer day camp programs.

Evidently, the daycare center lobby has been giving Abbott some change for his warchest, because his latest AG opinion on the topic is one of his most idiotic to date.

Why did Abbott ask for this opinion? Because Dallas Republican Will Hartnett heard too many complaints from private daycare center owners claiming that the programs offered by schools constituted unfair competition.

While a more sensible legislator would have probably told the daycare center owners to “suck it up,” Hartnett asked for an AG Opinion.

Abbott’s logic in coming to the determination is, admittedly, a bit tortured. After all, after school programs are already exempt from licensing requirements under state law, and summer day camps by schools are a fairly new thing. Yet, instead of ruling that the day camps and after school programs are essentially identical for the purposes of state regulation (something the AG’s office has done before when it suits them), Abbott hauls off and rules that state funded, state regulated institutions of public instruction which employ certified teachers should be regulated the same as private daycare centers.

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TX SEN: Cornyn Provides A Quarter Million To Help Elect Other Corrupt Republicans

Salivating for a higher position on the Senate leadership ladder (that is, if he survives the current election cycle), U.S. Senator John Cornyn announced yesterday that he would gift $250,000 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee:

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Gohmert Proposes New Location For Guitmo Detainees While Wasting Government Resources

Leave it to Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-Tyler), the ideological howler monkey of the Texas Congressional Delegation, to author a piece of legislation that–by even existing–is a massive waste of governmental resources, not to mention being disrespectful to the very institution he serves.

This week, Gohmert introduced a stupidly sarcastic bill proposing that detainees from Guantanamo Bay, Cuba be moved to Washington, D.C.–all because he’s mad at the U.S. Supreme Court for ruling that Gitmo detainees are protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Just how stupid is this bill? It provides that Justice Kennedy is “directed to provide shelter” to the detainees and that they can use Supreme Court bathroom facilities:

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