The problem? Well, only this year did I realize this was a “pattern.” Every two years, a couple of months before the election, Siteground starts complaining that my “database is too big,” and sends me some idiotic graph that alleges I am using 500,000 times more resources than ANY OTHER SITEGROUND WEBSITE (yeah right) and, somehow, all of that traffic seems to have come like magic on a Sunday night at 11:00 p.m.

I realized this was a pattern this year. They complain that I get too much traffic for a shared host (yeah, right). The only thing Siteground forgot was that February was the highest traffic month in HISTORY for this blog and Texas political blogs in general because of the Presidential Primary. Somehow, I was able to handle upwards of 12,000 to 20,000 hits per day in February, but now–like magic–2,000 hits per day is too many. According to the useless graphs from Siteground claiming I have “too many visitors,” it appears that other sites on the same shared server as me get a grand total of 500 hits a day combined.

This, in short, is why when you click on the URL of any post on this blog, you get a big fat “404.” Siteground alleges this is to protect their poor, pussified servers because I get SO MUCH TRAFFIC!

The bottom line here is that, back in 2006, Siteground figured out this was a political blog and that traffic increased around election time–but not to unmanagable levels. So, they have decided that, since it’s a political blog with ads on it, they can try to convince a tech-idiot like me that I need a $99 per month hosting plan every October.

It hasn’t worked before, and it’s not working this time. As Rick Perry said to the TV journalist, “Adios, MoFo.” When our contract is up here, we’re gone.

At some point, a tragedy is more than an isolated mishap.

With this week’s stunning report of negligence and neglect leading up to the fire at the Governor’s Mansion, the time has passed to ask serious questions about competence in running state government.

To start, let’s reject the notion that this was an isolated, unpreventable act.  Let’s not allow claims that the Texas Department of Public Safety – and, more than that, the leadership of the State of Texas – is nothing more than a victim.

No, for once, let’s look at things more broadly.  Here’s a short, sobering list of only the scandal and incompetence that’s made headlines recently:

– The Texas Youth Commission, the agency charged with rehabilitating young Texans who break the law, is under receivership like some bankrupt Savings & Loan because some state employees, who were supposed to protect these kids, are instead accused of physically and even sexually abusing them.  Just this week, we learned in the Dallas Morning News that after more than a year of the strongest reform the leadership could muster, many of these kids are receiving “poor schooling from overwhelmed teachers plagued by badly designed programs.”

– The Texas Department of Transportation – once an agency so effective that we bragged about it to the world – has become a rogue element in state government: “losing” a billion dollars, enraging citizens and legislators regardless of party or constituency, and drawing its own recommendations for receivership.

– The Texas Health and Human Services Commission, which oversees the state’s meager efforts to ensure its citizens stay healthy, turned vital operations over to a private vendor that wasn’t nearly up to handling them.   In the process, tens of millions of dollars have been wasted and dedicated state employees are scrambling to pick up the pieces.

It goes on and on.  Stroll among the committee rooms during a legislative session, and the conversations weave a dreary tapestry of the failures by Texas’ leaders to protect, serve, and meet the needs of the People of Texas.

At some point, leaders must take responsibility.  And if they won’t, the people of Texas have to take a long look at what’s wrong.

We remain the state with the most uninsured, yet the legislative leadership refuses to pursue all available federal dollars for children’s health care.

Our universities can’t keep up with our state’s growth, yet the leadership cuts funding levels, cynically decries tuition increases, and vetoes increases for community college budgets.

Our small businesses fret about huge tax increases and homeowners can’t find their promised property tax relief, yet the leadership can’t find a way to seek out solutions or even basic information in a timely manner.

And there’s the Department of Public Safety, the umbrella over the Texas Rangers and the one-time ideal for Texas law and order.

But now, according to its state reviewers, we have an agency that has a phobia for technology, doesn’t look at all of its own data, and would sooner ship its people across the state than modify its habits to be more effective.

And, according to this week’s report on the Mansion fire, we have an agency that forces good officers to beg for adequate protection of the state’s treasures; that doesn’t check or repair its security equipment; that employs senior officers who won’t even ask for needed resources; and that fails to prepare its people for potential emergencies.

Taken together, it all resembles a fantasy of someone looking to drown the people’s government in a bathtub – or, if you will, burn it to the ground.

But the Mansion fire isn’t only a symbol.  It’s a symptom of the self-interested neglect and mismanagement that have come to define those who purport to lead this state.  While Texas is blessed with dedicated, hard working, public service-oriented employees, they have been denied the tools and leadership they need.

Texas, and every Texan, deserves better.  It’s time to demand a government that works.

Thanksgiving in our world has been traditionally spent gorging on food you wouldn’t normally eat any other time of year (does anyone eat cranberry sauce in July?). It is also spent watching football and massive balloons crushing people on 5th Avenue. But for some this year, it will be spent observing a morbid spot in Dallas history.

November 22 marks the 44th anniversary of the assasination of John F. Kennedy. Undoubtedly, as Dallas Morning News columnist Jacquielynn Floyd suggests, there will be a mass rally of craziness. Even on normal days, you can spot people selling conspiracy flyers on the corner that welcomes you to Dealey Plaza and the Sixth Floor Museum. The whole set up really does seem to actually want to attract whack jobs. Where else can you climb to the exact spot that an American President was shot from and look out the window? On top of that, what other city marks the road, so you can see the exact location said President was when he took rifle shots to the head? Can’t visit Dallas? Have no fear! Look out the window from the web cam.

We hope those of you who do visit Dealey Plaza on Thanksgiving will use it as a time of thanks and celebration. Even though you may have to contend with 9-11 conspiracy theorists and Homeland Security agents when you go, remember that JFK gave his life for the freedom of Americans to choose to be conspiracy theorists. He gave his life, so that we have the right to stand in that same location and protest the current American President. We give thanks to John F. Kennedy. May everyone in and outside of Dallas eat lots of turkey in his honor. Happy Thanksgiving and Go Cowboys!

Technorati Tags Dallas, Dealey Plaza, football, JFK, Kennedy, Texas Cloverleaf, turkey

Just a few weekends ago, the greatest spectacle in sports took place. Millions of viewers tuned in to watch two of the best football teams of 2006-2007 square off in what can only be described as a majestic setting - Super Bowl XLI. Given its grandeur, the game is appropriately named the Super Bowl. It is not the “Also Ran Bowl” or the “Slightly Above Average Bowl”; or even, the “Good but leaves you wanting Bowl”. It’s the Super Bowl, one of the most-watched and advertisement-flooded sports events in the world. In this context, the word “super” means best or most important. Some may disagree, but we feel that this adjective should be reserved only for those events that truly warrant that most superlative of monikers, “Super”.

Sadly in politics, “Super Tuesday” isn’t super anymore. It’s just Tuesday. Twenty-one years after moving its primary from May to “Super Tuesday”, Texas is in the same dilemma it faced two decades ago. Our primary elections are no longer relevant. In 1986, then-State Senator Chet Edwards said, “the facts show that the ball game is over before Texas plays a role in the selection of our President.” As it was then, so it is today. The last Presidential Primary elections have been decided before Texans even had a chance to pull the lever for their candidate.

Legislatures in Illinois, California and Florida have sought changes to move their primary elections closer to the early primary and caucus dates. Is the vote of a Californian, Floridian, or Nevadan any more valuable than a Texan’s vote?

Texas ought to play an important role in this process for a variety of reasons including the size of our delegate pool. Texas has the second highest delegate total to the Republican National Convention and the third highest total of delegates to the Democratic National Convention. More delegates should mean more influence or at least some influence. Yet, the election is over by March and Texas voters are left with only a symbolic vote to cast as the outcome is a foregone conclusion.

If delegate numbers don’t mean anything to you, then perhaps the sheer magnitude of our land or population will. Texas is the second largest state in the United States. All of the states scheduled to have primaries or caucuses before February 5, 2008, fit neatly in Texas, leaving just enough land area to wedge in Alabama. Texas is also the second most populous state in the Union dwarfing all of the other early primary or caucus states combined.

If population and land mass shouldn’t matter, then consider Texas’ diversity. This alone should make it an important testing ground for Presidential candidates. Our diversity isn’t just ethnic; it’s also geographic and economic. We are the one state that has everything and everyone when it comes to inclusiveness. But even more importantly, Texas is the future of the United States. The demographic make-up of Texas today, is what America will look like in twenty years. Yet, primary states resembling the past are determining the future of our Nation.

Texas is the eighth largest economy in the world. We are a leading producer of coal, ore, and petroleum. We are a chief grower of cotton, beef and corn. Texas has majestic mountains, sandy beaches, vast prairies, and beautiful rivers. More tragically, 280 Texas soldiers have died fighting abroad. Texans are making the food that feeds this Nation, generating the wealth that fuels it, and are dying to protect it. Our votes have a right to count as much as anyone else’s.

We don’t begrudge any of the early primary states’ moment in the sun. All states are populated by proud and decent Americans. But, every Texan deserves to have their vote be meaningful. For this reason, we must move our primary earlier. Only then, can we ensure that our electoral voices will be heard in Presidential politics.

State Representative Trey Martinez Fischer was elected to his fourth term representing District 116 in San Antonio. State Representative Roberto Alonzo was elected to his fifth term representing District 104 in Dallas. Representatives Martinez Fischer and Alonzo have filed and joint authored H.B. 996 and H.B. 993 respectively to move Texas’ primary election from March to February.