Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
Thursday, November 5th, 2015
The latest ObamaCare exchange plans are out, and if you’re a cancer patient in Houston, you’re screwed:
The healthcare marketplace is open once again, but if you look closely at the offered insurance plans you might find something lacking: coverage for specialized treatments.
Preferred Provider Plans, or PPOs, often do cover specialized treatment like care for cancer patients.The loss of individual-market plan PPOs will affect tens of thousands of people who buy their insurance privately rather than through an employer. Before the Affordable Care Act, it was the way most people who did not have employer insurance got coverage.
Jenny Deam, with the Houston Chronicle, investigates the disappearance of these plans. She says there will no longer be any plans, by any carrier on the federal exchange for the Houston area, that cover treatment at the MD Anderson Cancer Center.
If you’re unfamiliar with MD Anderson, they’re one of the best cancer treatment centers in the world. For many cancer patients, the difference between MD Anderson and another cancer treatment center is quite literally between life and death.
Remember “If you like your doctor, you can keep your doctor”?
Not so much.
The media mocked Sarah Palin for using the phrase “death panels,” but in the name of cost controls, they’re already implementing them at the provider level.
(Hat tip: ColorMeRed’s Twitter feed.)
Tags:cancer, death panels, Houston, MD Anderson Cancer Center, ObamaCare, Texas
Posted in ObamaCare, Texas | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, November 4th, 2015
As expected, all seven Texas constitutional amendments passed easily. The two most heavily promoted amendments, Proposition 1 (homestead property tax relief) and Proposition 7 (dedicating sales tax money to the highway fund), each passed with more than 80% of the vote.
Other Texas voting news:
Houston’s unpopular “tranny bathroom bill” went down in flames. Liberals crying foul that their pet transgender culture war bill was reduced to tranny bathrooms might want to remember that no one forced Houston Mayor Annise Parker (who whispered not a word of it during her own election campaign) to bring it up, and certainly wasn’t forced to sue churches who dared oppose it. Every time an item on the Social Justice Warrior agenda actually gets put before voters, it loses big time.
Austin voters rejected a courthouse bond package derided as a big-spending boondoggle. And keep in mind that Austin voters practically never turn down bond proposals.
But it wasn’t just Texas. Across the nation, conservatives won big in off-year elections:
Republican Matt Bevin won a big upset in the Kentucky governor’s race. The guy who Mitch McConnell crushed by 25 points in a 2014 primary will now become just the second Republican to govern the Bluegrass State in four decades.
Democrats failed to pick up Virginia’s state Senate. It’s a huge blow to Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who went all-in to make it happen. Democrats could have won by capturing just one seat because of the tie-breaking authority of Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D). But Republicans held every single seat…
Even in San Francisco, the sheriff who steadfastly defended the city’s “sanctuary city” policy went down. Fox News: “Ross Mirkarimi and his office received heavy criticism after Mexican illegal immigrant Francisco Sanchez allegedly shot and killed 32-year-old Kate Steinle on San Francisco’s waterfront July 1. Sanchez had been released from Mirkarimi’s jail in March even though federal immigration officials had requested that he be detained for possible deportation.” The city also rejected new regulations on Airbnb.
The Kentucky Governor’s race was the one where Fark’s Drew Curtis ran as an independent. He garnered just over 3% of the vote.
Tags:Annise Parker, Elections, Houston, Kentucky, Social Justice Warriors, Texas, Texas Constitutional Amendment, Tranny Bathrooms, transexual, Virginia
Posted in Elections, Social Justice Warriors, Texas | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, November 3rd, 2015
The latest MSM rumor in the “too good to check as long as it smears a Republican” file is the accusation (supposedly from the hacker group Anonymous) that four Republican Senators, including Texas’ John Cornyn, are secretly members of the Klan.
Bullshit.
I’m not a huge fan of Cornyn, whose turned into bit of a squish, but I’m not even remotely buying that a guy who was born in 1952, and who went to school at Trinity University and St. Mary’s Law, got anywhere near the Klan, which was already a joke by the 1970s. Even assuming Cornyn was An Evil Racist (he’s not), unlike West Virginia in the early 1940s, the Klan was not on any ambitious politician or lawyer’s plans by the 1970s, and the only people joining by then were strictly white trash rural losers.
Moreover, we’re given to understand that these names were culled from email membership lists, which suggest that Cornyn joined, when, 1995 or so? When he was already on the Texas Supreme Court? Because joining a bunch of white trash losers was totally more important than avoiding scandals and winning elections.
Double bullshit.
Mediaite further debunks the idea:
To begin with, the Ku Klux Klan is pathetically small compared to the overall white male population of the South and Midwest. Membership estimates range from 3,000 to 5,000. The likelihood that four separate members of the Klan could find their way into the ranks of the Senate are astronomically low, even if you assume that your average Klansman is coherent enough to manage it (spoilers: they aren’t).
Or to put another way, you’d have to believe that a Klansman is roughly 10,000 times more likely to become a senator than the average American. Or, put even another way, there are supposedly twice as many Klansmen as Princeton grads in the Senate. Now that’s an alumni network.
But even a cursory look at the lives and voting records of the accused should have clued people in. One, for example, voted for Martin Luther King Jr. Day to become a national holiday, a proposal that a sizeable minority actually opposed back in 1983. Why would a Klansman go out of his way to vote for a holiday that promotes racial harmony, instead of joining the 90 Congressmen who voted against it?
Another of the accused senators is Catholic. While the Klan’s anti-black activities are much more rampant and widespread, they are also virulently anti-Catholic.
Oh, and did I mention one of the accused mayors is openly gay? I don’t think that’s the kind of “flaming crosses” the Klan has in mind.
As Ayn Rand once noted: “The Ku Klux Klan is not a Republican issue or problem; its members, traditionally, are Democrats; for the Republicans to repudiate their vote would be like repudiating the vote of Tammany Hall, which is not theirs to repudiate.” As far as the historical record shows, Sen. Robert Byrd (Democrat, West Virginia) is the only U.S. Senator elected after World War II to have been a member of the Klan.
Even the most base liberal propagandist should be ashamed to spread such pathetically laughable bullshit…
Tags:Bullshit, John Cornyn, KKK, Media Watch, Robert Byrd
Posted in Media Watch, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Monday, November 2nd, 2015
California continues to suffer from drought while central Texas just suffered through torrential rains. Time for another Texas vs. California update:
Texas Adds 26,600 Jobs in September.
Texas and Florida rank at the top of education index for biggest states, while California ranks last.
The University of Texas is ranked the number one public university in America.
Meanwhile, at the University of California system: “The number of those making at least $500,000 annually grew by 14 percent in the last year, to 445, and the system’s administrative ranks have swelled by 60 percent over the last decade – far outpacing tenure-track faculty.” (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
Another example of California’s perpetual trial lawyer enrichment act: “cumulative trauma” awards for employees after termination, even if they’ve never reported symptoms before. Shouldn’t every former member of the Raiders, Chargers and 49ers file a lawsuit?
Why CalPERS contributions are soaring. (Hat tip: Pension Tsunami.)
So now the California high speed rail boondoggle is going to cost $68 billion and require 36 miles of tunnels, including some dug right through an active tectonic fault. That’s ten times the length of tunnel Boston needed to dig for the Big Dig. And the cost is equivalent to the Gross Domestic Product of Sri Lanka. For a train line. It would probably be cheaper to buy cab rides for everyone traveling between Los Angeles and San Francisco, but that wouldn’t provide enough opportunities for graft…
“The parent company of the Orange County Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise filed for federal bankruptcy protection.”
Also filing for bankruptcy, yet another West coast grocery chain, Fresh & Easy.
Another bankruptcy filing: Fresno’s One Club Casino. California casinos are different from Nevada casinos, and I believe One Club is what is called a “card room”. Still, when you can’t make a profit off gambling…
California plastics company opens plant in Pflugerville. “Medway, founded in 1974, will also relocate its research and development laboratory to the new Pflugerville facility. Though Medway Plastics will continue operations in California, the company may consider relocating its headquarters to Pflugerville within the next five to eight years, the company said.”
Plans continue apace to build a Texas Gold Depository.
California Ballot initiatives weaponize emotion to centralize power.
Tags:Austin, bankruptcy, California, CalPERs, gambling, Medway, Orange County, Orange County Register, Pflugerville, Texas, Texas Gold Depository, University of Texas, Welfare State
Posted in Austin, Budget, Democrats, Texas, Welfare State | No Comments »
Friday, October 30th, 2015
Right now Austin is enjoying our traditional “two weeks of flooding following three months of drought” fall. Enjoy a Friday LinkSwarm:
“In Iraq, Obama took a war that we had won at a considerable expense in lives and treasure, and threw it away for the callowest of political reasons. In Syria and Libya, he involved us in wars of choice without Congressional authorization, and proceeded to hand victories to the Islamists. Obama’s policy here has been a debacle of the first order, and the press wants to talk about Bush as a way of protecting him.”
Paul Ryan elected Speaker of the House. If Ryan decides to govern as an actual Republican, he could be a very effective Speaker…
The IRS has Stingray cell phone surveillance gear. Get ready for a whole new round of Tea Party audits…
Speaking of the IRS, the House of Representatives is justified in impeaching IRS chief John Koskinen.
At the most recent Republican Presidential debate, Sen. Marco Rubio said the H1-B visa program is badly in need of reform. One tiny problem: Sen. Rubio’s own H1-B bill doesn’t implement any of the reforms demanded by Presidential Candidate Rubio. “It does not require recruitment of American workers. It does not require employers to ‘pay more than you would pay someone else’…Rubio’s bill would provide Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and his comrades ‘a huge increase in the supply of lower-cost foreign guest workers so they can undercut and replace American workers.'” Indeed, Rubio’s bill “would triple the number of H1-B foreign workers admitted.” (Hat tip: Ace of Spades HQ.)
Get ready for steep ObamaCare price hikes for 2016.
Angela Merkel’s ruling coalition is starting to come apart thanks to the refugee crisis.
Venezuela is selling gold to cover bond payments. (Hat tip: Commonsense and Wonder.)
Al-Shabaab Islamic militant group in Somalia pledge loyalty to the Islamic State.
The Islamic State schools ban: “math, music, philosophy, history, French and geography as incompatible with Islam.”
Not news: Journalist in Sweden gets stoned. News: The wrong kind of stoned.
Teacher’s hate Common Core. The only people that seem to love it are Washington bureaucrats and Jeb Bush…
Speaking of Jeb, He has not succeeded this year, and there is no particular reason to believe he will…Jeb just isn’t very good at this.”
“Even beyond the fact that Bush has spent almost a year and ended up among the statistical noise despite all of his organizational and financial advantages, this all but proved that he’s simply not a good enough candidate to run in the general election.”
Jeb Bush’s campaign also hasn’t knocked on any doors in Iowa.
Ben Carson’s campaign is working with other Republican Presidential campaigns to extract their debates from the liberal clutches of the MSM.”
How to fix the Republican debates: “First, cancel the rest of the debates. Instead, announce that the RNC will host the debates and pick the panel of questioners. Allow any news organization that wishes to broadcast it.”
A look at the Russian BMD-2 infantry fighting vehicle.
John Wiley Price trail delayed again.
Reminder: Most acts at SXSW don’t get paid.
Feminism is “a War Against Human Nature aimed at using the coercive power of government to bring about an androgynous ‘equality’ that ignores the actual differences between men and women. Feminism is a totalitarian movement to destroy civilization as we know it — and feminists say so themselves.”
Salon’s pro-pedophile agenda:
How to stamp out Cultural Marxism in a single generation.
Flash is dying. Netcraft confirms it…
Tags:Ben Carson, BMD-2, Bush43, Common Core, Cultural Marxism, debate, education, Facebook, feminism, George W. Bush, Germany, Glenn Reynolds, Iraq, IRS, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jeb Bush, John Koskinen, John Wiley Price, LinkSwarm, Marco Rubio, Media Watch, Military, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, pedophilia, Republicans, Robert Stacy McCain, Russia, Salon, Social Justice Warriors, Venezuela
Posted in Austin, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Media Watch, Military, Obama Scandals, ObamaCare, Texas | No Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2015
Did you know that there’s a Texas constitutional amendment election November 3rd? Indeed there is, and early voting extends through tomorrow. Someone, I kept thinking, should do a roundup of what’s on the ballot.
It turns out that I am, in fact, someone.
Proposition 1 – SJR 1
The constitutional amendment increasing the amount of the residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation for public school purposes from $15,000 to $25,000, providing for a reduction of the limitation on the total amount of ad valorem taxes that may be imposed for those purposes on the homestead of an elderly or disabled person to reflect the increased exemption amount, authorizing the legislature to prohibit a political subdivision that has adopted an optional residence homestead exemption from ad valorem taxation from reducing the amount of or repealing the exemption, and prohibiting the enactment of a law that imposes a transfer tax on a transaction that conveys fee simple title to real property.
Recommendation: For. It’s a Republican amendment that lets homeowners keep more of their own money.
Proposition 2 – HJR 75
The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to provide for an exemption from ad valorem taxation of all or part of the market value of the residence homestead of the surviving spouse of a 100 percent or totally disabled veteran who died before the law authorizing a residence homestead exemption for such a veteran took effect.
Recommendation: For. This passed the House unanimously and has garnered no real opposition.
Proposition 3 – SJR 52
The constitutional amendment repealing the requirement that state officers elected by voters statewide reside in the state capital.
Ballotpedia:
The offices that would be affected by the repeal are the Attorney General, Comptroller of Public Accounts, Land Commissioner and ‘any statutory State officer who is elected by the electorate of Texas at large.’ The Texas Governor, Texas Lieutenant Governor, Texas Supreme Court and Texas Court of Criminal Appeals would still be required to live in the capital as mandated by other constitutional provisions.
Recommendation: For. This Amendment recognizes that it’s the 21st century and not the 19th. There’s no reason state officials can’t serve effectively even while living elsewhere. And anything that gets them away from capitol groupthink is a good thing.
Proposition 4 – HJR 73
The constitutional amendment authorizing the legislature to permit professional sports team charitable foundations to conduct charitable raffles.
Ballotpedia:
Under current law, only nonprofit organizations can hold raffles, which took effect after voters passed Proposition 15 in 1989.[1]
The amendment would apply to teams in the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and the National Hockey League. Raffles would only be allowed at home games of the sports teams associated with the foundations.[2][3][4][1]
House Joint Resolution 73, the enabling legislation for the amendment, outlines who could hold a raffle, how a raffle could be conducted and penalties for breaking the rules. The measure also mandates how the raffle revenue would be allocated:[5]
- 50 percent or less would be awarded to the raffle winner
- 40 percent or more would be donated to charity
- 10 percent or less could be used for raffle operating expenses
No Recommendation. The fact that the convoluted nature of the Texas constitution even requires a constitutional amendment concerning professional sports teams is somewhat irksome. On the plus side: More money for charities, less government prohibitions, and the scope for abuse seems small. On the minus side, it may open the door for gambling industry interests down the road, and a significant number of very conservative legislators (including Konni Burton and Don Huffines) voted against it.
Proposition 5 – SJR 17
The constitutional amendment to authorize counties with a population of 7,500 or less to perform private road construction and maintenance.
Recommendation: For. While I’m always suspicious of using public money on private ventures, the Texas Constitution already allows counties with 5,000 or fewer residents to perform such construction, it’s usually for safety reasons, and the law requires both land owner permission and for them to reimburse the county for the work, so the scope for possible abuse seems small.
Proposition 6 – SJR 22
The constitutional amendment recognizing the right of the people to hunt, fish, and harvest wildlife subject to laws that promote wildlife conservation.
Recommendation: For. The NRA is fully behind this amendment, it provides a bit of a legal bulwark against overreaching federal regulators, and it’s driving the the usual urban gun grabbers buggy. What’s not to like?
Proposition 7 – SJR 5
The constitutional amendment dedicating certain sales and use tax revenue and motor vehicle sales, use, and rental tax revenue to the state highway fund to provide funding for nontolled roads and the reduction of certain transportation-related debt.
Recommendation: For. I’m always suspicious when industry sources flood my mailbox with pro-proposition flyers, which has been the case this year for Props 1 (realtors love it) and 7 (looks like the road construction industry). However, this is a case where the money does actually need to be spent to keep up with road infrastructure growth and maintenance needs, it limits discretionary (read: pork) spending by future legislatures, and is a better funding mechanism than drawing from the rainy day fund (which was authorized by a 2014 amendment).
Huh. It’s rare I support all the Constitutional Amendments on a ballot. I may have to cast a No vote on Prop 4, just on general principle…
Tags:Don Huffines, gambling, Guns, hunting, Konni Burton, professional sports, Texas, Texas Constitutional Amendment
Posted in Austin, Guns, Texas | 3 Comments »
Friday, October 23rd, 2015
Another Friday, another LinkSwarm, heavy on Benghazi and Presidential race news:
Seven revelations from the Benghazi hearing.
You know who wasn’t happy about Hillary Clinton’s latest Benghazi testimony? The families of the Benghazi victims. Funny how that “absolute moral authority” the MSM bestowed on Cindy Sheehan doesn’t apply to families of the slain when they criticize Democrats…
China vs. the United States: a tale of two economies.
Longshot GOP Presidential contenders are running out of money. “Any burn rate over 100 percent is considered dangerous by campaign finance experts. Pataki’s was 226 percent, Graham 188, Paul 181, Jindal 144, Huckabee 110 and Santorum 101.”
Speaking of Presidential fundraising, here’s why Rick Perry had to drop out: “Perry spent more than a million dollars during the last reporting period – July through September – while raising only $252,000 in contributions. And the former Texas governor, who exited the race in mid-September, had only $45,000 cash on hand at the end.”
“When you vote in your first Presidential election, please remember which political party decided to make your lunchtimes a living Hell for a decade. Spoiler warning: it wasn’t the Republicans.”
Some people Hillary Clinton listed as endorsing Hillary Clinton have not, in fact, actually endorsed Hillary Clinton.
Ohio Senate race update: “Incumbent Rob Portman (R) raised almost eight million this year, with eleven million in the bank, while former governor Ted Strickland (D) raised about two and a half, with about a million and a half in the bank.”
Turkish opposition leader accuses Erdogan’s Islamist government of protecting the Islamic State.
Criticize Islam in your blog in Bangladesh? That’s an arresting.
Heh:
Alvin bond update: “Firm in cracked stadium debacle funds pro-bond propaganda.”
Texas Democratic trial lawyer Mikal Watts indicited over fraud related to the BP oil spill case.
Arthur Miller — Communist. (Hat tip: Ed Driscoll at Instapundit.)
Bernie Sanders is “paying” bloggers.
Emus on the loose in Round Rock.
Tags:2016 Election, 2016 Presidential Race, Arthur Miller, Bangladesh, Benghazi, Bernie Sanders, Bobby Jindal, China, Communism, Democrats, Foreign Policy, George Pataki, Hillary Clinton, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, Jihad, Mike Huckabee, Rand Paul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Republicans, Rick Perry, Rick Santorum, Round Rock, Texas, Turkey
Posted in Austin, Communism, Democrats, Economics, Elections, Foreign Policy, Jihad, Texas | No Comments »
Thursday, October 22nd, 2015
“Health investigators with the state of Texas went into Planned Parenthood’s clinic in San Antonio, Houston, and Dallas Thursday morning, but declined to say why.”
Snip.
“Earlier this week, the [Texas Health and Human Services Commission] alleged that Planned Parenthood “committed and condoned numerous acts of misconduct captured on video that reveal repeated program violations and breach the minimum standards of care required of a Medicaid enrollee.”
I’m sure Planned Parenthood’s backers will soon tell us why abortion is such an important and fundamental right that the organization should be allowed to commit Medicaid fraud at will…
Tags:abortion, Crime, fraud, Medicaid, Planned Parenthood, Texas
Posted in Crime, Texas, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »
Wednesday, October 21st, 2015
I could roll this up into the next California vs. Texas update, but I thought this Texas Public Policy Foundation paper by Vance Ginn on why Texas’ low tax, low regulation model generates prosperity was meaty enough to be worth a separate post.
The Texas model has been touted as an approach to governance that other states and Washington, D.C. would be wise to follow. This approach promotes individual freedom through lower taxes and spending, less regulation, fewer frivolous lawsuits, and reduced federal government interference. Does this Texas restatement of the unalienable rights of “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness” actually promote freedom, prosperity, and jobs when compared to the largest states and U.S. averages?
To answer this question, this paper (in most cases) compares various measures in California, Texas, New York, and Florida—the states with the largest populations and economic output—and U.S. averages during the last 15 years. Five fiscal measures of economic freedom and government intervention for these states show that Texas generally leads the pack as the most free with the least government intrusion. Eight measures of the labor market indicate that Texas provides the best opportunities to find a job. Five measures of income distribution and poverty show that Texas leads in most categories with a more equal income distribution and less poverty despite fewer redistributionary policies than these large states, particularly California and New York.
Though a mere 15 pages, the paper offers up an in-depth survey of various economic metrics and studies, where Texas repeatedly comes out on top, and New York and California repeatedly come in last and second-to-last.
A few more tidbits:
In a “Soft Tyranny Index” (measuring state government bureaucracy, state spending, income tax, and tax burden) “Texas ranks first with the least government intrusion, Florida 17th, California 49th, and New York 50th.”
“Texas outpaces the rest of the U.S. in nonfarm job creation since December 2007.”
“Texas’ distribution of income is more equal compared with other large states.”
Read the whole thing.
Tags:Budget, California, Economics, Florida, New York, Regulation, Taxes, Texas, Texas Public Policy Foundation, Vance Ginn
Posted in Budget, Economics, Regulation, Texas | No Comments »