Archive for the ‘Texas’ Category
Thursday, January 2nd, 2014
A few tidbits on this race:
Steve Stockman is now accepting Bitcoins for his run against John Cornyn. This is pretty much a gimmick, as the tiny, Slashdot-centric audience who follow Bitcoin are singularly unlikely to involve themselves in Republican Party primaries. Another tiny problem: they’re not approved as a donation method by the FEC.
John Cornyn gets endorsed by the NRA. An incumbent Republican Senator with an A rating from the NRA getting their endorsement is hardly a surprise, but it’s a good pickup for him, especially since Stockman recently said that the tears of liberals make the best gun lubricant, and counts both the NRA and Gun Owners of America among previous endorsements.
Cornyn’s Texans for a Conservative Majority SuperPAC has already spent $70,000 slamming Stockman.
Stockman also compared Cornyn to PajamaBoy (Warning: Wiegel/Slate). That’s not so much a stretch as a rubber-band that’s already broken and been thrown away…
The only poll I’ve seen has Cornyn up 44 points, though this early that’s largely a name-recognition issue.
Cornyn’s name will appear last on Brewster county’s ballots.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Senate Race, Elections, Guns, John Cornyn, PajamaBoy, Republicans, Steve Stockman, Texas
Posted in Elections, Guns, Republicans, Texas | No Comments »
Thursday, January 2nd, 2014
It’s a new year, so here are a few long-overdue administrative updates to the blogroll.
Added Texas Conservative Republican News.
Removed Urban Grounds, since Robbie Cooper hung up his blogging gloves.
Removed Matt S. Dowling, because one post in the last year isn’t cutting it. Sorry, Matt…
Updated the link for An American Housewife.
Updated the link to SooperMexican.
Other notes:
I was going to add Sibyl West’s Ramparts 360, but she seems to have dropped off the map.
I would add Cahnman’s Musings, except he still hasn’t put up a blogroll…
Any Texas blogs I’m missing you think should be up here?
Tags:Administrative, Austin, Blogroll, links, Texas
Posted in Austin, Texas, Uncategorized | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, December 31st, 2013
I thought I would do a better job of keeping tabs on Texas statewide races, but there are just too many for me to do a good job tracking all of them. Going into next year, I’ll try to do a decent job of keeping track of the Governor’s Race (Spoiler: Greg Abbot wallops Wendy Davis), the Lt. Governor’s race, and the Attorney General’s race, and tidbits on any other races will just be a bonus. (If you know of any sites doing extensive coverage of the Ag Commissioner or Comptroller races, let me know.)
Here’s a roundup that will include some oldish news.
The most hilarious liberal initiative in the Texas governor’s race has to be Lady Parts Justice PAC. No, this is not an Instapundit parody. Liberals have actually reduced half American citizens to their genitalia. “Ladies! Why think with your brain when you can think with your vagina?”
Wendy Davis hires out-of-state consultant to run her campaign. This is my shocked face.
On the Democratic side, Wendy Davis and a Reynaldo “Ray” Madŕigal have filed for governor (I’m assuming it’s the same Madrigal who pulled in 5.7% in a run for Corpus Christi Mayor in 2012) and outgoing El Paso Mayor John F. Cook is running for Land Commissioner.
Interview with Madrigal:
Greg Abbott pledges to keep Texas budgets small.
Abbot and Davis wrangle over redistricting lawyers fees.
Davis is not ready for prime time. “All this leaves me seriously wondering whether Davis’ campaign has any chance of winning in 2014. Or worse: whether Davis didn’t take the Valley seriously enough to come here polished and ready and with her A-team. Surely this type of poor venue and repetitive shallow non-statements and unprofessional media handling wouldn’t play, in say, a Dallas crowd.” And that’s from a liberal Democrat.
There was a Lt. Governor’s debate:
kcentv.com – KCEN HD – Waco, Temple, and Killeen
Todd Staples releases a good list of heavy hitting donors.
David Dewhurst releases a better one. Harlan Crow, Jerry Jones, Red McCombs and Drayton MacLane all stick out as particularly heavy hitters. (Another name, Kevin Eltife, is probably best know as a Republican state senator who wants to raise taxes.)
David Dewhurst has a campaign video out:
Jerry Patterson touts his 2nd Amendment credentials:
Dan Patrick touts the endorsement of Texans for Fiscal Responsibility.
A closer look at how Michael Quinn Sullivan and TFR do endorsements.
Democratic State Senator Leticia Van de Putte of San Antonio makes her Lt. Governor’s run official.
Attorney General candidate Ken Paxton racks up over 220 East Texas endorsements for his Attorney General bid.
Paxton also campaigned in East Texas.
He also announced the endorsement of Ted Cruz for Senate chairman Kelly Shackelford:
As well as state senator Brian Birdwell
The Texas Tribune does a roundup of the AG race, noting Paxton had won 6 out of 6 straw polls, while Dan Branch raised the most money (including a check from George W. Bush).
Meanwhile, AG candidate Barry Smitherman touts his right to life endorsements.
AG candidate Dan Branch vowed to defend Texas Voter ID Laws. I doubt that’s a differentiator among GOP candidate…
Branch also picked up a lot of business endorsements, including Texas Association of Builders’ HOMEPAC, the Texas Farm Bureau AGFUND, and the Texas Apartment Association. It was always pretty clear Branch was going to get the lion’s share of “moneybags PACs” endorsements…
Susan Combs endorses Glenn Hegar for Comptroller.
Sid Miller is running for Agricultural Commissioner, and he’s already wrapped up endorsements from Young Conservatives of Texas, Texans for Fiscal Responsibility, and Ted Nugent.
Tags:2014 Attorney General's Race, 2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, 2014 Lt. Governor's Race, Dan Branch, Dan Patrick, David Dewhurst, Democrats, Elections, Glenn Hegar, Greg Abbott, Jerry Patterson, Ken Paxton, Leticia Van de Putte, Michael Quinn Sullivan, Ray Madrigal, Republicans, Sid Miller, Susan Combs, Texas, Todd Staples, video, Wendy Davis
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas, unions | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 24th, 2013
Merry Christmas a day in advance!
Obamacare’s popularity hits new lows. If you want to save yourself some time, just save that phrase; you’ll be able to use it lots next year as well…
Even the uninsured hate ObamaCare.
ObamaCare is falling apart before our very eyes. Good.
The harsh truth is that the advertising machine behind the Obama administration seems not to really know what normal human beings are like.
Medicaid + ObamaCare + Estate Recovery = The feds get to seize your estate. (Warning: DailyKos) But think of the future! Medicaid + ObamaCare + Estate Recovery + Death Panel = Ka-Ching! State government need but speed up your shuffling off this mortal coil to help close those pesky budget deficits to pay for public employee union pensions! It’s a win-win-win! (Well, for everyone but the poor schmuck getting the state equivalent of a pillow over their face…)
Via Moe Lane comes the heartening news that ObamaCare stinks so badly that Democratic gubernatorial candidates in deep blue Maryland are trying to distance themselves from it.
ObamaCare, like Obama himself, is a miserable failure:
ObamaCare brand heroin. Well, they’re both being pushed by people who want to get you hooked and make you dependent for their benefit. But I’m given to understand that a junkie can tell whether the smack is good within seconds; we injected Obamacare into our body politic four years ago, feel horrific side effects, and we’re still waiting for the high…
Even Colorado college students are losing their jobs due to ObamaCare.
Liberals have a reality problem.
Senators Coburn and Feinstein introduce bill to eliminate corn biofuels mandate. It’s a start. They should eliminate all biofuels mandates and agribusiness subsidies.
Nancy Pelosi says that being an illegal alien is no cause for deportation. Evidently the purpose of the border patrol is to hand out free lemonade along with ObamaCare application forms and membership cards for the Democratic Party…
Job;less claims jump to the highest level since March. “Unexpectedly!”
“The country needs jobs, not more jobless benefits.”
Wisconsin Democrats conduct with your tax dollars.
Speaking of Wisconsin, 70 unions there deceertify. Funny how many union “members” will escape if given a chance.
Good: reheated turkey. Bad: Reheated Huckabee Presidential run, which would be the wrong kind of turkey…
“If there’s anything that makes women unequal to men, it’s the need to be treated like pieces of china.”
Mack Brown goes out with class. Asked his biggest regret, you’d think he’d say Colt McCoy getting injured in the national championship game against Alabama. Nope. “They’d be two things. I would want Cole Pittman back, and I would want the bonfire [tragedy] not to have happened at A&M.” It was time for Brown to retire, but he always conducted his program with class and respect.
Outed black supremacist finally out of federal government job. (Previously.)
Remake Gilligan’s Island? “Michael Cera as Gilligan.” Die in a fire.
Robbie Cooper is hanging up his blogging gloves at UrbanGrounds.
Tags:Border Controls, death panels, Economics, Illegal Aliens, LinkSwarm, Mack Brown, Maryland, ObamaCare, Texas, unemployment, unions, Wisconsin
Posted in Border Control, Economics, ObamaCare, Texas, unions | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, December 11th, 2013
Time for another roundup of Texas, Red State Champion, versus Blue State California:
Texas is the tenth best run state in the union, while California is the worst.
The vast gap between California’s haves and Have Nots.
The federal court Detroit bankruptcy ruling has made CalPERS nervous. As well it should.
Ditto public employee unions. “Government agencies should have the right to reduce future accruals, just as private-sector employers can — and they shouldn’t have to wait until they’re insolvent to do so…In California, prospective benefits are sacrosanct because of a series of poorly reasoned legal rulings…The system must be fixed before more municipalities reach bankruptcy. For state and local governments to climb out of their deep holes of pension debt, they must first stop digging.”
A succinct statement of the problem “California local governments cannot thrive if escalating retirement costs crowd out money for public service.” Plus: “Bargaining effectively occurs between unions and those elected largely because of money from unions.”
Today’s California city teetering on the edge of bankruptcy: Fresno. (“Fresno? No one goes to Fresno anymore!”)
18 LA County Sheriffs department deputies indicted for “beating jail inmates and visitors, trying to intimidate an FBI agent and other crimes.” (Hat tip: Dwight, who notes “They tried to intimidate an FBI agent? Does LACSD make it a practice to hire and promote deputies who are dumber than a bag of hair?”)
Speaking of police behaving badly, 28 Santa Monica cops took home more than $200,000 last year. For comparison, Austin’s chief of police earns $198,819 a year.
Even California isn’t wild about Obama anymore.
California lobbyist organizes a second junket to Cuba.
Charting the Texas oil bool.
Cognizant moves operations center from New Jersey to College Station.
Tags:bankruptcy, Budget, California, College Station, pension crisis, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud, Welfare State | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 10th, 2013
Finally, John Cornyn has a real challenger. Steve Stockman has Tea Party support, impeccable conservative credentials, experience in high profile races (he knocked off Democratic fossil Jack Brooks for a U.S. congressional seat in the Gingrich wave of 1994), and a Southeast Texas base that might (might) let him tap into Houston’s rich Republican fundraising base. But he has gotten into the race very, very late, against a well-funded opponent whose deviations into RINO-Land have been far less severe those of Arlen Specter, DIck Luger or David Dewhurst (and that role-call of names is probably slightly unfair to Dewhurst). Ted Cruz had about fifteen months to knock off Dewhurst, while Stockman has three to take down Cornyn. Further, while Cruz’s race against Dewhurst was one of the top Tea Party vs. RINO races nationwide, I get the impression the Stockman/Cornyn fight will take a distinct backseat to Matt Bevin’s attempt to take down Mitch McConnell, and possibly several other races.
It’s certainly possible that Stockman can take out Cornyn, but it’s going to be very difficult, especially while still carrying out his congressional duties.
For the sake of completeness, here’s a look at the other candidates.
Republicans
Curt Cleaver: A retread longshot from the 2012 Senate Race.
Ken Cope: The Midlothian Enigma, about which The Google has precious little to say. This year’s Grady Yarbrough?
Chris Mapp: Boat dealership owner. Seems like a solid Tea Party Republican but the man desperately needs to learn how to use indenting and/or paragraph breaks.
Dwayne Stover: A bridge-builder. I don’t mean that metaphorically, I mean that his company actually builds bridges.
Read Reasor: Good: Former F-15 pilot. Bad: His platform (if you can call it such, being a Facebook post, since his website doesn’t currently work) is a strange mashup of WPA works program, workfare and local autarky. I would like to see his “let welfare recipients build their own home” idea run as a small pilot project somewhere, but his plan has more than a whiff of late-night college bull sessions to it.
Linda Vega: A Houston-area lawyer. She has a good resume…for someone running for a county judge position. U.S. Senate? Not so much.
Democrats:
David Alameel: Former dental chain owner, and worth a reported $50 million dollars. With that big money, he should be a shoe-in for the Democratic nomination, right? Not so fast. “This will be Alameel’s second run for office in as many cycles. Last cycle, he ran for Congress in the newly-drawn 33rd District and finished fourth out of 11 candidates in the Democratic primary. Alameel received 2,064 votes (10 percent)…[he] actually spent $4,485,086 million in the 2012 race, which comes out to $2,173 per vote.” That almost makes John Connally’s 1980 run for President look like a model of model of prudent campaign financing…
Michael Fjetland: Ran as a Republican in the primary against Tom Delay in 2006. Proclaims “I am the ‘Anti-Cruz'” in an all-capital letters font. (Pro-tip: When you use ALL CAPS more often than Time Cube Guy, you’re doing it wrong…)
HyeTae “Harry” Kim: Odessa physician. Sorry, that’s all I’ve got for you.
Lakesha Rogers: The LaRouche Candidate.
Maxey Scheer: El Paso attorney who’s also running as the anti-Cruz candidate, complete with towing a crashed-car prop behind her to protest Cornyn’s “Cruz Control.” (Get it? Get? Cruz control? It’s a concrete metaphor and a pun! Get it? Get it? Wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more!) Given the Statesman‘s polite attention, I’m going to guess she’s the designated “Democratic faithful” candidate if Alameel’s wealth can’t get him across the finish line, though her gas costs may prove prohibitive. Also seems intensely race-conscious.
Tags:Chris Mapp, Curt Cleaver, David Alameel, Dwayne Stover, HyeTae "Harry" Kim, Jack Brooks, John Cornyn, Ken Cope, Lakesha Rogers, Linda Vega, Maxey Scheer, Michael Fjetland, Mitch McConnell, Read Reasor, Republicans, Steve Stockman, Ted Cruz, Texas
Posted in Democrats, Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 9th, 2013
“Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) is challenging Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), the No. 2-ranking GOP senator, in next year’s Republican primary.”
I’m about to go to sleep, you insightful analysis will have to wait until tomorrow. Cornyn is certainly vulnerable, and Stockman is a serious challenger, but he may have waited to long to overcome Cornyn’s fundraising advantage.
This should also put a chill through every sitting Republican thinking of straying into RINO-Land on illegal alien amnesty, ObamaCare, or shrinking the budget deficit. Stray too far, and the grass roots will coming gunning for you.
Tags:2014 Senate Race, Elections, John Cornyn, Republicans, Steve Stockman, Texas
Posted in Elections, Republicans, Texas | 1 Comment »
Monday, November 18th, 2013
Some links to start your week with, ObamaCare still looming as topic one:
Chao before Congress: ObamaCare is hunky dory! Chao in internal memo the day before: we are so farked!
Over four million Americans have their policies cancelled thanks to ObamaCare.
Less than 50,000 sign up for ObamaCare.
One of the Democratic Senators running as hard as she can away from ObamaCare is Louisiana’s Mary Landrieu. Too bad she already embraced 100% accountability for it.
Race-baiting provided a shield that allowed Obama to fail.
And remember that calling Obama’s critics racist was a deliberate strategy by MSM members wanting to boost and protect Obama.
Don’t expect Obama to bounce back.
So is Politico actually covering the dysfunction within the Obama cabinet, or are they trying to shield a favorite from the stink of failure engulfing same?
A look back at Communist genocide in Ukraine.
Fitch gives Chicago bonds three steps, yes they gave them a three step cut toward the floor.
Michael Totten: “The case for walking away from Egypt and dusting our hands off is sound.”
Antisemitism getting worse in Europe says notorious Zionist shill, the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights.
Islamists in Nigeria doing what they do best: murder children.
Sex crime investigator arrested for sex crime with a minor. That’s really cutting out the middleman…
How the holy hell can Amtrack lose one BILLION dollars on food service? You could feed Ethiopia on that!
Dwight has an EarthQuest update.
Julian Castro to force streetcars down the throats of San Antonians despite votes against them.
Another super-genus criminal. Just click the link and look at the pics.
Tags:Communism, Crime, Democrats, EarthQuest, Egypt, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, LinkSwarm, Mary Landrieu, Media Watch, Nigeria, ObamaCare, Texas
Posted in Communism, Crime, Democrats, Foreign Policy, Guns, Jihad, Media Watch, ObamaCare, Texas | No Comments »
Tuesday, November 12th, 2013
Texas Attorney General and 2014 Gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott unveiled a number of “We the People” policy initiatives last night at the Northeast Tarrant Tea Party geared toward strengthening the rights of individuals against the power of the state. I was on a teleconference with Abbott Sunday in which he previewed the policies to bloggers with the caveat we’d wait until after the speech to talk about them.
The in-depth document is here.
Taken individually, some may seem like welcome, small-ball approaches to protecting individuals from various avenues of government overreach. Taken together, they constitute an interesting, possibly far-reaching template for guaranteeing individual rights, and give Abbott a serious claim to being not only a small government conservative, but one favoring individual rights over the convenience of big business as well.
The brief overview of Abbott’s proposals:
- Recognize a property right in one’s own DNA.
- Make state agencies, before selling database information, acquire the consent of any individual whose data is to be released.
- Prohibit data resale and anonymous purchasing by third parties.
- Prohibit the use of cross-referencing techniques to identify individuals whose data is used as a larger set of information in an online database.
- Require disclosure by all legislators, statewide elected officials, and gubernatorial appointees of any contract, subcontract, or paid relationship with a public entity, including the state and political subdivisions, held by those individuals or their spouses. Violation of this requirement would be a Class A Misdemeanor.
- Prohibit legislators from voting on legislation from which they may financially benefit by closing loopholes in the Texas Government Code, and providing options for both criminal and civil suit to ensure the enforcement of these provisions.
- Prohibit the use of tax dollars for the purpose of engaging a registered lobbyist to lobby on the behalf of a school district or the board or association thereof.
- Prohibit legislators and statewide elected officials who are licensed by the State Bar of Texas from earning referral fees or receiving any benefit from legal referral. Violation of this requirement would be a Class A Misdemeanor.
- Amend the Texas Election Code to require quarterly reporting of campaign financial data by legislators, statewide elected officials, and political action committees.
- Within the last 30 days before an election, impose a requirement that no funds received from a single person or entity above $5,000 may be expended by a campaign or political action committee until those funds have been reported to the Texas Ethics Commission and posted on the campaign or political action committee website.
- Allow voters in counties and municipalities the option to repeal red light camera ordinances and operations by voter-initiated referendum.
- Allow CHL holders to openly carry handguns.
- Allow CHL holders to carry weapons on campus at institutions of higher education, subject to appropriate limits, at the option of the boards of regents of public institutions of higher education, and the internal decision-making of private institutions of higher education.
- Texas should prohibit the state government from enacting a “healthcare exchange” under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA).
- Pass a state law providing that state resources shall not be expended and state personnel shall not be employed in enforcing or implementing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
No Republican is going to object to the anti-ObamaCare plank.
I predict that the red light camera plank will be profoundly popular across party lines.
The Open Carry plank is a bold Second Amendment statement on Abbott’s part, considering he’s not facing any serious primary opposition. It might also lure Wendy Davis into pumping up the volume on her opposition to gun control, which will no doubt endear her to no Texas outside he far left-wing base.
Abbott’s plank on property rights to your own DNA is the plank with the last immediate effect and possibly the most profound long-term consequences.
This is just a few preliminary impressions. I want to give the document another going-over and contemplate the implications.
Tags:2014 Election, 2014 Governor's Race, Greg Abbott, Guns, ObamaCare, privacy rights, red light cameras, Texas, Wendy Davis
Posted in Elections, Guns, ObamaCare, Texas | No Comments »
Monday, November 11th, 2013
Time for another roundup of Texas vs. California:
California’s high tax, high regulation government, and its resultant high cost of living, has given the state the nation’s worst poverty rate. How’s that blue State model working out for you?
Fresno is completely broke. “Now the city doesn’t even have a day’s worth of cash in its general fund.”
Given the tough economy, CalPERS cuts back on staff bonuses. Ha, just kidding! They doubled them.
Desert Hot Springs is the next California city eyeing bankruptcy.
Stockton’s Lavish pensions contributed to it’s bankruptcy. But guess who doesn’t have to take a haircut?
The message Stockton’s bankruptcy has for other California cities is obvious: Just screw taxpayers.
Bankrupt San Bernardino throws the bums out. And the new team looks like they’re willing to take on CalPERS. A case of mixed messages.
Covered California, California’s ObamaCare agency, is hair plugs and fat camp.
There’s a magazine called Time that says that Texas is the nation’s future. (There’s a longter story, but I don’t feel compelled to obtain a login to read it.) I’m sure Texas has a much brighter future than Time…
Your tears, Lakers fans! Let me taste them! (Missing from that piece: Dwight Howard will no longer give 10.3% of his income to the state of California, and Texas has no state income tax.)
Tags:bankruptcy, basketball, Bell, California, Desert Hot Springs, fraud, Fresno, San Bernardino, Stockton, Texas, unions, waste, Welfare State
Posted in Budget, Crime, Texas, unions, Waste and Fraud | No Comments »