There’s two big senate race shoes waiting to drop over the rest of July: The announcement (whatever it is) Dewhurst is going to make on July 18, and FEC releasing Q2 fundraising results. In the meantime, here’s a smattering of senate race news
Senate Race Update for July 13, 2011
July 13th, 2011Ron Paul to Retire From Congress
July 12th, 2011To concentrate on his 2012 Presidential run. After which, since he won’t be the GOP nominee, he will presumably retire from politics.
More about Paul’s somewhat-mixed legacy, and the nature of his supporters, at a later date…
This Month in Jihad
July 11th, 2011Well, I’m not really updating it weekly anymore, am I?
So here are some notable Jihad-related stories from the last month or so:
Tom Leppert’s Campaign on Programs He Cut as Mayor of Dallas
July 10th, 2011At the Texas Tribune Senate Candidate Forum back on June 8th, Tom Leppert said that he could be counted on to be a staunch budget cutter in the U.S. Senate, and for supporting evidence claimed that he had cut or eliminated several government programs as Mayor of Dallas.
Since I have been somewhat skeptical of Leppert’s conservative bona fides, this claim piqued my interest. So i wrote his campaign to see if they had a list of programs he had eliminated as Mayor.
It took a couple of reminders, but i was finally able to get a reply from Leppert’s Communications Director Shawn McCoy. Below is his reply verbatim, save for some WordPress list formatting and removing his phone number and email address:
Lawrence,
Sorry, it has taken a while to pull all of this together.
One of Tom’s greatest accomplishments as Mayor was working to make substantial cuts to the civilian budget in order to increase the size of the police force. He did this without raising taxes. In response, the crime rate dropped by double digits, with violent crime plummeting 30 percent.
Tom’s trimming of the civilian payroll led him to eliminate over 1400 positions. Pay was also reduced for the remaining civilian employees.
Tom’s consolidation or elimination of city departments took the city from 31 departments down to 23.
This included:
- Sustainable Development and Construction
- Development Services
- Building Inspection
- Housing & Community Services
- Housing
- Environmental & Health Services
- Management Services
- Public Information Office
- Intergovernmental Services
- Strategic Customer Services
- Efficiency Team
- Office of Emergency Management
- Fair Housing
- Office of Environmental Quality
- Trinity Watershed Management
- Trinity River Corridor Project
- Streets/River Levee Operations
- Public Works/Floodplain Management
Additionally, the zoo was privatized.
Please let me know if you have any additional questions.
Best,
Shawn
Shawn McCoy
Communications Director
Tom Leppert for Senate
Thanks to Shawn McCoy and Tom Leppert for providing this information.
I am very far indeed from an expert on Dallas’ budget process, but I hope to take a look at the official budget numbers over the next few days to confirm the information above. My first impression from the FY2011 budget suggests that they may very well be credible, as official numbers show Dallas budget was cut by just 1.5% between FY2010 and FY2011, showing at least fiscal restraint here in the midst of the Great Obama Recession.
At some point I also hope to take a look at the mentioned Trinity Watershed Management, a subject that includes the controversial Trinity River Toll Road project, a complex subject on which I don’t feel I yet have a firm handle.
Blogrolling In Our Times
July 8th, 2011Today Matt S. Dowling named BattleSwarm his blog of the week. Thanks!
This inspired me to finally get up off my lazy ass and add two of the three blogs I’d been thinking about adding to my blogroll anyway:
And the third blog I was thinking about adding, but won’t right now? That would be The Race to Replace Kay Baily Hutchison, a blog focused on the Texas Senate race that I used to check every day for updates…but there hasn’t been one since June 2. I’d be happy to add it if posts start up again, but a month’s silence isn’t getting the job done…
Pat Buchanan 1, David Brooks 0
July 8th, 2011Since leaving the Reagan Administration, Patrick Buchanan has been, at best, an erratic conservative, on any number of issues (Israel, Iraq, Free Trade, etc.), flogging a philosophy (“paleoconservatism”) that failed to catch on with any but a tiny fringe, and carried out political adventures ill-advised at best and amazingly stupid a good portion of the time. (I mean, why would you even want to take over the Reform Party? That’s like stealing a half-chewed bone from a blind dog; even if you succeed, you’ve disgraced yourself for a worthless prize.)
But on the debt limit debate, Buchanan has penned an essay that is coolly rational in articulating why House Republican must stand firm aginst Democratic promises of future spending cuts in exchange for tax hikes now.
Behind the GOP opposition to tax hikes is the party’s word given to the country that elected it in 2010, its political principles, its traditional view of what not to do when the nation is in a slump, and party history.
Fully 235 Republican House members signed a 2010 pledge not to raise taxes. And by giving their word they were rewarded with victory.
Should they now dishonor that pledge, what would differentiate them from George H.W. Bush, who famously promised in 1988: “Read my lips! No new taxes!” then went back on his word and took the party down to defeat with him?
It also does a fine job dissecting David Brooks’ panicked appeal for them to take Obama’s handful of magic beans in exchange for their good word:
In 1982, President Reagan agreed to the same deal being offered the party today: three dollars in spending cuts for every dollar in tax increases to which he assented. As he ruefully told this writer more than once, he was lied to. He got one dollar in spending cuts for every three in tax increases.
Buchanan at least has learned the lesson Brooks hasn’t: Future budget cuts are non-existent budget cuts, and only a sucker believes they’re real. The only budget cuts that count are the ones to this year’s budget. Democrat promises of future spending cuts are always lies to be taken back in the next budget session. Even ironclad budgetary mechanisms to limit spending (i.e. Gramm-Rudman) will be jettisoned at the first opportunity.
No one should mistake Buchanan for a reliable mainline conservative these days, but he’s dead right on this issue. But given David Brooks’ swooning over Obama and his heresy on tax hikes, perhaps we should stop mistaking him for a conservative at all.
Ezell vs. Chicago: An Extremely Lazy Blogger’s Roundup
July 6th, 2011So Ezell vs. Chaicago has been decided, and the three-judge panel basically bitchslapped Chicago into the 21st Century. Basically, Chicago was saying 1.) You have to get firearms training at a licensed firing range to own a gun, and 2.) We don’t need no stinking firing ranges within the city limits, and the court tore them a new asshole for blatantly disregarding DC vs. Heller.
Even more dramatically, the ruling makes explicit parallels between first Amendment and Second Amendment restrictions, which the Brady Bunch and their liberal Democratic co-conspirators have been denying for years.
I think any decision where the gun-grabber ordinance in question is actually derided in the decision as “thumbing of the municipal nose at the Supreme Court” has to count as a pretty overwhelming victory for the Second Amendment.
If I were a hardcore gun blogger, I’d read the entire judgment, quote chunks from it and offer closely reasoned, pithy insights.
If I were a semi-hardcore gun blogger, I’d skim the decision and offer some quick insights.
However, because I’m feeling very lazy tonight, I’m merely going to link to the writeup over at Snowflakes in Hell, since Sebastian has provided a far better, and more insightful, post than I could on the subject.
As a bonus, in the post just below that, he tears into Rahm’s ridiculous shooting range ordinance, another blatant attempt to deprive Chicago residents of their Second Amendment via absurd regulations, such as:
Requires that range operators inspect every gun brought into the range for safety, and that the caliber is appropriate for an indoor range. You must have a range master for every three shooting patrons. That range master must be on duty at all times. [Even by the standards of Chicago union featherbedding this is outrageous.] Ranges may only sell ammo for use onsite, and must ensure no one leaves the range with unauthorized ammo.
Et Freaking cetera. “Rahm’s ordinance is basically a joke, and an insult. I can’t imagine anyone would even try to operate a range under these ridiculous standards, and I suspect that’s the whole idea.”
Read the whole thing, on both posts.
Sen Dan Patrick on the Legislative Session and the Senate Race
July 6th, 2011First here’s an extensive piece on State Senator Dan Patrick’s work in the 82nd Legislative session. There’s the usual minimum of liberal bias, including the now requisite “drastic cuts in public education” lie the MSM feels a need to trot out in every roundup, but the piece is otherwise information.
In this companion piece, Patrick talks about the possibility of running for the Senate, and not a little bit about David Dewhurst’s financial resources. He’s non-committal in the piece, but it does sound more like he’s leaning toward a run in the Lt. Governor’s race in 2014 than the Senate race.
Portugal’s Bonds Downgraded to Junk
July 5th, 2011Between strikes in Greece, constitutional challenges to the Greek bailout in Germany, and other agencies rating the latest Greek bailout as tantamount to default, efforts to prevent a Euro-default contagion may fail sooner rather than later…