New life for the Texas’ TSA Anti-Groping Bill?

Reformed Baptist, Teabagger Representative David Simpson (R) – Longview, sees new life in his crusade against the Fascists in Washington.  Simpson is firm in his stance that the State has the right to disavow federal laws it disagrees with.  His bill HB 1937 which wold enforce legal proceedings against TSA agents who touched peoples private parts was shut down last week when the feds implied they would not allow any flights originating in Texas to come into the rest of the good ol’ USofA if the law was enacted.

At that time, Teabagger favorite, State Senator Dan Patrick (R) caved in and withdrew his bill saying that he would not cave in to heavy handed threats by the federal government. This led to shock jock Alex Jones to claim Lt. Governor Dewhurst killed the bill and a call for the villagers to grab their pitchforks and head to the Capitol.

Well now after a weekend in Hell, Dewhurst has written a letter to The Gov requesting him to call a Special Session and reconsider the bill. Simpson says that his legislation only requires the Fascist TSA agents to do their duty upholding the Fourth Amendment language pertaining to search and seizure in the Constitution.  He claims that the federal government wants to deprive the citizens of Texas of their constitutional rights under the Fourth Amendment of the United States Constitution and Article 1, Section 9 of the Texas Constitution.  In an letter to Texas Legislators he uses the Teabagger adage of “If we do not stand for our citizens in the face of this deprivation of their personal rights and dignity, who will?”

Should be interesting to see if “The Gov.” wants a conflict with the Federal Government just as he prepares to throw his hat in the ring and announce that he wants to be the President, in charge of those same Feds.  Get the popcorn and stay tuned.

Governor Perry Vetoes Tax Collection Bill.

Our Texas Elitist Teabagger Legislators came up with a big surprise surprise surprise.  Now, knowing the penchant of the TeaBaggers for letting the Rich and Corporations discard any social responsibility, it came across to me as quite a shock when the passed a bill and actually sent it to our beloved leader “The Gov” Rick Perry.  The bill (HB 2403) introduced by Rep. Harvey Hilderbran, R – Kerville, is a bill to raise taxes.  OK not necessarily raise taxes but to collect them from businesses that do service in Texas over the intertubes.

State comptroller Susan Combs said that Amazon alone owed the state $269 million in sales taxes it failed to collect from 2005 to 2009.

Ms Combs might start updating her resume as she has committed a cardinal sin against the Elitist Teabaggers.  I’m wondering how long before the villagers will be inundated with insulting propaganda against her by the right wing noise machine.   Her sin, she made the declaration that Amazon and other online retailers collect sales taxes just like brick and mortar retailers in Texas do, the Teabagger Company told her that they would just quit doing business in Texas.   The CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos claimed that collecting sales taxes from his company would be unconstitutional, a favorite line of the Corporatist Teabaggers.

So what position does The Gov take?  He unceremoniously vetoes it.  No surprise there.

Now I’m not a fan of taxes either, but it does seem that this was a reasonable attempt to shore up a little of the shortfall of the $18.3 billion defcit in the State’s budget for the next two years.  So instead of the Corporatists paying a little more The Gov. has forced the State to lay of some 6,000 employees, teachers, firefighters, maintenance workers, etc., and cut services to the Women and Children services.

Sighhh,  for a group of people who relish the 50’s lifestyle, they sure have forgotten the tenet of Civic Responsibility that was so prevalent in that era.

Texas’ TSA Anti-Groping Bill shot down

A couple of weeks ago I posted an article that the Texas House had passed an TSA Anti-Groping Bill H.B. No. 1937.  But this week Washington brought the Republicans in the Senate to their knees by threatening to ground all flights out of Texas.

Teabagger favorite, State Senator Dan Patrick (R) caved in and withdrew his bill saying that he would not cave in to heavy handed threats by the federal government.  Shortly thereafter the pitchfork crowd was going crazy.  Alex Jones called for citizens, tourists to go to the Capitol and let their Senators know they were against them cowing down to the Feds.  He asked Semi-Truck Drivers and Dump Truck Drivers to circle the Capitol building while blowing their horns.  Ok so far so good.  Rational ways to protest decisions you disagree with in a democracy.

But no that was not good enough.  Jones went on to claim that  Lt. Governor David Dewhurst (R) killed the bill becausr he is  an establishment insider. Jones also claims that Dewhurst played the role of Judas to protect the agenda of the Obama administration and ignore the will of the people of Texas.  Much is now being made that Dewhurst was a CIA agent in Bolivia in the early 70’s when the US allegedly helped overthrow the elected government and help install a General with ties to Nazi fugitive Klaus Barbie.  He was even asked recently by a reporter it he enjoyed having a drink with the Butcher of Lyon. So now on all Teabaggers are awash in their hatred for the Traitor Dewhurst.  There were even calls for him to be tried for Treason.  The issue has blown into another reason for the State to secede and get rid of the Nazi Socialist Obama controlled federal government.

This is typical knee jerk reactions the Teabaggers are well known for.  The Elitist Teabagger Puppet Masters don’t like Dewhurst and are using this issue to get the pitchfork crowd all fired up against him.  It is well known that if The Gov. heads off to pursue his aspiration of being the President of the country he thinks is evil, that Dewhurst wants to become Governor.  That scenario is unacceptable to those behind the curtain directing the Teabaggers.

Instead of looking for a compromise to end what truly needs correcting the Teabaggers dig in, grab their pitchforks and spout Anti-American rhetoric.

And to think I thought that Texas had finally found a problem, showed some common sense and found a way to correct it.  But sadly not this time.  Sighhhh.

Bad news if Governor Rick Perry wants to run for President

Poor Ol’ Governor Perry, wanting to be asked to save the Grand Old Party by being asked to run for president only to find himself near the bottom of the barrel among Texas Voters in a recent poll by the University of Texas. The Gov. at 4 percent, just barely ahead of Jon Hunstman the former Governor of Utah and more recently, Obama’s Ambasador to China who is at 1 percent. Next comes former U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at a whopping 3 percent, then Perry tied with Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty. Even, I’m gonna run, no I’m not, no wait yes I am, Donald Trump is ahead of Perry at 6 percent.

More bad news for The Gov.is that according to the poll, only 41 percent approve of his job performance while 42 percent disapprove of it. Ouch. Looks like The Gov. is really gonna have to get his spin machine in high gear soon to reverse this bad news.

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) ain’t giving Governor Perry federal money to combat the wildfires

The Gov. has been harping constantly that FEMA won’t give Texas aid when two and a half million acres of the State is been on fire. Unreported in most Texas news coverage is the reason why. The Elitist Teabaggers in their continuing efforts to run the State into the ground cut $34 million or 1/3 of the budget of the Texas Forest Service. This agency provides assistance grants to the volunteer fire departments which make up approximately 80 percent of the State’s firefighers. Most of these volunteer departments operate on a shoestring budget on old and worn down equipment. The Gov. likes to brag that his State’s disaster preparedness is a model the country should look at and learn from.

In their usual mode of being tough of gutting social programs while appeasing the villagers they say this is just cutting waste and will be made up by donations. Then they ease an appeal up to Washington, the evil overlord, to get emergency funds. But FEMA unexplicably turns them down, ooops. What The Gov. and the Elitist Teabaggers are telling the sheep is that Obama and the evil feds are wagin war on Texas. They claim all they are asking for is direct aid for families, individuals and communities that suffered wildfire losses. Whoa, not so fast. Not true. What Gov. and the Elitist Teabaggers asked for is funds to pay for fighting the fires. What the Gov. and the Elitist Teabaggers fail to realize is that the federal government is already doing this. FEMA, has been working hand in hand with the state supporting the firefighting efforts and have already covered 25 fire management assistance grants to pay for the expenses to fight the wildfires.

What The Gov. and his Elitist Teageers thought they would do is get over on the feds by requesting FEMA declare that 252 of Texas’s 254 counties should be declared a disaster area because of wildfires. What???

And when FEMA, rightly, turns them down they claim Obama is pursuing a political vendetta against Texas. Perry even went so far as to claim at a fundraiser that Obama was ignoring Texas repeating the line that the request didn’t get lost in the mail. He went on that Obama was taking care of other states while punishing Texas Perry later refused to meet with President Obama when the President came to inspect the situation.

Texas shouldn’t fell left out. Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Virginia), when asked about aid to the Tornando victims in Joplin Missouri, said that if the Federal Government was going send aid it would have to be cut out of other programs.

While many of the citizens of this Great State are indeed suffering, they are guilty of not looking at what is really going on. They are happy to be lied to and believe that the Trabagger Elitists have their best interests in mind when in fact they only care about giving everything of value to the billionaires and corporations. The folks of Texas need to open their eyes before it is too late. Perry just got his Eminent Domain Law passed and has signed it, so your property may be his next “public use” need to help the rich and corporations complete their takeover.

Is Governor Rick Perry running for President?

Is Governor Rick Perry running for President?   The Gov has insisted for some time that he has no interest in running for President, however is he just playing hard to get?  He attends events that attract those who have aspirations for the lands High Office.   Last year he was one of the stars at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference in New Orleans. It was announced last week that he will be a headliner at this years event in June.  Word is that the Gov has quietly been making behind the scenes inquiries of the possibilities and reactions to a possible run in Iowa where the first caucasus will be held.  It could be that he is waiting on Queen Sarah to make an announcement before he has to pull a Barbour, Huckabee or Trump.  Will be interesting indeed.

Perry Endorses the Radical Secessionist King Street Patriots

Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry just can’t help himself when it comes to snuggling up the the Radical Secessionist Wingnuts of the State.  The Gov had his hair all done up nice and purty as he did the ribbon cutting honors at the King Street Patriots’ new headquarters at 7232 Wynnwood Lane in Houston, Texas.  The King Street Patriots, an arm of the Republican Party and reportedly funded by the Koch brothers right wing machine, came to the forefront in the 2010 elections.

The group started their “True The Vote” campaign  in response to the “Rock the Vote” which was President Obama’s campaign to get the vote in the 2008 presidential election. The group was allegedly tied to the Houston area Tea Party group that sent a number of distasteful, grammatically challenged and degrading emails to a group called Houston Votes, which was trying to register voters.

In the 2010 election the King Street Patriots poll watchers participating in the “True The Vote” campaign were accused of  hovering over voters, getting into election workers’ faces and blocking or disrupting lines of voters waiting to cast their ballots primarily in minority districts and in October 2010 the Justice Department bgan an investigating the King Street Patriots’ anti-voter fraud campaign after receiving a number of complaints about voter intimidation in Hispanic and African-American areas.

In the 2010 election, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, requested the Department of Justice investigate whether tea party groups are intimidating black and Hispanic voters in her district.  Representative Lee asked Attorney General Eric Holder to send poll monitors to her district on November 2 to make sure the King Street Patriots weren’t attempting to stop people from voting.  Representative Lee said €œMany of these incidents of voter intimidation have been occurring in predominately minority neighborhoods and have been directed at African-Americans and Latinos.  It is unconscionable to think that anyone would deliberately employ the use of such forceful and intimidating tactics in 2010 to undermine the fundamental, constitutional right to vote. I urge you to order an immediate investigation into these incidents and call for the Department of Justice to send poll monitors to Harris County immediately to ensure a safe and neutral voting environment during the Nov. 2 election.€

Representative Lee reported that the tea party group is sending in poll watchers who have been trained to aggressively monitor voters by standing directly behind them. The Texas Democratic Party described the King Street Patriot’s True the Vote campaign as a “vote suppression scheme.”   There were many reported incidents of the group hovering and standing directly behind and looking over voters as they voted.  In one incident  a female poll watcher said thaat she felt it was necessary and acceptable to stand directly behind voters while they entered their votes. When the election judge requested that the woman back away from the voter, her response was that she had been trained by the True to Vote program and that “I have the right to stand wherever I want!”

A spokesman for the King Street Patriot replied that they were so concerned by attacks against volunteer stay-at-home moms or elderly poll-watchers, and that they had requested that the Justice Department send  help to ensure the poll watchers were not being descriminated against while doing their jobs.  The request said that having poll watchers is not only the law, it is crucial in a free society that all candidates and parties can see and make sure the election was held with integrity and that being attacked for fulfilling that civic role is inexcusable.

For the 2012 elections, The King Street Patriots have ramped up their efforts and plan to recruit 1 million poll watchers to monitor the 2012 elections in Texas.  The program teaches volunteeers to become investigators and provides spreadsheets of the registered voters in each precinct,  The Patriots are then reqquested to verify the registrations aren’t fraudulent.  It is curious however that the vast majority of the areas the group is concerned with are precincts with a large numbers of minority voters.  The group was amazingly unconcerned with predominately white precincts.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie released the following statement.”As if endorsing their methods weren’t bad enough, Perry and legislative Republicans are trying to change the law to legalize the voter intimidation tactics this group used last year.  It’s shameful that their agenda amounts to an assault on the essence of our democracy, voter participation.”

These developments are scary as the very essence of our democracy is the right to vote.  The assault on voting rights of minorities has been an ongoing process which with the Tea Party’s activism has only intensified and threatens the very rights of the citizens of Texas and the United States.  The King Street Patriots and like Tea Party groups are only the latest arm of the Republican establishments assault on the voting rights of minority voters.

Texas House of Representatives passes a bill that will criminalize TSA pat downs

Well I would say Hell might just have frozen over because the our Elitist Representatives passed a bill that I actually agree with. The Bill, authored by Representative David Simpson (R) Longview ( H.B. No. 1937), states in Section 3

as part of a search performed to grant access to a publicly accessible building or form of transportation, intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly:

  • (A)  searches another person without probable cause to believe the person committed an offense; and

 

  • (B) touches the anus, sexual organ, or breasts of  the other person, including touching through clothing, or touches the other person in a manner that would be offensive to a reasonable person.

 

Representative Simpson issued a press release in which he states “I am grateful to report that my bill to stop the TSA from groping travelers without probable cause was passed unanimously by the House last week on second and third reading.  94 other Representatives supported the bill as coauthors.  It is now in the Senate where Senator Dan Patrick is sponsoring the bill.”

The  bill came about after an incident earlier this year in which Miss America 2003, Susie Castillo posted a youtube video in which she is visibly upset just after what she describes as having been violated by a TSA agent at DFW Airport.  The youtube video has recorded over 1,117,000 views.  In the video  Miss Catillo recounts her encounter with the TSA agents and supervisors. further explores the issue and has comments from others who have experienced similar incidents. She has also started Susie’s TSA Petition to Congress.  She writes “I’m gathering as many of your TSA stories as I possibly can, and will be partnering with grassroots organizations in DC that are working tirelessly to change the TSA’s unacceptable screening techniques in an effort to restore our 4th amendment rights.”  She also asks you to file an official complaint with the TSA on their website.

Miss Castillo’s website

Miss Castillo also is an advocate against the TSA Body Scanners and gives a compelling argument on the safety issue of the devices.

Yea, more NASCAR Racing in Texas, Oh, wait its only Formula One Racing

Just heard that I was going to be able to see the good ol’ boys another time each year by hopping over to Austin.  Then after doing a little reading I find out it’s only Formula One.  Formula what?  These guys quit racing in the US years ago as the sport was hemorrhaging money like the Mississippi waters are doing to the poor folks in Tennessee and Mississippi.

Oh, but then it just gets even better.  Our Elitist Teabaggers in Austin are giving away $25,000,000 of our tax dollars, yes you read right, twenty five million dollars of our tax dollars as seed money to bring a race to Austin.  Twenty five million dollars a year that could be used to keep some of the 97,ooo or so school teachers on the job teaching our children.

Interesting to find out that Billionaire B.J. Red McCombs, the co-founder of Clear Channel Communications and one of Forbes 400 richest Americans is the one behind the effort.  McCombs is a conservative backer of many right wing causes and as we know the welfare of the working class people is not a right wing concern.  Formula One has the reputation of being a sport of the rich and famous.

Although the sport enjoys the  adoration of the rich in Europe and elsewhere in the former european and Spanish colonies it has fallen out of grace to it’s American fan base.  Wasn’t that long ago that anything French or European was an anthema to U.S. values.  Now however, the top one percent have taken full control of the economy and government of Texas and have  convinced their Teabagger base to forget all that and that the policies that take from them to help billionaires is good.  They forget to tell their clueless Teabagger base taht most all of them will not even be able afford to sit in the stands.

Anyways to get back on track, McCombs has convinced the Perry Administration to take the money in a fund that had originally been set up to draw conventions and collegiate sporting events to Austin and use it to subsidize their Rich Man’s Sport.  With no assurance that this arrangement will be of any benefit to the city, the Teabaggers figured out that by using the fund they don’t have to bring it before the legislature to be publicized and voted on.  Sounds like business as usual for the Elitist Teabaggers.

The Texas Women’s Health Program may soon be a thing of the past.

In their zeal to find jobs for all Texans in need, the Teabagger Legislators have again strayed from the path and to the fork to social issues, surprise surprise.

In 2005 the Women’s Health Program or WHP was created to provide health care for women, gynecological exams, related health screenings and birth control through the Texas Medicaid program.  In the bill creating the program in an attempt to keep Planned Parenthood out of the program an amendment was inserted by Greenville Texas Republican State Senator Bob Deuell which excluded any abortion provider from participating or administering any part of the progam that helps almost 100,000 uninsured women who earn under $1,604 a month.  However, the Health and Human Services lawyers claimed that the exclusion would be unconstitutional the amendment was axed and Planned Parenthood was allowed to participate.

Now our Elitist Legislators are following their fellow Teabaggers from other states in a full frontal assault on Planned Parenthood as a backdoor way to end abortion.  In committee vote to renew the program Deuell inserted language to not only excludes Planned Parenthood from participaqting but also completely defunds the entire program if Planned Parenthood sues to be allowed to participate.

In the anti-abortion atmosphere in Texas, Planned Parenthood is sure to lose out and leave almost 100,000 uninsured women helpless.  Duell claims that other options are available, private medical practitioners can pick up the slack.  The problem with this claim is that doctors in private practice don’t get the funding the family planning centers get thus are less likely to accept the poor women, who are unable to pay, as patients.

In his anti-abortion zeal, Duell puts politics above the financial well being of the state and cost countless jobs.   Typical Teabag logic.