Thursday, April 28, 2011

Texas House Approves A Redistricting Plan


House Districts in Denton, Collin,
Tarrant, Dallas and Rockwall Co.
Click to go to District Viewer map.
  1. From the “Select Plans” drop
    down – select “Base Plans”
  2. Scroll down to find and click
    on “PlanH276”
The GOP-led Texas House approved a redistricting plan early Thursday that would all but guarantee a continued Republican majority — albeit a smaller one than the party has now.

With so many seats to protect, GOP leaders couldn’t draw enough safe House districts to protect all their incumbents in the next election, in 2012.

The map was approved on a 92-52 vote after a marathon debate that dragged into the wee morning hours Thursday.

Republicans rode a conservative wave in the 2010 elections to a lopsided 101-49 majority in the 150-member House -- a super majority so big that they can conduct business even if Democrats don’t show up.

That didn’t stop Democratic lawmakers from trying to derail the map Wednesday on procedural grounds, to no avail.

Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie released the statement on the passage of the State House redistricting map bill, HB 150:
The House redistricting plan is neither fair nor legal because it denies representation for Latinos, African Americans and Asian Americans who were responsible for 89% of Texas population growth in the past decade. This blatantly partisan Republican map actually reduced the number of districts that provide minority voters the opportunity to elect candidates of their choice while shredding communities for partisan gain.

The same Republican majority that insists on a state budget that will cut educational opportunity, force seniors from nursing homes and eliminate over 300,000 Texas jobs drew districts that would deny voters the opportunity to elect representatives who will stand up for our priorities. Texas Democrats and our Democratic elected officials will demand a fair and legal map that provides representation for all Texans, and we will take whatever actions necessary to ensure that any redistricting plan ultimately enacted complies with the Voting Rights Act.
More details:

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Trump Leading The GOP In Race-Baiting Fear-Mongering

Donald Trump, the rich kid turned real estate tycoon turned bankrupt failure turned TV reality show host, spent several weeks trumpeting to anyone who would listen—including a surprising number of corporate media outlets—that President Barack Obama had failed to answer questions about his citizenship.

And when Trump started talking, Fox News was there to amplify him. The network vastly increased its coverage of birther rumors, devoting nearly two and a half hours to the nonsense, in recent weeks. On other networks Trump's "birther" claims, like those made in an interview with "Today" co-host Meredith Vieira, went largely unchallenged. CNN's Anderson Cooper, refuted Trump on-air during a two-day invalidation of the "birther" myth, but CNN White House correspondent Ed Henry asked about Obama's birth certificate during Tuesday's press briefing. Whether giving Trump a pass or disputing his claims, the corporate media willingly kept the story alive by frequently giving Trump their air time and press space.

Today President Obama responded by releasing his long-form birth certificate making a short statement - at left.

Donald Trump answered President Obama's long-form birth certificate release from New Hampshire today by claiming credit for forcing Obama to release his "long form" birth certificate, and declared that the President should "get off his basketball court" and focus on gas prices.

Trump then repeated his new claim that Obama was an underachieving unqualified student who was admitted to the Ivy League universities only through affirmative action. Trump offered no proof for his claim but said he would continue to press the matter as he has the legitimacy of the president's birth certificate.

In GOP politics, attacking racial minorities as the underachieving beneficiaries of affirmative action is a very old move. Sen. Jesse Helms produced the most notorious example, an ad against his black opponent, Harvey Grant, which blasted affirmative action for taking jobs from deserving white people and giving them to minorities.

Let's not pretend for a moment that questioning President Obama's birth certificate or qualifications to attend Ivy League universities isn't steeped in racism. The New Yorker's editor-in-chief and the author of an acclaimed book about Obama's background, published an unusually blunt critique of Trump's "race-baiting" on Wednesday afternoon:

The New Yorker: The one radical thing about Barack Obama is his race, his name. Of course, there is nothing innately radical about being black or having Hussein as middle name; what is radical is that he has those attributes and is sitting in the Oval Office. And even now, more than two years after the fact, this is deeply disturbing to many people, and, at the same time, the easiest way to arouse visceral opposition to him.

Let’s be even plainer: to do what Trump has done (and he is only the latest and loudest and most spectacularly hirsute) is a conscious form of race-baiting, of fear-mongering. And if that makes Donald Trump proud, then what does that say for him?
Additional:

Texas Leads Nation In Households Ditching Their Landline Phones

In a contest between the traditional landline and the cellphone the cellphone is winning nationwide. People in the US are ditching their landlines to save money and/or because those phones are becoming superfluous. By June of 2010 Texas had the third highest rate (32.5%) in the nation of households ditching their landline phones in favor of a mobile-only lifestyle. Texas also leads in the adoption of smart phones and mobile Internet access. In some metro areas of Texas, such as Dallas County, up to 62% of households can be reached only by calling a mobile phone.

The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) last week released its latest state by state breakdown on the "Wireless Substitution" trend. As of June, 2010 26.6% of US households were wireless only, meaning there was no landline in the house. In some states the numbers were higher than the average and some lower.

Rhode Island and New Jersey had the lowest rates of wireless substitution households at 12.8 percent, while Arkansas had the highest at 35.2 percent and Texas had the third highest household rate at 32.5 percent. The data suggest that economics are the primary driver of the decision to abandon the landline - lower income areas are going cell-only faster than more affluent areas.

CDC wireless surveys are also finding increasing percentages of so-called "cellphone-mostly" households. Cellphone-mostly households are households that do have a land line, but that line is used for FAX, security systems or other and it is rarely or never used to receive incoming calls. The January-June 2010 CDC survey found that 16% of households nationwide that do have a landline receive all or nearly all of their calls on a cellphone. This means that in order to reach 43 per cent of U.S. households as of June 2010, the only practical way to call their cellphone. If this additional statistic is added the number of cell-only households jumps dramatically in some states.

In Texas, 32.5% of all households are wireless only. But the "wireless mostly" number is 20.3% according to the CDC. Combine those numbers and almost 53% of Texas households rely primarily or exclusively on mobile phones. In several states the combined figure approaches or exceeds 50% of the population:
  • Texas: 52.8%
  • Arkansas: 50.9%
  • Mississippi: 49.8%
  • Arizona: 48.1%
  • Nebraska: 47.3%
Metro areas often have even higher cell-only adoption rates than the state as a whole. In Texas, 43.2% of households in Dallas County are wireless only. But the "wireless mostly" number is 17.7% according to the CDC. Combine those numbers and almost 61% of Dallas County households rely primarily or exclusively on mobile phones. The combined figure approaches or exceeds 50% of the population in most metro areas of Texas:
  • Dallas County: Cell-Only (43.2%) + Cell-Mostly (17.7%) = 61.9%
  • Bexar County: Cell-Only (29.1%) + Cell-Mostly (17.7%) = 46.8%
  • El Paso County: Cell-Only (32.8%) + Cell-Mostly (14.8%) = 47.6%
  • Harris County: Cell-Only (32.4%) + Cell-Mostly (22.1%) = 54.5%

The increasing prevalence of cell phone coverage in the U.S., and the consequent increase in the number of people who use their cell phone in place of a landline, makes it difficult to reach target populations by phone for pollsters, political organizations or political candidates.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Plano ISD Council of PTAs Starts Education Funding Petition

The Plano ISD Council of PTAs is circulating an education funding petition for signatures. The Council plans to hand deliver the signed petition to the local offices of Representatives Van Taylor, Jerry Madden and Jodie Laubenberg next Thursday. Annette Maule, Legislative Chair for Plano ISD Council of PTAs, says the Council is extending an open invitation to all who would like to join in the hand delivery of the petition. Click here to sign the petition. (Annette Maule can be contacted at legislative@planopta.org)

To The Honorable Members of the Texas House of Representatives:

We, the voters of Texas, strongly believe that the future of our great state depends on the investment we make today in education. We call on our elected officials in the House of Representatives to take the following urgent actions in support of Texas public education:

  1. Support new revenue source dedicated to education spending.
  2. Close business tax loopholes to finance education as promised in Spring 2006 Special Session.
  3. Find permanent solution to education funding.
  4. Use Economic Stabilization Fund to fully fund education at current biennium level.

We urge you to support the efforts Texas Senate has made to finance public education by actively sourcing new revenues. Education is the most important investment the great state of Texas will ever make, now and forever.

Sincerely,

The Voters of Texas

Click here to sign the petition.

Monday, April 25, 2011

The GOP Bait And Switch On Social Security And Medicare

The Republican Party endorsed Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) sharply conservative 2012 budget bill when all but four Republicans in the U.S. House voted for and passed the bill before the Easter recess.

Breaking a promise Republicans made during the 2010 mid-term election to "protect Social Security and Medicare" Ryan's budget bill deeply cuts Medicare funding and replaces with a private insurance premium voucher program.

(DCCC Video - Broken Promises left and Constituents Erupt Over House Republicans Voting to End Medicare)

Ryan's Republican budget eliminates Medicare, as it exists today, and guts Medicaid as well as the rest of the government. The budget also gives additional huge tax cuts to millionaires and billionaires plus further big corporate taxpayer handouts to pharma, insurance and petrochemical industries.

The Republican budget explodes deficit spend in the near term and doesn't actually balance revenues and spending until the year 2040.

Collin County's Republican Congressional representatives Sam Johnson, Tx-3rd and Ralph Hall, Tx-4th voted for Ryan's bill.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The Billionaires' Tea Party


The Billionaires' Tea Party - Trailer
The Tea Party movement has taken American politics by storm.

But is this truly a populist uprising or one of the greatest feats of propaganda ever seen?

Australian filmmaker Taki Oldham sets out answer this question, finding that behind the movement’s rhetoric of ‘freedom’ versus ‘socialism’ lies a highly co-ordinated network of shadow groups, funded by the likes of billionaire ideologues Charles and David Koch. The video is a NEW DOCUMENTARY tracing how the billionaire Koch brothers are funding the TEA Party movement to create a privatized America.

Are the Tea Party protestors really just pawns in a plan to replace government with a privatized corporate government America? Watch the video and decide for yourself.

Friday, April 15, 2011

New TDP Ad On The GOP Price Tag

The Texas Democratic Party released a new video with the following statement: "When it comes to the state budget, Republican politics are running roughshod over Texans’ priorities. Watch our new video and get the Democratic take on what’s most important."

President Obama's Deficit Speech



President Obama's speech, as prepared for delivery:

"What we've been debating here in Washington for the last few weeks will affect your lives in ways that are potentially profound. This debate over budgets and deficits is about more than just numbers on a page, more than just cutting and spending. Its about the kind of future we want. It's about the kind of country we believe in. And that's what I want to talk about today.

"From our first days as a nation, we have put our faith in free markets and free enterprise as the engine of America's wealth and prosperity. More than citizens of any other country, we are rugged individualists, a self-reliant people with a healthy skepticism of too much government.

"But there has always been another thread running throughout our history – a belief that we are all connected; and that there are some things we can only do together, as a nation. We believe, in the words of our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, that through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves. And so we've built a strong military to keep us secure, and public schools and universities to educate our citizens. We've laid down railroads and highways to facilitate travel and commerce. We've supported the work of scientists and researchers whose discoveries have saved lives, unleashed repeated technological revolutions, and led to countless new jobs and entire industries. Each of us has benefited from these investments, and we are a more prosperous country as a result.

Friday, April 8, 2011

House Considers Accounting Maneuver To Slightly Ease School Funding Crisis

The Texas Democratic Party released new video details on HB 1, the state budget bill passed by the Texas House on Sunday.

HB 1 codifies a draconian $164.5 billion 2011-13 budget that cuts $23 billion from 2009-13 spending levels. HB 1 slashes public school spending by nearly $8 billion and cuts Medicaid spending by more than $4 billion.

The deficit was created when 2006 legislative session lawmakers cut state revenue by giving deep business tax cuts.

Upon passage of the HB 1 Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio released a statement that says in part, "Eighty thousand kids are not going to get their scholarships and grant money because of this bill. Forty-three thousand people are going to get kicked out of nursing homes or denied nursing home entrance because of this bill..."

Lawmakers in the Texas Senate have been working on their own version of the budget, but the Senate version cuts only $13 billion from current spending levels to mitigate the cuts to public education and Medicaid. Senate budget-writers propose adding $10 billion state-related revenue through new and increased fees.

Thursday morning State Rep. Rob Orr, R-Burleson, introduced two bills to the House Appropriations Committee that could add several million dollars to the public schools budget over the next two years. These bills providing for some accounting maneuvers to more easily shift money around a couple of state agencies responsible for public school funding:

HB 2646 proposes allowing the School Land Board to transfer at least half of the net revenue it collects from a land trust it oversees to the Available School Fund (ASF), an endowment that puts money directly into public schools in Texas. Orr said that pot of money has risen to more than $2.5 billion in market value and contains more than $1 billion in cash. If that trend continues, the fund could supply the state with an additional $500 million in the next biennium.

HB 2646 requires companion legislation (HJR 109) to put a constitutional amendment on the November 8, 2011 ballot that would allow the General Land Office to distribute revenue directly to the ASF.

The School Land Board (SLB) was established in 1939 by the 46th Legislature to manage the sale and leasing of public lands that fund the Permanent School Fund. The Permanent School Fund (PSF) was established in the state Constitution of 1876, the current charter of Texas law, to fund public eduction using revenues generated from Texas' land and mineral resources. The SLB’s responsibilities include approving land sales, trades and exchanges, and the purchase of land for the PSF. In addition to this, the SLB issues permits, leases and easements for uses of state-owned submerged land. The SLB is just one of nine boards and councils chaired by the Commissioner of the General Land Office. As chairman of nine boards or councils, the Land Commissioner oversees matters that range from state lands and coastal issues to veterans affairs.

The General Land Office of Texas (GLO) manages state lands and mineral right properties, including oil and gas production leases on more than 20 million acres of state land. State lands and mineral right properties include the beaches, bays, estuaries and other submerged lands out to 10.3 miles in the Gulf of Mexico, institutional acreage, grazing lands in West Texas and timber lands in East Texas. Revenue and royalties are distributed to school districts on a per-pupil basis, helping to offset local school property taxes.

The Available School Fund is made up of the money set aside by the state from current or annual revenues for the support of the public school system. There are two major revenue sources for the fund: earnings from the Permanent School Fund managed by the School Land Board and 25 percent of fuel tax receipts. The fund does not receive annual appropriations by the legislature from other general state revenue sources.

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Texas Republicans In Dust-Up Over Redistricting

Politico: A bitter, behind-the-scenes fight has broken out among Texas Republicans over redistricting, pitting Rep. Lamar Smith against longtime colleague Rep. Joe Barton.

The dispute is over the makeup of four new congressional districts for the Lone Star State, and centers on the racial balance — including the controversial issue of “bleaching,” or including more white voters in a district — of the new political map for Texas.

GOP Rep. Lamar Smith has taken the position that Hispanic population growth in Texas means that two of Texas' four new U.S. House districts should be majority-minority. Smith has been working with Dem Rep. Henry Cuellar to create a map that includes the new majority-minority districts. This has infuriated fellow Republican Rep. Joe Barton, who insists that at least three if not all four of the new district be drawn (gerrymandered) to favor non-minority Republicans.

Politico's sources indicate Gov. Perry's alleged plan is to skip Department of Justice pre-clearance and go directly to federal court, perhaps hoping for a friendly conservative panel backed by a conservative-leaning Supreme Court. The piece also reports that proposed maps have been circulated among Republicans, but of course, no one's sharing any copies.
Read more at Politico »

For full details on the 2010 Texas Census and redistricting for Texas and Collin Co. read: Redistricting : U.S. Census Bureau Releases 2010 County Level Counts

Monday, April 4, 2011

President Obama Announces Reelection Bid

It's official: President Barack Obama today announced he will run for reelection in 2012.

The President's 2012 campaign used his 2008 campaign's contact lists to distribute an email and a text message to his 2008 supporters with his announcement. (announcement video left)

By filing papers with the Federal Election Commission, the president can begin fundraising for his 2012 operation.

House Passes A Budget

Update April 4, 2011 @ 1:02am

House Bill 1, the draconian $164.5 billion 2011-13 budget that cuts $23 billion from 2009-13 spending levels, passed the Texas House Sunday on a preliminary vote of 98 to 49 along party lines. Two Republicans, Aaron Pena and David Simpson, voted against the bill.

House Bill 1 cuts public school spending by nearly $8 billion and cuts Medicaid spending by more than $4 billion. Rep. Joaquin Castro, D-San Antonio released a statement that says in part, "Eighty thousand kids are not going to get their scholarships and grant money because of this bill. Forty-three thousand people are going to get kicked out of nursing homes or denied nursing home entrance because of this bill..." The Center for Public Policy Priorities projects that as many as 189,000+ public education related jobs will be eliminated in Texas. Almost 14,000 public education jobs may be eliminated in Collin Co. Medicaid cuts to nursing homes and other health care providers will most likely result in many nursing home closures.

House Bill 1 taps none of the remaining $6 billion in the state's Rainy Day Fund, but it does include $100 million in new fees. Republicans on the House floor made some adjustments to the version of the bill that passed out of the Appropriations Committee last week. Conservatives stripped family planning funds to fund autism and mental health services for kids. For details on other adjustments made to House Bill 1 on the House floor read this article in the Texas Tribune.

Lawmakers in the Texas Senate have been working on their own version of the budget, but the Senate version cuts about $13 billion to mitigate the cuts to public education and Medicaid. Senate budget-writers propose adding $10 billion state-related revenue through new and increased fees. The spending gap will be major point of contention with House and Senate appointees meet to hammer out the differences in conference committee.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

The TRUE Story Of The Original Tea Party

The policies advocated by Tea Party Republicans are modern analogs of the British Government's 18th century policies that precipitated the Boston Tea Party. Tax policies that penalize the citizenry while rewarding the corporations like the East India Company were at the root of the Boston Tea Party.

The Koch brothers and other conservative billionaires who head multinational corporations, who fund the the Tea Party movement, today play the part of the East India Company. Thom Hartmann gives the actual history of the original tea party in this video: a movement against the collusion of big business and the political party controlling Parliament in the 1700's.

Thirty new GOP Texas state lawmakers took office this year, promising their constituents they'd cut the fat out of government.

The current $27 billion deficit in the Texas budget is is caused by the Texas legislature giving corporate business massive tax breaks over the last ten years.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Fixing The Tax Revenue Problem Instead Of Cutting Teachers

Texas will have a persistent $10 billion hole in its budget for years to come unless legislators address it this session, the state’s chief revenue estimator told Senators in Senate Finance Committee meeting on January 31, 2011.

Pressed by Democratic senators on the Finance Committee, John Heleman said the state will have a $10 billion structural deficit in future budgets largely because the business tax has underperformed and the 2006 property tax swap has cost more than expected.

The revised business tax was supposed to bring in $6 billion per year. Instead, it it is generating $4 billion. The cost of the property tax relief is also running about $1 billion per year above expectations.

“That gap is not closing up,” said Heleman, chief revenue estimator for Comptroller Susan Combs.

Republican state leaders have attributed the state’s budget woes to the recession and have dismissed calls to raise taxes to deal with the current budget shortfall, estimated at $15 billion to $27 billion, saying they can cut their way out of that hole.

But the structural deficit means legislators will have to come back in 2013 and beyond to deal with at least another $10 billion hole.

G.O.P. lawmakers in Austin have taken a vow of no new taxes, which is a vow to not fix the business tax revenue problem created by law makers in the 2006 legislative session.

Last week the Texas House began debate on a $164.5 billion budget bill that strips $23 billion from two-year 2011-13 state budget. The budget bill makes the kinds of spending cuts that many Conservative Tea Party lawmakers championed in their 2010 campaigns. Republican lawmakers say voters gave them a huge majority and clear marching orders last November: reduce spending, shrink state government, don't raise taxes. Shrinking state government, as it turns out, includes firing hundreds of thousands of teachers and state employees, taking billions of dollars out of the public school system and weaken the state's safety net for low-income Texans and the elderly.

Some Democratic lawmakers are, however, advocating fixing the business tax revenue side of the equation as stated in the follow press release from State Representative Yvonne Davis.

House GOP Budget Converts Medicare, Medicaid To Private Insurance Vouchers

Washington (CNN) -- House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, will unveil a highly anticipated 2012 Republican budget next week that proposes dramatic changes to political lightning rods: entitlements.

The plan, to be released Tuesday, calls for a controversial overhaul of Medicare, the health care program for seniors, and imposes deep cuts in Medicaid, which provides health benefits to low-income Americans, according to House Republican sources with knowledge of the proposal.

Starting 10 years from now, in 2021, Americans would no longer enroll in the Medicare program, but instead receive vouchers for private insurance, according to the GOP sources.

Read more »

The New Republic - Medicaid in the Cross Hairs:

The assault on Medicaid is about to begin. GOP sources have told Politico's Jonathan Allen that House Republicans will propose $1 trillion in cuts from the program. Exactly what form those cuts will take is not entirely clear. But a trillion dollars over ten years is serious money and Capitol Hill sources are saying it will likely come from two dramatic changes: Eliminating the Medicaid expansion that takes place under the Affordable Care Act and then converting the entire program into a system of block grants....

[R]olling back the Affordable Care Act's Medicaid expansion would mean taking health insurance away from about 15 million people. That's the official, Congressional Budget Office projection of how many people will get coverage under Medicaid once the Act is fully in place.

As for turning Medicaid into a block grant, here's a quick refresher on what that entails. Right now, Medicaid is an entitlement program. That means the federal government, in partnership with the states, must enroll everybody who meets the program's guidelines. In other words, if millions of additional people become eligible because, say, they lost their job-based insurance in the recession, than the feds and the states have to provide them with coverage and find some way to pay for it. And it can't be spotty coverage, either. By law, Medicaid coverage must be comprehensive.

At least, that's the way it works now. If the law changes and Medicaid becomes a block grant, then every year the federal government would simply give the states a lump sum, set by a fixed formula, and let the states make the most of it.

The GOP likes to trumpet block grant programs as providing maximum flexibility for states. What this would actually do is take away states' ability to provide healthcare in economic downturns, like the one we're still in the middle of. Republican governors would be fine with that, they'd take the flexibility and make out like bandits, just like Gov. Rick Perry, who has advocated that Texas drop out of Medicare. Who will hurt the most are the primary beneficiaries of the program, the elderly and the disabled, including millions of children.

From Jobsanger Blog: "Exposing 10 Republican Economic Lies"

LIE -- Social Security is going broke because of the influx of the "baby boomers" and soon won't be able to meet its obligations, and future generations will not have any Social Security at all.

TRUTH -- Social Security is not in any immediate danger. The program has the funds to pay full benefits to all its recipients through 2037, and even after that date it could pay 75-80% far into the future -- and that is if nothing is done. One small tweak, raising the cap on income on which the FICA tax is paid, would make the program able to pay full benefits to all recipients for many, many more decades. There is NO REASON to cut benefits or raise the retirement age.

LIE -- The budget can be balanced by cutting programs that help ordinary Americans (like Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start, Planned Parenthood, the EPA, unemployment insurance, etc.).

TRUTH -- All of these programs could be abolished and the budget would still not be balanced. But the budget could be balanced by stopping both unnecessary wars, cutting the Defense Department budget, eliminating corporate subsidies, and making the rich and the corporations pay their fair share of taxes.

The Republicans have to tell these lies because, as I said, no one would ever vote for them if they told the truth. But we as citizens do not have to believe those lies. Their misguided and wrong-headed policies have caused the worst economic disaster this country has experienced since the Great Depression (which was also caused by the same Republican policies).

It is time to stand up and tell them no more, and a good time to do that will be at the ballot box in 2012. We must boot them from power, and then put pressure of the far too-timid Democrats to do the right thing. Then we must hope our grandchildren don't fall for the same lies in another 70-80 years.

Thursday, March 31, 2011

GOP Tax Cuts Are Not For Thee And Me

At what point in time are the American people going to take a look at our nation's history and realize that eliminating taxes for billionaires and multi-national corporate oligarchies combined with deregulation and non-enforcement of regulation as tools to stimulate the economy doesn't work? Not only does it NOT work, but it has the opposite desired economic effect?

Reference the chart from the Institute for Policy Studies, that demonstrates the distribution of wealth in America as of 2007. Over the last three decades, inequality has grown by almost all measures. Historically, while those at the top of the income distribution have enjoyed far higher average incomes than everybody else, the gap between the top and the bottom has grown enormously in recent years, driven both by slowdowns in income growth at the bottom and middle, and rapid acceleration of income growth at the top. (Interactive chart at When income grows, who gains?)

In recent decades, as Pres. Reagan's "trickle down" economic theory that cutting taxes for the rich, deregulating banks and deregulating Wall Street best stimulates growth has been implemented in state and federal governing policy, the bulk of income growth in America has gone to the top 10% of families.

We've all heard Gov. Perry and every Texas Republican claim that cutting government spending cutting taxes improves the business environment, which in turn creates jobs, improves the standard of living for the working people in Texas and generates enough more tax revenue to meet budget needs for things like public education. Texas Republicans have repeatedly said that continual cuts to government spending combined with business tax breaks result in more jobs being created, higher wages for the average worker, and an overall upturn in our economy. It's at the heart of trickle-down theory Pres. Reagan championed in the early 1980's.

Since taking office in 2001 Gov. Perry has signed every tax cutting Texas budget passed by Republican legislators, who have been in full control of Texas government since 2003, but those tax cuts have not been for thee and me.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

U.S. House Republicans Declare Government Coup d'état

The Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives -- according to their own declarations -- absolutely revere the United States Constitution. One of the bedrock separation of powers within the Constitution is that "every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States...." Not withstanding that constitutional requirement, House Republican leaders have announced they'll be voting on a bill this Friday entitled the "Government Shutdown Prevention Act" that contains an attempt at a government coup d'état -- that the Republican controlled House of Representatives can declare something to be the "law of the land" without any input or action from either the Senate or President Obama.

From the Washington Post blog:

As negotiations on funding the federal government continue in fits and starts ahead of an April 8 deadline, House Republican leaders on Wednesday announced that they plan to pressure the Senate by voting Friday on a measure that they have termed the "Government Shutdown Prevention Act."

"What this bill says is it reiterates again the deadline, and that the Senate should act before the deadline, and that's what the American people are expecting," House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Wednesday morning at a news conference with other House Republican leaders. "The bill then says if the Senate does not act, then H.R. 1 [the House-passed bill that cuts $61 billion] will be the law of the land. In addition to that, it says that if all else fails, and the Senate brings about a shutdown, then members should not get their pay."

Of coarse Senate Republicans are threatening to filibuster any budget legislation, thus stalling legislative business in that body. So, the Republican game is still to stop all legislative business unless they get everything they want without compromise and then blame Democrats for shutting down government, if they don't cave in to Republican demands.

Some of what Republicans want to pass in their uncompromised version of the budget include cutting federal money from going to Planned Parenthood, cutting the Environmental Protection Agency to end its monitoring air and water, and inspection of coal mines, cutting Social Security, Medicare and other social safety net programs, cutting unemployment benefits, cutting public education funding and more.

All those cuts on top of cutting taxes paid by billionaires, Wall Street, Oil Companies and multinational corporations who are reporting record profits. All that on top of tax payer give-aways to Wall Street, Oil Companies and multinational corporations like GE who reported worldwide profits of $14.2 billion, paid little tax on that income and claimed a tax benefit (tax payer give-away) of $3.2 billion.

GOP Deny The Average Recorded Temperature Of Earth Has Been Going Up For Years

When the nonpartisan National Academy of Sciences reviewed climate research data a year ago, it concluded: “A strong, credible body of scientific evidence shows that climate change is occurring, is caused largely by human activities, and poses significant risks for a broad range of human and natural systems.”

Climate change is driven by "global warming," the average recorded temperature of the earth, which has been going up for years. This warming of the globe leads to climate change, which doesn't necessarily mean all areas will become warmer. Due to the highly variable and interdependent nature of the world's weather patterns, warming in some areas could lead to, for example, much colder winters in others.

The Los Angeles Times reports that a number of conservative scientists are bucking conventional wisdom "that liberals accept climate change and conservatives don't" by warning the public that climate change is real and seeking to debunk attacks from climate-change deniers.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Education Cuts And Recall In Wisconsin

The video is a one-minute spot created by the Progressive Change Campaign Committee (PCCC) and Democracy For America.

PCCC co-founder Stephanie Taylor said in a statement that the ad reflects a revolt against "Republican policies that give millions to big corporations in tax cuts while forcing middle-class families, schools, and communities to pay the price."

"As a Republican my entire life I am appalled at what Scott Walker and the Republicans did," says a corrections officer in the ad. "This hurts my family. It's about my kids in school." "Republicans have declared war on the middle class and with this recall campaign we are fighting back and we are going to win," says a woman at the end.

The ad is running in Wisconsin as part of an effort to recall state Republican lawmakers who voted to strip the collective bargaining rights of public employee unions and to make deep cuts to public education spending.

The War About the War on Higher Education

From Left of College Station: Texas Monthly executive editor Paul Burka recently wrote a piece about Texas Republican Governor Rick Perry’s war on higher education. As Burka sees it, and as I see it by the way, this is an ideological war driven by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, an Austin-based conservative think tank.

[Note: According to this ALEC watch report, the Texas Public Policy Foundation is affiliated with the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), which drafts model laws which are then introduced by Republicans in state legislatures—for example, laws eliminating collective bargaining with state employee unions. ALEC has been in operation since the seventies and claims its members introduce 1,000 pieces of legislation every year in all fifty states.]
In order to fight this war, Perry has stacked the Board of Regents of Texas A&M and the University of Texas with allies and campaign contributors that will align themselves with Perry’s agenda for higher education in Texas. What is Perry’s agenda?

American Thought Police

NYTimes OpEd by Paul Krugman: Recently William Cronon, a historian who teaches at the University of Wisconsin, decided to weigh in on his state’s political turmoil.

He started a blog, “Scholar as Citizen,” devoting his first post to the role of the shadowy American Legislative Exchange Council in pushing hard-line conservative legislation at the state level. Then he published an opinion piece in The Times, suggesting that Wisconsin’s Republican governor has turned his back on the state’s long tradition of “neighborliness, decency and mutual respect.”

So what was the G.O.P.’s response? The Republican Party of Wisconsin filed an open records request demanding access to any e-mails Cronon sent or received since Jan. 1 containing the search terms “Republican,” “collective bargaining,” “rally,” “union” or the names of eight Republicans targeted for recall by liberal activists. That seems to be legal under the state’s version of the federal Freedom of Information Act.

more...

The Nation: Some commentators have suggested Cronon became a target because he wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times, suggesting that Wisconsin’s Republicans were reviving McCarthyism. But the demand for Cronon’s e-mail came a couple of days before his column appeared.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Plano ISD Preparing For $35-$65 Billion In Cuts

Gov. Rick Perry has laid the blame for the impending dismissals at the feet of local administrators and school boards.

"The lieutenant governor, the speaker, their colleagues aren't going to hire or fire one teacher, as best I can tell," Perry said at a news conference about state sovereignty on Wednesday March 9,2011. "That is a local decision that will be made at the local districts."

Perry urged districts to first cut non-teaching and administrative positions, which he said districts have added in dramatic amounts over the past decade. "Are the administrators and the school boards going to make a decision to reduce those, or are they going to make a decision to reduce the number of teachers in the classroom?" he said. "I certainly know where I would point."




Plano School Superintendent Doug Otto
on Scott Braddock's KRLD radio program
Plano ISD Superintendent Doug Otto replied to Gov. Perry's comments telling KRLD radio host Scott Braddock that the governor was "disingenuous" for saying that school districts have as many administrators as teachers. "That's idiocy" he said. Classroom costs make up the majority of the operating budget. Administrators, including the deputy superintendent, have already faced one round of layoffs this year.

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Mobilizing The Jobless To Political Action

Frances Fox Piven is a distinguished professor of political science and sociology at The Graduate Center, City University of New York, a legendary progressive activist, writer and hate figure for Fox News host Glenn Beck.

Beck has relentlessly targeted Piven via his television and radio shows as a threat to the American way of life. Beck's heated language has provoked waves of death threats against both Piven and her academic colleagues at the City University of New York.

Piven recently appeared on the Eldridge & Co. TV program (video above left) to talk about the economic and social justice in the American democracy.

Piven has also written an article for The Nation titled, "Mobilizing the Jobless:"

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Conventional Wisdom v. The Facts On Voter Photo ID Law

Many freshmen Tea Party Republicans making law in Austin this spring owe their election wins last November to senior voters. Twenty percent of those who voted in the November 2, 2010 election were age 65 or older and they voted heavily for Republican candidates. Furthermore, white senior voters were among those who most wanted to send Republican legislators to Austin to enact a photo ID requirement law.

Conventional wisdom goes that voter photo ID legislation will benefit Republican candidates in future elections because poor voters and minority voters, who are most likely to support Democrats, are the voters who are least likely to have required photo identification.

The voter photo ID legislation about to become Texas law will be the most stringent version among all the states requiring dated and unexpired government issued photo ID to vote. The Texas law lists very few types of state government issued photo IDs that may be accepted by Election Judges. Student IDs and non-photo ID alternatives will not be accepted by Election Judges. The more stringent the legislation, the more anti Democratic candidate the bill becomes - That is the conventional wisdom of many Democrats and Republicans.

Well, except when it comes to senior Texans who vote Republican by a significant margin. Elderly voters are among those who likely lack properly dated and unexpired government issued photo identification. Many voters over age 70 no longer drive and so they are less likely to have a valid unexpired driver's license, the most common form of ID. Texas doesn't make it easy for the elderly to keep driving—the elderly must renew their licenses more frequently and take eye exams. Without a driver's license, many would not think to get another type of photo ID. So, not surprisingly, the original version of the Republican written voter photo ID bill exempted voters age 70 and over from the ID requirement. From a partisan perspective, it made sense to exempt the group without ID that votes for Republican candidates by significant margins.

Rep. Bonnen, a hard line conservative who voted against a similar version of the voter photo ID bill in 2009 because it wasn't restrictive enough, offered an amendment to drop the age 70 and over ID exemption. Many of Bonnen's Republican colleagues signed on to his amendment and because the bill's sponsor, Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Spring, didn't object, there was no vote. So, the version of the bill that passed in the House Wednesday night does not include an age 70 and over ID exemption.

The vote so many senior Republicans cast last November to send so many Republicans to Austin to cut corporate taxes, gut their Medicaid, gut public education for their grandchildren and enact a voter photo ID law may have been the last vote they cast in Texas, ever.

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Opposition To Nuclear Power Rises Amid Japanese Crisis

Pew Research Center For The People & The Press: Not surprisingly, public support for the increased use of nuclear power has declined amid the ongoing nuclear emergency in Japan. Currently, 39% say they favor promoting the increased use of nuclear power while 52% are opposed. Last October, 47% favored promoting the increased use of nuclear power and the same percentage (47%) was opposed.

Opinion about expanding the use of nuclear power has fluctuated in recent years. However, the current measure matches a previous low in support for increased nuclear power recorded in September 2005 (39% favor, 53% oppose).

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted March 17-20 among 1,004 adults, finds little recent change in opinions about other energy policies -- with one notable exception. With the recent surge in gas prices, support for increased offshore oil and gas drilling continues to rebound.

Currently, 57% say they favor allowing more offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. waters while 37% are opposed. Last June amid the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, there was more opposition (52%) than support (44%) for allowing more offshore drilling. Support for increased offshore energy drilling is approaching its pre-Gulf spill level; in February 2010, the public backed increased offshore drilling by about two-to-one (63% to 31%).

The survey shows that substantial majorities continue to support increased federal funding for research on wind, solar and hydrogen technology (74%), spending more on subway, rail and bus systems (61%), and providing tax incentives for the purchase of hybrid vehicles (58%). These measures are virtually unchanged from last October, though there is less support for alternative energy research and spending on mass transit than from 2005 to 2009.

Read more »

Wall Street Commodity Traders Are Behind Soaring Gas Prices

Unregulated Wall Street commodity traders [speculators] are behind the soaring gas prices.

Here is the straight scoop:

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Thank A Teacher For What They Make!





A Tea Party-infused GOP legislature in Austin is calling for $31 billion in cuts to state spending and they claim, as Gov. Perry has stated many times, that Republicans in the legislature are simply doing what the voters sent them there to do. Did the voters really send the GOP to Austin to decimate public education?

On Election Day November, 2, 2010 voters expressed support for GOP Tea Party pledges of yet more rounds of tax cuts and reduced government spending.

Most of the 37% of registered Texas voters who turned out to vote in 2010 expressed support for the GOP Tea Party philosophy that additional rounds of tax cuts and government spending cuts would help rather than hurt the economic environment for job creation in Texas.

Most 2010 voters accepted the GOP Tea Party argument that any tax supported government spending to provide for the common good of the people in areas like health care and public education are socialist big brother government plots of Democrats.

But, did most 2010 voters and the 63% of registered voters who decided not to vote understand that GOP Tea Party candidates want to eliminate government spending for what most believe are basic and critical government services? Did most of the 13,269,233 people registered to vote in Texas truly understand the GOP Tea Party agenda is to eliminate all taxes on business and the wealthy and then eliminate government spending on programs like the public education, public safety, health care for our children and our parents, road construction and maintenance and other such government services? Did the voters understand that the GOP Tea Party call even those most basic government services socialist programs that should be cut ever deeper until they are eliminated altogether?

Up until this month, most voters did not understand the magnitude or the ferocity of the attack the GOP Tea Party has mounted on basic government services, such as public education, that Texans depend on to support our democracy, provide the quality of life our families enjoy and build a better future for our children.

GOP Tea Party rhetoric has hit reality as the Texas House passes a 2011-13 budget that cuts almost $31 billion from spending levels authorized in the 2009-11 budget. "If you want to close this shortfall through cuts alone, you have to either (completely) cut payments to Medicaid providers, cut payments to school districts or lay-off a substantial number of state employees," said state Rep. Jim Pitts, the Republican chairman of the House Appropriations Committee. "You would have to do these things immediately."

It's Not About the Money!

"It's Not About the Money!" - It's time to make the point that the Republican agenda in Congress and many state legislatures, including the Texas legislature, has little or nothing to do with federal and state level budget deficits. Budget deficits that Republicans helped engineer by eliminating taxes for corporations and billionaires at both the federal and state levels. By eliminating taxes for corporations and billionaires Texas and many other states now face devastating cuts to their publicly funded K-12 and college education systems and other critical services like building and maintaining roads.

Much of the battle between Democrats and Republicans over government spending isn't about the deficit numbers, but about GOP efforts to grind various ideological axes, from defunding EPA and bank regulators and NPR, to crippling reproductive and contraceptive services, to repealing last year's health insurance reform legislation, to ending the rights of people to organize for job security, to privatizing every government service, including tax funded public education.

In effect, alarms about debts and deficits are being used as an excuse to eliminate taxes for business and the rich and to eliminate government services, like public education, that working families depend upon to build a better future for their children - regardless of budget deficits and surpluses.

Now on one level this isn't surprising, but these priorities need to be acknowledged and discussed openly and directly, and not in the disguise of making "painful but necessary cuts." The truth behind the Tea Party phase "We want to take our county back" is that most far-right Republicans would prefer to live in a country with:

  • little or no regulation of corporations (environmental or any other sort) or banks,
  • a fully regressive tax code where taxes on corporations and billionaires are eliminated while taxes on working families are greatly increased,
  • a privatized education system with no public schools supported by tax dollars,
  • workplaces that have no collective bargaining rights or even minimum wages,
  • a health care system in which private insurers are free to increase premiums and deny health care to anyone at will,
  • no social safety net provided through Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and
  • all forms of reproductive contraception made unavailable and illegal.

Republicans also prefer to get rid of legal protections against discrimination generally, and government, both federal and state, limited to the kind of functions typical of the eighteenth century - the century when the U.S. Constitution was adopted.

It's the right of Republicans to favor this kind of society, but given the abundant evidence that a large majority of Texans and Americans in every state would be very unhappy with it, it's the responsibility of non-Republicans and of the news media to make this agenda as clear as possible, and not just mindlessly accept that conservatives are only worried about the debt burden on future generations.

Friday, March 18, 2011

The Internet and Campaign 2010

PewInternet: Fully 73% of adult internet users (representing 54% of all U.S. adults) went online to get news or information about the 2010 midterm elections, or to get involved in the campaign in one way or another. We refer to these individuals as "online political users" and our definition includes anyone who did at least one of the following activities in 2010:
  • Get political news online - 58% of online adults looked online for news about politics or the 2010 campaigns, and 32% of online adults got most of their 2010 campaign news from online sources.
  • Go online to take part in specific political activities, such as watch political videos, share election-related content or "fact check" political claims - 53% of adult internet users did at least one of the eleven online political activities we measured in 2010.
  • Use Twitter or social networking sites for political purposes - One in five online adults (22%) used Twitter or a social networking site for political purposes in 2010.1

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Increasing Calls For Bexar County Democratic Party Chair Ramos To Resign

After disparaging remarks were made by Dan Ramos, Chair of Bexar County Democratic Party, and posted on a San Antonio news blog, Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Ritchie asked for Ramos' resignation and released the following statement: