Thursday, April 9, 2009
So Far Right They Are Wrong For Texas
According to the Governors press release, he "promoted Texas as the premier state for biomedical research, development and manufacturing because of the state's strong business climate and investments through the Emerging Technology Fund (ETF)." http://governor.state.tx.us/ne...
Gov. Perry failed to mention that in hopes of securing the endorsement of evangelical right-wing Republicans for the 2010 primary election against Kay Bailey Hutchison he opposes the critical cornerstones of biomedical research in Texas. Hutchison has upset evangelical right-wingers with her votes in the U.S. Sentate in favor of stem cell research funding.
Stem cell research was exposed as a central political issue for the 2010 Republican primary for the governor's office when Hutchison called on Governor Perry to put in place a plan to aggressively pursue Texas state taxpayer funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Governor Perry, a leading general in the Republican Party's War On Science, reappointed Don McLeroy as chairman of the Texas State Board of Education to press teachers to openly question established scientific principles and he promises to prevent stem cell related research and business in Texas as he touts his record for passing more restrictions on stem cell research than any previous governor.
Biomedical research requires a well-educated and knowledgeable scientists and technicians. The Chair of the Texas State Board of Education (SBOE), an appointee of Mr. Perry, is on a crusade to drag our children into the 15th Century. The SBOE is currently creating a Science Curriculum that is an echo chamber for conservative talking points that teach the basic principles of science are wrong. If we teach our Children science that has been diluted by religious dogma and littered with junk, then they will lack the skills essential to the Bio-Tech Industry.
In addition, at Gov. Perry's urging the Republican controlled Texas legislature is considering a bill that could effectively end stem cell research within Texas. http://www.chron.com/disp/stor...
Republicans like Perry are so far right they are wrong for Texas.
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Right Wing Talking Revolution - As In Armed Insurrection
Read, "What's wrong with the North Texas Fusion Center?" in the Collin County Observer, then read
So Now They Want a Revolution? from the BurntOrangeReport.com:
Lately we have been hearing a lot of squawking and screeching emanating from the conservative right wing about a revolution.And then read Fearmongering at the DailyKosThis is rather perplexing given that we recently had an election in which the elected President won rather substantially. . .
. . .And despite all of the problems we face in these dire and stressful times the President's approval ratings remain in the 60's. Today it is at 67%. Today an ABC/Washington Post poll also reveals 65% trust President Obama to handle relations with Muslim nations.
So, what is the problem? Why is a revolution necessary now?
In an editorial in the The New York Times Charles Blow expressed his concern for conservative hate talk. Blow asserts conservative chatter and hate talk is far from harmless."Lately I've been consuming as much conservative media as possible (interspersed with shots of Pepto-Bismol) to get a better sense of the mind and mood of the right.
My read: They're apocalyptic. They feel isolated, angry, betrayed and besieged. And some of their "leaders" seem to be trying to mold them into militias." [reminiscent of the 1930's era German-American Bundist Movement fostered by Hitler's Nazi Germany]Mr. Blow said he was initially amused by the twisted logic, garbled and veiled hate speech. After spending substantial time listening to conservative media, however, Mr. Blow changed his tune. He realized all is not harmless talk.
But, it's not all just harmless talk. For some, their disaffection has hardened into something more dark and dangerous. They're talking about a revolution.Mr. Blow's article certainly gave me pause because I too had the tendency to dismiss the ravings of the right wing as just that. The events of this past week should certainly make us rethink some of our impressions of right wing hate talk.Read the rest of the story at burntorangereport.com.
The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | M - Th 11p / 10c | |||
Baracknophobia - Obey | ||||
thedailyshow.com | ||||
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Public Speaks On Voter ID Before TX House Committee
Originally Posted at KXAN Austin, TX
By Jenny Hoff - KXAN AUSTIN
Tuesday, 07 Apr 2009, 6:44 PM CDT
KXAN AUSTIN - Voter ID day at the Capitol started out with a rally of pro-Voter ID supporters.
"I have to provide a valid photo ID and my social security number just to get a fishing license, and I have to provide neither in order to vote," said Voter ID supporter, Liz Tate. "That makes absolutely no sense to me."
Tate is part of SafeTexas , a group that has been at the forefront of pushing Voter ID legislation.
Members of SafeTexas joined opponents of the bill to publicly testify before the House Elections Committee Tuesday afternoon. Every seat in the hearing room was filled, as speakers prepared themselves for a long night.
"I plan to wait 24 hours if I have to in order to testify in favor of this bill," said Rusty Hicks, who waited almost that long to testify during the Senate debate on Voter ID
The first person to testify before the House committee spoke out against the bill. Randall Buck Wood, an attorney, said he has investigated voter fraud and found nothing this bill would solve.
"I've never found a person impersonating another voter," said Wood. "I've never found illegal immigrants trying to vote."
That comment was met with grumblings from some of the pro-Voter ID members of the audience who believe voter fraud is alive and well in Texas.
An All-Night Affair
Rep. Todd Smith, Chair of the Elections Committee, said he will give everyone who wants to testify a chance to do so. Each speakers gets three minutes and then a chance to answer questions posed by committee members. When the Senate Committee of the Whole had its hearing on the issue, the debate and testimony lasted almost 24 hours.
Smith does not expect the committee to vote on the bill this week. However, once it does approve the bill, SB 362 will then move to the House floor for debate.
Stipulations of the Bill
Under current law, to vote a regular ballot, voters are only required to present a voter registration certificate to a poll worker.
SB 362 would require all voters present a valid form of photo identification to the polls. If a person does not have a state ID or driver's license or other form of photo identification, they could be bring in two other forms of approved identification instead (utility bill, cable bill, etc).
The bill mandates the Secretary of State educate the public on the new voting law by posting a notice on the website and on the websites of local polling locations. The bill also mandates the Texas Department of Public Safety not charge people who want to obtain a state issued ID solely for the purpose of voting.
Related Posts:
- Take Action - Photo Voter ID Bill Up For House Committee
- Voter Photo ID: A Flawed Solution To A Made-Up Problem
Appalling Lack Of Oversight At Homeland Security Fusion Centers
Collin County's fusion center, the NCTFS, is not the only fusion center under fire for distributing such spurious and inflammatory warnings to law enforcement agencies.
Collin County's fusion center, the NCTFS, came under national criticism last month when its newsletter, the Preventive Awareness Bulletin, used ultra-right websites as a basis for declaring that "mainstream Muslim" organizations were gaining success in endeavors such as establishing a sharia law in the US.
The newsletter used inflammatory internet rumors to call for law enforcement to report on legal lobbying and protest activities by Muslin and anti-war groups, prompting a response from the national office of the ACLU.
The controversial PAB was written by Dr. Robert Johnson, the son of U.S. Congressman Sam Johnson and the prime contractor to the fusion center. [Sam Johnson (R) represents the 3rd Congressional District of Texas, which includes the southwestern portion of Collin County and the Northeastern corner of Dallas County.]The PAB, stamped "For Official Use Only", is published weekly and is distributed to several hundred law enforcement and other first responder agencies in the North Texas region.
This week's edition, acknowledges what I've been hearing from several sources - which is that most of the recipients of the newsletter consider it a waste of time and toss it in the trash without reading it.
This latest PAB leads with a statement that, "In prioritizing our resources, we also understand that you must prioritize your limited time. Therefore, we will no longer be sending weekly bulletins. However, we will continue to send periodic updates, resources, information and analysis that we believe to be of value to you."
A newly leaked terrorism assessment from a fusion center in Virginia shows that police and feds are targeting "historically black colleges" as "radicalization nodes" for terrorists. RAW STORY has published the entirety of the 215 page report, available here in PDF format, From RAW STORY:
From page 17 of the report:The Department of Homeland Security has paid out more than $327 million in funding to local authorities during fiscal years 2004 to 2008 to form 70 centers across the country. The federal government also provides start up personnel and technical support along with the funding. The 70 fusion centers around the U.S., including the one in Collin County gather, compile, store, interpret and then distribute to other government agencies huge amounts of information on the "activities" of local citizens.While most of these universities are considered urban, two are designated as a Historically Black Colleges and Universities, while Regent University is a private, evangelical Christian institution. While the majority of individuals associated with educational institutions do not engage in activities of interest to the VFC, it is important to note that University-based students groups are recognized as a radicalization node for almost every type of extremist group.Though the report singles out "historically black colleges" early on, it also contains an extensive list of peaceful American and International activist groups from nearly all cross-sections of political engagement, placing them side-by-side with groups that have long been known for resorting to violence.
. . ."If we are to believe this exaggerated threat assessment, Virginia's learning and religious institutions must be hotbeds of terrorist activity,' said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the ACLU Washington Legislative Office, in an advisory. "This document and its authors have displayed a fundamental disregard for our constitutional rights of free expression and association. Unfortunately, it's not the first time we've seen such an indifference to these basic rights from local fusion centers. Congress must take the necessary steps to institute real and thorough oversight mechanisms at fusion centers before we reach a point where we are all considered potential suspects."
"There is an appalling lack of oversight at these fusion centers and they are becoming – as the ACLU has repeatedly warned – a breeding ground for overzealous police intelligence activities," said Michael German, ACLU Policy Counsel and former FBI Agent, in a release. "The Virginia threat assessment isn’t just disturbing for encouraging police to treat education and religious practices with suspicion, it's bad law enforcement. Lawmakers from all levels of government need to enact legislation to protect against these spying activities that threaten our democracy while doing nothing to improve security."
Recently, a Department of Homeland Security-funded fusion center in Missouri was accused of blatant disregard for the United States Constitution after one of its memos encouraged the surveillance of third party activists, Christians and supporters of Congressman Ron Paul, for their alleged potential status as illegal militia.
(What is a "fusion center?")
Monday, April 6, 2009
Take Action - Photo Voter ID Bill Up For House Committee Testimony
Video: Texas Senator Kirk Watson's speech against the Photo Voter ID bill (SB362) |
While proponents of Texas voter ID legislation argue that it's needed to combat voter fraud, there is no evidence that the type of fraud this legislation addresses has occurred at any point since records have been kept.
Republicans have been unable to provide any actual evidence on their claim that large groups of people knowingly and willingly give false information to establish voter eligibility, and knowingly and willingly vote illegally or participate in a conspiracy to encourage illegal voting by others.
In fact, according to an article in the Dallas Morning News:
County election officials said voter fraud was difficult to carry out in Texas because each applicant must submit a driver's license number or Social Security number, which is entered into a statewide electronic database and checked by the secretary of state's office. Applicants are sent a voting card and officially added to the rolls only if there are no discrepancies and the secretary of state's office approves the application.A Brennan Center for Justice at New York University School of Law study found that as many as 11 percent of citizens, mostly the elderly, poor and minority American citizens, do not have a current, government-issued photo ID. Voting rights advocates say that requiring photo identification threatens to disenfranchise many older Americans, a growing segment of the population in Collin County as retirees increasingly move to the county.
...elections administrators said there's no proof that county officials are registering a significant number of non-citizens to vote. "I don't think we are, and I have no evidence that we have people over registered to vote," said Dallas County Elections Administrator Bruce Sherbet.
...Steve Raborn, elections administrator for Tarrant County, said a two-year investigation by his office of questionable voter registrations in 2004 and 2005 found only three non-citizens on the county voter rolls, and they were later removed.
This has proven to be the case in Arizona, Indiana and the other eight states that required government issued photo identification to vote in the 2008 election.
(actually, in Collin County this would turn out to benefit Democrats and suppress Republican votes since it would tend to reduce the vote from the solidly Republican block of retirees in the county.)
The Texas photo Voter ID bill is part the Republican agenda to keep Republicans in office by suppressing the vote of groups that tend to vote Democratic. In the 10 states that have already passed picture ID laws, voter participation is down about 3 percent. However, black and Hispanic voter participation is down more than 10 percent in those states. The success of Democratic voter registration drives among these Texas groups in 2008 threatens to tip the balance of power away from Republican candidates in future elections. As the tide of Democratic voters continues to grow across Texas, voter ID legislation would be an effective way for Republicans to hold back the tide.
Consequently, the use of baseless "voter fraud" allegations to promote voter photo ID legislation has become such an urgent priority for Republicans in the 2009 Texas legislative session that Republicans in the Texas Senate were compelled to change long standing Senate rules to just to bring the photo ID legislation to a vote.
Call Elections Committee Chairman Todd Smith and ask him why Republicans are making photo Voter ID the highest priority when there is no evidence of voter fraud, even after Republican Attorney General Greg Abbott's $1.4 million two year investigation attempting to locate voter fraud failed to identify anything more than 26 cases where people forgot to sign and address the absentee ballot envelope:
Contact Information:
Call Rep. Todd Smith, Chairman of House Committee on Elections, at his capitol phone number (512) 463-0522 or write him an email - link to email form - or do both!
Write a letter to your local newspaper editor
Click here to contact other members of the House Elections Committee.
Click here for more key points on the photo Voter ID bill.
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Pres. Obama Town Hall in Strasbourg, France
Friday, April 3, 2009
North Central Texas "Terror" Fusion Center
Dr. Bob's Terror Shop
The strange and scary story of the North Central Texas Fusion System.
By Forrest Wilder,
The Texas Observer
April 03, 2009
One morning in February, more than 2,000 cops, fire marshals, and public health officials in the Dallas-Fort Worth area received a memo—stamped “For Official Use Only”—that contained shocking information: Middle Eastern terrorists and “their supporting organizations” had gained a stronghold in America.
The memo warned:A number of organizations in the U.S. have been lobbying Islamic-based issues for many years. These lobbying efforts have turned public and political support towards radical goals such as Shariah law and support of terrorist military action against Western nations. ... [T]he threats to Texas are significant.Who were these Osama bin Lobbyists who had convinced Americans to support terrorism? Citing a grab bag of right-wing blogs and news sources, the memo [cites, among several concerns] that a class on Islamic finance taught at the U.S. Treasury Department “indicates the possibility that the [U.S.] government hopes to secure recycled petrodollars in exchange for conforming to [Islamic] Shariah economic doctrine.” The memo ends by calling on law enforcement to “report” the activities of [what it identified and listed as Islamic sympathizer] organizations.
The missive reads like a rant by a paranoid conspiracy nut. In fact, the so-called “Prevention Awareness Bulletin” is a weekly product of the North Central Texas Fusion System, a terrorism and crime-prevention intelligence center run by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security.
. . .The bulletin is written by the architect and operator of the fusion system, Bob Johnson, a former chief scientist for defense contractor Raytheon Co. Johnson has a background in data mining, the controversial, computer-aided practice of trolling massive quantities of data in pursuit of patterns and links.
. . .Among his critics in Texas, Bob Johnson is better known as “Son of Sam”—the son of U.S Rep. Sam Johnson, the conservative Republican congressman who has represented Collin and Dallas Counties [in the 3rd Congressional District of Texas in the U.S. House of Representatives] since 1992. [.The 3rd Congressional District includes the southwestern portion of Collin County and the Northeastern corner of Dallas County.]
. . .Since 2004, [Johnson and his wife Anita] have received $1.1 million in no-bid contracts. At least $80,000 of that money has been passed along, in the form of a subcontract, to Anita’s brother, Elbert Bassham, who runs a one-person consulting firm listed at a Marfa post-office box that he shares with a beauty salon.
“I’m not aware of any other fusion center that has a husband-and-wife team building, running, and managing it,” says James Paat, CEO of Sypherlink Inc., an Ohio-based data integration company that lost the subcontract. In a 2007 letter to Collin County, Mr. Paat accused ADB Consulting of rigging the scoring process and asked that the contract be rescinded.
Funding for the fusion system comes from state and federal Department Of Homeland Security grants as well as Collin County funds.
. . .It’s tempting to dismiss the fusion center as one man’s risible, if expensive, [tax payer funded] computer science project. But the U.S. Department of Homeland Security took [Johnson's] menacing February memo seriously enough that it sent a three-person team to train North Texas fusion personnel on federal rules [in accordance with the December 11, 2008 Department of Homeland Security State, Local, and Regional Fusion Center Initiative Privacy Impact Assessment directive.]
. . .In 2007, a former senior intelligence analyst for the Collin County fusion system described the center to an online trade publication as the “wild west,” a place where analysts could try out new technologies [at tax payer expense] before “politics” caught up with them.
. . . “We’ve built this network, and nobody’s policing it,” says Mike German, a former FBI agent now with the ACLU. “Nobody knows exactly what each fusion center is doing.” Part of the problem, German says, is that fusion centers fall in a “no-man’s-land” between federal and state governments. Such ambiguity can lead fusion centers to pick and choose which rules apply to them. A 2007 study by the Government Accountability Office found that one-third of all fusion centers reported a lack of guidance on the proper handling of information, including privacy and civil-liberties concerns.
Read the full story in the Texas Observer....
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Time Warner Cable Introducing Tiered And Metered Internet Pricing
According to new reports today, Time Warner Cable is introducing a new pricing structure for Austin-area Internet users. Under the new plan, consumers would be placed on a tiered and metered billing system, and charged for the amount of bandwidth they use. The DFW area Internet users will likely be next for Time Warner Cable Tiered And Metered Internet Use Pricing!
From BurntOrangeReport.com: Lee Leffingwell released the following statement earlier today:
This approach, and Time Warner’s specific plan, should be of grave concern to Austin. Right now we need to be encouraging, rather than stifling, economic recovery and growth in Austin. This plan moves us in the wrong direction. It potentially puts Austin at a disadvantage as we compete against other communities to attract, retain, and grow prosperous businesses.
I’m obviously concerned about the impact this plan would have on individuals and families, who would have to begin to monitor their Internet use. The new pricing system would have a significant impact on anybody who uses the Internet to watch videos, download music, movies, or television shows.
But I’m deeply concerned about the impact of the plan on business owners, especially those working in creative industries that require regular access to broadband Internet service. Introducing an economic disincentive for Austin businesses to use the Internet to communicate, collaborate, innovate, and deliver services is very worrisome at best, and catastrophic at worst.
If Time Warner believes that is has no choice but to introduce usage caps, I would call on them to propose caps that are realistic and reasonable. The usage caps proposed in their new plan are neither realistic nor reasonable.
For example, if a consumer downloads Season 1 of “Friday Night Lights” in high definition from iTunes, they will have used 30.86 gigabytes of transfer. This one purchase would put that consumer over the limit of all but the most expensive tier that Time Warner is offering under the new plan. It’s easy to see how the costs associated with the ongoing, high volumes of Internet use that many businesses require be could be astronomical.
Internet access should be expanded, not constrained. Innovation and creativity should be unleashed by the Internet, not shackled by draconian usage caps. This is vital to Austin’s economic recovery. I hope that Time Warner will work with City officials and the community at large to reconsider this bad plan.
Voter Photo ID: A Flawed Solution To A Made-Up Problem
Requiring voters to present a government-issued photo ID to vote is a flawed solution to a made-up problem. Republican maneuvering has every appearance of a disparate scheme devised to stack the deck in favor of Republicans in the 2010 legislative elections. Republicans are anxious to maintain control of the Texas House and Senate to give them the upper hand in the federal and state redistricting decisions that the Legislature is scheduled to make in 2011 following the 2010 U.S. census.
The Texas photo Voter ID bill is part of the Republican agenda to keep Republicans in office by suppressing the vote of groups that tend to vote Democratic. In the 10 states that have already passed voter picture ID laws, voter participation is down about 3 percent. However, black and Hispanic voter participation is down more than 10 percent in those states. The success of Democratic voter registration drives among these Texas groups in 2008 threatens to tip the balance of power away from Republican candidates in future elections. As the tide of Democratic voters continues to grow across Texas, voter ID legislation would be an effective way for Republicans to hold back the tide.Republicans, who hold a 19-12 majority in the Senate, voted on the second day of the current session to change Senate rules to cut Democrats out of the legislative process so they could ram the voter photo ID bill through that legislative body. Then they proceeded to do so when Republicans passed the Senate Voter Photo ID bill (SB362) in a party line 19-12 vote on March 11.
SB362 will be taken up by the House Elections Committee next week where the Republican committee chairman is solidly on the Republican side of the aisle in wanting to pass the bill into law. There is a slim chance to stop the bill in the House given Republicans hold only a slim 76-74 majority in the House and two of those Republicans sided with Democrats on the issue in the last legislative session in 2007.
You can help convince those House Republicans of good conscience to vote no again by testifying and speaking out against the photo id requirement when the House Elections Committee takes public comment on the legislation next Tuesday.
If you are able to travel to Austin next Tuesday, April 7th to speak out during the House Elections Committee afternoon hearing, please sign up by clicking here.
Read more here
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
All Threat Fusion Centers A Threat To Civil Liberties
DBCC Blog: Free Speech, Privacy And National SecurityAll Threat Fusion Centers are domestic intelligence gathering operations spread out across the U.S. that collect and interpreted data on ordinary citizens and synchronize that consolidated intelligence with local and national law enforcement agencies. Formed in the wake of 9/11 as a way to search out domestic terrorist threats, fusion centers today are criticized on all sides for things like improper surveillance of the supporters of third-party presidential candidates and an ambiguous mission directive that has lead to power overreaching.
CCO Blog: Keystone Kounter-Terrorism
The U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Subcommittee on Intelligence, Information Sharing, and Terrorism Risk Assessment held a public hearing on Wednesday where several groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and the Council on Islamic-American Relations, spoke against the fusion centers.
“Fusion centers have experienced a mission creep in the last several years, becoming more of a threat than a security device," said Caroline Fredrickson, director of the ACLU's Washington legislative office in a statement. "With no overarching guidelines to restrict or direct them, these centers put Americans’ privacy at huge risk. We need our government to take a long, hard look at what’s going into these centers and, frankly, what’s coming out.”
The Department of Homeland Security itself has expressed concern that fusion centers pose a number of privacy risks to American citizens. In a December 2008 report, DHS's Privacy Office detailed seven risks posed by the centers:
- Justification for fusion centers
- Ambiguous Lines of Authority, Rules, and Oversight
- Participation of the Military and the Private Sector
- Data Mining
- Excessive Secrecy
- Inaccurate or Incomplete Information
- Mission Creep
* Inappropriate references "social, religious and political ideologies including support of third party presidential candidates such as Congressman Ron Paul and former Congressman Bob Barr" in a February 2009 report on the "modern militia movement" authored by the Missouri Information Anaysis Center. Report available here.The Council on Islamic-American Relations (CAIR) released the following statement regarding a warning distributed to law enforcement agencies by "The North Central Texas Fusion System," operated by the Collin County Department of Homeland Security in the county sheriff's office building, concerning its legitimate political lobbying activities:
* A May 2008 report entitled “Universal Adversary Dynamic Threat Assessment” written by a private contractor that labeled environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club, the Humane Society and the Audubon Society as "organizations with known or possible links to eco-terrorism.” The report, which also criticized the Animal Liberation Front and the Earth Liberation Front, among others, is available here.
* The alleged improper monitoring and dissemination of communications of activists with the DC Anti-War Network.
* The labeling of national and state anti-war groups as "extremists in a report entitled a “Protective Intelligence Bulletin” that was issued in March, 2006 by the DHS Intelligence Branch of the Threat Management Division of the Federal Protective Service. The report is available here.
* A February 2009 report authored by the North Central Texas Fusion System called "Prevention Awareness Bulletin." The report described an alleged conspiracy of among the Muslim civil liberties group, CAIR, former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark and former Georgia Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, among others to foster an "environment for terrorist groups to flourish." That report can be read here.
"CAIR is deeply troubled that the North Central Texas Fusion System bulletin labels monitoring the legal activities of American Muslims exercising their constitutional privileges as ‘imperative,’" their statement said. The group "believes it is time for Congress to conduct a deeper evaluation of our nation’s new domestic surveillance infrastructure...Note: In reporting on the Collin County Fusion Center this blog and the Collin County Observer blog will likely appear in future warnings distributed to law enforcement agencies by "The North Central Texas Fusion System."
Based on this and other recent incidents and initiatives targeting the Muslim community nationwide, we are concerned that the rights of American Muslims to participate fully in our country’s political process and practice their faith free of government intrusion is under assault.”
Texans for Life Press For Continued Abstinence-Only Sex Education In Texas Schools
Texas receives more federal abstinence-only education funding than any other state in the country, yet Texas has the nation’s third-highest teen pregnancy rate. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services (TDSHS) a Texas teen gets pregnant every 10 minutes.
According to a report (PDF Full/Summary) released in February by the Texas Freedom Network (TFN) a majority of Texas schools use scare tactics and teach false information in their sex education classes. TFN's two-year study of education materials from 990 Texas school districts showed that about 94 percent of public schools use abstinence-only programs that usually pass moral judgments while giving inaccurate information on contraception and health screenings or ignoring the subjects altogether.
A recent, a large federal 2008 study, again confirms previous studies in its finding that abstinence eduction that tell teens to "just say no to sex" is not as effective as comprehensive sex education. "Taking a [abstinence] pledge doesn't seem to make any difference at all in any sexual behavior, but it does seem to make a difference in condom use and other forms of birth control that is quite striking," according to Janet E. Rosenbaum of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Ms. Rosenbaum's report, that appears in the January issue of the journal Pediatrics, highlights that:
Teenagers who receive abstinence-only sex education and pledge to remain virgins until marriage are just as likely to have premarital sex as those who do not promise abstinence and are significantly less likely to use condoms and other forms of birth control when they do, according to a large federal survey released last month.Ignoring all facts and evidence that the "just say no" abstinence-only sex education approach does not stop or even reduce the numbers of teens who have sex, Texans for Life Coalition representative Kyleen Wright gave testimony before the House Public Education Committee on Tuesday making a "full court press" for the ideologue position that "abstinence-only" should be taught in Texas schools. It was Wright who successful lead the fight to keep any medically accurate information about contraception and disease prevention out of new Texas high school health textbooks in 2004.
The fact that abstinence-only sex education translates to a higher tax payer burden to support teen mothers and their babies was all but ignored. Texas Medicaid paid for 17,322 deliveries to teen mothers aged-13-17 last year at a cost of $41 million. That $41 million is on top of the many millions of dollars tax payers are spending on a government sponsored abstinence-only public school sex education program that is a proven failure!!
To read a live blog of the Texas House Public Education Committee meeting click here.
Kathy Miller's news conference announcing the report |
Texas Gov. Perry: No Stem Cell Science In Texas
[Apparently, Gov. Perry does not think Texas needs the high tech stem cell business dollars flowing into Texas to replace the crumbling telecommunication industry that is rapidly disappearing from Texas' "silicon prairie" corridor.]
Governor Perry, a leading general in the Republican Party's War On Science, promises that a story like this will never come out of Texas:
ScienceDaily (Apr. 1, 2009) — In a genetic engineering breakthrough that could help everyone from bed-ridden patients with failing heart muscles to people afflicted with muscular dystroph, a team of American researchers—including 2007 Nobel Prize winner Mario R. Capecchi—have created a "switch" that allows mutations to be turned on in muscle stem cells to monitor muscle regeneration in a living mammal.
"This is basic science at its best," said Gerald Weissmann, M.D, Editor-in-Chief of The FASEB Journal. "This study has not only shown us how stem cells turn into muscle in the living body, but brought us closer to the day when we can use stem cells to repair wounded flesh or a maimed physique."
Read the complete story at ScienceDaily.com