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:

Budget Cuts Put School Sports On Chopping Block

NPR: School sports surely mean more in the United States than in any other country. For small-town America, sports teams even become a significant part of a community's identity.

And now that so many American school districts –– even whole states –– are facing reductions in school funding, more and more, it is athletics that are being cut back. Sometimes now, public school sports survive only by the grace of private donations, from parents and fans.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Rainy-Day Money Plus Cuts Cover $4.3 Billion 2009-11 Deficit

Many newspaper headlines this morning heralding "Deal breaks impasse on using state’s rainy-day money" and "Perry, legislators reach limited deal on dipping into rainy day fund" are a bit misleading -- and copy below the headlines does little to clarify. Here's the straight scoop...

Republican Claims About NPR Manufactured

The Republicans on the House Rules Committee will hold an emergency meeting Wednesday to consider legislation to permanently prohibit federal funding of National Public Radio (NPR) after conservative activist James O'Keefe released a video smearing the news organization.

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Notes From The Campaign

by Lawrence J. Praeger

The elections are over and we have our new elected officials and judges. The Dallas Morning News while critiquing our Commissions, County Judge and other officials opine that partisanship is out of control.

As a citizen of Dallas for the last 25 years I have witnessed a lot of changes, read a lot of editorials, and follow the Dallas Morning News. I am past 50, a lawyer, former prosecutor and run my own law practice. I have a wife and two sons 12 and 15.

I was also a candidate for the 5th District Court of Appeals Place 12 in 2010. I had never before sought elective office. I decided to do this for many reasons. One of which was to show my boys that ours is a government of its citizens. That is the beauty of our republic. Another reason was that – without any false modesty – I thought I was more qualified than my opponent. He had recently been appointed to the office by Governor Perry. I had little money for a multi-county campaign but assumed that people and the media would support a judge based on experience, credentials and independence, not political party or ideology. With apologies to Lemony Snicket, thus began my series of unfortunate assumptions.