Gov. Perry Pushes ALEC-Backed Agenda To Privatize Texas Universities

ThinkProgress: Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), a potential presidential candidate, has been quietly pushing initiatives that would transform the state’s public university system into a business-style model driven by “efficiency and profitability,” The Washington Post reported today.

The reforms Perry is seeking to implement are favored by one of his top campaign donors and the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF), an affiliate of the American Legislative Exchange Council.

ALEC is a conservative public policy organization that often drafts model legislation for use in state legislatures across the country, and Republicans in several states have used its model legislation directly.

NPR Profiles Gov. Perry's Prayer Rally

On Saturday, Gov. Perry, who is widely expected to enter the race for the White House, is hosting a religious revival in Houston to pray for what he calls "a nation in crisis."

Late last year, shortly after he won his third term, Gov. Perry began to envision an event that is now called "The Response."

"With the economy in trouble, communities in crisis, people adrift in a sea of moral relativism, we need God's help," said Perry. "And that's why I'm calling on Americans to pray and fast like Jesus did."

Listen to the Story from NPR Morning Edition (4:24) Correction - The audio and a previous Web version of this story incorrectly identified James Dobson as being "of Focus on the Family." Dobson was the founder of that group but is no longer associated with it and is a Family Talk radio broadcaster.

An event spokesman, who is a former Perry speechwriter, says the daylong affair will be filled with prayer, inspirational messages, Scripture readings and praise music. The event is being held in the 71,000-seat Reliant Stadium, normally used for rodeos and NFL games, but so far only 8,000 people have reportedly registered for the prayer rally.

Perry invited all his fellow governors. The only one to accept was Sam Brownback of Kansas, but he is now backing away. His office says Brownback is "on vacation," and if he goes, "it's at his discretion and on his dime."

While the governor claims it's nothing more than a Christian prayer rally, the event has touched off a holy war among critics.

"I mean, when you talk about the religious right, this is the fringe of the fringe here," says Dan Quinn, communications director of the Texas Freedom Network, an Austin-based watchdog group that tracks the far right in Texas.

"This is clearly, when you look at it, religious extremism and naked partisan politics," Quinn says. "I think it's one of the most cynical displays of using faith as a political tool we've seen in a long time."

Cantor: Entitlement Promises ‘Frankly, Are Not Going To Be Kept

During an interview with the Wall Street Journal, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) said he is ready and willing to slash entitlements like Medicare, because, in his opinion, Americans have to “come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that frankly are not going to be kept for many“:

What we need to be able to do is to demonstrate that that is the better way for the people of this country.

"Get the fiscal house in order, come to grips with the fact that promises have been made that, frankly, are not going to be kept for many. [...] The math doesn’t lie," said Cantor

[In the 2010 midterm election campaign Republicans nationwide ran as protectors of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid on false claims that the Democratic legislative agenda threatened those programs.

Republicans charged that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (a.k.a. Obama Care) passed by Congress and signed by President Obama on March 23, 2010 endangered senior citizen's Medicare and Medicaid coverage.

Believing Republicans when they said they would protect seniors from the Democratic legislative agenda threatening the social programs seniors voted in large numbers in the November 2010 election to give Republicans majorities in the U.S. and many state legislatures.

But Cantor’s pronouncement is maybe the most explicit explanation that, under the GOP’s vision, Republicans will renege on their 2010 mid-term election campaign promise to "protect Social Security and Medicare" on false claims that American can not afford those government run social programs.]

Of course, the affordability math would look much better, particularly on Social Security, if the GOP were to back off its insistence that the government not collect a single dime in new revenue.

Jacob Hacker, political science professor at Yale University, has called the GOP’s scheme to raise the Medicare retirement age “the single worst idea for Medicare reform” since it “saves Medicare money only by shifting the cost burden onto older Americans caught between the old eligibility age and the new, as well as onto the employers and states that help fund their benefits.”

Gov. Perry’s Legislative Agenda Bears Strong Resemblance To ALEC’s Corporate-Backed Model Bills

On July 15th this blog published an article about the American Legislative Exchange Council's (ALEC's) connection to Texas law making. ALEC is a “corporate front-group” that represents the interests of big-name corporations by drafting legislation for state lawmakers. ALEC, which has the support of conservative heavy-hitters like Koch Industries, Walmart, and ExxonMobil, has written close to 800 model bills as templates for legislators on a wide range of issues.

Today, Think Progress published an article detailing the close correlation of Gov. Perry's legislative initiatives with the legislative bills written by the American Legislative Exchange Council and circulated to affiliated conservative lawmakers in all fifty states.

ThinkProgress analysis of documents recently released by the Center for Media and Democracy show that ten of Perry’s recent initiatives mirror either ALEC model legislation or policy recommendations from ALEC’s state affiliate, the conservative Texas Public Policy Foundation.

Rick Perry's 'Texas Miracle' Includes Crowded Homeless Shelters, Low-Wage Jobs, Worker Deaths

HuffPost: It was 105 degrees outside late last week when Vanessa Surita, 24, planted herself on the sidewalk and stretched her legs. Her young daughter sat in a stroller within arms length, outside the Austin Resource Center for the Homeless, or ARCH. Her needs were great: housing, a job, a high school diploma.

LiveScience: Record Heat Unlikely to Cool Climate Change Debate

No state in the union was safe from July's blistering heat wave, according to data from the U.S. National Climatic Data Center.

The horrible July heat wave, lasting weeks in some cities, the entire month in others, affected nearly 200 million people in the United States at some point. Preliminary data show that 2,712 high-temperature records were either tied or broken in July, compared with 1,444 last year, according to the NCDC. At least one weather station in all 50 states set or tied a daily high temperature record at some point during July.

Romney Judicial Advisor Robert Bork: Civil Rights Act Is ‘Unsurpassed Ugliness,’ But Criminalizing Contraception Use Is OK

Yesterday, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) announced Robert Bork will co-chair his presidential campaign’s “Justice Advisory Committee.”

President Ronald Reagan nominated Bork to serve as an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court in 1987 to replace Justice Lewis Powell. President Reagan, a staunch conservative, had already appointed two justices -- moderate Sandra Day O'Connor in 1981 and conservative Antonin Scalia in 1986, the latter at the same time that William Rehnquist, also a conservative, was named to replace the retiring chief justice, Warren Burger.

Right-wing backers of the Pres. Reagan had been disappointed in 1981 when Reagan chose the more moderate O'Connor over Bork, but accepted the fact that O'Connor's nomination was Reagan keeping of a campaign promise to put the first woman on the Court. But, for Powell's replacement ultra-conservatives pressured the Reagan White House to nominate Judge Robert Bork, a known conservative then serving on the District of Columbia Federal Court of Appeals.

Thousands Of Texas Teachers Will Not Have Jobs To Return To In The Fall

Throughout the month of August, The Texas Tribune will feature 31 ways Texans' lives will change come Sept. 1, the date most bills passed by the Legislature — including the dramatically reduced budget — take effect. Check out the Trib's story calendar here.

The Texas Tribune - DAY 1: Thousands of Texas teachers will not have jobs to return to in the fall:

Just a month before the end of the school year, Bryan McClintock, a special education teacher with the Little Elm Independent School District, was told that his contract would not be renewed in the fall. McClintock had anticipated he might be laid off because he has only taught for two years. He saw the writing on the wall during the special legislative session, when lawmakers passed a school finance plan that cut $4 billion from districts statewide.

Though legislators encouraged administrators to keep as much money as possible in classrooms, the majority of public education dollars are spent on personnel — meaning job cuts can't be avoided. During the legislative session, The Associated Press reported that up to 100,000 of the state's 330,000 teachers might lose their positions. Officials at the Texas State Teachers Association estimate that about 12,000 teachers have lost their jobs so far, and they warn more teachers could be laid off in the second year of budget cuts. The Austin Independent School District has already given pink slips to nearly 500 employees.

Read the full article @ The Texas Tribune .

A new Gallup poll finds, overall, that only 34 percent of Americans express a great deal of confidence in the nation's public schools, continuing a record low that began in 2005. In the 1970s and 80s, that number never dipped below 40 percent. Forty-three percent of Democrats said they were confident in the school system, compared with 19 percent of Independents and 33 percent of Republicans. People tended to rate their local schools better than the overall system. See the poll's full results here.

Why have the American people lost confidence in our public school system? Because so much of what the read about public schools is negative.

Monster Heat Wave - Mandatory N. Tx Water Restrictions Coming

The National Weather Service has issued an Excessive Heat Warning for the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex and all surrounding counties through Thursday.

The sweltering month of July has come to an end, but not before over 2,000 records were broken by high temperatures. The Huffington Post reports that some cities hadn't seen this kind of heat in 140 years.

Texas has experienced one of the worst droughts on record, the elderly and athletes alike continue to suffer from heat stroke, and large amounts of warmth and moisture were trapped under a "heat dome" that brought high temperatures and thick air to much of the U.S.

A huge and intense high aloft has plagued north Texas with triple digit heat for more than a month. Monday will be the 31st day in a row of 100+ heat at DFW. It's the second longest 100-or-better streak on record bettered only by 1980's 42 days. Dallas-Fort Worth temperatures are expected to hit 107 or 108 for the next three days, triggering an excessive heat warning that lasts at least through Thursday.

Pres. Obama's Message On The Debt Deal

In a message to supporters, President Obama outlines the agreement he reached with congressional leaders to meet our financial obligations and reduce our debt.

The graph below, from the White House represents the President's explanation of the deal. Text at the bottom of the graphic states, "Social Security and Medicare will be protected from cuts."

President Barack Obama announced an 11th-hour deal with Congress to avert an unprecedented default on US debt payments, which would have sown chaos across the global economy.

With just two days left before the United States would run short of cash, Obama and his Republican foes said after round-the-clock negotiations that they had reached a framework for more than $2.4 trillion in spending cuts.

"I want to announce that the leaders of both parties in both chambers have reached an agreement that will reduce the deficit and avoid default, a default that would have had a devastating effect on our economy," Obama said.

"This process has been messy; it's taken far too long," Obama told a hastily convened evening press conference. "Nevertheless, ultimately, the leaders of both parties have found their way toward compromise."

But, the package still needs approval from Congress, which could vote as early as Monday. Leaders of the Democratic-held Senate and Republican-led House of Representatives were working to rally polarized lawmakers.

The plan faces opposition both from the conservative "Tea Party" movement, which favors sweeping spending cuts, and liberal Democrats who want taxes on the wealthy before any thought of cutting social welfare programs.

As described by Obama and congressional leaders, the deal would raise the country's $14.3 trillion debt ceiling by at least $2.1 trillion. It would also make more than $2.4 trillion in spending cuts in two steps, including through a special new committee required to submit proposals by November 23.