Archive for June, 2008
Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Blog Round-Up
It’s Monday, and that means it is time for yet another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance‘s weekly blog round-up. Posts included in the round up are submitted each week by Alliance member blogs. This week’s round-up is compiled by Vince from Capitol Annex.
Maybe PDiddie at Brains and Eggs was wrong about Obama and Texas. Decide for yourself.
Off the Kuff has one last belated interview from the state Dem convention, with CD32 candidate Eric Roberson.
There is a new email scandal in Harris County. XicanoPwr writes about the offensive emails discovered at the Harris County Sheriff’s Office by a local media undercover investigation. One email has Osama bin Laden urging folks to vote Democratic. In another email, a top commander suggested that alligators should be put in the Rio Grande to cut down on illegal immigration.
Big Drunk at McBlogger points out, again, the flaws in the R’s “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less” strategy. Which really isn’t hard to do since the R’s don’t exactly excel at critical thinking, are in love with fantasy and are (to a large extent) willfully ignorant.
refinish69 of Doing My Part For The Left is delighted to announce that the Texas Medical Association Rescinds their endorsement of Box Turtle and shares Rick Noriega’s response to Big Bad John.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the cracks forming in the Texas GOP in A Cooling Off Period For The Texas GOP.
Vince Leibowitz at Capitol Annex takes a look at the Texas Supreme Court’s recent opinion declaring, essentially, that if you are injured by a church, you are screwed, which stems from the case of–get this–an exorcism gone horribly wrong.
North Texas Liberal reports on the charge that John McCain and his wife Cindy have defaulted on four years of back taxes for their La Jolla, Calif. residence.
The Texas Cloverleaf helps expose the fact that oil companies are not drilling on 3/4 of the land they already lease, because it will cost them too much. Corporate greed, anyone?
Over at Texas Kaos, it is Kenneth Foster all over again, as it looks like Texas’ law of parties is fixing to execute another man, Jeff Wood, who didn’t kill anyone.
CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes John McCain shows his true colors by choosing Phil ‘Enron’ Gramm as a close associate.
NyTexan at BlueBloggin tell us how the Bush administration has hit the pinnacle of security chaos. We can rest easy now, knowing that we have outsourced the outsource; Department of Homeland Security Outsources National Security
Bay Area Houston writes about State Senator Kim Brimer keeping campaign cash for himself.
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Texas Medical Association Rescinds Endorsement of Cornyn
John Cornyn screwed up again. He decided that funding for Medicare was not important and voted to stall funding for Medicare.
LinkThe political action committee of the Texas Medical Association, furious about a Thursday night vote on a Medicare-funding bill, is going to rescind its endorsement of Sen. John Cornyn’s reelection bid, association spokesman Brent Annear said.
Cornyn and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison voted to stall a bill that would have prevented a 10 percent cut in Medicare funding for physicians, prompting an unusually harsh reaction from the medical association, which has 43,000 members and is one of the most powerful trade groups in Texas politics.
Big Bad John better stick to doing bad videos instead of being a Senator from Texas. He proves yet again he does not care for Texans unless they are paying for his campaign. He is a total sell out and a worthless senator. He does not care about the elderly of Texas or America. Time to vote him out of office and send a real Leader to DC.
Look at a video response to Big Bad John.
Here is the press release from Rick Noriega about this issue.
Rick Noriega: Cornyn’s Medicare Vote Irresponsible for Texas Seniors and FamiliesHouston, TX – Republican incumbent John Cornyn’s deciding vote against cloture last night on H.R. 6331 the “Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008″ is another example of Cornyn’s misplaced priorities – putting special interests over Texas seniors – said Rick Noriega today.
“Today’s vote is simply unconscionable. John Cornyn’s vote has jeopardized access to health care for thousands of elderly Texans,” Noriega said. According to the Texas Medical Association, 58 percent of Texas physicians will have no choice but to limit the number of new Medicare patients they treat. Noriega said Cornyn’s actions will force more and more physicians out of the Medicare program.
“Instead of standing up for Texas’ patients and physicians to fix Medicare’s flawed payment system, Cornyn has once again put partisan
politics and the profits of private, for-profit Medicare HMOs ahead of the needs of Texas seniors.”The legislation which passed the House of Representatives on an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 355 to 59, would grant an 18-month
reprieve from the 10.6-percent Medicare physician payment cuts scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2008. The bill would pay for the reprieve by eliminating subsidies to for-profit Medicare Advantage plans. Cornyn’s vote single handedly killed the bill last night in the Senate.“Why would Senator Cornyn defend the practice of paying more money for a medical service to a private HMO than to the physician performing
the service?” said Holly Shulman, press secretary of the Rick Noriega campaign. “This vote proves once again that John Cornyn is nothing more than a shill for the big insurance companies that are funding his campaign.”Noriega added, “Senator Cornyn has shown a consistent pattern of callous disregard, voting against the health of Texas’ Veterans, Texas’ children and Texas’ elderly. Texas needs a Senator who will fight for access to quality health care and stand up against the health insurance companies and special interests.”
Texas has a chance to send a True Leader to DC in November and we better do it!!!
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Who is The Most Endangered Republican in the Texas House of Representatives?
If you have been following the videos released on Monday and Tuesday, no doubt your appetite has been sufficiently whetted and you are eager to know just exactly who the most endangered Republican in the Texas House that you don’t know actually is. Wait no longer, as the answer is below:
What makes John Davis the most endangered Republican in the Texas House? It’s a good question, and we’ve got the answer.
John Davis is out of touch with his district. HD 129 is a district that includes El Lago, Nassau Bay, Seabrook, Shoreacres, Taylor Lake Village, and Webster and parts of Friendswood, Houston, La Porte, League City, Pasadena, and Pearland–all in Harris County.
A common misconception is that HD 129 is a “silk stocking” House District full of wealthy folks. That’s not true, however. While a majority of families do have an annual income of over $50,000 according to the 2000 Census (the most recent numbers broken out by House District), the population of HD 129 is more “middle class” than anything.
Davis’ voting record, however, is pretty shoddy when it comes to the needs of middle class families.
Davis voted for tuition deregulation. It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that middle class families have been impacted significantly by the Legislature’s decision in 2003 to deregulate college tuition. It has become very difficult for middle class families to afford to send their kids to college because tuition costs are skyrocketing. Clearly, tuition deregulation is not a middle class value that the people of House District 129 support. Davis has even put the interests of one of his big supporters, Houston home builder Bob Perry, above middle class students who want a college education when it came time to cast votes on the Appropriations Bill on the House floor!
He’s for dirty air. Once again, it doesn’t take a genius to tell you that the air quality in Harris county is somewhat lacking. Heck, even the American Journal of Epidemiology has taken note of the fact that lung cancer mortality in Harris County is high–and that isn’t because more people in Harris County enjoy the occasional Marlboro or Kool, either. Yet John Davis–time and time again–has voted against improving the air quality in his own district. Here is some of what Davis actually has to say about this topic:
“It’s much cleaner than it was 20-30 years ago. I believe we are on the right track. I don’t want to choke off industry.
You can also watch a YouTube of Davis actually making that statement here.
Davis also voted for raising taxes on small businesses. Even though Republicans are typically pro-business, Davis is surely no friend of small business. Even others in his own party call the tax John Davis supported an “abject failure.” Taxing small businesses out of business isn’t exactly a middle class value, either.
And, there is plenty more where that came from: Davis voted to disenfranchise minorities and the elderly (Voter ID), to waste taxpayer dollars on state-funded lobbyists (more than once), and even allowing the state to seize homes of Medicaid patients (HB 2922).
Does Davis share his district’s values? We think not.
Davis’ failure to reflect the values of his district alone, however, doesn’t make him endangered. It is, rather, a variety of factors.
One of the key factors that makes Davis terribly endangered is the quality of his opponent, Democrat Sherrie Matula, and the campaign she is running down in HD 129.
We’ll talk more about that on Thursday.
Brought to you by Vince Liebowitz from Capital Annex
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Help Put Rick Noriega Over the Top
Texans love to vote so here is a chance to go vote for Rick Noriega before the November general election.
Sen. Barbara Boxer’s PAC has kicked off their 2008 “Choose a Challenger” contest. The voting goes through midnight tonight.
Please go and vote for Rick Noriega if you have not done so already. The exposure and help Rick will receive from winning this and the email support from Sen. Boxer are incredible. Currently Rick is leading and we want to
keep it that way. Please forward this to any and all Texas Democrats.
*Which Challenger should the PAC for a Change community help in 2008?*PAC for a Change is kicking off our 2008 “Choose a Challenger” contest –- an opportunity for you and our entire online community to decide which
Democratic Senate Challenger our PAC will support next. The winner of our online contest will be featured in a fundraising email to our PAC for a
Change community, potentially adding *tens of thousands of dollars to his or her campaign war chest this fall — going a long way towards helping us build a stronger progressive Senate majority in 2009 and beyond. *Fill out the ballot below to vote in our “Choose a Challenger” contest
before the June 25th deadline!
Let’s show Rick some of that famous Texas grassroots support!!!
You can also make a donation to Rick’s campaign and send Rick to DC as the next Texas Senator.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Who is The Most Endangered Republican in the Texas House of Representatives?
Who is The Most Endangered Republican in the Texas House of Representatives? Watch the video below, and see if you can tell us. If you can’t, stay tuned. There will be more videos to follow this week, and we’ll ultimately reveal his identity on Wednesday.
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Who is The Most Endangered Republican in the Texas House of Representatives?
Who is The Most Endangered Republican in the Texas House of Representatives? Watch the video below, and see if you can tell us. If you can’t, stay tuned. There will be more videos to follow this week, and we’ll ultimately reveal his identity on Wednesday.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )
Texas Progressive Alliance’s Weekly Blog Round-Up
It’s Monday, and that means it is time for another edition of the Texas Progressive Alliance’s Weekly blog round-up. The round-up is compiled from posts submitted by member blogs.
WCNews at Eye On Williamson takes apart the new GOP Business tax in Tearing At The Margins Tax.
Off the Kuff published the rest of his convention week interviews, with Joe Moody (HD78), Ernie Casbeer (HD59), and State Rep. Juan Garcia (HD32).
McBlogger asks why are the Republicans so ideologically driven on energy policy? Then he remembers that knowledge isn’t so useful in the faith-based economy.
Something stinks about the Webb County Sheriff’s election. CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme can’t wait to find out who did what.
BossKitty at BlueBloggin points out that we have more than just McCain and Obama running for president. And Then Theres Bob Barr – Born Again Libertarian; one-time conservative Republican Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party presidential nominee, offered a scathing critique of Sen. John McCain today and predicted he would garner substantial conservative Republican support in a handful of battleground states critical to McCain in his campaign against Democratic Sen. Barack Obama.
Obama needs Texas to win the presidency, but only — as with recent previous Democratic nominees — for its money and not its electoral votes, claims PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.
WhosPlayin piles on after Joe Barton, Michael Burgess, Pete Sessions, and Kay Granger hold a press conference to blame Democrats for high fuel prices. It was so bad that even Fox 4 News called B.S. on it.
Lightseeker at Texas Kaos continues to keep an eye on Blackwater’s shenanigans. The latest is that Erik Prince loves him some Sharia law-if it will quash a lawsuit for him.
Wonder how long it will be before the company dress code includes a burqa?
refinish69 reviews the GOP’s Big Bad John at Doing My Part For The Left. While the video is wonderful for a laugh and has wonderful production values, it is as full of crap as John Cornyn’s career as a US Senator.
Vince at Capitol Annex takes down the new platform of the Republican Party of Texas.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Help Keep a Roof Over the Diva Dogs’ Heads
I am not one to ask for help and it never comes easy for me but the time for being coy is over. I am in desperate financial straights and need the kindness of strangers to help get me past this. I have been unemployed since March with no unemployment benefits. I have scraped by and survived by now the mess has hit the fan. I am behind in my rent and unless I can pay them $875 by Monday I will most likely be evicted. I have a court case for eviction on Monday afternoon.
People have asked if they can help. You can make a donation to help me through the rough times at Doing My Part For The Left podcast through the paypal link there. You will never know how much I hate asking but I do appreciate the ones who want to help out the Diva Dogs and I.
PS: If you have a job you can offer me, that would be great also. I am willing to do anything legal. LOL
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )New Poll Shows Texas 10th Within Reach
From Matt Glazer at Burnt Orange Report
More good news in the Texas 10th Congressional District. In a recent poll conducted by Goodwin Simon Victoria Research, CD-10 is now very much in play.
Our recent poll results indicate that voters in Texas’ 10th Congressional District may be willing to head in a different direction in 2008. Democratic candidate Larry Joe Doherty has a compelling personal narrative, incumbent Republican Mike McCaul is vulnerable because he has failed to make any meaningful connection with his constituents, and Democrats have a real chance to take this district in November.
cross posted at Daily Kos, Burnt Orange Report
This poll shows that the initial trial heat for Republican incumbent Mike McCaul gets only 43% of the vote and Democratic challenger gets 34% of the vote (down 9%). The main point here is that McCaul fails to get even close to the 50% plus 1 benchmark. In a generic Dem vs. Rep the Democrats gets 41% and Republicans get 45%. This indicates two points, one McCaul underperforms the straight Republican ID which means McCaul is actually underperforming the straight Republican ticket and two, LJD will see a huge bounce among both Democrats and Republicans once he begins outreach.
The poll also indicates that Doherty could move voters rapidly if they have the opportunity to hear his message.
After hearing one positive statement about Doherty and nothing critical of McCaul, voters are quickly able to reevaluate the congressional race, preferring Doherty over McCaul by 46% to 38%. After hearing considerable information about both candidates voters prefer Larry Joe Doherty by a 50% to 36% margin over McCaul. This again underscores how potentially fluid this electorate is.
The other scary point is how negative CD-10 feels about native son, President George W. Bush.
Bush’s job rating is 70% negative here (in Texas) and 69% of C.D. 10 voters think the country is seriously off on the wrong track.
These numbers are good news for Democrats in Austin, Houston, and the counties in between. What we need to remember though is McCaul is independently wealthy and has strong family ties to the Clear Channel conglomeration. If LJD can’t get both small and large donations, this will be a hard race to win.
To read the full polling memo, click here. The 400-person survey of likely voters in the 10th Congressional District was conducted May 27-31.
Make sure to donate today.
Read Full Post | Make a Comment ( None so far )Big Bad John Cornyn
John Cornyn showed this video at the Texas Republican Convention and showed just how out of touch he is with Texas. He talks about opening government to the people. Yes, we saw as the Republican party gave more tax breaks to big business and screwed the American public but he was all for it. He rooted out crooks? What ones? Haliburton and their no bid contracts? Maybe the Republican legislators or senators who ignored pleas about the abuse at the Veterans Hospitals? I don’t think so.The picture of barbed wire speaks volumes of his stance towards immigration and wanting to build a wall across the Texas/Mexican border. He claims he gave support to our troops but we all know this means he supported them by sending them to die in Iraq and voted for every funding bill for the war but not for a time line to bring them home. I am sure you also remember he voted against the new GI Bill to honor our veterans when they get home.
The video as a simple question. As the sun sets on the pecos and six years are running out, is it time to send someone else to DC? There is only one answer. YES!!! Texas deserves a statesman in Washington as our junior senator. Texans must unite behind the campaign of Rick Noriega and send someone to DC who will actually look after the best interest of all Texans and not just the millionaires. Send Rick to DC to help rewrite history so that Texas can say we had a senator who cared not only for our troops but helped bring them home from a senseless war that has turned into a bloody civil war that we should not be involved in. Send Rick Noriega to DC so that Texas has a senator who cares about education and teachers instead of funding programs that only teach for end of year test scores. Send Rick Noriega to DC so we have a senator who will actually vote his convictions and not just follow a party line. Send Rick Noriega to DC so Texas has a senator who actually who stand up for all Texans and all Americans.
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