Blue in Guadalupe

Negotiating your pay like the Pentagon budget

2012-02-01T08:56:00.000-06:00

At my next annual review with my boss I’m going to use the Pentagon’s budget tactics. While my co-workers are taking pay cuts or getting pink slips I’ll make outrageous demands for 5% increases every year for the next decade then I’ll back down to a 1% cut this year while retaining my inflation adjusted salary from that point on.

That’s what the reported $500 billion budget cut Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is crowing about really is. He’s not talking about significant cuts to current spending he’s simply saying that we won’t increase spending as much as previously planned.

The real question is; if we’ve just ended the occupation of Iraq and we’ll be out of Afghanistan by 2014 why would we need to maintain high levels of defense spending let alone continue to increase it? We already spend more on defense than the next 13 nations combined. Why aren’t we returning to pre-war spending levels?

President Eisenhower, no military slouch once said “Every gun that is fired, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.”

Gingrich uses facts to tell untruths

2012-01-17T19:06:00.002-06:00

During Monday’s Republican party presidential debate Newt Gingrich remarked "… the fact is that more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in American history. Now, I know among the politically correct you're not supposed to use facts that are uncomfortable."

The real problem is that among Republicans the use of “facts” doesn’t mean speaking the truth. In this case yes there are more people on food stamps than at any time since the program began but then the economy is in worse shape for a longer period of time than at any time since the food stamp program began and guess who’s responsible for that? Why none other than the Republicans and a few Democrats who are essentially owned by the banks and worked so hard to remove all the regulations that protected this country from banking failures that could collapse our economy.

Letter to the editor - It takes one to know one

2012-01-10T16:24:00.002-06:00

Monday Senator John Cornyn sent out an email with the headline: President's Appointments are “Intemperate, Arrogant, and Irresponsible” in which he chastises President Obama for making recess appointments that don’t comply with his precious traditions.

What’s intemperate is John Cornyn and the other Republican senators holding up debate and voting on judicial and agency director nominations rather allowing the Senate to do its constitutionally required job of reviewing them.

What’s irresponsible is John Cornyn and the other Republican senators delaying justice for many because the open court seats prevent cases from being heard and decided in a timely manner.

What’s arrogant is John Cornyn and the other Republican senators deciding without debate that those nominees should not hold the offices for which they have been nominated.

Senator Cornyn, all I can say is Pot meet Kettle.

The Republican method of handling household budgets includes letting grandma die

2011-12-30T19:58:00.000-06:00

Congratulations are in order to Representatives John Kuempel and Doug Miller and their Republican colleagues in the state legislature for achieving a balanced budget on the backs of our most vulnerable citizens. Starting Sunday January 1, elderly Texans who are so poor that they qualify for Medicaid in addition to Medicare will find that some treatments for their ailments, including life threatening ones, aren’t available because our courageous legislators cut reimbursements by 20%.

The Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders reports that it will “be unable to provide life-saving cancer treatment medications after Jan. 1, 2012, due to cuts to dual eligible patients (those elderly on Medicare who are also poor and on Medicaid - the Medicaid covers the Medicare deductible) - because they are already losing money on those patients and without the Medicaid match the financial losses are just too great.”

The contenders for the Republican nomination keep saying that our nation’s budget should be handled like a household budget. Apparently if grandma gets sick they’d just let her die.

House Republicans taking hostages once again

2011-12-21T18:31:00.000-06:00

Congressmen Quico Canseco and Lamar Smith conspired with the rest of the House Republicans to give their constituents and 160 million Americans a lump of coal this Christmas by choosing not to pass the payroll tax cut extension and unemployment insurance benefits extension. What may be even worse though is they also chose not to pass the bill that would have prevented Medicare from cutting doctors’ reimbursements by a whopping 27% starting January 1. Remember this is a bill that passed the Senate 89-10 with support from both Sen. Cornyn and Sen. Hutchison.

What will our seniors like me do when in need of medical care while House Republicans hold us hostage for political gain? Like any other hostage taker Canseco and Smith don’t care.

Response to Express News article on Republicans blocking enforcement of efficient light bulb regulations

2011-12-19T16:09:00.002-06:00

Saturday’s story “Critics call light idea dimwitted” made the interesting observation that the major manufacturers of light bulbs have already switched production to energy and cost efficient compact fluorescent bulbs. They were able to do so because the 2007 bill that calls for improved efficiency and performance provided regulatory certainty. Now Texas Republican Joe Barton who frequently screams about regulatory uncertainty being one of the reasons that the “job creators” aren’t creating jobs is crowing about his success at creating that very regulatory uncertainty.

This is typical Republican posturing and much of the cause for the gridlock in Washington that has prevented our federal government from taking the steps necessary to bring our moribund economy back to life. If the people of Texas really want the jobs picture to improve in the near future instead of experiencing a lost decade like Japan we’d better look at electing more Democrats to Congress as they at least seem to understand the big picture.

Reporting some facts and quoting each side isn't journalism

2011-12-10T22:33:00.000-06:00

Friday’s edition included a story titled “GOP blocks Obama’s pick for watchdog” about the filibuster which prevents an up or down vote on the man nominated to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). While the story was as accurate as one could ask for it failed to tell the whole story in that once again Republicans including both of our Senators, Cornyn and Hutchison, voted to protect the 1% at the expense of the 99%.

Having mentioned in the story that the Republicans want to eliminate the position of director and replace it with a bi-partisan board you failed to examine the ramifications of such a move which would result in politicizing decisions and removing the teeth from the agency’s rule making and enforcement efforts.

Express News readers deserve more than he said, she said reporting. Real journalism would explain that it is the Republican agenda to overturn every bit of regulation that has been put in place to prevent another implosion of the banking system because it would impair the ability of a few Wall Street fat cats to continue to rake in multi-million dollar annual bonuses.

Express New's Gurwitz still getting it wrong

2011-12-04T22:53:00.001-06:00

Sundays editorial by Jonathan Gurwitz shows he hasn’t gotten the memo that the Koch Brothers paid for a two year study by prominent physicist and global warming skeptic Richard Muller and he found, much to his surprise, that the 97% of climate scientists who’ve been warning us about it are correct, the earth is warming.

Muller went back to data recorded by Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson and reviewed several other data sets as well as correcting for the heat island effects due to the growth of modern cities and still found that the planet is warming just like James E. Hansen of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has been telling us for over a decade. Muller’s conclusion is “now we have confidence that the temperature rise that had previously been reported had been done without bias.”

Muller says he was spurred to action by the very “Climategate” emails Gurwitz mentions in the editorial as evidence that the big bad scientists are misleading us. Sadly Mr. Gurwitz fails to note that while those emails show that scientists can also be petty and vainglorious just like everyone else they do not reveal any evidence that the conclusions of those scientists are wrong.

The Associated Press also reports that Georgia Tech climate scientist Judith Curry worked with Muller on the project and she is quoted as saying of the study “results unambiguously show an increase in surface temperature since 1960.”

I suggest Mr. Gurwitz catch up on his reading.

Why spend $300,000 for insurance if we can simply choose to never need it?

2011-11-24T17:23:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago the Guadalupe County Commissioners Court voted to spend $300,000 of taxpayer money wastefully. Guadalupe County hasn’t had a death penalty case in over 30 years yet they approved an inter-local agreement with Lubbock County to provide public defenders in death penalty cases, essentially an insurance policy.

Guadalupe County need never have a death penalty case as the District Attorney can simply choose to ask for life in prison without the possibility of parole and save the people of this county the $300,000 insurance premium.

Whatever you think about the justifiability of the death penalty you should remember two things. It costs about four times as much to execute someone as it does to put them in prison for life due to the appeals and other legal fees. There’s every reason to believe that not only did Texas kill an innocent man when Cameron Todd Willingham was executed by lethal injection but as we now know there was no crime committed at all because the fire that killed his children was accidental and not arson.

Guadalupe County should never have a death penalty case and if we don’t then we have no reason to spend $300,000 of the citizen’s money. Call your County Commissioner and Judge Mike Wiggins and tell them how you feel.

Stopping online piracy or stifling the internet, you decide.

2011-11-24T10:59:00.001-06:00

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) recently introduced of the Stop Online Piracy Act in the US House of Representatives. It sounds great, at least it does until you actually read some of the provisions in it.

Without ever appearing before a judge or setting foot in a courtroom the owner of copyrighted material could shut down any website's online advertising programs and block access to credit card payments. The police can’t search your house without a warrant from a judge but a company can stop you from earning a living just by filing a document with the Clerk of Court.

Under this ridiculously broad bill, you can be found in violation if the core functionality of your site "enables or facilitates" infringement. Bye bye YouTube, so long Flickr and Shutterfly or any website that allows users to post text, photos or video. That means this newspaper’s website too my friends. Heck the entire internet enables or facilitates infringement.

Is this really the road we want to be on, do we really want just anyone to be able to shutdown nearly any website on a whim?

Failure of the Super-Committee is an opportunity

2011-11-24T09:26:00.000-06:00

The Super-Committee has failed in its duty to find $1 trillion in budget cuts over the next decade but that doesn’t mean we don’t still need to make those cuts. Congressman Cuellar has been open to cutting many areas of the budget but not the Pentagon budget which is perhaps the most bloated of all. Did you know that we spend more on our military than the next 17 nations combined? That’s China, France, the UK, Germany, Russia and a dozen others. The U.S. spends 43% of all the money spent on the military in the entire world.

Now I’m not talking about cutting military healthcare budgets and raising co-pays on our military retirees as has been proposed by some, I’m talking about real cuts in our weapons budgets for things like the troubled V22 Osprey that has failed to meet design goals over and over again. I’m talking about closing half of the over 800 overseas military bases we staff. If we bring those troops home where they will spend their paychecks in American stores and restaurants employing American people who pay American taxes we get twice the bang for the buck.

Guadalupe County and Bexar County are the home of many active duty and retired members of our military as well as their families. If the Pentagon budget isn’t cut those who have given the most to our country will be forced to give more and that isn’t right.

Bi-partishanship that's just nuts

2011-11-20T15:35:00.002-06:00

In one of the most disgusting displays of bi-partisanship I’ve ever seen both Congressman Henry Cuellar and Senator John Cornyn are advocating for a balanced budget amendment. Both these highly educated gentlemen are lawyers and experienced legislators but obviously not economists.

Enshrining a balanced budget in our constitution would shackle our nation in times of disaster or war by preventing the federal government from spending on emergency needs without either immediately cutting spending elsewhere by the same amount thus cutting government services and putting government employees out of work or raising taxes precipitously to immediately offset that spending rather then spreading the payments out over time.

According to a blistering analysis of a Balanced Budget Amendment (BBA) by Macroeconomic Advisers, one of the nation’s preeminent private and non-partisan economic forecasting firms, if a constitutional balanced budget amendment had already been ratified and were now being enforced for fiscal year 2012, “the effect on the economy would be catastrophic,” Macroeconomic Advisers also concludes that under a balanced budget amendment, “recessions would be deeper and longer,” and uncertainty would be cast over the economy that could slow economic growth even in normal economic times.

In short Congressman Cuellar and Senator Cornyn should bone up on their economics before bring up this silly amendment ever again.

Mitt Romney would have IUD users charged as murderers

2011-11-03T23:22:00.000-05:00

When asked by Fox News whether he would have supported a "personhood" constitutional amendment, Mitt Romney replied, "Absolutely."

Now I realize that many readers are pro-life but this is by far the most radical stand of any of the Republican contenders. "Personhood" amendments are now being considered in states like Mississippi, Florida, and Ohio, and if passed would elevate a fertilized human egg to the status of a legal person. That means no more IUDs or the morning-after pill and if a woman used them she could be charged with murder. In-vitro fertilization would be illegal because is creates fertilized eggs that would have to be disposed of at some point. Abortions would be considered murder and there would be no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest and if a woman’s pregnancy endangers a her life doctors would have to just let her die.

Would a class action suit be filed on behalf of all those eggs in refrigeration at fertility clinics around the country to force their mothers to carry them to term? Would anyone disposing of those fertilized eggs be prosecuted for murder?

So we now have a leading contender for the Republican party’s presidential nomination on the record in favor of radically changing that status quo regarding fertility clinics and classifying some forms of birth control as murder. Is Mitt Romney really the man you want to be next President of the United States?

Reponse to TEA Party letter

2011-10-21T17:33:00.002-05:00

Don Larsen’s letter on October 6, “Look at the Facts” is really quite funny since the facts are exactly what the TEA Party can’t seem to get straight. While Larsen says he wants to keep Medicare it is his TEA Party colleagues and the legislators they have elected, like Paul Ryan, who are determined to privatize the program which would be its death knell. A voucher is no guarantee an insurance company will cover your pre-existing conditions nor is it a guarantee that the insurance company won't raise your rates due to the cost of caring for you such that the voucher no longer covers the cost.

Larsen wants to talk about taxes and who doesn’t pay them, how about this fact, last year General Electric earned $5 billion in US profits alone and paid $0 in federal income taxes and Exxon/Mobil earned $15.1 billion in profits and paid 1% in federal income taxes. Now I ask you, who do you think isn’t paying their fair share?

Why shouldn't health insurance cover birth control if it covers Viagra?

2011-10-08T23:51:00.000-05:00

Sens. Kay Bailey Hutchison and John Cornyn signed a letter to Dept. of Health and Human Services Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius this week complaining about the department’s implementation of the Institute of Medicine's (IOM) recommendation to include birth control as a required part of health insurance.

The Senators say they are concerned "with the lack of due consideration given by [Sebelius] and your Department to the adverse impact that IOM's recommendations would have on our core constitutional value of religious liberty." The Senators stated that "[t]hough the IFRs' 'religious exemption' purports to protect religious organizations, health care professionals, and health care plans, it is clear that this protection falls well short of securing this constitutional right."

In other words because some fundamentalists feel there is a biblical prohibition on birth control in any form health insurance companies shouldn’t be required to cover it. Shouldn’t the logical extension of their argument be that if God wanted a man to procreate the man wouldn’t need Viagra therefore insurance shouldn’t cover it? Why haven’t we heard a tremendous uproar about prohibiting insurance from covering Viagra I wonder?

Response to letter attacking science via separation of church and state

2011-10-08T18:37:00.000-05:00

In Jeremiah Arevalo’s recent letter regarding separation of church and state he claims a false equivalence between Jesus and Socrates among other misleading statements.

With regard to Socrates, no one makes fantastic suggestions that he was god incarnate, and Xenophon was a contemporary of Socrates so can speak as a primary source. The same can not be said for Matthew, Mark, Luke or John as the earliest of them lived 60+ years after Jesus’ death.

Nothing the teachers are purported to have said is explicitly anti-Christian though the claim about the authenticity of the biblical description of Goliath as a giant might be construed as a questioning the literal truth of the bible. This type of fact based discussion is nothing that I as a student in a Catholic high school didn’t hear from Brother Brendan or my other instructors.

Former State Board of Education Chair, Don McLeroy, would have had science teachers instruct our children that the earth is 6,000 years old because he believes every word of the bible is literally true. Surely the vast majority of us know that there is ample scientific evidence disproving such foolishness, the Pope certainly does.

I wonder if Mr. Arevalo also wants teachers to avoid other such scientific realities as evolution, global climate change and the very real possibility of life on other planets now that the Kepler spacecraft has identified 687 planets orbiting 474 stars.

Captain Obama has left the Mad Hatters of the TEA Party at the helm

2011-09-05T17:45:00.000-05:00

Once again President Obama has caved to pressure by the Chamber of Commerce and TEA Party Republicans; this time over whether or not to update smog standards in order to the protect Americans from increasing incidents of asthma. This means that the same standards put in place by George W. Bush and believed to violate the Clean Air Act by Obama’s EPA administrator, Lisa Jackson, will remain in place for another two years while Americans suffer.

The excuse is that requiring additional scrubbers on pollution generating industrial plants will be too expensive and cost jobs. Tell that to the 12,000 or so people who die from pollution induced asthma and other respiratory conditions. I’ve got news for the Chamber, going to the emergency room nearly unable to breathe is too expensive. Jobs would be created by updating these regulations as new equipment would have to be purchased and installed and it could all be paid for by the record profits that corporate America is racking up while it isn’t hiring new employees.

The Mad Hatters in the TEA Party would have you believe that freedom and deregulation are synonymous but the air we breathe is shared by us all and if government doesn’t regulate what can be dumped in it, our air may not be fit to breathe for much longer. So TEA Party members I have news for you too, air and water are shared by all and if that makes them socialist – get over it.

Another giant sucking sound as American jobs head to South Korea

2011-09-05T16:21:00.001-05:00

The op-ed in Sunday’s paper by Antonio Garza offers an amazingly inverted argument for quick passage of three bilateral free-trade agreements. While in the same breath commenting on our current unemployment crisis he goes on to suggest that somehow opening our doors to even more cheap imports will help solve this problem. Of course he couches this in claims that we’ll actually be able to export more but that claim has been debunked for nearly twenty years.

Former presidential candidate Ross Perot once said of the North American Free Trade Agreement, listen for the "giant sucking sound" of American jobs heading south to Mexico should NAFTA be ratified. He’s been proven correct, Economic Policy Institute economist Robert Scott estimates that 682,900 U.S. jobs have been "lost or displaced" because of the agreement and the resulting trade deficit.

The Economic Policy Institute estimates that in the first seven years of the Korean agreement as many as 159,000 American jobs could be lost and the trade deficit could increase by $16.7 billion. While the pacts proposed with Columbia and Panama will of course have smaller effects they will nevertheless have negative consequences for employment in the U.S.

Were we actually competing with other countries on a level playing field meaning that all countries had similar labor and environmental regulations free trade might make sense. Since we won’t also have fair trade multi-national corporations will simply continue to outsource jobs as they seek “shareholder value” leaving more Americans unemployed.

Letter to the Express News responding to arguments against same sex partner benefits

2011-09-04T20:50:00.000-05:00

Saturday’s letters included “A vote-getting ploy” in which Mr. Charest seems overwrought because unmarried same-sex couples will now be granted benefits that have previously only been granted to married heterosexual couples. He goes on and on about whether other unmarried couples will be granted similar benefits. Well there’s an excellent reason that this particular group of citizens is being singled out for “special privileges”, Texas unlike more enlightened states such as Iowa denies them the right to be married in the first place.

Given the tone of his letter I’d guess Mr. Charest is among those Christians who persist in cherry picking bible passages from the Old Testament which support their particular bigoted views. I suggest that in order to alleviate his theological concerns he open his mind to the entire set of Christ’s teachings in which I think he’ll find a more accepting and loving approach. On the governmental side if Charest is so concerned that these benefits are granted in return for votes; all he has to do is support state legislation providing marriage equality.

"Mom's" letter to the President on job creation

2011-09-03T16:26:00.000-05:00

Dear Mr. President,

Having lived through the “Great Depression”, I’ll be 82 later this month, I can speak from experience that many of your esteemed advisers cannot. I am a child of an unemployed laborer who died prematurely of a heart attack and a disabled homemaker. I went to school often having eaten no breakfast and bringing nothing for lunch. I must tell you that while the current “Great Recession” is certainly not as bad as when I was growing up that is cold comfort for workers and their families who through no fault of their own have been without jobs for several years.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been my hero since I was old enough to say his name and I know from terrible experience that his policies are what saved my life and that of my sister and three brothers. The Herbert Hoover clones in Congress would have America cut spending and therefore cut more jobs, how can that possibly be the remedy for the lack of jobs we already suffer? Even Richard Nixon knew such actions were foolhardy for he said “We’re all Keynesians now.”

FDR recognized that the American people he loved were suffering under Hoover’s policies. I know that you too feel for the millions of Americans who are suffering today. I urge you to put aside the attempts at bi-partisanship which the party of Hoover apparently sees as weakness and proudly follow Roosevelt’s lead by putting Americans back to work building for our future.

Why aren't tax breaks for working stiffs the same as tax breaks for millionaires?

2011-08-22T14:43:00.000-05:00

President Obama has proposed to extend the payroll tax cut for low income Americans. Since the TEA Party acronym stands for “taxed enough already” you’d think that TEA Party Republicans would jump on that and agree with the President for a change. You’d think wrong.

Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) told the AP “It's always a net positive to let taxpayers keep more of what they earn, but not all tax relief is created equal for the purposes of helping to get the economy moving again.”

Rep. David Camp (R-Mich.), chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said he also opposed the 12-month tax cut because it would cost the government about $120 billion next year if it were renewed.

According to the Washington Post the Bush tax cuts amount to about $130 billion per year so I guess that means Republicans will now be against renewing those too. Why aren’t we hearing Lamar Smith and Quico Canseco coming out in favor of either continuing the payroll tax cuts or not renewing the Bush tax cuts? Is expecting logical consistency too much to ask?

It looks like Smith, Canseco and Hensarling never saw a millionaire tax break they didn’t like.

What New Orleans should know about presidential candidate Rick Perry

2011-08-14T17:52:00.000-05:00

As a New Orleans native transplanted to Texas a decade ago I thought your readers should know a little more about our Governor, Rick Perry, now that he’s announced his candidacy for President of the United States.

Perry talks about the Texas economic miracle and touts the states high level of job growth as proof that his business friendly policies are successful. While it’s true that Texas is creating jobs faster than most other states you should also know that the Texas also has the highest percentage of minimum and low wage jobs in the country.

Rick Perry boasts of low taxes and no state income tax but fails to mention that Texas also spends less per student on education than almost any other state and ranks near the bottom in high school graduation rates.

If it’s true that you can judge someone by the company they keep consider that when organizing his recent prayer rally, The Response, he partnered with such men as John C. Hagee who claims that the Catholic Church is "the Great Whore," an "apostate church" and a "false cult system." and Dr. John Benefiel who believes the Statue of Liberty is “a demonic idol”.

Quico Canseco wants seniors to pay more for medical care

2011-08-08T23:25:00.000-05:00

Quico Canseco’s recent ad claims that President Obama is advocating changes to the Medicare drug plan that would cost seniors more. Well that’s calling the kettle black since it was Mr. Canseco who voted for the Ryan budget which would have killed Medicare as we know it entirely and cost seniors $6,000 a year more.

The Ryan budget would have replaced the entire Medicare program with a voucher that paid a fixed amount with no connection to the cost of insurance premiums. So while the amount the voucher was worth would increase as overall inflation increased it would not have kept up with medical insurance increases because those costs have increased at two to three times the rate of overall inflation. In no time at all seniors would be paying $6,000 a year more than they do now and it wouldn’t stop there.

So I ask you who’s really advocating for increasing the cost of medical insurance for seniors? Canseco, that’s who.

Thanks TEA Party Republicans

2011-08-08T18:45:00.000-05:00

We all owe a debt of gratitude to TEA Party Republicans like Quico Canseco and Lamar Smith who trashed America’s historically sterling credit rating and caused a 630 point drop in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Their sheer petulance over what is normally a simple housekeeping measure that has been passed dozens of times during both Democratic and Republican administrations, notably 19 times under Reagan alone, has added further drag on our already fragile economic recovery.

Taxpayers will foot the bill for higher interest rates on our national debt while simultaneously losing billions in the stock market which will undoubtedly lead to further job losses as Americans have less money to spend. All this is brought to us by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell who promised to do everything in his power to make sure that President Obama doesn’t get re-elected.

So thank you Lamar Smith and Quico Canseco for showing America just how spiteful the TEA Party Republicans can be before the next election so we have our eyes wide open when next we vote.

Representing Americans United for Separation of Church and State in McAllen Texas

2011-08-07T16:09:00.000-05:00

Thank you all for being here to represent the millions of Texans who have been excluded by Gov. Perry’s sectarian prayer event today.

Supporters of this un-American event often claim that it is atheists and Muslims who object to it but that’s really not so. There are many Christians here in this group today and one of the most vocal criticisms of Gov. Perry’s shindig is Rev. Barry Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ and the Executive Director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State. There are over two dozen members of the Houston Clergy Council who along with Rev. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Texas Christian University believe that Rick Perry is wrong too and no one would call any of them atheists.

Rev. Lynn sent a letter to Gov. Perry June 8th urging him to step back from his exclusionary event. Here’s a brief excerpt that I think summarizes it well:
"To be blunt, you have overstepped your constitutional bounds. I am a Christian minister and would like to remind you that it is not the job of government officials to call people to pray, recommend that they fast or prod them to take part in other religious activities. That job belongs to me and my fellow clergy. We are capable of doing it without government “help” or interference. We are offended when you attempt to usurp our role.

Furthermore, in a pluralistic nation where people hold many faiths (and none), it is certainly not the job of any government official to sponsor and promote a worship service that reflects a narrow segment of our religious community."

Not only is Gov. Perry violating the spirit if not the letter of the constitution in his sponsorship of this religiously exclusionary event he is coordinating with religious groups and figures with very controversial theological ideas. The rally isn’t just exclusively Christian in nature; it’s only for certain types of Christians.

The event’s most prominent sponsor, the American Family Association, is well known for slinging extreme anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric. One of its bloggers, Bryan Fischer, says Adolf Hitler invented church-state separation and believes the United States should yield to biblical law. The AFA is also known for blaming gays and lesbians for the Holocaust and for Hurricane Katrina.

Then there is the International House of Prayer, a controversial congregation based in Grandview, Mo. The church’s founder, Mike Bickle, who claims that Oprah Winfrey is the "pastor of the Harlot Movement" a pre-cursor to the anti-christ.

And there’s Dr. John Benefiel of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network in Oklahoma City. Benefiel’s views are so outside the mainstream that he believes the Statue of Liberty is “a demonic idol”.

And let’s not forget Rev. John Hagee who claims the Catholic Church is "The Great Whore," an "apostate church," the "anti-Christ" and a "false cult system."

Most Americans do not accept these extreme views. It’s bad enough that Perry is using his government office to promote a prayer rally; it’s even worse that the one he is promoting excludes the majority of Americans.

As Kim Kamen, of the American Jewish Committee, told The Times, “There are many houses of worship here in Texas, not just Christian churches. As the leader of our state, we hope that he will bear that in mind.”

Americans United believes Perry’s sponsorship of a “Christians-only” event fails to honor our country’s religious diversity. Gov. Perry's actions are divisive, unwelcoming and constitutionally inappropriate.

Report on a conversation with White House staff on the "Debt Ceiling Deal"

2011-08-02T09:17:00.000-05:00

I had an opportunity Monday afternoon to participate in a conference call with one of the White House staff in which the “Debt Ceiling Deal” was described in some detail. Here’s what we learned:

Most important the deal raises the debt ceiling far enough that we won’t have to revisit the issue until after January 1, 2013.

Budget cuts totaling $1 trillion of which $350 billion come from Defense and $650 billion from discretionary spending will be phased in over 10 years and are backend loaded so little happens now. There will be NO CUTS to Medicare, Social Security, Medicaid, Pell Grants or other social programs that we have fought so hard to protect.

There will be a Super Committee of 12 made up of three members of each party from each house of Congress who will be charged with coming up with another $1.5 trillion in cuts to be spread over 10 years, there will be a firewall around social programs. Whatever plan 7 or more can agree on will be submitted to both houses of Congress for an up or down vote, no filibusters, no amendments. If both houses pass it then the President has an opportunity to sign it or veto it.

If the Super Committee fails to develop a plan that 7 or more members can agree upon or it fails to be passed by either house or it is vetoed by the President by January 1, 2013 then the hammer comes down and there will be $500 billion cut from Defense and $500 billion cut from discretionary spending and again there will be a firewall around social programs except that there will be a requirement to reduce Medicare fees to doctors by 2%.

I was immediately concerned because we all know that finding a doctor who takes Medicare is often difficult now and cutting fees further is certain to make that tougher. The response was that it isn’t necessary to pay less for a service, the Medicare folks could choose to offer incentives to be more efficient so that spending goes down because fewer unnecessary tests were done or some other cost saving measure could fulfill the requirement.

Another person on the call asked about whether the Defense spending cuts would come of out the VA budget or in other ways hurt veterans and the answer was that Defense cuts were focused on the Pentagon, referring to weapons and deployments etc.

There are a few points to remember when determining how you feel about the “Deal”. First, the reality is it should have been clean of all encumbrances but since the R’s decided to play chicken with our jobs and families we weren’t going to get that. Second, the “Deal” means we don’t have to revisit the issue going into the 2012 election so they can’t use the debt ceiling against again by holding it hostage in an election year. Finally, we got a minimum of $850 billion in Defense cuts over 10 years and didn’t kill any of our most precious social programs to do it. The TEA Party R’s wanted $1.2 trillion in cuts right away and they wanted to take them from Pell Grants, Medicare and Social Security but that isn’t going to happen.

I’m sure some will claim that we didn’t raise taxes on the rich but that’s going to happen anyway because the extended Bush tax cuts expire January 1, 2013. No we didn’t close corporate tax loopholes but remember that what should have happened was a clean bill, there wouldn’t have been any tax increases as part of that, there wouldn’t have been any closing of corporate tax loopholes either. Those things weren’t part of what we really wanted so there’s no reason to cry about not having them. The R's didn't get what they wanted and we didn't lose anything we worried about so in my book we won.

Now let’s go out and elect some Democrats so we can regain control of the House and return Barack Obama to the White House then we can toss this crap in the bonfire, fix the tax code and save our country from the bat shit crazies in the TEA Party and the Koch Bros.

Please pass this on.

Responding to claims that tradition justifies Gov. Perry calling for Day of Prayer

2011-07-27T14:34:00.000-05:00

In Ms. Nuckols letter “Day of prayer one of Texas’ oldest public traditions” she makes the argument that because we’ve always done it that way we can keep on doing it. That’s really odd for someone in the Republican Party which prides itself on being the party of emancipation. After all slavery was an accepted practice for nearly all of recorded history and amongst Christians and Jews alike.

Tradition doesn’t make something right, if it did Nuckols wouldn’t have the right to vote just because she’s a woman. Of course if we really want to operate on the premise that we should do things the same way we’ve always done them then we should take “In God We Trust” off our paper money because it was only added in 1957 during the height of the Red Scare.

The problem with Gov. Perry’s prayer shindig is that it isn’t just exclusively Christian in nature; it’s only for certain types of Christians. The event’s most prominent sponsor, the American Family Association, is well known for slinging extreme anti-gay and anti-Muslim rhetoric. The AFA is also known for blaming gays and lesbians for the Holocaust and for Hurricane Katrina. And there’s Dr. John Benefiel of the Heartland Apostolic Prayer Network in Oklahoma City. Benefiel’s views are so outside the mainstream that he believes the Statue of Liberty is “a demonic idol”.

Our governor should be working to make all Texans feel included whether they are a member of his religious tradition or not.

Letter responding to "freedom of religion" doesn't imply freedom from religion

2011-07-20T23:57:00.000-05:00

In Beverly Nuckols’ recent letter “A Little Perspective for Texas Atheists” she makes the absurd assertion that the First Amendment guarantee of freedom of religion does not also imply the option to choose freedom from religion.

If you walk into a pizza parlor and the sign says – “Large Pizza $9.99 choose any single topping”, does anyone really think you can’t order that pizza without a topping? Must you only select from sausage, pepperoni, ham, green peppers or black olives, isn’t no topping an option?

Regarding Gov. Perry’s shindig, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, led by Reverend Barry Lynn, has this to say on the issue: “AU believes Perry’s sponsorship of a “Christians-only” event fails to honor our country’s religious diversity. His actions are divisive, unwelcoming and constitutionally inappropriate.”

Rev. Lynn isn’t the only faith leader to take an opposing position. Over two dozen members of the Houston Clergy Council as well as Rev. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle, Associate Professor of Practical Theology at Texas Christian University and others believe that Rick Perry is wrong too and no one would call them atheists.

More students, fewer teachers - Republicans attack public education

2011-07-11T09:56:00.000-05:00

The SCUC ISD will have 19 fewer teachers available in the 2011-2012 school year while enrolling 538 more students due to state budget cuts according to Superintendent Greg Gibson. In addition the Board of Trustees made the highly controversial decision to eliminate the District Police force and has reduced the number of administrators by 6 along with other cost saving measures that became necessary when our state legislators saw fit to reduce funding by $450 or 11% per student.

Now you’ll hear from our Representative in the state legislature, John Kuempel, and even the Governor that they’ve actually added $1.6 billion to the elementary and secondary education budget but what they don’t tell you is that’s what it takes just to cover the increase in the number of Texas students with 89% of last year’s per student rate.

So our schools will serve 538 more kids which calls for 18 more teachers but instead we’ll have 19 less. That’s going to leave us 37 teachers short of the number we should have. This comes on top of higher performance requirements and even more days of state mandated testing during this budget cycle.

Apparently John Kuempel and his Republican colleagues’ conservative philosophy doesn’t include investing in the future of our children and our state. If you’re not happy with your kids and grandkids getting shortchanged on their education remember whose fault it is when you vote in November 2012.

Jobs, taxes and bringing the troops home will fix the budget deficit

2011-07-03T18:39:00.000-05:00

Betty Clifford’s tirade is simply too much to ignore. Any economist whether left, right or center will tell you that governments aren’t like families when it comes to budgets. We were paying down our debts before President Bush and his cronies decided that the ultra-wealthy deserved even bigger tax breaks than they already had. So yes, one of the steps to reducing our budget deficit will have to be letting the Bush tax cuts expire. Another step will be to end the occupation of Iraq, end the war in Afghanistan and bring all our troops home.

Most importantly because it is both a major cause of our deficit and the damage it is doing to families all over this nation we must focus on creating jobs. Now I’m not talking about more tax cuts to “stimulate” big companies because there’s plenty of evidence that doesn’t work, just look at the Bush years where we had big tax cuts and no change in unemployment. No, I’m talking about investing in the infrastructure that we’ve allowed to crumble all over this nation like the interstate highway bridge in Minneapolis that collapsed killing 13 people August 1, 2007.

If we put people back to work they’ll spend their paychecks which will increase demand at stores all over the country and they’ll hire more staff and all of them will pay more taxes. Then we’ll also have the benefits of resurfaced highways and replacement bridges to deliver the goods that make the economy run.

If Republicans really wanted to protect the Constitution they'd just do it

2011-06-26T21:10:00.000-05:00

The president I voted for is not above the law and it is up to Congress to see it that he obeys the constitution. Under Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution only Congress has the power to declare war. The War Powers Resolution of 1973 requires the President to notify Congress within 48 hours of committing armed forces to military action and forbids armed forces from remaining for more than 60 days, with a further 30 day withdrawal period, without an authorization of the use of military force or a declaration of war.

The United States House of Representatives, controlled by Republicans, has failed to either authorize the war in Libya or to hold President Obama accountable, that makes them both wrong. It seems that Representative Boehner (R-OH) as Speaker of the House and Eric Cantor (R-VA) as majority leader find it more useful politically to complain about the President’s actions than to actually take the steps necessary to do something about it.

This Congress like every other that has had the chance to weigh in on military action since 1973, has abdicated its authority and allowed the sitting president to make war as he sees fit. If the Republican leadership in the House doesn’t have the political courage to force the issue then the cowards should at least stop whining about it.

99.5% pure water can kill you

2011-06-24T18:14:00.000-05:00

In his letter “Dismiss Fracking Myths” Eric Milito says that the hydraulic fracturing fluids are “99.5 percent water and sand” or .5% other chemicals. I suppose this is intended to persuade us that regardless of what else is in the fluid it can’t be bad because there is so little in it.

I just checked the packaging on the Amdro I bought yesterday to kill the ants climbing into my home and it says the 99.12% of the material is “inert ingredients” or .88% poison yet the instructions carefully caution the user not to get any on their skin. It also says not to let animals graze on the grass where Amdro is spread and don’t eat vegetables that may have been dusted with it.

One of the contaminants that hydraulic fracturing may let loose is benzene which is a known carcinogen and can cause leukemia among other forms of cancer. The Environmental Protection Agency has set 5 parts per billion as the maximum permissible level of benzene in drinking water. That’s approximately equal to one drop in 8,000 gallons of water or 5 drops in the neighborhood swimming pool.

I don’t know about you but I don’t find Mr. Milito’s nonchalant attitude toward contaminating our water supply all that reassuring.

Weiner resigned now it's time for Clarence Thomas to go also

2011-06-22T17:02:00.000-05:00

The media went crazy for weeks over naughty pictures Rep. Antony Weiner (D-NY) sent via twitter and now he has resigned. Why hasn’t the bigger scandal of Justice Clarence Thomas’ unethical and illegal behavior had as much or more attention given the power he has as one of only nine Supreme Court Justices?

52 years ago Justice Abe Fortas resigned in disgrace for accepting gifts from wealthy patrons who had interest in cases heard before the Supreme Court. Thomas has taken gifts valued in the tens of thousands of dollars from Harlen Crow and the American Enterprise Institute just to name a few. Since presenting its gift the American Enterprise Institute has filed three briefs in cases before the Supreme Court and Thomas has ruled in their favor every time. Whether or not it was quid pro quo the appearance of a conflict should have been enough for Thomas to recuse himself but he didn’t.

Clarence Thomas also lied when he repeatedly failed to disclose his wife’s hundreds of thousands of dollars in earnings from her job at the Heritage Foundation as he is legally required to do. So why is it that the media in this country is far more interested in satisfying our prurient interests than it is in doing its job as America’s watch dog?

Now that you know about Justice Thomas’ lies, unethical and illegal behavior will you call for him to resign like Anthony Weiner and Abe Fortas before him?

Dismantling the Social Safety Net - A Republican Theme

2011-06-14T15:08:00.000-05:00

Not only do Lamar Smith (R-TX) and the Republican Party want to destroy Medicare which provides guaranteed health care to millions of American seniors, now Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) has filed a bill to dismantle Social Security as well by turning it into a privatized system. Sessions calls it the SAFE Act but it should be labeled the UNSAFE Act due to its failure to protect seniors by ensuring that they have enough income to avoid poverty in their last years. Just think the benefits guaranteed by our current system would instead become bets in the casino known as Wall Street.

I don’t know about you but my private investments in mutual funds still haven’t fully recovered from the losses caused by the Great Recession. Let’s not forget that these are the same folks who also believe that Wall Street is over-regulated even though we’ve had to jail Bernie Madoff and numerous others for stealing from investors who will never receive full restitution. Even Alan Greenspan now admits that lax regulation of Wall Street didn’t work.

Do you want to trust the financing of your last years to that bunch of sharks? Are you willing to risk having nothing at 78 years old?

Reponse to letter to the editor in the Herald-Zeitung

2011-06-12T17:35:00.000-05:00

Arvin Brehm’s recent letter to the editor he says, “Obama took $500 billion from Medicare to pay for the so-called health care bill that the Democrats passed”. That is a patently false assertion, the $500 billion referred to is from restraining growth in spending as shown here by Factcheck.org http://www.factcheck.org/2010/08/misdirection-from-crossroads-gps/

“Growth in future spending of the program is being restrained to less than it would be under current law, over 10 years. But seniors’ basic Medicare benefits packages wouldn’t be cut – in fact, the law doesn’t allow it: Section 3601 says: ‘Nothing in the provisions of, or amendments made by, this Act shall result in a reduction of guaranteed benefits under title XVIII of the Social Security Act’ (the part of the U.S. Code that establishes the Medicare program).”

The savings comes from reducing payments to for profit insurance companies who offer Medicare Advantage which provides additional benefits and often unnecessary inducements like health club memberships. The insurance companies get an extra 15% above what Medicare would pay for similar benefits.

Brehm also takes issue with my claim that the Ryan plan is terrible but then doesn’t refute any of my reasons for saying that. The Ryan plan makes no provision for requiring private insurers to cover people like me with several chronic conditions or those with a history of heart attacks or other acute medical issues. The Ryan plan would cause millions of seniors to lose access to any kind of health insurance at all.

Religious right wrong again - many faithful support Separation of Church and State

2011-06-08T14:56:00.000-05:00

In all of the hullabaloo over prayer at the Medina Valley High School graduation ceremony much was made about the young man who instigated the legal challenge being agnostic. Attorney General Dewhurst was quoted in this paper claiming “Coinciding with these concerns about the erosion of values have been attempts by atheists and agnostics to use courts to eliminate from the public landscape any and all references to God whatsoever”.

Well I’ve got news for your readers while Mr. Schultz is unabashedly agnostic the organization he turned to for help and which eventually filed the lawsuit is headed by Reverend Barry Lynn, an ordained minister in the United Church of Christ. Rev. Lynn supports separation of church and state on the grounds that it protects his faith from interference by government. http://www.au.org/about/authors/barry-lynn.html

Last month the San Antonio chapter of Americans United held a celebration of the First Amendment at which Rev. Lynn addressed Freedom of Religion. In addition to Rev. Lynn there was a panel of members of the San Antonio faith community including Rabbi Sam Weiss, Rev. Paul Zeise (a Lutheran) and Dr. Javier Elizondo, Professor of Biblical/Theological Studies at Baptist University of the Americas. All supported the separation of church and state that Dewhurst and his radical right supporters dismiss.

Next time anyone says that only atheists and agnostics support separation of church and state ask one of the fine members of the local faith community for their view.

Texas Republicans, are they really patriots?

2011-06-07T08:13:00.000-05:00

Republicans including our own Representative John Kuempel often talk about being patriots, they talk the talk but do they walk the walk? They’ve cut the budget and setup a tax system in which there is little to be gained by raising local tax rates beyond a certain point because the state will just shift funds away from that district.

One of the grievances against Mexico in the Texas Declaration of Independence says: “It has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources, (the public domain,) and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self government.”

The Texas Constitution, Article 7, Section 1 says “A general diffusion of knowledge being essential to the preservation of the liberties and rights of the people, it shall be the duty of the Legislature of the State to establish and make suitable provision for the support and maintenance of an efficient system of public free schools.”

It sounds to me like the citizens who wrote Texas Declaration of Independence and the Texas Constitution felt very strongly that educating Texans is an obligation not only to the youth of this state but to all its citizens. People always think protecting freedom is just about the military, but really it starts and ends with free public education for all.

So ask yourselves is John Kuempel really a patriot?

Religious right starts new war on contraception

2011-05-31T19:29:00.000-05:00

Years ago I’d heard from several “liberals” who I thought were crackpots that the religious right didn’t just want to do away with abortion they really wanted to eliminate contraception all together because if a woman is married she should have as many children as God gave her. If a woman isn’t married she shouldn’t be having sex anyway and if she did and got pregnant that too was God’s plan.

Then I saw State Representative Wayne Christian in an interview with a reporter from the Texas Tribune say “Well of course it’s a war on birth control, on abortions, on everything. That’s what family planning is supposed to be about.” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UA75-PY5muk I almost fell out of my chair.

Some call this a war on women, I can’t disagree but I think it is also another example of why the separation of church and state is so important. There may be religious reasons to advocate for no contraception and that is the privilege of those who believe that way because our Constitution insures Freedom of Religion. At the same time our Constitution also provides protection from religious interference in state matters and no one has the right to push their religious convictions on anyone else in this country.

There simply is no social case for the Republican Party’s war on contraception.

Lamar Smith responds in the SA Express News and my response

2011-05-28T15:47:00.000-05:00

Smith's letter:
A recent letter to the editor wrongly accused me of wanting to end Medicare. That is false. The House budget would save Medicare to ensure it is available for future generations. We know that if we do nothing Medicare will become insolvent in 10 years, according to recent estimates from the Congressional Budget Office.

Under this budget proposal, anyone 55 or older would keep their current Medicare system for the rest of their life. And for those 54 and under, the Medicare system would be saved by providing retirees with the ability to choose from a menu of government-supported options.

For the sake of our seniors, we cannot afford to wait to fix Medicare's impending insolvency. Those who oppose the House budget have not proposed any solutions of their own.

http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/letters_to_the_editor/article/Your-Turn-May-28-2011-1399243.php

My response:

Congressman Smith’s letter published May 28 falsely states that he’s protecting Medicare when in fact he’s ending it for anyone 54 and younger. While a rose by any other name would smell just as sweet, calling a voucher program Medicare is disingenuous at best. Mr. Smith fails to inform us that the program he voted for will only pay a fixed amount to private insurers who can charge any amount they want for any level of coverage they to choose to offer and deny coverage to anyone they wish all in the name of making a profit.

I hope regular readers will note that he didn’t bother to respond to the question posed in the original letter. “I’m 44 years old and can’t get private coverage now due to several medical conditions; what insurance company do they think will want to cover me when I’m 67?”

There are any number of ways to address the projected funding shortfall including raising premiums, raising co-pays and forcefully prosecuting Medicare fraud. Mr. Smith needs to understand that handing us steaming longhorn droppings and calling it roses doesn’t make it roses.

Lamar Smith doesn't remember voting to kill Medicare last month

2011-05-19T15:14:00.000-05:00

Wednesday evening at a Town Hall hosted by WOAI a constituent asked Congressman Lamar Smith why he voted to end Medicare and give more tax breaks to the rich when the majority of Americans were opposed. Smith responded: “What vote was that?” The constituent’s reply was: “Aren’t you in the House?”

What a short memory Smith must have, the vote to pass the Ryan budget bill occurred on April 15. Congressman Smith and 234 other Republicans voted to end Medicare and give away tax breaks to the wealthy. Since then Smith has claimed that ending Medicare is necessary to protect our children’s future when in fact it actually makes things worse for their parents.

Smith and Ryan claim that the voucher provided in lieu of actual insurance coverage will allow seniors to seek private insurance. I’m 44 years old and can’t get private coverage now due to several medical conditions; what insurance company do they think will want to cover me when I’m 67? On the odd chance that seniors can find coverage on the private market what makes them so sure that the voucher will be enough to cover that insurance?

The election was all about jobs, jobs, jobs so why did we elect Republicans?

2011-05-19T00:35:00.000-05:00

In the last election the American people indicated they wanted a focus on jobs and the economy. They were so unhappy about the state of the economy and shortage of jobs that they threw out the Democratic majority in the US House and gave the Republican Party a super-majority of 101 seats in the state House. With jobs and the economy as an overwhelming mandate what did we get?

A congressional push for a five-year, $100 million plan to pour taxpayer money into a religious school voucher scheme in Washington, D.C.

A vote reaffirming the importance of "In God We Trust" as the national motto, and a call for its display in all public schools and other public buildings.

A vote to end federal support for family planning.

A federal budget bill that would end Medicare.

A state budget bill that damages public education by reducing funding 10 to 12 %. We’re already 49^th in per student spending on education.

Sharia Law bills that attempt to protect us from something that we’re already protected from by the United States Constitution’s First Amendment.

A bill to force invasive, medically unnecessary sonograms on women who wish to legally terminate their pregnancies.

I could go on but by now I’m sure you’ve noticed that there are no proposals to actually generate jobs either directly or indirectly, in fact by cutting the state education budget Texas will lose tens of thousands of jobs. So exactly why was it that Republicans were elected?

Are you sure that Republican Party values really align with yours?

2011-05-15T23:36:00.000-05:00

Lately I’ve heard from quite a few well-meaning people that say they vote Republican because the party generally espouses their values. These conversations have led me to wonder to which values they’re referring. Do they mean carving a hole in education budgets across the state such that a whole generation of Texans receives an inferior education? After all Texas already spends less per student on education than almost every state but Mississippi.

Do the values of these well-meaning people require such extensive cuts to the state's Medicaid program that seniors, in need of daily medical care which their families are unable to provide, be thrown out on the street in the name of low taxes for millionaires?

While one may argue over when life begins based on one’s interpretation of the bible or science or some combination thereof; are the values of these well-meaning people really such that making abortions almost impossible to get for low income women more important than the non-abortion related women’s health care services provided by Planned Parenthood which are 97% of its budget?

Are the profits of Halliburton and other energy companies valued more highly than the lives and health of people who live near virtually unregulated gas drilling sites where you can ignite the water from your kitchen faucet with a match? All these and more are brought to us by the Republican Party of Texas whose values you say align more closely with yours, I’d like to know if you’re sure about that?

Republicans claim savings as they let tax cheats off the hook for 9 times as much

2011-04-17T00:41:00.000-05:00

Last week the Republicans were crowing about the $38 billion they cut out of the 2011 federal budget, but what they didn’t tell you was that they’re also letting $330 billion in taxes go uncollected according to the Government Accountability Office. That’s right not only does G.E. legally not owe any income taxes on its $5.1 billion in U.S. profits because of loopholes in the tax code but the Republicans in Congress don’t even want to try to collect money that is legally owed.

How do they do it? Simple, they just don’t allow the IRS the requested funds to hire more agents. Rather than hire agents, a job that has a return of $10 for every $1 spent on salary the Congressional Republicans claim they’re saving $38 billion instead of bringing in $330 billion from tax cheats.

Of course most of that money is in the hands of high rollers such as the gentleman with a multi-million dollar home and luxury cars who owes $1 million in back taxes. Someone please explain to me how this is fiscally responsible.

Response to letter claiming that government hurts the economy

2011-04-15T20:59:00.000-05:00

In his letter Bill Jones’ is right that government protection diminishes our freedom, but is the freedom of a company to pollute the soil, water and air more important than the freedom of the local citizens to breathe clean air and drink clean water? I’m quite sure that the former residents of Love Canal in Niagra Falls, New York feel that their freedom to be safe from toxic materials outranks a corporation’s freedom to dump it. After all Hooker Chemical secretly buried toxic waste that then polluted the land and water so bad that it forced residents to evacuate. New York State Health Department Commissioner David Axelrod stated that Love Canal would long be remembered as a “national symbol of a failure to exercise a sense of concern for future generations.”

I doubt the families of the miners who died in the explosion at the Upper Big Branch mine think Massey Energy should continue to be free to risk the lives of miners. I doubt that the employees of Enron whose 401k’s were invested in the company’s stock think they shouldn’t have been protected from their CEO’s manipulation of stock values. Banks risked their client’s money in casino like gambles on bad assets crashing our economy in 2008 putting millions of Americans out of work. We’re still reeling from the effects as Texas is about to slash funding for education.

History shows time and again that strong regulation protects Americans and keeps our economy healthy.

Response to letter to the editor about going back to limited government

2011-04-12T22:13:00.000-05:00

In Romelio Carta’s letter of a few days ago he blames loans
to low income individuals for the banking collapse when in
fact low income individuals have a very strong record of
paying their mortgages. What actually imperiled the banking
system was predatory lenders doing a hard sell on variable
rate mortgages to unsophisticated buyers. In addition there
were plenty of financial incentives to loan money to
unqualified buyers in order to collect the up front fees and
the lending institutions knew they had no intention of
keeping the loans because they would resell them in the form
of a package that investors would buy.

Mr. Carta’s solution for our economic problems is: “Let's go
back to limited government and the free market capitalism.
This system brought the United States to be the most
prosperous nation in human history?” Unfortunately free
market capitalism is exactly what caused the banking
collapse that imperiled our economy and obliterated the jobs
of millions of Americans by failing to regulate the actions
of all too many banks, mortgage brokers and insurers.

Our economy has been strongest when it was heavily regulated
in order to protect individual investors. Remember that the
best known banking collapse “The Great Depression” was due
to failure to regulate banking activities, over the last two
decades the regulations put in place as a result of what was
learned from that devastating experience were systematically
removed and we once again have suffered another collapse.
Coincidence? I think not.

Constitutional protections more robust than anti-Sharia Law bills

2011-04-08T23:44:00.000-05:00

HB 911 by state Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, and HB 3027 by state Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, attempt to prevent the imposition of Islamic law in Texas. I would commend them for their concern for the sanctity of our laws except that we and the rest of the 50 states are already protected by a much more robust measure known as the Constitution. Yes, that marvelous document which was read in the U.S. House of Representatives at the opening of the current session already protects us from the imposition of Sharia Law or Jewish Law or rulings by the Catholic Pope.

The First Amendment says in part “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. The Supreme Court has ruled on more than one occasion that this amounts to a separation of church and state. Unfortunately the very same people so concerned about imposition of Sharia Law seek to undermine the protections offered through separation of church and state by claiming that the United State is in fact a Christian nation and our laws are guided by the Bible.

Once we open ourselves to this notion we’re just a step away from the very same type of theocracy that people like Leo Berman and Randy Weber claim they want to protect us from. If you really want to protect Texas and the United States then you must support the Constitution’s protections by supporting separation of church and state.

No Representation Without Taxation

2011-03-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

Last year G.E. earned $5.1 billion in profits from U.S. operations alone and yet didn’t pay one penny in U.S. taxes. David Kocieniewski of the NY Times reported, “Its extraordinary success is based on an aggressive strategy that mixes fierce lobbying for tax breaks and innovative accounting that enables it to concentrate its profits offshore.” President Obama has selected G.E.’s chief executive, Jeffrey Immelt, as the leader of his Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.

Our President has rewarded the C.E.O. of our nation’s largest company which pays no federal taxes with a position which will economic develop policy. The single greatest problem we face in the United States is that big business has far too much influence with our federal and state legislators and our President has seen fit to give them even more.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt once said of the influence of big money: “We had to struggle with the old enemies of peace — business and financial monopoly, speculation, reckless banking, class antagonism, sectionalism, war profiteering. They had begun to consider the Government of the United States as a mere appendage to their own affairs. We know now that Government by organized money is just as dangerous as Government by organized mob.”

President Obama has failed to see the damage that the influence of big money is damaging our democracy. The people of this country must rally to the cry of “No representation without taxation!”

Letter to the editor responding to calls to defund Planned Parenthood

2011-03-29T19:57:00.002-05:00

In Beverly Nuckols letter of March 28 she seems quite concerned that her tax dollars shouldn’t be spent on safe, legal medical procedures for women. Republicans in Congress want to deny government employees insurance coverage for that same medical procedure because tax dollars pay for that insurance.

I want them consider something similar for men. As a tax payer I am offended that my tax dollars and insurance premiums go to pay for penile implants and erectile dysfunction drugs for 70 year old unmarried men.

In addition since Ms. Nuckols will certainly justify her objection to abortions on religious grounds then to be logically consistent she should consider that if God intended everyone to be able to procreate then they would, therefore since some men can’t it must be because God intended it that way and we have no business intervening with modern medicine. Of course by extension then all of modern medicine is questionable. Should we stop repairing defective heart valves in newborns? What about surgery to correct cleft palates and hare lips? Should we stop treating cancer?

I’m 81 years old and I’ve seen a lot over the years, I find Ms. Nuckols desire to force her version of morality down the throats of everyone else particularly offensive.

What marriage tradition are they defending?

2011-03-27T14:32:00.002-05:00

The “family values” crowd promoted and passed a law years ago called the Defense of Marriage Act; exactly why they thought marriage needed defending I never understood. Those same folks claim that traditional marriage is the only form of marriage that is acceptable but I don’t think they really know what tradition they’re speaking of since marriage traditions have changed many times over the centuries.
•    The one from Book of Genesis when family values meant polygamy and concubines?
•    Or the marriages of the Middle Ages when women were traded like cattle by their fathers and weddings were too bawdy for church?
•    Or the traditions of 1850 when marriage was customarily between one man and one woman-or-girl of age 11 and up? Today we call that pedophilia.
•    Or are we really seeking to protect a more modern vision of traditional marriage, say from the 1950s when it was illegal for whites to wed blacks or Hispanics?
•    Or the traditional marriage of the late 1960s when couples were routinely excommunicated for marrying outside their faith?
In 1530, Martin Luther wrote on page one of his publication “Von den Ehesachen”: “No one indeed can deny that marriage is an external worldly thing, like clothes and food, house and home, subject to worldly authority, as shown by so many imperial laws governing it.”
The truth is that marriage has always been more a secular tradition than a religious one. It’s time to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act.

Letter to the editor responding to calls to defund Planned Parenthood

2011-03-23T09:29:00.001-05:00

In his letter “Planned Parenthood should not receive taxpayer money” Robert Cornwell urges defunding Planned Parenthood because they offer safe, legal medical procedures. Apparently Mr. Cornwell either doesn’t know or doesn’t care that Planned Parenthood provides a wide range of reproductive health services to women who would otherwise have no such care at all.

Planned Parenthood programs help to prevent nearly one million unintended pregnancies each year, almost half of which would otherwise end in abortion. For every public dollar invested in family planning, $3.74 is saved in Medicaid-related costs. That’s savings to both federal and state governments.

Planned Parenthood and similar programs provide lifesaving and preventive care to millions of women. In 2009 alone they performed 2.2 million Pap tests and 2.3 million breast exams. If Mr. Cornwell gets his way more women will experience unintended pregnancies and face potentially life-threatening cancer and other diseases that could have been prevented.

According to a January 2011 CBS/New York Times survey found that by a margin of 67 percent to 27 percent, Americans oppose cuts for health care and education as a means of reducing the deficit.

Finally, the undercover videotape session Mr. Cornwell refers to was produced by a group that even Glenn Beck doesn’t find credible so consider the source before passing judgment.

Letter to Representative Kuempel debunking the myth that school district administrative staffs have "exploded over the last decade"

2011-03-15T22:39:00.001-05:00

Representative John Kuempel
P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768
Fax 512-480-0391

Dear Representative Kuempel,

Thank you for taking the time to meet with our group from Guadalupe County Monday. We appreciate hearing directly from you what is happening in the legislature regarding education funding and the state budget. You mentioned that one of the things that school districts needed to do was to reduce administrative positions because “the percentage of administrators vs classroom teachers has exploded over the last decade.” You’ve been misinformed, the Texas Education Agency’s Academic Excellence Indicator System shows both the percentage of teachers and administrators have changed less than one percent in the last decade. I urge you to confirm the information provided below and not repeat that myth so you aren’t accused of misleading your constituents.

Source: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2000/state.html

Source: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/perfreport/aeis/2009/state.html

In closing I will reiterate our desire to see education funding equal the last biennium and total use of the Rainy Day Fund. As a native of South Louisiana who has lived through my share of hurricanes, if it isn’t raining now then I don’t know what a Texas hurricane would look like.

GOP mess in Texas - published in the Seguin Gazette

2011-03-11T08:46:00.000-06:00

The Texas Education Agency projected in their February 22, 2011 report that due to cuts in state funding for education Guadalupe County will lose about $9.5 million for fiscal year 2012. These funding cuts will translate into the loss of 237 school district employees in Guadalupe based on the average Texas school employee salary. Even worse than that is the projected economic impact on the private sector where the Center for Public Policy Priorities reports an expected loss of 331 jobs in Guadalupe. That means nearly 570 more Guadalupe residents unemployed.

While many believe that this is all due to a bad economy a little research will show you that in reality our governor and the Republican controlled legislature have created this fiscal disaster.

They've cut taxes on the rich and covered the budget shortfall by raiding dedicated funds like the gas tax which is supposed to pay for roads and bridges but has instead been dropped into the general fund. Now that the dedicated fund is essentially broke Gov. Perry wants to toll every road in sight.

To recap our Governor and his Republican colleagues in the state legislature have given away the store and now they're willing to force the county to cut over 237 school teachers, bus drivers and cafeteria workers as well as let our roads and bridges crumble all in the name of lower taxes for a few rich friends.

I wonder how many of those unemployed teachers will lose their homes to foreclosure.

Texas Republican's budget to cause tens of thousands of teacher layoffs

2011-03-06T01:05:00.000-06:00

Nearly 2800 Guadalupe and Comal employees are about to lose their jobs. The Texas Education Agency projected in their February 22, 2011 report that due to cuts in state funding for education Comal County and Guadalupe County will lose about $47 million for fiscal year 2012. These funding cuts will translate into the loss of nearly 1150 school district employees based on the average Texas school employee salary. Even worse than that is the projected economic impact on the private sector where the Center for Public Policy Priorities reports an expected loss of 1630 employees.

While many believe that this is all due to a bad economy a little research will show you that in reality our Governor and the Republican controlled legislature have created this fiscal disaster. They’ve cut taxes on the rich and covered the budget shortfall by raiding dedicated funds like the gas tax which is supposed to pay for roads and bridges but has instead been dropped into the general fund. Now that the dedicated fund is essentially broke Gov. Perry wants to toll every road in sight.

To recap our Governor and his Republican colleagues in the state legislature have given away the store and now they’re willing to force the counties to cut over 1150 school teachers, bus drivers and cafeteria workers as well as let our roads and bridges crumble all in the name of lower taxes for a few rich friends.

I wonder how many of those unemployed teachers will lose their homes to foreclosure.

Letter to Congressman Cuellar regarding his vote against cutting the bloated Pentagon budget

2011-02-20T17:50:00.000-06:00

February 20, 2011

The Honorable Henry Cuellar

336 Cannon H.O.B.
Washington, DC 20515
fax: 202-225-1641

Dear Congressman Cuellar,

I’m stunned that you voted “no” on the amendment offered by Representatives Barbara Lee and Pete Stark (No. 141) to the continuing resolution that would have insisted that the Pentagon budget be cut back to the level of FY 2008. You’ve previously supported efforts to reduce federal government spending yet when you had an opportunity to really accomplish it you back off.

If you are looking for ways to reduce the deficit, military spending should be the first place you look. The U.S. spends more on our military than the next 18 nations combined, are you actually concerned that we couldn’t defend ourselves with a lot less. Let’s be clear, we have over 700 acknowledged military bases on foreign soil and hundreds of thousands of troops manning them. We also continue to build Cold War era weapons systems while also fighting an illegal war in Iraq and an unnecessary one in Afghanistan. If you really want to be a deficit hawk it’s past time we brought home all our troops from Iraq and that includes the mercenaries we euphemistically call “security contractors”. We need to rapidly phase out our military presence in Afghanistan and cut the number of overseas bases in half.

Many members of Congress from both major political parties have insisted that the Pentagon should not be exempted from spending cuts as Congress works to reduce the federal budget deficit. Remember President Eisenhower’s warning of April 16, 1953, before the American Society of Newspaper Editors:
“Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children . . . This is not a way of life at all in any sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.”

I hope that you will look for future opportunities to reduce the out-of-control Pentagon budget. I would like to learn why you voted against this amendment.

Sincerely,

Fordham Institute gives Texas SBOE a "D" for History standards

2011-02-16T13:53:00.002-06:00

If the Fordham Institute, a conservative think tank, supported by the likes of the Walton family and the Hoover Institute thinks the State Board of Education did a terrible job on history standards you know it’s bad.

This is how the Fordham Institute views the Texas curriculum standards: “Complex historical issues are obscured with blatant politicizing throughout the document. Biblical influences on America’s founding are exaggerated, if not invented. The complicated but undeniable history of separation of church and state is flatly dismissed.”

Fordham describes the way the standards cover racial integration after the end of slavery this way, “During and after Reconstruction, there is no mention of the Black Codes, the Ku Klux Klan, or sharecropping. The term ‘Jim Crow’ never appears. Incredibly, racial segregation is mentioned only in a passing reference to the 1948 integration of the armed forces.” You’d think we never had any racism whatsoever until we solved it all in 1948.

They gave us a D and we in District 5 have Ken Mercer to thank for that. I hope the voters who re-elected him over an experienced college professor, Rebecca Bell-Metereau are happy with their choice. For those of us who voted to replace him there is a silver lining to the state’s budget crisis, at least Texas won’t be buying any books using the new standards anytime soon.

Response to a letter to the editor in the New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

2011-02-12T22:44:00.000-06:00

Jim Alston’s letter "Balanced Budget Can Be Achieved Without Raising Taxes" claims all can be fixed just by cutting spending. Anyone who owns a car or a home knows what happens when you cut spending so much that you don’t maintain what you already have, the car stops running and the house falls down around your ears.

Hubert Humphrey, our 38th Vice President, is quoted as saying “It was once said that the moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly; and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped”.

The proposed 33% cut to Medicaid endanger the sick, needy and handicapped. The similar proposed cuts to education will damage the lives and income potential of the children of our state for a generation. The government of Texas is failing Humphrey’s test. When any government fails such a test it is incumbent on the people to replace that government.

2012 can’t come soon enough.

Remembering the real Ronald Reagan

2011-02-08T00:15:00.000-06:00

In all the hoopla over the centennial of Ronald Reagan’s birth published in this newspaper and others during the past week I’ve seen nothing about his stated dream of a nuclear free world which both our Texas senators recently made every effort to derail by voting against the New Start Treaty.

There was also no word on Reagan’s support for the murderous right-wing Contra’s in Nicaragua whom he financed by selling arms to Iran in violation of U.S. law. Nor was there mention of his funding and training of the right-wing Guatemalan military, which a United Nations commission found to be a "key factor" in that military committing "acts of genocide" causing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of indigenous Mayans and many other nonviolent left-wing activists.

No one wrote that it was under Reagan that the United States armed and supported Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in his aggressive war against Iran, which led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people. Those actions, it should be noted, embittered citizens of both countries against the United States. And let us not forget that it was his administration which helped lay the groundwork for Al Qaeda by financing and training an Islamist militant movement in Afghanistan and Pakistan aimed at fighting the Soviet Union.

So yes let’s all remember Ronald Reagan just so long as we remember who he really was.

More on Separation of Church and State

2011-02-05T18:30:00.000-06:00

Steve Mis and I agree on one thing “I and those who agree with me believe in the Constitution” we unfortunately understand The Constitution to mean different things. There’s a lot that The Constitution doesn’t say but is implied and left open to future interpretation so as to keep the U.S. Constitution brief and flexible enough to be useful over time. The Courts have repeatedly ruled that any act by any member of government when acting in their official capacity, that means dog catcher on up to U.S. Senator, which favors one religion over another is unconstitutional based on the establishment clause. The key here is that in order for the individual’s freedom to say a prayer to be restricted they must be acting in their official government capacity. So Mr. Mis’ concern that those who believe as I do want to prevent him from expressing his religious beliefs in public is unfounded.

Regarding his suggestion that I implied he’s a bigot, I’m glad to hear that he isn’t but wasn’t my actual point. People are often uncomfortable when they feel that they are different from all the others in the room. Fairness suggests that we not drive that wedge further by offering a sectarian prayer. One of the enduring principles that makes the United States the greatest country in the world is that we believe that all are created equal and hence we all belong. Let us not allow anything to make members of our community feel otherwise.

Budget shortfall a good reason to revisit mandatory standardized testing

2011-01-30T18:10:00.000-06:00

Once again Texas school districts are being asked to do more with less, this time it’s due to a new testing regime mandated by House Bill 3 from the 2009 legislative session. The dreaded TAKS tests were dropped but the replacement isn’t just more demanding it is more testing.

Currently the TAKS tests require about 25 school days per year but when the new State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR™) testing regime is fully implemented it will require an astounding 45 days of testing. That’s one quarter of the entire school year. I’ve heard from a school administrator friend that when this was announced at a conference the only people smiling were from Pearson Testing Services because they were seeing dollar signs from all the lucrative contracts that will surely ensue.

While the old business adage that “you can’t manage what you don’t measure” is certainly true, more testing doesn’t equal more learning. Given Texas’ looming $27 billion budget shortfall and the fact that much of that shortage will be made up by cuts to school funding now would be good time for our legislators to stop and rethink this unfunded mandate.

Reponse to letter to the editor regarding separation of church and state

2011-01-23T16:50:00.000-06:00

In his letter “Writer is wrong about court decisions on separation of church and state” Mr. Mis argues that since the Supreme Court found slavery constitutional one can’t use their decisions as the basis for governing. Mis should remember that at the time the Constitution considered slaves only three fifths of a person but I suppose he should be forgiven that error since the Republican House reading of the Constitution conveniently skipped over that since repealed section.

Mis refers to (Zorach v. Clauson) to support his position but all one must do is read the majority opinion to understand that it in fact supports separation of church and state. The 1952 case involved New York City schools allowing students to sign out of school to attend religious instruction or devotions off campus. From the majority opinion written by Justice Douglas: “The public schools are merely accommodating the people of faith who want to receive religious education. Lack of cooperation by the state towards religion should be construed as hostility.” That’s not so far from allowing kids to sign out of school to go to the orthodontist.

I have only one question for Mr. Mis and anyone who thinks as he does, how would you feel if the prayers offered at the next meeting of the City Council you attend were offered to Hindu gods, Native American spirits or pagan earth mother? After all if you have the right to say a sectarian prayer so do they.

Reponse to January 20 Express News letter to the editor

2011-01-23T16:06:00.000-06:00

Durand Waters’ letter “Losing our Republic” seems to pin the blame for the nation’s ills on the roughly 17% of the public who aren’t Christian or Jewish. It’s awfully arrogant to claim that Christians and Jews have a monopoly on morality when we have such examples as the disgraced Ted Haggard, Jim Bakker defrauding his flock and the Catholic Church hiding child molesters.

If there’s any small minority that can be blamed for the loss of the Republic it’s the 1% super rich like the Koch brothers who through their direct and indirect campaign donations and lobbying have suborned the government that is supposed to be, as Abraham Lincoln famously stated in the Gettysburg Address, “of the people, by the people and for the people”.

Waters asks if there’s any better way to pledge allegiance to the Constitution than by placing our hand on the Bible? The answer is of course that there is, especially if you’re one of the 17% that is moral without being Christian or Jewish. On the other hand what good is that pledge if the “monied interests” that Andrew Jackson feared would overwhelm the nation are the real masters.

Letter to the editor: Calling out Texas Republican leadership for failure to fix the budget

2011-01-21T22:01:00.001-06:00

After ten years of Republican control of Texas state government and calls for small efficient government we’ve gotten a $27 billion state budget shortfall and nothing but talk about cutting spending. If there was really such waste in our state budget for the last decade why didn’t Texas Republicans deal with it earlier? The answer is there isn’t much waste in our already proportionally small budget but since the Republicans leadership hasn’t seen fit to address the structural problems of our tax code they need a scapegoat.

This Republican leadership failure will hurt citizens all across Texas because state agencies will be forced to cut jobs in an already depressed economy and add to the jobless rate. Those lost jobs will further reduce tax revenues because those folks won’t be spending and paying sales tax and they’ll be collecting unemployment insurance all further deepening the deficit.

With those jobs cuts will also come cuts in services like education and health care even though a recent poll shows that more than 70% of Texans don’t want those areas cut. In addition we can look forward to higher property taxes so that cities and counties can fund police and fire departments as well as hospital districts and schools.

All this and yet Gov. Perry and the Republican led legislature refuse to tap the Rainy Day Fund’s $9.4 billion which would at least ease the damage. If a $27 billion shortfall isn’t a rainy day I don’t know what is.

Letter to John Kuempel, State Rep HD 44

2011-01-13T22:34:00.000-06:00

January 13, 2011

The Honorable John Kuempel

P.O. Box 2910
Austin, TX 78768

Dear Representative Kuempel,

Congratulations on your overwhelming win in the special election. Now that you have officially assumed your duties as our representative in HD 44 I urge you to recognize the massive budget shortfall Texas is faced with and the need to restructure the state budget. It is imperative that you and your colleagues act on the wishes of the vast majority of Texans, 70% plus, that want social services and education to be funded at or above existing levels. The state budget has already been cut to the bone and any further cuts will damage the health and future of this great state.

Education is not an expense, it is in fact an investment in the future of Texas as I’m sure you recognize given that your personal success and that of your employer could not have occurred without an educated work force. The new Caterpillar plant would not have been built in Seguin without access to an educated workforce. If we fail to invest in the future of Texas by not fully funding primary, secondary and university educations for all Texans you will suffer the shame for the rest of your life. I urge you to remember that your own children will be live in the future Texas that you, even now, are going to shape.

Sincerely,

What does Texas AG Greg Abbott think about human waste in our water?

2011-01-11T17:27:00.000-06:00

The state of Texas and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have refused to implement Clean Air Act protections against carbon pollution so the Environmental Protection Agency has taken up the task as is mandated by law. Despite a U.S. Supreme Court decision which requires the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate CO2 Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has sued the EPA in federal court to stop it from doing its job in Texas.

Mr. Abbott said in a radio interview today “It is the height of insanity to have the EPA regulate something emitted by all living things.” Does Greg Abbott believe that the Environmental Protection Agency shouldn’t protect our clean water from human waste because we all defecate?

Open letter to the Honorable Boyd Richie, Chair of the Texas Democratic Party

2010-12-22T23:17:00.000-06:00

Social Security and by extension Medicare have often been called one of the three legs of the Democratic Party yet some in the media are reporting that our President is planning to call for cuts to those very programs in his State of the Union address. Let’s all be clear regardless of the findings of the Deficit Commission, Social Security and Medicare are not the cause of the deficit. We all know that Social Security is paid for by taxes dedicated directly to it and not out of the general fund. Social Security is not now and will not be in the next few decades in danger of default.

Considering the level of Democratic voter apathy in Texas due to the poor economy I believe it is incumbent the Democratic Party and our elected officials to show by word and deed that we intend to protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts. It is high time that the message of the Party and our elected officials focused on the moral issues of our day and one of those issues it protecting the weak and less fortunate among us. It is above all necessary that the Party return to its roots as the party of the people. If the leadership of the Democratic Party makes the mistake of accepting the conservative frame on this issue it will mean the end of the “social safety net” and the Democratic Party.

I urge you in your capacity as the leader of the Texas Democratic Party and spokesperson for Texas Democrats to use all your resources to insure support for Social Security and Medicare among the Democratic members of the Texas Congressional delegation. I also call on you to bring to the attention of the Democratic National Committee and the President the urgent need to protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts.

Sincerely,

My 7th grade daughter's letter to the editor

2010-12-18T21:51:00.000-06:00

When me and my dad were driving back from school on Friday my Dad told me the terrible news that the House of Representatives failed to pass a bill that would help protect girls my age all over the world from being forced into marriages. As a seventh grader I can’t even imagine what is must be like for girls my age or younger to be forced to marry men as old as my dad and have their children soon after.

I don’t understand why after every member of the Senate voted to pass the International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act – S. 987 our local Congressman Lamar Smith voted against it. Mr. Smith claims to be “pro-life” but seems to think it’s “OK” for young girls to die when their bodies aren’t strong enough and ready to have a baby? Why doesn’t he care?

I later found out that some people lied and said that bill would have funded abortions, but anybody can read the bill, which is less than six pages long, and see that it’s not true. Lamar Smith was either too lazy to read the bill or he just doesn’t care about kids because we can’t vote.

Cheryl Patterson for State Representative HD 44

2010-12-10T09:30:00.000-06:00

In the race to fill the Texas House seat left open by the untimely demise of Edmund Kuempel many of the candidates have expressed themselves in party talking points such as small government and cutting budgets. Only one candidate has come out strongly for protecting the future of District 44 and Texas by continuing to fund education fully, that candidate is Cheryl Dees Patterson.

Mrs. Patterson has been a classroom teacher and a principal so she understands the needs of our children who are the future of this state. Patterson is also a trustee of the Navarro ISD and therefore understands the realities of the budget constraints our schools already face. Cheryl is committed to Guadalupe, Wilson and Gonzales and that means investing in the children of the state because we have no future without them. I urge you to support Cheryl Dees Patterson by voting for her Tuesday December 14.

Tax breaks for Paris Hilton and Oprah Winfrey’s dog

2010-12-09T17:46:00.000-06:00

Not content to continue giving tax breaks to millionaires like Lindsey Lohan and LeBron James now Senators Cornyn and Hutchison are holding up legislation to extend unemployment benefits to give tax breaks on inherited millions for people like Paris Hilton and Oprah Winfrey’s dog.

I find it hard to accept that the millions who have lost jobs due to the near crash of Wall Street banks aren’t more important than a celebrity’s dog. Why aren’t average Americans as important as the Wall Street bankers who wrecked our economy and then got bailed out so they could take home million dollar bonuses this year?

Senate Republicans do have principles, if you can call them that

2010-12-04T14:17:00.000-06:00

I’ve often heard my liberal friends accuse Republicans of being unprincipled but the recent actions by Senate Republicans shows that just isn’t true. All 42 have taken the principled stand if that if tax breaks for millionaires aren’t renewed then no other legislation will be passed in the current lame duck session.

Since the verifiable reduction of both U.S. and Russian nuclear arsenals isn’t nearly as important as millionaire tax breaks why should it be voted on first. Since extension of unemployment benefits for those put out of work by the near collapse of the banking system owned by millionaires isn’t as important as tax breaks for those same millionaires why should it be voted on first. Since food safety legislation that would correct the lax standards that have allowed the deaths of hundreds and sickening of thousands of Americans who ate food tainted in processing plants owned by millionaires isn’t nearly as important as tax breaks for said millionaires why should it be voted on first.

So of course my liberal friends are wrong about Republicans because they do have principles, millionaires deserve tax breaks more than Americans deserve national security or safe food and more than the unemployed deserve food on their plates.

Voter fraud fraud

2010-11-17T23:38:00.002-06:00

Some of the first bills filed for the upcoming state legislative session would require photo ID to vote. I find it absolutely fascinating that the Republicans in the Texas House are claiming that the Voter ID bill they’re pushing is necessary in order to prevent a serious problem with voter fraud. If voter fraud is really the problem they’ve been claiming it is then the party that won 99 of 150 seats, gaining 23, must be the perpetrators.

How this is really more important than stimulating jobs for the hundreds of thousands of Texans who are out of work I don’t know.

Improve National Security and address the budget deficit

2010-11-14T14:32:00.003-06:00

It's time for the Senate to cut our bloated nuclear stockpiles and restore inspections of Russia's nuclear arsenal by approving the New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or New START. Since it was signed in April, many Democrats and Republicans have said the Senate should ratify the treaty. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said it has “the unanimous support of America's military leadership.”

Treaties require deliberation, but senators have all the information necessary to reach a decision on New START. In September, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee recommended ratification by a 14-4 vote.

Let's put politics aside and national security first by ratifying New START this year. Call Sens. Hutchison and Cornyn and urge them to help secure our future by voting to ratify.

Mixed up priorities

2010-11-12T23:21:00.001-06:00

Republicans won a whopping majority in the state house on November 2 and within days the chairs of various committees have released a letter naming their priorities for the coming session. In their top ten they include “passing a photo ID requirement as a protection against voter fraud”, but if voter fraud is really as rampant as they seem to believe doesn’t that call into question the legitimacy of their recent overwhelming victory?

Other topics in the letter include “ensuring businesses are not stifled by over-taxation, excess regulation or unfair litigation.” This should be deciphered as raising fees - which hurt small and startup businesses because they aren’t related to profits, continuing to allow air and water pollution by gas producers in the Barnett Shale – because being able to light your tap water on fire isn’t a problem, and limiting the rights of individuals to seek redress when a business or doctor has harmed them. The chairs claim that these steps will help the Texas economy and create jobs.

The chairs go on to claim that Speaker Straus is “a staunch fiscal conservative in the model of President Reagan”. I can’t say whether or not Straus is a fiscal conservative, but Reagan certainly wasn’t as he raised taxes twice and massively increased the size of the federal government in his eight years as president. Given their failure to know recent history it’s no wonder they have chosen to ignore the states abysmal education record or seek any means to improve it.

The insanity of tax breaks for millionaires

2010-10-11T23:30:00.000-05:00

I keep hearing the TEA Party screaming that the reason they want Democrats out of office is because they’re all about big government and spending the taxpayer’s money. What they don’t seem to get is that last month our government shed nearly 160,000 jobs. The government now employs fewer people than it did during the Bush administration.

Republicans claim that lower taxes would foster more economic growth and more jobs but if you look at the last six years of the Bush presidency when taxes were near a century low you’ll find that zero net new private sector jobs were created. The remedy for this they claim is even lower taxes. Doesn’t this remind you of the famous remark “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results”?

After WWII, the event which compelled massive deficit spending that finally brought this country out of the Great Depression, the U.S. was much deeper in debt than we are today. Through wise management by Harry Truman and Dwight Eisenhower who invested in education via the G.I. Bill and infrastructure like the interstate highway system our country became prosperous once again and the standard of living for rich and poor alike improved immensely.

The Republican argument that cutting government spending will help create jobs is kind of like a doctor telling you that the solution to your anorexia is to go on a diet.

Review of the Republican Party of Texas platform for 2010

2010-10-01T22:34:00.001-05:00

Free Speech for the Clergy – We urge change of the Internal Revenue Code to allow a religious organization to address issues without fear of losing its tax-exempt status. We call for repeal of requirements that religious organizations send government any personal information about their contributors.

Why do they only call for changing the rules for tax-exempt status for religious organizations and not other non-profits? Why not for environmental groups and civil rights groups as well?

The Rights of a Sovereign People – The Republican Party of Texas supports the historic concept, established by our nations’ (sic) founders, of limited civil government jurisdiction under the natural laws of God, and repudiates the humanistic doctrine that the state is sovereign over the affairs of men, the family and the church.

Sounds like the Taliban to me.

Homosexuality – We believe that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society, contributes to the breakdown of the family unit, and leads to the spread of dangerous, communicable diseases. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle in our public education and policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.”

There’s so much here I don’t know where to start. How do you even begin to argue with stupid? Being gay is equivalent to being Typhoid Mary and a home wrecking hussy too if you believe these folks. Oh and George Washington hated gays too.

Texas Sodomy Statutes – We oppose the legalization of sodomy. We demand that Congress exercise its authority granted by the U.S. Constitution to withhold jurisdiction from the federal courts from cases involving sodomy.

Employment Non-Discrimination Act (ENDA) – We oppose this act through which the federal government would coerce religious business owners and employees to violate their own beliefs and principles by affirming what they consider to be sinful and sexually immoral behavior.

We oppose the repeal of the “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy.

Republicans are in favor of privacy except in your bedroom and want to be able to fire you if they don’t like who you’re sleeping with.

Judicial Restraint – We urge Congress to adopt the Constitutional Restoration Act and support the principle of judicial restraint, which requires judges to interpret and apply rather than make the law. We support judges who strictly interpret the law based on its original intent. We oppose judges who assume for themselves legislative powers.

A strict reading of this would cause them to dump Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia as well as Samuel Alito from the Supreme Court as they’ve voted to override Congress more often than anyone else on the court. But don’t expect the Republicans to accept that fact.

Remedies to Activist Judiciary – We call Congress and the President to use their constitutional powers to restrain activist judges. We urge Congress to adopt the Judicial Conduct Act of 2005 and remove judges who abuse their authority. Further, we urge Congress to withhold Supreme Court jurisdiction in cases involving abortion, religious freedom, and the Bill of Rights.

Now the Republicans want to prevent the Supreme Court from weighing in on cases related to constitutional amendments but apparently they forgot that it was the Supreme Court that overruled many state and local gun control laws.

Protecting Union Member’s Dues – We support legislation requiring labor unions to obtain consent of the union member before that member’s dues can be used for political purposes.

Gee, how nice that they want to protect the poor guy who gets $16 an hour because he’s a union electrician from having is $10 monthly dues used to elect legislators that will protect his 40 hour work week and sick pay. How about supporting legislation to protect shareholder dividends against use for political purposes?

Voter Registration – We support restoring integrity to the voter registration rolls and to reducing voter fraud. We support repeal of all Motor Voter laws; re–registering voters every four years; requiring photo ID of all registrants; proof of residency and citizenship, along with voter registration application; retention of the 30-day registration deadline; and requiring that a list of certified deaths be provided to the county clerk in order that the names of deceased voters be removed from the list of registered voters.

Of course if these clowns were to manage to repeal the 14^th Amendment like some of their senators are pushing for I’d have a tough time offering proof of citizenship because my birth certificate wouldn’t be good enough.

Campaign Finance Reform – We urge immediate repeal of the McCain-Feingold Act.

Great now that the regulations have already been weakened let’s throw them out altogether. While we’re at it let’s also deregulate lobbying and make it legal to offer cash for legislation as well. Why do we need all those pesky ethics rules anyway? After all so what if Jack Abramoff and Tom DeLay were using money to buy votes.

HONORING THE SYMBOLS OF OUR AMERICAN HERITAGE

Ten Commandments – We oppose any governmental action to restrict, prohibit, or remove public display of the Decalogue or other religious symbols.

So exactly where in the U.S. did Moses come off the mountain with the Ten Commandments?

Pledge of Allegiance – We support adoption of the Pledge Protection Act. We also demand that the National Motto “In God We Trust” and National Anthem be protected from legislative and judicial attack.

Yeah and Christmas is under attack too, Bill O’Reilly said so. Don’t these people have more important things to worry about like putting people back to work or making sure there are enough teachers to properly educate all our kids?

American English – We support adoption of American English as the official language of Texas and of the United States.

English is fast becoming the lingua franca across the world, are they worried that we’ll suddenly start speaking Chinese or something?

Flag Desecration – Any form of desecration of the American Flag is an act of disregard for our nation and its people and penalties should be established for such.

So the First Amendment, that Constitution thingy, doesn’t apply to speech when directed at a symbol of our government. But I thought the Republicans were all about the Constitution and Freedom of Speech. If you can’t desecrate a flag or speak out against the government what then is freedom of speech. Even in China it’s OK to complain about your mother-in-law.

Symbols of American Heritage – We call upon governmental entities to protect all symbols of our American heritage from being altered in any way.

So does that mean we should go back to only 13 stars on the flag or just that if Puerto Rico becomes a state we don’t add a 51^st star?

Social Security - We support an immediate and orderly transition to a system of private pensions based on the concept of individual retirement accounts, and gradually phasing out the Social Security tax.

Oh that’s wonderful, this way when seniors are fully invested in the stock market and we have another crash they can all end up on the street or the soup kitchen.

ObamaCare – We urge the Congress to defund, repeal, and reject the national healthcare takeover, also known as “ObamaCare” or any similar legislation.

Sorry folks there is no such thing as Obamacare I can find a bill by that name in THOMAS anywhere and we didn’t even get the Public Option let alone Single Payer so I don’t know what the heck their carping about.

Americans with Disabilities Act – We support amendment of the Americans with Disabilities Act to exclude from its definition those persons with infectious diseases, substance addiction, learning disabilities, behavior disorders, homosexual practices and mental stress, thereby reducing abuse of the Act.

Since when did being gay qualify you has disabled? How is having a learning disability not something that should be covered by the American’s with Disabilities Act? Tuberculosis is infectious so if you have it and are severely impaired by it Republicans don’t want you to qualify as disabled, what is that about?

Immunizations - All adult citizens should have the legal right to conscientiously choose which vaccines are administered to themselves or their minor children without penalty for refusing a vaccine. We oppose any effort by any authority to mandate such vaccines or any medical database that would contain personal records of citizens without their consent.

Only if those who aren’t immunized have to wear a big red N so we’ll know who to stay away from. There’s big whooping cough outbreak in California because so many people won’t get immunized for it.

Classroom Discipline –We recommend that local school boards and classroom teachers be given more authority to deal with disciplinary problems. We urge the Legislature, Governor, Commissioner of Education and State Board of Education to remind administrators and school boards that corporal punishment is effective and legal in Texas.

Nobody spanks my kid but me and I don’t do that.

Controversial Theories – Realizing that conflict and debate is a proven learning tool in classrooms, we support objective teaching and equal treatment of all sides of scientific theories, including evolution, Intelligent Design, global warming, political philosophies, and others. We believe theories of life origins and environmental theories should be taught as challengeable scientific theory subject to change as new data is produced, not scientific law. Teachers and students should be able to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of these theories openly and without fear of retribution or discrimination of any kind.

Just what I want, some snot nosed 10 year old arguing with the science teacher that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that god put the dinosaur fossils there to trick us.

Funding via Bond Elections – We support active participation by registered voters and abhor taxing authorities’ attempts to obtain approval for bonds by selective scheduling of elections’ polling locations to minimize voter turnout. Hence, we support a requirement that at least 25% of registered voters must turn out and vote in order for a financial

obligation to be placed on the entire citizenry.

Sorry folks but if they’re too lazy to get out and vote against the bond then they should just have to suck it up.

Parental School Choice – We encourage the Governor and the Texas Legislature to enact child-centered school funding options – which fund the student, not schools or districts – to allow maximum freedom of choice in public, private or parochial education for all children. As a prerequisite, we urge passage of a constitutional amendment

prohibiting imposition of state regulations on private and parochial schools.

Now the cat's out of the bag, what they're really after is the end of public education so if you're born poor you can stay that way because only the wealthy can afford an education.

Sex Education – We recognize parental responsibility and authority regarding sex education. We support policies that mandate parental notification and consent before any sex education program is presented to their child. Parents must be given an opportunity to review the material prior to giving their consent. We oppose any sex education other than

abstinence until heterosexual marriage.

Yeah, and that’s worked so well for Texas where we have had the policy for a decade and now have about the highest rate of teen pregnancies and repeat teen pregnancies in the nation. Isn’t repeating the same thing over and over while expecting a different result the definition of insanity?

School Health Care – We urge legislators to prohibit reproductive health care services, including counseling, referrals, and distribution of condoms and contraception through public schools.

I’ve got it, why don’t we just stick our heads in the sand?

We strongly support recent SBOE actions in areas of science and social studies ...

Traditional Principles in Education – We support school subjects with emphasis on Judeo-Christian principles (including the Ten Commandments) upon which America was founded and which form the basis of America’s legal, political and economic systems. We support curricula that are heavily weighted on original founding documents, including the Declaration of Independence, the US Constitution, and Founders’ writings.

That’s funny but I see no reference to god or religion in the Constitution other than to exclude them from government. “…no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.” See also the First Amendment discussion below.

Safeguarding Our Religious Liberties – We affirm that the public acknowledgement of God is undeniable in our history and is vital to our freedom, prosperity and strength. We pledge our influence toward a return to the original intent of the First Amendment and toward dispelling the myth of separation of church and state. We urge the Legislature to increase the ability of faith-based institutions and other organizations to assist the needy and to reduce regulation of such organizations.

First Amendment: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…” What part of this is not clear? These folks should study a little more history before opening their mouths, every nation in Europe was once a Christian nation whose leader was confirmed by the Pope or some other high level cleric and look at Europe now. Hardly anyone goes to church any more in Europe and those that do are usually elderly. Mixing god and government hasn’t worked out so well over there. Oh and most of them have universal health care too.

Repeal of Fee Award Act – We support repeal of the Civil Rights Attorneys’ Fee Awards Act, which allows for payment of attorneys’ fees to sue the government and to suppress freedom of religion.

Do these idiots realize that this legislation also allows claims over voting rights and discrimination or is that exactly what they want to eliminate without saying it? Could be crazy like a fox.

Capital Punishment – Properly applied capital punishment is legitimate, is an effective deterrent, and should be swift and unencumbered.

And it worked out so well for Todd Cameron Willingham who was executed for killing his three daughters even though he didn’t. Perhaps these folks have spent too much time with computers and think that everything comes with an Undo button. In addition no responsible Criminologist will ever suggest that jail or execution is a deterrent, they will tell you that criminals never think they’ll get caught so punishment does not enter the equation.

Government Services – We support privatization of government services when beneficial to the taxpayer.

Because Gov. Perry’s outsourcing of Medicaid enrollment to a company with all their call centers out of the U.S. worked out so well. Now we have a backlog of 2-3 months of people who have tried to enroll but can’t get help because the paperwork hasn’t been processed.

Funding Special Interest Organizations – We oppose any government support of special interest organizations, such as ACORN and the ACLU.

The ACLU doesn’t now nor has it ever received government support. As to ACORN or any group like it not receiving government support, that would apply to religious groups as well but in another section the Republican platform calls for more funding of religious charities. My oh my, what a contradiction or is it just groups that don’t agree with them that they don’t like? If any organizations should be defunded it should be KBR and Halliburton who have killed our troops due to cheap, sloppy construction of showers in war zones that electrocuted our service members. While we’re at it how about defunding Blackwater/Xe and other mercenary operations that are funded by but not controlled by our government which is why they are bribing the Taliban to not attack their convoys. We should have our own troops performing those functions but that would mean a draft and the public wouldn’t stand for that so we’d have to get out and we can’t have that!

Welfare Reform – Texas should continue to reduce the number of welfare recipients by enacting tough welfare reforms; denying benefits to illegal aliens, and encouraging partnerships with faith based institutions, community and business organizations to assist individuals in need.

Wait just a minute, first you say no funding for special interest organizations then you say fund churches, which is it? The best way to cut welfare recipients is to make sure all kids get a good education and have an opportunity to get a job that pays better than poverty wages. The first step on that path requires that kids in poor families get enough to eat, adequate medical care, after school attention and schools that are funded as well as those in wealthy areas.

Federal Tax Reform – We recommend a national sales tax (which does not include a Value Added Tax) to replace all other Federal taxes once the I.R.S. is abolished and the Sixteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is repealed. However, until such time that the income tax is abolished, we support deductions for private and home schooling, home

mortgages, and sales taxes.

By howdy, we’re all for the Constitution except for the parts we don’t like and the way all them experts interpret stuff like “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”

Frivolous Lawsuits – We support further reform to discourage frivolous lawsuits. We oppose the abusive use of class action lawsuits.

Beep, beep, beep, red herring alert. There is no such crisis of frivolous lawsuits. In fact most “frivolous” law suits are filed by none other than big corporations not individuals seeking redress for wrongs done them.

Right-to-Work – We oppose the Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check) and any action that eliminates the secret ballot. Every worker should have freedom to work in their preferred job without being forced to join or pay dues to any organization. Our Right-to-Work Law has provided this freedom and a good climate for industrial expansion, higher employment, and a stable management-labor relationship. We encourage adoption of a National Right-to-Work Act.

Workers’ Compensation – We urge the Legislature to resist making Workers’ Compensation mandatory for all Texas employers.

Minimum Wage – We believe the Minimum Wage Law should be repealed.

Yes indeed, peonage is so American and the 1890’s was a wonderful time to live if you weren’t a Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller or other robber baron. Texas has the highest percentage of low wage jobs in the country, so of course we don’t need no stinkin’ unions. Not only that but if a worker gets hurt on the job it’s obviously their own fault so why should anyone else be held accountable. Oh and unlike the RPT platform nowhere in the EFCA does it say anything about eliminating a secret ballot, all card check does is provide an alternative to an election so that companies don't get to delay the election for years while they intimidate workers.

Cuba – We support the continuation of the embargo against Cuba until democracy is restored. We call for the release of all political prisoners currently being held by the Castro regime. We support political asylum for all refugees fleeing political oppression in Cuba.

The embargo has worked so well that Fidel is still around after 50 years so I must again ask, isn’t repeating the same thing over and over the definition of insanity?

South America – We support the adoption of the Colombian Free Trade Agreement and closer political relations with Colombia who has emerged from decades of war with the drug cartels and FARC with an open democratic government and free market economy. We support efforts to strengthen democratic institutions in the region and resist the authoritarian socialist regimes of Venezuela and Bolivia.

Hugo Chavez was democratically elected and re-elected, just because you don’t like him doesn’t mean you get to say he wasn’t. Evo Morales was democratically elected having received a higher percentage of votes than George W. Bush and St. Ronnie. Apparently Republicans only like elected leaders if they kowtow to the U.S.

United Nations – We believe it is in the best interest of the citizens of the United States that we immediately rescind our membership in, as well as all financial and military contributions to, the United Nations.

Oh yes, isolationism worked so well prior to WWII.

We agree on some things:

Campaign Contributions – We support full disclosure of the amounts and sources of any campaign contributions to political candidates, whether contributed by individuals, political action committees, or other entities.

Except that all their Congressman voted against the DISCLOSE Act that would make this idea law.

Conflicts of Interest – We support all legislation prohibiting influencing or voting of any elected official or appointee where a conflict of interest exists. No such official should represent paying clients before a state agency.

Lobbying Limitation – We support legislation to prohibit former officials and government employees from lobbying for a foreign government and/or any business for five years after leaving public service. We support legislation to prevent lobbying by any organization receiving federal grants except that relating to its tax status.

Legislative Accountability – We support rules requiring that all votes on bills cast in the Texas House and Senate be record votes freely available to the electorate.

Sudan – We urge censure of the Sudanese government for supporting atrocities against ethnic minorities in Darfur.

Lamar Smith and Republicans want to hide those who support them

2010-09-30T07:57:00.000-05:00

Congressmen Ciro Rodriguez and Charlie Gonzalez have voted for the DISCLOSE Act which would require that those who pay for campaign ads be identified in those ads and they have pledged to support several measures designed to return power to the people. They’ve promised to support amending the Constitution to protect America from unlimited corporate spending on our elections, because elections should be won and not bought. The promised to support the passage of the Fair Elections Now Act, providing public financing to candidates who are supported by small donors so they can compete with corporate-backed and self-funded candidates. They’ve also pledged to support passage of lobbyist reform legislation to end the overwhelming influence of corporate lobbyists

How have Lamar Smith and the Republicans voted and what have they pledged to do? Every single Republican in the senate voted against even debating the merits of the DISCLOSE Act. The House Republicans pledged to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires that will increase the deficit by trillions of dollars. They’ve promised to roll back regulations on big oil and Wall Street, the same industries that killed American workers, polluted Gulf of Mexico fisheries and wrecked out economy putting millions of Americans out of work. They’ve pledged to strike down rules reining in credit card lenders and insurance companies.

Why should any Texan support Republicans in November?

Vandalism and violence have no place in politics, or Who's a Nazi now?

2010-09-24T09:56:00.000-05:00

First it starts with petty things like stealing political signs, then like today it escalates to vandalism, this is how political violence begins. When my wife was at a local shopping center today someone broke the mirror on the car along with other damage and left a note “Obama sucks” obviously in response to the various political stickers on the car. Since the vandalism occurred around Noon and it is a school day I must conclude the perpetrator was an adult. Vandalism of this nature is a form of bullying the likes of which often continue to escalate into physical violence.

About the time of the vote on health care reform there was a spate of vandalism of congressional offices. Now those who simply support progressive candidates like Hank Gilbert and Jeff Weems are victims. I have heard and seen many on the right claiming that the President is a Nazi, but it is not the President who has used Nazi tactics of vandalism and intimidation. No, it is the loud mouth angry Right that uses those tactics.

I want the perpetrator and anyone else like him to know that I will not be cowed. I want the bullies on the Right to know that violence will not stop me or my friends and associates from supporting candidates of our choice. In fact it has only made me more determined and I have doubled the donations I’ve already made to Democratic candidates as well as added a few more.

Mercer and SBOE extremists at it again, this time "Islamophobia"

2010-09-24T09:53:00.000-05:00

Ken Mercer and the other extremists on the State Board of Education would have us believe that Social Studies textbooks in our state have been promoting the “Islamic agenda”. The only problem is that the textbook used as the exemplar isn’t in use in Texas and if it was it could only have been with the approval of the very members of the SBOE that are making an issue of it.

To paraphrase Pastor Niemoeller’s famous quote: “First they came for the Muslims and I did not speak out – because I was not a Muslim. Then they came for the Mormons and I did not speak out – because I was not a Mormon. Then they came for the Catholics and I did not speak out – because I was not a Catholic. Then they came for me – and there was no one left to speak out for me.”

Perhaps Mercer and his fringe associates believe that Texans live in fear of “the other” and scapegoating members of other faiths will bring them votes in November. I believe that Texans are better than that and electing Rebecca Bell-Metereau to the State Board of Education will prove that.

Hooray for Congressman Rodriguez, he signed a pledge to support the Fair Elections Now Act

2010-09-24T09:50:00.000-05:00

I was there when Congressman Ciro Rodriguez stepped up to the plate Saturday and signed a pledge to support passage of the Fair Elections Now Act, lobbyist reforms and overturning the recent Supreme Court decision which opens a new floodgate of corporate money in all election campaigns. Rodriguez should be congratulated by everyone in his district for standing up for “the people” as opposed to corporate sponsors. He realizes that in America elections should be won and not bought, something that can’t be said about all candidates for office.

The problem with our political system isn’t so much that individual members of Congress are corrupt but that the system is corrupt. Sure, there are always a few bad apples in a barrel, but the real problem is that the barrel itself is rotten. No matter how honest you are, when your ability to get elected depends on collecting millions of dollars from special interests, there’s no way you can be objective. And having to spend so much time fund-raising just discourages good people from running and prevents those who do get elected from doing what we sent them there to do: solve the problems of everyday Americans. It’s time our elected officials started listening to the voices of everyday Americans, not their corporate sponsors. We need to clean up our elections, and do it now.

Constituents of Congressman Rodriguez should be very proud to have him as their representative and support him for re-election.

Public debate between an incumbent and challenger is imperative for our society to survive

2010-09-07T20:22:00.001-05:00

Numerous sources report that the chairman of the Republican Party of Texas has urged State Board of Education member Ken Mercer to follow Rick Perry’s lead and not debate challenger Rebecca Bell-Metereau.

If this were a war or a football game I’d appreciate the tactic since winning is what matters. This is about governance and service to the people of Texas and in that context avoiding debate on issues of consequence to voters is unforgivable. As a Texas citizen I resent any candidate whether from my party or not for failing to do justice to the people they claim to want to represent. This is not a game, this is about the quality of education that our children will require to succeed in the twenty-first century.

A full airing of the views of the candidates is not only appropriate but absolutely necessary in order to maintain a democratic society. Any candidate who refuses to debate indicates that they don’t have what it takes to persuade the public that they are fit to lead and therefore should not receive the public’s vote. I urge Mr. Mercer to reconsider his preposterous position and agree to debate Rebecca Bell-Metereau at the earliest opportunity.

What do Obama is a closet muslim, terrorist babies, social security broken and a mosque in Manhattan have in common?

2010-08-23T23:11:00.000-05:00

Last Friday, a Republican National Committee woman, Kim Lehman, said about President Obama “… he personally told the muslims that he IS a muslim, read his lips."

Senator John Cornyn recently said the mosque issue would haunt Obama come November. Cornyn says "This is not about freedom of religion."

Texas legislator Debbie Riddle claimed in a CNN interview that there is a nefarious international conspiracy by immigrants to cross the border illegally, while pregnant, to give birth without insurance, to then cross the border back again, so that 21 years later they can send their child back again to do us harm.

Congressman Lamar Smith calls for privatization of Social Security claiming that it is broken even though the bi-partisan Congressional Budget Office says that Social Security has a surplus of $2.5 Trillion that is estimated to grow to $3.8 Trillion in 2020.

What do all these “issues” have in common? They are pure and simple attempts to divert the public’s attention from the reality that the Republican Party has no solutions to the real problems of America especially the lack of job creation. They don’t have any new ideas and the old ones like tax breaks for millionaires have proven not to work during both the Reagan and Bush administrations. While some claim Texas has suffered less than other states that’s only partially true since we have a higher percentage of low and minimum wages jobs than just about anywhere else in the country. Remember that in November.

The debate over Social Security offers a clear choice between fear and reality

2010-08-23T11:37:00.000-05:00

Here we are on the 75th Anniversary of Social Security with polls showing that there is considerable support for the program which most believe to be an American institution. The same polls show that most Americans would rather increase their contributions to ensure that benefits will not be cut now or for future generations. Americans overwhelmingly oppose cutting it to reduce the federal deficit; which only make sense because Social Security isn’t contributing to the deficit in the first place. The bi-partisan Congressional Budget Office says that Social Security has a surplus of $2.5 Trillion that is estimated to grow to $3.8 Trillion in 2020.

Our congressman, Lamar Smith, is a member of the Tea Party Caucus which is supporting HR 4529 which calls for privatization of Social Security. He wrote, "With this account, they will be able to build a "nest egg" for their retirement that cannot be taken away by the government and can be handed down to their children." The Employee Benefit Research Institute recently published a study showing that on average 401k’s lost about 37% in 2009. What if Lamar Smith was successful in his efforts to invest your Social Security savings this way, what would happen to your retirement when the next financial bubble bursts?

If you believe as do most Americans that Social Security is important to the people of this nation then the choice is clear Lainey Melnick should be our next representative to the United States Congress.

Even Reagan appointee Justice Sandra Day O'Connor thinks elections are tainted

2010-08-21T17:55:00.000-05:00

Ronald Reagan’s appointee to the U.S. Supreme Court, retired Justice Sandra Day O’Connor has joined the cause of reforming state judicial campaign and election systems. She writes in her introduction to a new report that the "crisis of confidence in the impartiality of the judiciary is real and growing" and if left unaddressed "the perception that justice is for sale will undermine the rule of law that courts are supposed to uphold." O’Connor continues “…elected judges in many states are compelled to solicit money for their election campaigns, sometimes from lawyers and parties appearing before them.” and “… three out of four Americans believe that campaign contributions affect courtroom decisions."

One of the most blatant examples of overly cozy relationships between judges and their campaign donors highlighted in the report involves Don Blankenship of Massey Energy who spent $3 million to elect a West Virginia justice. You’ll remember Massey Energy from the worst US mine disaster in 40 years which killed 29 miners in April this year.

How many disasters does it take to decide it’s time to fix our broken government? The BP oil spill, the explosion at the Massey Energy mine, the crash on Wall Street, there’s one common denominator—money—and there’s one common solution: end legalized bribery dressed up as campaign contributions from big business. Let the people of a state decide who they want to run for the judiciary with small contributions so we can have fair elections and government that works for a change.

Why doesn't the religious right support the First Amendment?

2010-08-13T19:37:00.000-05:00

A religious group in a major U.S. city is being attacked for the location they’ve chosen to build a place of worship. Given that groups like the Texas Eagle Forum and the Texas affiliate of Focus on the Family known as the Liberty Institute complain so loudly about attacks on the First Amendment you’d think they’d be vociferously defending the right to build a house of worship in any properly zoned area.

It would seem that they don’t support the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA) of 2000 which says in part: “No government shall impose or implement a land use regulation that discriminates against any assembly or institution on the basis of religion or religious denomination.”

Just earlier this week Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association demanded that the government bar the construction of “even one more mosque” in America. Apparently they only apply the First Amendment to Christian denominations and as such the Islamic congregation in New York doesn’t deserve their support. Unfortunately for the Texas Eagle Forum and its fellow travelers their lack of support shows that they don’t really have any interest in protecting the First Amendment.

Guess who really supports our troops? Hint - It isn't Republicans

2010-08-08T16:45:00.000-05:00

According to Fox News rather than increase taxes to pay the nations bills some members of Debt Commission appointed by President Obama including Honeywell CEO David Cote and the commission's co-chair former senator from Wyoming Alan Simpson (R), are focusing instead on "freezing military pay, making military people pay for their health care."

So while we’re in the middle of two wars in which our soldiers and their families have been stretched to the breaking point and beyond as evidenced by the alarmingly high levels of suicide and divorce corporate types enabled by Republicans want to cut their pay and scale back their benefits. That’s right; make our troops pay for their own health care, all so that corporations like Blackwater and Honeywell can continue to profit off the taxpayer unabated.

You heard it; the deficit commissioners are seriously talking about creating an even larger burden on our troops so that the military contractors don't have to sacrifice their profits. That's betraying our uniformed men and women at the most fundamental level. They and their families are being treated as disposable by too many of the powers that be. The President needs to take that proposal from his commission off the table right now.
It’s time this country had a very serious discussion about what "supporting the troops" really means.

Cornyn votes to protect roaches by keeping the lights off

2010-07-31T17:51:00.000-05:00

Senator Cornyn proudly proclaims that he voted to allow businesses with significant foreign shareholders to continue to spend unlimited amounts of money to affect elections in the United States, but is that the act of a patriot? He’s also proud that he voted to allow businesses with government contracts to continue to spend unlimited funds to influence elections. Cornyn claims to be protecting small donors but the only ones required to file new reports are donating over $10,000. Now I don’t know about you but to me $10,000 is serious money to just drop on a campaign ad. I doubt that any of us are ever likely to make such a donation, so who is he really protecting?

The Supreme Court has specifically said, “transparency enables the electorate to make informed decisions and give proper weight to different speakers and messages.” We’ve all heard the old axiom that “sunlight makes the best disinfectant”. Polls show that 80% of all Americans and 76% of Republicans want disclosure of who is paying for campaign ads yet John Cornyn voted to let them remain hidden. Tell Senator Cornyn he was wrong to vote against the DISCLOSE Act, call him at 202-224-2934.

Retaking Congress more important to Texas Republicans than taking care of Texans

2010-07-05T15:13:00.000-05:00

According to the Washington Post two million people will lose their jobless aid before Congress returns from its week-long recess because Republicans voted against extending unemployment benefits.

Kevin Brady (R) TX-8 said “Businesses are slow to hire because they fear higher taxes, job-killing regulation and a dysfunctional Washington that is ideologically driven and increasingly anti-business.”

As a former manager of a small business I can tell you that fear of taxes and regulation had absolutely nothing to do with decisions on when to hire. The only thing that mattered was whether there was sufficient consumer demand to warrant the additional employee. Given that there is little to suggest an increase in consumer demand we can safely say that there will be little increase in job openings.

Our Senator, John Cornyn (R), claims that he believes unemployment benefits should be extended but that the method the Democrats want to use to pay for it is all wrong. He said “The whole difference of opinion was whether it ought to be paid for or whether it ought to be allowed to rack up more deficit spending.” So I guess Cornyn wants to stop other government spending to pay for unemployment benefits, the problem is if the federal government stops spending which generates demand then more people will be out of work which just make the problem bigger.

To paraphrase Upton Sinclair, “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his hope of retaking Congress depends upon his not understanding it.”

Guns vs. Butter in earnest

2010-06-22T16:49:00.000-05:00

Our federal legislators are currently considering a budget for next year that imposes a spending freeze for most domestic programs yet somehow there's money to spare when it comes to nuclear weapons pork. The budget requests $7 billion for nuclear bomb making capacities, a $1 billion increase over last year's budget for the same programs and an astounding 40% jump over average annual spending, after adjusting for inflation, on nuclear weapons during the Cold War era.

The budget has hundreds of millions for new bomb plants that would enable the U.S. to increase its capacity to create new nuclear weapons in the future. A new plutonium facility in New Mexico to enable a huge increase in the production of radioactive cores for nuclear weapons is just one example of several proposals in the budget. This piece of pork will cost taxpayers $225 million in the coming year and about $4 billion by the time construction is complete.

While the president is working with the Senate to ratify the New Start Treaty which would reduce the threat of nuclear war, we don’t need to be building capacity to make more nuclear bombs. Just as importantly, we shouldn’t be spending money on unneeded weapons when we can’t balance our budget without cutting domestic spending in areas such as education and alternative energy that would create jobs now and be investments in our future.

Congressmen Lamar Smith and Henry Cuellar need to know that we want to invest in our future not our past.

Lamar Smith's hypocrisy continues - $485 million for a jet engine the Pentagon doesn't want

2010-06-06T19:02:00.000-05:00

Congressman Lamar Smith makes much of the deficit on his campaign website referring to it as “a mountain of debt for our children to pay” then going on to say “which why is Congressman Smith voted against the stimulus”. Unfortunately his hypocrisy is showing because he voted to keep $485 million in the Defense Appropriations bill that pays to continue to develop a jet engine that Secretary of Defense Robert Gates says the military doesn’t want. This is an alternate engine for the Lockheed built F-135 Joint Strike Fighter which already has an operational engine from Pratt & Whitney. According to Rear Admiral Mike Manazir, the Navy doesn’t want an alternate engine as it “would deploy only one type of engine in its JSFs that go to sea to optimize logistics and supply chains.”

I don’t know about you but if the Pentagon doesn’t want a piece of military hardware I think that’s a pretty good indication that we don’t need it. Smith’s vote amounts to corporate welfare for the GE/Rolls Royce consortium that is developing the engine. I might be able to understand his vote if the engine were being built in his district but it isn’t so he can’t claim local jobs are at stake.

If the deficit is so important to Mr. Smith why is he voting to spend nearly half a billion dollars unnecessarily? According to the logic he espouses on his website that money should go to reducing the deficit.

Ken Mercer continues to mislead when questioned about evolution

2010-06-02T14:41:00.002-05:00

In a recent interview of candidates for the State Board of Education in District 5, Ken Mercer responds to the question: What is your position on the teaching of evolution? “My biggest quote was, ‘If our kids do not have the freedom to raise their hands in science class and ask honest questions, then we are no longer living in the United States of America.’ You can call it strengths and weaknesses, but we won the right for kids to ask questions in class, and that was the battle. It wasn’t religion. It was just a right to ask questions.”

I don’t know about you but I’ve never been in a classroom whether as a student or as a parent observing where children didn’t have the right ask questions. Our teachers encourage questions as a way to participate in class and clarify understanding. Mr. Mercer’s answer is an evasion because he never states his position on the scientific validity of evolution. What he and the other conservatives on the SBOE did was encourage our children to not just ask questions but to argue with their teachers about whether or not scientific principles are appropriate to the study of biology.

Texas has some of the lowest performing schools in the nation and Mr. Mercer’s actions will keep it that way. That’s all the reason I need to send him packing in November by voting for Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau.

Our Internet Sold Out for Campaign Contributions

2010-05-29T15:59:00.000-05:00

Failure to adequately regulate industry has within the last two years led to the collapse of Lehman Bros., the banking system and the U.S. economy as well as the environmental disaster in the Gulf of Mexico that British Petroleum is responsible for. The collapse of our financial markets hurt us all and has put about 10% of the labor force out of work, the oil spill in the Gulf is more localized but will harm that locality for as much as a generation. Both the fishing and tourism industries are likely to suffer for years not to mention many species of fish and birds including Louisiana’s state bird, the brown pelican, which was removed from the endangered species list just six months ago.

Now the telecommunications industry wants internet services to be unregulated. This as we’ve so recently seen is a recipe for disaster. The websites that so many of us have come to rely on and enjoy are at risk of being shoved aside by telecommunications companies that seek monopolize control of access and use of the internet in order to maximize their profits. They claim to want to advance innovation when in fact they want to stifle it. Innovation is a messy business that is most often accomplished by small organizations and seldom by monopolies.

The telecommunications industry like the Wall Street bankers and oil industry before them have exerted pressure on our elected representatives. 73 Democrats in the House including Congressmen Henry Cuellar, Ciro Rodriguez and Charlie Gonzalez have submitted to that pressure. You ask what kind of pressure, how about anywhere from $23,000 to $36,750 in campaign contributions.

It is time we had a campaign finance solution that removed the influence of special interests from the equation. It’s time we passed the Fair Elections Now Act, HR 1826, which provides for voluntary public campaign financing. Call you congressman and urge him to support Net Neutrality and co-sponsor HR 1826.

Elections should be won, not bought

2010-05-20T22:27:00.002-05:00

About 30 members of MoveOn.org, Common Cause and the League of Women voters held a rally in support of the Fair Elections Now Act at Congressman Lamar Smith’s San Antonio office Thursday afternoon. We were there to let the Smith know that we “the People” believe that elections should be won, not bought.

The Fair Elections Now Act would provide public financing of congressional campaigns to candidates who voluntarily participate. This bipartisan bill creates an alternative to big special interest money in politics by allowing congressional candidates to run a viable campaign on public funds and unlimited small contributions from ordinary citizens.

Just think, if our legislators weren’t beholden to unions and corporations for campaign contributions they could actually work for the citizens who elect them. Maine has been incredibly successful with a similar plan for state level legislators with about 80% of them participating in the plan.

Don’t you think that banking reform would be much easier to pass with strong consumer protections and regulations that would prevent the need for future bailouts if our legislators weren’t, as Senator Dick Durbin put it, “owned by the banks”? If you want Congress to work for you and not special interests call your representative today and urge him to co-sponsor the Fair Elections Now Act, HR 1826.

Ken Mercer would destroy our religious freedom in the name of Christianity

2010-04-18T16:13:00.000-05:00

Ken Mercer and the other extremist members of the State Board of Education claim that the United States was established as a Christian nation and seek to bring down the wall of separation between church and state. This extremist cabal seems to have forgotten their history lessons regarding one of the primary reasons that many European colonists came to America. We all learned that the Pilgrims came here seeking to escape religious persecution.

The Founding Fathers were not so far removed from the European religious wars between Catholics and Protestant sects all over Europe that they could fail to understand the value of separating religion and the state. In the years 1553 to 1660 there was religiously inspired violence or war between Christian sects somewhere in Europe each year almost without exception.

Mary I, Queen of England (1553-1558), restored Catholicism and in the process had almost 300 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian Persecutions.

In France between 1562 and 1598, there were eight civil wars and other outbreaks of violence that were clearly motivated by religious differences.

The Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), began in Bohemia when Ferdinand II became the king in 1617 over Protestant fears he would recatholicize it.

The English Civil War (1640-1660) involved various Protestant denominations and Catholics and included the beheading of Charles I in 1649.

Ken Mercer doesn’t understand that separation of Church and State protects his freedom of religion and our children’s, but our founders did.

Radicals on State Board of Education seek to undermine religious freedom

2010-04-03T22:24:00.000-05:00

At the last meeting of the State Board of Education the members proposed and discussed various aspects of the proposed curriculum developed by the volunteer teachers and subject matter experts. Board member Mavis Knight offered the following amendment: “examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others.” Knight pointed out that students should understand that the Founders believed religious freedom was so important that they insisted on separation of church and state.

Board member Cynthia Dunbar argued that the Founders didn’t intend for separation of church and state in America and claimed instead that the Founders intended to promote religion. She called the amendment “not historically accurate.”

Almost all constitutional scholars agree that separation of religion and state is clearly expressed in Article VI paragraph 3 of the United States Constitution which states: The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States.
Ken Mercer voted with the rest of the historical revisionists to defeat the amendment. If you value your right to practice your religion and teach your children that religion Rebecca Bell-Metereau must be elected to the State Board of Education.

Unintended Consequences aren't confined to the "liberal agenda"

2010-03-21T16:51:00.000-05:00

District 5 member of the State Board of Education, Ken Mercer, wants students in Texas schools to learn about the unintended consequences of the “Great Society” legislation passed during the Lyndon Johnson administration. Since neither he nor the rest of his cabal listed any I wonder what those unintended consequences were.

I also wonder why Mr. Mercer’s cabal aren’t concerned that Texas students aren’t required to learn of the unintended consequences of repealing many of the provisions of the Glass-Stegall Act which prevented the collapse of our banking system for nearly fifty years until politicians from both parties dismantled it. Since then we’ve had a string of financial debacles, first the Savings & Loan crisis then the hedge fund collapse and now the Great Recession of 2008.

What of the unintended consequences of deregulating other industries? After the collapse of Enron which destroyed the finances of many Texans you’d think the conservative mantra of deregulation would be worthy of discussion. Even Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve, now admits that the market isn’t as good at self correction as he thought it was.

Ken Mercer and his cabal claim that they need to make such adjustments to correct for the liberal bias of the volunteer teachers who give their time to write our curriculum standards and the “expert” reviewers. Oddly, most of those reviewers were in fact appointed by none other than the ultra-conservatives; except of course Ken Mercer, who couldn’t be bothered to make any appointments.

Thomas Jefferson wasn't much of a political thinker according to Ken Mercer

2010-03-16T17:57:00.000-05:00

I frequently hear from folks on the right that they admire the Founding Fathers but this only seems to apply when they agree with the particular founder. Ken Mercer, member of the State Board of Education for District 5, voted last week to remove one of the greatest of America's Founding Fathers from the World History standard regarding the influence of great political philosophers on revolutions from 1750 to today. Thomas Jefferson, a man who played a key role in the two most prominent revolutions in the history of the Western world, was removed. Thomas Jefferson, the primary author of the Declaration of Independence, is acknowledged around the world as an important political thinker but Ken Mercer doesn’t think he’s important enough for our high school students to study.

Mr. Mercer and his extremist cabal also rejected a proposed standard requiring students to “examine the reasons the Founding Fathers protected religious freedom in America by barring government from promoting or disfavoring any particular religion over all others.” The First Amendment specifically states that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...” what else does Ken Mercer think it means?

Replacing the extremist Mr. Mercer who insists on politicizing the public school curriculum should be a very high priority with voters in District 5. Electing Dr. Rebecca Bell-Metereau would bring a breath of fresh air to a body whose reputation Ken Mercer has helped sully.

Using Mercenaries is Un-American

2010-03-04T08:16:00.002-06:00

The United States now employs over 22,000 mercenaries through corporations like Xe, formerly known as Blackwater. The atrocities committed against civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan in our name by these uncontrollable and unaccountable mercenaries have made the task of getting the cooperation of locals more difficult.

Our nation is paying billions of dollars to corporations for the services of these mercenaries enriching stockholders at the expense of our own service members. We should stop using mercenaries immediately and spend the savings on improving the pay and conditions of our troops who sacrifice so much for us. Those savings could be used to improve and expand the VA hospitals that so many of our brave service members must come home to and will continue to use for the rest of their lives.

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky and Senator Bernie Sanders have introduced bills in their respective houses of Congress named the “Stop Outsourcing Our Security Act” and our legislators should sign on as co-sponsors of this non-partisan legislation. If we really need an extra 22,000 troops to fight these wars we should recruit within the U.S. or if necessary implement a draft. Using mercenaries will take us down the same path as Rome which was finally overrun by their own German mercenaries.

Attack on Austin IRS office - terrorism or criminal act?

2010-02-23T21:14:00.000-06:00

When Timothy McVeigh blew up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City we agreed it was an act of domestic terrorism. When Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, the underpants bomber, was caught trying to blow up Northwest Airlines Flight 253 there was no problem identifying it as attempted terrorism.

A few hours after the plane crashed into the Austin building housing IRS offices various officials met with the media to proclaim that the incident wasn’t terrorism but a criminal act. Some on the far right such as the anti-government "Patriot" movement, which includes thousands of tax protestors, elevated Stack to the status of hero and are only disappointed that the death toll was so low. Yet if Joe Stack had been of the Islamic faith there’s little doubt the incident would have been called a terrorist act even by them.

How is the motive for these acts really any different? How can mass murder of civilians be terrorism sometimes and a criminal act other times? How can that same act perpetrated by an American citizen against other American citizens be considered heroic to anyone in this country, are we that far into division? Doesn’t anyone recall Lincoln’s admonition that “A house divided against itself cannot stand”?

Glenn Beck must think women shouldn't have the right to vote

2010-02-22T22:29:00.000-06:00

At the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Glenn Beck said “progressives are a cancer eating the Constitution” and got applause. I wonder if the women clapping know that Progressives were the ones who fought for the 19th Amendment guaranteeing women’s suffrage. I wonder how all those giving that round of applause would feel if a million pounds of beef tainted by e-coli weren’t recalled because the Food and Drug Administration that Progressives fought for didn’t exist.

Would there even be a Toyota recall if it weren’t for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration which is just one of the agencies protecting American’s that were inspired by demands of Progressives? The next time the U.S. is threatened with a pandemic like H1N1 (swine) flu would all Mr. Beck’s adoring fans at CPAC really want to deal with the outbreak without the Department of Health and Human Services?

Progressives are the people who fight for the everyday needs of Americans regardless of party or religion, whether rich or poor. Progressives are the people who make America the country that more people want to emigrate to than anywhere else.

Now I ask you does the fact that women now have the right to vote sound like a “cancer eating the Constitution”? Does having food and medicine untainted by disease or toxic chemicals seem like “cancer”?

Mercer debate claims don't pass the smell test

2010-02-13T23:43:00.001-06:00

State Board of Education District 5 incumbent Ken Mercer is running for re-election. In the Republican Primary debate held last week Mr. Mercer repeatedly claimed that students are not allowed to raise their hands and ask questions in science class. His opponent Mr. Tuggey suggested that, if that’s really happening then it’s a local issue which should be handled by the administration in that district, not micro-managed by the heavy hand of the SBOE. That’s a great way to look at the purported problem, but what Mr. Tuggey failed to note is that many of Mr. Mercer’s claims are ginned up to provide red meat to his most rabid supporters and I’m betting this one is too.

Ken Mercer also claimed that while the curriculum writing teams are required by law to involve participation of teachers, parents and business people; only teachers were involved. For this to be true none of the 102 team members must have any children, I find that highly improbable.

Mr. Mercer claims that conservative historians in classrooms were shut out of the process. Given that Republicans hold a 2 to 1 advantage on the board and appointed 67 of the 102 team members that is an absurd assertion. Can he seriously believe that not a single conservative was named to the teams with kind of majority? But wait, if he’s so concerned about the lack of conservatives, parents and business people why didn’t he bother to nominate even a single person to the teams?

Ken Mercer and the State Board of Education do more harm than good on teen pregancy

2010-02-13T22:59:00.001-06:00

Recently KXAN in Austin hosted a candidate forum for various primary races including State Board of Education District 5. Incumbent Ken Mercer claimed that parents in his district don’t want their children to be taught about contraception only the consequences of sexual activity. Mr. Mercer has not been listening to his constituents because according to polls done in the last year parents across Texas want medically accurate sex education that includes contraception by an overwhelming majority. In fact polls have shown that up to 90% of Texans want abstinence-plus information about contraception and disease prevention included in sexuality education, but 96% of Texas schools don’t provide that information.

Not only are schools not teaching what parents want but 41% of Texas school districts teach factually incorrect information in their sex education programs. Actual materials used in Texas classrooms claim that HIV is spread through tears, sweat and saliva. Ask your doctor, they’ll tell you that’s just not true.

In 2000 Texas and California had very similar teen birth rates ranking 46 and 44 among the states respectively. About the same time Texas went with abstinence only until marriage sex education curriculum and California chose abstinence plus. Just 5 years later Texas had a more than 50% higher teen birth rate put Texas at 50th place while California is now in 27th. Current Texas policy is just not working and Mr. Mercer is one of the reasons it isn’t.