Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Blog Roundup 130826

Off the Kuff shows how the city of Pasadena and Galveston County are trying to take advantage of the SCOTUS ruling on the Voting Rights Act to push through politically motivated redistricting plans.

Olivia at Texpatriate laments living in a state where the lieutenant governor can attempt to manipulate the law with little to no consequences.

David Dewhurst put his ailing political career out of its misery with one phone call to the Allen Police Department, and it fell to PDiddie at Brains and Eggs to write the obituary.

Republicans have figured out the best way bring back “states rights”. It’s to rule over the country from the states, where they hold much more power. WCNews at Eye on Williamson calls it Neutering the federal government .

Make way for the Bushes! Specifically George P. Bush. Many people have already crowned him as the heir apparent for Commissioner of the General Land Office, but Texas Leftist thinks that if Democrats work hard, they can turn that into an "apparently NOT".

Neil at All People Have Value wrote about the taxpayer-financed life boats on the Bolivar Ferry that runs across Galveston Bay. There seems little difference between state-purchased life boats and Texas Legislature support of Obamacare that will help so many people get health insurance coverage. All People Have Value is part of NeilAquino.com. Please check out the full NeilAquino.com site if so inclined.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Walkable DFW draws a lesson in traffic management from the rail systems in Houston and Dallas.

The Texas Observer profiles Jessica Kuther, the Janie-on-the-spot organizer during the rallies against anti-choice bills in the legislative special sessions.

And along those lines, Jessica Luther informs us of a new crowd-funding effort to create an educational online game about abortion and access in Texas.

I Love Beer is looking for a few volunteers for the 2013 Texas Craft Brewers Festival.

Letters from Texas piles on David "I'm Kind Of A Big Deal" Dewhurst.

Nonsequiteuse wonders why we don't regulate bounce houses more, given the Legislature's oft-stated obsession with the health of women and children.

Juanita Jean points out that if Greg Abbott can't read all the way to the end of a Tweet, his interpretation of anything longer than that cannot be trusted.

Concerned Citizens calls on San Antonio council member Elise Chan to resign.

Grits For Breakfast documents the rise of futuristic technology in police work.

And former Texan Roy Edroso gives retiring blogger TBogg an appropriate sendoff.

[Personal note: TBogg is the genius of snark, coiner of "Operation Inigo Montoya" and author of one of the greatest post titles of all time: "Jonathan? Sweetie? Have you ever seen The Crying Game? ….Why? Oh, no reason…." He will be sorely missed. -StoutDem]

Justice Dept. Sues Texas Over Voter Photo ID

Today the US Justice Department announced it will sue the state of Texas over its Voter Photo ID law. The heavily restrictive law, which would prevent hundreds of thousands of Texans from voting, had already been stricken down by the federal courts as discriminatory one year ago, but this year the US Supreme Court threw out the key requirement of the Voting Rights Act for preclearance of election law changes, so Texas announced that it would now enforce that law. Congressman Marc Veasey and others sued, and this week were joined in their suit by the County of Dallas. Now the feds will also be suing, not just to overturn this repressive Voter Photo ID law, but also to require Texas to be placed under a preclearance requirement again, based on its recent discriminatory laws and actions. Read more at ThinkProgress and TexasRedistricting. The case will probably not be decided before next year's March Primary, but may be done in time for November 2014. Thank you, DOJ, for weighing in for justice for all Texas voters.

Found On The Web 130819

First, some numbers:
7 Idiotic and Dangerous Statements From Right-Wing Nut-Jobs Just Last Week

6 Ways Rabid Republicans Are Declaring War On America

5 Ways Right-Wing Media Make Their Fans Fear Science

The Party Of Rape Culture: 40 Republican Rape Quotes Everyone Should Remember

Pro-Life? GOP Promotes Nine Out Of Ten Things That Cause Death In Unborn Children

Neoliberalism Fail: Top 8 Ways Privatization has Harmed us All

15 Things Americans Would Know if There Were a "Liberal Media"

Loss of Medicaid Expansion Will Cost Texas Taxpayers Billions

Rightbloggers Plan Big for GOP Success: Less Debate Coverage, 10 New Constitutional Amendments, and the Guy from Duck Dynasty

Some numbers about voting:
Denying Climate Change Is Bad for Your Electoral Health

What the polls say - and don’t say - about Wendy Davis

About Those Free Voter ID Cards

A little culture war over movies:
ABOUT FACE, COMRADES!

Why the Sci-Fi Film “Elysium” Is Practically Made for Progressives

Miscellaneous other stuff:
RNC unanimously approves 2016 debate resolution Banned networks if they show Hillary bio

Penny wise, pound foolish The war against health care

Want to reduce abortions? Stop electing Republicans

Nurses Explain Obamacare In 90 Seconds

Republicans have no clue how businesses work

Rick Santorum Does Not Care For Your 'Marxism Talk' About 'The Middle Class', Which Does Not Exist

How the Texas GOP Is Moving Swiftly to Protect the Political Power of White Conservatives

Adams: Immigration Reform Will Lead To A Biometric Mark Of The Beast

And possibly the worst news of all:
Redistricting case could delay Texas primaries
(No, this is not a repeat from 2012....)

Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Blog Roundup 130819

Off the Kuff is there with the early news that Sen. Wendy Davis is leaning towards the Governor's race next year.

Despairing about the sorry state of Houston's mayoral contest, PDiddie at Brains and Eggs seems to be suggesting a vote for Nobody. But not if Nobody is a Dick.

Horwitz at Texpatriate notes that paybacks are hell as a special prosecutor is appointed against Rick Perry to investigate coercion and abuse of office complaints.

Rick Perlstein reminds us that the right wing is playing the long con. WCNews at Eye on Williamson has the details in There is nothing new under the wingnut sun.

Neil at All People Have Value wrote that he is donating 25 cents to Amnesty International for every negative attack e-mail he gets from the Ben Hall and Annise Parker campaigns for Mayor of Houston. Neil, who previously wrote Texas Liberal, now has the website NeilAquino.com. All People Have Value can be found at NeilAquino.com.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme sees Rick Perry hurt Texas children once again. Perry wants to privatize public education.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Better Texas examines the effects of the 2011 budget cuts to family planning.

Greg Wythe looks at the national backlash against standardized testing.

New Media Texas breaks out the wrestling analogies for the Houston mayor's race.

The TSTA Blog discusses the changes made to the process for approving charter schools.

Texas Vox points out the double standards in Texas' water laws.

Texas Water Solutions analyzes the Legislature's plans for water infrastructure.

Grits for Breakfast reports on another Texas official making taxpayers fund an extravagant security detail for himself.

Letters From Texas eagerly awaits the prospect of Rush Limbaugh moderating a GOP presidential debate.

BOR reports on racial disparities in drug arrests in East Texas.

Concerned Citizens condemns the homophobic remarks made by a San Antonio city council member and some of her staff while discussing that city's proposed non-discrimination ordinance.

Egberto Willies interviewed 2012 Green Party presidential nominee Jill Stein, but remains skeptical of third parties' influence on the American political system.

TXSharon at BlueDaze notes that a Texas Railroad Commission employee who blew the whistle on his supervisor was fired and now he's suing the state.

Lastly, attorney Paul Kennedy reviews Rise of the Warrior Cop, a new book about the militarization of America's police forces.

Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Blog Roundup 130812

The Texas Progressive Alliance thinks sine die are the two sweetest words in the Latin language as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff believes that changing the culture is necessary to change the Legislature.

Texpatriate went undercover in Montgomery, TX to attend Brandon Creighton's big announcement for ag commish ... and lived to tell the tale.

Wendy Davis gave a speech at the National Press Club this week, and the major theme was "giving voice to the voiceless". WCNews at Eye on Williamson calls it a must-see video.

Though we just passed the 40th anniversary of the Roe vs. Wade decision, Texas Leftist can't help but have some "pseudo deja vu" from copious hours in history class. It turns out that once upon a time, there was a significant pro-choice contingency in the Republican Party. Though it's a struggle, a few are trying to push the party back towards sanity, and cease the *latest* war on women.

There's going to be at least one debate in the Houston mayoral race, because PDiddie at Brains and Eggs got all the inside dope on it.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants everyone to know the latest dirty deal Rick Perry gave the children in our state.

Neil Aquino, formerly of Texas Liberal, made his first post at his new blog All People Have Value. This blog is at Neil's new website called NeilAquino.com. Neil is open to all comments and input from folks as he debuts his new blog and website.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Too Twisted For Color TV detailed all of the things that she and other people with disabilities have to go through to enter the Capitol. These obstacles were even more daunting during the second special session.

Jason Stanford wants Dan Patrick to keep his word and debate Thomas Ratliff about CSCOPE.

Concerned Citizens calls on San Antonio to finish the job on equality.

Educate For Texas informs us that the state of Texas hasn't updated its cost of education Index since 1991.

Beyond Bones castigates the Discovery Channel for its fake "documentary" on Megalodon.

Better Texas calls the sales tax holiday "well-intentioned but misguided".

Patrick Michels at the Texas Observer crunches the numbers and concludes we are still spending less per student today in Texas than we were a few years ago, and barely more than we were a decade ago.

The Texas Green Report documents the effect of coal pollution on people's health.

Found On The Web 130805

Health care is getting better, so of course the Republicans are against it....

White House touts slow increase in health care costs "the slowest rate in the last 50 years"

Over 2/3 of U.S. Counties That Benefit the Most From ACA Are in Texas Yes, that includes Dallas County.

The 'Refuse to Enroll' campaign gets to work

Take a Close Look at Craziness of the GOP's Attempts to Destroy Obamacare — It'll Take Your Breath Away

Texas Women More Likely to Die in Childbirth than from an Abortion, and HB 2 will Make it Worse

Tighten Up, Francis: Rightbloggers Reassure Us the Pope Isn't That Gay-Friendly Edroso's weekly mocking look at far right-wing blogs.

Evidence of Excrement Remains Elusive One more big lie plops.

The Texas Legislature’s Sexist Little Secret Welcome to the 19th century.

Far Right-Wing Ted Cruz Does Not Care About Republican "Grown Ups"

Bill Moyers: 50 Million Go Hungry Each Day

Big Brother Can Be Your Friend! ("Der Lachende hat die furchtbare Nachricht nur noch nicht empfangen." --Brecht)

Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Blog Roundup 130805

The Texas Progressive Alliance thinks that the Legislature is once, twice, three times a fiasco as it brings you this week's roundup.

Off the Kuff has an update on BGTX and a few words about what else is needed to turn Texas blue.

Horwitz at Texpatriate notes that the Houston mayoral election has been heating up, criticizing both Annise Parker and Ben Hall in the process.

In a metro area that gained 1.2 million people in just 10 years, new stuff has got to be built somewhere, right? But as more and more neighborhoods wage futile turf wars with developers, Texas Leftist is seeing the signs that Houstonians might be ready for real zoning laws.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw explains what Ted Cruz doesnot know or want to understand about Obamacare. Check out: Ted Cruz is Dead Wrong on Obamacare.

In redacted documents released as part of an FOI request, the FBI was aware of a plot involving snipers directed at the leaders of Occupy Houston in 2011. What isn't revealed in the post at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs is to whom the snipers were connected: law enforcement, or agents of those opposed to Occupy.

Whether it's through gerrymandered districts, impotent opposition, lack of citizen participation, or big money in elections, the far right of the Texas GOP runs our state. WCNews at Eye on Williamson says because of that Texas is on the road to nowhere.

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And here are some posts of interest from other Texas blogs.

Christina Gorczynski explains why members of the LGBTQ community should care about reproductive rights.

Concerned Citizens would like for Sen. Wendy Davis to stay put and run for re-election in SD10.

Harold Cook just wants her not to run for Lt. Governor.

Texas Watch looks back at HB4 from 2003, "a sprawling piece of legislation that upended and undercut myriad aspects of the Texas civil justice system".

Equality Texas does not want the killer of Paul Broussard to get parole.

Nonsequiteuse ponders the deeper meaning of repro-socialism.

Jason Stanford would like for the Legislature to make like Marvin K. Mooney and please go now.