It seems that there once was this old "fire & brimstone" Texas country preacher who sent his son off to college in the big city. But, after hearing tales of the worldly and licentious ways of college students he became worried and set off to visit and check up on the lad.
Upon arriving he found the boy was out and his room empty. The preacher thought a moment and then decided on his course of action and went back out for a quick shop.
Upon returning to the still empty room he laid on the desk a silver dollar, a bible, a half-pint of whiskey, and a Playboy magazine. He then hid behind the closet door awaiting the young man's return. He thought to himself, "If he picks up the bible he'll be a preacher like me, if he picks up the silver dollar he'll be a businessman, if he drinks the liquor he'll become a drunken bum, and if he looks at the magazine he'll become a womanizing no-good.
Sure enough, the youngster soon returned to his room for a couple of text books and as he turned to leave for his next class he noticed the items on the desk. He put the silver dollar in his pocket, tucked the bible under his arm, took a big swig from the booze and took a glance at the centerfold before leaving.
As the door closed behind the departing youth his devastated preacher father collapsed in agony on the bed. "Oh good Lord spare me," he wailed, "my son's going to become a Republican Legislator".
05 June 2009
04 June 2009
Texas Legislative Failure - 81st Session Has Few Accomplishments
The 81st session of the Texas Legislature just ended with very few accomplishments.
Republicans, in search of a defining issue, tried to bully through a Voter ID bill which, in effect, would have disenfranchised older Texans, students, low-income people, i.e. Democrats. They failed due to a valiant effort by the legislature’s 74 Democrats to keep the measure from final consideration.
In retaliation, and in an obvious fit of pique, the Republican majority denied the CHIP expansion bill which would have delivered health care to 80,000 children and which would have made partially right the 2003 Republican bill that denied health care to 150,000 Texas kids.
Schoolteachers can look forward to getting a one-time $800 pay boost. They also approved an additional $2-billion for Texas schools over the next two years, exempted third graders from the TAKS test and allowed high school seniors to have more elective hours in their curriculum—how else will we have a pool of future legislators?
In a bit of laughable legerdemain they renamed state schools (residential and developmental facilities for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities) to “state supported living centers”. At the same time they threw a few dollars ($112-million for five years) at the problem and scandal plagued system in order to add staff and security cameras.
On a positive note, the legislature did give the Texas Windstorm Insurance Association, which gives coverage to coastal residents who can’t get private insurance, the authority to issue ten-years bonds to recover losses after a hurricane.
But, worry not, there will be a second chapter as the Republicans left unresolved issues relating to TxDOT and the Texas Department of Insurance guaranteeing a special session where they’ll once again attempt to force the Voter ID bill.
Of course, think of the damage they might have wrought had they managed to accomplish something.
03 June 2009
A Conversation with State Representative Leo Berman
Occasionally God smiles on us and fortuitous things come about.
Last week, arch-conservative and reknowned xenophobe, Republican State Representative, Leo Berman (District 6 - Smith County) pre-announced his intent to run for governor. His real announcement, we are told, will come on July 4th. And...
Yesterday as I was entering my favorite smoothie place for lunch, I noticed parked in front a Mercedes Benz and BMW each with Texas State Official License Plates. As I approached the counter to place my order I noticed an older couple setting at a table by the window and being the rude, crass S.O.B. that I am, I told them that Texas state officials driving foreign luxury cars didn’t resonate all that well for me given the state of our economy.
The short explanation was that he paid for the cars himself and that one of them was assembled in Tennessee. “Oh”, I thought to myself, “obviously a Republican.”
He went on to identify himself as state representative Leo Berman and I took that as an invitation to send my split finger fast ball up under his chin. “How come”, I say, “You people didn’t go along with the Senate and vote to accept the $550-million stimulus money earmarked for extended unemployment benefits for working families?”
He replied that “”working” families don’t draw unemployment”, and I quickly answered, “Yes they do, when they’re laid off. And I can tell you that they’d much rather get a paycheck than an unemployment check!”
He cruised past that and said that Texas didn’t need to help out the President by taking money that would obligate us to changing our unemployment compensation program. I replied, “It would not have been helping the president, it would have been helping working families in Texas.”
He then launched into the Rick Perry Republican talking points about “strings” and having to extend unemployment compensation and Texas just didn’t need to do that to help out the President. I reminded him that Obama would not get a dime of that money, that it would have gone to hard-pressed unemployed, and that come October, without that infusion of money, the fund will be facing a billion dollar shortfall.
Back and forth we went, until he offered that the legislature put a lot of money on the table for retraining of unemployed people. My quick response was that job training was fine in an economy when jobs are available, but right now jobs are scarce and none of the training in the world will create those jobs nor will it put food on the table or pay rent for those who are out of work.
At this point the conversation began to disintegrate when he saw I was not buying his “talking points”. “Well”, he said, “the reason the bill did not come up was because the Democrats stalled us on the voter ID bill. It’s the Democrats fault.”
“No”, I said, “The problem is too many people in politics have lost touch with the notion that we have civilization and society and taxes in order that we look out for and take care of each other, not business and corporate interests.” I went on to mention that back in the day, Ralph Yarborough best summed it up by saying, “We need to move the jam down to the lower shelf where the little fellow can get his fair share.”
Berman made some sneering comment about Ralph Yarborough which left me pissed and with the choice to continue this exercise in futility or to disengage and enjoy my smoothie. I chose to end the conversation with some civil comment and watched as they toodled off in their Mercedes and BMW.
Dang old Republicans, they just don’t get it! But, I felt really good afterwards, that at least on one occasion Berman got to hear it straight! He’ll ignore it, and has no doubt washed it from his memory, but the important thing is that it got said—I wish more people would do the same.
Last week, arch-conservative and reknowned xenophobe, Republican State Representative, Leo Berman (District 6 - Smith County) pre-announced his intent to run for governor. His real announcement, we are told, will come on July 4th. And...
Yesterday as I was entering my favorite smoothie place for lunch, I noticed parked in front a Mercedes Benz and BMW each with Texas State Official License Plates. As I approached the counter to place my order I noticed an older couple setting at a table by the window and being the rude, crass S.O.B. that I am, I told them that Texas state officials driving foreign luxury cars didn’t resonate all that well for me given the state of our economy.
The short explanation was that he paid for the cars himself and that one of them was assembled in Tennessee. “Oh”, I thought to myself, “obviously a Republican.”
He went on to identify himself as state representative Leo Berman and I took that as an invitation to send my split finger fast ball up under his chin. “How come”, I say, “You people didn’t go along with the Senate and vote to accept the $550-million stimulus money earmarked for extended unemployment benefits for working families?”
He replied that “”working” families don’t draw unemployment”, and I quickly answered, “Yes they do, when they’re laid off. And I can tell you that they’d much rather get a paycheck than an unemployment check!”
He cruised past that and said that Texas didn’t need to help out the President by taking money that would obligate us to changing our unemployment compensation program. I replied, “It would not have been helping the president, it would have been helping working families in Texas.”
He then launched into the Rick Perry Republican talking points about “strings” and having to extend unemployment compensation and Texas just didn’t need to do that to help out the President. I reminded him that Obama would not get a dime of that money, that it would have gone to hard-pressed unemployed, and that come October, without that infusion of money, the fund will be facing a billion dollar shortfall.
Back and forth we went, until he offered that the legislature put a lot of money on the table for retraining of unemployed people. My quick response was that job training was fine in an economy when jobs are available, but right now jobs are scarce and none of the training in the world will create those jobs nor will it put food on the table or pay rent for those who are out of work.
At this point the conversation began to disintegrate when he saw I was not buying his “talking points”. “Well”, he said, “the reason the bill did not come up was because the Democrats stalled us on the voter ID bill. It’s the Democrats fault.”
“No”, I said, “The problem is too many people in politics have lost touch with the notion that we have civilization and society and taxes in order that we look out for and take care of each other, not business and corporate interests.” I went on to mention that back in the day, Ralph Yarborough best summed it up by saying, “We need to move the jam down to the lower shelf where the little fellow can get his fair share.”
Berman made some sneering comment about Ralph Yarborough which left me pissed and with the choice to continue this exercise in futility or to disengage and enjoy my smoothie. I chose to end the conversation with some civil comment and watched as they toodled off in their Mercedes and BMW.
Dang old Republicans, they just don’t get it! But, I felt really good afterwards, that at least on one occasion Berman got to hear it straight! He’ll ignore it, and has no doubt washed it from his memory, but the important thing is that it got said—I wish more people would do the same.
02 June 2009
Legislative Failure - Betty Brown Gets It Wrong - Again!
I have not been troubled by self-doubt since my teen years and even then it was damned little. I have always been fairly comfortable with my convictions and base them on common sense, a blue-collar background and perspective, and extensive readings. But, today I shake my head in dismay, and wonder a bit if maybe I might just be wrong about certain things.
Here is what has brought me to this point. Awhile back I wrote about Texas Senate Bill 1569 relating to the $500-plus million that was to be part of our state stimulus money and that our dunce-cap wearing, fool-of-the-world governor, Rick Perry, so blithely declined. A bipartisan majority of the state senators said, in effect, “Hold on bozo, that money is needed, and if we do not take it now, we’re going to have a one-billion dollar unemployment fund shortfall come October and we’ll have to hike the tax on businesses to recover it”.
I went on to suggest that were that to come to pass, we are all of us going to pay higher prices for goods and services as those businesses act to recoup those higher tax outlays. I also scribbled some words about my conviction that in tough times it was the right thing to do in order to look out for our working families. You see, that is a conviction of mine, we join together in order to look out for each other.
It seems that the legislature does not share my conviction since they never brought the bill to a vote, effectively letting it languish to death while never putting themselves on the record as being for or against working families. This despite my exhortation that we all needed to contact our representatives and ask them to support the bill.
I did that myself, and got a reply from my state representative, Betty Brown. Now I’ll put aside the fact that Ms. Brown seems dumber than a tote sack full of Brazos River sand and suggest that despite that intellectual shortfall she might have some empathy for the state’s working families. Her reply to me reinforced the first part of my assessment of her and belied my hope that she might demonstrate some empathy.
Here, in part, is some of the drivel she dared to send me: “...Texans prefer a paycheck over an unemployment check, we cannot abandon the proven practices of limited government and fiscal conservatism that, blah, blah, yammer, yammer”. She claims Texas and its “pro-business” environment is at “the forefront of the national economy”.
The facts are otherwise Ms. Brown! Several years ago the state was indeed at the forefront but under your and Perry’s “fiscal conservative” stewardship we are projected to slip to tenth this year, with a downward spiral that will have us spinning in the drain for years to come. And, while we were at the economic “forefront”, our public education system was ranked only 25th among the states. I guess we could take comfort that our economic dead zone and equally fiscally conservative neighbors of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi fared worse.
And just another fact or two, Ms. Brown: The state’s median income and “real” minimum wage do not rank at the forefront either. All of which proves my point about your being dumber than a... Oh well, you can always retrain, but you can never display honesty and conviction and support for the people on whose back our state’s "pro-business, fiscally conservative" economy rides until you cast off your tired, failed ideology of conservatism.
I’m glad I could have this brief conversation, I feel better. The self-doubt is gone. I was right and my convictions are intact.
Here is what has brought me to this point. Awhile back I wrote about Texas Senate Bill 1569 relating to the $500-plus million that was to be part of our state stimulus money and that our dunce-cap wearing, fool-of-the-world governor, Rick Perry, so blithely declined. A bipartisan majority of the state senators said, in effect, “Hold on bozo, that money is needed, and if we do not take it now, we’re going to have a one-billion dollar unemployment fund shortfall come October and we’ll have to hike the tax on businesses to recover it”.
I went on to suggest that were that to come to pass, we are all of us going to pay higher prices for goods and services as those businesses act to recoup those higher tax outlays. I also scribbled some words about my conviction that in tough times it was the right thing to do in order to look out for our working families. You see, that is a conviction of mine, we join together in order to look out for each other.
It seems that the legislature does not share my conviction since they never brought the bill to a vote, effectively letting it languish to death while never putting themselves on the record as being for or against working families. This despite my exhortation that we all needed to contact our representatives and ask them to support the bill.
I did that myself, and got a reply from my state representative, Betty Brown. Now I’ll put aside the fact that Ms. Brown seems dumber than a tote sack full of Brazos River sand and suggest that despite that intellectual shortfall she might have some empathy for the state’s working families. Her reply to me reinforced the first part of my assessment of her and belied my hope that she might demonstrate some empathy.
Here, in part, is some of the drivel she dared to send me: “...Texans prefer a paycheck over an unemployment check, we cannot abandon the proven practices of limited government and fiscal conservatism that, blah, blah, yammer, yammer”. She claims Texas and its “pro-business” environment is at “the forefront of the national economy”.
The facts are otherwise Ms. Brown! Several years ago the state was indeed at the forefront but under your and Perry’s “fiscal conservative” stewardship we are projected to slip to tenth this year, with a downward spiral that will have us spinning in the drain for years to come. And, while we were at the economic “forefront”, our public education system was ranked only 25th among the states. I guess we could take comfort that our economic dead zone and equally fiscally conservative neighbors of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississippi fared worse.
And just another fact or two, Ms. Brown: The state’s median income and “real” minimum wage do not rank at the forefront either. All of which proves my point about your being dumber than a... Oh well, you can always retrain, but you can never display honesty and conviction and support for the people on whose back our state’s "pro-business, fiscally conservative" economy rides until you cast off your tired, failed ideology of conservatism.
I’m glad I could have this brief conversation, I feel better. The self-doubt is gone. I was right and my convictions are intact.
01 June 2009
For Every Right - An Equal and Corresponding Responsibility
For every right we enjoy as free people there is a corresponding responsibility. Nowhere is this more important and critical than in our guarantee of freedom of speech. Yes, we have the right to speak our mind, but we do not have the right to shout fire in a crowded theater if no fire exists.
Today we are faced with yet again another violent act in which there is the extreme likelihood that a misguided and unstable person was driven to an incomprehensible act by inflammatory hate-speech from the right-wing.
In this instance it was the murder this week-end of Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, by at least one anti-abortion extremist. About this time last year it was the murder of two Unitarians in Tennessee because they were too liberal. One of the things setting apart these killings was that each happened while the victims were at church. Another is that right-wing hate speech surrounds and most likely contributed to both events.
In the Tennessee murders investigators found right-wing and hate-group writings and pamphlets along with references to the Fox cable news network. In the Kansas case, Dr. Tiller was the target of a vendetta by Fox News blowhard, Bill O'Reilly.
Folks, we have a responsibility to temper our speech because those who hear it and act on it make us complicit in their unworthy deeds of criminal insanity. If we dehumanize and characterize those with which we disagree as “murderers” we run the risk of inciting to action those among us who have the ability and mentality to perform great violence. In effect, we provide them permission to act on the whispered commands of their inner demons.
See the O'Reilly clip below, and ask yourself, “At what point does responsibility to the greater good of society trump one’s right to speak one’s mind”?
Today we are faced with yet again another violent act in which there is the extreme likelihood that a misguided and unstable person was driven to an incomprehensible act by inflammatory hate-speech from the right-wing.
In this instance it was the murder this week-end of Dr. George Tiller, a Kansas abortion provider, by at least one anti-abortion extremist. About this time last year it was the murder of two Unitarians in Tennessee because they were too liberal. One of the things setting apart these killings was that each happened while the victims were at church. Another is that right-wing hate speech surrounds and most likely contributed to both events.
In the Tennessee murders investigators found right-wing and hate-group writings and pamphlets along with references to the Fox cable news network. In the Kansas case, Dr. Tiller was the target of a vendetta by Fox News blowhard, Bill O'Reilly.
Folks, we have a responsibility to temper our speech because those who hear it and act on it make us complicit in their unworthy deeds of criminal insanity. If we dehumanize and characterize those with which we disagree as “murderers” we run the risk of inciting to action those among us who have the ability and mentality to perform great violence. In effect, we provide them permission to act on the whispered commands of their inner demons.
See the O'Reilly clip below, and ask yourself, “At what point does responsibility to the greater good of society trump one’s right to speak one’s mind”?
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