Burnt Orange Report

Open Thread

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

Random Updates for you today.

+ One of the two candidates (Edward Smith) to run in HD 106 in Dallas where Ray Allen has retired has now been kicked off the ballot since none of the addresses he gave were in the district, and he has only lived there 6 months. That leaves Kirk England to take on Katy Hubener in the special election and general election.

+ Matt creates a visual chart of why Lamar Smith is an Enabler to the Culture of Corruption. John Courage, running against Smith, has called for him to resign from his spot on the House Ethics Committee over on his blog.

+ David Van Os, running for Attorney General, has hired blogger PDiddie to be his new campaign manager.

+ Grits for Breakfast has not once, but twice now had his blog postings lead to major real world affects. The latest involved our blogging representative Aaron Pena.

+ Looks like former Rep. Keel might have a primary after all for his Court of Criminal Appeals seat which he knocked his opponents out of earlier this year.

+ Karen Felthauser, running for HD-52 up in Williamson County, makes the DF(A)-list. Check out her new website as well.

+ Google Video is freaking cool. Where else could you easily find such wonderfully useful things like this or see why Macs suck or have a world repository for digital fart films or see the clip from Stargate SG-1 with the Hatak fleet being destroyed.

+ Year end Google Zeitgeist is out.

+ "Champion" arrives at UT. IBMs latest ginormous supercomputer at 730 billion calculations a second.

+ Get your State of the Union preview on. Some funniness at MyDD.

This Is Just Too Funny Not To Pass On

By Vince Leibowitz

Thanks to Google News Alerts I still have active on a bunch of now-former congressmen, I was directed to SFist.com, a San Franscisco blog which today had a post up about a local election there and discussed Christine Pelosi (daughter of Nancy Pelosi). I could not figure out why this was emailed to me as a news alert for "Max Sandlin" until I read this (all links and puncuation, etc., are from the source):

Christine Pelosi, whose mother you may have heard of, is a former San Francisco deputy DA who is now active with the Democratic party. In her day job, Christine serves as Chief of Staff to Congressman John Tierney (D-Mass.) (who her mother then appointed to the Intelligence committee) and used to date (scroll down) Texas Democratic congressman Max Sandlin (during which time her mother appointed him to the Ways and Means committee). Sandlin, 63, lost his bid for reelection last year (and is now dating a representative from South Dakota. What a player!).

Strangely enough, the funniest thing in the post, to me, was that Max Sandlin was listed as being 63 years old. Hello...look at the guy! Via Wikipedia, try 53.

I just couldn't resist correcting an out-of-state blogger on the real age of one of our former Congressmen.

Sandlin to Lobby

By Vince Leibowitz

Former U.S. Congressman Max Sandlin (D-Marshall) will be doing some governmental relations work (i.e.: lobbying), I learned today thanks to an old Google News Alert I didn't even know I still had active from last year's election cycle.

A New York newspaper ran a brief within another story which included the announcement that Sandlin has become a shareholder in the nation's 8th largest law firm, Greenberg Traurig. Sandlin will work from the firm's D.C. and newly opened Houston offices, according to a press release on its website.

Sandlin, who has been in private practice since leaving congress, joined the firm following expiration of the year-long federal ethics restrictions that prevent retired Congressmen from lobbying on the Hill. Sandlin was recently mentioned on BOR for his endorsement of Chris Bell for Governor.

Merry Christmas!

By Phillip Martin

Hope everyone is enjoying time with family and friends. I'm jumping the gun on this post, I know -- but I'm about to head off to Church, and then I'm taking a break from the computer for the weekend.

It was a gorgeous 71 degrees here in Austin today. Leave some holiday cheer below, and remember -- just a little more than 10 days until the Rose Bowl!

Here's a little Santa-tracking for you. Enjoy!

Wiktory!

By Jim Dallas

This is either bad news for Britannica or good news for Wikipedia. For the record, I currently have Weird Al's "Everything You Know is Wrong" stuck in mind.

Pittsburg Says 'No' To MLK Street

By Vince Leibowitz

I ran across this last night. And it doesn't seem that any other media outlets have picked it up, but I do think it's worth mentioning.

Monday night in Pittsburg (Camp County), the city council declined a request from the Camp County NAACP to rename a city street after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

The NAACP sought to have renamed one of several streets, but, on a tied vote with the mayor casting the tie, the city decided against the proposal.

KLTV.com offered this quote from Pittsburg's mayor:

"I told them I didn't want to change any street in the city," says Pittsburg Mayor D.H. Abernathy. "Because I have the history of all of them when they first started and people giving 20 feet on each side to widen the streets and all that. You change it and call it Martin Luther King, Jr. you lose all the history behind that."

KLTV also noted:

Mayor Abernathy says some local businesses that operate on the proposed streets also expressed opposition to a name change, saying there would be significant costs such as changing company letterheads, business cards and licenses. "There are costs in every change. Something that is worthwhile costs," says Camp County NAACP member Thomas Hall.

However, as a consolation, the mayor has said the town would be willing to erect a King memorial, "in a location that is prominent and a lot of people pass."

The NAACP President in Camp County had this to say about the memorial proposal, which I found quite interesting:

"It's not that we're not interested in [a memorial]. It just seems like every time we get together and come up with something it seems like the powers that be are against it," says Camp County NAACP President Patrick Lloyd. "We have a lot of local people here that happen to be descendents of Anglo-Saxons that have streets named for them and even the mayor has a street named for him and we don't think he's important to the history of the world a fraction of what Martin Luther King did," says [local NAACP member Darnell] Thomas.

A bad idea whose time has come (again)

By Jim Dallas

I speak, of course, about serious discussions about imposing a new Windfall Profit Tax on oil producers. Although such a tax might curb big oil's rapacious profit seeking, I worry that it will disincentivize oil exploration just when we need those incentives the most. I suppose the real issue is whether a new WPT would be tiered like the Carter-era WPT, which taxed newly-discovered oil fields at a lower rate than "old" oil.

At any rate, the profitability of Big Oil shocks the conscience of even those who would not normally consider, you know, profitability to be shocking to the conscience. Call it too much of a good thing.

Happy Birthday US Navy

By Damon McCullar

It was on this date in 1775 that the Continental Congress authorized:

the procurement, fitting out, manning, and dispatch of two armed vessels to cruise in search of munitions ships supplying the British Army in America. The legislation also established a Naval Committee to supervise the work. All together, the Continental Navy numbered some fifty ships over the course of the war, with approximately twenty warships active at its maximum strength.

Happy 230th birthday US Navy. You don't look a day over 223. Go Navy, Beat Army!

Open Thread

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

Today is a busy day for some of the writers including myself as we catch up from this weekend. Remember, tomorrow is the last day to register to vote in the November 8th election.

What's going on in your neck of the woods?

State Won't Open Both Sides of Highway 290

By Phillip Martin

Whereas the state plans to open up both sides of Interstate 10 and Interstate 45, so that all north/south/east/west-bound lanes will be helping people get out of Houston, the state, as of now, is not opening up Highway 290 or Highway 6. I work at the capitol, and we've received many phone calls from people who have family members that have only moved a mile or two in five hours. Apparently, some people are simply giving up on Highway 290 and turning back into Houston, despite the mandatory evacuation order.

The reason not for turning around Highway 290? In Brenham, the road narrows, and it will all be gridlocked. So, rather than having there be a gridlock out of the path of the storm, the state feels it will be better to strand thousands of folks on Highway 290.

Meanwhile, if anyone has folks stranded on Highway 290 or Highway 6, the best idea might be to turn back into Houston and try to exit on I-10 or I-45, where both sides of the highway will be open for outgoing traffic.

**UPDATE***

OK, so the word is that the state wants to keep Highway 290 open for emergency vehicles. I can understand that...though I still feel that you could divert traffic to the other lane today and through some of tomorrow to help get people out, then close that other side again when the storm starts to hit (when emergency vehicles would need to get into the city). However, I take the point of my commenter well, that we don't need to tie up phone lines. Let's just hope those in charge make good decisions, and everyone gets out safe.

Any word on Matt?

A Mighty Wind

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

May a suggest that if you havn't thought about it yet, you leave?

Also, Texas is filling up fast. 20,000 rooms in Dallas booked overnight. 500 requests for rooms for a 40 room motel in Llano in one day. The largest hotels in Midland and Odessa, full. I just got off the phone with Councilman Musselman in Fredericksburg and everything is booked up down to the last B&B.

Austinites, charge your cell phones in advance, and be on the lookout for ACL cancelations of some sort. The Statesman has a checklist that locals may want to think about. When that eye is 2-3 counties east of us, it's still expected to be a Category 1.

BOR will be here, hopefully Matt will be able to report as long as he can (stay safe out there!), keep an eye on Kuff as well if you are closer to the Houston area.

Houston Flood Map here which lists Cat 5 storm surge zones.

Rita graduates to Category 5 Hurricane

By Katie Naranjo

Mayor Bill White asks citizens in at risk areas to evacuate now, because Rita has winds ranging 165mph and the storm surge will flood low areas. The storm will most likely not directly hit Houston, but rather South-East in Corpus Christi. However, Galveston is under a state of emergency and is busing/flying people out.

For additional info on the Texas coast and evacuations see here.

Bush Sent Funding for Levees to Iraq

By Phillip Martin

Over the past two years President Bush and the White House repeatedly cut funding for New Orleans levee projects, diverting sources to Iraq instead despite the recognition that something horrible could happen to the Louisiana area.

Sidney Blumenthal, a former Clinton advisor, reports that the administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

According to an article posted on Editor and Publisher by Will Bunch, a pulitzer prize winning journalist:

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

Scott McCllelan started denying these reports in a press conference this morning. When asked about the Southeast Louisiana Flood Control Project that was only given 1/6 of what it needed to complete flood preparations, McCllelan simply said, "flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one."

While no one believes this disaster was at all preventable, certain measures could have been taken to better prepare for such damage, a concern many had obviously voiced over the past few decades.

For a complete look at the story, click on the jump below, or click on the link for Editor and Publisher above.

Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen? 'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues

By Will Bunch

Published: August 31, 2005 9:00 PM ET

PHILADELPHIA Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.

Newhouse News Service, in an article posted late Tuesday night at The Times-Picayune Web site, reported: "No one can say they didn't see it coming. ... Now in the wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked about the lack of preparation."

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

Also that June, with the 2004 hurricane season starting, the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before a local agency, the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and essentially begged for $2 million for urgent work that Washington was now unable to pay for. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:

"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."

The panel authorized that money, and on July 1, 2004, it had to pony up another $250,000 when it learned that stretches of the levee in Metairie had sunk by four feet. The agency had to pay for the work with higher property taxes. The levee board noted in October 2004 that the feds were also now not paying for a hoped-for $15 million project to better shore up the banks of Lake Pontchartrain.

The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

"That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount. But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said."

The Senate was seeking to restore some of the SELA funding cuts for 2006. But now it's too late.

One project that a contractor had been racing to finish this summer: a bridge and levee job right at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday.

The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House. ... In its budget, the Bush administration proposed a significant reduction in funding for southeast Louisiana's chief hurricane protection project. Bush proposed $10.4 million, a sixth of what local officials say they need."

Local officials are now saying, the article reported, that had Washington heeded their warnings about the dire need for hurricane protection, including building up levees and repairing barrier islands, "the damage might not have been nearly as bad as it turned out to be."
Will Bunch (letters@editorandpublisher.com) is senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1992 when he reported for Newsday. Much of this article also appears on his blog, Attytood, at the Daily News.

Intern Opportunity with the Diane Henson Campaign

By Damon McCullar

Diane Henson is running for the Texas Court of Appeals place three. She's looking for an intern. If anyone is interested, email your resume to her.

It Comes... Go Now

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

If you are anyone you know is near New Orleans or the coast where Hurrican Katrina (now Category 5) will hit tomorrow, get on the phone and tell them to get suppied and get out of the area now.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency on Sunday and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city as potentially catastrophic Hurricane Katrina churned toward the city with maximum sustained winds near 175 mph.

All of Orleans Parish falls under the order except for necessary personnel in government, emergency and some other public service categories.

People who are unable to evacuate were told to immediately report to a designated shelter.

"I wish I had better news for you, but we are facing a storm that most of us have feared," Nagin said. "I do not want to create panic, but I do want the citizens to understand that this is very serious and it's of the highest nature."

Only three other Category 5's have made landfall. The Labor Day Hurrican in 1935, 1969's Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the Miami area back in 1992.

So let your friends and family know this is totally serious and they should make plans to head on out, most all interstates are outbound. I fear the worst-case though for residents sake (as well as those associated with the Gulf Oil Industry...

In worst-case scenarios, most of New Orleans would end up under 15 feet of water, without electricity, clean water and sewage for months. Even pumping the water out could take as long as four months to get started because the massive pumps that would do the job would be underwater.

"People in New Orleans tend to think that the storm we've always planned on would never come," Louisiana National Guard Lt. Col. Pete Schneider said. "But people need to heed that warning."

Rappaport cautioned that New Orleans was not the only area threatened -- the storm's hurricane winds spread out as far as 100 miles. As far east as Mobile, Alabama, forecasters warned of storm surges reaching 8 to 10 feet.

Of course, it would be great if more of Louisiana's National Guard and Reserve were available to help with evacuation and protecting the city and its possibly overpowered levee system, but a large number of them have been called up to Iraq. And of those, the state is tied with New York in the number of servicemembers lost- 23, with all but one of those coming in the last 8 months.

Unfortunately, the citizens of the state of Louisiana are about to face the full force of Katrina without the benefit many of their National Guard troops to protect them. Maybe some of the 1500 pro-Boondoggle protestors out in Crawford today can caravan over to New Orleans to take their place.

Howard Dean & I Are Too Liberal

By Vince Leibowitz

As most of you know, I'm the County Chairman of the Democratic Party in Van Zandt County--half way between Dallas and Tyler in East Texas.

Well, today one of our local Justices of the Peace defected and went to the other side. I knew it was coming, as the Republicans here have been hounding local elected officials and telling them that our party has grown "too liberal" at the local level for them to be affiliated with it. Since this guy wasn't even a nominal Democrat at best, I was unsurprised. (You can read my press release on it here).

But, I found it amusing that in the news release announcing his switch (sorry, the newspaper doesn't have it online) that he noted, he could "no longer in good coneience follow the leadership of the national Democratic party or the local Democratic Party."

Though I guess Chairman Soechting got exempted from this triad (ha, ha) by an ex Baptist minister now delivering the Wrath of God from the bench, I found it quite amusing to be listed in the company of none other than Howard Dean. I guess we're both just too liberal.

Voting Rights Act Turns 40

By Vince Leibowitz

I did not realize it, but according to CivilRights.org, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 turns 40 on Saturday.

Though I'm not going to make this one of my long posts, I do want to say that the Civil Rights Act of 1965 is something that makes me very proud of Democrats and Texas' own Lyndon Johnson.

If you've never read "Taking Charge," the book that transcribes many tape recorded conversations from the Lyndon Johnson White House, now would be a great time to do so. Some editions, as I recall, come with an actual tape of many of the conversations. As I recall there are several calls transcribed having to do with the Civil Rights Act, and all are very revealing and interesting.

Hurricane/Global Warming Soap Opera Continues

By Jim Dallas

CNN reports on an analysis which may or may not indicate that hurricanes are more intense now because of global warming. While there has been an unusually-high number of major hurricanes in recent seasons (and you don't need to do statistics in order to figure that out), the study only runs back to 1970, and thus does not include data from storms like Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Carla. As such, I pretty much have to agree with the scientists that think this really proves nothing.

US Returns to Space

By Damon McCullar

Congrats to NASA and the brave men and women on board Discovery as they return the US to manned space flight. May the thoughts and prayers of the BOR community be with these American heros as they embark on this perilous adventure. God speed!

Hurricane Watch for South Texas

By Jim Dallas

From the National Hurricane Center:

...EMILY HEADING FOR THE WESTERN GULF OF MEXICO...EXPECTED TO REGAIN STRENGTH.... A HURRICANE WATCH REMAINS IN EFFECT FROM CABO ROJO MEXICO NORTHWARD TO BAFFIN BAY TEXAS. A HURRICANE WATCH MEANS THAT HURRICANE CONDITIONS ARE POSSIBLE WITHIN THE WATCH AREA...GENERALLY WITHIN 36 HOURS.

...

AT 10 AM CDT...1500Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE EMILY WAS LOCATED NEAR LATITUDE 21.8 NORTH...LONGITUDE 89.6 WEST OR ABOUT 540 MILES... 870 KM...EAST-SOUTHEAST OF LA PESCA MEXICO AND ABOUT 575 MILES... 925 KM...EAST-SOUTHEAST OF BROWNSVILLE TEXAS.

Heads up Texas

By Jim Dallas

While the consensus model projects Hurricane Emily will be heading into Mexico, the UKMET forecast model (one of several computer models used by the weather service) shows Hurricane Emily sitting right off the Texas coast early next week.

While the model accuracy data on the National Hurricane Center's web site is a bit old (looking at average model error for 1996 and 1997), the UKMET model was slightly less accurate than the others. Moreover, this time around it is clearly the outlier. Nonetheless, forecasts are subject to change on a dime, depending on unexpected changes in the atmosphere. Indeed, the buildup of high pressure this week on the East Coast was a bit more rapid than the weather service expected, which is why the initial long-range forecasts for this system projected it would move towards Cuba or the east coast of Florida.

John Pruett Reporting for Duty

By John Pruett

I couldn’t help myself. I felt compelled to borrow from Sen. Kerry’s acceptance speech at last year’s Democratic Convention. Fortunately, I’m not running as a presidential candidate in our heavily divided nation, but this is my acceptance speech as a new writer for the Burnt Orange Report. I’d like to thank all of the current BOR staff who selected me as a new member of the BOR team. I cherish this opportunity to contribute to the political debate in Texas, and I plan to make the most of it.

I’d also like to quote another JFK, the one elected as US President in 1960, and in my opinion one of the greatest presidents in American history. In a prepared speech he intended to give to the Texas Democratic State Committee in Austin on the day he was assassinated, Kennedy stated:

For the Democratic Party is not a collection of diverse interests brought together only to win elections. We are united instead by a common history and heritage--by a respect for the deeds of the past and a recognition of the needs of the future. Never satisfied with today, we have always staked our fortunes on tomorrow. That is the kind of State which Texas has always been--that is the kind of vision and vitality which Texans have always possessed--and that is the reason why Texas will always be basically Democratic.

Those are words that I truly believe. Although Texas has its fair share of reactionary and conservative elements, our state also has a proud history of populism, progressive ideals, and great leaders such as former-President Johnson, Congressmen Ralph Yarborough and Wright Patman (from my birthplace of Texarkana), Barbara Jordan, and others. These leaders believed in bettering the lives of all Texas citizens by providing them with an education, healthcare, a clean environment, and job security.

Times have certainly changed since Kennedy was president. Republicans have come to power but have failed miserably in their attempt to govern Texas. The needs of average Texans have been pushed aside in favor of big business and political corruption. I believe that the people of Texas will not stand for this indefinitely. The time is ripe for a resurgent Democratic Party to champion the needs of the poor and underprivileged. To do this, we must recognize “the needs of the future.” I am honored to play a part in the struggle for a better Texas.

I Am Marcus

By Marcus Ceniceros

Hey friends, this is Marcus Ceniceros. I am proud to be one of the five new additions to Burnt Orange Report. Born in San Antonio, raised in El Paso, and now at school in Austin, I have seen Texas from many different perspectives and look forward to sharing my thoughts on government and politics with you.

When I arrived at UT two years ago, all of my community activities revolved around service projects. Growing up, I never really identified myself with a party, nor did I follow politics as much as some of the other writers here have. I have always admired government and know that without good, rational, unprejudiced public policy the people who need and deserve the most help will never receive it.

I joined University Democrats my freshman year and became very involved in the UT and Austin community. At the end of the year, I was elected president of the oldest, most respected political organization on campus. (I still get chills to know that great public servants like Lloyd Bentsen, Bruce Elfant, and of course, Byron LaMasters are past presidents.)

My time as president was amazing. Our members cared so much about our causes, worked hard to register over 7,000 voters, came together to host an amazing forum with Senator John Kerry, strengthened the UDems legacy on campus, and most importantly became friends that stood up for each other’s rights, just like our lawmakers should. One of my proudest moments was when we were named UT’s “Most Outstanding Student Organization” in front of thousands of people at Texas Revue.

Throughout these two years I have turned to Burnt Orange for important information about our community. I hope to help continue these conversations with all of you and inspire more people to become involved. Y espero que pueda alentar a personas que no han sido implicadas en la política previamente. (I hope to inspire people who have not been previously involved in politics.)

Please let me know if you ever need anything. Best-

Some Attention for BOR

By Vince Leibowitz

Though I haven't posted here as much as I would have liked over the past couple of months (can you believe I let work get in the way of blogging?), I did want to let everyone to know to "watch out," for the Fort Worth Star Telegram this weekend.

I received a call earlier this week from a reporter in the paper's Austin Bureau, asking me about a post I'd made here a while back on State Rep. Bob Griggs. It seems the paper is doing a "report card/profile" on Griggs, and it is expected to run Sunday or later depending upon when it was finished.

At any rate, hopefully summer will be a little bit slower time--the past couple of weeks I've been buried in Lexis/Nexus searches, the Code of Criminal Procedure (actually O'Conner's Criminal Codes Plus) and the various and sundry things one must do when one works for a law firm--and I should be back with my regular musings.

In the meantime, I think I remember something about Byron graduating today, which probably explains the lack of posting today. If, in fact Byron or anyone passed up a day of revelry and posted on the day of their college graduation, I'd be totally shocked.

So, congrats to Byron (and everyone else graduating from anywhere this weekend, for that matter).

Vince Leibowitz is County Chairman of the Democratic Party of Van Zandt County. He is a guest contributor to BOR and a contributor to the Political State Report. He may be reached at Vince_Leibowitz-at-bluebottle.com

Constructive Media Criticism

By Jim Dallas

If you've been reading the blog circuit recently, you know that Doug McKinnon, a former staffer for Bob Dole, has written a stinging op-ed in the Chicago Tribune about the media fascination with missing "single white females" --

Note to the news media--with an emphasis on the cable networks: Enough is enough.

Your continual focus on, and reporting of, missing, young, attractive white women not only demeans your profession but is a televised slap in the face to minority mothers and parents the nation over who search for their own missing children with little or no assistance or notice from anyone.

The latest missing woman to dominate the airtime of the cable networks was Jennifer Wilbanks, from Duluth, Ga. Like Dru Sjodin, Chandra Levy and Elizabeth Smart all before her, Wilbanks is young, white and attractive. Wilbanks, as it turned out, ran away of her own volition from her impending marriage. As a Maryland police official told me after Wilbanks turned up in New Mexico, "the media's non-stop focus on the possible abduction of Wilbanks forced the local officials and police departments to spend thousands of dollars they would not otherwise have spent."

Define racism. One could certainly make the argument that the cable networks that continually focus on these missing white women, to the virtual exclusion of minority women, are practicing a form of racism. The racism in this case, however, while predicated on color, does not concern itself with the color of one's skin. Rather, it is based on the color of money, ratings points and competition. Would an African-American woman who went missing days before her wedding receive the same (or any) coverage as that of Wilbanks? Not likely.

The unfortunate irony being that important trends go unreported while singular, sensationalistic incidents like the run-away bride story get coverage way out of proportion to their actual relevance. Granted, such journalism appears to get the John Tierney seal of approval, but I think we can all agree with Tbogg about John Tierney.

Here at the Burnt Orange Report we like to do more than idle complaining, so here's a hot (only because it's been simmering on the backburner for about a decade) scoop for all you journalists:

The Governor of the state of Chihuahua in Mexico said recently that international attention on the situation in Ciudad Juarez is damaging the city's public image. The purpose of Reyes Baeza's comments is unclear, but such statements in the past have had the effect of undermining families and local NGOs seeking justice.

To say that it is international concern, and not the situation in the region, that is damaging the city's image is very clearly wrong-headed. Ciudad Juarez has a reputation for violence and brutality against women -- not because of international concern -- but because of the reality and the institutional failures to deal effectively with this reality.

The reality is that since 1993 more than 370 young women and girls have been murdered in the cities of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua - at least a third suffering sexual violence - without the authorities taking proper measures to investigate and address the problem.

Thanks to the efforts of the families of the victims and local women's organizations, coupled with international campaigning by the likes of Amnesty International and V-Day, things have begun to change. In 2003-4, in the face of this intense pressure, the federal government finally agreed to get involved, with a range of measures to combat violence against women in Ciudad Juarez -- but sadly not the city of Chihuahua.

By "international pressure," of course, Amnesty International does not appear to be talking about the mainstream media in the United States. A LexisNexis search of major newspapers' full text over the last five years turns up 210 hits for "Jennifer Wilbanks", 293 hits for "Dru Sjodin", and "error, over 1,000 results found" for "Chandra Levy" (I counted 2,876 by splitting the search into about five different time-periods). Combined for three women, this is 3,379 stories over five years, or about one-and-a-half per day.

A full-text search of "'Ciudad Juarez' AND 'missing women'" returned 12 stories, four of which were printed by Canadian papers, three by Australian papers, and one by the London Telegraph. So basically, major U.S. papers have run four stories over five years. Wire services ran 18 stories; I could not find a single English-media transcript or magazine article containing those search terms.

Lexis-ing isn't necessarily the best measure of the mainstream media's focus, since it depends on the art of search-term-ing. Nonetheless, I think we can all see a pattern here.

If you've heard of this issue at all it's probably been because of human rights NGOs or Texas-based womens' issue advocates. That's how I'm aware of the issue, anyway. The media is doing a truly shameful job of addressing border issues, particularly when they intersect with the larger issue of womens' safety.

Canton School Shooting Update

By Vince Leibowitz

Several days ago, when Canton, where I reside in Van Zandt County, hit the news because of the unfortunate school shooting, I noticed that a couple of my fellow bloggers here blogged on it.

Since we're pretty much to the "aftermath" stages right now--waiting for the coach to recover, waiting to see what the judicial system will do, etc.--I thought it might be interesting to let readers of this blog know a little more about the rest of the "aftermath" of the shooting. In particular, the impact the shooting may end up having on our local elections next month.

First of all, a little background is necessary. For several years until the fall of 2004, the Canton Police Department and the city of Canton provided Canton ISD and Canton High School specifically with a "School Resource Officer." This was a police officer (in this case a very dedicated and highly regarded lady named Michelle Abio) who was basically assigned full time to protect the campuses and also work with the students so they understand that police are there to help, etc., etc.

Anyway, last year, when our police chief was unceremoniously demoted to dispatcher by the new far-radical, right-wing Republican City Manager, Charles Fenner, the new "public safety director," who now serves essentially as fire and police chief, decided the department couldn't afford to have the school resource officer. Keep in mind also that, for a town of 3,500, Canton has a fairly sizeable police department because of the fact that once a month, anywhere from 100,000 to 300,000 people come here for First Monday Trade Days.

Well, when Officer Abio was being removed from the school, she was asked, at a school board meeting, what the school could do to prevent it from happening. As I recall, she basically told them they would have to make their voices heard to the city. Now, everyone can plainly see that the officer was exercising her right to free speech, so the city couldn't fire her for that. Instead, the pulled up a stupid, trumped-up "charge" up from the past that the old chief had already taken care of, and fired the officer for that. So, the school is without a resource officer.

Though our local rag, the Canton Herald, won't dare report such a controversial thing, a lot of people in the city believe the shooting would have never happened if Officer Abio (or at least another SRO) was on the scene at the high school. If you've read the news accounts of the shooting and the shooter, you can see why they may believe that. Personally, I believe if someone's dead-set to causing violence like that, they're going to find a way to do so--officer or no officer. But, there are evidently a lot of people in the city who feel otherwise, and who feel their children were placed in danger because the SRO was taken away.

For the last week, I've heard what I'll call "rumblings and rumors" that a fairly large delegation of parents would be descending upon the Canton City Council meeting next Tuesday to speak during the public comments portion of the meeting to make their opinions known. I wasn't sure it would happen until last night. Rather late last night, I recieved a call from a person I knew from my tenure at the local newspapers (back when they reported the news) who told me that, in fact, a number of parents of school-aged children are trying to make this happen and who asked if I knew anyone else in town who wasn't a parent who might join them and also speak on their behalf. Unfortunatly, I didn't, and this is one fight I plan to stay away from for a number of reasons. But, while it may happen absent the watchful eye of the Associated Press and other news agencies, I firmly believe the Canton City Council will have an interesting "Come to Jesus," meeting with some of its constituents Tuesday.

As for how this will affect the local elections, I believe that both the two-term mayor and opposed incumbents on the council will be defeated. I believe the mayor will be defeated by a fairly large margin and that one council member will be defeated by a small margin. After all, these are the folks that hired the new city manager (who was elected to the council before being named city manager and is a protegee of RPT Executive Director Jeff Fisher, former VZC Judge) who got rid of the old police chief who in turn screwed up the police department. All of this has, by the way, resulted in several lawsuits against the city.

One of the most interesting suits charges that the city couldn't hire either a city manager or a public safety director because it doesn't have ordinances in place to do so, if I remember correctly. This would make the city manager's decisions null and void (supposedly) since the Local Government Code delegates specific powers to the mayor and council unless an ordinance is adopted otherwise.

Anyway, that is what is going on in Canton right now. I just thought some of BOR's readers may find the "small town politics" angle interesting.

I Was Wrong About Schiavo

By Andrew Dobbs

After my post on the Schiavo case I read some very interesting comments and resolved to do more research into the matter. I read a variety of sources, and in the end I changed my mind- I was wrong. While I hate saying that a woman should die when so many people clearly love her and wish to see her live, I also must say that it appears that I underestimated Michael Schiavo and insulted him. I was wrong to do this.

Interestingly enough, I found the document that changed my mind from a conservative source- the National Review. The document is the Guardian ad Litem's report to Florida Governor Jeb Bush on Schiavo's case. The GAL is familiar to those of us with divorced parents, even more so to those of us who went through custody battles. It is a person, usually with a background in social work and law, who is appointed by the court to represent a person unable to speak for themselves in legal proceedings- typically children not old enough to take the stand, or in this case Terri Schiavo.

The report is tragic and heart breaking. Elements of both sides should be ashamed of themselves- the Right for defaming a man like Michael Schiavo (who is loving, yet flawed, a man who has suffered a horrible tragedy) and some elements of the Left (though not all) for defaming the Schindlers. Both sides of this battle have one thing in common- they deeply love Terri and both are heartbroken by this cruel twist of fate. The Schindlers desperately want to keep her alive- testifying at one point that they would allow all of her limbs to be amputated and for most of her organs to be transplated (were such necessary) before they would let her die. They love Terri, and the thought of her dying is unbearable for them.

Michael Schiavo, on the other hand, has been underestimated by others, and by me. He sought treatment for his wife, taking her across the country for various experimental treatments, standing with the Schindlers on all of these issues. But after four years of tireless efforts, it appears that he simply realized what many doctors had already said and would continue to say- there is no hope for Terri to recover. Even the Schindlers, in a court proceeding in 2001, admitted that she was in a PVS. He realized that what she was experiencing now was torture, being trapped in a world she could not participate in meaningfully. Perhaps he simply tired of the care, perhaps he couldn't handle the stress, the man isn't a god- he is as weak as any of us. In the end, he and others realized that Terri never sought this kind of existence and he changed his orders- he wished for her to be removed from her feeding tube.

This is where the Schindlers and Schiavo had their falling out. The Schindlers kept trying to have Michael removed as her guardian, but there were no reasons to do so. Not only had he not neglected her, but his obsessiveness over her care greatly annoyed the nurses assigned to her. In 13 years (when the GAL report was written), Terri had never had a bedsore- a common affliction for all immobilized people. Some have said, including me, that his motivation for all of this was money. But that money has now run out, and even before then Michael had offered to divest himself from the trust. He turned down the money. He just wants his wife to die peacefully.

So you have two camps who both love the same afflicted person- one wants to keep her alive and the other wishes for her to be allowed to die. Legally, Michael has the decision-making power and in Florida hea has the right to choose whether she stays on life support. The Supreme Court has upheld the right of states to make their own laws regarding these issues. Morally, even the American Conference of Catholic Bishops says that a feeding tube may be removed in the case of a PVS. Medically, the evidence was "compelling" that Terri is in a PVS and various tests to determine if she could swallow on her own concluded that she could not. The various signs of lucidity cited by supporters of the Schindlers leave out some important information- the responses Terri showed were not repetitive or consistetn. In essence, a PVS can respond to some limited stimuli, but unless they consistently do so, they are not aware of their surroundings and they are in a PVS. She was reflexive, not aware, not conscious. It appears she has not had a conscious action in 15 years. While some people in what appears to be a PVS have partially recovered, no one has come close to being in one for 15 years and then recovering. It appears that Terri will never recover, and the law grants Michael the right to end her suffering.

Her parents have said that they would keep her alive even if they knew for a fact that she said she didn't want such. This is damning for their case- everyone has a right to refuse medical treatment. Courts have ruled that Terri never wanted this kind of treatment, and when Michael realized that she would never recover, he honored her wishes. It pains my soul to have to say it, but Terri Schiavo must be let go. To not do so is to turn the oxcart of law in our country on its head and to let emotion trump facts.

In the end, you all were right- I wasn't listening to a broad enough array of sources on this matter. When I did, it changed my mind. I will make this deal with you all- I will remain open-minded and resolve never to make a judgement based on only one side of the debate if you all will promise never to bash me for disagreeing with you. Most of you all were very nice to me, but some (Kirk McPike sticks out in my head) accused me of being a Republican, which I am not. I refuse to believe anything just because a majority of my party believes in it and I will never reject anything simply because a majority of the other does.

In the end, I was wrong about Terri Schiavo, but my intentions were good. We must err on the side of life, but we also must never let our gut and our emotions beat out the often cold justice of law and order. Such is the formula for chaos and mob rule, for Jacobinism and other vile philosophies. Terri's story is a moving one, but those who value her life, her freedom and her rights must be prepared to allow her to pass away.

May Almighty God keep our eyes on the truth, and prevent us from doing any person, particularly Terri, wrong.

Slacking Off

By Jim Dallas

The left-blogosphere is abuzz with commentary on the Texas Futile Care Law. Mega-kudos particularly to Mark Kleiman (here), who's all over this. Of course, this means we done got scooped.

Of course, the fact that much of the sturm und drang in re: Schiavo is fueled by cynical politics doesn't undermine the moral/legal positions of the true believers, just as all the vicious and inappropriate attacks on Michael Schiavo shouldn't prejudice his moral/legal claims. Can we agree to a cease-fire on the politics of personal destruction....?

...Probably not, but I thought I'd toss that out there.

Update on My Moral Dilemma

By Andrew Dobbs

So my post on abortion has already received 100 comments and counting, perhaps a new BOR record. I thought that it would spur discussion, but I was really only expecting like 20 or so tops. This issue really brings out a lot of people, as well it should. This isn't tax policy or something else arcane and dry- it is a debate about life itself and whether or not we are engaged in some kind of monstrosity. It is an issue which cuts to the core of our values as Americans, an issue which we ought to keep discussing- hopefully with some honesty and respect for one another.

But I wanted to clear a couple of things up. First, I haven't quite made up my mind as to what I believe about this issue, so to all the right wing bloggers congratulating me for jumping ship, hold on for a second. All I know right now is that I really don't like the arguments extended by the two major parties. Republicans are ripe with hypocrisy when they argue that every life is sacred before abandoning children to hunger, poverty, disease and squalor. We Democrats on the other hand seem to only be concerned with what sounds good politically- they say that there is nothing wrong with getting any kind of abortion, even late term ones, but that they should nonetheless be rare. On the one hand, there are no moral consequences to abortion, on the other it seems there are. People will argue that it is a traumatic event, but so is open heart surgery or masectomies. Should these be "rare" as well? We need to pick a side.

Furthermore, for those decrying me as a Republican, I think that it is funny how my rethinking of this issue has caused me to actually become far more liberal. I had become relatively conservative on a lot of issues of social welfare policy, but if we are to end abortion in this country it must be coincident with a dramatic improvement in our spending on health care, education, housing and other social services. We also must take on the issues of low-paying jobs, high crime neighborhoods and urban decay. We must prevent child abuse before it happens, improve sex ed and provide better access to contraception. It has to be a societal change, not merely a legal one. Further, it makes you start to think about the death penalty and war. I suppose that war is for self-defense (and we don't need to get into Iraq right now- one argument at a time) and the death penalty is ending a life that is not innocent as an unborn child is, but one has to ask- who has the right to choose who lives and who dies? It seems that no mortal being has that right, and so all of these things must be called into question.

Finally, I have been looking around the web for various opinions, and I found one where someone said many of the arguments I was making (in a devil's advocate sense, pardon the blasphemy) but used one paragraph rather than several pages. Nat Hentoff has been a left-wing journalist for decades- he was friends with Malcolm X, protested Vietnam, he was basically a socialist. He is also dramatically pro-life. I found a perfect quote from a left-wing, secular, pro-life perspective in a famous piece he wrote that says:

Yet being without theology isn't the slightest hindrance to being pro-life. As any obstetrics manual -- Williams Obstetrics, for example -- points out, there are two patients involved, and the one not yet born "should be given the same meticulous care by the physician that we long have given the pregnant woman." Nor, biologically, does it make any sense to draw life-or-death lines at viability. Once implantation takes place, this being has all the genetic information within that makes each human being unique. And he or she embodies continually developing human life from that point on. It misses a crucial point to say that the extermination can take place because the brain has not yet functioned or because that thing is not yet a "person." Whether the life is cut off in the fourth week or the fourteenth, the victim is one of our species, and has been from the start.

This issue is hard to handle in a non-religious way. Life and humanity aren't things that can be considered without the influence of religion and theology. The fact of the matter is that as soon as an embryo has implanted, it has all of the genetic material that makes it a human, that makes it a unique human distinguishable from all others, that makes it a living creature. Should we consider its life any less important than that of a new born infant's or a full-grown adult just because it still requires a mother to survive? Is there a point in our lives when our rights do not include the right to life? Is one person's comfort and peace of mind worth another's life? These are tough questions, and we must answer them if we wish to be a moral country.

At this time, I have to admit that I'm leaning towards the side of life. Biologically speaking, it is a unique human life, and morally speaking it is wrong to end such a thing. Still, I am loathe to make such a big change without talking it out with people I trust. I appreciate everyone's input, and I'll keep everyone up to date on what happens with this whole line of thought.

Sunshine Week!

By Vince Leibowitz

[This post has been updated. Click on the "Read More" link for the update]

Happy Sunshine Week!

For those of you who don't know, Sunshine Week is the week where Texans (especially those who write for newspapers) celebrate and educate others about "sunshine" (aka open government) laws in the state.

In Texas, there are two main open government laws: The Texas Public Information Act and the Texas Open Meetings Act.

For those of you unaware how open government laws came into existance in Texas, the Longview News-Journal (via Cox News Service) has a great article that traces it back to the days of the Sharpstown Scandal.

As someone who has used both the Texas Public Information Act and the Texas Open Meetings Act to help gather news and information for my readers back when I was in print media, I can tell you that our state truly has some of the best Sunshine Laws in existance. But, they always need tweaking.

I can't count the times I've seen government bodies try to get the Texas Attorney General's Office to allow them to withold records they should have released to begin with, or that I've seen government bodies try to violate (or actually violate) the provisions of the Texas Open Meetings Act.

I have vivid memories of an instance where a city in Van Zandt County refused to say anything or release any documents that would reveal why its City Secretary had resigned or been fired--at the time, we didn't know which. We believed it had something to do with financial mismanagement (it did), and ended up requesting to see so many documents they literally filled the city's small council chamber which was, at that time, a long board-room type table in a long, narrow room. Finally, as we were going through this massive mountain of documents, the Mayor came in and said, "Look, here's the deal..." and we got the story and the letter of resignation, which we'd requested to begin with but were told didn't exist (yeah, right).

In particular, I'm especially proud of one achievement for which I recieved a shiny glass award from the Texas Press Association and Freedom of Information Foundation of Texas. One of the things I was cited for was securing a favorable decision from the AG's Open Records Committee regarding the release of documents containing rejected or unadopted settlement offers in lawsuits against government bodies.

I think, over the years, as a reporter or private citizen, I've filed at least 200 open records requests with government bodies.

But, what I've always wondered is why more Bloggers don't get in on the act? There are a lot of "speculative" stories we write which could be bolstered with documents we could obtain under the Texas Public Information Act. I guess that, given the "immediate" nature of our medium, waiting 10 days for documents and possibly another sixty for an AG's decision is a little too long a wait.

At any rate, it's Sunshine Week! So, let's all work to "Let The Sun Shine In"!

UPDATE:

There is a blogger version of Sunshine Sunday and Sunshine Week, too. It's called BlogShine. Check it out.

In addition, in the spirit of shining the light, I wanted to post two links that can help you figure out how your state senators and state reps voted on various pieces of legislation and amendments, etc. The House Journal and Senate Journal are both online. They can be searched by specific bill number. Or, you can go to the date od a specific vote and just scroll through. I highly reccomend using the HTML versions as opposed to the PDF.

A Survey for You (maybe)

By Karl-Thomas Musselman

A friend of mine here at college is doing a Sociology survey on sexism and asked me to set up a web based version. Well, after all that coding (thanks Dreamweaver) I'm not going to let my time go to waste. So if you are a male (the only requirement other than being able use the Internet) please answer this short survey for him.

Tomorrow I'm headed home to spend my spring break working on my father's city council race. I sent out the first e-mails of the campaign today (to a whopping 20 people) using Constant Contact thanks to their 60 day free trial. Who said we weren't thrifty Germans?

250 Yard signs have been made, thanks to student support last Friday, and almost 10% of them have already been put up. Understand though, that four years ago, 250 votes basically won you a seat on the city council, and with 4 candidates this go round (compared to 6 then) it's still going to take 400-500 if turnout doesn't change. Of course, I'm planning on increased turnout (higher than the usuual 12% of 7000 voters). More updates soon enough.

Texas Independence Day

By Vince Leibowitz

Tomorrow, Texans everywhere will celebrate one of the most sacred days on the calendar: Texas Independence Day.

Though many of you might think I'm a bit of a sentimental sap for this very un-bloglike post, I'm going to go ahead with it anyway.

Over the past few decades, interest in the holiday seems to have waned, but for me, it is still one of the most important days of the year. It's a time for us to reflect on our unique heritage and the sacrifices of generations of Texans--not just those at the Alamo or San Jacinto--that have made our state especially great.

Every year about this time, I drag out or pull up copies of a couple of documents to read and reflect on. The first is William B. Travis' letter from the Alamo on Feb. 24, 1836. The second is the most important document in the history of our state: The Texas declaration of Independence.

Regardless of the fact that Travis does tend to use the word "I" a lot in this letter (as opposed to "we"), few Texans can read it without feeling--at least for a moment--that, if we were alive in 1836 and read Travis' dispatch, we would have hopped on the nearest horse and headed for San Antonio:

The enemy has demanded a surrender at discretion, otherwise the garrison are to be put to the sword, if the fort is taken--I have answered the demand with a cannon shot, & our flag still waves proudly from the walls--I shall never surrender or retreat. Then, I call on you in the name of Liberty, of patriotism & everything dear to the American character, to come to our aid with all despatch...

This year, though, as I was reading the Texas Declaration of Independence, it seemed to take on a new meaning to me in light of what happened in the last legislative session and what's going on in the current one.

In particular, the introductory phrase should hold a special meaning for all of us:

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people, from whom its legitimate powers are derived, and for the advancement of whose happiness it was instituted, and so far from being a guarantee for the enjoyment of those inestimable and inalienable rights, becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.

As I read this, I couldn't help but think: did the patriots who signed this risk their lives so, today, 150,000 Texas children would want for affordable health insurance? Did the brave soldiers who died at the Alamo die so the Legislature of the Texas they were fighting for could summarily lock its own citizens out of her courtrooms and see them denied fair and appropriate compensation for their injuries? Did the men who stormed the battlefield at San Jacinto do so in order that corrupt influence from behind-the-scenes power-brokers and millions of dollars in illegal money could help foster a partisan gerrymander resulting in thousands of Texans being underrepresented?

Could these patriots have ever imagined that the Texas they fought and died for--the Texas they put their lives on the line for by creating a revolutionary government--would be in the shape it is in today?

What would Sam Houston have to say about House Bill 2? I doubt he'd like it much. What would Mirabeau Lamar have to say about school vouchers? The father of public education is probably turning over in his grave. What would Stephen F. Austin, Thomas Rusk or Lorenzo de Zavala have to say about any number of problems facing the state today? I'd venture to say they would not have kind words for those in power in our state today.

When a government has ceased to protect the lives, liberty and property of the people...[it] becomes an instrument in the hands of evil rulers for their oppression.

I'm not sure if one of the signers of the Texas Declaration of Independence was alive today, that he wouldn't call Rick Perry, Tom Craddick and some of their cronies "evil rulers" working for the oppression of the people.

What regime in the modern history of Texas has done more to stifle legislative debate, oppress the poor through cuts in services, or generally ignore the broader spectrum of Texans to look out for the interest of its cronies and political allies than the current one?

What regime in the modern history of Texas has gone to such corrupt lengths to gain and retain power? Even the Sharpstown scandal of decades gone by is beginning to pale in comparison to what is unfolding in grand jury and courtrooms in Travis County today.

This Texas Independence Day, as we think about all that has happened in our history and look toward our future, surely we must all realize it is time for change.

The Republicans holding power in Austin today have betrayed the trust of the people of this state. They have conducted a wholesale slaughter of much of what we hold dear as Texans. And, what they haven't already attacked, destroyed, consolidated or weakened, they are preparing to. Perhaps not this session and perhaps not this election, but surely the next.

As Texas Democrats, we have the opportunity to work to restore our government to one our forefathers would be proud of. We have the chance to undo what has been done, and make our state the brightest shining star in the union such that the corporate-owned, special-interest serving, poor-people hating majority that has us now in a legislative stranglehold can't change it back in 100 years.

There is only one way for us to accomplish this: we must work at it. We must educate and inform the people of Texas what they have been deprived of and of the corruption of our government. We must register more voters. We must raise more money. We must walk more blocks. We must make more phone calls, encourage more candidates for public office, and give as much as we are able as often as we are able--whether it is money, time or influence--to do what we can to get our state back on the right track once and for all.

More than 150 years ago, it was the "Delegates of the People of Texas
in General Convention at the town of Washington," that shaped our future. Today, it is the Texas Legislature, elected by Texans For A Republican Majority, the Texas Association of Business and Tom DeLay as sent to the city of Austin. But, for a brighter tomorrow, it must once again be a Legislature and executive elected by the people to serve all the people--and not just the special interests--and to protect all the people. Then and only then can we get Texas back on the right path.

It's time for a new generation of people like those legendary Texans Barbara Jordan, Ann Richards, Coke Stevenson, Lyndon Johnson, and others to return our state to its former glory. They're taking their place now. Soon there will be more Hubert Vos and Mark Stramas joining the ranks