Live video will stream this Thursday, July 30, 2009 at 8:30 AM CST from the Armed Services Committee website and the C-SPAN viewing schedule will be announced later this week.
For BOR readers in the D.C. area who would like to attend, the hearing is open to the public, and will take place in Room SD-106, Dirksen Senate Office Building.
Former State Representative Juan Garcia just moved forward with the next big step of his confirmation to be the next Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. The Corpus Christi Caller Times is reporting that The White House has just officially sent his name to the U.S. Senate for confirmation.
As was notedearlier, there will now be a hearing in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee.
CCCT: Twenty-six senators, including ranking member John McCain, R-Ariz., make up the Senate Armed Services Committee, chaired by Carl Levin, D-Mich. A confirmation hearing has not been scheduled.
If the committee votes in favor of Garcia, the full Senate votes on the matter. A majority vote by the Senate would confirm his appointment.
Given the importance of that position in the Dept. of Defense (DoD), I expect the hearing to happen sooner rather than later.
As KT noted earlier, former State Representative and Commander in U.S. Navy Juan Garcia has been tapped by President Barack Obama to become the next Assistant Secretary of the Navy (ASN) for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
Since Garcia will be the second Texan to be nominated for a Senate confirmable position (Ron Kirk was the first), there should some dissemination what this position involves, and how Garcia fits.
This is a position rich in history. Previous individuals who have served as Assistant Secretary of the Navy include Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D. Roosevelt and more recently the current U.S. Senator for Virginia, James Webb. On a bit of side note, famous Texans who have held Presidential Pentagon appointments include former governors John Connally, who served as Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV), and Bill Clements, who served as US Deputy Secretary of Defense.
Pres. Obama has 487 Senate approved positions to fill. So far, the average age of Obama’s appointees is 52. Garcia is only 42 years old. The Washington Post has a great appointees tracking page. Juan is a graduate of UCLA, Harvard Law School (where he met Barack Obama), John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and served as a White House Fellow. Garcia has accomplished a lot in his young life and I know we expect a great deal more from this rising Texas star.
The Navy Department has approximately 330,000 naval personnel, 202,000 Marines, and a civilian workforce as well. If confirmed, Garcia will oversee the office responsible for recruiting, developing, and retaining Navy and Marine Corps personnel to ensure that the country has a naval force capable of supporting the U.S.'s overall military global operations.
There had been rumorsthat Garcia was going to be selected for SECNAV (former Mississippi Governor and Clinton Ambassador Ray Mabus has been nominated) but federal law prevents an appointment to Secretary of the Navy for any one who has been off active duty less than five years. Garcia left the active-duty Navy in October of 2004 and continues to fly as an instructor pilot in the Naval Reserve. He is currently the Commanding Officer of Naval Reserve Training Squadron 28 at NAS Corpus Christi. His father, Captain Juan Garcia, a native of Robstown, Texas, is a retired naval aviator, and his younger brother, Lieutenant Junior Grade Mike Garcia, is a naval aviator currently serving oversea.
This a gross oversimplification of the process but these are the following hoops you have to jump through be confirmed: initial vetting by the White House, POTUS announces an intent to nominate, the U.S. Senate receives an official communication from the White House of the nomination, the U.S. Senate conducts confirmation hearings and approves the nomination and then the nominee gets sworn in. For this position, Garcia’s appointment goes before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee chaired by Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), with ranking members Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Ted Kennedy (D-MA).
I think this is great for Texas. I am happy to see one our best and brightest nominated to serve in Obama’s administration. I look forward to watching his career in Washington D.C. but I know his home is always going to be here in Texas.
(Last cycle Garcia beat Gene Seaman because he was horrid candidate who made every mistake possible. This cycle, Garcia is in a must win race against Todd Hunter who is a horrid candidate who makes every mistake possible. - promoted by Matt Glazer)
A few weeks ago during a forum in Corpus Christi for House District 32 candidates, an attendee asked State Rep. Juan Garcia and lobbyist Todd Hunter if they would release their tax records. Rep. Garcia immediately said he would release his tax records as well as his wife’s records. Hunter responds by first dodging the question (see video) then stating that he would only give his tax records but not his wife’s if and only if Garcia released his military record (Rep. Garcia continues to serve as a Flight Instructor in the Navy Reserve and is scheduled to take command of a unit in October).
Rep. Garcia fulfilled his promise and released his family’s tax records. The release notes both of their salaries (Denise Garcia is the General Counsel for Driscoll Children's Hospital). Records show an upper middle class income commensurate with two working professionals with four small children. While higher than the average area salary, it is relatively low for two Harvard Law graduates. The Garcias always said that they consciously chose to come back to the Coastal Bend to raise their young family.
To date, the silence from Hunter is deafening.
I think I know why Hunter won’t give up his or his wife's tax records or his wife’s. Todd Hunter has made millions of dollars lobbying for special interests. A large bulk of those millions were made from working for the insurance companies (see spreadsheet) keeping rates high. This is going to be a tough sell in the Coastal Bend, where homeowners pay the highest windstorm rates in the country. Even if for some miracle he releases his records, I am willing to bet that Hunter won’t release his wife’s records because that is where he is hiding his money. Just like Gene Seaman, I expect Hunter to use his wife to funnel and hide money.
I am still quite appalled that Hunter would dare ask for Garcia’s military record when Hunter has never served. I don't know what type of attempt of swiftboating Hunter was thinking but it won't work against Garcia. In a humorous follow up at the debate, Garcia said he would be happy to release his military records and asked if Hunter would release his as well. Hunter snarled back, “you know I don’t have one” (i.e. a military record to release).
Todd Hunter, it is time to release your and your wife’s tax records to see how you have profited off making it harder and more expensive to own a home in Texas.
Can't get enough of chubby 60-something men making painfully off-color anecdotes at legislative events? Been awhile since you've watched the iconic footage of Gene Seaman's now-legendary floor speech on Viagra?
This week House challenger Todd Hunter managed to forge the bonds of creepiness with Seaman in an appearance at a candidate’s forum in Corpus Christi.
Asked about the relative value of seniority in the Texas Lege, Hunter thought the appropriate response would be "size matters." As the footage from the event shows, the audience of Leadership Corpus Christi alumni react with a stunned and deafening silence.
It gets even better.
After the Corpus Christi Caller-Times wrote a Sunday piece describing the bizarre awkwardness of the moment, the Hunter campaign's nimble response was to release an 843-word press advisory desperately trying to spin the concept that this had nothing to do with sexual innuendo. They pathetically try to point out the term "size matters" could have meant all kinds of things, and as examples, they refer to the use of the term "in title of a Playstation 2 video game; it’s the name of a clothing store for big and tall men in Philadelphia; it is a album title by the band Helmet"
Well here's album cover from Helmut (it has no sexual innuendo at all, right?):
As local political scientist Bob Bezdek told the Caller-Times in yet another story on this bizarre incident, "My God, why would you put that much effort into it? If I had said something I didn't mean to say, I'd apologize."
What's with these creepy old guys and their obsession with their junk? Shouldn't Hunter, who endorsed Seaman last cycle, raised money for him, hosted events for him, and took part in his TV ads, shift his focus to thinking about how he's going to defend taking nearly $4 million dollars as a windstorm lobbyist when the Coastal Bend is paying the highest windstorm rates in the nation?
We aren't trying to write about HD-32 every day, but man Todd Hunter is bad guy and horrid candidate. In three days, he has made at least three major errors-- lying to voters, attacking a decorated veteran, and concealing important documents from voters.
In the same week that Nueces County GOP Chair Mike Bertuzzi questioned the "worthiness" of State Rep. Juan Garcia's donation to the Center for the Intrepid (the nation's premiere rehabilitation facility for our most seriously injured, burned and maimed service personnel) because, get this, the facility is not in Rep. Garcia's District (not joking, see the Caller Times), challenger Todd Hunter showed how little regard he holds for military service.
During their first head-to-head debate, the two were asked by an audience member whether they would make their tax records available to the media. Garcia immediately committed to unconditionally releasing the tax records. In a bizarre answer captured on video, an indignant Hunter snarled "you won't get my wife's" (reminiscent of Garcia’s last opponent and Hunter’s supporter Gene Seaman and his hiding of a luxury Town Lake condo kept in his wife's name but paid for with campaign contributions), and then made the release of his own tax returns conditional on Rep. Garcia releasing his military records.
Hunter never served in the military, but has no shame in apparently searching for ways to turn someone else's service against them. Ironically, Garcia, a decorated naval aviator who spent 13 years on active duty and continues to serve as a naval instructor pilot in the reserves at Naval Air Station Corpus Christi, will be promoted to the rank of Commander in June, and was just selected to take command of the VT-28 Squadron Augment Unit in October.
District 32 contains NAS Corpus Christi, Naval Station Ingleside, the Corpus Christi Army Depot, and many residents who commute to nearby Naval Air Station Kingsville. They honor military service. A big part of Garcia's 2006 victory was due to the reality that the bonds of sacrifice and service run deeper than partisan affiliation. Chickenhawks like Bertuzzi and Hunter are further proof that this GOP has lost touch with voters and that Garcia is going to win again.
Sour grapes are funny things. After the amazing victory by Juan Garcia over Republican Gene Seaman in the Coastal Bend in 2006, local republican officials just cannot come to grips with reality. Repeatedly, the Nueces County GOP apparatus continues to swing wildly into the air, hitting nothing and looking like fools.
First, since his win, four frivolous ethics complaints againt Rep. Garcia filed by local GOP officials have been dismissed by the Ethics Commission.
Second, former Nueces County Republican Chair Joel Yowell filed a massive public information request of Rep. Garcia’s State Representative office, including every email, phone call and employee document ever generated by the office. After Garcia's staff was forced to burn dozens of taxpayer-paid man-hours complying with his request, Yowell sent the records back unopened, simply changing his mind. Yowell gave no reason for his sudden change of heart. I suspect he is afraid of what happens if we peer into his house.
Third, in an even more bizarre episode, Republican staffer and campaign consultant, Todd Gallaher, got caught using state computers for campaign work, created an email account designed to look like it was from Rep. Garcia and tried to blackmail a sitting Coastal Bend Sheriff. Later, he lied to an ethics watchdog group who filed a complaint against his boss by claiming to be Dallas Morning New reporter.
This week, Mike Bertuzzi, current Nueces County Republican Chair, sent out 20,000 mailers attacking Rep. Juan Garcia for not returning campaign contributions given by Corpus Christi businessman Mauricio Celis. Not surprisingly, Bertuzzi, the ring leader of this bumbling "gang that couldn't shoot straight", didn't bother to check his facts.
Last January, Garcia donated the Celis money to the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund, which serves severly injured American service personnel from South Texas.
The “Center for the Intrepid” serves military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and veterans severely injured in other operations and in the normal performance of their duties.
Here is clip of Rep. Garcia addressing the local media on the false mailers:
In the infinite wisdom that is the Texas Department of Transportation, the department is set to propose to the US Congress that limits on setting tolls on highways be removed, according to TollRoadsNews.
Under the guise of such a flowerly reporting entitled "Forward Momentum: Recommendations to reduce congestion, enhance safety, expand economic opportunity, improve air quality, and enhance the value of Texas' transportation assets. A report to the 110th Congress, 1st Session" dated January 25 2007", TxDOT proposes that private equity become the primary resource for funding of highways. Note this is not only designated for new highways. The plan calls for "states to be able to buy back interstate segments by reimbursing the federal government its past contributions." Essentially, the state will be able to toll existing highways.
This is one of the bolder statements by the pro-toll road contingent lately. First, tolls were needed to "build roads faster". Now tolls are needed to pay for them in their entirety. The "builds roads faster" fib of course can be countered by the example of Austin's own TX45SE, which is a bypass that will begin north of Georgetown and resume on I-35 south of Austin. The road was originally slated to be opening this month when the contract with Zachary that was signed in 2004. However, the construction has just begun and is now slated to open in 2008. (Oh by the way-- wasn't the TTC supposed to relieve the I-35 corridor of the heavy traffic? So why does Austin need a toll road bypass?)
All the while TxDOT is wanting to toll the heck out of Texas, it is even going so far as to toll people who do not even travel on these roads. Tolling is supposed to be a "usage fee". However, Ms. Granny O'Neill has been getting her bill in the mail for traveling the new Loop 49 in Tyler. Unfortunately, Granny lives in Corpus Christi and doesn't even know where Tyler is. The new video toll collection idea (which uses video capture of license plates, and then either debiting your toll tag account, or mailing you a bill) doesn't seem to be panning out for roads such as TX 121 and Loop 49.
By all appearances the beginning of transponder/video tolling has gone smoothly. At least there is no flurry of public complaints. The dark secret of video tolling is that in the early days at least quite a lot of motorists simply don't get billed because their license plate wasn't properly photographed or the motor registry database lookups didn't work, and who is going to complain about not getting a toll bill?
Of course screwups are almost inevitable and the complaints and bad media will come from Granny O'Neill in Corpus Christi who gets a Tyler toll in the mail though never having been within a hundred miles of the place her whole life, "Never even heard of the darned place, where is it?" but whose license plate happens to have one character different from some Tyler resident.
Give it time for the Granny O'Neill stories to surface.
So as you can see, TxDOT is looking to get its money any way it can, even if it means robbing old ladies blind and sticking them with a $1 surcharge to boot. How long will it be before they steal candy from babies in the name of progress and clean air?
Hot September day, free ice cream advertised for weeks in local papers, large convention center rented, and an opportunity to meet CondoGate superstar Gene Seaman.
Any guess on how many people show up?
If you answer is around 15 people then you are right!
Seaman had a 'ice cream social (if you don't know what that is ask your grandparents) at the Paws and Taw Convention Center in Fulton, TX yesterday and almost no one showed up. My God, I could flag down more people off the street than that.
After being on the front cover of the Caller Times threedifferentdays for illegally claiming two homestead exemptions and laundering campaign contributions through your wife, who can blame people for not showing up. Seaman will want to blame everyone (including his wife) for this scandal. However, let's be clear, the only person to blame for this is Gene Seaman himself.
He claims to be a land developer so he cannot plead ignorance to homestead laws. He's been in the Lege for almost ten years so he cannot plead ignorance to knowing that you CANNOT use campaign contributions for personal enrichment.
Incompetent or Corrupt or Both. You decide.
Let's see what people in the Coastal Bend are saying today:
Bad sign I remember the time when Clayton Williams refused to shake Ann Richards' hand and made the statement that women "should lay back and enjoy" a rape. My first thought was: "He just lost the election," which he did.
Rep. Gene Seaman's contention that his payment of $44,000 to his wife and the "misunderstanding" about the double-dipping on the homestead exception was his wife's fault gave me the same feeling. He just lost his re-election bid.
He is probably not too concerned, since he stated a few days ago that "for the $600 a month he gets as a state representative he might as well go back to selling insurance." If that's what he wants to do, I am sure Juan Garcia can accommodate him.
Just a suggestion to future male politicians, if you doing something illegal or crooked, own up to it and don't throw your wife under the bus. It makes you look like a coward and crappy husband.
