Hanukkah is here, Christmas is Sunday, and Kwanzaa is Monday. If you've got Republicans in your family, you're probably still racking your brain to come up with an appropriate gift. Worry no more! BOR is here with the perfect gift for the GOP voter in your life. You can also give some of these gifts to Democrats, too! (The Mother Jones subscription is a good one.)
Here's what to buy...
For Your Newt-loving Uncle: Gingrich's PhD Dissertation, or a Time Machine back to 1995
"Newt's the intellectual!" cry Republicans concerned with the intellectual dive off a cliff their part has taken since Reagan was elected. That's why they like Newt: he's a real historian! He's got a doctorate! And as a "historian" working for Freddie Mac, he's surely paid off those student loans by now. Gift the Newt lovers in your life with a copy of his PhD Dissertation, which focused on Belgian education policies in the Congo. Don't worry, he mostly elides any details about the actual Congolese, choosing to focus instead on the white colonizers.
If that's still too erudite for your relatives, perhaps instead a time machine? Transport your GOP relatives back to 1995, when he was newly elected Speaker of the House. Relive the glory days of a Republican majority in the House of Representatives. Too much travel? Maybe just set it back to three weeks ago when Newt was the rising flavor of the week.
For Your Mitt Romney supporting Aunt: A donation to Barack Obama in their honor
The Obama website has a neat feature allowing you to make a contribution in someone's honor. They'll get an email from Barack thanking them for the inspiration. If you really want to get the goat of a Republican relative and a donation to a charity won't rankle them enough, give your dollars directly to Barack Obama. Romney's figured to be the toughest Republican for Obama to beat in the General Election, so invest in next year's holiday season and make sure they're not crowing around the fireplace about President Mitt.
Again, I repeat: prevent next year's toast to "President-elect Romney." The holiday dinner you save may be your own.
Your Ron Paul supporting brother: A plane ticket to Iowa
It's all about Iowa, man! Ron Paul's the only candidate with a consistent ideology, man! Most importantly, he wants to legalize drugs, man, yeah! We all have young white male relatives entranced by the tax-free weed utopia promised by Dr. Ron. Send the young man to Iowa, where he can join Ron Paul's army, and help the proverbial stopped clock rack up a win in Iowa that the mainstream media will trip over themselves to ignore. Best of all, you'll get him out of your house before he starts reading Ayn Rand essays aloud. Again.
Your friend who's determined to stand by his man, Rick Perry: A copy of Head Figure Head: The Search for the Hidden Life of Rick Perry or Adios Mofo
Give the gift of an e-book about the concomitant failure and hypocrite that is our longest serving governor, Rick Perry. Glen Maxey's Head Figure Head and Jason Stanford and James Moore's Adios, Mofo probably won't change any minds, but at least you're supporting the anti-Perry cottage industry that collapsed along with his campaign. You think Perry's hoping for a second wind? Imagine how these book authors feel! Glen's book is available in the right-hand sidebar. Jason's book is available here.
Your organized-labor-hating in-laws: A subscription to Mother Jones magazine
Invest in progressive journalism, and maybe even teach those relatives a thing or two. The magazine, named for Irish-American union organizer Mary Harris Jones, is published by a non-profit organization, so they can really use your support. Mother Jones does great investigative work and frequently breaks big stories in politics and campaigns. They are a crucial independent voice in our increasingly corporatized media landscape. They also feature a blog written by one of my favorite progressives, Kevin Drum. We all should read more MJ, labor-haters especially. Click here to give a gift subscription.
For Your Niece, the College Republican President: I'm No Racist Anti-Obama mug
Does everyone accuse you of being a racist based on your racially insensitive tweets and Facebook posts about the first African-American President? Show them how really not racist you are with this mug that makes it abundantly clear that despite your humorous calls for assassination, crack poems, and comments about Asians in the library that you're totally 100% completely not a racist not at all. One side reads "I'm No Racist" and the other reads "I Don't Like His White Half, Either!" That should definitely clear up whether you're a stone-cold racist and keep the "liberal trolls" at bay. Available on EBay, of course. White hood sold separately.
For Your Favorite Closeted Homosexual in a Western State: A Carhartt Jacket
Do you live in a western state? Do you enjoy secret same-sex dalliances with other dudes? Do you have a sad-eyed blonde wife? Are you a character in Brokeback Mountain and/or did you star in the most-rapidly disliked YouTube video of all time? Are the people who work for your media firm tired of keeping your secret and desperately hoping you get outed? Then this is the jacket for you. Get your camel-colored Carhartt jacket at just about any outdoors or athletic store. Unfortunately, secret mountain tryst with Jake Gyllenhaal not included.
So for your last minute Hanukkah, Christmas, or Kwanzaa shopping for the Republicans in your life, I hope this is a helpful gift guide. Oh, who are we kidding. No Republicans celebrate Kwanzaa!
(Great BOR reader diary about family planning. It's clear that these cuts aren't about saving money, but rather harming women and families. - promoted by Katherine Haenschen)
While Texas has some of the nation's toughest restrictions on reproductive health care, it has also drastically cut funding to family planning centers. At the same time the state has increased funding to so-called crisis pregnancy centers (CPC), which has decreased the access women have to reproductive health care in the state. In Rick Perry's Texas, women are not trusted to make their own reproductive health care decisions.
Congratulations, Republicans in the Texas Legislature! Your efforts to specifically curtail abortion rights here in liberal, progressive Austin have succeeded. Rick Perry's efforts to impede a woman's access to a safe, legal abortion have worked, and it's going to hurt the neediest women the most.
Texas Republicans have long made it a priority to curtail a woman's right to a safe, legal abortion. This past session, their draconian laws specifically targeted Austin, where women can readily exercise their right to choose, and where citizens deeply respect the right of a woman to make her own medical decisions.
In August, the board of Central Health, aka the Travis County Health Care District, was forced to vote to cease spending $450,000 per year to fund abortion services. Travis County has provided abortions to the lowest of low-income women since 2005. This $450K amounts to one half of 1 percent of the budget of the health care district. You can bet that the cost to the state of providing services for those unwanted children is much, much higher.
You can specifically thank State Rep. Wayne Christian, who in addition to being one of the most lady-punishin' members of the legislature, is clearly the most ironically named.
Christian said the purpose of his amendment was to put a stop to the agreements between Central Health and the three women's health clinics. He said he knew that Travis County was the only hospital district to fund elective abortions when he authored the amendment. He didn't intend to attack the county specifically, he said.
"I just think tax dollars should not be used for abortions anywhere in Texas," Christian said. "I think that what is going on in Travis County is wrong."
No, Wayne. What's going on in Travis County is correct, because we're empowering women to access their right to choose. We're labeling so-called "Crisis Pregnancy Centers" as the fear-mongerers that they are. Our State Representatives are speaking up about the importance of family planning to healthy women and healthy communities. We're supporting a diverse range of pro-choice and pro-women organizations that help women access their right to choose. And it is a right, one which will remain the law of the land as long as we block any one of the current crop of sufficiently lady-hating Republicans trying to occupy the White House.
So who is harmed by these actions of Texas Republicans? Poor women, women with almost no other options. And these women are seeing what few options exist dwindle further, because the Republican legislature also defunded Planned Parenthood.
A recent email from Planned Parenthood made it clear that their ability to offer not just abortion services but family planning and health care as a whole is being curtailed due to Texas Republicans. They lost all state funding for the fiscal year starting September 1 -- on four days' notice. They write (emphasis mine):
Thursday, September 1, Planned Parenthood in Austin's Downtown Clinic on E. 7th Street will no longer receive $474,000 in federal/state funds that provide birth control and essential breast and cervical cancer screenings and HIV tests to more than 4,000 Austinites who depend on these services each year.
Make no mistake---this is part of a nationwide effort to discredit and defund Planned Parenthood specifically, and women's health in general.
Here in Texas, Governor Rick Perry approved a state budget that singles out women's health, eliminating more than 2/3 of funding for basic women's health care services including life-saving breast and cervical cancer screenings.
So yeah, women will die of breast cancer and cervical cancer because Texas Republicans think blocking a woman's right to choose is more important than enabling her to seek health care.
That is, evidently, what it means to be pro-life!
It's appalling that with all of the power Texas Republicans, from Rick Perry to the super-majority in the legislature, have at their disposal, they decide their top priority is to decide for low-income women of Texas -- predominantly young, predominantly women of color -- what they can and can't do with their bodies. Of course, it goes without saying, it's not like Perry and Co. are supporting any policies that help once the unwanted children are born.
Rick Perry has considered abortion restrictions one of his top priorities. So while his sonogram law isn't faring so well in the courts so far (a preliminary injunction has stopped it from taking effect while the court case continues), Perry and his fellow Texas Republicans have succeeded in drastically curtailing abortion access here in Austin.
Of course, it's not just happening in Austin. It's happening across Texas. Folks who care about access to safe, legal abortion need to be on notice -- Rick Perry is waging the Republican war on women here in Texas, and by and large, Rick Perry is winning.
Last year I wrote about Congressman Paul Ryan's Roadmap for America's Future Act of 2010 and how it would increase the tax burdens on working and middle class Americans and make significant cuts to the social safety net. Earlier this month Ryan released the Path to Prosperity, which would dramatically reduce taxes on the wealthy and corporations while making draconian cuts in the social safety net. While the Roadmap and the Path are both radical conservative proposals, apparently Ryan left his Roadmap to go on a Path where the laws of arithmetic do not apply.
Texas Republicans promised to address the $27 billion budget shortfall through budget cuts only, and without the use of the so-called Rainy Day Fund or without raising new revenue. Republican lawmakers have talking about spreading the pain and sharing the burden, but the truth is that the burden of the budget cuts (which were created by the way due to the policies of Texas Republicans over the last decade) is not being shared equally among all Texans. In fact Republicans are placing a significant burden on future Texans. Through deep cuts in education Republicans are placing the burden of their failed economic policies on the backs of future generations.
The Texas Independent reports that the House budget proposal would reduced public education funding by $3.1 billion (9.1%). This would also include a budget cut to the Foundation School Program which would be $9.8 billion below scheduled formula requirements after accounting for student population growth, and cutting other programs by two-thirds, including teacher incentive pay and pre-K grants, in addition to increasing the maximum student-teacher ratio in elementary schools. The Senate budget proposal would provide more funding for public education; $500 million more to the Permanent School Fund (leaving a shortfall of $9.3 billion), plus $400 million to help salvage funding for programs in areas including pre-K, high school completion and college readiness.
There are three ways to become a citizen of the United States. You can be a naturalized American citizen; where a foreign born individual meets several requirements and then is granted citizenship. If you are born outside of the United States but at least one of your parents is a United States citizen then you can become a citizen through Jus Sanguinis (Right of Blood). The most common way to become a United States citizen is through Jus Soli (Right of Birthplace), which was codified by the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution. However, there is now a movement to repeal the 14th Amendment, and remove the right of individuals born within the United States borders to automatically become citizens.
During times of economic recession, it is often "the other" that is blamed for the hardships of the many. During the Great Recession "the other" has taken many different forms, but one of the most common is undocumented immigrants. A common refrain is that undocumented immigrants "take American jobs," even though economic studies have shown that undocumented immigrants actually have a positive impact on the native workforce. Not to mention that American corporations have done far more damage to the American worker through outsourcing than undocumented workers ever could have done. The economic situation has lead to an atmosphere of hate, as the Southern Poverty Law Center has documented the rising tide of hate towards Latinos and the increasing activity of nativists lobbies and organizations.
Despite their reverence of the United States Constitution, which often times border on worship, prominent Republican leaders have called for the repeal of the 14th Amendment. Politico reported that Republican Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky and David Vitter of Louisiana proposed an amendment to the Constitution that would put new limits on citizenship guaranteed by the 14th Amendment. The proposal would remove Jus Soli from anyone who is born in the United States whose parents are not citizens, legal permanent resident or active duty military members. In a statement Vitter said that the number of undocumented immigrants entering the country is escalating because of "children of illegal aliens born in the U.S. are granted automatic citizenship," and that "closing this loophole will not prevent them from becoming citizens, but will ensure that they have to go through the same process as anyone else who wants to become an American citizen."
Since the Great Recession began after the financial crisis in 2008, the narrative has been that Texas has weathered the storm better than the rest of the states. However, since Texas budgets biannually, the last budget was passed only a few months after the recession began in 2009. The effects of the recession are now being felt in full affect in the budget that will be passed in 2011. Having a budget crisis in a pro-business, low-regulation, low-spending, no-union, Republican-dominated state goes against the narrative. As Yglesias notes, "keeping taxes low by simply not having taxes be high enough to pay the bills is in the best Texas conservative tradition of George W Bush but it doesn't work for state government during a recession."
Texas has maintained an unemployment rate below the national average throughout the recession. According the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Texas currently has an unemployment rate of 8.2% compared to the national average of 9.4%. But, Krugman notes that on his blog that when you compare the unemployment rate in Texas and New York they are statistically similar. However, Avent notes that the two states are different because of the dramatic difference in their respective labor markets, and that a large share of the rise in the unemployment rate in Texas is due to migration. Although, Krugman responds that the unemployment comparison is relevant because "in terms of personal hardship, in terms of people looking for jobs but not finding them, Texas has done essentially no better than New York." So far it has just been a policy debate among economic policy wonk bloggers.
Then Krugman writes about "The Texas Omen" in his bi-weekly New York Times column, during which he expands on the subject of Texas and points out that it is the state where conservative economic policy has most completely been put into practice. Then Williamson takes issue with Krugman assessment of Texas, and says in his National Review post that "no, Paul Krugman, Texas is not broke." Williamson continues, "keep your pants on, professor. Texas is not going to have a budget shortfall." So, what's the deal?
The Great Recession has affected everyone's budget. From the federal government to the millions of Americans unemployed, budgets across the nation have been affected by the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression. State budgets have been also hit hard by the recession. A recently released survey by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers found that states currently face a combined $41 billion in budget shortfalls for fiscal year 2012. According a report by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, state tax revenues were 8.4% lower in the 2009 fiscal year than in 2008, and an additional 3.1% lower in 2010, while the need for state-funded services did not decline.
Already during the last fiscal year those states dramatically cut their budgets, raised taxes, and relieved heavily on the $43 billion in federal Recovery Act funds to close those budget gaps. Over the past three fiscal years, states have closed $230 billion in budget gaps, and they done it by making significant budget cuts in education, social services and public safety, the state workforces and reduced aid to local governments. These cuts are having a disproportionate affect on the working and middle class, as services that they depend on are being either cut altogether or dramatically scaled back.
Despite the rhetoric of Texas Governor Rick Perry describing Texas as being relatively unaffected by the Great Recession, the state is facing a significant fiscal crisis. There is a debate about the actual size of the budget shortfall, and the numbers vary from anywhere between $15 billion and $30 billion depending on who is making the estimate. Governor Perry is touting the estimates of State Senator Steve Ogden (R-Bryan) which predict a budget gap of $15 billion or less.
The Legislative Budget Board has adopted a plan to cap the growth in the discretionary spending in the state budget at 8.92% in the budget that will be written in the next legislative session. Cuts of 5% from state agencies produced about $1.2 billion in savings in the 2010-11 budgets, although certain agencies were exempt. It appears that agencies will be expected to cut their budgets by another 2-3%. Reportedly approved cuts from earlier this year, together with the agencies' proposals to reduce spending by 10 percent in the next budget, would produce an estimated $4.2 billion in savings in the 2012-13 budgets.
While Texans are opposed to raising revenues through new taxes and want lawmakers to cut the budget to address the shortfall, a Texas Tribune poll also finds that Texans do not want lawmakers to cut the budgets of popular programs. Texans want to protect public and higher education, health care services for children and elderly, and the prison system from budget cuts. However, in all likelihood at least two out of three of those programs are going to face massive budget cuts. This seems to be consistent with the current American political character: we want to keep popular government programs but we don't want to have to pay for them.
While the most important issue facing the 82nd Texas Legislature is the budget, which is projected to have a shortfall of about $25 billion, but the one issue that may create the largest debate is immigration. During the campaign immigration was an issue that many Republican candidates campaigned on in Texas, and a new wave of conservative Republican legislators will be bringing those campaign issues to the Capitol. Many veteran Republican lawmakers in the Texas Legislature will also have the opportunity to address pieces of legislation that Democrats were able to block during the 81st Texas Legislature.
According to a recent Gallup poll, only 7% of the country believe that immigration or illegal aliens is the "most important problem facing the country," although 11% self-identified Republicans felt that it was the most important problem. The economy and unemployment were the top two most important problems facing the country among those surveyed, and that represented 58% of the responses. However, in Texas voters seem more focused on the border than their paychecks. According to a Texas Tribune poll, the economy was named by only 14% of those surveyed as the most important problem facing Texas. Among those surveyed 21% said that border security was the most important issue, and 19% said that immigration was the most important issue.
To date there has been 487 pieces of legislation pre-filed in the Texas Legislature, and over twenty different bills and resolutions have been pre-filed that are either directly or indirectly associated with immigration policy. Due to the number of pieces of legislation I will be looking at them in two parts, one part a look at the legislation pre-filed in the Texas House of Representatives and another part a look at the legislation pre-filed in the Texas Senate. I will also be looking at the pieces of legislation based on different categories, and high lightening bills within those different categories.
If the Republican Party's message during the midterm elections could be distilled into one word it that it has been campaigning against it would be: spending. The Republicans have been campaigning against spending without identifying any particular spending they would actually like to reduce. Except there is one particular program that they have been campaigning against: the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. Otherwise known as the stimulus.
In February of 2009 Congress passed the Recovery Act and President Obama signed it, with the intent to prevent the Great Recession from turning into the Great Depression 2.0. While Republicans have criticized the Recovery Act for being ineffective, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a report that stated that the stimulus raised the gross domestic product (GDP) by between 1.7% and 4.5%, lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7% and 1.8%, and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. Not exactly as ineffective as the Republicans claim. However, over the last year and a half the Republicans have consistently criticized the stimulus as ineffective, and the economy's achingly slow recovery coupled with persistently high unemployment has contributed to the public's overall negative view of the stimulus.
But, while the Republicans openly opposed the Recovery Act in Congress and criticized it in public, many of them worked behind the scenes to secure funds from the stimulus for their own districts. The Center for Public Integrity reported this week about a expansive letter writing campaign, where Congressional Republicans who voted against the stimulus sent letters to federal agencies requesting stimulus funds for projects in their districts. The Texas Observer reports that of the 22 Congressional Republicans from Texas, at least 16 officially requested stimulus funds from federal agencies.
"Newt's the intellectual!" cry Republicans concerned with the intellectual dive off a cliff their part has taken since Reagan was elected. That's why they like Newt: he's a real historian! He's got a doctorate! And as a "historian" working for Freddie Mac, he's surely paid off those student loans by now. Gift the Newt lovers in your life with a copy of his 
The Obama website has a neat feature allowing you to 
It's all about Iowa, man! Ron Paul's the only candidate with a consistent ideology, man! Most importantly, he wants to legalize drugs, man, yeah! We all have young white male relatives entranced by the tax-free weed utopia promised by Dr. Ron. Send the young man to Iowa, where he can join Ron Paul's army, and help the proverbial stopped clock rack up a win in Iowa that the mainstream media will trip over themselves to ignore. Best of all, you'll get him out of your house before he starts reading Ayn Rand essays aloud. Again.
Give the gift of an e-book about the concomitant failure and hypocrite that is our longest serving governor, Rick Perry. Glen Maxey's Head Figure Head and Jason Stanford and James Moore's Adios, Mofo probably won't change any minds, but at least you're supporting the anti-Perry cottage industry that collapsed along with his campaign. You think Perry's hoping for a second wind? Imagine how these book authors feel! Glen's book is available in the right-hand sidebar. Jason's book is available 
Invest in progressive journalism, and maybe even teach those relatives a thing or two. The magazine, named for Irish-American union organizer Mary Harris Jones, is published by a non-profit organization, so they can really use your support. 
Does everyone accuse you of being a racist based on your racially insensitive tweets and Facebook posts about the first African-American President? Show them how really not racist you are with this mug that makes it abundantly clear that despite your humorous calls for assassination, crack poems, and comments about Asians in the library that you're totally 100% completely not a racist not at all. One side reads "I'm No Racist" and the other reads "I Don't Like His White Half, Either!" That should definitely clear up whether you're a stone-cold racist and keep the "liberal trolls" at bay. Available on 
Do you live in a western state? Do you enjoy secret same-sex dalliances with other dudes? Do you have a sad-eyed blonde wife? Are you a character in Brokeback Mountain and/or did you star in the most-rapidly disliked YouTube video of all time? Are the people who work for your media firm tired of keeping your secret and desperately hoping you get outed? Then this is the jacket for you. Get your 
