Pete Sessions A Crook or a Republican
He is both! Pete Sessions is a Republican elitist, a clone of George W Bush who bemoans the new Democratic lead Congress for closing him out of policy making. What ole Pete fails to own up to is the he closed out Democrats for years under the Republican lead Congress and would not allow them to participate when he was in the party with 'power', what my mom would call a 'cry-baby'. His leadership is pure partisan always representing big oil, big business and Wall Street. His leadership has led Texas to have one of the lowest ranking in caring for our children and elderly and he continues to vote against SCHIP. Thank God for pro-children Democrats!
John Cornyn is a leader with no followers and a heartless bastard. That's all you can say about this guy.
Last night, Cornyn joined 31 other Republicans in voting against insuring children. This was a partisan reaffirmation that children come second to big business and Cornyn doesn't believe Americans, especially children, need health insurance.
The vote wasn't close, 66 Senators, from both sides of the aisle voted to expand SCHIP (14 more votes than it needed to pass). This was clearly an ideological vote.
Cornyn is not up for reelection until 2014. Which means we are stuck with Big Bad John for at least a few more years. The full vote can be seen here and outrage can be viewed in the comments.
The Senate overwhelmingly approved legislation yesterday to provide health insurance to 11 million low-income children, a bill that would for the first time spend federal money to cover children and pregnant women who are legal immigrants.
The State Children's Health Insurance Program, which is aimed at families earning too much money to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford private insurance, currently covers close to 7 million youngsters at a cost of $25 billion.
Lawmakers voted 66 to 32, largely along party lines, to renew the joint state-federal program and spend an additional $32.8 billion to expand coverage to 4 million more children. The expansion would be paid for by raising the cigarette tax from 39 cents a pack to $1.
Come on folks, give a large group of struggling Democratic activists in Texas a hand. There is a group of us spanning the vast state of Texas that have been working day and night to send Rick to Washington. We're grassroots every day folks who have given as much as our little piggy banks hold. And our go to Big Dogs are maxed out.
We cannot take 6 more years of a right winger who serves as the puppet for the fat cats in big oil, big insurance, big banking and big everything with money.
And neither can you.
Why?
If elected John Cornyn will block every single thing a Democratic President and Congress will try to accomplish. Mark my words, folks. Corn Dog will rally any Republican buddies who are left in Congress to do likewise. He will reach out to the right wing media to demonize the Democratic Administration. And the right wing media, like FOX "News," will be more than happy to oblige.
Get it? Even if you do not live in Texas John Cornyn will work against your best interests.
(This is a seat we need to hold. - promoted by Karl-Thomas Musselman)
While the Presidential race continues to suck a lot of the air out of the Texas political atmosphere, vitally important down-ballot races are kicking into high gear as early voting approaches. The race for HD-17 (Bastrop, Fayette, Lee, Burleson, Colorado counties)is heating up as the GOP looks to pick up the seat vacated by Robby Cook (D-Eagle Lake) and Donnie Dippel works hard to keep it in the Democratic column.
Rick Perry tool Tim Kleinschmidt has been spending gobs of PAC and lobbyist money (much of it from the likes of TLR, TX Oil and Gas PAC, and Bob Perry) trying to discredit Dippel and press hot buttons like he's done with his insidious mailers. The latest one I received (thanks, Tim!) touts his "plan to secure our borders" by spending state funds on border enforcement and requiring photo I.D. to vote. Apparently the cookie-cutters who designed his campaign neglected to tell Tim that border security is a FEDERAL issue and that photo I.D. for voting is an unconstitutional imposition akin to a poll tax.
Needless to say, Tim is not the sharpest knife in the drawer. Kleinschmidt was recently busted for paying his daughter with campaign funds in direct violation of state election laws, and also apparently tried to film his campaign commercials during a non-partisan public forum in Bastrop recently. Later that week, at another candidate forum in Colorado County (in which the parties had agreed to no candidate cameras), Kleinschmidt failed to even show up and sent a surrogate instead. Clearly he's not interested in talking about the issues, since he's apparently confused about a number of them: Kleinschmidt mentions "supporting local schools" but also supports private school vouchers (which is it, Tim?), and claims to oppose toll roads and the TTC ( a new position from 2006...) while having fundraisers hosted by the Godfathers of the Toll Road Lobby like Perry and Mike Toomey. But despite his many ties with big insurance, big oil, and various other anti-labor and anti-working family forces that have made the Capitol and Guv's Mansion their personal playground for the last 10+ years - Tim claims he's an "independent voice" for rural Texas "values" !
Meanwhile, long-time Fayette County rancher and ag consultant Donnie Dippel (who would the cows really support, Tim?) is running on a sound platform that speaks to the actual issues affecting working families of the 17th District: fully funding our public schools and bringing back vocational training programs(strengthening the rural labor force), support for rural health care services like CHIP and local hospitals, support for volunteer fire departments and rural law enforcement, repealing the Republican-enacted small business tax, (back to those "small town values" again) , protecting our water resources (as Kleinschmidt sells his water out of the District!) and encouraging economic development in HD-17, with it's mix of rural and exurban communities.
"Dan Barrett is a skilled, experienced advocate who will stand up for the needs of schoolchildren and their parents," said Texas Parent PAC board member Pam Meyercord of Dallas. "He will be a courageous, independent legislator who acts in the public interest and steers clear of divisive partisan politics."
Texas Parent PAC joins United Educators Association in supporting Barrett because of his strong stance in fighting for teachers and students.
Meyercord said Barrett will work to change the way the state house does business so there is real progress on solving problems and less political bickering in Austin.
[…]
"Unlike his opponent, Dan Barrett opposes taking money away from public schools to fund private school tuition vouchers," said Ellen Jones of Euless, a Texas Parent PAC board member. "Barrett understands that Texas taxpayers cannot afford to subsidize private schooling through voucher schemes. Our limited state and local funds must be used to strengthen public schools in every neighborhood so children can succeed academically and their communities and families prosper."
As the release points out, Barrett put himself through the University of Texas and Texas Tech Law School. His mother was an administrative assistant at an Austin elementary school and his father was on staff at the University of Texas. He has been an advocate in the courtroom fighting for municipalities and school districts in litigation in areas ranging from construction, insurance claims, and boundary disputes.
While Shelton is out arguing against CHIP and protecting Craddick, Barrett has been a leader in the community.
In Fort Worth, Barrett is known for his collegial leadership style and ability to bring people together to accomplish goals. He has been active in Leadership Fort Worth for the last 10 years, served as a member of the Board for Volunteers of America, and was president of four Tarrant County legal professional associations. From 1990 to 1997 he was a trustee on the board of Shakespeare in the Park.
The past 5 days TexBlog PAC has been raising money for Dan Barrett. Barrett won a plurality in this Fort Worth House seat against Republican Mark Shelton, and momentum is on the Democratic side.
We have already raised $764 of our $1200 goal and we still have until Wednesday to raise the rest. But don't support Dan because we tell you, let's talk about the race for House District 97 in Fort Worth. The importance of this runoff extends far beyond the districts boundaries.
Mark Shelton is Tom Craddick's guy. A candidate willing to sacrifice the needs of his district to protect a man who believes the Speaker has absolute power over the House. Just last Thursday, Tom Craddick had an afternoon fundraiser for Shelton at the Austin Club. While we are raising small donations from every Texan, Shelton only seems to be raising large donations from Republican lobbyists ready to pay to play.
As if to show the stark differences between the candidates, the United Educators Association has already endorsed Dan Barrett. So Shelton has support from one of the most corrupt Speakers in Texas history and Barrett has the support of Texas teachers. The release puts it simply:
The United Educators Association announced today their endorsement of Dan Barrett for Texas House of Representatives in District 97. The United Educators Association is an independent association representing more than 16,000 Texas public school employees in North Texas.
"Dan Barrett earned the endorsement of UEA through his commitment to the students, teachers and the Texas public education system" said Executive Director of UEA Larry Shaw.
Democrat Dan Barrett was the top vote getter in the November 6th Special Election to replace retiring State Representative Anna Mowery. He is facing Republican Mark Shelton in a run-off election expected to be held December 11th. Support of public education is expected to be a major issue in the election, with Barrett supporting public education and opposing vouchers and Shelton endorsing the use of public tax dollars to support a voucher program for private unregulated schools.
"We have to improve our public education system so it is second to none," stated Barrett whose mother was a secretary in the public school system for many years.
Other groups appear to be lining up to support Barrett as well. Rumors are circulating that many big name PACs, unions and organizations will be joining TexBlog PAC and UEA once the Election Date is set.
While education groups are lining up to support Barrett in the Fort Worth special election, Dr. Mark Shelton shows how naïve he is about public policy and his own profession. In a recent forum, Shelton talks about chips… not sure what chips is (other than what I eat during the game on Thanksgiving). As a doctor and a pediatrician, you would think Shelton would know that SCHIP (not chips) is a program designed to help uninsured children get the medical attention they need. Shelton opposes the State Children's Insurance Program saying the incentives are "wrong and perverse".
This is one of the few times you really need to click a link. So please watch the League of Women Voters forum here.
Here are some of the highlights that show that Shelton is just plain wrong:
That he has it exactly backwards, CHIP creates incentives for children to see their doctor before getting so sick they end up in the emergency room;
That CHIP has nothing to do with Medicaid, principally because working families (who can't afford private insurance) are actually buying insurance while Medicaid is a benefit for the needy;
That the man he backs for Speaker is behind all the cuts and mismanagement that cost 200,000 children their access to health care;
That it's amazing, of all people, a pediatrician is, as he might put it, so "wrong in the perverse."
Shelton is clearly bad for his district and the state of Texas. He plays dirty political tricks to win elections and has no clue about the biggest issues of our day.
It’s World Series week, and Congressman Mike McCaul is about to get another chance to improve his batting average when a measure providing uninsured Texas kids the kind of health insurance program he enjoys comes up again for debate.
So far, he’s batting 0-2.
First, he voted against the bi-partisan SCHIP bill that would have extended coverage to nearly 1.4 million Texas children whose parents work hard and earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but too little to afford private insurance. Then, he remained in lockstep with the Bush-Cheney administration and voted against overriding the President’s veto.
Forty-four Republicans joined the Democratic majority in voting to override last week and guarantee access to affordable health care for the children of parents who are working hard and playing by the rules. They ignored the misinformation spread by the White House and did the right thing.
My opponent once more failed to do the right thing today.
He again put his loyalty to the Bush-Cheney administration ahead of his obligation to the families who pay for his own health care with their taxes but can't afford the same rights for their own children.
Central Texans were looking for more leadership and less followership in Washington, D.C. today, because with more uninsured children than any other state, we had more to lose. We didn't get that leadership today.
(Vote to override is today -- dial those phones! - promoted by Phillip Martin)
The U.S. House Thursday is scheduled to vote on whether to override the President's controversial veto of the bi-partisan State Children's Health Insurance Program. Rep. Mike McCaul should vote to provide more than 1.4 million uninsured Texas children the health care they need.
Unfortunately, McCaul voted against uninsured kids and for insurance industry special interests the first round. Will he find the moral courage to do the right thing today? Will he finally make Texas priorities his priorities?
I recently signed an online petition supporting the just past and vetoed SCHIP bill. The petition went to my representative, Congressman Michael Burgess. Soon afterwards I received an email response giving the reasons he was not supporting the bill. Two of those reasons he outlined in the following paragraph.
"The 1997, the SCHIP bill was a federal-state partnership. The original bill gave each state flexibility on how to fund their programs. Some states made the decision to cover adults or higher income families with limited SCHIP dollars. These states experienced budget shortfalls and returned to the federal government seeking money that had been unspent by states that had run a fiscally sound program, like the State of Texas. Under the current program these states can take money away from Texas children in order to cover adults in their state. This is unfair."
With a little research I found that this new bill actually codifies the removal of adults from the SCHIP program so that concern of the representative is not valid, and he should have known that if he has read the bill.
But what disturbs me the most is his claim that Texas runs a "fiscally sound program." According to the U.S. Census Bureau Texas has 23.9% of its citizens without healthcare.
A quick check of other states and I found that is the highest rate of uninsured citizens, including children in the complete USA. Our Texas program is not "fiscally sound" it is cheap, short sighted, or just plain mean spirited.
