The Texas Republican Party loves to hate any form of government to the point it would love to wash it out of our lives altogether. Except, of course, when it comes to peeking inside of our bedrooms and when imposing expensive medical procedures on women who have to make very difficult personal decisions.
Since it is incapable and unwilling to honestly address its decision to impose devastating budget cuts to schools and social programs, the Republican Texas Taliban Party has decided to hide behind the veil of emotional hot buttons known as social and cultural issues. That and divide and conquer politics. What else is a Party that has sold its soul to corporate power brokers and one that is morally bankrupted to the point it shows nothing but contempt for ordinary people to do? And this is precisely why the deficit denying cowards and ethically challenged Republicans in the state Senate passed an abortion sonogram bill.
AUSTIN - Doctors would have to perform a sonogram at least two hours before an abortion and describe the fetus for the woman - including cardiac activity, internal organs and limbs - under a bill that sailed through the Texas Senate on Thursday.
The debate - marked by references to God and the right of "hairy-legged" men to drive changes in the procedure - culminated in a mostly party-line 21-10 vote that sends the measure to the House for consideration.
Is Sharia law coming to Texas? Or do Texas Republican men suffer from an acute and chronic case of misogyny disorder? Or are the Republican Taliban inspired men simply hiding behind women's skirts in order to avoid manning up and admitting the obvious? Let's face it. Rick Perry and the Texas GOP fiscal policies of the past 10 years are one whopping and mind blowing disaster.
Sen. Leticia Van de Putte said that if a woman chooses to give birth, and the motivation of the bill is to protect children, then "it's our responsibility to protect that child once the child is born, too," and not drastically cut the budgets from areas like vaccines and pre-kindergarten education.
"We seem to worship what we cannot see, but as soon as that baby is born, oh no, government doesn't want to be intrusive," said Van de Putte, a San Antonio Democrat. In a reference to conservative Grover Norquist's comment that he wanted to cut government to the size where he could "drown it in the bathtub," Van de Putte said, "Texas is going to shrink government until it fits into a woman's uterus."
Meanwhile in Washington D.C. a female US House Representative from California has something to say about the appalling and insensitive talibanesque statements made by a male colleague from New Jersey.
You may not know it, and even if you did, you may have forgotten about it which is why I'm writing this post. I'm here to tell partisan Democrats that the most important race on the Texas ballot for the future of the Democratic Party of Texas might not be the Governor's race. In fact, it's a race in which Democrats didn't even bother to field a candidate- and therein lies the problem, one which we are going to regret and for which someone's head should probably roll.
I'm talking of course about the race for Texas Comptroller.
Republican incumbent Susan Combs, who sits on the Legislative Redistricting Board, has no Democratic opponent and faces only minor party opposition on the ballot. Normally, that's not a problem because the only minor party is the Libertarian Party, which can expect up to 20% of the vote in a race such as this. This works out quite well for Democrats because it guarantees the Libertarian Party as a whole ballot access for the next 2 years if they can exceed 5% in any statewide office (or 4 years of access if they can break 2% in the Governor's race). This has happened repeatedly in the past decade in statewide judicial offices where the Democratic Party has not fielded a full slate.
But this year, the Republicans made a smart move in paying for the Green Party's ballot petitions program, qualifying them for the ballot this year. (See here, here, here, or here.) The Green Party has failed every time they have tried to regain ballot access this past decade and likely would have again this year if not for the support of the Republicans who bought their access.
Basic Point- The Texas Republican Party bought the Texas Green Party for less than $200,000, knowing that without a Democrat running for Comptroller, Green Party nominee Ed Lindsay could more easily garner 5% ensuring Green Party access for the 2012 elections.
Ed Lindsay, twice the Democratic nominee in HD-54 against Republican Rep. Aycock is but a pawn in this almost beautiful GOP scheme. Many Democrats, seeing no nominee of their own on the ballot, still want to vote against Comptroller Combs- but now they have a Green candidate (instead of just a Libertarian) for whom they can cast their protest vote. And if enough voters, just 5%, choose the Green Party candidate to "stick it" to the Republicans by voting for the "most liberal" alternative, Democrats will give the Greens (and the Republicans) the only thing they both want- automatic statewide Green Party ballot access for 2012.
2012. The first election after redistricting. You see where this is going?
Does anyone doubt that every marginal state house seat on the ballot will have a Green Party candidate? Or that many of those candidates will actually be fielded by the same Republicans who bought the Green Party and their ballot access this year? And that all this is done knowing that Green candidates 'take' more votes from Democratic candidates than the Libertarians 'take' from Republicans, allowing the GOP to hang on to their majority just a little bit longer?
Many of the following Democratic State Reps should be keenly aware of this math.
Yes, it's Democrats' fault for not running for Comptroller. Yes, many of us support more ballot choices and inclusion of a liberal party's viewpoint. But this isn't about higher values or "costing someone the election" or being anti-Green. A vote for the Green Party really is a vote for the Republicans. It's their Party, they paid for it, and the GOP is counting on Democrats to seal the deal. For less than $200,000, the GOP will have enabled Democrats to stab themselves in the back up and down the ballot in 2012. That is, unless Democrats refuse to fall for this Republican trick.
This year's Green Party is a Republican scam. Don't fall for it. Don't vote Green. Not this time. "It's a trap!"
What may have seen impossible in the immediate wake of her third-place finish in this spring's Austin Mayor race, may actually end up happening. The Statesman's Jason Embry has reported that Carole Strayhorn has had discussions with Texas Democratic Party Chair Boyd Richie about seeking the party's nomination for comptroller.
Strayhorn, who has run for office as a Democrat, Republican, and Independent, has served as Mayor of Austin, railroad commissioner, and, before incumbent Susan Combs took office in 2007, comptroller.
The Statesman's Gardner Selby had previously reported that Strayhorn had contacted Houston Mayor Bill White, the leading Democratic candidate for governor, about her possible candidacy for comptroller.
“We will rely on our voters to consider each candidate’s record and decide if they have the Democratic credentials they want in a nominee. Our role is to run a fair primary.”
While former Congressman Nick Lampson said he was considering running and State Rep. Mike Villarreal (D-San Antonio) briefly thought about entering the race, no Democrat has decided to challenge Combs yet.
If Strayhorn decides to run, she will have a lot of explaining to do for her Republican past and, given the frequency of her attempts at electoral office, she will have to also prove that she truly wants to be comptroller. Despite her negatives, she has won at least four or five statewide elections, and certainly has higher name ID than probably any other potential rival to Combs, whose campaign has $4 million on hand.
The recent years of tuition deregulation and poor stock market performance have left the Texas Tomorrow Fund, a state-guaranteed prepaid higher education plan that was later renamed the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan, nearly broke and destined to use as much as $2.1 billion of tax dollars to pay for the college tuition costs for more than $100,000 Texan students.
“The taxpayers of Texas voted this in, and the taxpayers of Texas have obligated themselves to pay this out over time,” Combs said. “You can't pull a California and send (parents) an IOU. You have a hole, and you must get a shovel and start filling in.”
Combs said the fund will run out of money between 2015 and 2017. The state will have to completely pay for the tuition and fees of children who have the contracts for the next 15 to 20 years.
The Texas Tomorrow Fund was created by the Legislature in 1995 at the urging of then-Comptroller John Sharp, now a Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate. Voters in 1997 approved guaranteeing the college contracts with the state's credit.
Some, like former Lt. Gov. Bill Ratliff, opposed establishing the fund and backing it with the state's credit.
“I did my best back then to warn that there would come a day when we'd have to increase the cost of higher education,” Ratliff said. “It just seemed to me that it was likely to create some serious problems in the future.”
Sharp said there were no problems with the fund at the time of its creation. He said actuaries set the price of the contracts based on the cost of education at the time and investment earnings. Sharp said the price of the college plans could have been adjusted over time with increased tuition costs and fluctuations in the investment market.
Sharp puts the blame on current Comptroller Susan Combs, who first took office following Carole Strayhorn in 2003 and closed the program in 2007.
When tuition was deregulated in 2003, then-Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn suspended new enrollment for the plan. The cost of college tuition at a state university rose by an average of 23 percent that year. Combs closed the program after taking office in 2007.
The Legislature in 2007 created a new college fund called the Texas Tuition Promise Fund. Its cost is much higher — $39,400 to buy an infant a four-year college plan — and the investments are not guaranteed by the state.
Sharp said the original prepaid tuition program has financial problems because Combs closed it to new enrollment. Sharp said pensions and Social Security need new members to remain solvent over long periods.
“If you want to know why the shortfall is there, the name is Susan Combs,” he said.
Combs said Sharp is wrong. She likened the idea of using new enrollees' money to cover a shortfall with previous participants to a Ponzi scheme. She said the problem is the price of the contracts was set too low and the investments for the plan did not cover the cash-out payments.
“(New enrollees) don't help the hole,” she said. “The hole is the hole is the hole.”
Texas is on pace to pick up as many as 4 new congressional districts. Booming growth in Texas cities and the conglomeration of the suburbs in addition to states like California, Ohio, Florida, and New York all seeing their growth stagnate or even decline means that Texas will have the largest increase in congressional strength.
It is likely these seats could lean Democratic looking at the 2000 census. According to those numbers, McAllen, Austin/San Marcos, and Laredo all ranked in the 10 fastest growing cities. With out having hard numbers, I would speculate the other area that may see an addition to the Congressional delegation would be in the DFW or San Antonio area, but that is total speculation.
In any case, these 4 seats could mean big gains for us if Democrats have a say in how the new map is drawn.
There is one way to have a say in the process and prevent another purely partisan map. A constitutional amendment in 1951 established the redistricting process and established the Legislative Redistricting Board (LRB). The board is composed of the lieutenant governor, speaker of the house, attorney general, comptroller, and land commissioner. Let's go through this really quickly; David Dewhurst, Tom Craddick, Greg Abbott, Susan Combs, and Jerry Patterson will determine the fate of these 4 new seats along with the 32.
This election cycle we can't do anything about the statewide candidates directly, but we can build the infrastructure necessary to secure one or more spots on the LRB.
We currently have 71 Democrats in the state house. If we can win back the House this cycle (pick up 5 more seats) we will have taken 1 of the 5 seats on the redistricting board. More importantly, we will have expanded our bench and trained more messengers.
Having Democratic elected officials lower down the ballot increases our strength at the top of the ballot. Having State Representatives, County Court at Law Judges, Constables, County Commissioners, and more we solidify our ability to win up and down the ballot by creating messengers and developing party infrastructure.
4 new congressional seats should serve as a wake up call and signal to focus our collective efforts on the Legislative Redistricting Board. That is one of the many reasons TexBlog PAC was formed, to take back the Texas House and secure a Democratic voice on the redistricting board.
It’s all about the Children. Seriously. It is all about how the Republican majority continues to screw over our children and teachers in order to give corporations the tax cuts they don’t need.
In the name of economic development, some Texas school districts are using a 2001 law to hand out hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to big business. The comptroller estimates that this lost tax revenue will cost the state's public education fund $500 million by 2010-11.
School districts are using the program to circumvent Robin Hood, the state policy that works to provide equity for public school financing by redistributing dollars from rich to poor school districts. Districts receive kickbacks of up to 50 percent of the businesses' savings. These kickbacks, sometimes worth millions of dollars, are not subject to Robin Hood.
Texans for Public Justice has the first of a two part series, “Watch Your Assetts”.
If you thought the last couple of installments of A Perfect Match were not fit for primetime, today's is probably the worst in the entire book. Remember, this is your current Commissioner of Agriculture who wants to be your Comptroller of Public Accounts.
She screamed as he found her.
"I can't hold back any longer," he groaned and then was inside her, the heat and slickness of her welcoming body almost pushing him over the edge. Ross stiffened on his elbows and bent his head, searching for control.
Emily surged up to meet him, sealing him tigher within her, and he began to move, his arms holding her tightly, his breath coming in great gasps.
"I... can't... I don't know how," she said.
"Yes, you do," he said, his hands gripping her to him. "Now," he commanded, and Emily could feel it happening, harder, faster, and then she was gone with him, over the top.
Ross's breathing slowed finally. He couldn't move. Emily's thighs held him securely and he gently stroked the damp hair from her forehead. "Are you all right?" Emily opened her eyes slowly and smiled up at him, the blue of her eyes blinding him.
"It's not exactly described this way in the biology texts."
I left you hanging last with Ross and Emily's first attempt at some premarital play. Today's installment reveals the sincere disappointment...
..."I'm sorry about that." Ross's voice was very quiet.
She turned and saw the gleam of his eyes as he stared at the ceiling. He shut his eyes briefly before he swiveled his head and gazed at her. With a sigh, he pulled her shirt down over her bare breasts. Silently he handed her the pajama bottoms he'd removed.
"This won't work," he spoke over her bent head.
Emily fought to control the humiliation that colored her cheeks. She'd fallen all over him in bed, literally. She'd practically seduced him, driven to behave uncharacteristically by her own urges. She'd wanted him, hot and hard inside her and he'd known it. Undoubtedly pity was a powerful aphrodisiac.
Emily moved to the edge of the bed, swing her legs to the floor, and sat up. "Certainly not," she muttered, her eyes stinging. "No problem, I understand completely."
by Susan Combs, A Perfect Match, 1990
Is conservative sex guilty sex? What about if your getting screwed by The Man?
We told you to be prepared. Hide the children (from Susan Combs).
...as fingertips plucked at her waiting nipple bringing a reeling dizziness.
She felt his chest rising unsteadily and heard his rapid intake of breath. His lips sucked gently at the curve of her neck, his tongue brushed against the lobe of her ear then plunged inside. Her body bucked in reaction at the desire surging through her.
Ross gave a quick tug and her pajama bottoms slid away with a quiet rustle. Suddenly she was bare. He thrust his leg between hers, and a deep heaviness throbbed in her belly. He was hard, pressing against her, and she moaned.
She needed him to fill the aching void at her center.
With devastating slowness, his hand cupped her completely before he slowly slid a finger into her warmth. She was burning up. Heat sliced through her. Emily gave herself up to the sweet torment of his hand as her hips rocked against his touch. Clutching his shoulders, her mouth blindly sought his. Desperate for release, she tightened her grip. "Ross," she managed, feeling as though she where spinning out of control.
Ross's body stilled. He made a harsh sound almost of pain then he withdrew his hand. He rolled away and lay beside her, his breathing still touch, one arm over his eyes.
"I'm sorry about that." Ross's voice was very quiet…
by Susan Combs, A Perfect Match, 1990
I can only wonder what fine tales Combs could write now with all her experience from being Ag Commissioner... And what if she becomes Comptroller? Naughty tax assessing? Stay tuned...
Back in June, the great folks at PinkDome did a fabulous photoshop in regards to Republican candidate for Comptroller, Susan Combs. The point of the post was to introduce the sordid tales of her steamy early 90's trashy romance novel entitled, "A Perfect Match" published by now defunct Kismet Publishing.
While Democratic candidate Fred Head (no, not kidding) has been pushing the book in his stump speech to no avail (as have others for the past decade), getting a hold of the text of this trashy romance novel is not the easiest thing, seeing as how the Combs folks have bought up most every copy they could find by now.
Fred Head has a copy though, and for your reading pleasure, I'll be reproducing the 3 hottest pages of this 222 page sexual thriller for you over the next week.
Don't think you can handle it? Pish-posh! I say it's the perfect thing to celebrate the two and a half year anniversary of the "Rick Perry is Gay" Scandal. Why else do you read Burnt Orange Report?
Basic Point- The Texas Republican Party bought the Texas Green Party for 
If you thought the 
I left you 
We told you to 