Category Archives: Texas News

Ken Paxton – Vexatious Litigant (cont.)

Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just can’t help himself from continuing to waste taxpayer dollars on important issues like who gets to pee where.  One might think that Paxton was merely trying to draw attention away from his own considerable legal woes – but then one would be a small petty-minded type of person – like Red.

But the chances that Paxton would shy away from the most important legal and moral issue of the day, involving – as Red so crudely puts it – which hole gets to go in which hole, were slim to none.  Apparently there is not a single action of the federal government that Paxton does not feel up to challenge – at least until another Bush becomes President.  Paxton reflexively must challenge anything that might possible offend or cause the slightest consternation amongst his Tea Party followers – all the while maintaining his innocence in the face of what the legal experts refer to as “pretty damn good evidence” that he himself is the real lawbreaker.   Thus despite the lack of a shred of evidence that allowing the various varieties of our transgendered Texans to decide where they would like to evacuate their various by-products of human existence has endangered anyone or caused any of the Baptist women to cry “Oh, my!”, Paxton bravely soldiers on in the belief that only he knows best and that the very fate of the constitutional republic hangs in the balance on his briefs (no pun intended).

Red for one expresses no opinion (as yet) on the constitutionality of the Obama administration’s rule on bathroom equality.  What is clear, however, is that Paxton and ilk truly believe that this is the issue that will re-ignite the Tea Party movement (not just their bowels) and lead them back to national prominence in the wake of seeing their influence eviscerated by Donald Trump’s emergence (from the anus of the political sphere).  The right must have a bogeyman – real or imagined – and fear is the only thing they know how to properly manipulate into a position of power.  If not the Red Menace washing upon our shores, or the Hippies destroying our social fabric, or the Welfare Queens taking us to the cleaners, or Sex, Drugs and Rock & Roll corrupting our youth anymore, then there must be a new cause.  And with the so-called War on Terror falling out of fashion after a sort, what can the denizens of the right latch onto now.  Aha, bathroom safety.  The terrifying image of a grizzled child molester tarted up in a chemise and sporting some f*#k me pumps coming in to the Women’s room to terrorize Ted Cruz’s daughters will certainly get the base riled up.  Except maybe enough Americans are not quite stupid enough to believe such nonsense.  And no one will ever accuse Ken Paxton of not being stupid enough.

Ken Paxton – Vexacious Litigant

Embattled Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton just can’t avoid the spotlight – or perhaps thinks that getting his office involved in a matter that doesn’t concern the State of Texas will divert the people’s attention from his own legal problems.  This time, Paxton is using Texas taxpayer money to intervene in a lawsuit on behalf of Exxon-Mobil – an outfit that typically is thought capable of carrying its own legal water.

The U.S. Virgin Islands’ Attorney General, Claude Walker, is seeking documents from Exxon related to an investigation into whether the energy giant covered up its internal investigation into climate change and misled shareholders about the impact of climate change on the company’s bottom line.  In that regard, the USVI issued a subpoena.  Exxon sued in Tarrant County district court seeking to quash the subpoena.  Paxton’s office filed a brief in support of Exxon.  Paxton decried the USVI’s attorney general’s investigation as “ridiculous” and a “fishing expedition of the worst kind.”  Kowtowing to his base in prototypical TeaPartySpeak, Paxton described the subpoena as “an effort to punish Exxon for daring to hold an opinion on climate change that differs from that of radical environmentalists.”

Red could probably not care less about whether Exxon has to cough up some documents or whether it was less than forthcoming with respect to its investigations into climate change.  Red does care about the limited resources of the Texas AG’s office being used for blatantly political purposes and to help line the coffers of Paxton’s re-election campaign fund.  Paxton was a major recipient of donations from the energy industry and his intervention in this matter in the week before Exxon’s annual shareholders’ meeting seems just a little too coincidental.  Texas has had some pathetic excuses for an AG before, but Paxton is putting the bar so low that no future AG will ever be able to limbo under it.

Red is For Secession – of the GOP

Today Texas Republicans will debate and vote on whether Texas should secede from the United States.  While the chances are slim that there are enough certifiably insane delegates to the GOP convention to pass a secession resolution, Red can’t wait to hear the arguments for it.  The less bat-shit crazy wing of the GOP wants nothing to do with this nonsense as they are too busy worrying about which bathroom someone might decide to use or that some woman somewhere in Texas might actually exercise her right to obtain an abortion or that minorities might be able to vote or that school textbooks don’t sufficiently laud the many benefits of slavery in the Old South.  But actual secession – once a topic only for the lunatic fringe –  is now within the mainstream for many of the GOP faithful.

In Red’s humble opinion, the resolution needs only a minor modification to make it palatable.  If the GOP wants to secede from Texas, Red is all for it.  They can have Dallas, East Texas and Midland-Odessa.

Texas Has Education Priorities Straight – Millions for Football. Everything Else – Not so Much.

The recent decision of the McKinney Independent School District to spend millions on a high school football stadium has drawn nation-wide attention.  After months of controversy and debate, more than two-thirds of McKinney voters approved spending $63 million as part of a $220 million bond package on a show-piece high school football stadium.  Yes, that’s $63 million.  By way of imperfect and time-challenged contrast, the Astrodome cost only $35 million to build in 1965 – that would be around $375 million today.

But the 12,000 seat McKinney stadium will hardly be alone in the on-going arms race to build bigger and swankier high school football stadiums in wealthy Texas suburbs.  Allen recently completed a $60 million stadium that seats 18,000 and is located about 3 miles from where McKinney will build its sports temple.  Another 12,000 seat edifice is under construction in Katy with a projected cost of more than $62 million.  The first $100 million high-school stadium cannot be far down the road.

For comparison, the $63 million  (financed by school bonds)  would be about 30% of the annual operating budget of McKinney ISD which was about $206 million for the 2015-16 school year.  Supporters claim that the stadium will be a source of local pride and bring tournaments and other business to the area.  Opponents look upon it as a case of completely misplaced priorities.   Red appreciates that, like it or not, football is king in Texas, but does it have to sit on a $63 million throne?    For the record, McKinney High School was 3-7 overall and 1-6 in district in 2015.  McKinney Boyd was 6-5, but did not make the playoffs, and McKinney North was 6-4 and also missed the playoffs. Even $63 million can’t buy you a winning football team.

Attention Independent Candidates – Time’s Up in Texas

The deadline for independent candidates to get on the ballot in Texas passed yesterday without any action.  An independent presidential candidate would have had to present petitions with almost 80,000 signatures of registered voters who did not participate in either the Democratic or Republican primary in March.  No one stepped up to fill that tall order and the likelihood of a conservative candidate making a credible run for president without being on the ballot in the biggest, most conservative state of all is very small indeed.

George P. Bush – Enemy of Democracy

Bush family scion and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush took to Facebook on Sunday to decry the results of a democratically held referendum on Austin’s  Uber and Lyft ordinance on Sunday.   According to Bush, “Liberalism has consequences. Austin claims to be a forward-thinking city … This is what happens with liberalism — the government wins and the people lose.”

There is no more direct form of democracy than the referendum, where the people – not the politicians – vote on specific issues.  Yet, when the people don’t fall in line with what George Pee thinks is right, they somehow lose.  Explain that one please.  Maybe next time, the voters will agree with George Pee and they will win!  Of note here, is the fact that Uber outspent its opponents by a factor of 100 to 1 and still lost because the people are – what  – losers?   Exactly how does the government win, when it is doing exactly what the people have told it they want.

George Pee obviously thinks he knows a lot more than the voters of Austin.  Red wonders when he had the time to get so smart.  Maybe he picked up some knowledge about this particular issue when he was missing in action from his job for much of the time until JEB!!!!$$$$?’s presidential campaign imploded in a heap of misspent money, incompetence and acrimony.  Citizens of Austin, congratulations for standing up for what you believe in.  Red urges you to ignore this Bush family freeloader who has no interest in doing the job he was elected to do and who – if not for his name and family connections – would be toiling in obscurity somewhere.  Like Red.

And by the way, it’s refreshing to pick on someone other than Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) for a change.

Big Whoop

Former Governor and failed presidential candidate Rick Perry endorsed Donald Trump.  And in a grand gesture of magnanimity to the presumptive GOP standard-bearer, Perry also noted that he would not be adverse to a vice-presidential nod.  No surprise there as Perry has spent most of his adult life slopping at the public trough and a vice-presidency would present him with a nifty lifetime sinecure.

Actually, Red thinks Perry might just be the perfect running mate for DT.  He secures a state that Trump couldn’t possibly lose if he named the Unabomber as his vice-president.  He can supervise building the wall and then DT can send him to the Distrito Federal to present the bill.  He can turn in another pathetic debate performance.  But who is Red kidding?  DT would never put someone on the ticket that has better hair than his ownself.

And at this point, does anybody really give a damn about what Rick Perry thinks?  Anybody, anybody, Bueller, anybody?

Texas Voter ID Law Ripped Apart

Texas has the strictest Voter ID law in the U.S. despite there being no evidence of voter fraud to prevent.  As Red has said repeatedly, anyone who knows anything about elections knows that the mail-in ballots are the most likely place for voter hanky-panky and the Voter ID law does nothing about that problem.  The law is clearly designed by a Tea Party dominated Legislature to do nothing other than keep as many poor folks and minorities as possible from voting.  It is about the most shameless act of political pandering that Red has ever witnessed and it seems like to fail once the Fifth Circuit rules in Veasey v. Abbot.   But don’t take it from Red.  In a recent article, The Economist destroys the basis for the law and takes down criminally indicted Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton for his pathetic defense of the basis for the law as well.   

From 2000 to 2015, according to the New York Times, the 2011 voter-ID law could have prevented “no more than three or four infractions” qualifying as voter fraud. Yet Mr Paxton insists the rules are necessary to “safeguard the integrity of our elections process” and are “essential to preserving our democracy”. Judges have found quite the opposite. When the law was first challenged in federal district court in the weeks before the 2014 election, Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos struck it down as a violation of the 1st, 14th, 15th and 24th amendments. In her 147-page opinion, Judge Ramos noted “a clear and disturbing pattern of discrimination in the name of combating voter fraud in Texas”. Blacks and Latinos, she noted, are much more likely to lack the required identification and thus would be disproportionately roped out of the voting booth. The Texas law, she concluded, “not only had the effect of discriminating against minorities, but was designed to do so” and constituted a “poll tax”.

Texas Cemetary Remains for “Whites Only”

Just when Red thought we were past the most overt expressions of racism in our fair country, people in Texas prove him wrong.  And sure enough, there comes along a recalcitrant bigot or a whole group of them.    This time its a cemetery association and its operator  who somehow think that white people can still discriminate even in death.  The Texas Tribune reports on the racist goings-on at the San Domingo Cemetery in Normanna.

Dorothy Barrera was married to her late husband, Pedro, for more than 40 years before he died in February. He was Hispanic. She is white. Dorothy expected they would eventually be together again when she was buried beside Pedro in the San Domingo Cemetery in the tiny, rural town of Normanna.

But when she looked to bury his ashes in the cemetery, she allegedly ran into the cemetery’s “whites only” policy — an apparent relic of Jim Crow-era segregation in Texas that’s thrust this small community located an hour northwest of Corpus Christi, into a modern-day desegregation fight.

That’s what is alleged in a federal lawsuit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund against the Normanna Cemetery Association, which oversees the cemetery. The lawsuit alleges the association is violating the federal Civil Rights Act by enforcing a “whites only” rule at the San Domingo Cemetery, leaving Hispanics and other non-whites to be buried in the nearby Del Bosque Cemetery.

According to the lawsuit, cemetery operator Jimmy Bradford told Barrera that her request to bury her husband at the cemetery had been denied by the Normanna Cemetery Association. When Barrera questioned the vote, Bradford allegedly responded Pedro Barrera couldn’t be buried there “because he’s a Mexican” and directed her to “go up the road and bury him with the n—– and Mexicans,” the federal complaint details.

Is the irony that a cemetery named “San Domingo” wants to prohibit Hispanics from being buried within its august confines lost on anyone other than Red?  Well Mr. Jimmy Bradford, if these allegations are true, Red hopes your racist proclivities are proclaimed far and wide throughout the nation and that you are widely exposed as the ignorant bigot that you appear to be.  No doubt this overt racism will be cloaked in the veil of religious freedom.  And no doubt Mr. Bradford and his cohorts will be voting for Donald Trump.

Photo from thescoopblog.dallasnews.com

Ted Cruz Takes the High Road – Through the Garbage Dump

Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) who repeatedly claims that he talks about the issues and does not resort to ad hominem attacks went on a mud-flinging offensive against Donald Trump today in Indiana.  Among other things, the Tea Party Hero called Trump: (1) a pathological liar; (2) a narcissist at a level I don’t think this country’s ever seen; (3) utterly amoral;  (4) a serial philanderer; and (5) a bully.

Red agrees with most of Cruz’s remarks, except that as far as narcissism goes – no one can hold a candle to Cruz.