Category Archives: Texas News

The Short List of the Accomplishments of Ted Cruz

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Red has put together a short list of the accomplishments of Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) since entering elective office:

  1. Chosen by Senate colleagues as “Most-Hated” in a landslide.
  2. Set new standard for shameless self-promotion.
  3. Shut-down government for a short time and tanked his party’s polling numbers.
  4. Didn’t waste valuable time attempting to pass actual legislation.
  5. Took grandstanding to a new level.
  6. Made record number of speeches to an empty Senate chamber.
  7. Became more convinced that he is World’s Smartest Man.
  8. Put the Tea back in Tea Party.
  9. Boosted sales of ugly black cowboy boots.
  10. Became pen-pals with Justin Trudeau.

Meanwhile, the Jeb!!!!$$$$? “Campaign” plans to highlight the complete lack of accomplishments.  The Texas Tribune has the skinny on Jeb!!!!$$$$?’s latest attempt to take down Ted.

“We feel really good about Texas,” said Jeb Bush campaign manager Danny Diaz, suggesting in an interview late Wednesday that Cruz has little to show Texans after three years in the Senate. “Where’s the accomplishments?” 

“The reality is, we look forward to communicating our record of accomplishment, the most conservative record of accomplishment in the field, versus others, and that includes Sen. Cruz,” Diaz told The Texas Tribune following the third Republican presidential debate here at the University of Colorado Boulder. “Sen. Cruz has not distinguished himself” either by repealing Obamacare or keeping the nation’s debt from exploding. 

“So the reality is, once again, good floor speeches, great PowerPoint, but when it comes time to get things done, where’s the accomplishments?” Diaz asked. “So as we discuss these differences with Texans and others, we’re going to highlight the most accomplished conservative record in the field versus folks in the field that don’t have any really discernible accomplishments.”

Jeb!!!!$$$$? Vents

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Jeb!!!!$$$$? may have blown the last clear chance he had at winning the GOP nomination when he vented in public about his opponents and how he really has much better things to do than be President.  While campaigning in South Carolina last weekend, Jeb!!!!$$$$? revealed the following:

If this election is about how we’re going to fight to get nothing done, then I don’t want any part of it. I don’t want to be elected president to sit around and see gridlock just become so dominant that people literally are in decline in their lives. That is not my motivation. I’ve got a lot of really cool things I could do other than sit around, being miserable, listening to people demonize me and me feeling compelled to demonize them. That is a joke. Elect Trump if you want that.

So Red felt compelled to compile a list of ten “really cool things” that Jeb!!!!$$$$? could do other than be President.

  1. Hold an actual Tea Party – you know with crumpets and cucumber sandwiches and all.
  2. Teach a first grade bilingual education class.
  3. Take a job at the Land Office working for son George P. Bush with out the Bush fils first complying with the Texas requirement that all job openings be publicly posted.
  4. Write that spy novel he’s been kicking around for several years.
  5. Brush up on his Jai Alai game.
  6. Get a personality transplant.
  7. Rhumba with Columba.
  8. Create a line of Ted Cruz, Donald Trump and Ben Carson voodoo dolls.
  9. Challenge Mitt Romney to a boxing match – loser has to endorse Donald Trump.
  10. Go home and never be heard from again.

Cattle Rustlers Still Going Strong in Texas

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Cattle rustling.  Most folks think of and old Western movie and the posse riding after the rustlers to administer some frontier justice –  if they think about it at all.  But it continues to be a problem in Texas today.  And with beef prices soaring, the thieves are active again.  It seems like a hard and dangerous way to lead a life of crime, but some Texas rustlers are making a decent payday with their hauls of purloined meat on the hoof.  The Texas Tribune has more.

Cattle theft, a decades-old problem, continues costing Texas ranchers millions of dollars annually. Although the number of reported rustling cases has dropped in recent years, the value of stolen livestock has risen along with cattle prices driven higher by years of drought.

“It’s been a continuing problem since 1877 when our association was formed,” said Gray, executive director of law enforcement and theft prevention for the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association. With 30 officers commissioned by the Texas Department of Public Safety, the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation or both, the association tracks livestock and property theft in Texas and Oklahoma. Most of the work is in Texas, the nation’s largest cattle producer.

The Sinking Ship that is JEB!!!!$$$$?

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Red never likes to predict the demise of a particular political campaign, but a strong stench of failure is starting to emanate from the halls of the JEB!!!!$$$$? campaign.   First, JEB!!!!$$$$? announces that he is cutting back on staff, taking some campaign workers off of payroll, and cutting spending by almost half.  Then JEB!!!!$$$$? futilely lashes out again at an apparently Teflon-encrusted Trump making himself even more of punching bag for The Donald.  Then he dashes back to Texas to consult with Mom and Dad and big Bubba – the same Mom who said the country had had enough of the Bushes – or words to that effect, and the same big Bubba whose presidency set a new standard for failure that few could aspire to match.  Words of advice – always listen to Mom and ignore big Bubba.  And now the latest polls show that JEB!!!!$$$$? is in 4th place in Florida – his adopted home state where he was actually Governor for two terms – behind Trump, Carson and Rubio.  Apparently the good voters of the Sunshine State know a bad thing when they see one and the JEB!!!!$$$$? campaign cannot be characterized as anything other than incompetent and awful at this point.  But Red remembers 2008 when a battered and bruised John McCain limped into the New Year and then destroyed the competition – before the utter incompetency of the W. Bush administration ended any chance he had to win the general election.  Red doesn’t think JEB!!!!$$$$? has McCain’s fighting chops, but it’s too early to write anyone off that is still polling above a dead man or Rick Perry.

“Texas” Means Crazy in Norway

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Texas has entered the popular vernacular in Norway – but perhaps not in a good way.  Huff Post Weird News reports that Texas is considered so bonkers that it has come to be used as a term for  “crazy” among Norwegian hipsters.

Texas is so nuts it’s become synonymous with “crazy” in Norway, according to a Tumblr thread discussing use of the word first reported on by Texas Monthly.

 

The pub compiled multiple instances of Norwegian speakers using the word online, including a police chief describing a situation concerning reckless foreign truck drivers as, roughly translated, “absolutely Texas” and a story about a fisherman’s uncommon swordfish sighting being, also roughly translated, “totally Texas.”

The Constitutional Amendments

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As loyal readers know, Red is fairly passionate about exercising the right to vote and strongly believes that democracy is the best of the many bad options for selecting leaders.  But then we come to the Texas Constitution, which for vague and somewhat mysterious reasons has to be amended every year to deal with matters that seem – well, somehow less than worthy of constitutional consideration.  To make matters worse, these matters are put to the public based on ballot language that is frequently misleading and certainly uninformative at best.  The ballot language is typically written in such an innocuous manner that voters would authorize a constitutional amendment legalizing the white slave trade.  Red was going to walk you through the mess that are the 7 constitutional amendments up for vote this year, but his good friend Joe Kulhavy at the Texas Election Law Blog has beat him to the punch and done a much better job of it than Red could have managed.  Only Joe could make reading about these matters at least somewhat entertaining, so all Red will do is give you his up or down.

  • Prop. 1 – Throttles back property tax revenue for school districts by adding another $10,000 to the homestead exemption.
    • Red votes No.  Red would use the extra $200 or so to restock the liquor cabinet, but the schools need it more
  • Prop. 2 – Exempts a handful of surviving spouses of disabled vets from homestead taxes
    • Red votes Yes.  No real harm here as this effects a handful of folks.
  • Prop. 3 – Releases statewide elected officials from their historical requirement to reside in Austin, despite the fact that their jobs happen to be located in the capitol.
    • Red votes Yes.  Most of them don’t deserve to live in Austin anyway.
  • Prop. 4 – Would authorize professional sports team charitable foundations to conduct charitable raffles.
    • Red votes No. This just authorizes another way for largely bogus charities to fleece us.
  • Prop. 5 – Would adjust the population cap that prohibits all but the tiniest of counties from using county road crews to build and maintain private roads, so as to ensure that slightly-less tiny counties will be able to use county road crews to build and maintain private roads.
    • Red votes No. Red always thought a private road meant just that – it’s private.  Red can’t imagine a reason to expend  more public funds in this way.
  • Prop. 6 – Would specify that Texans have a fundamental constitutional right to hunt, kill and harvest wildlife and fish, including by “traditional means.”
    • Red votes No.  Totally unnecessary and likely to only result in absurd litigation.
  • Prop. 7 – Would redirect roughly 10% or more of the state’s annual tax revenue exclusively to transportation projects.
    • Red is torn up about this one.  Texas roads are falling apart, but the idea of requiring money to be spent on any particular area troubles him.  Red votes No.

As They Say – Will Rogers Never Met Ted Cruz

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The Texas Tribune reports that former President George W. Bush has little use for Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) and has no reluctance to let that be known.   At a fundraiser JEB!!!!$$$$?, Bush did not hold back about his feelings for the Tea Party firebrand and GOP presidential hopeful.  Bush joins a growing class of GOP stalwarts whose animosity for Cruz is thinly veiled at best.

“I just don’t like the guy,” Bush said at the Denver fundraiser, as reported by Politico. One unnamed donor told the news organization, “I was like, ‘Holy sh-t, did he just say that?’ I remember looking around and seeing that other people were also looking around surprised.”

Another donor told Politico, “He sort of looks at this like Cruz is doing it all for his own personal gain, and that’s juxtaposed against a family that’s been all about public service and doing it for the right reasons. He’s frustrated to have watched Cruz basically hijack the Republican Party of Texas and the Republican Party in Washington.”

Cruz has criticized Bush’s record as president but his stint on Bush’s 2000 presidential campaign figures prominently in the candidate’s political biography.

Cruz gave a statement to Politico that simultaneously called on those happier associations while pushing back against Bush’s assertions. “I have great respect for George W. Bush, and was proud to work on his 2000 campaign and in his administration,” Cruz told Politico. “It’s no surprise that President Bush is supporting his brother and attacking the candidates he believes pose a threat to his campaign. I have no intention of reciprocating. I met my wife Heidi working on his campaign, and so I will always be grateful to him.”

Well, Red and W had to agree on something someday.

Remember the Alamo

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The shameful state of the area surrounding  what is left of the historic Texas shrine has long bothered Red.  Red has always found it unsettling to walk out of the most famous place in all of Texas, gaze across the street and see the Ripley’s Odditorium and a Madame Tussaud’s Wax Museum with a life-size scowling Tom Landry looking back at him.  That may be changing soon, as at long last, a plan to create a more appropriate historic district around the Alamo is in the works.  The designation of the Alamo by UNESCO as a World Heritage site has helped.  Despite deranged Tea Party beliefs that this was the first step towards the UN taking over Texas or some other such nonsense, the designation seems to have finally prompted the State and the City of San Antonio to do more to preserve and protect the hallowed grounds of the mission turned fort.  The Texas Tribune has more.

Surrounded by figures clad in period costumes, including a Davy Crockett look-alike, Texas and San Antonio officials gathered in front of the Alamo on Thursday to formalize a long-awaited agreement to preserve the historic mission and spruce up its appeal to visitors.

Representatives from the Texas General Land Office, the city of San Antonio and the Alamo Endowment Board put pen to paper, signing an agreement to develop a master plan for the Alamo Historic District and Complex. Although similar past efforts have failed, state officials are optimistic that this time the plan will stick.

Notions of drafting a master plan to revamp the Alamo are not new, as Dinnin said the presentation of the Alamo and the surrounding area have long underwhelmed visitors. Previous efforts to revamp the monument and prevent growing downtown San Antonio from completely swallowing it failed to take hold, or stalled due to a lack of funding. 

Dinnin said she is optimistic this plan won’t run into similar roadblocks. While discussions about forming an agreement were in the words before the UNESCO designation, Dinnin said it demonstrated the need for serious work to be done at the historic missions. 

“It’s really obvious physically when you’re here,” she said. “The city has grown up around the Alamo and it’s hard to find…you have to look at little bit harder than we should have to look. It’s right in the middle of the heart of downtown San Antonio and, in one way, that means it has served its purpose – it was put here to establish a city. But at the same time, it’s hard to find and a lot of the pieces and the important history is lost unless you already know what happened here.”

Gene Powell – who serves on the Alamo Endowment Board alongside prominent philanthropists including Red McCombs and Ramona Bass – said he hopes to see the Alamo gain the same notoriety as places like Gettysburg, Pennsylvania or Jamestown, Virginia. Most visitors now, he said, only spend an average of eight minutes at the mission.

“There’s just not that much left of it,” he said.

Hotels, shops and roadways have crept closer over the years, encroaching onto land once part of the original mission property. Last week, the land office announced plans to buy three buildings neighboring the Alamo, but Dinnin said the buildings’ fate will be determined by the master plan. 

Instant Slums or Poor Man’s Paradise?

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Bloomberg looks at recent development of new subdivisions that some are calling “instant slums.”  The affordable lots may have very basic water and sewer service, but other than that its pretty much a free for all.  Red is guessing that deed restrictions don’t come into the picture.  The opportunity to own a small piece of land for a reasonable price is alluring, but nearby towns are concerned about the impact on their communities.

Built on newly cleared timberland, the Colony Ridge development in Plum Grove, which is part of Liberty County, is the largest of the new colonias, which usually cover fewer than 300 lots. People already live there in trailers or under tarps tossed over peeled pine logs or tool sheds. “I haven’t seen anything at this scale anyplace else,” says John Henneberger, an expert in housing laws at Texas Housers, an Austin-based nonprofit that’s tracked new colonias outside Austin, Dallas, and San Antonio.

Plum Grove’s 600 longtime residents, almost all white, oppose Colony Ridge’s building plans. They fear their new neighbors—who could number as many as 30,000 once all the lots are sold—will overwhelm local schools and public services, as well as bring crime into the area. “They’re playing their mariachi music so loud your house is thumping at two in the morning,” says Plum Grove city councilwoman Lee Ann Penton-Walker, who is proposing a municipal tax to pay for a police force to patrol the development.

Texas JP Under Suspicion of Participating in Lottery Fraud

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Fayette County Justice of the Peace Tommy Tipton may soon be at the center of an investigation into Lottery fraud involving his brother Eddie Tipton.  JP Tommy cashed a $568,990 on a Colorado Lotto ticket he purchased in November 2005 – which would not have been a problem except for the fact that brother Eddie was running a cheat the lottery operation.  Eddie Tipton used his position as an official for the Multi-State Lottery Association to install a self deleting computer program to create a winning ticket for himself.  Officials are now wondering if JP Tommy’s winning ticket was on the up and up or was a part of his brother’s scheme. The Austin American Statesman has more.

An audacious, movie-worthy lottery rigging scandal that has rocked Iowa is now spreading into other states — including Texas. The Hot Lotto mess does not involve the state-run Texas Lottery. But officials have begun to look closer at a $570,000 winning multi-state lotto ticket purchased a decade ago by a Central Texas judge.

No charges have been filed against Tommy Tipton, Fayette County Justice of the Peace for Precinct 3, based in Flatonia. Records from the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement show he has held a state peace officer license since 1986, and until two weeks ago worked as a reserve officer for the Flatonia Police Department.

Tommy is also the brother of a former official for the Multi-State Lottery Association named Eddie Tipton, who police say orchestrated a bold plan to rig lotto computers to select the numbers on jackpot tickets he’d purchased. Now, recently filed legal documents raise the question of whether Judge Tipton benefited from his brother’s scheme.

According to local media reports, Eddie Tipton’s scam began unraveling five years ago, when a New York lawyer tried to claim a $14.3 million Iowa jackpot only hours before it was set to expire. The attorney claimed to represent a Belize corporation, however, lotto officials refused to pay it out because state law requires a winning ticket’s purchaser and possessor to be identified. Later, others, including a Houston man who is a close friend of Eddie Tipton’s, also tried to collect on the ticket, which ultimately was never paid out.