Category Archives: Texas News

John Cornyn Must Really Hate this Guy

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) continued his assault on Republican leadership yesterday before a nearly empty Senate chamber.  Cruz seemed desperate to vent on the GOP powers that be as part of his flagging “outsider” campaign for President.  The focus yesterday was the GOP’s failure to defund Planned Parenthood and block the Iran treaty. Cruz was practically frothing and at times, it was very hard to tell who Cruz hates more – Pres. Obama or the GOP leadership.  But that is so often the case with the professional Haters such as Cruz.  In contrast, Red thinks that it is becoming perfectly clear that Sen. John Cornyn and other stalwarts of the GOP in Congress likely hate Cruz with a white hot passion that far exceeds their loathing of Obama.  The Texas Tribune has the full story on Cruz’s latest diatribe.

In an hour-long speech on a nearly empty Senate floor that ended when he could not gain permission to continue, the state’s junior senator and presidential hopeful expanded his usual criticisms of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to include outgoing House Speaker John Boehner. Cruz also lambasted fellow Texas U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, spoke of the recent lunar eclipse and boasted of a puzzling personal role in law enforcement.

“Speaker Boehner faced a conundrum,” Cruz said of Boehner’s abrupt decision to step down. “If he does what he and McConnell promised, which is funding all of Barack Obama’s priorities, he would have lost his job.” 

“And so what did he do?” Cruz asked. “He announced he’s resigning as speaker and resigning as a member of Congress.” 

He also took aim at his colleague from Texas, Majority Whip Cornyn. Dozens of times, he questioned the integrity of “Republican leadership,” a reference that includes Cornyn in his capacity as the second-ranking Senate Republican. 

He specifically called out Cornyn, along with a handful of other senior Republican senators, for voting down a Cruz amendment targeting funding for Planned Parenthood and the Iran nuclear weapons deal via voice vote. 

In contrast, Cruz cast himself and conservative senators and House members who frequently vote with him as the only elected members performing their jobs with the will of the American public in mind.  

The speech lasted until his colleagues refused to extend his allotted time. Along the way, Cruz made several pop culture references — the Sunday night lunar eclipse, the movie “The Terminator” and the novel “Brave New World” — not an altogether unimaginable departure from his marathon 2013 speech two years ago which included a reading of “Green Eggs and Ham.” 

He also claimed the mantle of the badge: 

“I’m an alumnus of the U.S.  Department of Justice,” he said. “I was an associate deputy attorney general. I spent much of my adult life working in law enforcement.” 

Cruz served in that position for six months, according to his online LinkedIn.

Red will sleep more soundly at night now that he knows Chief Assistant Deputy Constable Trainee, Part-time Dog Catcher and Self-Proclaimed Piece Officer Ted Cruz is on the job.  Canada’s loss is our gain. And Red knows how to spell Peace, just in case you were wondering.

Red Can’t Believe he is Blogging About an Impromptu Dance-Off

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USA Today Sports has the skinny on a brawl at a high school football game in Dallas – and this time it did not involve the football teams.  The rival dance teams from Wilmer-Hutchins and James Madison High Schools got a little too excited during an impromptu dance-off after the game and chaos ensued.  Fortunately no one was seriously injured and no arrests were made.  The incident did cause the Dallas ISD to make the following statement.

“Impromptu dance-offs are not part of the approved performance for dance teams and fighting is never acceptable. Disciplinary actions will be taken as appropriate.”

Who knew we needed an “impromptu dance-off” policy?  For his part, Red fully supports not only impromptu but any other form of dance-off.  He does draws the line at impromptu full contact girl fights.

They Wondered Why the Hogs Seemed so Happy

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A substantial marijuana growing operation was discovered by hog hunters searching for the destructive pests in the Cooper Wildlife Management Area north of Dallas.  The crop value may have been as much as $6 million. OutdoorHub blows the lid off this one, weeds through tea details to hash out the essential facts and tries to pot this discovery in perspective.

Officials with Texas Parks and Wildlife announced last week that officers raided a large and sophisticated marijuana growing facility in the remote swamps of northeast Texas. About 80 miles north of Dallas and inside the 14,480-acre Cooper Wildlife Management Area, several hog hunters stumbled into a sprawling marijuana farm that held more than 6,500 mature plants.

Texas officials said that if not for the occasional report from hikers, hunters, and other adventurous outdoorsmen, many of these operations would never be found. Even so, illegal marijuana cultivators have learned to avoid the most popular hunting seasons.

“They would’ve folded up shop by October 1 ahead of archery deer season opening, but obviously didn’t figure in the opening of teal and feral hog hunting season in mid-September,” said Texas game warden Steven Stapleton.

“The destruction to the habitat and the damage these people did to the environment is probably the worst part,” said Texas Game Warden Chris Fried. “They cut mature hardwood trees, including a pin oak that was at least five foot in diameter, and cleared parts of a levee that will take many years to recover. The chemicals they sprayed, insecticides and pesticides that contaminated the soil and eventually run off into the streams will have lasting impacts.”

One Thing the Bushes Know How to Do, Cont.

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The Houston Chronicle reports that Land Commissioner and Bush family scion George P. doesn’t seem very interested in following the law when it comes to hiring for the General Land Office.  Either that, or the latest Texas Bush is more interested in rewarding Bush family friends and sycophants.  The Houston Chronicle reports that Bush has failed to follow Texas law in remaking the agency in the Bush family image.

Less than a year after being elected to lead the oldest state agency in Texas, Land Commissioner George P. Bush has dramatically remade the General Land Office by ousting a majority of its longtime leaders and replacing many of them with people with ties to his campaign and family. 

Eleven of the top 18 officials on the agency’s organizational chart a year ago have been fired, forced out or quit, and more could leave soon under an ongoing overhaul that Bush has described as a “reboot.”

In their place, Bush has given top jobs to two of his law school classmates, two relatives of members of two Bush presidential administrations and at least three others with ties to the family or other political leaders.

In all, Bush has hired at least 29 people who worked on his campaign or have political connections, according to a review of thousands of pages of personnel records. The agency did not advertise any of the openings publicly.

State law requires all agencies considering external candidates for a job to post the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission. Newly elected statewide officials often ignore the requirement for some core positions – Attorney General Ken Paxton and Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller already have been publicly criticized for doing it a handful of times this year – but Bush’s hiring differs because of how far-reaching it has been, with the hires ranging from a temporary transition director to five campaign veterans hired permanently for the new position of “regional outreach coordinator.”

Another Bush ignoring the law is no big deal, but it seems especially blatant in the case of George P.

Chapter 656 of Title 6B of the Texas Government Code prohibits appointments from outside of the agency except in cases of reorganization ordered by the Legislature.

“Any agency, board, bureau, commission, committee, council, court, department, institution, or office in the executive or judicial branch of state government that has an employment opening for which persons from outside the agency will be considered shall list the opening with the Texas Workforce Commission,” the law states.

Workforce Commission spokeswoman Lisa Givens said she did not know who was responsible for enforcing that law. The commission does not check to ensure that jobs are posted, she said.

The Attorney General’s Office referred questions about the law to the Workforce Commission.

Personnel records show that Bush has directed at least 40 external hires between November 2014 and July 2015 but listed only four of those with the Workforce Commission.

One Thing the Bushes Do Know How to Do

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The Bushes clearly know how to reward friends and punish anyone not swearing fealty to all things Bush.  George P. is clearing if not cleaning house at the Land Office and installing friends and Bush family cohorts.  Former Commissioner Jerry Patterson laments the loss of institutional knowledge while others question where this important agency is headed under the latest Bush name.

At least 111 state workers have been fired, retired or have quit the Texas General Land Office — about 17 percent of the agency’s workforce — under the leadership of George P. Bush, whose so-called reboot has drawn criticism from his predecessor, who says the agency is suffering under “a purge.”

Bush’s house-cleaning invokes the conservative belt-tightening mantra that pervades Texas politics, but the size of the exodus and the tenor with which it was announced has raised questions.

This whole idea is all about looking good,” former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, also a Republican, told the Statesman.

Despite recent audits that were critical of “significant weaknesses” in the way the agency managed contracts under Patterson, the former commissioner called Bush’s shake-up “a purge of the best agency in Texas government and a purge of people who have done wonderful things.”

“It’s all about ‘I’m going to show that I can cut the size of government,’” he said. “I think it’s some serious ignorance. You’ve been hired to do a job. They’re all on the street now, and they haven’t got new jobs.”

When he announced the reboot in June, Bush and his No. 2, Anne Idsal, suggested the agency was hampered by entitled workers and other “threats.”

Threats? What threats?  Please tell us.

Take My Megawatts Please

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Slate  reports on the “only in Texas” phenomenon where electric power was actually cheaper than free this week.

In the wee hours of the morning on Sunday, the mighty state of Texas was asleep. The honky-tonks in Austin were shuttered, the air-conditioned office towers  of Houston were powered down, and the wind whistled through the dogwood trees and live oaks on the gracious lawns of Preston Hollow. Out in the desolate flats of West Texas, the same wind was turning hundreds of wind turbines, producing tons of electricity at a time when comparatively little supply was needed.

And then a very strange thing happened: The so-called spot price of electricity in Texas fell toward zero, hit zero, and then went negative for several hours. As the Lone Star State slumbered, power producers were paying the state’s electricity system to take electricity off their hands. At one point, the negative price was $8.52 per megawatt hour.

Impossible, most economists would say. In any market—and especially in a state devoted to the free market, like Texas—makers won’t provide a product or service at a negative cost. Yet this could only have happened in Texas, which (not surprisingly) has carved out its own unique approach to electricity.

Rick Perry Speaks – Cue the Violins

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Off the Kuff details Rick Perry’s attempt to blame his campaign going down in flames, swirling the drain, crashing and burning, taking a 10 foot walk off a 6 foot pier, biting the big one, taking a dirt nap, sleeping with the fishes, kicking the bucket, falling off the table, chucking up a duck farm, eating leaden death, licking on a cyanide pop, jumping with a brick parachute, batting .000, shanking it into the water hazard, booking a cruise on the Titanic and generally setting a new standard for ineptitude and failure on – wait for it – EVERYONE ELSE BUT HIMSELF!

To paraphrase Homer Simpson, “I’ve seen campaigns suck before, but they were the suckiest bunch of sucks who ever sucked.”

Cruz Throws Chief Justice Roberts Under the Bus

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Sen. Ted Cruz (TP-Texas) has turned from an enthusiastic supporter of Chief Justice John Roberts to a Monday morning quarterback who now attacks Roberts at every turn.  Cruz, who failed to score any points in Tuesday’s GOP debate, was put on his heels when asked about his past support of Roberts.  Cruz is now making judicial appointments a prime focus of his campaign by arguing that he will put only right wing radical conservatives on the bench.  Red has no doubt that Cruz has a long list of potential judicial Neanderthals in his pocket who are chomping at the bit for the chance to serve their corporate masters and pay obeisance to their insurance company overlords by further cutting back on the rights of ordinary Americans.  The Texas Tribune can fill you in on Cruz’s plan to make judicial appointments a centerpoint of his campaign.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz is finding a new pressure point in his proxy war with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: the decision by Bush’s brother to nominate John Roberts, a growing target of conservative scorn, to the U.S. Supreme Court. 

Cruz’s offensive, however, is shining more and more light on his own past support for Roberts, an issue that flared up during the second 2016 Republican presidential debate Wednesday in California. 

Asked by a moderator whether it was a mistake for George W. Bush to name Roberts to the high court — as Cruz had suggested — Jeb Bush noted that Cruz was a “strong supporter” of Roberts at the time, and indicated Cruz was trying to “rewrite history” with his recent criticism of Roberts. In a 2005 op-ed for the National Review, Cruz, then the solicitor general of Texas, offered a vigorous defense of Roberts, urging the U.S. Senate to “confirm him swiftly.”

Confronted with that position Wednesday, Cruz ultimately made explicit what he has been hinting at over the past few months, especially in the wake of the most recent ruling from the high court salvaging President Barack Obama’s signature health care law. “It is true that after George W. Bush nominated John Roberts, I supported his nomination,” Cruz said. “That was a mistake and I regret that.” 

Yet Cruz’s admission speaks to a broader conversation he is hoping to have with his GOP opponents as conservative outrage at the high court metastasizes, particularly following its June decision that legalized gay marriage across the country. Cruz’s question to primary voters boils down to this: Which candidate do you most trust to appoint truly conservative judges?

Feel the Excitement of JEB!!!!$$$$?

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JEB!!!!$$$$? held his first post debate rally at a rec center in Las Vegas on Thursday.  The response was, shall Red say, underwhelming.  Right now it seems JEB!!!!$$$$? couldn’t draw a crowd of alcoholics to an open bar. The Washington Post has the skinny on JEB!!!!$$$$?’s flagging campaign.

Jeb Bush’s first post-debate political rally started a few minutes early, in a rec center room built for 200 but only half-full. He started with an in-joke, about a candidate who would not be named and whose rallies were at least a basketball stadium larger.

“I hope that I am so brilliant and so eloquent and so high-energy that you feel compelled to caucus for me,” Bush said as chairs were put down to fill out space. After delivering some of his stump speech, he asked if anyone had seen the debate. “It was crazy, different,” he said, before returning to the subjects of 4 percent economic growth, his “heart to serve” and the unaffordable spending plans of Democrats.

The Las Vegas rally demonstrated how far Bush still has to go. Several attendees, when asked about the debate, talked not about Bush’s performance but about Fiorina’s brutally effective comebacks against Trump. But all were at least satisfied by Bush’s new energy.

Vic Sotelo, who once worked on George H.W. Bush’s security detail, arrived early at the rec center with his wife, Pat. Both were happy to hear the candidate defend his family. Both also understood why their fellow Republicans were rebelling.

“People are excited about Trump and Carson and Carly because they don’t have that politician filter,” said Pat Sotelo. “But you need that filter if you want to govern. Jeb’s always polite. A lot of people take that politeness for weakness. I don’t.”

“All those issues that Trump is talking about are serious issues that everyone is thinking about,” said Vic Sotelo. “I think if Jeb addresses those Trump issues with the politeness and the charisma that he already has, he’ll do even better.”

Bush spent less time talking from the rec center’s stage than he spent signing autographs, posing for photos and chatting with potential voters. As he headed for the exit, he took only a few questions, about where he’d go next and why more people didn’t show up for the rally.

“Three o’clock in the afternoon,” mused Bush.

At least JEB!!!!$$$$? has erased any doubts about his ability to tell time.