Texas Loosens Voter ID Requirement

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Texas agreed Wednesday to significantly weaken its voter ID law, which federal courts have said discriminated against minorities and the poor and left more than 600,000 registered voters potentially unable to cast a ballot.

Faced with a direct rebuke from the Fifth Circuit and a complete lack of evidence of in-person voter fraud, Texas has loosened its voter ID requirements for the November election.  Voters without one of the absurd list of seven forms of suitable ID — which includes  concealed handgun permits, but not college IDs —  can now sign an affidavit and vote.  And that vote will be counted.  This provision essentially guts the law.  This is a remarkable failure of the Texas GOP’s attempt to suppress voter turnout – an effort that likely failed anyway.

The state also agreed to $2.5 million on voter outreach before November pursuant to the settlement submitted to U.S. District Judge Nelva Gonzales Ramos, who must still approve the changes.

Red can already hear the outcry from Our Poor Idiot Governor Greg Abbott about how this will allow massive voter fraud at the polls despite the utter lack of any such evidence.  Republicans can take their cue from nominee Donald Trump who is already claiming that  the presidential election will be “rigged” against him. No sir, it is your party who has repeatedly attempted to “rig” elections by enacting numerous state laws designed to suppress voter turnout.

Today in Texas History – August 4

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From the Annals of Mr. Texas –  In 1941, Lt. Gov. Coke Stevenson was sworn in as  Governor of Texas when Pappy O’Daniel resigned to take office as a United States senator. Stevenson’s story is rather remarkable.  He grew up in hard scrabble land of the western Hill Country and had almost no formal education.   He began work in his teens running mule teams that hauled freight between Junction and Brady. He educated himself on the trail studying history and bookkeeping at night.  He worked his way up from janitor to bank cashier and continued to study – this time tackling law under the tutelage of Judge Marvin Blackburn.   He passed the bar exam in 1913 and continued his banking career while practicing law.  Stevenson organized and became president of the First National Bank in Junction and also aspired to politics.  He was elected Kimble County Attorney and County Judge.  He later was elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1928 and became Speaker of the House in a remarkable short five years.  In 1939, he was elected lieutenant governor. After succeeding Daniel he was elected governor on his own in 1942 and served until 1947.  Unfortunately, he may be most famous for his loss to Lyndon Johnson in the   1948 Democratic Primary.  It was a race filled with controversy and scandal and revealed LBJ as a politician who would stop at nothing to win.  The race and Stevenson’s own remarkable rise to power  is brilliantly chronicled in Robert Caro’s Path to Power volume of his series on LBJ.

Today in Texas History – August 2

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From the Annals of Space Objects –  In 1946, the Peña Blanca Spring meteorite plunged into a natural springs swimming pool at the headquarters of the Gage ranch in Brewster County in front of twenty-four witnesses – one of whom saw the meteorite in flight.  The meteorite was approximately 155 lbs and two major fragments were recovered from the pool – one weighing 104 lbs and another at 29 lbs.  The one eyewitness to the fall described the object as “looking like a black bag falling out of the sky.”  Local residents recovered part of the space rock, but the major recovery was done by O.E. Monnig and Harrison Morse of Fort Worth who were meteorite enthusiasts.  Five pieces of the PBS meteorite can be seen at the Monnig Meteorite Gallery at TCU in Fort Worth.

Ken Paxton Butts in Again

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Vexatious litigant and embattled Attorney General Ken Paxton has filed another lawsuit to waste taxpayer dollars and deflect attention from his own considerable legal woes.   Paxton is suing the City of Austin for an alleged violation of the state’s open carry law by banning guns from its city hall, according to the Austin American-Statesman.  Red predicts that Mr. P will fail in his efforts to coerce Austin into complying with his Tea Party and NRA agenda.  The language of the open carry law provides that guns can be prohibited in courts or “offices utilized by the court.”  Austin’s city hall (and many others in Texas) frequently hold various types of court proceedings.  Austin temple of local democracy, for example, hosts a community court for low-level offenders, and the City based its gun ban on that fact. Whether that’s actually a court is an open question. Three weeks ago, Paxton issued a non-binding AG’s opinion claiming there is no court in Austin’s city hall and threatened to sue Austin unless it blinked first.  City officials apparently had little respect for the legal stylings of an indicted AG.  Paxton, ever eager for a spotlight that will cement his Tea Party bona fides has now sued.

Today in Texas History – July 29

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From the Annals of Public Non-Broadcasting  –   In 2010, Baylor University’s KWBU-TV/Waco signed off after 21 years due to budgetary shortfalls. The PBS station went on the air in 1989 as KCTF and in 1994 the license was transferred to Brazos Valley Public Broadcasting Foundation and the station was moved to the Baylor campus.  The Waco community never fully supported the station and lack of local contributions ended its run.  Although Baylor had majority control of the BVPBF, KWBU still technically held a community license. However, the partnership with Baylor led to the perception that it was a “Baylor station,” which further cut into the community support needed to keep the station on the air.  Baylor itself was apparently uninterested in picking up the slack to keep public broadcasting on the air in Waco.  Could the University’s all-consuming focus on its corrupt men’s basketball and football programs have had anything to do with that?

Today in Texas History – July 28

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From the Annals of the Toreros –   In 1908, Harper Lee of Ysleta made his first appearance as a novillero, or apprentice matador, in the Plaza de Guadalajara.   In 1895 Harper’s mother married Samuel M. Lee, a resident of Guadalajara. Harper joined the family there and enrolled in high school in 1899. He called himself Harper Baylor Lee even though he was never legally adopted. His amigos called him El Gringo Harper.  Lee showed early promise in bullfighting games.  He was invited to bull haciendas as was given the opportunity to test young fighting bulls and breeding cows.  He showed exceptional talent with the cape.  Under the tutelage of his friend Francisco Gómez, El Chiclanero, a retired matador from Spain, Lee decided to become a professional torero.  His initial appearance in Guadalajara launched a remarkable career in which he ultimately became the first North American to be acknowledged as a full-fledged matador de toros.  His career was cut short by the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution but he appeared in 52 corridas and  dispatched 100 bulls.  He “cut the pigtail” in the formal ceremony of retirement on December 3, 1911.

Must Kill Turtle Before Turtle Kills Me

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Terry Wayne Washington of Austin has been charged with cruelty to a non-livestock animal and unauthorized taking of wildlife after beating a snapping turtle to death with a claw hammer.  Washington was fishing with a friend in Austin’s Lady Bird Lake when he snagged the 40 pound reptile.  Washington was apparently annoyed that the turtle had been chasing away fish and decided to dispatch it with the tool at hand.  According to witnesses, Washington struck the snapper at least ten times finally crushing its skull.  Washinton would like have escaped trouble but for Geoffrey Frank who was jogging on the hike and bike trail around the lake and caught the last few blows on his cell phone.

After turning himself in, Washington claimed self-defense and that he was protecting himself from the raging reptile – claims which are belied by the video evidence.   Now Red has seen a few snappers in his time and you don’t want to mess with them.  But if you can’t out run a speeding turtle, then maybe you should consider staying at home.

Today in Texas History – July 27

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From the Annals of Voting Rights –   In 1940, Lonnie Smith, an African-American dentist from Houston, was denied a ballot to vote in a Democratic primary because of his race.  The stated rationale was that the parties ran their primary elections and that as a private entity, the Democratic Party of Texas could decide its membership and thus determine who could and could not vote in its primary elections.  Of course, Texas was a one-party state at the time (much like now) and winning the Democratic primary was tantamount to winning office in all but a very few instances.  The ensuing legal battle lasted four years and resulted in a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision – Smith v. Allwright , 321 U.S. 649 (1944) in which Smith was represented by future Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.  The Supreme Court overturned the Texas law that authorized the Democratic Party to set its internal rules which called for whites only primaries.  The court held that it was an unconstitutional violation of the equal protection clause of the  14th Amendment for the state to delegate its authority over elections to the Democratic Party in order to allow discrimination to be practiced. This ruling affected all other states where the party used the white primary rule and was an important step in opening the ballot box to citizens of all races.

Photo of Lonnie Smith

Looking to Lower Your Ethical Standards? Just Follow Ken Paxton’s Lead.

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Embattled but apparently unashamed Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton may have reached a new ethical low in his fight to stave off a criminal conviction.  Paxton  is reported to have accepted a $100,000 gift to help pay for his own criminal defense from the head of a medical-imaging company that his office investigated for Medicaid fraud.

Preferred Imaging founder James Webb gave Paxton at least $100,000 to help cover his mounting criminal defense bills.  Now Red thinks everyone is entitled to a good criminal defense and very few actually get one.  But when you are the state’s top legal official, it is more than a little suspicious when you are taking large amounts of money from someone your office is investigating.

Be prepared for the usual side-stepping and soft shoe from Paxton as he dances around yet another ethical minefield.  Despite the fact that Webb’s company settled a $3.5 million whistleblower lawsuit this month, Paxton is now claiming that federal prosecutors took the lead and that he had no direct involvement. No involvement other than to cash the check, that is.  Of course, Webb expected nothing in return for his largess.  And if you believer that, Red has Republican presidential nominee to sell you.