Tag Archives: George P. Bush

Lieutenant Dan Slams P. Bush

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Image result for alamo plaza redevelopment

“It is evident to me that both the design, planning and execution of the project is badly off track.  . . . Nothing defines the independent and the courageous spirit of Texas more than our iconic Alamo and, like most Texans, I treasure it. The history of the Alamo is a personal passion of mine. I do not intend to sit quietly and see this project fail.

I have seen two architectural renderings so far, including the latest one a few weeks ago, and neither are anything close to what the people of Texas are expecting.  The latest looks like a massive urban park with hundreds of trees – more like Central Park in New York City than Alamo Plaza.”

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick slamming Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush yet again on the ongoing renovation of the Alamo area in downtown San Antonio.

How can Red lose in a fight between these two fearless defenders of our Texas heritage.  Patrick’s surrogates have been promoting the idea that George P. is going to try to honor the Mexican soldiers as well because of his Mexican heritage on his mother’s side.   George P. pushes back that these attacks are tinged with racism.

Red wants to point out a couple of things.  Any battlefield historic site almost anywhere in the world talks about both sides.  How can you tell the story of the Alamo without talking about the Mexican soldiers and their incompetent leadership in Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna?  Second, Patrick clearly sees George P. as a potential rival for the Governorship when and if OPIG Abbott steps down.  Patrick views this as a weak point for Bush and will press and press the issue regardless of the facts.  Third, who can be surprised that any project a Bush takes on has a decent chance of being completely bungled.  Finally, the current plan is infinitely better than the hodgepodge of shameful tourist attractions that now dominate a large part of the historic site.

George P. Bush – Getting Heat from the Right and Left Side

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Texas Land Commissioner and Bush family scion, George P. Bush is taking heat from both sides of the political aisle.  He is, of course, unloved to say the least by any Democrats who still wonder exactly how Uncle George completely flipped the political omelet in Texas with his election as Governor back in 1994 and have never recovered.  But now George P. is taking heat from the ultra-right not only for doing a terrible job as Land Commissioner but for a number of alleged ethical failings.

For an example of just how much he is loathed by the far right, take a gander at the Texian Partisan.   TP has chronicled George P.’s troubles with the Alamo restoration leading up to his planned resignation from the Alamo Trust under a cloud of suspicion, his secretive West Austin mansion held under a trust which GPB failed to disclose in his Texas Ethics Commission filings, and his false claim to be a “retired naval officer.”  Interesting reading.

In the interest of full disclosure, Red has endorsed Jerry Patterson in the upcoming GOP primary.

Texas’ Hottest Primary Contests

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The Texas Tribune’s Ross Ramsey has categorized some of the 215 contested primary elections for statewide office, U.S. Congress and the Statehouse according to his calculation of the heat of the race  See Ramsey’s temperature scale of hottest, hotter and hot contests here.

The one GOP race that has Red excited is the contest to unseat Do-Nothing Land Commissioner and only holding office by virtue of his family name George P. Bush.  The Bush family scion had done nothing to deserve election to statewide office and by all accounts doesn’t really do much on the job other than collect a paycheck on the taxpayer dime.  Red is firmly backing former LC Jerry Patterson who actually wants to do a good job for Texas and protect Texas public lands.  Patterson fought hard for our historically open beaches when the Texas Supreme Court attempted to cut back access with bizarre rulings based on arcane concepts.   Patterson is a little extreme for Red’s taste on the weapons front –  but other than allowing hunting on some public lands (which is sorely lacking in Texas compared to our western neighbors), his views on concealed and open carry laws will not have much impact on the Land Commissioner’s office.

George P.’s endorsement of Donald Trump after Trump totally trashed his father JEB!!!!$$$$? tells you just about everything you need to know about the current LC.  Some might say only a spineless weasel of an ambitious politician would endorse a man who called his dear old Dad “dumb as a rock” – which was actually among his kinder things Trump said about JEB!!!!$$$$?.  Red won’t go that far, but you can.

George P. – Can’t make up his mind on Special Session for Harvey Relief

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Bush family scion – and less importantly Texas Land Commissioner – George P. Bush thought that a special session for the Texas Legislature to appropriate funds from the Rainy Day Fund would be a good idea – at least until he didn’t.

In an interview with the hardly left-wing Bryan-College Station Eagle, GPB was quoted calling for a special session.

“The Legislature needs to take a deep look at the Rainy Day Fund. We need a special session, and the governor needs to call it.”

That was Sunday. It didn’t take long for GPB to change his mind.  “I clearly misspoke” Bush said later this week when pressed on the issue.  Bush’s convictions apparently run about as deep as a stern phone call from the Governor’s office.  Gov. Abbott has resisted any call to use the RDF for Harvey relief despite the projection that the hurricane is a $120 billion disaster. Red doesn’t call him “Our Poor Idiot Governor” for nothing.  In fairness to Abbott, Red hasn’t yet met a Texas Governor undeserving of the title.

Texas’ Very Own Spineless Weasel from the Species bushpolitico spinoabsentata

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George Pee Bush endorsed Donald Trump for President on Monday and urged other to vote for the man who had such nice things to say about dear old Dad JEB!!!!$$$$? (damn it feels good to type that one again!).  Here’s a sample.

“He’s a total stiff, Jeb Bush.”  Red has to disagree here as this seems to imply the presence of a spine – something demonstrably lacking in this species.

“Loser.” Hard to argue with that one in retrospect.

“The last thing we need is another Bush.”  Again, Red has to concede on that one – but shouldn’t George Pee be taking notes for future reference.

“Not a smart man.”  Trump nails it again. Red has it on good authority that JEB!!!!$$$$?’s college roommate referred to him as “the stupidest person I have ever met.”

“Here’s a guy, honestly, if he weren’t in government, you wouldn’t hire him to do anything, okay? If you had a company you wouldn’t even hire him.”  But wouldn’t the lack of hiring prevent the Donald from using his “You’re Fired” tag line. Oh well, sacrifices must be made for the greater cause.

“I don’t have a lot of respect for Jeb. Jeb’s a lightweight.”    Red assumes that “featherweight” is a bit too obscure.

“He’s a sad person who has gone absolutely crazy. I mean, this guy is a nervous wreck.”  Cue the violins.

And finally, the greatest insult of all.

“He’s an embarrassment to his family.”  Considering the considerable competition in the familial embarrassment category available from big brother’s track record of incompetence, Dad’s humiliating loss to Slick Willie and little brother’s shameful business dealings, Red can’t really imagine that anything worse could be said about JEB!!!!$$$$?

So what kind of completely spineless weasel, suck up, sycophant endorses someone who has said these things about his father?

 

 

George P. Bush – Enemy of Democracy

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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.

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.

Why do the Job You Were Elected to do When You Can Feel the Excitement of JEB!!!!$$$$?

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The Houston Chronicle details how Land Commissioner George P. Bush seems to be more interested in helping JEB!!!!$$$$? than in doing his job.  Questions about Bush’s commitment to the job were asked during his campaign – with the assumption that the Bush scion already had his eye on bigger things.

Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush has been out of the state or otherwise off of work nearly half of the time since his father entered the GOP race for president, records show, raising questions about whether the scion is fulfilling his pledge to remain focused on his first elected office.

Personal time – both related to the presidential race and for other reasons – took the commissioner away for the equivalent of 23 of the first 50 work days after father Jeb Bush announced his bid on June 15, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of records obtained under the Public Information Act. The total includes 15 full days off and dozens of smaller chunks of time off on other work days that add up to eight more days.

It is impossible to tell exactly how much of the time off was spent campaigning, because the commissioner’s official calendar does not say what he did in those hours. Social media posts indicate he spent a significant amount of it on the trail, however, speaking at his father’s announcement in Florida, publicly stumping for him in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada, headlining a fundraiser in Texas and attending a campaign staff retreat in Maine.

Another Bush Reads from the Script

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Land Commissioner and Bush family scion George P. is living up to his family legacy of being water boys for powerful corporate interests by leading a push to make it more difficult to add species to the national Endangered Species List.  And in doing so – George P. attacks the most endangered species in Texas – the trial lawyer.  Thanks  largely to Uncle George W.’s demagoguery and kowtowing to the insurance and medical lobby, the rights of Texas citizens to a fair trial have never been in more danger.  So George P. jumps on the bandwagon in paying obeisance to his corporate masters by attacking lawyers and sucking up to the Tea Party base.   The Texas Tribune has the full story.

The son of GOP presidential hopeful and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is leading an alliance of 23 state land commissioners in a charge against the Endangered Species Act, calling for more transparency on how animals are added to the federal endangered list.

In question is a practice known  “sue and settle” under which environmental advocates sue the federal government if it misses deadlines to respond to their petitions seeking to name a new endangered species. To avoid long court trials, agencies such as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service sometimes enter into settlements with the environmental groups filing the petitions. The end result, Bush claims, is species ending up on the list without sufficient scientific basis, and taxpayers end up footing the legal bills of both parties.

“The Endangered Species Act was designed to preserve biodiversity, not enrich trial lawyers and political activists,” Bush said in a statement. “It’s time to prioritize scientific assessments in conservation when dealing with property rights and our national security.”

But environmental groups that file such suits call those accusations unfair. Federal wildlife agencies can enter into settlements because its cheaper than trial and agencies often have to pay legal fees of the winning party if they lose a lawsuit under the Equal Access to Justice Act. This applies to more than just environmental plaintiffs.

Winning a settlement doesn’t guarantee an animal a spot on the endangered list. It only forces the agency to make a decision, which typically doesn’t come for months, or even years, after a settlement is reached, said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. 

“Fish and Wildlife Service sometimes just doesn’t act unless they’re sued,” Greenwald said. “They have to get sued in order to list those species.”

In a resolution brought by Bush and adopted by the Western States Land Commissioners Association, the officials ask Congress to enact legislation requiring federal agencies to report legal expenses on “sue and settle” cases and relax the deadlines leading to such suits.

The settlements lead to “a flood of litigation,” Bush said, and the tactic “lines environmental groups’ pockets by looting the national treasury.”

Okay, George P. – how about ceasing a baseless smear job and coming up with some actual facts?  Since when is filing a legal lawsuit considered a criminal offense – i.e. looting?  Name one trial lawyer who has gotten rich filing these types of lawsuits?  Tell me whose pockets have been lined?  And what they did with the money?  And by the way, who has been lining your campaign pockets?  Would it by any chance be people who have the most to gain from a roll back of protection for endangered species?