Tag Archives: Tea Party

Dan Patrick Knew About Secret Tea Party Taping of Legislators

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The Texas Tribune reports that the Texas Rangers will be investigating the American Phoenix Foundation’s practice of secretly taping Texas Legislators.  The right-wing group has apparently been taping the lawmakers to find out if they are conservative enough and ostensibly to use the videos to support campaigns of Tea Party primary opponents for incumbent Republicans.

But the real news is that Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick knew about the surreptitious videos and simply chose to not tell anybody about it.

A senior staffer for Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick was told by DPS about the secret tapings but senators were not told of it at the time “because no senators were believed to have been targeted by the group.” One senator, Houston Democrat Rodney Ellis, said Monday, “I would have preferred to have known if it was a possibility.”

In the words of Al Czervik, “Now I know why tigers eat their young.”

ISIS Crisis in Texas, Cont. – Sort of

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Virginia Congressman and Tea Party Wannabe Rep. David Brat is claiming that ISIS has set up shop in Texas and that the worst is yet to come.  According to the Houston Chronicle, Brat has been speculating about goings on in the Lone Star State.

U.S. Rep. David Brat (R-Virginia) told conservative talk radio host Rusty Humphries that a Middle Eastern militia had already raised its black flag in the Lone Star State.

“In our country it looks like we have an ISIS center in Texas now, that’s been reported last week,” he said. “You can’t make up what a terrible problem this is.”

OMG, get your guns and run for the hills.  Life as we know it is over.  But make sure our law enforcement officials know what is going on before we get the hell out of Dallas.

Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Tom Vinger said, “There is absolutely nothing to substantiate such a claim.”

Well apparently you can make it up.

Make Marijuana Legal?

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The House Criminal Jurisprudence Committee has passed HB 2165 which would completely decriminalize marijuana. Three Democrats and two Republicans voted to support the bill and it passed 5-2. The bill is championed by Rep. David Simpson (TP- Longview) who has argued that marijuana comes from God and therefore shouldn’t be banned by government.  Simpson, a Tea Party mainstay champions what he calls the “Christian case” for legalization.

Simpson’s bill is now eligible for consideration on the House floor before the legislative session ends June 1, but many view that as a remote possibility. Advocates for reform of marijuana laws viewed the committee vote as “unprecedented progress” for Texas marijuana rights. The bill would have strong popular support. According to a Texas Research Institute Public Policy Polling in September of 2013 almost 60% of Texas voters support legalizing and regulating marijuana similar to alcohol. That number has surely risen in the last two years as four states (Colorado, Washington, Alaska and Oregon) have completely decriminalized cannabis.

It’s Pretty Bad when Rick Perry is the Sanest Guy in the Room

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Rick Perry is suggesting that we maybe should actually trust our military to run training exercises in Texas and that Gov. Greg Abbott has gone too far in pandering to the Tea Party Wingnuts. The Dallas Morning News has more.

Former Gov. Rick Perry suggested Tuesday that successor Greg Abbott went too far last week in raising questions about U.S. military exercises in Texas.

“It’s OK to question your government. I do it on a regular basis. But the military is something else,” said Perry, an Air Force veteran, as he prepared to speak to the World Affairs Council of Dallas/Fort Worth. “Our military is quite trustworthy. The civilian leadership, you can always question that, but not the men and women in uniform.”

Red doesn’t miss Rick yet, but he is sure headed in that direction.

Wow, Ted Was Right! They Really are Out to Get You – If You Don’t Tow the Tea Party Line

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The Houston Chronicle reports that the Austin-based nonprofit the American Phoenix Foundation  has been secretly filming Texas Republicans to later expose them as not conservative enough.  John Beria, spokesman for the foundation, said that the group has had 16 staffers working on the project who have filmed more than 800 hours of covert footage of GOP lawmakers.

The undercover video campaign represents a new front by conservative groups to target incumbent Republicans and tilt the Texas Legislature further to the right. Several House Republican lawmakers already have expressed concerns with some of the group’s tactics, saying they aggressively were approached last week – inside and outside the Capitol – by men who used hidden cameras to secretly videotape a series of encounters that has raised alarms for Capitol security.

Lawmakers said cameras were disguised as lapel pins or hidden in a briefcase, and some characterized the incidents as harassment because the men repeatedly pursued legislators through the hallways of the Capitol and off Capitol grounds. One lawmaker was approached while eating dinner with his wife at a Tex-Mex restaurant in downtown Austin.

“It’s like they were almost stalking us,” said Rep. Patricia Harless, R-Spring, who navigated a detour through the Capitol with another female lawmaker last Friday to avoid the group.

Beria confirmed the “visionary” behind the program to collect secret footage of state lawmakers is Joseph Basel, the CEO of C3 Strategies, an Austin-based consulting firm that worked on the campaigns of state Sens. Don Huffines, R-Dallas, Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham, and Konni Burton, R-Fort Worth. Basel said none of the taping was done through C3, and that his consulting clients were not involved in any way.

In 2010, a federal judge sentenced Basel and fellow activist James O’Keefe to probation and community service after they pleaded guilty to entering the New Orleans offices of then-U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu under false pretenses.

O’Keefe was the mastermind behind the 2009 secret taping at the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. During the exchange, ACORN staffers appeared to offer O’Keefe and Hannah Basel – masquerading as a pimp and prostitute – advice on tax evasion.

Both Basels helped found the American Phoenix Foundation.

“It’s a sleazy campaign tactic,” state Rep. Charlie Geren, a Fort Worth Republican who was approached three times last week, said of the secret videotaping. “There’s some real scumbags in this business.”

Harless, the lawmaker from Spring, said she initially was approached last week by a man in an elevator after leaving a committee hearing. As the elevator doors opened, she said he peppered her with a series of questions and then zoomed away.

Harless said a Department of Public Safety trooper who observed the exchange told Harless that a badge shaped like the state of Texas on the man’s lapel actually was a camera.

Red is more than happy to watch the Right-Wing eat its own, but he draws the line at using a Texas shaped lapel pin to house a hidden camera.

The Latest Episode of Walker, Texas Moron

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Chuck Norris of Walker, Texas Ranger fame, has weighed in on the Jade Helm 15 “controversy.”  Chuck speaks, Red translates:

Concerned Texans and Americans (Tea Party Wingnuts) are in no way calling into question our brave and courageous men and women in uniform (except to claim that they are coming to round us up and take our guns away). They are merely following orders (of the Muslim Kenyan Terrorist Sympathizer). What’s under question are those who are pulling the strings at the top of Jade Helm 15 back in Washington (that Muslim Kenyan Terrorist Sympathizer again). The U.S. government says, “It’s just a training exercise.” But I’m not sure the term “just” has any reference to reality when the government uses it. (Even Red “just” can’t figure out what the Texas Moron is “just” trying to say here).

“Well, I’m not trusting what we’re being told,” said Mike Hightower, an affable antique store owner and real-estate agent (and possible part-time conspiracy theorist) in the very small town of Smithville, Texas, (does it still bill itself as the “Heart of the Megapolis?”) where some Jade Helm 15 (Red preferred the noir classic Jade Helm 2) exercises will take place. He added, “I think there’s something a little more involved than what they’re telling us.” (okay, confirmed conspiracy theorist).

If Washington (you know who) wants to cool the embers of controversy (that we made up out of whole cloth), then it should quit stoking the fire (doing its job protecting our country), as with the posting of a map of Jade Helm 15 “just” exercises that label some areas of the country, including Texas, as “hostile,” according to KHOU 11 News in Houston and verified by the Washington Post (OMG are you really that f%#king stupid?).

I have an idea (now let’s be careful here): If the government insists on running expanded military ops (they’re really coming to take our women and children and most importantly guns) across seven Southwest states, why doesn’t it move all that “military training” south and protect our borders (keep them pesky brown skins out) at the same time?! (Red has never seen a question mark and an exclamation point used simultaneously, so this must really be important – or not!?. So there.)

Whatever Jade Helm 15 actually is (women, children, guns, etc again), I think it is more than coincidental that the FBI director just confessed in February that the presence of ISIS can be felt in all 50 states of the U.S. and that the Pentagon (Remember, I support our support our brave men and women in the military unless they happen to be in command) is suddenly running its biggest military training exercise (oops! I slipped up here and actually correctly identified Jade Helm 15 as a military training exercise – please forgive me) with every branch of the military across seven Southwestern states (rather than, for example, Kenya). Whether deterrence, display of power or something more covert or devious (okay, I’m back on track – women, children, guns, etc.), let’s not come with any patronizing nonsense of impotence and simplicity (okay, he lost Red again) when its origin is in Washington (you know, perhaps we could overlook that Muslim Kenyan Terror Sympathizer thing – if he weren’t also a gall-danged Democrat!).

I’m glad Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is asking the tough questions of the Pentagon about Jade Helm 15, (Like – why are you coming to round us up and take away our women, children and guns?) particularly because its “exercises” (it must be a lie if I put it in quotes) come too near to my ranch’s backdoor as well (Ah, now we’re getting somewhere), at least according to the map. It’s pretty sad and bad (and plaid and mad and rad) when major military ops (getting army jargon talk on us) are ordered in a large, fiery (really, we’re actually on fire most of the time in the  Lone Star state) state like Texas and not even the governor or its senators know the specifics (other than the complete briefing they got from the Military who of course cannot be trusted).

It’s like shooting fish in a barrel. Really big fish in a tiny barrel. You can thank Red later.

So Much for Local Control

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The Texas Tea Party likes to shout local control and government overreach from the rooftops when it fears the federal government stepping on Texans’ toes.  But when it comes to serving the interests of big oil, the Tea Partisans cannot fall over themselves fast enough to do its bidding.  This time it comes in the form of a bill passed by the Senate and House which will prevent Texas municipalities from banning fracking within their city limits.  But the bill, which emerged as a response to a hydraulic fracking ban passed by Denton voters in November, goes well beyond just fracking and leaves municipalities powerless to regulate any oil and gas practices that do not involve surface operations.

The bill emerged as legislative backlash to a hydraulic fracturing ban passed by Denton voters in November.  The legislation also prevents cities from passing ordinances addressing underground activity, including disposal wells, which have been linked to earthquakes, and pre-empt any ordinance deemed not “commercially reasonable.”

Now Red appreciates the need for uniform rules on drilling practices, but the hypocrisy of the Tea Partisans is just plain shocking.  They insist that the federal government cannot dictate to Texas – but then have Texas turn around and dictate to local government.

When Did the Right Wing Come to Hate the Military?

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Digby of Salon wonders how the Tea Party came to hate the military so much.  It is a stark contrast from the traditional right-wing support of an ever-expanding military.  Remember when it was unpatriotic to oppose continual increases in defense spending or to question whether the U.S. should be sending troops to fight overseas.  These folks couldn’t fall over themselves fast enough to support W. Bush’s foolish wars and the creation of a big brother surveillance state, and call out anyone who opposed that as practically a traitor.  “You’re either for us or against us.”  Ask yourself, what has changed?

You have probably heard these lyrics at least a thousand times at televised Republican rallies:

 And I’m proud to be an American
Where at least I know I’m free
And I won’t forget the men who died
Who gave that right to me

Those of course are the words to “God Bless the USA” by Lee Greenwood, a song that could almost be described as the conservative national anthem. It perfectly expresses the patriotism of the Real American, the man and woman who love their country without reservation, the ones who boldly invite dissenters to “love it or leave it” and attack anyone who would dare besmirch the red, white and blue. These colors don’t run, hippie…

But something has changed. In fact, it appears that the right wing in this country has become downright hostile to the one government institution they heretofore had defended with every fiber of their being: the military. This week, members of the conservative fringe, having apparently become convinced that the army is holding a large training exercise in the American southwest in order to prepare the ground for a federal government takeover of Texas, are themselves metaphorically spitting in the face of U.S. soldiers:

“It’s the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany: You get the people used to the troops on the street, the appearance of uniformed troops and the militarization of the police,” Bastrop resident Bob Wells told the Statesman after the meeting. “They’re gathering intelligence. That’s what they’re doing. And they’re moving logistics in place for martial law. That’s my feeling. Now, I could be wrong. I hope I am wrong. I hope I’m a ‘conspiracy theorist.’”

Greg Abbott must be wondering how to quell the shit storm of adverse media coverage he has created by kowtowing to lunatics such as these.

The Tea Party Believes in Freedom – Unless You’re Gay – Then Not So Much

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The Texas Tribune reports that a House committee has approved a bill to further restrict gay marriage – even though it is already illegal in Texas.  The Tea Party bulldozer continues sweep aside any chance that Texas will treat all of its citizens fairly.

Texas House committee on Wednesday passed a bill that seeks to prohibit same-sex marriages, even though the state already bans such unions. 

The measure is one of several proposals at the Texas Capitol targeting same-sex marriage and the first one that has cleared a legislative committee this session, according to the Texas Freedom Network, which describes itself as fighting initiatives backed by the state’s religious right.

The State Affairs Committee passed House Bill 4105, which would forbid the use of state or local funds for issuing same-sex marriage licenses. The 7-3 vote was along party lines, with only Republicans supporting the measure. The proposal now heads to a committee that schedules legislation for debate by the full House.

“The intent is to assert the sovereign rights of Texas and of the citizens of Texas,” said Rep. Cecil Bell [TP-Magnolia], the bill’s author. “I believe it is a bipartisan issue — our social rights and our traditional values.”

You sir, are a bigot.