Really, voters? Really? Are we going to continue to re-elect crooks, liars, cowards and snake oil dealers to our top state offices? Are we really going to turn a blind eye to Rick Perry's unlawful bullying and his reckless irresponsible management of state funds to the point he can run as a viable Republican Presidential candidate in the 2016 primary?
Are we sick of this mad nonsense yet?
It is like this. Our Governor has been indicted for a crime. For the abuse of power. Rick Perry said he did nothing wrong (does anyone remember Tom Delay?) but a grand jury disagrees. Rick Perry called his indictment a political witch hunt. Except the prosecutor is a G.W. Bush Republican appointee. Not all jurors were Democrats. Some of them don't even vote.
Bribery is bribery, Gov. And you, dude, are not above the law. Prosecutor says Perry makes mockery of justice system.
"I don't think there's any reason why Mr. Perry should be treated any differently from any other citizen who's required to be in court," special prosecutor Michael McCrum said of a request by Perry's lawyers that he be allowed to skip a pretrial hearing.
"He's asking for special favors, and as far as I'm concerned, he's not entitled to it," McCrum, a San Antonio lawyer, said in an interview.
Besides looking askance at Perry's courthouse booking rally, McCrum referred to him "smirking."
"I've never seen a defendant make such a mockery of our system of justice," he said.
Power corrupts.
The arrogant lawless one who wants to run for POTUS might be a crook in more ways than one. For it seems that a fund Rick Perry controls, the Texas Enterprise Fund, has doled out millions of dollars to firms and universities that didn't apply for TEF grants.
AUSTIN – The first independent audit of the Texas Enterprise Fund shows that the governor’s job-creating fund awarded $222 million — almost half the money granted — to entities that never submitted applications or specific promises to create jobs.
The 98-page report by the state auditor, released to lawmakers Thursday, paints a picture of a $500 million fund that, at least in its early years, gave away taxpayer money without a set evaluation process or a consistent criteria.
Early grants were awarded to companies or universities without their submitting formal applications, and some large projects were never required to create a single job — although that is the legislative mandate by which the fund was started.
Numerous contracts showed inconsistent requirements, weak compliance monitoring and led the auditor to state that it cannot verify many of the jobs or investments that were credited to the program.
It seems to me that the Texas Enterprise Fund became a cash cow for Rick Perry as a means to reward his donor cronies. Pay to play politics at the expense of Texas taxpayers. Way to go Rick. But this lack of transparency and abuse of taxpayer funded projects seems to be business as usual among Rick Perry and his donor cronies. After all, look at what they did to the taxpayer funded Cancer Institute
CPRIT.
Critics have complained that the Texas Enterprise Fund was a loosely controlled treasure trove for Perry to dole out state money to favored projects. The audit did little to dispel that.
Had not Democratic gubernatorial candidate
Wendy Davis authored the bill requiring the audit of the TEF, this siphoning off taxpayer funds with no oversight would have continued. There is a reason why the Texas GOP favors small government. There aren't enough cops on the beat to keep up with the crooks.
It should be obvious to all why Texas needs Wendy Davis as its next Governor.
Alas, Rick Perry is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to charlatans, cowards and silver forked tongue snake oil dealers. Check out Wendy Davis's opponent Greg Abbott.
Cross posted on Texas Kaos.
Greg Abbott. Republican candidate for Governor.
Greg Abbott, Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate has many shortcomings. For starters he is not a worthy judge of character. For anyone who appoints an admitted child molester as a campaign surrogate lacks a moral back bone, to say the least. After an outraged public recoiled from Ted Nugent's unsavory background Greg Abbott has been trying to worm his way as far from him as possible. But some of us cannot put the sleazy and reprehensible decision out of our minds.
Greg Abbott's thinly veiled racist obsession with filing lawsuits, many of which are so frivolous that he routinely loses them, against the federal government, has squandered millions of dollars from the state treasury.
His voter ID law is one of the most stringent in the U.S.. A federal court ruled it discriminatory but of course Greg Abbott will appeal. The law has made it very difficult for certain folks to vote. This includes the elderly, college students and the poor.
For years, while emptying yet more millions from the state treasury, Greg Abbott investigated "an epidemic" of voter fraud in Texas that does not exist. Voter Fraud? What Voter Fraud?
Apparently there is plenty of money for witch hunts and fake investigations but there is no money for schools, health care for the economically disadvantaged, roads and infrastructure projects.
But the deafening sirens that are howling in our psyches with regard to Greg Abbott's character have everything to do with neglect, the dereliction of duty and lies about his role in the Texas school finance system.
When a state judge ruled the current school funding system unconstitutional Greg Abbott immediately filed an appeal.
When asked why he didn't accept the judge's ruling during a debate with Wendy Davis, Greg Abbott insulted Texas voters by telling a tall tale about a law that made him do it. Except that Attorney General Abbott had another option.
Like most Texas Republicans Greg Abbott has an axe to grind with the public school system in Texas. Most Republicans would like to privatize K-12 schools and convert them into charter schools. These schools would likely become profit centers for the main players in which there would be no oversight of how the funds are spent. Worse, there would be little, if any, accountability or oversight of the quality of education offered at these schools.
Let us not forget, either, as the state's Attorney General, Greg Abbott failed to exercise oversight of both CPRIT and the TEF. I guess he was too busy suing President Obama and spending endless hours trying to figure out ways in which to keep certain folks from voting.
Greg Abbott is the last person Texas needs as its Governor. He would be nothing more than an extension of Rick Perry. Greg Abbott would continue with his and Rick Perry's blatant low regard and disrespect for ordinary citizens. Inside deals, pay to play politics and crony capitalism would continue, unchecked.
Corporations and businesses like payday loan sharks will continue to receive protections while consumers lose them, one by one. The loan sharks will carry on with their practice to abuse and break struggling families who live paycheck to paycheck. Not to mention a totally craven move to support chemical plant secrecy because a member of the Koch family donated to Greg Abbott. Texas residents near chemical plants will no doubt face more tragic explosions like the one in West.
Breaking, Sept. 27, 11:00 a.m. CDT
"Dallas Morning News investigation reveals that when Texas law required Greg Abbott to recover misspent funds, he recovered much of it straight into his campaign accounts."
http://www.dallasnews.com/...
Shocking. Not. Typical GOP.
No. This is not Comedy Central or the Twlight Zone for that matter. Welcome to right wing pro business, anti-consumer Republican Texas where few of us vote.
Next up, a crook for Attorney General.
Ken Paxton, Republican candidate for Attorney General.
As bad as Greg Abbott's record is when it comes to protecting and supporting Texas constituents, i.e. throwing us all under the bus, the guy who wants to replace him as Attorney General is very likely an outright crook.
Republican candidate Ken Paxton will very likely be charged with fraud and he seems totally clueless about Texas law. Ken Paxton, a potential fraudster, would be more tainted than the self-serving, anti-government Greg Abbott.
Texas voters would do ourselves a favor by voting for an Attorney General that will work on our behalves, for a change. Democrat Sam Houston.
Living in a low voting state can have dire consequences.
Dan Patrick, Tea Party Republican for Lt. Gov.
Moving along to the state's most dangerous, polished and silver forked tongue snake oil dealer, the Republican candidate for the state's most powerful position happens to be a tea party extremist, sexist and xenophobe who has the gift of speaking out of all sides of his mouth. Dan Patrick's rhetoric has been so very alarming and offensive that an editorial in the Houston Chronicle recently spanked him very hard.
I wrote a piece exclusively about Dan Patrick last week in order to inform readers how really dangerous he would be for the future of our state. How are we going to stop Dan Patrick? Easily. Vote for Leticia.
This morning an opinion writer for the Houston Chronicle pulled back the curtain on Dan Patrick's double talking plans for education.
If you're poor and you're black and you're brown, and you're taking the bus to work, you can't move to the suburbs," he said, speaking to a decidedly vanilla-hued Houston Realty Business Coalition crowd. Patrick questioned why inner-city families and single moms "have less of an opportunity to send their child to school than you do? And I will fight for that."
This is the same state senator who said in May, the night he won the Republican primary run-off, that he'd start introducing himself to black and brown people - the next morning - and then proceeded to hang out with tea-partiers all summer.
This is the same state senator who voted for deep cuts to the Texas public schools - once, in 2011, when he voted to cut $5.4 billion, and then again in 2013 when he voted against a budget that restored some of those cuts.
This is the same state senator who has been using poor people like a warm, fuzzy curtain for years to shroud his real motives as the not-so-great-but-potentially-very powerful Oz of the senate education committee.
Pulling back the curtain.
Patrick wants private school vouchers. And if he defeats his Democratic rival, state Sen. Leticia Van De Putte, for the state's most powerful post, he will likely get them.
Now, he may not say the V-word. He may even gussy up the ugly, unpopular idea by calling it an "opportunity scholarship" funded by generous businesses. But those generous businesses will get tax breaks that will have to be paid for somehow. I'll bet you can guess how.
Vouchers are a sham.
They siphon your money and mine away from an already impoverished public school system and hand it over to private institutions that aren't accountable or transparent. They don't have to answer to you, the taxpayer. They don't have to answer to parents.
And as far as choice goes, the private schools are the only ones with choice in this voucher scheme, with the exception of the legislators who write the laws.
Private schools can choose to reject any applicant they want. That includes students with learning challenges such as special needs, limited English or behavioral issues. Private schools can also kick out students who don't meet academic expectations.
The idea that private schools are inherently better than public schools is also flawed. A paper released in 2013 by the non-profit group Raise Your Hand Texas debunking many of the voucher myths pointed out that studies show the few students served by vouchers don't perform any better than students in public schools.
The reporter concludes that vouchers would not do a lick of good for poor folks.
snip. Vouchers are not a full scholarship.
The best schools cost thousands, some, even tens of thousands more than a state-approved voucher program would provide. Even in mid-level private schools, parents are left to make up the gap, in addition to books, uniforms and activity expenses.
Where do vouchers leave poor families? Maybe in the same place they started - with few options.
Disrespect. Lies. Deceit.
The Snake Oil Wizard of TX recently boasted that he fought to restore school funding twice. Except that he voted against such restoration. Twice. His opponent Democrat Leticia Van de Putte gave him hell over this. I suspect Leticia Van de Putte will kick Dan Patricks' butt across the stage during the debate on Sept. 29. Dan Patrick, by the way, tried to chicken out and had to be shamed into agreeing to one debate. Let's see if he shows up.
Dan Patrick also said there is invasion of immigrants at the Texas border. Except that there isn't.
Stoking fear. Hate. Disrespect.
Fear and hate vs. the past, the future, determination and hope.
The choice should be obvious Texas. Get out there and vote for a change.
The deadline to register to vote is October 6.
Early Voting: October 20-31.
Election day: November 4.
For detailed information on the candidates and the issues on the ballot please consult the
Women's League of Voters.