TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalGOP insider's email: political ambitions got in way of Dallas' 2016 bid
In the end, what really sank Dallas’ much-ballyhooed bid to host the next GOP presidential convention may have been the political ambitions of two Ohioans.
Rather than timing, fundraising or other logistics, that’s the intriguing — if gossipy — angle that emerges in private emails lamenting Cleveland’s win in getting the 2016 event.
Ray Washburne, a Dallas businessman and the GOP’s national finance chairman, floated that notion in a July email to local organizers. Washburne, well-versed in the party’s internal machinations, said Dallas’ loss came down to maneuverings by top Ohio Republicans, Gov. John Kasich and U.S. Sen. Rob Portman.
“Senator Portman and Governor Kasich, who both would like to run for president, put a lot of pressure on the committee,” wrote Washburne, referring to the 13-member selection panel. “At the end of the day, it was all business, which is political business.”
Read more: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/politics/headlines/20140907-gop-insider-s-email-political-ambitions-got-in-way-of-dallas-2016-bid.ece
Lost opportunity: With wars winding down, VA’s brain research failed to launch
On the morning of July 1, 2008, Department of Veterans Affairs officials gathered to unveil a state-of-the-art brain scanner they predicted would help revolutionize the understanding of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans.
The timing, and location, seemed perfect. One of the first studies would scan nearby Fort Hood soldiers before and after they deployed to war in Iraq or Afghanistan — a unique opportunity to study physical changes in soldiers’ brains due to combat.
Six years later, the $3.6 million machine sits unused in an out-of-the way corner at the Olin E. Teague Veterans Medical Center in Temple.
Not a single study based on the machine’s scans has been published.
Not a single veteran has received improved treatment because of advances ushered in by the scanner.
Read more: http://projects.statesman.com/news/va-center-of-excellence/ (Austin American-Statesman)
Cross-posted in the General Discussion forum.
Lost opportunity: With wars winding down, VA’s brain research failed to launch
On the morning of July 1, 2008, Department of Veterans Affairs officials gathered to unveil a state-of-the-art brain scanner they predicted would help revolutionize the understanding of traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder in combat veterans.
The timing, and location, seemed perfect. One of the first studies would scan nearby Fort Hood soldiers before and after they deployed to war in Iraq or Afghanistan — a unique opportunity to study physical changes in soldiers’ brains due to combat.
Six years later, the $3.6 million machine sits unused in an out-of-the way corner at the Olin E. Teague Veterans Medical Center in Temple.
Not a single study based on the machine’s scans has been published.
Not a single veteran has received improved treatment because of advances ushered in by the scanner.
Read more: http://projects.statesman.com/news/va-center-of-excellence/ (Austin American-Statesman)
Cross-posted in the Texas Group.
UT-Dallas Students: We Were Excluded From Abbott Event
When Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott unveiled his higher education plan on the University of Texas at Dallas campus Tuesday, students were not invited to watch, according to the president of the university's student government.
The student government had reached out to the campaigns of Abbott and Democrat Wendy Davis, inviting each of the gubernatorial candidates to speak to students this month at a large lecture hall, said Brooke Knudtson, the student government's president. Davis' campaign did not respond, and Abbott's campaign declined the offer, saying the candidate would be too busy to visit the campus, Knudtson said.
But Abbott did visit, and the student government wasn't notified, Knudtson said.
“We have around 20,000 students that are potentially voters,” Knudtson said. “We wanted to get both [Abbott and Davis] to come so that their young constituents could hear from them.”
Read more: http://www.texastribune.org/2014/09/05/abbott-shuts-out-students-higher-education-speech/
[font color=green]This has become standard operating procedure for the Abbott campaign. Earlier in the year Abbott made appearances at high schools around the state touting his education program; however, none of the events were open to the public. Abbott will be a photo-op governor if he is elected in November.
Vote for Wendy Davis! 
[/font]
Time To Bust the Prostitution Ring in D.C. and Texas
[font color=green]NOTE: A special election will be held on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 for Texas Senate District 28 which includes Lubbock and a large number of rural counties in the south plains of the Texas Panhandle. The race includes four Republican candidates, one Libertarian and one Democrat. The candidates are listed here: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/d28-candidates.shtml . If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, then a runoff will be held between the two candidates that receive the most votes irrespective of political party.
The top two fundraisers are both Republicans. They are Charles Perry, a CPA, current state representative and hard-line conservative and Jodey Arrington, a former vice chancellor for Texas Tech University. The other two Republicans include Delwin Jones, a 90-year-old former state representative who had to suspend his campaign due to a recent hospitalization and Epifanio “Eppie” Garza. The Libertarian candidate is Kerry Douglas McKennon who is an openly gay sales representative. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate is Greg Wortham, an attorney and the first Democratic candidate to run for this state Senate seat in 18 years. (Sources include http://lubbockonline.com/editorial-columnists/2014-09-06/rangel-special-election-will-be-watched-all-over-texas#.VAy3CGPuPoE and other articles from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and lonestarq.com which posted an article on McKennon).
The race is receiving significant interest due to the impact of Empower Texas which is a Tea-Party organization promoting hard-line conservative candidates throughout the state. If Dan Patrick wins the lieutenant governor race, then the Texas Senate may become more conservative since as many as nine of the 31 seats may change during the fall elections.[/font]
By Carol Morgan
Equating politics with the ladies of the evening isn't as far-fetched as you’d think. 75 percent of all Americans believe that politicians are corrupt. In my opinion, that’s a bad rap for the ladies, because at least, they're are honest about the services they provide.
Monday and Tuesday could very well be the first in a series of proverbial come-to-Jesus-moments for politics.
On September 8th, SJR-19 will come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. This action has been over FOUR years in the making with thousands and thousands contacting Senators since July, 2013. Actually, the resolution doesn’t go far enough; it does overturn Citizens United, but it doesn’t address corporate constitutional rights; but just like we accepted Obamacare in place of single payer healthcare, we make compromises.
It’s more of that American mindset that involves settling for the lesser of two evils.
Polling shows 80% of the American public believes that corporations should not have the same rights as people, but Texas’ own Slim Pickens-Senator Major Kong a.k.a. Ted Cruz claims it thwarts free speech. True to form, he claims it’s a plan to repeal the First Amendment. His dramatic stance is not surprising, that’s how he was elected to the Senate. Cruz and his father are in dire need of a daily dose of Metamucil.
If SJR-19 fails to come to fruition, Americans will have two choices: 1. Accept our fate as a complete and total plutocracy or 2. Take more extreme (and inconvenient) measures to extricate our country from the rule of the wealthy.
Even a last minute call is better than none at all: 866-937-7983. At the risk of sounding like a late night infomercial: Call now!
It may be a surprise to some that even Texas lawmakers are cognizant of the dark money problem. The Texas Ethics Commission met in late August to draft a dark money disclosure proposal to stop secret campaign donor under the velvet black curtain of a 501(c)4.
Per the Houston Chronicle: “The proposal would require a politically active nonprofit group to start disclosing donors if 25 percent or more of the group’s expenditures can be classified as politically motivated. It also would require disclosure if political contributions account for more than 25 percent of the group’s total contributions in a calendar year”.
That effort is a tad ironic, given that SD28 candidate, Charles Perry, is being financed by the uber-conservative group, Empower Texans. And even more ironic that ET’s captain, former-Eagle-Scout-gone-bad, MQ (Michael Quinn) Sullivan, is under a dark ethical shadow of failing to register as a lobbyist AND suddenly established residency in Denton hoping to overturn this spring’s earlier ruling.
There’s more sticky layers to this than a giant dish of baklava.
Tangled webs and deception are synonymous with the GOP. That’s why 13 GOP governors are under suspicion and possible indictment or like former Virginia guv, O’Donnell have been found guilty.
To be fair, I’m not claiming that political corruption is limited to Republicans only. You need to read Bill Moyer’s piece to know that’s not true. But a recent study shows it leans heavily to the GOP side.
Here’s the deal: State legislative races are a fertile field for right-wing big spenders because state legislatures draw the maps. The wave of voter suppression and anti-choice legislation? It comes from Republican run state legislatures backed by Citizens United money.
Tuesday’s SD28 election is predictably intertwined with the bounty of political dark money. That’s why voting for Greg Wortham on Tuesday, September 9th is so important. We need a populist candidate now more than ever, because presently, there are none who represent the interests of South Plains’ residents.
Because of political corruption and a total absence of personal ethics, everyday people are being tested by fire right now. Let’s work hard so that the fire loses, shall we?
One phone call or one vote can do a lot toward extinguishing the flame.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carol Morgan is a career/college counselor, writer, speaker, former Democratic candidate for the Texas House and the award-winning author of Of Tapestry, Time and Tears, a historical fiction about the 1947 Partition of India. Read her work at the Houston Press and MetroLeader News Service. Email Carol at elizabethcmorgan@sbcglobal.net , follow her on Twitter and on Facebook or visit her writer’s blog at www.carolmorgan.org
http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-09-07/time-bust-prostitution-ring-dc-and-texas#.VAywy2PuPoE
Permission granted to post this blog in entirety. Cross-posted in the General Discussion forum.
Time To Bust the Prostitution Ring in D.C. and Texas
[font color=green]NOTE: A special election will be held on Tuesday, September 9, 2014 for Texas Senate District 28 which includes Lubbock and a large number of rural counties in the south plains of the Texas Panhandle. The race includes four Republican candidates, one Libertarian and one Democrat. The candidates are listed here: http://www.sos.state.tx.us/elections/voter/d28-candidates.shtml . If no candidate receives a majority of the vote, then a runoff will be held between the two candidates that receive the most votes irrespective of political party.
The top two fundraisers are both Republicans. They are Charles Perry, a CPA, current state representative and hard-line conservative and Jodey Arrington, a former vice chancellor for Texas Tech University. The other two Republicans include Delwin Jones, a 90-year-old former state representative who had to suspend his campaign due to a recent hospitalization and Epifanio “Eppie” Garza. The Libertarian candidate is Kerry Douglas McKennon who is an openly gay sales representative. Meanwhile, the Democratic candidate is Greg Wortham, an attorney and the first Democratic candidate to run for this state Senate seat in 18 years. (Sources include http://lubbockonline.com/editorial-columnists/2014-09-06/rangel-special-election-will-be-watched-all-over-texas#.VAy3CGPuPoE and other articles from the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal and lonestarq.com which posted an article on McKennon).
The race is receiving significant interest due to the impact of Empower Texas which is a Tea-Party organization promoting hard-line conservative candidates throughout the state. If Dan Patrick wins the lieutenant governor race, then the Texas Senate may become more conservative since as many as nine of the 31 seats may change during the fall elections.[/font]
By Carol Morgan
Equating politics with the ladies of the evening isn't as far-fetched as you’d think. 75 percent of all Americans believe that politicians are corrupt. In my opinion, that’s a bad rap for the ladies, because at least, they're are honest about the services they provide.
Monday and Tuesday could very well be the first in a series of proverbial come-to-Jesus-moments for politics.
On September 8th, SJR-19 will come up for a vote in the U.S. Senate. This action has been over FOUR years in the making with thousands and thousands contacting Senators since July, 2013. Actually, the resolution doesn’t go far enough; it does overturn Citizens United, but it doesn’t address corporate constitutional rights; but just like we accepted Obamacare in place of single payer healthcare, we make compromises.
It’s more of that American mindset that involves settling for the lesser of two evils.
Polling shows 80% of the American public believes that corporations should not have the same rights as people, but Texas’ own Slim Pickens-Senator Major Kong a.k.a. Ted Cruz claims it thwarts free speech. True to form, he claims it’s a plan to repeal the First Amendment. His dramatic stance is not surprising, that’s how he was elected to the Senate. Cruz and his father are in dire need of a daily dose of Metamucil.
If SJR-19 fails to come to fruition, Americans will have two choices: 1. Accept our fate as a complete and total plutocracy or 2. Take more extreme (and inconvenient) measures to extricate our country from the rule of the wealthy.
Even a last minute call is better than none at all: 866-937-7983. At the risk of sounding like a late night infomercial: Call now!
It may be a surprise to some that even Texas lawmakers are cognizant of the dark money problem. The Texas Ethics Commission met in late August to draft a dark money disclosure proposal to stop secret campaign donor under the velvet black curtain of a 501(c)4.
Per the Houston Chronicle: “The proposal would require a politically active nonprofit group to start disclosing donors if 25 percent or more of the group’s expenditures can be classified as politically motivated. It also would require disclosure if political contributions account for more than 25 percent of the group’s total contributions in a calendar year”.
That effort is a tad ironic, given that SD28 candidate, Charles Perry, is being financed by the uber-conservative group, Empower Texans. And even more ironic that ET’s captain, former-Eagle-Scout-gone-bad, MQ (Michael Quinn) Sullivan, is under a dark ethical shadow of failing to register as a lobbyist AND suddenly established residency in Denton hoping to overturn this spring’s earlier ruling.
There’s more sticky layers to this than a giant dish of baklava.
Tangled webs and deception are synonymous with the GOP. That’s why 13 GOP governors are under suspicion and possible indictment or like former Virginia guv, O’Donnell have been found guilty.
To be fair, I’m not claiming that political corruption is limited to Republicans only. You need to read Bill Moyer’s piece to know that’s not true. But a recent study shows it leans heavily to the GOP side.
Here’s the deal: State legislative races are a fertile field for right-wing big spenders because state legislatures draw the maps. The wave of voter suppression and anti-choice legislation? It comes from Republican run state legislatures backed by Citizens United money.
Tuesday’s SD28 election is predictably intertwined with the bounty of political dark money. That’s why voting for Greg Wortham on Tuesday, September 9th is so important. We need a populist candidate now more than ever, because presently, there are none who represent the interests of South Plains’ residents.
Because of political corruption and a total absence of personal ethics, everyday people are being tested by fire right now. Let’s work hard so that the fire loses, shall we?
One phone call or one vote can do a lot toward extinguishing the flame.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Carol Morgan is a career/college counselor, writer, speaker, former Democratic candidate for the Texas House and the award-winning author of Of Tapestry, Time and Tears, a historical fiction about the 1947 Partition of India. Read her work at the Houston Press and MetroLeader News Service. Email Carol at elizabethcmorgan@sbcglobal.net , follow her on Twitter and on Facebook or visit her writer’s blog at www.carolmorgan.org
http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/carol-morgan/2014-09-07/time-bust-prostitution-ring-dc-and-texas#.VAywy2PuPoE
Permission granted to post this blog in entirety. Cross-posted in the Texas Group.
Abbott says he grieves for Wendy Davis family
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Republican Greg Abbott says he grieves for Democrat Wendy Davis after his gubernatorial opponent revealed that she once had an abortion upon learning that the fetus had a severe brain abnormality.
Abbott said Saturday in a statement that "the unspeakable pain of losing a child is beyond tragic for any parent." He said he grieves for the Davis family and the loss of life.
Davis discloses the abortion for the first time in her new memoir "Forgetting to be Afraid." She had become pregnant in 1996 but had the abortion after doctors told her the child would be deaf, blind and in a permanent vegetative state.
Davis said she fell under an "indescribable blackness" afterward.
http://www.theeagle.com/news/texas/abbott-says-he-grieves-for-wendy-davis-family/article_25c5d630-3ee7-56b9-9751-4bb8a4b2431b.html
Related thread:
Wendy Davis book reveals abortion
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014889320
Dallas-area man gets prison for his dog's death
DALLAS — A Dallas-area man has been sentenced to more than six years in prison for beating and drowning his pit bull after the dog allegedly chewed some patio furniture.
Robert Prichard of Mesquite was sentenced Friday over the 2013 death of his dog named Candy. A Dallas County jury on Wednesday convicted Prichard of animal cruelty with a deadly weapon.
Investigators say Prichard beat his pet with a shovel and threw the dog into his backyard swimming pool.
Prichard, who sought probation, told investigators he was protecting himself after the dog bit him.
http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2014-09-06/dallas-area-man-gets-prison-his-dogs-death#comment-347262
Wendy Davis book reveals abortion
Source: AP
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wendy Davis reveals in a new campaign memoir that she terminated two pregnancies for medical reasons in the 1990s, including one where the fetus had developed a severe brain abnormality.
Davis writes in "Forgetting to be Afraid" that she had an abortion in 1996 after an exam revealed that the brain of the fetus had developed in complete separation on the right and left sides. She also describes ending an earlier ectopic pregnancy, in which an embryo implants outside the uterus.
Davis disclosed the terminated pregnancies for the first time since her nearly 13-hour filibuster last year over a tough new Texas abortion law.
Both pregnancies happened before Davis, a state senator from Fort Worth, began her political career and after she was already a mother to two young girls.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/entertainment/apnewsbreak-wendy-davis-book-reveals-abortion/nhG4Y/
Related thread:
Abbott says he grieves for Wendy Davis family
http://www.democraticunderground.com/107820646
Davis wants $10 minimum wage amid 'Texas Miracle'
AUSTIN, Texas — National protests over higher wages for fast-food workers spilled into the Texas governor's race Friday when Democrat Wendy Davis maintained support of raising the minimum wage to $10.
That's less than the $15 an hour that labor organizers are demanding for workers at restaurants like McDonald's and Burger King, but Davis' defense set off a predictable backlash from her Republican opponent and conservatives.
Republican Gov. Rick Perry anchored his failed 2012 presidential run on the "Texas Miracle" — what he called a low-regulation, predictable business climate that he said kept the state's economy afloat during the recession. In June, the Texas Republican Party approved a platform that calls for abolishing minimum wage laws altogether.
But Davis' backing of a minimum-wage hike gave new visibility to economic policy in a campaign that has largely focused on education and vows to change what she calls a culture of insider politics.
Read more: http://www.statesman.com/ap/ap/texas/davis-wants-10-minimum-wage-amid-texas-miracle/nhGgC/
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
Home country: United States
Current location: Bryan, Texas
Member since: Sun Aug 14, 2011, 03:57 AM
Number of posts: 112,470
