From the Washington Posttoday comes an article on the President’s “inadvertent” mispronunciation of “Democratic Majority” (he called it “Democrat Majority”).

 Bush also said he “didn’t mean to be putting fingernails on the board,” while noting that the parties need to work together on addressing problems with the Social Security system. “I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town,” the president said. “And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it. So the idea that somehow I was trying to needle the Democrats, it’s just — gosh, it’s probably Texas. Who knows what it is? But I’m not that good at pronouncing words anyway.”

 There are several points I want to make about this statement that are absolutely disturbing to me, and should be disturbing to people across this nation:

1. YOU, Mr. President, created the distrust that exists in this town today. Let’s be perfectly honest. You are the son of a life-long Washington politician, you fabricated evidence against an entire nation in order to retaliate for planned attempts on your father’s life, you lied to the American people, you lied to Congress, and you lied to the World. YOU, Mr. President, drove the Republican majority (or, “Republic Majority” if we need to speak your language, sir) to steamroll the minority rights of house members and Senators in order to further your failed agendas (of which there are many). So, I’m not sure why you are surprised, unless, of course this is another example of how far you are removed from reality.
2. You are the leader of the free-world (what you haven’t destroyed or allienated at least). DON’T USE THE WORD “Gosh“…EVER…AGAIN!!
3. “…it’s probably Texas…”– Huh? What the hell does that mean? Are you implying that Texans don’t speak well? Are you trying to blame your personal inadequacies and lack of a logical mind on the fact that you are from Texas? If that was your intent, then I would have to congratulate you on succeeding at something…finally. As a Texan, I would like to point out that you are not a product of the Texas education system (something you were responsible for during your do nothing term as Governor) and that your inability to formulate a coherent sentence has absolutely nothing to do with were you are from. Furthermore, I would like to point out that if Texas has done this to you that you seek another state to place your Presidential Library/Think Tank/Out-house (Alaska might be a good choice. I hear they have newly cleared land in the ANWR region of the state).
4. “But I’m not that good at pronouncing words anyway.”– Pronouncing words. That is your major fault? Mr. President, you are poor at pronouncing words beacuse you lack a clear command of the English language and simply lack the brain power to formulate logical thoughts into words that anyone can comprehend.

Imagine my pleasant suprise on New Year’s Eve when I opened the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and read an article by Bud Kennedy entitled “New poll detects a change in the political climate in the Capitol”:

 Texas Democrats have pulled even with Republicans, and the state is now about half red, half blue. At least, that’s according to 1,053 Texans surveyed by an independent Democratic pollster. The poll’s news announcement focused on one specific response: By 46 percent to 35 percent, respondents said Democrats “care” more about “people like me.” That’s a reversal from two years ago.

But most eyes went immediately to the bottom line of the poll, conducted in early December by Austin-based Montgomery & Associates:

Asked which political party they lean toward, 45 percent chose Democrat.

Only 43 percent chose Republican. If you figure in the poll’s margin of error, that’s a tie.

Two years ago, in the same Democratic poll, Republicans led by 55 percent to 34 percent.

As author Bud Kennedy is quick to point out, the poll was a simple poll and not directed at “voters”. Needless to say, the momentum is still there and we can begin to see the turning of the red tide in Texas.

Our biggest challenge in the coming two-year cycle is to raise awareness and to motivate those who find their interests better represented by Democrats to register to vote and to actually vote.

Rick Perry (Governor Good Hair) is back to his old tactics now by promising to do what he said he would do four years ago. The problem now is finding a way to pay for his empty and shallow promises.

Perry now says that he will be fiscally conservative in his next term and that his priorities are (and have been, according to his account) education, health care and transportation.

Let’s take a look at these priorities and Perry’s stance on them:

1. Education was only a priority to Perry after Tom DeLay stuck his big head into state redistricting to keep Republicans in power for years to come. By having an unbelievable margin of control in both state houses, Perry was able to ram-rod his form of education finance reform through. The problem is, his education reform brought property tax cuts that the state cannot afford.

From the Houston Chronicle today we have:

And the GOP chairman of the budget-writing House Appropriations Committee noted lawmakers next year will need to come up with billions of dollars to pay for a cut in local school property tax rates approved this year.

His own stinking party is sweating his plan. How crazy is this? The school finance system needed to be fixed, that is for sure. But the plan put forth by Perry is fiscally irresponsible.

2. Health Care is not a priority for Rick Perry. It never has been and never will be. He is too closely aligned with the lobbyists representing HMO’s and pharmaceutical companies. According to the Dallas Morning News, Texas has the highest uninsured rate of any state at 25%. He has tinkered with Medicaid enhancements over the years, but has really done nothing to correct the uninsured problem.

There have been attempts by Perry and Washington Republicans to tie the debate for health care woes in Texas to illegal immigration, but the DMN article indicates otherwise:

Uninsured Americans don’t get the preventive medical care they need. Once they’re really sick, they enter the health care system through the most expensive pathway – hospital emergency rooms – where their treatment tends to be passed on to insured patients and taxpayers.

Undocumented workers, particularly from Mexico, are often seen as the major reason that uninsured patients cost everyone else so much money. Last month, Parkland Memorial Hospital estimated uninsured illegal immigrants are costing $22.4 million a year.

But in fact, working Texans, not immigrants, are the vast majority of the state’s uninsured.

“Seventy percent are U.S.-born, 6 percent are nationalized, and the rest are immigrants – a large percentage of whom are documented,” Dr. Malinow said. “So to say the problem of the uninsured in Texas is a problem of the undocumented or even of all immigrants is really not true.”

The article concludes by pointing out that uninsured medical treatment cost [Dallas County Hospital] Parkland $410 million in 2005, with illegal immigrants representing only $22.4 million of that number (5.5%). That is a clear demonstration that Perry has done very little about health care, and gives us little hope that he is serious about it now.

But Perry’s real priority, transportation, is likely his worst political strategy.

3. Transportation in the mind of Rick Perry means creating lucrative deals with big construction companies to build a network of massive toll roads that criss-cross Texas. Toll roads are a poor decision on the part of the governor because it creates an additional tax on taxpayers, and is more harmful to those citizens who can’t afford another form of taxation. As we just witnessed, 25% of our citizens work in such low-paying jobs that they cannot get health insurance. How does Perry expect people to afford the expansion of toll roads? It would be one thing if new roads were constructed to ease congestion and made into toll roads, but the Perry plan takes existing highways and converts them back into toll roads as a way to pay for additional construction on a different road entirely. So, if you are in South Dallas Perry wants to convert certain roads into toll roads and use those funds for highway projects in North Dallas. That is just not fair and it’s not ethical.

At the peak of this toll road plan is Perry’s beloved TransTexas Corridor system. The Houston Chronicle recently detailed the plans of the road after a court ruled that the state must release all records of negotiations with private contractors to build the system:

Perry announced the corridor plan in 2002, calling for a $175 billion, 4,000-mile limited-access transportation network built mostly with private dollars for profit but owned by the state.

 

TTC-35 generally would run east of Interstate 35 from Oklahoma to Mexico and would include an $8.8 billion toll road from Oklahoma to San Antonio.

The proposal has received continual criticism, despite efforts by TxDOT to reassure the public.

Farmers and ranchers have expressed concern that their property would be divided or taken by eminent domain.

Local officials feared that the corridor would draw business away from existing routes.

Others were concerned that negotiating a 50-year contract for a project of such size was being done behind the scenes.

Despite its bulk — 1,600 pages — and the numerous maps included, the master plan does not include the actual route of TTC-35.

 

TxDOT says that will depend on the same federally required environmental process, including public hearings, as any other road project.

If all the hurdles are jumped, TxDOT says, construction could begin in 2011.

Because the master plan supersedes earlier “conceptual” development and financial plans that TxDOT declined to reveal in March 2005, these were released Thursday as well.

The Houston Chronicle and others had filed open-records requests to see the documents, and Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott agreed they should be released.

TxDOT and Cintra-Zachry then sued Abbott, asking an Austin court to exempt the plans from disclosure on grounds that they would reveal proprietary information, give competitors unfair advantage and have a “chilling effect” on future proposers’ willingness to reveal their ideas.

The lawsuit was dismissed Thursday by agreement.

The campaign manager for gubernatorial candidate and state Comptroller Carol Keeton Strayhorn had urged that the plans be made public.

Strayhorn said Gov. Rick Perry had “fought to keep Texans in the dark and his contract with a foreign-owned company to build toll roads across Texas a secret.”

Perry’s plan for transportation has all of the same characteristics of Dick Cheney’s energy plan of 2001 that to this day remains top secret.

For all this governor claims that he wants to accomplish, there is little reason believe that he will do any of it in an ethcical way, and even less evidence that he will do anything that is in the best interest of the vast majority of Texans.

Great discussion over at Daily Kos on how Bush is perceived to be more responsible than Bill Clinton for not capturing bin Laden and heading off 9/11.

Of course, partisanship plays a role in the answers. 71 percent of Republicans are too stupid too realize that Bill Clinton hasn’t been in office the last six years and blame him rather than the guy currently in office. You know — the one that talks a big game but hasn’t delivered squat.

Three things come to mind. First, Republicans generally point fingers and assign blame when things go wrong and Bill Clinton continues to be that scape-goat for their inability to govern. Remember, it was the Republicants who raised hell over Monica Lewinsky because it “dirtied” the Presidency, all the while you never heard a peep from one Republican about national security or concerns over al Qaeda. Second, George W. Bush has never delivered a single promise he has made while in the White House or while in the Governor’s mansion in Texas. I never understood what the big deal was with him running for President. Seriously, I cannot recall a single measure he put before the legislature During his time as Governor.  And finally, there is plenty of blame to pass around on this issue with every administration, Democrat and Republican since Truman and the creation of the Israeli state. As a nation we have done a poor job of trying to deal with the issues in an honest and unbiased manner.

According to a piece in the Houston Chronicle today, less than 125 donors account for 40% of all money raised in the Texas governor’s race so far, with those contributions ranging between $50,000 and $850,000. This astonishing figure highlights how influential just a few people are how only the rich get a chance to control elections and what legislative agendas are set.  Who stands to gain the most from these contributions? 

The governor [Rick Perry] has raised nearly $13 million over the past two years. About one-third of that came from 75 donors who gave $50,000 or more. This year’s legislative and gubernatorial elections in Texas are pivotal for the average Texan, simply because so much is at stake when it comes to healthcare, product and company liability, and property rights as they relate to land-grabs for the TransTexas Corridor highway. For the GLBT community, this election is critical since same-sex couples wishing to adopt children will most likely see their rights stripped further in the next legislative session. Who stands to profit the most from this agenda? Fewer than 125 people apparently. 

Chris Bell, the Democratic candidate for governor has raised a paltry $2 million with seven individuals or committees accounting for roughly one-third of that amount. (Naturally democrats represent the forgotten who can barely afford to buy gas and groceries, so contributing to the expensive political process is out of the question.) 

So I was listening to a recent edition of the DOT show podcast and heard a troubling tale of yet another Republican from Texas that is as arrogant as the day is long. John Carter from the 31st congressional district (essentially his district is north and west of Austin) is reportedly refusing to debate his opponent by saying “I will decide who is worthy of debating me”. Well, curiosity got the best of me and I had to research this fellow a little.

What did I find? Well, just look at the money trail and then decide whether you think this guy is really concerned about Texans and Texas issues. (Thanks to the Center for Responsive Politics for the data!)

Mr. Carter has recevied $585,955 in contributions during the 2005-06 election cycle, with Dell Computer as his single largest contributor with $17,000. During this same period his campaign has spent $440,131.

There is a $2,000 donation to the Round Rock School District, which is a smart move for any politician. But then Carter donates $2,000 each to the “Fitzpatrick for Congress” campaign in Doylestown, PA, the “Max Burns for Congress” camp in Sylvania, GA, and the “Porter for Congress” campaign in Las Vegas, NV. But most troubling is the fact that on January 31, 2006 Carter gave $5,000 to the “Tom DeLay Legal Expense Fund”.

Carter obviously views the needs of local school districts right in his own backyard as equal to the needs of Republican candidates in other states, and way below his need to help defend an indicted criminal that packed his bags and fled the state as soon as he was exposed for the fraud that everyone has known that he is.

(BTW – Carter currently sits on the House Appropriations Committee. Gee, I wonder how much he has appropriated to “education”?)