August 7, 2013

AG candidate Dan Branch files brief opposing marriage equality

AUSTIN — Candidate for Texas attorney general Dan Branch has filed a legal brief opposing marriage rights for gays.

Branch said Tuesday that he filed the paperwork with the Texas Supreme Court opposing a lawsuit that seeks to overturn a ban on gay marriage in Texas.

Texas has a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as between a man and a woman. But gay marriage is allowed in 13 states and the District of Columbia and the U.S. Supreme Court recently overturned a federal law preventing gays from receiving the same benefits as other married couples.

Branch has made opposition to gay marriage a key talking point in his bid to replace Attorney General Greg Abbott. Branch said he worked with Abbott on the brief.

Source: http://www.mywesttexas.com/statenation/article_d67e4fbc-feed-11e2-bf39-0019bb2963f4.html

August 7, 2013

Disease threatens South Texas citrus industry

Citrus greening, the disease that has Florida’s citrus industry fighting for its life, likewise poses a major threat to the Rio Grande Valley’s citrus industry if a solution isn’t found.

Worst case, a key part of the Valley’s identity could vanish along with the livelihoods of growers.

After the disease was first detected in Florida in 2005 it spread quickly, causing a steady decline in that state’s citrus production as scientists race to find answers. The disease was confirmed in the Valley, at two San Juan orchards, in January 2012. Three trees on residential property in the area also were found to have been infected.

Ray Prewett, president of Texas Citrus Mutual, said an emergency quarantine covering a five-mile radius was immediately put in place.

More at http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/news/local/article_590ddfce-fe49-11e2-8075-001a4bcf6878.html .

August 7, 2013

Judge: Beaumont ISD battles are hurting our economy

Special Assistant for Communications for BISD, Jessie Haynes, sets out produce from the
Odom Organics garden before the meeting on Thursday, August 1, 2013.
Photo taken: Randy Edwards/The Enterprise

The battles waging within the Beaumont school board have trickled down into the economy.

An expansion project skipped out on locating in Beaumont because of the added income it would need to pay its employees to send their children to private school, said Jefferson County Judge Jeff Branick.

More industrial expansion projects are likely on their way with the Panama Canal expansion, increased trade opportunities with Asia and the oil and gas stakes that have already been planted locally, Branick said.

-snip-

The latest incident involving the embattled school board happened Monday when Superintendent Timothy Chargois placed Jessie Haynes, special assistant to the superintendent for communications, on paid administrative leave after an altercation that took place between Haynes and school board member Mike Neil after the Aug. 1 board meeting.

More at http://www.beaumontenterprise.com/news/article/Judge-BISD-battles-are-hurting-our-economy-4711097.php .

August 7, 2013

Connecting the pieces???

Man's head found as violence strikes Juárez

A wave of violence took place Thursday in Juárez with the discovery of the head of a man, the shooting of a state police officer and the execution-style slaying of a man.

The head was found during the early hours at Morelos III neighborhood in south Juárez.

According to the Chihuahua Attorney General's Office, the head was found about 7 a.m. on top of a cooler placed over a plastic trash can at the intersection of Laguna de Tuxpan and Tepalcingo streets, where the victim lived.

Investigators were working to identify the victim and determine whether he had been kidnapped for ransom last week.

More at http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_23781009/mans-head-found-violence-strikes-juarez .

Headless body found in Juárez

A headless body was found Monday morning in the parking lot of a Juárez shopping center, Chihuahua state police said.

The body was found at 7 a.m. in the trunk of a white car that has been left in the parking lot of S-Mart and Coppel stores at Avenida Lopez Mateos and Boulevard Oscar Flores.

Officials said that the body of an unidentified man was tied and wrapped in a white blanket. The head was missing.

It had not been determined if the body was linked to a severed head found on top of a cooler Thursday morning in a neighborhood in south Juárez.

Source: http://www.elpasotimes.com/juarez/ci_23800100/headless-body-found-ju-rez

August 7, 2013

Former state rep. Andy Nunez becomes a Republican

Former state representative Andy Nunez, who quit the Democratic Party and said he would never become a Republican, reversed himself Tuesday.

Nunez, right, of Hatch in Dona Ana County, switched his voter registration from independent to Republican, and said he would run for his old seat in the House of Representatives next year.

Nunez, 77, was elected to the House as a Democrat six times between 2000 and 2010. He bolted the Democratic Party in January 2011 after feuding with the late House Speaker Ben Lujan, who stripped Nunez of his chairmanship of the Water and Natural Resources Committee.

Nunez then switched his registration to declined to state, making him independent of either major party.

More at http://elpasotimes.typepad.com/newmexico/ .

[font color=green]When I was in college one of the fraternities would place the skull and crossbones on the composite photo if one of the members/pledges denounced their brothers. Therefore, this one is for you Andy since you decided to join the red team:

[div style="width:40%;"]

August 7, 2013

Mitt Romney trashes Ted Cruz-style brinkmanship on government shutdown

WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney made a rare foray into current events today to criticize GOP lawmakers — chief among them Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — who are threatening a government shutdown as a way to stall and defund Obamacare.

The AP’s intrepid Steve Peoples has the story from Wolfeboro, N.H., tonight, where the 2012 GOP presidential nominee spoke to 200 donors at a state party fund-raiser not far from his vacation home:

The event is closed to the media, but his office released his prepared remarks.

Romney says there are “better ways to remove Obamacare” than risking a government shutdown

More at http://trailblazersblog.dallasnews.com/2013/08/mitt-romney-trashes-ted-cruz-style-brinkmanship-on-government-shutdown.html/ .

August 6, 2013

Former Texas GOP Chair Says Immigration Reform Will Lead to "End Times"

Cathie Adams, the chair of the Republican Party of Texas from 2009-2010, told a right-wing radio show that the biometrical scanning identification system in the Senate's immigration reform bill will lead to "end times."

Adams claimed that the bill would give amnesty to individuals from Muslim countries who she described as lacking the "best intentions" for America, i.e. she thinks Muslim and Muslim-adjacent immigrants are all terrorists.

She also claimed that immigration reform would somehow leave all of us with a 666 on our skin, aka "the mark of the beast." The former Texas GOP Chair stated:

Adams also said that immigrants from Hindu and Buddhist countries would try to implement "sharia law," which makes me wonder anew if the entire Texas GOP is just one long performance art piece about the rise of unchecked ignorance in America.

More at http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/13902/former-texas-gop-chair-says-immigration-reform-will-lead-to-end-times .

[font color=green]Don't blink or you'll miss the stupid people here in Texas.[/font]

August 6, 2013

Travis County Commissioners approve $1.8 million in taxpayer funds for DA’s Public Integrity Unit

Travis County’s Public Integrity Unit will drop at least 54 cases and cut nearly a dozen jobs as it operates with $2.5 million next year, a reduced budget that commissioners approved Tuesday.

On a 4-1 vote, commissioners on Tuesday approved spending $1.8 million from taxpayers and up to $734,422 from a fund of forfeited property that District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg controls to fund a small unit next year. (The American-Statesman reported on the plan Monday evening.) In June, Gov. Rick Perry vetoed the unit’s $3.7 million annual budget for the next two years after Lehmberg refused to resign following her drunken driving conviction in April.

“In April, I made a huge mistake,” Lehmberg told reporters after Tuesday’s vote. “I have worked steadfastly to regain the confidence of the community and I’m going to continue to do that. But it is not Rick Perry’s job to fire me or to remove me.”

Three of the unit’s formerly 34 employees will be laid off in early 2014, but Lehmberg said she is trying to find other positions for those employees. Others are quitting or being assigned to other areas within the district attorney’s office. The unit will ultimately have 24 employees.

More at http://www.statesman.com/news/news/local-govt-politics/commissioners-approve-18-million-in-taxpayer-funds/nZGNZ/ .

[font color=green]Gov. Perry and his corrupt pals will be disappointed that the county commissioners still believe in justice.[/font]

August 6, 2013

The Extreme Right and Michael Vick's Dogs: Tools of the Insane

By Dr. Brian Carr
President, Behavioral Health Associates, Lubbock, Texas, 1991-Present
Chairman, City of Lubbock Board of Health, 2013
Submitted on August 6, 2013 - 7:38am

http://www.cchfreedom.org/pdf/r2e.pdf
[font color=green](Warning: Citizen's Council for Health Freedom 2013 propaganda)[/font]

Much like our proud soldiers our citizens are being asked to place themselves in harm’s way for a cause. The deeper question however is whether the cause is a noble one or merely a call to serve those who already have the benefits of living in America.

We heard the call to action from the Extreme Right among the Republican Party that they are “mobilizing…to dissuade uninsured Americans from obtaining health coverage”. This desperate action to interfere with the deployment of the health exchanges as a part of the Affordable Care Act (ACA, otherwise known as Obamacare) is an incredible demand that places many at risk.

And why does the Extreme Right want this? It's not altogether clear, exactly, but apparently their hatred for President Obama has overwhelmed their judgment and basic sense of morality to a degree that can only be considered alarming. Using terms such as “Patriot” and “American” the call is to forego health coverage as a statement against the ACA.

Because "Freedom" means never being able to go to the doctor.

One delusion of the refuse-to-enroll campaign was summed up recently by a tea party activist in Michigan.

“When you need help,” she told the Washington Post, “you should go to your neighbors and church. It’s the American way of doing charity.”

Now, I would like to think that we could turn to one another in the midst of disease and damage but that just doesn’t happen in the real world. I’ve ridden a motorcycle most of my life and it is sad to see so many riders who refuse to wear a helmet, despite the fact that 70% of motorcycle fatalities are associated with not wearing such headgear.

When motorcycle crashes occur or when a person has an unplanned pregnancy or suffers a disease they seek care. They show up in our emergency rooms where costs are astronomical. When the person lacks insurance they shift the cost of care to the government (meaning us the taxpayers) or to private insurers as a cost shift (where a box of tissues costs $40).

Amanda Marcotte of The Raw Story states that this



It has been my experience that the only people who are happy with the current system of health care insurance are those who are rich enough to deal with the endless co-pays and deductibles while the rest of us find that our coverage is not what we thought when we actually used it.

For those who answer the call to not enroll I wonder where they can apply for help in paying their medical bills from those who drive the call to not participate. Who will be there to provide the $100,000 for a short hospital stay when one doesn’t have insurance?

This call to avoid health insurance matches the insanity of those on the Extreme Right like our own Senator Ted Cruz. His willingness to shut down the government is viewed as unworkable and a bad idea from those in his own ranks. This commitment to the extreme is likely to split the Republican Party into ineffective factions that will degrade the once Grand Old Party into a collection of bitter, angry old white guys.

I am hopeful that Senator Cruz will continue to beat the drum for his insanity but I don’t want to see people hurt who heed his call to deny themselves coverage.

Just tell me where they can go when they are in need?

TAGS:

LubbockOnline Blog
Go go go speedracer
gonna be hot hot hot
insane
lemmings
Louisana looks like Florida to some governors
Lubbock
Michael Vick Loves his dogs
No electricity for you
off the cliff with you
Perry has a siren in his pocket
Please please please let Teddie run for president
Randy N is the pink ranger [font color=green](Re: US Rep Randy Neugebauer)
[/font]
stupid is as Cruz does
Ted Cruz needs his medication
Texas

Source: http://lubbockonline.com/interact/blog-post/dr-brian-carr/2013-08-06/extreme-right-and-michael-vicks-dogs-tools-insane

[font color=green]Dr. Carr's choice of tags are hilarious.

The comments also indicate that there are plenty of dipshits that read the Lubbock Avalanche-Journal, particularly Top Cat. His comments are consistent with someone who is addicted to Freeperville.[/font]

August 6, 2013

BP balks at paying claims administrator

NEW ORLEANS — BP is balking at paying more than $130 million in fees to the court-supervised administrator of its multi-billion dollar settlement with Gulf Coast businesses and residents after the 2010 oil spill, claiming the settlement program has been plagued by poor productivity and excessive costs.

A federal magistrate has scheduled a hearing Wednesday on whether BP PLC should be ordered to fund claims administrator Patrick Juneau’s proposed third-quarter budget.

In a letter dated Monday, BP claims official Maria Travis said the company cannot determine if Juneau’s budget request is reasonable without more documentation.

“It would be unreasonable to approve a budget that validates and incentivizes the various claims administration vendors to perpetuate their track record of poor productivity and excessive costs,” Travis wrote to Juneau’s office.

More at http://fuelfix.com/blog/2013/08/06/bp-balks-at-paying-claims-administrator/?cmpid=hpts .