TexasTowelie
TexasTowelie's JournalRailroad Commish Smitherman Says He's Preparing Texas to Become "Island Nation" for U.S. Collapse
Barry Smitherman: Fighting to secure the border ... possibly from the rest of America.
The way Railroad Commission Chairman and Texas Attorney General candidate Barry Smitherman tells it, the aim of his 10 years of public service was not brazen tub-thumping for the industry he regulates in order to shore up deep-pocketed benefactors for his political aspirations. It's only ever been about readying Texas for the coming economic collapse of the United States of America.
"We are uniquely situated because we have energy resources, fossil and otherwise, and our own independent electrical grid," he told noted conspiracy mill World Nut Daily. "Generally speaking, we have made great progress in becoming an independent nation, an 'island nation' if you will, and I think we want to continue down that path so that if the rest of the country falls apart, Texas can operate as a stand-alone entity with energy, food, water and roads as if we were a closed-loop system."
Notwithstanding the fact that Texas has the most anemic electricity reserves in the country, Smitherman does have a point: We do in fact have a whole lot of oil. Oil, WND notes, Smitherman has almost single-handedly kept flowing via hydraulic fracturing, beating back attempts from President Barack Obama to stanch it. Texas oil production is at its highest since the mid-'80s.
In case you were laboring under the delusion that the Railroad Commission of Texas sees its charge as anything other than promoting the production of oil and gas as rapidly as possible, consequences be damned, Smitherman sets the record straight: "This was one of my goals at the Utility Commission and it is one my goals currently as chairman of the Railroad Commission. That's why I stress so vehemently oil and gas production, permitting turnaround times, and everything that enables the industry to produce as much as it can, as quickly as it can."
More at http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2013/09/barry_smitherman_says_hes_prep.php .
George P. Bush attacks teacher unions
[font color=green]I know that this was posted last week on the Texas State Teachers Association Website, but I did not see any articles on DU regarding this story.[/font]
When he was even younger, the young George P. Bush taught for a while in an inner city high school in Miami. Presumably, he experienced many of the challenges that teachers face each day in the classroom and, you would think, learned to appreciate the vital role that teachers play in trying to prepare the next generation for a productive future.
But maybe the education of this former, short-term teacher came up a bit short. I say that because Bush, now a candidate for Texas land commissioner, delivered a direct attack on teacher unions at a campaign appearance in Richmond last week. He said he will not be afraid to take on “the teacher unions who are deteriorating public education,” according to a TSTA staffer who attended the event.
This was a political shot designed to appeal to the school privatization advocates and anti-public service zealots who dominate the Republican primary in which Bush is a candidate. And, it was a direct slap at the teachers whom he purports to admire, the teachers who are trying to save public schools from those privateers and ideologues.
-snip-
Speaking to a group of high school students in a conference at the University of Texas at Austin in 2011 – before he became a candidate for office — George P. Bush endorsed the school budget cuts that the legislative majority enacted that year. He said, in essence, that laying off teachers was better than raising taxes to cure a revenue shortfall.
More at http://www.tsta.org/grading-texas/jeb-bush/george-p-bush-attacks-teacher-unions .
Massachusetts Anti-Gay Hate Group Offers 'Not Equal' Stickers
Well this is quite a statement to put on your bumper: MassResistance, a Massachusetts anti-gay group, is giving out 'not equal' stickers that are essentially copies of the Human Rights Campaign's logo with a big, negative slash right through them.
Via Jeremy Hooper's Good As You, here's just a taste of MassResistance's inspiration for making the stickers, taken from their own website:
By pushing the "equal" sign everywhere, it's also meant to have an intimidating psychological effect on anyone who opposes their movement. Individual activists often display it as much as possible. It says that they're banded together, that they're everywhere, that their "equal" is the new normal, and that we don't have a chance countering their momentum.
The truth is: It's NOT equal. And MassResistance has decided to help you fight back. We've just "come out" with our own sticker that subtly and simply counters their propaganda.
MassResistance has a few suggestions for where you might put your stickers--say, for example, "on your car between your 'Impeach Obama' and 'NRA' stickers." Maybe you'd like to put them "on doors and walls in public schools--or better yet, in the State House!"
More at http://www.towleroad.com/ .
Six U.S. Organizations Voice Support of Russia's Antigay Law
Six American organizations have signed a statement supporting Russia’s “gay propaganda law,” which criminalizes support of LGBT people and causes in any venue that might be accessible to minors.
The organizations join an international coalition of over 100 conservative groups that have lauded the legislation, claiming in the letter that it “protects innocence and moral formation of children by prohibiting propaganda of ‘non-traditional sexual relationships’ among them.”
The U.S. groups include World Congress of Families, the Catholic Family and Human Rights Institute, Mission: America, GrasstopsUSA, Population Research Institute, and His Servants, a Christian organization. Larry Jacobs, managing director of the World Congress of Families, claimed the law is instrumental in protecting the health of children.
“All the law does is to prohibit advocacy aimed at involving minors in a lifestyle that would imperil their physical and moral health,” Jacobs said in a press release. “Even the U.S. Centers for Disease Control has shown that sexually transmitted diseases, drug use and suicide rates are significantly higher among what it discreetly calls a ‘sexual minority.’ CDC data also demonstrates that there is much greater health risks among teenagers who practice homosexuality than those who do not engage in homosexual behavior."
More at http://www.advocate.com/politics/2013/09/03/six-us-organizations-voice-support-russias-antigay-law .
Germans Hide Cash in Diapers as Swiss Secrecy Crumbles
Germans who avoided taxes by keeping money in Switzerland are bringing wads of cash home and hiding it in odd places.
With Swiss banks the target of an international crackdown against tax evasion, the government wants the industry to stop managing undeclared funds. This requirement, combined with high-profile cases such as Bayern Munich President Uli Hoeness, who is charged with using a Swiss account to evade paying taxes, and the purchase of client data by German officials, has frightened tax cheats into action, according to customs agents.
Enlarge image Swiss-German Border
“We had a 72-year-old man wearing a woman’s corset with 150,000 euros stuffed inside,” said Markus Ueckert, a spokesman for the German customs district of Loerrach, one of the three that border Switzerland. “In another instance, a man had on two incontinence diapers with nearly 140,000 euros in between.”
Non-resident Germans and Britons may have held 164 billion francs ($175 billion) of undeclared funds in 2010, according to an estimate by Booz & Co. Since then, more than 36,000 requests for tax amnesty were filed in Germany. Those who don’t want to come clean are prepared to violate the law that requires cash of more than 10,000 euros ($13,200) to be declared at the border.
More at http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-09-03/germans-hide-cash-in-diapers-as-swiss-secrecy-crumbles.html .
Diocese of Gallup seeks bankruptcy
The Diocese of Gallup intends to petition for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization in response to a growing number of lawsuits filed by alleged victims of clerical sex abuse.
Leaders of the diocese described bankruptcy as a way of ensuring justice and fairness for victims of sexual abuse by providing for an orderly distribution of the diocese’s limited resources.
Diocese of Gallup Bishop James Wall said in a letter read to parishioners over the Labor Day weekend that bankruptcy is intended to treat abuse victims “in a just, equitable and more merciful manner” while allowing the diocese to continue its pastoral mission.
“Under Chapter 11, the diocese will have the opportunity to present a plan of reorganization that provides for a fair and equitable way to compensate all those who suffered sexual abuse as children” by priests, the letter said.
More at http://www.abqjournal.com/257330/news/diocese-seeks-bankruptcy.html .
Santa Fe Newspaper sues governor for open records laws violations
The weekly Santa Fe Reporter on Tuesday sued Gov. Susana Martinez, claiming violations of the state’s open records laws.
The suit, filed in state district court in Santa Fe, also accused the governor —who campaigned for office promising transparency — of withholding public information as a means retaliation for negative stories.
Editor Julie Ann Grimm said in a news release, “We’ve filed this case because the Office of the Governor has repeatedly failed to comply with the state law. We can’t just sit back and wait to see what happens next.”
The suit cites seven instances, dating back to late 2011, in which Martinez’s office failed to produce various documents sought by the paper. “Instead of providing her perspective on important issues, Martinez refused to respond to inquiries from the Santa Fe Reporter because she didn’t like the tone of the newspaper’s coverage, an unlawful act called `viewpoint discrimination’ or `prior restraint,’” the news release said.
More at http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/article_52b718c1-9778-5362-bd6f-d8f930594cee.html .
[font color=green]Ignoring open record laws--IOKIYAR.[/font]
Jindalcare to coexist with Obamacare
It should be clear by now that, regardless of criticism and public opinion, Gov. Bobby Jindal is not going to change his mind about opting out of the expansion of Medicaid and not setting up state insurance exchanges under the federal Affordable Care Act. Similarly, Republicans in Congress can vote for a 41st time to repeal Obamacare and still not prevent it from taking effect next year. Despite the best efforts of their enemies, neither course is going to change, or change much, for now.
Jindal is not merely rejecting or ignoring the key tenets of President Barack Obama’s health care law, but, rather, he is building a competing model. By going his way, the governor and his team could still achieve the same level of health care for the currently uninsured, but at a greater cost than by going Obama’s way, certainly in the short run.
For the good of those to be covered, it may be just as well that the federal government and not the state set up and operate the insurance exchanges. When the Jindal administration’s head and heart are not into doing something right from the start, the results can be like the waste- and scandal-ridden $750 million home elevation grant program, which was federally funded for the state to run, starting in 2008.
The more consequential difference between Obama’s and Jindal’s health care approaches is how to provide for 260,000 Louisiana adults in the coverage gap, who are eligible for neither Medicaid nor subsidized health insurance. The federal option is to issue all of them Medicaid cards that they can present to any doctor or hospital who accepts Medicaid patients. Jindal’s plan is for the uninsured to be treated at health facilities that, until recently, were part of the charity hospital system but now form the new state network of public-private partnerships.
More at http://www.shreveporttimes.com/article/20130903/OPINION0108/309030020/Jindalcare-coexist-Obamacare?nclick_check=1 .
University of Massachusetts students feast on 15,000-pound fruit salad
AMHERST, Mass. (AP) — In what's become an annual tradition, the University of Massachusetts celebrated the start of the new academic year with a delicious, healthy, record-breaking dish.
About 500 students and staff at the Amherst campus on Monday sliced, diced, pitted and peeled 150 varieties of fruit to create a salad weighing more than 15,000 pounds. The salad was mixed in a 15-foot diameter swimming pool.
It included 20 varieties of apples weighing more than 3,600 pounds; 19 varieties of melon weighing more than 2,500 pounds; peaches; bananas; oranges; berries; and more exotic fruits including quince, passion fruit and rambutan.
A Guinness World Records representative certified the record.
More at http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2013-09-03/university-massachusetts-students-feast-15000-pound-fruit-salad .
Quake noted off Alaska's Aleutian Islands
Source: AP
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A magnitude 6.5 earthquake has been recorded in waters off Alaska's remote Aleutian Island region, where a 7.0 quake hit just last week.
The Alaska Tsunami Warning Center says there is no danger of a tsunami from Tuesday afternoon's quake.
The U.S. Geological Survey says the quake was centered about 50 miles south-southwest of the tiny community of Atka, Alaska. Scientists say earthquakes are very common in the area.
Dozens of aftershocks have been recorded since Friday's big quake.
Read more: http://lubbockonline.com/filed-online/2013-09-03/quake-noted-alaskas-aleutian-islands
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Gender: MaleHometown: South Texas. most of my life I lived in Austin and Dallas
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