Republican Sharon Keller Fined For Ethics Violation

Republican Judge Sharon "Killer" Keller was fined $100,000 by the Texas Ethics Commission for failure to disclose over $2 million in assets on required financial disclosure statements. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals presiding judge must now find a way to fork over the money. Maybe sell some assets?

 

Keller is best known for her banking hours that lead to the execution of a man attempting to file a last minute appeal. She was on trial for 5 counts of judicial misconduct as a result of that blunder, although the case resulted in no reprimand. The latest fine is now the largest on record ever assessed by the TEC.

 

Now might be a good time to think about voting for Keith Hampton for Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in November.

Arizona Anti Immigration Law To Come To Texas?

According to several news outlets, TX State Rep Debbie Riddle of Tomball plans on introducing legislation similar to the extremely ridiculous law in Arizona that requires brown people to carry proof of citizenship. Apparently she had already introduced this in 2009, which did not make it out of committee. She will try again when the next session meets in 2011.

 

Although it should be noted, Riddle's bill requires law enforcement to confirm immigration status of a suspect before making an arrest, and also the suspect does not have to produce identification. An officer should have "reasonable suspicion" of the suspect being illegal. But what is "reasonable"? He/she looks like a Mexican? He/she's last name is Sanchez? He/she doesn't have a driver's license? What constitutes "reasonable"?

 

Riddle calls this a "common sense bill". Apparently she doesn't know what common decency is. She might ought to look into that first.

Terri Hodge Sentenced To One Year In Prison

Former HD100 TX State Rep Terri Hodge was sentenced today to one year in prison for her role in the Dallas City Hall corruption case by falsifying income tax returns. She had faced up to 3 years, a $100k fine, and payment to the IRS.

 

The one year sentence sounds fair enough. I wonder if Dallas politicians have learned their lesson yet, with Hodge, Don Hill, and D'Angelo Lee all going to prison? Probably not. But one would hope.

Texas Blog Roundup

The Texas Progressive Alliance can't believe that school is finishing up and summer will soon be upon us. Before it gets too hot, here's a look at what's been going on this past week.

Help send the Texas Cloverleaf to Netroots Nation by voting on a DFA scholarship.

This week on Left of College Station, Teddy takes a look at the beginning of the campaign for TX-17 between Chet Edwards and Bill Flores. Also, Teddy covers money in local politics by looking at the campaign finance reports of College Station and Bryan municipal candidates. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

TXsharon stepped in DoodyGate this week! It appears Range Resources fabricated a toxic spill to cover up their illegal dump. When a toxic spill causes less hassle than doody, you know the Texas Railroad Commission "regulations" need updating. Will the City of Denton exercise their new found powers?

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme urges you to tell the Texas Legislature that legalizing drugs will stop the border violence. No profit. No drug war.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson post on the Texas GOP's ploy to raise taxes next year, if they're left in power, and try to blame it on Obama - we won't let them! Dewhurst lets the cat out of the bag.

This week, McBlogger would like to send out a massive thank you to Hank Gilbert for standing up and actually calling out Toll Road Todd for beating up, yet again, on Teh Gays.

Just a few weeks after WhosPlayin wrote a blog pointng out Lewisville ISD's illegal "zero tolerance" policy, the school board unanimously overturned it. But WhosPlayin continues to look for answers.

Off the Kuff took a closer look at that Rasmussen poll from last week.

The same thing that caused the deaths of miners in the Upper Big Branch mine is the same thing that caused the bursting of the housing bubble, the Lehman crash, and the implosion of our financial system. Read more at PDiddie's Brains and Eggs post entitled Consumer regulation as coal mine canary".

There is an old saw which says it is a poor general who blames his soldiers for defeat. With the question of Texas public education still unresolved and hurling toward the latest crisis of funding and quality, lightseeker at TexasKaos takes on a San Antonio Express editorial which proceeds to bash teachers and unions as the overlooked villains in this recurring horror show. Check it out : On Teacher Bashing , or Beating Up the Easy Target on Educational Failures.

Neil at Texas Liberal is pleased to announce that the blog now has a New York City correspondent. Lyuba Halkyn, a daughter of Ukrainian immigrants, will now offer up her views for the blog reading public. This post also has a great picture of a blimp flying over Manhattan in the 1930's.

Pete Sessions To Ready His Pail

Pete Sessions, the esteemed strip club fundraiser, Chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee, and also a Congressman in Texas in his spare time, has stated that anything less than winning a majority back in the House in November 2010 "is a warm bucket of spit."

 

Well, Pete. Get ready to start buying massive quantities of 5 gallon buckets.

Texas Blog Roundup

Time for another roundup of the week's blog highlights from the Texas Progressive Alliance.

Something bubbles up from the ground in Bartonville. Could this be why so many dogs nearby have cancer? Since drilling toxins were found in Barnett Shale residents' blood and urine, maybe it's time to test the animals too. TXsharon struggles to keep pace with the latest Barnett Shale news at Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

The Texas Cloverleaf highlights the case of the Christmas goose in Flower Mound.

Off the Kuff writes about the pitch from the gambling industry.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders about the wisdom of building a silly, damaging border fence while allowing foreign companies to control our ports.

It was a wild week for the economy and, surprisingly, for economic history. McBlogger takes a look at one historical revisionist who like misrepresentation almost as much as Ayn Rand. Then he goes on to explain just what Goldman Sachs did.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote a comprehensive preview post of the upcoming election in the United Kingdom. Election Day is May 6. The post is being updated daily with new developments and it took some time to write. So please give it a look if you find the topic to be interest.

Bay Area Houston finds another one of Bob Perry's bitches.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson shows that the 2006 Texas tax swap created a $5 billion annual budget hole, the bill is coming due next year, Texas Republicans created a budget shortfall to cut programs that help working Texans.

Over at TexasKaos, Libby Shaw catches up with Johnny Cronyn . He and Mitch McConnell "continue[s] to serve Wall St. breakfast in bed." More to the point, Libby explains the battle lines being drawn between Obama and the Dems and those lap dogs of the priveleged, the Republican Pary. Check it out John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, the GOP Stand by Their Wall St. Man .

The TeaBaggers and the regular GOP nuts fought each other to a stand-off on Election Runoff Day. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs has the sordid details.

In Flower Mound, gas drillers have crossed the line into express advocacy in local elections, sending out a letter to mineral owners telling them who to vote for in a town council election.

Rick Perry Saying No To President. Maybe. Kinda.

In one of the more laughable quotes of the week, Governor 39% Rick Perry told Newsweek that he had absolutely no interest in being President. Perry told Newsweek that he would not be President of VP under any circumstances. Please note this for the record when we get around to 2012. As we are all aware, Perry wanted Texas to secede from the union, however has been running the circuit of potential nominees already, kicking it off with the Southern Republican Leadership Conference. Politicians who attend these events clearly want to get their Presidential hopeful feet wet. Newsweek has probably done a good job catching Perry in what will be a lie to come back to haunt him if he so chooses to run for President in 2 years.

The Case Of The Christmas Goose In Flower Mound

In documents finally released to the Dallas Morning News, both the Mayor and Mayor Pro Tem of Flower Mound were caught on tape pinching the ass of a town police officer in the council chambers at the end of a November 2009 council meeting. The chief of police had filed a sexual harassment complaint, although an "independent" investigation claimed it was not sexual harassment.

 

Mayor Jody Smith and Mayor Pro Tem Jean Levenick both goosed the officer from either side of him, and the incident was even caught on tape. I don't know about you, but if I am in my office and someone grabs my ass, that would pretty much fall under the realm of sexual harassment if it was unwanted contact. I fail to see how a pinch on the butt doesn't fall into that category. The two ladies agreed it was "not appropriate workplace conduct".

 

The Mayor claims it is politically motivated. Sorry, lady. You pinched some dude on the ass at work. It probably should motivate the voters of Flower Mound to question you.

Texas Blog Roundup

Here are the weekly highlights from the Texas Progressive Alliance.

At Texas Vox, our thoughts remain with the victims of the West Virginia mining disaster, the worst mining accident in 25 years.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants to know why Republicans like Victoria's DA Steve Tyler, Nueces County's DA Anna Jimenez and (who could forget) Alberto Gonzales abuse their offices?

The Texas Cloverleaf thinks Rick Perry is eyeing 2012 before 2010 is even over with.

WhosPlayin is watching the situation in Flower Mound, where a group of citizens successfully petitioned to have an oil and gas drilling moratorium put on the ballot, only to get some mostly frivolous ethics charges filed against them by a former Town Councilman.

Continuing his examination of partisan voting trends, Off the Kuff looks at how voting changed in judicial races between 2002 and 2006.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has an update as the runoff, to see who will challenge Rep. Diana Maldonado, approaches HD-52 GOP Runoff - issues take a back seat.

Bay Area Houston compares Sarah Palin's intelligence on safe sex and nuclear disarmament.

They're everywhere! They're everywhere! Emissions, which are really toxins, are throughout the entire Barnett Shale area. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS.

McBlogger loves it when Bill Hammond of the Texas Association of Business let's Teh Stupid flow freely.

FOX News' 24-hour "War of the Worlds"-styled fearmongering caught the attention of PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

This week on Left of College Station, Teddy reports on the how the campaign in the Republican primary for Texas Congressional District 17 has turned negative. Also, Teddy takes a first look at the College Station City Council Place 2 candidates and at the Bryan City Council Single Member District 3 candidates. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

Libby Shaw asks a simple question over at TexasKaos - So, How will Rick Perry deliver access to affordable health care to Texas? . She points out that "According to new federal regulations, Rick Perry and the health insurance companies in Texas have 90 days to deliver a plan that will cover uninsured Texans.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted on the history of disco music. Disco Inferno! Learn The Interesting History Of Disco Music Despite the bad historical reviews disco receives, a new book says that the music was an important social indicator in a time of societal gains for women and gays.

Republican In Democrats Clothing Urging Republicans To Vote In Dallas Democratic Runoff

Received this memo from Dallas SDEC members today urging Democrats to vote in the runoff. Tillery is the only qualified candidate in this race, and clearly the only Democrat as well.

 

To: Dallas Democrats

 

From: SDEC Members Dr. Martha Williams, David Bradley, Dr. Theresa Daniel, Susan Culp

 

Re: Former Republican Judge and Democratic Runoff candidate David Kelton asks Republicans to vote in Democratic Primary Runoff and lets them know they can still vote Republican in November

 

DEAR DEMOCRATS:

 

In January, several State Democratic Executive Committee members and Democratic precinct chairs issued a warning about judicial candidate David Kelton's deep ties to the Republican Party. He is a former Republican Judge, ousted in 2006 by our historic Democratic sweep, and he has a long history of giving and receiving money from Republicans, which we detailed in our prior message.

 

Now his wife, Ruth Kelton, who is the co-chair of the Internal Review Committee of the Park Cities Republican Women (reference: www.parkcitiesrepublicanwomen.org) has sent a letter to Republicans who did not vote in the Primary election, urging them to vote in the Democratic Runoff for her husband over Democratic stalwart Dale Tillery.

 

Dale Tillery is our choice in this race both because of his outstanding legal qualifications (he has over 25 years of legal experience and he is Board Certified, which Kelton is not) and because of his longtime service to the Democratic Party. Tillery, as you recall, was a four-term Democratic State Representative in southeast Dallas County in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

 

The following is the key excerpt from Republican Kelton's letter that was distributed to Republicans:

 

"If you are a registered Republican and did not vote in the Republican Primary or sign a petition for a Republican to get on the ballot, you can vote in the Democratic runoff election. Voting for David Kelton in the Democratic runoff election does not obligate Republicans to vote Democratic in November."

 

Clearly Kelton's ties to and reliance on the Republican Party in Dallas continues. And he clearly has no interest in building or supporting our party, as shown by his campaign asking Republicans to vote in our primary and then letting them know they can still vote AGAINST our candidates in the General Election.

 

We felt that it was very important to share this information with you.

 

Maybe we're old-fashioned, but we believe that the nominees of the Democratic Party should be selected by Democrats.  Please join us in voting for the REAL Democrat, Dale Tillery for Judge of the 134th Civil District Court.

 

Vote Early TODAY

 

or

Election Day is next Tuesday, April 13th

 

Polls are open 7am to 7pm

 

Please VOTE!

Eric Johnson Wins Special Election In HD 100

Eric Johnson, the winner of this March's Democratic Primary in HD 100, also won a special election yesterday called by Governor Perry to fill the seat vacated by the previous State Rep Terri Hodge. Since Johnson was the only candidate to file for the May 8th special election, he can be seated immediately. I wish Eric the best and hopefully he can work to remove a blight from the Dallas political scene.

Could A North Texas Rail Project Go Private?

There has been a lot of public private partnerships in Texas, most involving toll roads, but some involving projects such as Dallas's soon to be built deck park over Woodall Rogers Freeway downtown. But Texas has never had anyone interested in a venture involving a rail road. Until now.

 

NCTCOG is looking to speed up the development of the proposed Cotton Belt rail line by allowing private investors to build the project on their own. Both DART and the Fort Worth T has been wanting to build a rail line in the corridor formerly used by cotton freight trains beginning in 2013. However, budget issues in DART has put the project low on its list of things to do. The line would run from a connection with the DART Red Line at Bush Turnpike Station between Plano and Richardson westward through Plano and North Dallas to Addison, continuing to connect again with the new DART Green Line in Downtown Carrollton (which also links up to the DCTA line to Denton) and further westward into the north end of DFW Airport connecting to the new DART Orange Line. The Fort Worth T also has plans to take the line from DFW Airport to the southwest part of their city. The line could even further be expanded all the way to downtown Wylie. The proposed rail line is an essential cog in the economic development plan on DFW, as well as the mass transit plan.

 

The drawback to a private enterprise venture is the cost to the consumer. If no tax dollars are spent on the project whatsoever, it is likely the fares on the trains will be substantially higher than those on local DART and TRE rail lines. But personally, I think the Cotton Belt may be a more heavily traveled rail line than the Red or Blue Lines in Dallas currently are. It would provide an essential mass transit option in the northern suburbs of Dallas that has been lacking. People are tired of toll roads and tired of being married to their cars. They want more options, and mass transit in the northern suburbs has simply been lacking. DFW Airport also gains with rail lines in and out of both ends of the complex. The Cotton Belt would go north. The Orange Line would go south.

 

I would much rather pay tolls on my rail lines than tolls on my roads. If DFW is to be anything like a major metro area, it needs major rail service and the Cotton Belt is the answer.

Rick Perry Eyeing 2012 Before 2010?

The Southern Republican Leadership Conference begins tomorrow in New Orleans. Among the speakers, of which many are Presidential hopefuls, is none other than Governor 39% himself, Rick Perry. The lineup of wingnuts also include people like Sarah Palin, Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich, and Rick Santorum. Granted Perry is a Southern leader, but is he looking past election day in 2010 and into 2012 when he could be a leading contender for the GOP nomination.

What is more disturbing are the budget accomplishments attributed to someone who vetoed almost everything that came across his desk. Teacher pay raises and more college financial aid is said to have been Perry's doing. Nevermind the fact Rick Perry failed to allow the TEA to obtain $700 million in funding for schools, in state college tuition in Texas is more than double that of many other states and on the rise, and he will be leading us to an $11 billion budget shortfall in 2011.

The destruction of Texas has been under the blind eye of Rick Perry. Lord help us if he runs for President too.

Texas Blog Roundup

The Texas Progressive Alliance welcomes the start of the new baseball season with another highlight reel of the week's political activity.

Off the Kuff looked at how voting returns changed in Texas from 2004 to 2008 in the Presidential and judicial races.

Aruba Petroleum: The Epic Fail of the Barnett Shale. Bluedaze: DRILLING REFORM FOR TEXAS now brings you 55 posts to document this failure of epic proportions.

Marshmallow Peeps make sweeping endorsements of Democrats on The Texas Cloverleaf.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wonders why Republicans and Republican suck ups act like bleeping thugs? New Perry appointee, Nueces County DA Jimenez, threw out the board certified attorneys to bring in her cronies and HD 76 rep Norma Chávez is channeling Karl Rove.

A Texas Vox, everyone is a-twitter about the upcoming appliance rebate program. Want to trade up your tired old appliances for shiny new energy-efficient ones? The guv'ment will send you a check for it...

The last chapter (?) in the sad saga of Stay Bailey Hutchison is read aloud by PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

Sure April Fools Day is over, but this was funny enough to share again. Sarah Palin to Replace Michael Steele as Chair of the GOP. Bay Area Houston continues to be full of wit.

This week on Left of College Station, Teddy takes a first look at the Bryan mayoral candidates, and this week he will be taking a look at the candidates for College Station City Council Place 2 and Bryan City Council Single Member District 3. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson posts on the GOP's latest posturing and states that it's time for Gov. Perry and the Texas GOP to put up or shut up.

Neil at Texas Liberal wrote about undersea volcanoes in the Gulf of Mexico that shoot out asphalt. Who knew?

WhosPlayin says animal welfare actvists in North Texas are claiming a victory in their fight against puppy mills: After months of weekly picketing by Texans Exposing Petland, the Lewisville, Texas Petland store is closing down.

Peeps Make Sweeping Endorsements Of Texas Democrats

In honor of Easter, Marshmallow Peeps have released their latest round of endorsements in the 2010 elections.

Normally 700 million Peeps are eaten every year. But Peeps in Texas hide out in smoky back rooms and have been making political endorsements since 2006 on Burnt Orange Report. Halloween Peeps admittedly have gotten it wrong twice, by endorsing Kinky Friedman and Tom Schieiffer for Governor. But we're hoping Easter Peeps get it right this time, by endorsing the entire 2010 Texas Democratic slate.

Peeps aren't so sure about the LaRouche candidate in Congressional District 22. Kesha Rogers has been known to want Peeps impeached. But Peeps pretty much like everyone else.

Happy Easter everyone!