Texas

That’s what has happened in Dallas:

Police officers in Dallas, TX have issued at least 39 citations to drivers in the last three years for the non-existent infraction of not speaking English.

Police Chief David Kunkle has apologized publicly to the city's Spanish-speaking community. "I was stunned that this would happen," Kunkle stated. "In my world, you would never tell someone not to speak Spanish."

All pending citations will be dismissed, fines will be returned, and the offices involved will be investigated for dereliction of duty.

Who lives in Dallas? Oh yeah – George Bush. So I guess he is to blame for this, you know since the Republicans blame everything that happens in Chicago on Obama.

Yesterday there was a pro-secession rally in Texas, or as I like to call it “the Rick Perry fan club”. One of the chants they were yelling - “we hate the United States”. Could you imagine that being yelled by people on the left during the Bush years? Welcome to the no-fly list, being intercepted by NSA and followed by the Pentagon.

But this doesn’t seem to be a problem confined to Texas. At the tea rallies and townhalls the right exhibiting more and more hatred to our nation. When we have people proudly declare they are “right wing terrorists” and Republican congressmen offering them support, then the problem becomes symbolic with the Republican Party.

It’s amazing that the party of Lincoln is so damn set on tearing this nation apart. Could you imagine if he was alive today to see this? Hell – could you imagine if Reagan was alive today to see this? The Republican Party has become a party of whackos and until it finds true leadership the membership will continue to deteriorate.

Rick Perry was one of the heroes of that whole “Tea Party” crap, speaking out against the stimulus and rejecting part of it. Now governor secession  wants federal money to cover – well the stuff that would have been covered by the rejected stimulus funds:

Now that the state is dire straits, however, Perry is asking the federal government for a loan to cover the very expenses the rejected stimulus money would have paid for.

While Perry accepted most of the roughly $17 billion in stimulus funds allocated for Texas, the governor in March rejected $555 million that would have covered state unemployment benefits. Perry said he was not accepting the money because the state would have been obligated to expand its unemployment coverage, creating too much of a long term tax burden.

So there you go tea partiers, you got a new target. And while your picketing the Lone star hypocrite, be sure to take a look at that Governor’s mansion, which just so happens is being repaired by ---- wait for it ---- STIMULUS MONEY!!!

This is absolutely horrendous. Rape victims in Texas are getting billed for their medical treatment, and specifically the forensic rape kits.

To make matters even worse, the fund that is supposed to pay these bills has been ending every year with a surplus. Is this the type of conservative governing that Republicans and their heroes like Rick Perry champion?

It looks like the Texas House is not all too happy with Rick Perry and his talking of leaving the union, so they gave Perry his own secession – the removal of his office from the state budget:

House members virtually wiped out Gov. Rick Perry's office budget Friday in order to help veterans and the mentally ill.

With little debate, the House on a voice vote approved erasing 96 percent of the nearly $24 million that budget writers had recommended for Perry's office operation over the next two years.

Some Democrats cast the House's move as a rebuke of the governor's recent comments about Texas seceding from the Union.

Even Republicans went along with it:

However, most Republicans said they went along simply to speed debate of the state budget – a debate that could last into Saturday.

"At the end of the day, the governor will be fully funded," said House GOP caucus chairman Larry Taylor of Friendswood.

Sure it was to “speed debate”. Actually this was one of those “if people like it then I voted for it, if not then I didn’t mean my vote” type deals politicians love to play.

But this does remind me of when Dick Cheney tried to claim he wasn’t part of the executive branch, so Rahm Emanuel put a motion in to strip his funding from the federal budget. Republicans try to make up their own rules, leaving Democrats to enforce the actual rules.

75% of Texans do not want to secede from the union. Perhaps that 75% should tell Rick Perry to keep his trap shut then.

I think back to a time so long ago, when states were upset over the federal government using their national guard troops for a war in a foreign land. In a time when a small town in California didn’t want military recruiters there, so that town would quickly be labeled as some sort of traitor.

That was way back then – like in 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008.

Now here we are in 2009 and the Republicans have a new favorite talking point – secession! It started with Rick Perry of Texas yesterday, and today the state of Georgia is threatening the same thing.

Maybe we should just tell them goodbye. We immediately stop all federal funding to these states. We pull the border agents out of Texas and move them to the border of Texas and its neighboring states America. Georgia also gets its borders sealed off. If people want to travel from their to here, or vice-a-versa, they must go through the same routine they do at the northern and southern borders.

If you’re from Texas or Georgia, and caught in this country without having gone through our border check points, then you will be treated like an illegal immigrant. We can hold you until ready to deport you.

If you are a citizen of one of these former states, there is a way for you to become an American. Just call INS and they will start the paperwork. I got a brother in law from Canada who just spent the last year and thousands doing it. Maybe he will start giving advice for you.

I do have to say that I will miss Georgia. Texas? Not so much so. As matter of fact there is a perfect benefit of losing Texas as a state – no more retarded as Presidents from Texas! That right there is enough reason to tell them to fuck off.

I found this story via Andrew Sullivan, who is going after Belief Net’s Rod Dreher.

Terry Caffey can still taste the blood and gunpowder.

He can hear the staccato gunfire, the shrieks of terror and the plaintive wail of his 13-year-old son – "Why? Why?"

He can feel the heat and suffocating smoke from the fire that rolled along the floors and up the walls of his cabin tucked in the piney woods of East Texas.

And he can see his wife – a humble woman whose fingers danced and spirit soared at her church's piano – slumped at the foot of the bed, her neck slashed so savagely that a coroner's report would say she was nearly decapitated.

The story is rather long and does deserve a read, as the story is very tragic, but I want to focus on one part that Dreher focused on, and resulted in Sullivan calling him “clinical”, a highly appropriate response:

Penny home-schooled the children soon after the family moved from Celeste, population 800, to Emory, population 1,200, about three years ago.

The transition to a larger school district was bumpy.

"I guess you'd call it culture shock," Caffey said. "Emory has a lot of bisexual kids; it's like it was almost cool to be bisexual. One of the first things that happened was some girl wanted to be Erin's little girlfriend. And I was like, 'That ain't happenin'.' "

But after three years of home schooling and much discussion, the children re-enrolled in public schools in 2008. The boys seemed to thrive, but Caffey and his wife were concerned about Erin.

A 16-year-old freshman, she was infatuated with Charlie Wilkinson, an 18-year-old senior – who Caffey describes as cocky and disrespectful.

(emphasis added)

The accusations that this school had “a lot of bisexual kids” has no implication on the actual story or what lead to the deaths. That author just threw it in there to get some gay hate going on it sounds like, and moron’s like Dreher focus on it. There is no evidence to even back this claim up in the story, it’s just a claim made by the victim of a heinous crime. But Dreher is taking it as gospel. As matter of fact the thought there might even be some bi-sexual activity is more shocking than the murders to him:

What got me was this: This is a tiny East Texas town -- and there's a bisexual culture in one of them, among the teenagers? WTF?

First off Mr. Religion – WTF means “what the fuck”. You better go and repent those sins now. But to be shocked by some baseless claim by an individual who went through one of the most traumatic incidents imaginable, and taking that as more shocking than the actual crime – well that is just sick.

Like I said in my earlier post, the Vatican has talked about a “crisis in faith”. With people like Dreher out there, is it any wonder why?

[election 82]

UPDATE 7:00

MSNBC calls VT for McCain and Obama.

UPDATE 9:00

MSNBC calls RI and TX for McCain. That also gives him enough delegates to be the presumptive nominee. He is scheduled to go to the White House tomorrow to get blown by Bush.

UPDATE 9:05

Someone take Chris Matthews off the air. He is having an orgasm over John McCain and saying how it will be very hard for a Democrat to beat him this year.

UPDATE 9:20

Huckabee is history. He has dropped out to spend more time with fried squirrel.

9:23

MSNBC calls RI for Clinton.

10:50

MSNBC calls Ohio for Clinton

Glenn Smith, one of Texas' most plugged in politicos, has posted a piece on MyDD laying out Clinton's reasoning for wanting to sue Texas over the delegate selection. Shorter version - it's to control the media.

I was discussing this with a friend earlier. He brought up something interesting. Who else do we know that tries to change rules, stomps their feet and does whatever they can to get what they want. If you said George Bush then you win the prize.

A new Reuters poll has Obama leading Clinton 48-42 percent in Texas and trailing her 44-42 percent in Ohio.

Chuck Todd just reported on MSNBC that Clinton aides are threatening to sue Texas over their delegate selection process. Basically Clinton is scared of winning the primary, but loosing the caucus they run.

This is a sign of serious desperation on the part of Clinton. It also echoes the desperation shown by her Michigan and Florida claims. Changing the rules just because she is down? She could end up distancing enough Democrats from her that if she did somehow manage to get the nomination, people won't bother to vote for her in the general. Is this what she wants for the country?

UPDATE

The Houston Chronicle is also reporting on it:

The Texas Democratic Party warned Thursday that election night caucuses scheduled for Tuesday could be delayed or disrupted after aides to Hillary Rodham Clinton threatened to sue over the party's complicated delegate selection process.

In a letter sent out late Thursday to both the Clinton and Barack Obama campaigns, Texas Democratic Party lawyer Chad Dunn warned a lawsuit could ruin the Democrats' effort to re-energize voters just as they are turning out in record numbers.

State parties have had their delegate selection plans turned in for over a year. Now that the going gets tough she wants to sue? This is getting ridiculous.

Clinton's firewall in Texas is the one failing. A new CNN poll how has Obama leading 50%-46%. Guess it's time to give Mark Penn a bonus.

Obama is supposed to be under the protection of the Secret Service, yet they ordered police to turn off the metal detectors at a rally in Dallas. Something sounds really fishy there.