Will Cities Turn Texas Purple?

Houston Skyline

Here in Virginia, while horrific gerrymandering has protected the Republicans in the Virginia General Assembly, in statewide elections it is seemingly becoming impossible for the GOP to win (this trend hopefully will continue and see Ed Gillespie go down to much deserved defeat).  Why?  The cities and urban areas no longer accept the GOP Kool-Aid and voodoo economics.   Some think a similar trend may be about to show itself in Texas where the progressive, modern cities are less and less friendly territory for the Christofascist and greed driven policies of the Texas Republican Party.  A column in the New York Times looks at the phenomenon which I hope will continue to play out. Here are highlights:

[A]s summer has turned to fall, Ms. Wendy Davis has entered new territory: Last week a poll by the Texas Lyceum, a nonpartisan, nonprofit educational institution, showed that Ms. Davis has narrowed that gap to just nine points, and pundits around the state are talking about a new momentum behind her. What happened?

The short answer is tactics. Ms. Davis’s campaign hasn’t been perfect, but she is dogged on the stump, and has stood up well to Mr. Abbott’s attacks.

Of course, Ms. Davis is still nine points back, and she has just five weeks to catch up. Which is why the longer explanation for her turnaround is more important, not just for Texas, but the country.

Many hoping to see Texas go purple point to the growth of its Hispanic community. And that’s part of it, but not everything. Population growth, soaring diversity and dense urbanization are also transforming Texas, much as they have done in Virginia and North Carolina.

Texas’ economy has been booming almost nonstop since 2000, and the state added 4.3 million people between 2000 and 2010. Americans came from every point on the map. Once a minority, the Hispanic population swelled, too, and will be the largest ethnic group in Texas this year (some say they could be the majority by 2020).

Yet there is far more to political change in Texas than the emerging Hispanic majority. Take greater Houston. The suburbs that once determined its voting patterns have become just one part of a megalopolis. Covering nearly as much territory as Maryland, the Houston area is the most diverse in America — even more so than New York or Los Angeles.  

Houston is not merely more Hispanic; the fastest-growing ethnic group is Asian. . . . And 98 percent of the population growth in the first 10 years of this century has been nonwhite.

The same trends are found in the Texas Triangle, an increasingly dense region bounded by Houston, San Antonio and Dallas-Fort Worth. It includes less than 20 percent of the state’s land but all its biggest cities. Conservative politicians do poorly in these settings.

The political shift is unmistakable. In Houston, 83 percent of residents favor a legal path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Six in 10 say abortion is morally wrong but oppose making it harder for women to get one. In August, an effort to repeal Houston’s new equal protection ordinance for gay, lesbian, bisexual and transsexual people failed.

Republican strength is on the wane in some of those key suburbs, too. The Republican margin in Fort Bend County shrank in 2012 from double digits to just six points.

None of this is to say that Ms. Davis will win — but she might. And four years from now, she, or another candidate, will have an even easier time. No, that dusky sky up there is not blue. It is still burnt orange — but with quite a bit of purple.

Koch-friendly Texas GOP Loosens Chemical Safety Rules

I have said before that the Republican Party is seeking to restore the Gilded Age and make life as dangerous and harsh as it was for so many during that era while the wealthy lived the lives of near royalty.  Part of this agenda is to dismantle regulations that protect the public under the guise of freeing corporations from "needless regulations."  If one wants to see this batshitery taken to its loggical conclusion, look no farther than the Texas GOP which is dismantling chemical safety rules.  Now, a concerned parent cannot even verify if a toxic chemical storage facility might be located near a home they are seeking to purchase.  The Raw Story looks at this insanity.  Here are some excerpts:

In the wake of the devastating explosion in West, Texas, MSNBC host Rachel Maddow said on Monday, state Republicans did nothing — except make it harder for the public to know what potentially dangerous chemicals are being stored by industry forces.

“The official advice from the Republican-controlled Texas state government to the citizens of that state is that Texas residents should go door-to-door in their communities trying to surmise whether or not there might be any dangerous chemicals stored in any facilities nearby.”

Specifically, she said, Attorney General and GOP gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott issued that directive not long after holdings by conservative billionaires Charles and David Koch began donating to his campaign. As The Dallas Morning News reported, Abbott’s campaign has received $50,000 in donations, as well as another $25,000 from Charles Koch’s son, David. Abbott was also flown on a Koch Industries jet to a Koch-sponsored event introducing candidates to more wealthy donors.

Abbott, who is running against state Sen. Wendy Davis (D), began getting the donations, Maddow said, in September 2013 — four months after the blast in West, which injured more than 200 people. Koch Industries dismissed the Morning News‘ report as “a vague and improbable quid-pro-quo ‘linkage.’”

Subsequently, she explained, Abbott scrapped the state’s public database of dangerous chemicals being housed at any given time in a May 2014 ruling. While businesses must still report that information to the state, Abbott decided, officials “must withhold” that information. 

When asked to explain his rationale, Abbott told reporters that residents were free to “drive around” and ask companies in person, or via email, for that type of information. Later, a spokesperson for Abbott was quoted as saying that local fire departments can also withhold it, since they were considered a “governmental entity” under Abbott’s ruling.

Abbott’s decision, she said, effectively removed one more tier of regulation from a state that already does not require companies to have sprinklers or many storage provisions of any kind for chemicals that — as the “apocalypse” in West demonstrated — can actively endanger communities. That lack of oversight, she said, can be traced to outgoing Gov. Rick Perry (R).

“Rick Perry is going to run for president again on the basis of ‘the Texas miracle,’ where he says things like not having any zoning laws and not having any fire codes, those are the things that make Texas great, and we should elect him president because he will apply ‘the Texas miracle’ to the whole country” she said. “And Greg Abbott is the man who’s running to replace Rick Perry.”

And people ask why I am no longer a Republican!

Texas GOP Gubernatorial Candidate Calls South Texas "Third-World Country"

GOP's Greg Abbott

If one wants to see what passes as outreach to minorities look no farther than Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott who has called the Rio Grande Valley a "third world country."  Why?  Because of its high Hispanic population, of course.  That someone like Abbott can even be running for governor makes one long for the future when Texas's urban areas can completely out vote the rural regions as is happening slowly but steadily in Virginia.  The Raw Story looks at Abbott's batshitery. Here are highlights:

When Texas Attorney General and Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott compared the Rio Grande Valley to a “third-world country” earlier this week, progressives and the Latino community in south Texas hit the roof.

Democratic opponent State Sen. Wendy Davis (D-Fort Worth) called on Abbott “to apologize for his offensive and erroneous comment that problems facing South Texas resemble ‘third-world country practices that erode the social fabric of our communities and destroys Texans’ trust in government’” in a letter published in the south Texas publication The Monitor.

“While I agree we should ensure that law enforcement has the necessary resources throughout our state, it’s unfortunate that oftentimes the conversation around our border communities focuses solely on enforcement,” she wrote, taking issue with Abbott’s “divisive rhetoric” and calling for “leadership that is grounded in facts and is ready to open up new opportunities with trade and commerce which currently support hundreds of thousands of jobs in Texas.”

Texas Governor Rick Perry Will Not Seek Reelection

Rick Perry - long rumored to be a closet case - has announced that he will not seek re-election.  Perry most recently made headlines by personally attacking the Texas Senator Wendy Davis who filibustered a proposed draconian amendment to Texas' abortion laws.  Perry, Ken Cuccinelli and, of course Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker epitomize the insanity that has become the norm among most Republican governors and would be governors.  If the nation is lucky, Perry will not make another run for president in 2016.   His decision to not seek reelection will hopefully set the stage for someone sane to win the governor's mansion.  The Washington Post looks at Perry's announcement.  Here are excerpts:

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R), the longest-serving governor in the state’s history, announced here Monday that he will not seek reelection in 2014 amid speculation that he will run again for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016.

“I remain excited about the future and the challenges ahead but the time has come to pass on the mantle of leadership,” Perry told an audience at a heavy equipment company in San Antonio. “Today I am announcing I will not seek reelection as governor of Texas.”



Even before Perry made his announcement, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott (R) had made no secret of his desire to run for governor. With Perry’s decision, he will be able to move ahead..

Perry’s announcement came as a special session of the Texas legislature continued work in Austin on a bill to restrict abortions. A similar measure died during a special session last month after an 11-hour filibuster by state Sen. Wendy Davis (D) and as a chorus of demonstrators chanted from the galleries as time in the session expired.

His most embarrassing moment came at a [presidential] debate in Michigan when he faltered as he tried to remember the three agencies of government that he had pledged to eliminate if elected. “Oops,” he said apologetically when he finally acknowledged that he couldn’t remember the third..

The “oops” moment was an exclamation point that came to define his candidacy, though his fate was sealed earlier at a debate in Florida when he described opponents of a Texas plan to grant in-state tuition to children of illegal immigrants as “heartless.” He never recovered from that episode, though he remained in the race for another two months.

Though Perry was silent on the question of 2016, his advisers were peppered with questions from reporters after the event and did nothing to tamp down talk that he is already pointing toward another campaign.  

I'm sorry, but Perry is an idiot.  But, idiocy is the main character of today's GOP base.