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Pot laws to loosen in Texas? Not just yet

Rick Perry had marijuana law reformers’ hearts fluttering the other day.

The Texas governor endorsed the idea that states should set drug laws, which caused some folks in the reform movement thinking, as the Texas Tribune’s Julian Aguilar reports, that the theory of relative is a sham or that Pink Floyd’s estranged founder might rejoin the band.

Don’t count on a change of heart in Texas.

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/16/few-see-immediate-changes-texas-pot-laws/

Frankly, though, it would be refreshing to see the state at least take a hard look at whether we’re punishing those who smoke grass a little too harshly.

Should we follow the lead of Washington and Colorado and legalize its sale and use? That idea, too, is worth considering.

Perry went on to endorse the drug court program used in many Texas counties, which includes Potter and Randall counties. Perry spokesman Rich Parsons said: “The governor does support the system of drug courts in Texas that have proven successful in diverting those who qualify away from incarceration and into rehabilitative programs that reduce recidivism and help people end their drug use.”

My own feelings about marijuana penalties have tempered quite a bit in recent times. I’m thinking it’s time to reconsider whether the strict laws — particularly the mandatory sentencing policies handed down by the federal government — do anything other than clog our lockups with offenders who’ve done else wrong.

Some folks think the tide is turning in favor of loosening these penalties. Perhaps it is.

I’ll need some more convincing that Texas at least is nearing the head of the curve, rather than lagging so far behind it.

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Climate change beyond doubt

Let’s see: Who’s the expert on climate change, a scientist or a politician?

I’ll go with the scientist.

Scientist Bill “The Science Guy” Nye debated politician Marsha Blackburn today on “Meet the Press.” The topic was whether Earth’s climate is changing. Nye says it is; Blackburn expresses doubt.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2014/02/16/gop_rep_marsha_blackburn_vs_bill_nye_on_climate_change.html

As the program’s moderator David Gregory tried to point out several times during the exchange, the fact of climate change seems beyond dispute. The only topic worth debating is its cause.

And, for my money, even that debate is beginning to look more like a slam dunk in favor of those who believe human beings are responsible for the resulting change in our worldwide climate patterns.

This is a difficult concept to swallow during this winter of extreme cold, record-breaking snow in the Northeast, prolonged cold in the Midwest — including some mighty chilly days in the Texas Panhandle — and the catastrophic winter storms that have swept through the South.

The point Nye was trying to convey this morning, though, was that even those changes reflect a dynamic not seen in many decades, perhaps even centuries.

How many “storms of the century” have we seen in recent years? They seem to arrive annually. Don’t those descriptions of these monumental weather events send up any red flags — even among those who continue to doubt the existence of climate change or those who pooh-pooh the idea as being some sort of left-wing conspiracy to destroy the fossil fuel industry?

Rep. Blackburn chairs a House science and technology committee. So she’s got some credibility on this issue.

Nye looks at this more from a scientific perspective. Yes, there exists plenty of debate among scientists about climate change and its cause.

The evidence continues to persuade me that it’s real and — if there’s anything humans can do about it — that it’s long past time to act.

I’m just hoping it’s not too late.

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Sen. McConnell casts correct vote on debt ceiling

Mitch McConnell isn’t one of my favorite U.S. senators.

However, the Kentucky Republican cast a vote that might get him in trouble with an even more annoying bunch of politicians … the folks who comprise the tea party wing of the GOP.

You go, Sen. McConnell.

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/02/mitch-mcconnell-debt-ceiling-103564.html?hp=l1

McConnell voted to approve an increase in the national debt ceiling, enabling the government to borrow more money to pay its bills. To do otherwise, said the Senate minority leader, would be to bring on catastrophe.

He voted to “protect” the country, he said.

That won’t go down well with tea party activists back home in Kentucky, where he’s facing a GOP primary challenge and a possibly stern challenge from the Democrats this fall — if he survives the primary battle.

McConnell was forced to cast the vote after Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, forced his hand in a procedural motion on the Senate floor. McConnell had hoped to approve the debt ceiling increase without having to have his name displayed so prominently. Cruz would have none of it.

I’m betting now that McConnell and the Cruz Missile aren’t exactly the best of friends.

McConnell leaned toward his good-government instincts in voting to approve the debt limit without attaching any spending-reduction strings.

“We were confronted with a clean debt ceiling in the Senate or default. I believe I have to act in the best interests of the country, and every time we’ve been confronted with a potential crisis, the guy you’re looking at is the one who stepped up to solve the problem,” McConnell told reporters.

The alternative, defaulting on our obligations, was a non-starter.

McConnell deserves thanks, not condemnation.

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Seliger leaves big footprint down south

Some in the media and in political circles are suggesting a North-South battle in the contest for Texas Senate District 31, an office currently occupied by Kel Seliger, R-Amarillo.

His challenger in the Republican primary — with no Democrats running this year — is Mike Canon, a former mayor of Midland.

Amarillo vs. Midland, North vs. South, Us vs. Them … whatever.

Aside from the fact that Seliger is far more fluent in the nuance of politics and legislating than his opponent — who tends to speak in talking points and clichés — I want to offer this little tidbit that might not be known around the vast Senate district.

Seliger has a single office in Amarillo, on Polk Street downtown. He’s got three of them within spitting distance of each other in the Permian Basin.

Seliger runs an office in Midland, one in Odessa — which is about a 20-minute drive down Interstate 20 — and one in Big Spring. Midland, Ector and Howard counties all can boast offices staffed by living, breathing human beings representing the district’s elected senator.

Is anyone in these parts carping about that disparity? I haven’t heard it.

Seliger’s near-decade in the Senate has demonstrated his attention to the entire district, which is one of the larger Senate districts in the Legislature. It stretches from the Oklahoma border to just past the Permian Basin. It takes half a day — by that I mean 12 hours — to drive from one end of the district and back again.

I trust the media and the political hounds campaigning around the district will take note of Seliger’s presence down south — where he has been anything but an absentee senator.

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Energy still drives economy

An interesting survey popped up on MSN.com that showed the cities with the five best economies in the United States.

Of the five, four of them have something in common: oil.

The energy-related economies that made the top five are: Midland and Odessa, Texas, Fargo, N.D., and Sioux Falls, S.D. Midland and Odessa ranked Nos. 1 and 2, respectively. The third-best local economy belongs to Pascagoula, Miss.

http://money.msn.com/investing/us-cities-with-the-best-worst-economies

This is an interesting development in that Midland and Odessa experienced tremendous booms in the 1970s when the price of oil “skyrocketed” to what then was considered a huge price for a barrel of oil: about $40 and change. Midland built skyscrapers downtown, creating a skyline in a city of about 80,000 that would become the envy of city planners in much-larger communities. Those gleaming, tall buildings would go dark in the 1980s as the price of oil collapsed and companies declared bankruptcy.

I was living in Beaumont at the time and watched petrochemical plants lay off thousands of employees as the demand for their products fell precipitously.

The cycle is repeating itself now in the Permian Basin and way up yonder in the Dakotas, where communities are being remade into something no one recognizes as drilling contractors pour into the region to explore for shale oil buried in what’s believed to be the largest petroleum reserve on the planet.

Let’s wish them luck during these boom times. They might need plenty of it if the oil economy collapses yet again — which could happen.

Those who’ve lived through some of these cycles before understand full well about the nature of that particular industry.

A word of caution: Start planning for some serious economic diversification.

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Tide moving against same-sex marriage ban

Is it me or is there an increasingly inexorable tide beginning to swell across the nation in the move to legalize marriage between two people of the same sex?

Virginia is the latest state to have its ban on same-sex marriage overturned. It joins Oklahoma and Utah among the ranks of states that have had similar laws tossed aside.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/judge-strikes-down-virginia-gay-marriage-ban

The federal judge in this case was appointed to her post by President Obama.

U.S. District Judge Orenda Wright Allen wrote: “Our Constitution declares that ‘all men’ are created equal. Surely this means all of us. While ever-vigilant for the wisdom that can come from the voices of our voting public, our courts have never long tolerated the perpetuation of laws rooted in unlawful prejudice.”

So it goes on.

Texas remains on the list of states where gays and/or lesbians might sue for similar results.

The Texas Constitution has been amended to disallow same-sex marriage. Its language says virtually the same thing the Oklahoma Constitution says it its ban. Yet a judge in the Sooner State tossed out the prohibition for the same reasons that Judge Allen did in Virginia.

What has been most interesting to me was that Texas already had a statute on the books that prohibited same-sex marriage, but the Legislature and Gov. Rick Perry decided it wanted to double-down on the prohibition by adding an amendment to the state Constitution.

I’m betting the tide is going to catch up eventually with Texas’s ban. It’s likely just a matter of time.

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Yes, GOP needs to ‘change’

Rand Paul says the Republican Party needs a radical makeover if it hopes to win the presidency in his lifetime.

Interesting, coming from a Kentucky senator whose philosophies have played a part in the GOP’s losing strategy the past two presidential election cycles.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/rand-paul-without-change-gop-will-not-win-again-in-my-lifetime/

Paul says the party cannot “tinker around the edges.” It needs radical change, he said.

Here’s an idea: Why not return to the ways of the Republican old guard, you know, the guys who won while running behind the likes of George H.W. Bush, Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush?

They’re all different, to be sure. Ike was a war hero who was destined to win the presidency in 1952. He governed from the middle and helped oversee a period of unprecedented prosperity during the bulk of the 1950s. Richard Nixon he turned out to be a disgrace and doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath with Ike, Reagan or the Bushes.

Ronald Reagan was a true-blue conservative. However, he didn’t demonize his foes. He befriended them after hours and worked with Democrats whenever opportunities presented themselves.

George H.W. Bush — in my mind — was arguably the most qualified man to serve as president. War hero, ambassador to the U.N., congressman, special envoy to China, party chairman, CIA director and vice president. He also was a mainstream politician who also could work with the other guys.

W. campaigned as a “compassionate conservative” and while he made some mistakes — the Iraq War and his hands-off financial policies that contributed to the economic collapse at the end of his presidency — also sought to govern reasonably.

The change Paul has called for cannot take his party down the do-nothing road. Government has to play a role in helping people. Republicans and Democrats need to look proactively common ground instead of looking for reasons to oppose one another.

Paul is calling for a “more diverse party.” How he’ll seek that diversity remains a mystery, given the GOP’s insistence on laws that make voting more difficult, seeking to block efforts to improve the immigration system, continuing to meddle in people’s personal lives and putting the interests of wealthy Americans above those of the rest of us.

I want the Republican Party to reshape itself. Honest. It’s got to emerge in the manner that Rand Paul says he envisions, and not in the form of some crazy cabal of kooks — many of whom have taken the Grand Old Party hostage.

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UAW loses vote at Tennessee VW plant

Well, at least my dismal record of predicting political outcomes remains intact.

Tennessee autoworkers have rejected a bid by the United Auto Workers to unionize the operation. I had thought most of the workers would seek to join the UAW — and I said so on this blog.

Silly me.

Auto workers reject union in Tennessee

I get that the UAW lost the vote and I’ll accept that outcome. That was their call.

What’s still difficult to accept is the interference thrown in front of the effort to unionize the workers by a member of the U.S. Senate, a former mayor of the city where the Volkswagen plant is located. Republican Bob Corker argued vehemently against the unionizing effort and threatened the VW plant with retribution if its workers endorsed the UAW effort.

The troubling aspect of this is not that Corker opposed the union per se. It is that he was elected ostensibly as a pro-business conservative who, I think I presume correctly, has suggested that government should stay out of the affairs of private business. VW moguls had said they would not oppose the unionizing of its Chattanooga, Tenn. workforce.

So why did the Distinguished Gentleman feel the need to throw the weight of his public office, his own high profile in the state and the power of the federal government behind something that was essentially a private business decision?

What’s done is done. This particular VW plant’s workers won’t be unionized. I’m hoping the company treats them right.

I ought to stay the heck out of the predicting business.

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Do as we say, not as we do

What a revoltin’ development!

It turns out that five men seeking to become Texas’s next agriculture commissioner all are highly critical of federal “intrusion” into state affairs, all the while taking money from those dreaded feds in the form of farm subsidies.

Who knew?

http://www.texastribune.org/2014/02/14/farm-subisides-go-anti-federal-govt-candidiates/

The Texas Tribune reports that the five Republican ag commissioner candidates received $1.3 million in payments from the feds during the past 20 years.

Fascinating, isn’t it?

President Obama recently signed the new farm bill into law, which reduces aid for food stamp recipients by $8 billion. Two of the GOP candidates, Sid Miller and Eric Opiela, said the food stamps cuts didn’t go far enough, according to the Tribune.

Miller told the Tribune that he favors “good legislation, not expedient legislation,” and that the farm bill fails the “good” standard.

He and several other candidates said they would have voted against the farm bill. I wonder.

A fellow with some farm and legislative experience of his own, former Democratic U.S. Rep. Charles Stenholm, sees it differently. “I’ve had this request made to me many times. Farmers say, ‘Charlie, just separate the farm portion from the food stamp portion.’ I say, great, we’ll have no farm bill,” Stenholm told the Tribune.

The salient point, though, is that these individuals seeking to run the Texas Department of Agriculture are talking a good game but are playing a different one. I am fully aware that politicians of all stripes do one thing and say another. Hypocrisy doesn’t adhere to a political monopoly.

However, if you’re going to campaign on a pledge to keep the federal government out of the state’s business, shouldn’t you at least have the courage to reject the feds’ money when they seek to fatten your own bank account?

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‘There isn’t a Republican Party’

Vice President Joe Biden occasionally gets mocked and ridiculed because he tends to say some off-the-wall things.

This link contains a curious truth about the state of a once-great Republican Party.

http://www.msnbc.com/hardball/biden-republican-party

It is that, as Biden noted, the Republican Party has morphed into perhaps three sub-parties.

If you watched President Obama’s State of the Union speech and then listened intently to the so-called “Republican response” to it, you heard three responses.

One came from a Washington state member of Congress, Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, speaking for the “mainstream” or “establishment” wing of the party; another came from a senator, Mike Lee of Utah, who spoke for the tea party wing of the GOP; then came the response from Rand Paul of Kentucky who spoke for, well, the Rand Paul wing of the Republican Party.

The budget deal that was worked out by the Senate Budget Committee Chairwoman Patty Murray, D-Wash., and House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., divided the party along two fissures.

Then this week we saw Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, force fellow Republicans to cast a vote in favor of raising the debt ceiling without strings, which he did to embarrass members of his own party — and in the process he incurred the wrath of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who’s facing a tough primary challenge from the tea party wing at home.

The vice president said, “I wish there was a Republican Party. I wish there was one person who would sit across the table from us, make a deal, make a compromise, and know when you got up from that table, it was done.”

He added, “All you had to do is look at the response to the State of the Union. What were there, three or four?”

A Texas Panhandle Republican, the late state Sen. Teel Bivins, used to lament how Republicans occasionally would “eat their young.”

Bon appetit, GOP.