Category Archives: State news

education news, State news

Patrick goes to war … against higher ed

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, no shrinking violet to be sure, has decided the latest “enemy” of the public are the educators who lecture our students attending public universities.

Patrick wants to restructure the tenure status granted to professors, making tenure subject to annual review rather than every six years. He wants public college and universities to stop teaching “nutty” notions. He said, according to the Texas Tribune: “I will not stand by and let looney Marxist UT professors poison the minds of young students with Critical Race Theory,” Patrick wrote on Twitter. “We banned it in publicly funded K-12 and we will ban it in publicly funded higher ed … “

Let’s hold on a minute, shall we?

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/18/dan-patrick-texas-tenure-critical-race-theory/

I have been critical of universities that ban conservatives from speaking at, say, convocations or commencement ceremonies. Our institutions of higher learning are supposed to be open to all ideas, to all principles, all perspectives, all world views. Why not, then, let students decide which of them they embrace? Why not expose these young people — and, frankly, some students who aren’t so young — to all ideas?

Patrick favors only those ideas that comport with his own rigid conservative view of the world.

He targets “critical race theory” because, according to Patrick, it promotes a hatred of the country. Why? Because professors would dare to tell students about the nation’s original sin, the enslavement of African Americans. Uh, Dan? It happened, man! Telling our students of that sad chapter in our history is no “looney Marxist” theory.

As for the frontal assault on tenure, Patrick needs to stop politicizing a policy that grants academic freedom in a place where it should be honored, not vilified for political gain.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

education news, State news

Tenure war in Texas?

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick has found a topic on which he wants to run for re-election. He wants to demonize college professors who dare teach their students about elements of U.S. history that include slavery and racist efforts to subjugate American citizens on the basis of their skin color.

He vows to eliminate tenure for those professors who teach what is called “critical race theory.” His first target will be new hires at Texas public colleges and universities. He also threatens to broaden his fight to include tenured professors; he might seek to strip them of their tenure status.

All of this hysteria makes me shake my noggin.

The Texas Tribune reports:

Conservatives over the past year have used “critical race theory” as a broad label to attack progressive teachings and books in college and K-12 schools that address race and gender.

Tenure is an indefinite appointment for university faculty that can only be terminated under extraordinary circumstances. Academics said Friday that tenure is intended to protect faculty and academic freedom from exactly the kind of politicization being waged by Patrick.

https://www.texastribune.org/2022/02/18/dan-patrick-texas-tenure-critical-race-theory/

CRT is a red herring. Pure and simple. I find nothing wrong with teaching students about the aspects of our history that include the inhumane treatment our government leveled against Americans only because they were black, or brown, or anyone who isn’t white.

Yet such curricula have been labeled by conservatives — such as Dan Patrick — as being “anti-American,” or that it teaches young students to “hate America.”

Good grief! It doesn’t do anything of the sort.

Patrick, thus, has become the latest demagogue to seek to make political hay out of a legitimate field of academic study.

Disgraceful.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Waiting on an answer

Perhaps you have experienced as well a frustration I am about to express, which deals with a public official’s apparent refusal to provide a direct answer to a direct question.

Texas Comptroller Glenn Hegar has been running a re-election campaign ad in which he declares that he “distributed $3 billion” to buttress the state’s border security. Hegar, therefore, is taking direct credit for acting under his own discretion to spend the money to secure our border. The Republican officeholder, quite naturally, is critical of the nation’s top Democrat, President Biden, over federal border policies.

My question went to the head of the comptroller’s media relations office. I sent an email and the question is this: Does Comptroller Hegar have the discretion to distribute $3 billion for border security as he sees fit, which he implies in his campaign ad, or is that distribution mandated by the Legislature and/or the governor? The media guy has gotten two messages from me. No answer.

I don’t know why he hasn’t answered my question. I believe it is clear and concise. All he has to do is say “yes” or “no,” if he doesn’t want to spend any time explaining himself or the state agency’s policy.

My concern about Hegar’s ad is that it might be misleading. In fact, I believe it is misleading. You see, the Legislature appropriates money and then directs agency heads — even those elected to their office — to spend it according to what the legislation prescribes. So, when Glenn Hegar tells TV viewers that he “distributed” the money, he leaves the impression that he has sole authority to spend the money as he sees fit. It’s all part of the GOP narrative I keep hearing played out during this primary election season: Republican officials are doing the job that the feds are supposed to be doing; therefore, the message goes, Joe Biden is failing at his job. In fact, Hegar’s ad opens with that very statement, that “Biden is failing.”

Candidates for Texas attorney general are saying it, too, even though the AG is mainly a civil litigator. They’re all proclaiming how they’re going to get tough on criminals crossing the border into Texas “illegally,” of course, to do harm to helpless Texans who will fall victim to their criminal intent.

Well, I’ll be patient and wait this one out. I just find it hilarious that the guy who serves as the state’s top bean counter would portray himself as a tough-as-nails crime fighter.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, State news

Get rid of Ag commissioner, too

Sid Miller has more or less escaped much scrutiny on this blog, but I have decided the Texas agriculture commissioner deserves a brickbat or three as he seeks re-election to a third term as the state’s top “ag hand.”

The guy’s a doofus, pure and simple.

Not only that, he seems to have an ethical blind spot. Foes on the left and the right are questioning whether Miller has the moral chops to maintain his statewide office. As if that matters, you know? I mean, consider that Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has been under felony indictment since his first year in office and he, too, is running for a third term in office.

Miller, of course, is a Republican. He is known for having a big mouth that gets him in trouble. I recall the time he went to Amarillo and had a steak dinner at a trendy downtown restaurant. He left the eatery after writing a nasty note to the business owner complaining about the quality of the food he ordered. I mean … c’mon, dude. That’s small potatoes, though.

He also went to Oklahoma City on the public’s dime to receive what’s been called a “Jesus shot,” which supposedly delivers a lifetime cure for every ailment known to humanity. As the Texas Tribune reported:

Since his election as commissioner, Miller has made headlines for routinely making offensive statements about people of color and women. He compared Syrian refugees to rattlesnakes, he suggested in a Facebook post that the U.S. should bomb “the Muslim world” and he used an obscenity directed at women to refer to Hillary Clinton.

Sid Miller’s challengers take aim at his ethics, relationship to indicted aide | The Texas Tribune

Dude’s a bozo.

A longtime Miller aide, Todd Smith, got indicted for taking money in exchange for hemp licenses administered by the agriculture commissioner’s office. Bad call, fella. Miller reportedly cut ties with Smith, but the damage was done.

Miller thought about running for governor against Greg Abbott because of Abbott’s pitiful response to the COVID pandemic. He dropped that idea, apparently realizing he couldn’t win a GOP primary fight against the governor.

Sid Miller is one of several GOP officeholders who need to be shown the door at election time. Will it happen? I hope so.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, political news, State news

Paxton still favorite for AG? Ugghh!

(Photo by Erich Schlegel/Getty Images)

Recent public opinion polling in Texas sends a chill up my spine about the state of the race for attorney general.

The indicted incumbent who is under FBI investigation for alleged corruption in his office is the leading candidate among the four Republicans running for his seat. Yep, there you have it: Texas GOP voters appear to favor an incumbent who is facing potential prison time if a state trial jury convicts him of securities fraud.

AG Ken Paxton needs to be removed from office. Somehow. Some way. The state’s Republican voters have three fascinating choices to make when they vote March 1 in their primary. Land Commissioner George P. Bush, retired judge Eva Guzman and East Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert all want to succeed Paxton.

Of the three challengers, Gohmert is my least favorite, given his Donald Trumpian stance on all issues. Bush and Guzman are running as tough enforcers of the law who will throw criminals in jail, which is strange, given the AG is primarily a civil litigator. Whatever.

Paxton is a joke and a jerk.

I should add that the indictment for securities fraud came from a grand jury in Collin County, which Paxton represented during his unremarkable tenure as a state representative prior to his being elected AG in 2014. I mean, it’s not as though some far-left liberals in Travis County handed down the indictment; it came from the home folks, man!

The latest Dallas Morning News/UT-Tyler poll had Paxton leading with 33% percent, followed by Bush, Gohmert and Guzman. There well could be a runoff if none of them gets 50% or greater in the primary.

But the idea that Paxton remains in the lead tells me the state’s GOP voters just don’t give a crap about the cloud of suspicion that hangs over the incumbent who simply — in my view — is an embarrassment to our great state.

Sheesh!

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Watch for phony heroics among GOP candidates

Clearly it has become open season on the Joe Biden administration among Texas Republican candidates for public office. They all seem intent on positioning themselves as the polar opposites of the Democratic president … even if the office they seek has little to do with anything related to federal policy.

The Texas comptroller of public accounts provides an interesting example of what I am talking about.

The GOP incumbent Glenn Hegar is running a TV ad in which he declares that he is going to fight the Biden administration over protecting our southern border. How is he going to do that?

Hegar’s ad proclaims that he spent $3 billion on border security. I was wondering about an issue related to that bit of braggadocio: Does the comptroller have the discretionary authority to just send $3 billion in that manner, or must he do what the Legislature and the governor tell him to do?

I asked someone who covers state government extensively about that matter. He responded that government agencies have limited authority in some cases to exercise discretion in spending money, but the border money to which Hegar referred isn’t one of them. I have posed the question to the public information officer for the comptroller’s office and haven’t heard back from him.

I am left to wonder whether Hegar is misrepresenting his authority on that border security issue so he can muster up some anti-President Biden anger among Republican primary voters.

I will report back to you the response I get from the comptroller’s media flack.

Meantime, I’ll leave it to you to decide whether the state’s top bean counter — Glenn Hegar — might be, um, overstating his role in “keeping Texans safe from illegal immigrants.”

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

 

State news

Hegar joins border fight

Give me a break, Glenn Hegar. The state’s chief bean counter has now entered the fight to “protect our border” against criminals and assorted bad actors.

Yep, that’s right. Glenn Hegar is seeking re-election as Texas comptroller of public accounts. So, what — and who — does the Republican incumbent target? President Biden, who he says has allowed the border to get out of control.

I saw Hegar’s TV ad for the first time this evening. I practically fell out of my chair!

Wait a second! Hegar’s office is responsible for telling the Legislature how much it has on hand to appropriate every odd-numbered year when lawmakers gather in legislative session.

He is the state’s top accountant, for cryin’ out loud! What is he doing now trying to inject himself into the border fight?

Let’s see, I think I know. Glenn Hegar has joined the GOP demagoguery brigade. I would laugh out loud … except that it just isn’t funny.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, State news

Storm makes me nervous

I cannot possibly be the only Texas resident who is suffering the nervous jerks as we await the arrival of this winter storm.

We went through a damn rough period just about a year ago in these parts when the electrical power grid failed. We lost our water supply for a time, too. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the managers of our grid, came under intense criticism over the power failure; so did the Public Utility Commission of Texas. ERCOT’s management team quit or was fired, along with the entire PUC.

Gov. Greg Abbott vowed to fix the grid. I am not sure it’s been fixed. Neither is anyone else. Abbott said a few weeks ago that “I guarantee the lights will stay on” this winter. Just this week, he walked back that bold assertion; now he said there is no guarantee possible.

So, yes, I am nervous about the storm that is sweeping into Texas this week. The weather forecasters tell us it won’t be as nasty and as severe as it was this past winter.

I do hope they’re right.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

State news

Paxton targets Gohmert?

Ken Paxton must be feeling the heat from the Looney Tunes wing of the Texas Republican Party, aka Paxton’s “base” of support. Why? Because he reportedly is taking out ads attacking Rep. Louie Gohmert, one of three GOP challengers to the AG in this year’s primary.

The attorney general and the East Texas congressman figure to carve up the radical right-wing voters of the GOP while they battle for Paxton’s office. Paxton reportedly has taken out some ads that are going after Gohmert.

To be brutally candid, I don’t give a damn about either of these guys, other than I want Paxton removed from the AG’s office. He is an embarrassment to the state I call home and I want him gone from public life. He has been under indictment for felony security fraud almost since the time he took office in 2015; he has yet to go to trial. He’s also angered some of his top legal assistants, who have quit and blown the whistle on what they allege is illegal activity within the AG’s office; the FBI is investigating the allegations.

He has two other serious challengers: former Texas Supreme Court Justice Eva Guzman and Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush.

Polling shows Paxton continuing to run fairly strong among the four candidates, a thought that makes my blood boil. Gohmert, though, figures to peel away enough of the goofball vote to possibly force a runoff between the top two finishers in the primary.

My idea of a political perfection includes a scenario in which the top two do not include Paxton. That ain’t likely to happen. If only …

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

local news, State news

You tell ’em, Kel

Kel Seliger’s status as a lame-duck Texas state senator appears to have given the veteran Republican legislator some gumption as he has delivered a harsh reality to the state’s efforts at redrawing its legislative districts.

Seliger, who hails from Amarillo, said in a court deposition that the GOP-controlled Legislature broke the law in redrawing the boundaries in Senate District 10. “Having participated in the 2011 and 2013 Senate Select Redistricting Committee proceedings and having read the prior federal court decision regarding SD10, it was obvious to me that the renewed effort to dismantle SD 10 violated the Voting Rights Act and the U.S. Constitution,” Seliger said in his remarks to the court.

According to the Texas Tribune: Under the map passed by the Republican-controlled Legislature, some Black and Hispanic populations previously in District 10 were split into two other districts with majority-white electorates. The Black and Hispanic voters who remain in the newly drawn District 10, in urban areas of south Fort Worth, were lumped in with several rural, mostly white counties to the south and west that drive up the district’s population of white eligible voters while diminishing the number of voters of color.

GOP Sen. Kel Seliger says Texas violated federal voting rights law | The Texas Tribune

Well … isn’t that what many critics of the Legislature have alleged against Republicans who control the body?

Now we have one of the Legislature’s top GOP senators saying that he agrees with the critics. Is that what I am reading? I believe that’s the case.

To which I say only that it would have been good to hear such candor coming when Sen. Seliger was still in the thick of the fight. As it stands now, he is on the sidelines and is heading for the exit at the end of the year.

I say this as a friend of the senator. I consider him to have been an effective representative for the Texas Panhandle, where I lived for more than two decades. Seliger and I go back a while and I have long admired him for his independent streak and his pluck while serving in the Senate.

I mean, any guy who can piss off fellow Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, as Seliger has done, is OK in my book.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com