Tag Archives: Greg Abbott

State news

So much for gubernatorial wisdom

Thanks a heap, Gov. Greg Abbott.

You’ve called the Texas Legislature back into special session beginning July 18. And, by golly, you just had to add that idiotic “Bathroom Bill” to the call you’ve assigned to legislators.

Property tax reform? No problem with that. Sunset legislation? Sure thing. The Bathroom Bill? You’ve got to be kidding me.

Sure, you said you have some concern about protecting public school students who want to use restrooms. But please, governor, what is the threat? You want the state to require people to use bathrooms commensurate with the gender listed on their birth certificate.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/06/abbott-special-session-announcement/

My question persists. How is the state going to enforce that law? I suppose we can check the gender of students using restrooms, right? What are we going to do, make ’em show their, um, private parts?

I was among those hoping you’d limit the special session to issues that mattered a great deal to Texans. The Bathroom Bill — pushed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick — does not qualify.

You have let me down, Gov. Abbott.

State news

Special sessions seems likely; bring it … with caution

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott well might be ready to call the Legislature back into session to finish some work.

He talked today about property tax reform and then his office announced he would have a press conference on Tuesday to make an announcement.

I totally get the need to hammer out important issues. Property taxes is high on everyone’s list. The governor, though, should resist the pressure being applied by the lieutenant governor, Dan Patrick, who wants the Legislature to enact that stupid “Bathroom Bill” that didn’t make it out of the regular session.

It’s heartening to me that Abbott didn’t mention the Bathroom Bill in discussing potential topics to be dealt with in a special session. That’s fine with me.

The bill would require people using public restrooms in Texas to use those that align with the gender declared on their birth certificate. It’s clearly discriminatory against transgender individuals. What’s more, how in the name of intrusiveness does the state plan to enforce such a law?

My trick knee is telling me that Abbott might be a bit miffed that Patrick sought to pressure him on which issues to put on the Legislature’s special session agenda.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/05/abbott-property-taxes-special-session/

According to the Texas Tribune: “Our goal is to solve your challenges, to solve your problems,” Abbott said at a Bell County GOP dinner. “I think there is one challenge, one problem, that many Texans face that went unsolved. It’s complex, but it needs to be addressed, and that is the incredible rise in property taxes in this state.”

Property tax reform is reason enough to call legislators back to Austin. That’s it.

political news, State news

So long to straight-ticket voting … woo hoo!

I am happy to report that not all Republicans appear to be bat-crap crazy.

One of them, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, has just signed a bill that does away with straight-ticket, one-punch voting in Texas beginning with the 2020 election cycle.

The Legislature sent the bill to his desk and he signed it fairly quickly after the end of the 2017 legislative session.

Why is this a good deal? Because it forces voters to consider each race individually as they look over their ballots. Sure, they can still vote for an entire partisan slate if they so choose; but now they will have consider each race, each candidate and make their decision on some other factors — perhaps — other than just the political party to which they belong.

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/06/01/texas-gov-greg-abbott-signs-bill-eliminate-straight-ticket-voting/

It fascinates me that a Republican governor would sign a bill approved by an overwhelmingly Republican Legislature, which is elected by a rock-solid Republican state full of, well, Republicans.

The nation’s leading Republican, Donald J. Trump, today went around the bend by pulling the United States out of a worldwide campaign to battle the impact of climate change.

I am glad that a Republican leader of one of our nation’s largest and most important states has decided that it’s better for voters to take just a tad more time in the polling place before casting their votes.

State news

Legislature ends contentious session — just as it gets ugly

I am glad at the moment to be living far from Austin, the capital of Texas and the place where state legislators ended their 2017 session with two of them threatening physical harm to each other.

Whatever happened to the late Robert F. Kennedy ‘s notion that politics could be a “noble profession”? It ain’t. Not in Texas. Not these days. I would have hated to have been hit by a stray bullet.

Just think: Gov. Greg Abbott just might call these clowns back into special session to wrap up some unfinished business, some of which might include enactment that idiotic Bathroom Bill that would require people to use public restrooms designated to the gender noted in their bleeping birth certificate.

As for the end of the 2017 regular legislative session, two House members got into each other’s face as a scuffle broke out on the House floor. Some illegal immigrants reportedly raised a ruckus. One lawmaker, Democrat Poncho Nevarez threatened “to get” Republican Matt Rinaldi after Rinaldi called immigrations agents to break up the disturbance that was caused by the illegal immigrants.

By “get,” Rinaldi presumed Nevarez intends serious physical harm, to which he (Rinaldi) responded by threatening to put a “bullet in the head” of his colleague — in self-defense, of course.

https://www.texasobserver.org/texas-republican-sb-4-protesters-capitol-ice/

Good ever-lovin’ grief, fellas. Nevarez should have kept his trap shut and Rinaldi should have refrained from threatening to shoot Nevarez.

Hey, guys, here’s a flash for you: Texas is in relatively good financial shape. Yeah, we have our issues. We have differences of opinion, most certainly differences of philosophy and ideology.

For this kind of tough talk to erupt at the end of a legislative session — which lasted all of 140 days — is ridiculous, outrageous and disgraceful on its face. House rules prohibit demonstrates from the gallery; the demonstrators broke the rules, period! That’s where it started and how it went from bad to stupid.

If Abbott is going bring you folks back to Austin, my hope is that he waits a while before setting a date. Reps. Nevarez and Rinaldi need to cool off, collect themselves, catch their breath — and count their blessings.

political news, State news

No ‘Bathroom Bill’ on special session agenda, OK?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pledges that he is going to reveal later this week whether he’ll call the Texas Legislature back into a special session.

I am going to make a single request of the governor: Do not include that idiotic “Bathroom Bill” in the issues to be covered by legislators.
Property taxes? Sure. Sunset legislation? Yes. Bathroom Bill? Hell no!

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick wanted the Legislature to approve a bill that requires people to use public restrooms based on the gender that appears on their birth certificate. The bill discriminates against transgender individuals or those who might be on that journey en route to a change in their gender.

That the Legislature might be called back into session to deal with that issue is a monumental waste of time, let alone Texas taxpayers’ money.

 

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/29/abbott-promises-special-session-announcement-later-week/

Let’s not forget, too, the economic blowback that is likely to come Texas’ way if lawmakers approve such a bill. It’s happened in North Carolina, as companies have decided to take their business elsewhere.

Gov. Abbott affirmed that he alone can determine the agenda for legislators to consider. You do that, governor, if that’s what you want to do. “I can tell you this, and that is when it gets to a special session, the time and the topics are solely up to the governor of the state of Texas, and we will be, if we have a special session, convening only on the topics that I choose at the time of my choosing,” Abbott told reporters.

I just hope Gov. Abbott keeps the Bathroom Bill off the table.

media news, national news, political news, State news

Trump increases pols’ antipathy toward media

What is it about politicians who make lame jokes and then fail to own them?

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is just the latest in a long and growing line of pols who have committed that transgression.

But here’s the deal: Abbott’s lame joke is speaking to a larger — more serious — issue involving the media and the politicians they cover.

The governor this past week signed into law a bill that reduces the amount of money that concealed handgun carry applicants must pay to obtain their license. Then he went to a shooting range, fired a few rounds at a target and then joked that he would carry the target around “in case I see any reporters.”

Few folks are laughing.

You see, it’s the context of Gov. Abbott’s remarks that are so damn troubling.

We can thank the president of the United States for it.

Donald Trump has all but declared war on the media. He calls them the “enemy of the people.” He accuses mainstream news outlets of producing “fake news.” He refuses to answer tough questions from the media. He calls news media outlets “a disgrace” and calls reporters “among the most dishonest people” anywhere. He reportedly told the then-FBI director that reporters should be jailed if they report on leaked classified material.

Trumpkins show up at his rallies wearing t-shirts that suggest journalists should be hanged.

Now the governor of Texas makes a goofy joke that seems to suggest it’s OK to shoot reporters. He won’t take it back. He won’t apologize for the hideous timing of the remark, coming as it did just two days after a Republican congressional candidate “body slammed” a reporter for asking him about the GOP health care overhaul.

Is this the era into which we have entered? That it’s OK to intimidate reporters for doing their job? That the First Amendment protection of a “free press” isn’t to be taken seriously, let alone literally?

Mimi Swartz, writing for Texas Monthly, has asked the governor to take it back. You can read her essay here. I don’t expect Abbott to do as she asks.

Sadly, neither do I expect the president of the United States to back off his own campaign against the media assigned to report his actions to the people he governs.

 

State news

‘Bathroom Bill’ appears headed for trash heap

I cannot pretend to understand fully the issue of transgenderism.

However, I know a hurtful and unnecessary piece of legislation when I see it. The Texas “Bathroom Bill” that aims to tell folks which bathroom to use is one of them.

The Associated Press is reporting that the state’s Bathroom Bill is all but a goner. Still, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vows to bring it up in a special session.

Except for one little thing.

Only the governor, Greg Abbott, can call legislators back into a special session and Gov. Abbott doesn’t appear inclined to do so.
The legislation would require people to use public restrooms that coincide with the gender noted on their birth certificate. And yet, there are those who contend that they “identify” more with the opposite gender; many of those them are having what’s called “surgical reassignment” to transform them from one gender to the other.

I’ll repeat that I do not pretend to understand confusing gender identity, having never gone such confusion myself.

The legislation being discussed, though, seems discriminatory on its face. What’s more, the Texas House of Representatives — led by Speaker Joe Straus — has been fighting to derail this Dan Patrick-led initiative from the get-go.

Indeed, business interests have threatened to boycott the state if it enacts such a bill, which has been the kind of punishment inflicted on North Carolina, which approved a similar bill.

As the AP reported: “Many states have balked at such bills after North Carolina was thrust into political and economic upheaval over its law, which was partially repealed in March.”

As they say, “money talks.”

https://apnews.com/b5e455ab9a15422cbd1f3eda069e4cf4

The Legislature is set to adjourn in a couple of days. There likely won’t be a Bathroom Bill sent to Gov. Abbott’s desk before lawmakers sign off for the session. As for Patrick’s pledge to get a special session called, he’d better check with the governor — who I hope keeps a cool head and decides that the Bathroom Bill is fraught with too much economic peril for Texas to endure.

The very idea of the Texas Legislature being hauled back to convene a special session for something as ridiculous as this is mind-blowing on its face.

media news, national news, political news

No jokes about ‘shooting’ reporters, Gov. Abbott

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has signed a bill that reduces by a good bit the first-time fee for Texans seeking to obtain a concealed handgun carry permit.

I am one of those Texans who formerly opposed the concealed handgun carry legislation when it was first enacted in 1995; my position has evolved over time … more or less. Suffice to say that while I no longer oppose it, I am unwilling to sign on as an avid proponent. I have accepted the law. I trust you’ll understand my point here.

Then the governor did something that borders on gauche. He went to a shooting range, fired a few rounds at a target and then joked that he would carry the target around “in case I see any reporters.”

Yuk, yuk, yuk …

https://www.texastribune.org/2017/05/26/texas-gov-greg-abbott-signs-measure-reduce-handgun-license-fee/

The timing of the governor’s joke, however, makes it a good bit less “funny” than it otherwise might be.

You see, they just had this election up yonder in Montana this week. The Republican candidate, Greg Gianforte, decided earlier in the week to “body slam” a reporter, Ben Jacobs, who asked him about the GOP health care overhaul bill. Gianforte didn’t like the question, so he struck out — quite literally — at the reporter.

Montanans elected Gianforte anyway to the at-large congressional seat he was contesting with Democrat Rob Quist.

I draw that comparison only to illustrate the coarsening of debate in this country. The president of the United States has declared the media to be “the enemy of the American people,” and some folks — even, apparently, some candidates for Congress — appear to have bought into that line of manure.

Thus, I just caution the Texas governor against using that kind of language, out loud, in public, where others can hear him.

Gov. Abbott meant it as a joke. I know it’s a joke. Not everyone, though, is going to take it that way.

State news

Don’t choke on texting-ban bill, Gov. Abbott

Listen to me, Gov. Greg Abbott. Read my lips: Sign House Bill 62 into law, the one that makes texting while driving illegal throughout the state of Texas!

Do it! Don’t waffle because of technicalities. The Texas Tribune reports — which I am sure you’ve read already — that you believe texting while driving a motor vehicle poses a grave danger to Texans.

HB 62 is on your desk, as I also am sure you know. It’s there along with a lot of other bills approved by the Legislature.

Your immediate predecessor as governor, Rick Perry, never should have vetoed a similar bill in 2011. Remember how he called it a “government effort to micromanage the behavior of adults.” I mean, good grief, man. If you follow that logic, then such micromanagement means we shouldn’t have laws prohibiting drinking while driving, either; hey, let’s take down all the speed limit signs and let Texas push their pedals to the metal whenever and wherever they feel like it.

I hear you’re concerned that HB 62 doesn’t do enough to pre-empt local ordinances. Your spokesman, John Wittman, told the Tribune: “One thing Governor Abbott wanted in a texting while driving ban was a pre-emption of the patchwork quilt of local regulations across the state, and he’s looking forward to digging into the details of HB 62.”

OK, I get it.

Indeed, a statewide ban would bring much-needed continuity to Texas’ rules of the road. Visitors to the state need to know that operating a hand-held device while driving a motor vehicle is illegal anywhere within the state’s borders. Post signs at every highway entry point into Texas telling motorists to put their texting devices away as they enter the state. Texas residents might not need reminding; visitors from out of state, though, do need it.

Gov. Abbott, you’ve got a chance to exercise some needed executive authority by signing a necessary bill into law. House Bill 62 does something that should have been done when these texting devices became so damn ubiquitous. They’re everywhere, but there ought to be some limitations on when human beings should be allowed to operate them.

Driving a motor vehicle at high speeds through traffic and among pedestrians is one of those instances.

Sign the bill, Gov. Abbott.

State news

Sign the texting-while-driving-ban bill, Gov. Abbott

OK, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.

You’ve got a bill that bans texting while driving a motor vehicle on your desk, somewhere. You need to make it the law of the state.

The Texas Legislature has worked out some differences in the bill and it has approved it and sent it to you for your signature. You need to do this. You need to make texting while driving illegal throughout our vast state.

Furthermore, Gov. Abbott, you need to show the guts that your predecessor, Rick Perry, failed to show in 2011 when he vetoed a similar bill that landed on his desk. Gov. Perry said then that the bill was too “intrusive,” that it demonstrated some sort of government overreach into motorists’ lives.

Good grief, man! Is driving too fast an intrusion? How about banning open containers of alcoholic beverages in motor vehicles? We also require motorists to be insured; we demand they have valid driver’s licenses. Are those measures intrusive as well?

I know you really don’t need to hear this from me, but I will say it anyway. A statewide ban lends continuity to laws across the state. It pre-empts local ordinances that ban texting while driving. Indeed, not all communities in Texas have been as proactive as, say, Amarillo has been.

Indeed, the state can post signs at every entry point at state borders warning motorists that state law prohibits them from texting while driving. It’s a dangerous and foolish activity.

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2017/05/22/texas-texting-while-driving-ban-governor/

I am particularly proud of our Texas Panhandle legislative delegation that has supported this ban. They belong to the same party as you do, governor.

Listen to them. Follow their lead. Sign the bill and make it law.

A lot of us out here want you to do the right thing.