Paul Sadler Faces Lonely, Uphill Struggle Against Ted Cruz For Texas Senate Seat

Click on pic for larger image

Texas and National political junkies may be forgiven, (somewhat) for thinking the race to fill the soon to be vacated U.S. Senate seat of Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchison is over already.

Yesterday's GOP primary saw Texas Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst go down in flames to newcomer Ted Cruz. Cruz was well backed by The Tea Party and right wing politiicans, 

Now the general asumption is that's it, game over and that is probably right. It is true Sadler has virtually zero name recognition but why is that? Did state newspapers ever mention the Democratic race? Have you ever even seen a picture of Paul Sadler in print? ...On Television?

It is bad enough the Republicans have taken over state government but it seems they dominate the state press as well.

For anyone interested here is a link to Sadler's web site.

http://sadlerforsenate.com/

Ted Cruz Wins GOP Primary Runoff For US Senator From Texas

Click on pic for larger image

Tea Party darling Ted Cruz yesterday defeated Texas Lieuteneant Governor David Dewhurst for the Texas GOP nomination in the race for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Kay Bailey Hutchison. Cruz, who is affiliated with many far right extremist groups, chastized Dewhurst during the campaign for being a "moderate!"

Blake Farenthold Knows His Constituency

Click on pic for larger image

Perry's Path To The White House

Click on pic for larger image

Texas Guv "Wild" Rick Perry Goes After The Poor

Battle Of Hillcrest

Texas Supremes Overturn Severance; Guts Open Beaches Act

Click on pic for larger image

City Council's "War Room"

Click on pic for larger image

Texas Supreme Court Upholds Severance!


Click on pic for larger image

By Chuck Lindell
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Published: 9:36 p.m. Friday, March 30, 2012

Affirming the private-property rights of shoreline landowners, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday that the public's right of access to state beaches cannot be guaranteed when hurricanes or storms reshape the coast.
The sharply divided ruling will limit the state's ability to enforce the Open Beaches Act, a 53-year-old law that had been used to force landowners to raze or move structures that intrude on the public right of way because of storm erosion.
Writing for the 5-3 majority, Justice Dale Wainwright said the easement that preserves public access to Gulf of Mexico beaches cannot suddenly jump many feet inland after a storm, encroaching on private property where no easement previously existed.
"On one hand, the public has an important interest in the enjoyment of the public beaches. But on the other hand, the right to exclude others from privately owned realty is among the most valuable and fundamental of rights possessed by private property owners," Wainwright wrote.
The court had come to essentially the same conclusion in the same case in 2010 — prompting loud protests from state officials, Gulf of Mexico communities and beach advocates — before agreeing last year to reconsider its ruling.
Writing in dissent, Justice David Medina said Friday's ruling will probably embroil the state in litigation and costly efforts to re-establish public beach access after every hurricane.
"The Texas coastline is constantly changing and the risks of purchasing property abutting the ocean are well known," Medina wrote. "It is unreasonable, however, to require the state and its taxpayers to shoulder the burden of these risks."
In a separate dissent, Justice Debra Lehrmann said the ruling will probably produce continued degradation of Texas beaches.
The Texas Constitution bans the use of public money for private benefit, Lehrmann said, noting that the court's earlier Open Beaches Act ruling led to the cancellation of a $40 million beach restoration program for Galveston. State officials determined that the project would have benefited beaches from which the public could be excluded, she said.
According to the General Land Office, the ruling also will jeopardize state-financed debris-cleanup efforts after hurricanes.
The issue before the court revolved around the dividing line between public and private beachfront.
Public land, owned by the state, runs from the high tide mark to the water and is known as the "wet beach." Friday's ruling did not change this concept.
Instead, the ruling focused on the "dry beach," which runs from the high tide mark to the vegetation line and may be privately owned.
Under the Open Beaches Act, the dry beach also is typically subject to an easement that keeps it open to the public.
The present controversy began with a lawsuit by Carol Severance, who bought several beachfront homes on Galveston Island's West Beach in 2005.
Five months later, Hurricane Rita moved the vegetation line behind Severance's properties, and state officials ordered her to move or raze the structures.
In its ruling, the Supreme Court acknowledged that the public beach easement can subtly shift to follow natural patterns of erosion. It cannot, however, jump to encompass previously private property after a storm, the court said.
Chief Justice Wallace Jefferson did not participate in the case, Severance v. Patterson, 09-0387.
Contact Chuck Lindell at 912-2569

Click on pic for larger image

Governor Rick Perry and the Texas GOP continue their war on Planned Parenthood and health care for poor Texas women.

Below: A blog post from today's Chron.com

Patricia Kilday Hart, Chron.com blog, 3, 23 2012

Last week, Gov. Rick Perry employed texts, Twitter and his official website to condemn what he called the Obama administration's "plans to cancel funding for a long-standing and cost-effective health and wellness program for more than 100,000 Texas women."
Perry further warned that "this move will cut off access to screenings for breast and cervical cancer, hypertension and diabetes, STD testing and family planning services for Texas women who otherwise could not afford them."
Our governor's defense of the Texas Medicaid Women's Health Program was a ringing endorsement of "cost-effective" government-sponsored contraception. And it was about 10 months too late.
Last spring, I watched with dismay as the Texas House, led by Republican lawmakers, slashed - from $111 million to only $38 million - the only other program providing contraception for poor Texas women, administered by the Department of State Health Services.
Perry stood by silently as GOP lawmakers took the ax to the program, despite budget analysts reporting that the program would save the state millions of dollars by preventing unwanted children who would be delivered into this world on Medicaid's dime.
As I pointed out in a column last spring, Rep. Randy Weber, R-Pearland, touted "research" that he claimed proved that contraception leads to abortion.
Citing a 2002 study by the Guttmacher Institutute, Weber told the Texas House, "It actually shows that the highest abortion rate is among women actively using contraception and … among the poor."
Rep Mike Villareal, D-San Antonio, was the only person who questioned this outlandish claim. "You think contraception doesn't work?" he asked Weber.
"Not for those that get pregnant," Weber replied, inciting raucous laughter.
But the joke is on Texas taxpayers: Weber's assessment of the Guttmacher study was wildly inaccurate. It proved just the opposite: Women who got abortions didn't use contraceptives, or used them only sporadically.
Widespread ignorance
Guttmacher also had more current research estimating that government programs paying for contraception prevent almost 2 million unintended pregnancies each year. "Without these services, the number of unintended pregnancies and abortion among poor women in the United States would nearly double," the institute found.
Weber wasn't alone in his ignorance on the subject of contraception. In one committee meeting, Rep. Jody Laubenberg, R-Parker, fumed that the nonpartisan Legislative Budget Board was using "government math" in calculating the savings produced by contraception programs.
"We're going to save on the non-babies that are being born? We're going to prevent baby births?" said Laubenberg, incredulously. "This has got to be government math, …basing it (the estimated savings) on the speculation that you're going to save money by non-babies, by non-Medicaid baby births."
No real Perry epiphany
A patient health department staff person tried to explain it to her: "The more women we get in the program, the more births we avert."
"You speculate that," Laubenberg said.
"We measure that," the staff member replied.
Perry hasn't really had an epiphany that contraception for the poor is a worthwhile, even "cost-effective," program. He's warring with President Barack Obama because the federal government won't go along with his administration's attempt to prevent Planned Parenthood from participating in the program.
"Why would the Obama Administration take away access to health care for low-income Texas women?" Perry asks on his website. "Because this administration puts funding for abortion providers and affiliates ahead of funding for women's cancer screenings and other preventative health care."
He conveniently fails to mention that no money that goes to Planned Parenthood can be used to provide abortions. It's already illegal.
Policy costly for Texas
The money pays only for cancer screenings and contraception that poor women need. But Perry, the governor who is against the government picking your health care provider, has decided he gets to pick the health care provider for poor women.
Now, however, Perry wants to cast himself as the savior for women's health, offering to "find the money" in the state budget to continue the Women's Health Program, without having to follow long-established rules allowing equal participation among health care providers. Here's what Perry's illogical war on Planned Parenthood costs Texas: a $9 federal match for every $1 the state spends.
As Villareal noted late last week, "The idea that Texas Republicans have supported the Women's Health Program is laughable. It has no connection to reality. Anyone who paid attention to the last legislative session knows that Texas Republicans consistently demonstrated their hostility towards the Women's Health Program and other family planning programs."
Where was Rick Perry's outrage then?
patti.hart@chron.com

City Council Develops Yet Another Bay Front Plan!

Click on pic for larger image

Sheriff's Department Requests $250,000 "Command" Vehicle!

Click on pic for larger image

Following in the footsteps of former Sheriff James Hickey the Nueces County Sheriff's Department wants to spend $250,000 on a "command center" vehicle, complete with coffee makers, microwave, satellite TV and more, to be paid for from the $900,000 drug forfeiture fund. Hickey used this money as his own personal slush fund in his day. Hopefully the County Commissioners Court will think twice about it this time.

Developers Still Hungry For Padre Island


click on pic for larger image

Blake Farenthold Votes Against Payroll Tax Reduction

Click on pic for larger image

Another Day, Another Upside Down SUV!

Click on pic for larger image

In today's TV news there is yet another story about an upside down SUV. This is an almost daily occurrence and some days there are multiple examples. These poorly conceived and designed vehicles have been foisted on the public as something demanded as necessary to proclaim higher status.

Rick Perry Gives Up Run For Prez! Hooray!

Brrr! Cold Last Night!


Click on pic for larger image

Close Encounter of the Dolphin Kind!

Click on pic for larger image

Close encounter of the dolphin kind

It was a crisp, clear and windy October day. The first strong cold front of the season had swept through the Coastal Bend of the Gulf Coast and had dropped the temperature considerably, offering cool relief from the long, lingering heat of summer.
I eagerly ditched work on this morning, calling in sick of course, and loaded my gear onto my van and headed to Port Aransas.
I parked on the beach between the Horace Caldwell Pier and the south jetty of the Aransas Pass Ship channel. The windsurfing conditions were superb. A north north east wind was blowing around 30 mph and gusting a bit higher. The waves were small but well formed as they swept in towards the beach in long lines wrapping around the jetty. The wind was parallel to the beach helping to give the waves their clean shape.
After quickly rigging up I lifted my board by the rear foot strap and took the mast in my left hand while raising the rig off the sand. The boom was pointed down wind and I slowly backed my way to the water dragging the nose of my 12 foot six inch F2 Lightning over the sand. When I reached the water I pulled the rig towards myself and simultaneously turned the nose of the board out to sea. I let go of the boom and the wind blew the rig so it flipped over which kept the end of the boom downwind. You never want to handle a windsurfing rig by pointing the boom upwind, bad idea!
Now I took the boom by both hands while pushing the board out into the water. As soon as there was enough depth I quickly performed a beach start, stepping up on the board and sheeting in on the boom.
This quickly put me under power and I headed out into the waves.
Sailing on a port tack I pulled in on the boom and my 6.8 sq. m. sail shot me over the wave face, and I skipped over the wave, getting some air, and into the next and the next repeating the action.
Once I was outside of the line of breaking waves I kicked down my center board and sailed as close to the wind as I could intending to tack upwind for a while so I could return to the beach in close proximity of my launch spot. This would also allow me to sail on a broad reach giving me the maximum speed possible.
The conditions were perfect, I thought, and I sailed in and out riding the small waves and getting my little jumps going out, great fun!
The wind seemed to be picking up a bit so I decided to sail further out to sea and ride the swells. As I came about even with the end of the 1,000 foot long Horace Caldwell Pier I saw the splashing of a small school of mullet as they raced along the surface in an apparent panic. Soon I saw the source of their fear as a medium sized bottle nosed dolphin was in hot pursuit.
I realized that I was on a collision course with the sea mammal and the dolphin, concentrating on its prey, did not seem to see me. I held my course until I was very close. The dolphin then looked at me in what I thought was a startled expression of total surprise. It broke off its chase and dove down into the water.
I thought it was pretty funny, and continued sailing. Shortly after I was surprised to see the dolphin again, this time it was swimming straight towards me, on a collision course, moving very rapidly! Suddenly I didn’t think it was all that funny. Just as the dolphin closed in it again dove down into the water and harmlessly passed right beneath my board! Wow!
That wasn’t the end of the encounter. The dolphin appeared again and it came close by and swam on a parallel course right beside me. It was very close; I could have reached down and touched it. We looked each other in the eye. The animal’s expression seemed one of amusement as it let me know who was the real master of the waves.
I talked to it. I said the same things I said to my pet parakeet. “Pretty boy!” I had no idea if it was a male or not. “Good dolphin!” And I whistled to it. It took no notice of my vocalizations but its calm demeanor and expression made me comfortable and unafraid. It followed me for a few hundred yards until it broke formation and swam away. I felt very fortunate to have had a moment of play time with the beautiful cetacean.
I returned to the beach with reinforced admiration for these magnificent animals.

Water Parks? In Worse Drought In History? Really?

Click on pic for larger image

Rick Perry: Bat Shit Crazy!

Click on pic for larger image