VETO SB 346: An Open Letter to Governor Rick Perry

Dear Mr. Governor,

As the national IRS scandal grows, the Texas Legislature has sent an equally disturbing bill to you.

SB 346 is a threat to political free association in the state of Texas, as the Wall St. Journal details:

The bill requires that all social-welfare and nonprofit groups that spend more than $25,000 a year on politics report the details of their spending. The groups, which file under sections 501(c)(4) and 501(c)(6) of the tax code, would also have to disclose their donors, providing a new opportunity for advocacy groups to intimidate businesses and others from participating in elections.

This poorly-written, wide-ranging, bill is certain to produce unintended consequences no one will like.

 ConservativeHQ has more:

Even if you are not based in Texas, if you donate to or lead an organization that publishes and distributes a non-partisan voter guide on state races or a newsletter on what is happening on your issues in State Houses around the country -- that includes coverage of Texas politics -- you could very well find yourself subject to this law....Even if they live in another state, anyone who supports an organization that helped Tea Party backed Senator Ted Cruz or that might report on the goings-on in the Texas legislature on issues such as the right to life, home schooling or traditional marriage might suddenly find their name and how much they gave to a 501(c)3 or 501(c)4 in another state disclosed in filings to the State of Texas and published in newspapers across the country. 

 Cahnman's Musings respectfully requests you VETO SB 346.

Sincerely,
Adam Cahn
Austin, TX
May, 23 2013

P.S. Readers can contact Governor Perry via. Telephone or Twitter:

Telephone: (512) 463-2000
Twitter: @GovernorPerry

Americans for Prosperity and Texas "Freedom" Network Clash over CSCOPE

The audio is a little difficult to pick up at first, but this video speaks for itself:



Highlights:

• When Dan Quinn says no one was pressured over CSCOPE, he's either lying or he's disqualifyingly misinformed.

• Ditto on Parents being informed.

(h/t Texas Watchdog)

ACTION ALERT: No on HB 2836

In a sleazy, end-of-session, move, the Texas House is scheduled to take up HB 2836 today.

This bill would gut the elected State Board of Education and replace it with a 'select committee' much friendlier to Big Education:

If adopted, the committee substitute to HB 2836 would create an interim study of the TEKS; but out of the 14 members on the study committee, only 2 would be SBOE members who really have a grasp of curriculum standards, testing, and instructional materials. 

The rest of the 12 members of the TEKS study committee would be 4 appointed by Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst from the Senate Public Ed. Comm. (politicians) and 2 from the general public.  House Speaker Joe Straus would appoint 4 from the House Public Ed. Comm. (politicians) and 2 from the general public. 

This means that at least 8 would be politicians from the Texas Legislature, and we have already seen how vulnerable they are to being manipulated by the education bureaucracy.

The four added people from the public could easily come from the education bureaucracy.

The end result is that the 2 SBOE members could find themselves in a lonely corner while the other 12 who are tied to vendors and/or lobbyists could control the curriculum standards (TEKS) put into our public school classrooms!

 (Author's Note: TEKS are Texas' State curriculum standards.)

Find your legislator here.

The Original, Biblical, Tea Party

From 2 Chronicles 10:

The Revolt Against Rehoboam

10 And Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had gone to Shechem to make him king. ² So it happened, when Jeroboam the son of Nebat heard it (he was in Egypt, where he had fled from the presence of King Solomon), that Jeroboam returned from Egypt. ³ Then they sent for him and called him. And Jeroboam and all Israel came and spoke to Rehoboam, saying, ⁴ “Your father made our yoke heavy; now therefore, lighten the burdensome service of your father and his heavy yoke which he put on us, and we will serve you.”

⁵ So he said to them, “Come back to me after three days.” And the people departed.
⁶ Then King Rehoboam consulted the elders who stood before his father Solomon while he still lived, saying, “How do you advise me to answer these people?”
⁷ And they spoke to him, saying, “If you are kind to these people, and please them, and speak good words to them, they will be your servants forever.”
⁸ But he rejected the advice which the elders had given him, and consulted the young men who had grown up with him, who stood before him. ⁹ And he said to them, “What advice do you give? How should we answer this people who have spoken to me, saying, ‘Lighten the yoke which your father put on us’?”
¹⁰ Then the young men who had grown up with him spoke to him, saying, “Thus you should speak to the people who have spoken to you, saying, ‘Your father made our yoke heavy, but you make it lighter on us’—thus you shall say to them: ‘My little finger shall be thicker than my father’s waist! ¹¹ And now, whereas my father put a heavy yoke on you, I will add to your yoke; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!’”^[a]
12 So Jeroboam and all the people came to Rehoboam on the third day, as the king had directed, saying, “Come back to me the third day.” ¹³ Then the king answered them roughly. King Rehoboam rejected the advice of the elders, ¹⁴ and he spoke to them according to the advice of the young men, saying, “My father^[b] made your yoke heavy, but I will add to it; my father chastised you with whips, but I will chastise you with scourges!”^{[c] 15} So the king did not listen to the people; for the turn of events was from God, that the Lord might fulfill His word, which He had spoken by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite to Jeroboam the son of Nebat.
¹⁶ Now when all Israel saw that the king did not listen to them, the people answered the king, saying:

“What share have we in David?
We have no inheritance in the son of Jesse.
Every man to your tents, O Israel!
Now see to your own house, O David!”

So all Israel departed to their tents. ¹⁷ But Rehoboam reigned over the children of Israel who dwelt in the cities of Judah.

¹⁸ Then King Rehoboam sent Hadoram, who was in charge of revenue; but the children of Israel stoned him with stones, and he died. Therefore King Rehoboam mounted his chariot in haste to flee to Jerusalem. ¹⁹ So Israel has been in rebellion against the house of David to this day.

 See also 1 Kings 12:1-20.

 Background: This section follows the death of King Solomon.  While Solomon had been a godly King in his early years (when he built the temple), in his later years he was swept with the temptations of Earthly power.  Where he originally raised taxes to build the temple (which the people supported), he moved on build palaces and country estates for himself.

Texas House Committee's $22,000 dinner

In case you're wondering why the 83rd Texas Legislature has accomplished so little, this must-read from the Texas Tribune will answer your questions; money quote:

A remarkably expensive meeting of a key legislative committee took place this week: a $22,000-plus affair at an upscale downtown Austin steakhouse for the 15-member House Calendars Committee.

That panel, which sets the daily lineup of bills for consideration in the House and thus holds life-or-death power over legislation, held its end-of-session dinner at Austin’s III Forks restaurant this past Sunday.

It cost $22,241.03 and required the use of 34 American Express cards, 11 MasterCards, and 20 Visa cards. The committee chairman, state Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, said there were about 140 people there, and most of them stayed for dinner.

....

It was an expensive celebration, but the legislators and staffers who attended didn’t pay for it. The supporters and lobbyists who have been trying to influence legislative outcomes since the session began in January covered the tab. And it’s completely legal, as Hunter pointed out, so long as the lobbyists paying the bills report their expenses where everybody can go see them. Ethics rules limit lobbyists from spending more than $500 on entertainment on a particular legislator, but that limit doesn’t apply to food and drink.

....

 “I’ve had committee dinners since I’ve been here for seven terms,” Hunter said, speaking in characteristically clipped phrases. “Lobby pays. They follow rules. Everybody knows up front. And we even post it, so we are all in compliance.”

You can view the receipt for the dinner here.

Jesus vs. Muhammad

The latest from Steven Crowder is amazing:



Highlights:

• While Jesus raised adolescent girls from the dead, Muhammad....

• Muhammad stoned women, Jesus protected women being stoned.

• Jesus never owned slaves or killed people.

New CDC Reports document American STD rates

Gross, but this stuff has to be documented; money quote:

CDC’s new estimates show that there are about 20 million new infections

in the United States each year, costing the American healthcare system

nearly $16 billion in direct medical costs alone.

America’s youth shoulder a substantial burden of these infections.

CDC estimates that half of all new STIs in the country occur among

young men and women. In addition, CDC published an overall estimate

of the number of prevalent STIs in the nation. Prevalence is the total

number of new and existing infections at a given time. CDC’s new data

suggest that there are more than 110 million total STIs among men and

women across the nation.

....

Because some STIs – especially HIV – require lifelong treatment and care, they are by far the costliest. In addition, HPV

is particularly costly due to the expense of treating HPV-related cancers. However, the annual cost of curable STIs is also

significant ($742 million). Among these, chlamydia is most common and therefore the most costly.

Read the whole thing here.