The Texas Progressive Alliance’s heart will go on as it brings you this week’s blog roundup.

Want to know where your preferred legislative candidates stand on the important issue of beer freedom in Texas? Off the Kuff tells you how you can find out.

TruthHugger is disgusted with the candidate for the most corrupt Texas Governor list Rick Perry Fairy Tales For Money Must Go, and that is a long list.

BlueBloggin sympathizes with voting Texans who cannot believe Perry has done it again … OMG Rick Perry Makes Texas Look Stupid, Again.

Libby Shaw reports that our lying Repug leaders continue to do what they do best – mislead the low information voter with their straight up lies. Check it out at TexasKaos – Lt. Governor Dewhurst Earns F- in Math, A+ in Pants on Fire.

The Democratic primary for CD-7 is getting a little bitter. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs reprinted an e-mail he received about James Cargas’ seedy oil and gas connections, and got a vitriolic defense in response from Hector Carreno of the Cargas campaign.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that the Republicans are getting a twofer – killing higher education and shifting tax burdens to students.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson shows that the “Texas Model” isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, The Texas Model – low wages, poverty, wrecked safety net, crumbling infrastructure, while the rich prosper.

Without forgetting that the Texas forced sonogram is state-mandated rape, Neil at Texas Liberal posted on competing shorelines in Galveston. There is so much to see in everyday life.——-Neil will soon be posting again on the fact that the Texas forced sonogram law is state-mandated rape.

The Runaway Scrape – April 1836 in Texas History:

The spring of 1836 was wet, and many roads were washed away.^[22] The rain, cold, and lack of food and shelter made the settlers susceptible to many diseases such as cholera, whooping cough and dysentery. They were buried where they died.^[10] They also faced Mexican partisans and renegade looters who wanted what little the settlers may have fled with. Many were picked off by bands of Mexican scouts and partisans as well as hostile Indians. With the rivers flooded, the refugees were forced to make crude rafts to cross the swollen waterways, sinking them afterwards to delay their pursuers.

Houston stayed ahead of the Mexican army by crossing the Brazos beginning on the April 12 and marching east from Groce’s Plantation on April 14. Santa Anna had learned of the Texian’s President, David G. Burnet and other officials presence in Harrisburg and split his army by sending a detachment to capture them. The Texians also had also learned of the Mexican’s plan and hurried to parallel the Mexican march. Harrisburg would be torched by the Mexican Army. On April 16, Houston’s army ended the retreat by turning southeast to march toward the eminent confrontation at San Jacinto.^[20]

With such a colorful history presenting examples of endurance and survival, Texas freedom is battle scarred and tough.  This state should not allow assaults on their freedoms to go unpunished, however, today’s punishment should be at the ballot box and not at the end of a gun…  Texas today is enduring losses of a personal and political kind that resemble the struggle against Santa Anna.  Texas leadership has it’s hands in everyone’s pockets and takes what it wants, with a Texas sized smile.  The concept of “No State Tax is the shiny object politicians dangle in front of our eyes to convince Texans that Texas ‘stays out of your biz’nez’.  No they don’t.  That is a Texas sized lie.  Texas politicians want to divert all Texas funds to special interest at the expense of education and infrastructure.  Texas State sponsored scams are the biggest ponzi schemes our politicians have pulled over our eyes.  Texas politicians want to control your personal freedoms, control your body, control your love life, pollute your land or just take your land away, for the pleasure of their campaign donors.  Every decision made by the Texas Republican Congress has a big campaign donor behind it and the likes of Governor Rick Perry has his lies exposed on a regular basis.  The ballot box is the greatest weapon Texans have, and even that is being manipulated by these crooks to make sure they have another shot at scamming Texans. Don’t fall for their lies.  Vote them out!

Texas politicians have sold their soul so many times to so many special interest that Texans have no idea where their rent, grocery and car payment went.  Makes you wonder how these crooks keep up with all the deception.

Posted by bosskitty April 9th, 2012 | Tags: Politics, Texas Blogs, Texas History, Texas Politics, TPA | Category: Texas Blogs, Texas Democratic Party, Texas Politics, Texas Wheeler Dealers | Leave a comment

I cannot believe this guy.  It’s bad enough the world sees Texas Politics as a rogue, outlaw, primitive culture that is slow to join the 21st Century.  Touching reality is the last thing Texas Politicians want … That is how rick Perry presents Texans as backward, Christian Dominionist, arrogant, gun toting, neanderthals. On top of everything else, he has the gall to insult British Royalty when they go out of their way to educate Texas policy makers on a topic of global importance. As a Texan, I am very ashamed and embarrassed.

Posted by bosskitty April 5th, 2012 | Tags: climate change, climate sceptic, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Governor Rick Perry, Prince Charles | Category: climate change, climate crisis, conflict of interest, consequences, disinformation, Economics of Climate Change, Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), environmental impact, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), Politics, Prince Charles, responsibility, Rick Perry, Texas Politics, War of Misinformation | Comments (5)

Any excuse, as long as I have a gun and you are on my shit list, BOOM! My self-esteem has been injured, I may feel better if I kill you!  So, now, I’m a Domestic Terrorist! 

This country has chosen the easy way out of responsibility and reject common social skills. Our children are left to endure bullies both at school and at home.  Our children are being nurtured by video game violence and movies that love to blow people and things away.  The spectacle of explosions is an addiction and unfortunately becoming a social solution.  The easy revenge is to take a gun and get even …  Doomsday is the internal psychological meltdown of a whole planet.  Even the caveman had better social skills than present day Americans.  The only difference is technology. The Christian, Jewish and Muslim religions preach peace only after they enslave or eliminate offending populations.   This was the deadliest outburst of gun violence at a U.S. school since a Virginia Tech student shot and killed 32 people in a 2007 massacre on that campus before killing himself.

The shootings at the Christian Oikos University in California are the latest in America’s long history of murders on campus!

Oakland college gunman felt bullied, police say

The suspect in a shooting rampage at a Oikos University told authorities he was targeting administrators and students at the Oakland college for teasing him and treating him disrespectfully.

The suspect, 43-year-old One L. Goh, opened fire in the middle of a classroom at his former school, leaving seven people dead in one of California’s worst mass killings.

Goh told investigators he targeted one female administrator in particular at the small religious college, the Oakland Tribune reported. Other students at the school “were not treating him respectfully,” Police Chief Howard Jordan told the newspaper.

Goh told police he wanted to go back to the school and inflict pain, the newspaper reported. Goh was reportedly expelled from the school in November. Police said he was a former nursing student.

Jordan did not identify the administrator, but said she was not among the injured. Investigators do not believe that any of the victims were the students who teased him.

Paul Singh, whose sister was one of three wounded, told Reuters that the shooter instructed students: “Get in line and I’m going to kill you all.”

The ex-student who killed 7 people at a small private Christian college in California sought revenge on the school for kicking him out and shot his victims execution-style, police said Tuesday.

“We’ve learned that the suspect was upset with the administration at the school. He was also upset that students in the past, when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of that nature,” Jordan said on “Good Morning America.” ”He was having, we believe, some behavioral problems at the school and was asked to leave several months ago.

“We’ve learned that this was a very chaotic, calculated and determined gentleman that came there with a very specific intent to kill people, and that’s what his motive was and that’s what he carried out,” Jordan added.

Goh left behind a string of debts and minor traffic citations in his former home state of Virginia and was evicted from one apartment complex in the state, according to ABC News Bay Area affiliate KGO.

US: Oakland Shooter Was Teased, Kicked Out Of College And In Debt

Timeline: Worst US school shootings

...

Posted by bosskitty April 3rd, 2012 | Tags: Devolution, Enforcement, Gun Laws, Guns, mental health, Oikos University, One L. Goh, school shooting | Category: Devolution, Enforcement, Extreme Behavior, Gun Laws, mental health, school shooting | Leave a comment

The Texas Progressive Alliance is stocking up on pastel-colored dyes as it brings you this week’s roundup.

Off the Kuff reminds you that there is only one Democrat running in CD22.

TruthHugger sees danger when disconnected and medicated American voters make the critical election decision that impacts the future of our country and the planet. American Voters On Drugs Their BUY-ological Political Weapon. And, of course, BossKitty thinks that Earthlings Have Lost Their Mothership.

BlueBloggin reviews The Deceptions of Affordable Health Care.

WCNews at Eye On Williamson has A few thoughts on the 2012 Primary in Williamson County.

Keith Olbermann and Sarah Tressler were just two of many journalists who parted company with their employers last week, and PDiddie at Brains and Eggs noted the transitions without commenting on the similarities of their circumstances.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme wants you to know that Lamar Smith is a rapist enabler like fellow Republican John Cornyn.

At TexasKaos, lightseeker explains the high price of “Cheap Righteousness”. A preivew, it really isn’t cheap at all.

Neil at Texas Liberal posted a letter he co-wrote to Amnesty International asking for Amnesty to come to Texas to consider the forced sonogram law. This law is state-mandated rape. Neil has been posting on this issue in recent weeks, and will continue this focus in the days ahead.

Texas in April 1836:

Constitution of the Republic of Texas, organized the ad interim government, and named Sam Houston commander-in-chief of the republic’s military forces before the delegates evacuated Washington-on-the-Brazos. Their hurried departure was part of the so-called Runaway Scrape, in which Texans fled the advancing troops of Antonio López de Santa Anna. Richmond was evacuated about April 1, and Houston’s subsequent retreat toward the Sabine left all of the settlements between the Colorado and the Brazos unprotected. The settlers in that area at once began making their way toward Louisiana or Galveston Island. The section of East Texas around Nacogdoches and San Augustine was abandoned a little prior to April 13. The flight was marked by lack of preparation and by panic caused by fear both of the Mexican Army and of the Indians. The flight continued until news came of the victory in the battle of San Jacinto.

Posted by bosskitty April 2nd, 2012 | Tags: Texas Blogs, Texas History, Texas Politics, TPA, TPA Roundup | Category: Texas Blogs, Texas Democrats, Texas Politics, Texas Progressive Alliance, TPA | Leave a comment

‘Hot Cripple’: The Nightmare of Living Uninsured in America

  Today almost 50 million Americans do not have health care coverage, according the latest Census Bureau figures.

In today’s corporate empire called America, health care is the carrot for anyone who needs a doctor.  In the old days, people accepted the fact that they get sick and die, especially if you are old or poor.  That concept is unacceptable in today’s society.  America wants to take care of their citizens, or so they want you to believe. To the supposed Right Wing religious radical and corporate puppet master, you are poor or elderly or have a debilitating condition and don’t have health care, you are expendable. You are expendable as long as they can generalize and package you into a faceless category of a non-productive citizen.  They want you to get a job and take care of yourself.  That’s a great idea … in today’s economy, those jobs are precious and have hundreds of applicants with tons of experience.  Those hiring are not looking for cripples, elderly, or mentally damaged employees.

In today’s unaccountable corporate America, the amount of toxic waste that is consuming our land and water and digital media, causes actual physical damage to the least prepared human.  The rise of contamination illness worries these corporations, who do not want to be held accountable for their actions, nor do they want to pay the resulting medical costs.  So, they gather the easiest influenced, the extreme right wingers and NeoCons to protect them from having to pay for their indescretions.

Here is a word that no longer applies to the American Right Wing, ALTRUISM.

WIKI: Altruism  /?æltru??z?m/ is a concern for the welfare of others. It is a traditional virtue in many cultures, and a core aspect of various religious traditions, though the concept of ‘others’ toward whom concern should be directed can vary among cultures and religions. Altruism is the opposite of selfishness.

The term altruism may also refer to an ethical doctrine that claims that individuals are morally obliged to benefit others. Used in this sense, it is the opposite of egoism.  The concept has a long history in philosophical and ethical thought. The term was originally coined in the 19th century by the founding sociologist and philosopher of science, Auguste Comte, and has become a major topic for psychologists (especially evolutionary psychology researchers), evolutionary biologists, and ethologists.

While ideas about altruism from one field can have an impact on the other fields, the different methods and focuses of these fields lead to different perspectives on altruism. In simple terms altruism is caring about the welfare of other people and acting to help them.

American arrogance refuses to hold Insurance Companies accountable for making their services affordable.  This deliberately discriminates against the ignorant and deluded humans who think they will live forever with perfect health.  American arrogance breeds more ignorant and deluded and throws them under the bus.  This is a form of abuse that has not been fully thought through.

Insurance companies have scripted the opposition to the Patient Protection and Affordable Health Care Act.  These same Insurance Companies have bought support from churches, politicians and scripted them to label this act as “SOCIALISM” and will force FREE AMERICANS to pay for deadbeats.

Know your facts before you follow your political guru into a worse nightmare. As of the bill’s passage into law, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimated the legislation would reduce the deficit by $143 billion^[162]  AND The CBO estimated that repealing the entire PPACA (including both its taxing and spending provisions) would increase the net 2011-2021 federal deficit projections by $210 billion.^[182]…

WIKI: Health insurance is insurance against the risk of incurring medical expenses among individuals. By estimating the overall risk of health care expenses among a targeted group, an insurer can develop a routine finance structure, such as a monthly premium or payroll tax, to ensure that money is available to pay for the health care benefits specified in the insurance agreement. The benefit is administered by a central organization such as a government agency, private business, or not-for-profit entity.^[1]

United States -Main articles: Health insurance in the United States and Health care in the United States

The United States health care system relies heavily on private health insurance, which is the primary source of coverage for most Americans. According to the CDC, approximately 58% of Americans have private health insurance.^[33] Public programs provide the primary source of coverage for most senior citizens and for low-income children and families who meet certain eligibility requirements. The primary public programs are Medicare, a federal social insurance program for seniors and certain disabled individuals, Medicaid, funded jointly by the federal government and states but administered at the state level, which covers certain very low income children and their families, and SCHIP, also a federal-state partnership that serves certain children and families who do not qualify for Medicaid but who cannot afford private coverage. Other public programs include military health benefits provided through TRICARE and the Veterans Health Administration and benefits provided through the Indian Health Service. Some states have additional programs for low-income individuals.^[34]

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, health advocacy companies began to appear to help patients deal with the complexities of the healthcare system. The complexity of the healthcare system has resulted in a variety of problems for the American public. A study found that 62 percent of persons declaring bankruptcy in 2007 had unpaid medical expenses of $1000 or more, and in 92% of these cases the medical debts exceeded $5000. Nearly 80 percent who filed for bankruptcy had health insurance.^[35] The Medicare and Medicaid programs were estimated to soon account for 50 percent of all national health spending.^[36] These factors and many others fueled interest in an overhaul of the health care system in the United States. In 2010 President Obama signed into law the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. This Act included a main provision which the American medical insurance lobby group America’s Health Insurance Plans had called for, namely, a mandate that every American must have medical insurance (or pay a fine) as a quid pro quo for “guaranteed issue”, i.e. the dropping of unpopular features of America’s health insurance system

such as premium weightings, exclusions for pre-existing conditions, and the pre-screening of insurance applicants. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is pending review for constitutionality by the United States Supreme Court. On March 26-28, the Supreme Court will hear arguments regarding the validity of the Act. Within the next few months, a final Supreme Court ruling is expected.

WIKI: The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA)^[1][2], commonly called Obamacare,^[3] is a United States federal statute signed into law by President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010. The law (along with the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010) is the principal health care reform legislation of the 111th United States Congress. PPACA requires individuals not covered by employer or government insurance plans to maintain minimal essential health insurance coverage or pay a penalty unless exempted for religious beliefs or financial hardship, a provision commonly referred to as the “individual mandate“. The Act also reforms certain aspects of the private health insurance industry and public health insurance programs, increases insurance coverage of pre-existing conditions, expands access to insurance to 30 million Americans,^[4][5] and increases projected national medical spending^[6][7] while lowering projected Medicare spending.^[8]

The bottom line is, if you don’t have health insurance, can’t get health insurance, need health insurance or just figure “Que Sera Sera”, this bill needs your undivided attention without all the hype surrounding it.  Open your eyes, cut through the crap and see for yourself the consequences of having no safety net for yourself and your family.

Whatever Will Be, Will Be

Insha’Allah

Oh Well

Whatever

Tell them all to go back to work and quit making this country socialist!

Cross posted from TruthHugger – March 28, 2012

tags: Affordable Health Care Act by bosskitty

Posted by bosskitty March 28th, 2012 | Tags: Accountability, Deception, Politics, profiteers, public health crisis, responsibility, Retirement, Social conservatism, social policy, The Affordable Health Care Act, U.S. Supreme Court, War of Misinformation | Category: Politics | Comments (4)

Posted by bosskitty March 26th, 2012 | Tags: Obama Care, SCOTUS, U.S. Supreme Court | Category: Obama Care, SCOTUS, The Affordable Health Care Act, US Supreme Court | Comments (2)

by Len Hart, The Existentialist Cowboy

The ignorant (if not moronic) right wing is stirring up fears and spreading distortions about the First Amendment again. Rick Santorum, for example, has said that the separation of church and state is NOT absolute. I beg to differ and so would have Thomas Jefferson who described a WALL OF SEPARATION between Church and State. And I will venture that Jefferson was in a better position to know what he was talking about and that Jefferson was infinitely more intelligent than Rick Santorum.

The following is the text of the letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association in the State of Connecticut, assembled October 7, 1801.

To messers. Nehemiah Dodge, Ephraim Robbins, & Stephen S. Nelson, a committee of the Danbury Baptist association in the state of Connecticut.

Gentlemen:

• The affectionate sentiments of esteem and approbation which you are so good as to express towards me, on behalf of the Danbury Baptist association, give me the highest satisfaction. my duties dictate a faithful and zealous pursuit of the interests of my constituents, & in proportion as they are persuaded of my fidelity to those duties, the discharge of them becomes more and more pleasing.

• Believing with you that religion is a matter which lies solely between Man & his God, that he owes account to none other for his faith or his worship, that the legitimate powers of government reach actions only, & not opinions, I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people which declared that their legislature should “make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof,” thus building a wall of separation between Church & State. Adhering to this expression of the supreme will of the nation in behalf of the rights of conscience, I shall see with sincere satisfaction the progress of those sentiments which tend to restore to man all his natural rights, convinced he has no natural right in opposition to his social duties.

• I reciprocate your kind prayers for the protection & blessing of the common father and creator of man, and tender you for yourselves & your religious association, assurances of my high respect & esteem.– Jefferson Jan. 1. 1802.

Rick Santorum is of an authoritarian mentality that asserts a ‘right’ to believe claptrap i.e, ‘intelligent design’ and at the same time DENY you the right to believe modern theories of evolution which they label ‘Darwinian’ –as if ‘Darwinian’ were a bad word. It’s NOT!

Tragically –the right wing has a mental ‘blind spot’. They are utterly INCAPABLE of applying to themselves objective rules of logic and evidence. While most intelligent people today are comfortable with the fact that the ‘laws of physics’ apply everywhere in the universe and are discovered, described ONLY by observation and empirical methods, the ‘right wing’ inclined live in a pluralistic universe and never consider for a moment that their thinking processes are, in fact, reversed.

Intelligent ‘folk’ will follow a premise logically to a conclusion. The right wing –rather –ASSUMES the truth of an ideology, a prejudice, a mentally impaired rationalization –and accept ONLY those conclusions which conform to their prejudice. The ‘open mind’ is anathema to them if not completely unheard of in their circles. By any definition, the American right wing is a ‘kooky cult’!

Posted by nytexan March 26th, 2012 | Tags: Constitution, First Amendment, freedom of religion, Len Hart, lies, right wing | Category: Constitution, Len Hart, Religion, Religious Freedom | Leave a comment

The Texas Progressive Allianceis wearing a hoodie this week as it brings you the blog roundup.

Many groups and organizations provide guides telling you who to vote for. This year, Off the Kuff has a guide of who not to vote for in the 2012 Harris County Democratic primary.

BossKitty at TruthHugger is angry that Republicans are all about manipulating personal liberties and imposing their specific religious rules on America, while allowing a real crisis to get worse. GOP Candidates Ignore Water Crisis, Prefer Religious Culture Crisis. On top of imposing their narrow religious interpretations to the general public, Republicans want a dumber America. Corporate Religion, Corporate Education and the Mental Devolution of America.

BlueBloggin sees that Trashing Texas Is BIG Money For Republican Donors and Rick Perry.

We’ve moved so far to the right, as a state and a country, it’s hard to see how we move back. WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that A Budget for All is the place to start.

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw explains the Texas version of the Republican assualt on women. Check out Rick Perry’s and the Texas GOP Unrelenting War on Women.

Annise Parker is quite possibly the best mayor Houstonians could have ever hoped for, if you consider her actions from a moderate Republican point of view. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs breaks it down.

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme knows Republicans just pretend to like the troops. Words are cheap, just like them.

Neil at Texas Liberal continued to focus on the fact that the Texas forced sonogram law is state-mandated rape. In the week ahead Neil will post at Texas Liberal a letter he co-authored asking Amnesty International to come to Texas to investigate this human rights abuse.

Bay Area Houston comments on the GOPs’ new Re-Nig bumper sticker.

Today in Texas history, March 1836: Colonel James W. Fannin’s Execution at Goliad, read the account from the sole survivor from the massacre at Goliad.

Posted by bosskitty March 26th, 2012 | Tags: Texas Democratic Party, Texas History, Texas Progressive Alliance.Texas Blogs | Category: Texas Blogs, Texas Democratic Party, Texas Democrats, Texas Politics, Texas Progressive Alliance, TPA | Leave a comment

Governor Perry wants to end his reign of terror with a final insult to the citizens of Texas.  Let’s bring more hazardous trash and environmentally dangerous nuclear waste into Texas.  Groundwater in Texas is already a precious endangered asset and Texans are scrambling to find ways to survive frequent droughts.  Rick Perry’s Christocrat supporters have ulterior motives for supporting him, he is easy.  Perry is so easy to influence that he is the most popular face for billionaire manipulators.  Good for business and narrow radical agendas, Rick Perry can be bought cheap!  …

… what do do with all of the resulting radioactive waste. Harold Simmons believes he’s found an answer. The Texas billionaire and corporate raider is opening a nuclear waste dump in West Texas, despite objections from environmentalists and the state’s own experts. One of the Lone Star State’s largest donors to Republican causes, Simmons expects his that privately-owned site will become the nation’s most sought after radioactive waste repository.

The reclusive, litigious 79-year-old made his personal fortune from garbage collection, drug stores, metals, and chemicals. His net worth is valued at $5.7 billion, making him the 55th richest American, according to Forbes. He’s shared his money—more than $10 million of it—with conservative politicians and causes, bankrolling attack ads against John Kerry and Barack Obama and giving Republican Texas Governor Rick Perry at least $1.2 million. He has been fined for violating campaign donation limits and outed by one of his daughters for paying her to let him make political contributions in her name. He’s been called the “King of Superfund Sites” for his work disposing of hazardous waste. Last year, D Magazine named him “Dallas’ most evil genius.”

In 1995, he bought a hazardous waste disposal company, Waste Control Specialists, and set about converting an isolated spot in Andrews County into a nuclear waste dump. After six years of lobbying the state legislature, WCS convinced it to pass a law authorizing private companies to be licensed to handle radioactive waste.

Concerned that radioactive material from the dump could contaminate groundwater, three staffers at the state environmental commission quit rather than approve its license.

After decades of pouring money into Republican causes and candidates, Simmons has enjoyed favorable treatment, to the detriment of, not only, the Texas environment, but New York and Illinois as well.

WIKI:  2012 presidential election – Simmons’s company, Contran Corporation, donated $1 million to Make Us Great Again, a super PAC supporting Rick Perry‘s 2012 presidential candidacy. That donation was the single largest received by the PAC in the fourth quarter of 2011.^[26] Contran also was the largest donor to American Crossroads, giving $2 million to the conservative super PAC co-founded by Karl Rove.^[27] Simmons also donated $100,000 directly to another Perry super PAC, the Restoring Prosperity Fund,^[28] before donating $5 million to American Crossroads in addition to Contran’s donation.^[29] He has also contributed to Restore our Future, a super PAC supporting Mitt Romney.^[30]

As of March, Simmons had given more than $18 million to conservative super PACs, the election’s largest single contributor, spread among all the major Republican candidates following the advice of Rove. Simmons said, “Any of these Republicans would make a better president than that socialist, Obama. Obama is the most dangerous American alive … because he would eliminate free enterprise in this country.”^[31]

Environmental management: One of Simmons many companies, NL Industries, originally named National Lead Industries, Inc. has been involved in numerous lawsuits brought by the U.S. Department of Justice to force the company to pay funds into the Superfund to clean up contaminated sites at various sites around the country such as Granite City, Illinois,^[32] and Depew, New York.^[33]

Houston Chronicle: Texas company could bury 1st nuke waste in April – LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Trucks carrying low-level radioactive waste from 38 states will likely be rolling along Texas highways as early as April, bound for permanent burial at a dump near the New Mexico border.  The arrival of the low-level radioactive waste will end a years-long effort by a Dallas-based company, whose majority owner is big-time political contributor Harold Simmons, to win permission from Texas officials to accept the waste at 1,340-acre tract of scrub brush terrain about 360 miles west of Dallas. Opponents say Waste Control Specialists has benefited from Simmons’ connections to top Republicans, including Gov. Rick Perry.

The Texas Nuclear Waste Dump is Worse than You Knew

The state’s commission overseeing disposal of low-level waste in Texas is expected to approve the final rule changes needed on Friday. State lawmakers cleared the way with a new law passed in the last legislative session. State regulators still need to sign off on the burial site’s construction.

Environmental groups have for years voiced concerns about the geology of the site and about the potential for contamination of underground water sources they say are too close. A “nightmare scenario” exists, though, in transporting the waste to the site, said Karen Hadden, director of the Texas SEED Coalition.

“All of it is dangerous but we are very concerned about highway accidents,” she said. “There could be accidents in downtown Dallas or downtown Fort Worth and Houston. There is risk of radioactive contamination and exposure.”

NPR: Lots Of GOP Money Flowing From The Texas Two

The latest reports from the Federal Election Commission shed new light on the political largesse of two Texas businessmen who have become common names in the world of Republican fundraising.

With a $1 million check in February to the superPAC backing Rick Santorum, Dallas nuclear waste dump owner Harold Simmons and his wife, Annette, have now contributed to groups supporting all three of the top GOP candidates.

And Houston home builder Bob Perry (The Godfather of Texas Home-building & Politics) tripled his 2011 investment in the superPAC  supporting Mitt Romney: His $3 million donation made up nearly half of Restore Our Future’s total take in February, according to FEC figures released Tuesday.

Republican political consultant Bill Miller says that over the last 30 years, Perry has used his money to build the Texas Republican Party. He’s been the single largest donor at the national level, too.

According to figures compiled by the Center for Responsive Politics, the National Institute for Money in State Politics and Texans for Public Justice, during the last decade Perry has donated $79,944,942 to various campaigns.

Paying For Influence?

Political observers in Austin, Texas, speculate this spreading of the wealth has to do with Simmons’ main business, a nuclear waste dump in West Texas.

“His motive these days is to expand as much as he can the volume of waste that comes into the dump,” says Craig McDonald, who heads Texans for Public Justice, which tracks campaign contributions in Texas.

Simmons’ dump takes low-level nuclear waste, McDonald says, but it could be the long-term storage solution for high-level nuclear waste. This material is usually stored on site at the reactor and is a security and environmental threat.

Given how politically charged the subject is, Simmons is going to need political allies at both the state and federal levels.

“We’ve also noticed the last couple of years he not only has been moving money to federal candidates, but he’s also been moving a lot of campaign money to state leaders in states that, right now, don’t have a location to place their own low-level [nuclear] waste, so he’s out there shopping,” McDonald says.

Meet a few of Rick’s Financial “Angels”  September 8, 2011

When Rick Perry threw his hat in the ring, he also brought three very deep Texas Pockets with him–not to mention a ready-made coalition of several million voters, all of whom will vote for Perry just because they believe him to be a Christian.

Jim Leininger has given large sums of money to Perry Campaigns over the years.  Many say that he saved Perry’s political career in 1998 with a last minute infusion of $1.1 million that fueled Perry’s victory as lieutenant governor over  a tight race between Perry and Democrat John Sharp.  Leininger is an MD who founded KCI about 30 years ago in San Antonio.  KCI is a leading global medical technology company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of innovative, high-technology therapies and products for the wound care, tissue regeneration and therapeutic support system markets. He sold KCI in a $6.3 billion dollar deal in 1997.

Leininger is a leading proponent of school vouchers and he bankrolled the campaign to ban gay marriage.  The weekend of August 27, 2011, Perry spent at Jim Leininger’s ranch near Fredericksburg for a confab of Christian conservatives which included retired judge Paul Pressler, a Southern Baptist leader, so-called Christian historian David Barton, East Texas evangelist Rick Scarborough* and others who supported Perry’s prayer rally event in Houston.  The meeting at the ranch was not about fundraising.  It was about motivating true believers.

Meet Rick Perry’s Christocrats who think it is more important to mix religion and politics than protect our Texas Environment:

David Barton (born 1954) is an American evangelical Christian minister,^[1] conservative activist, and author. He founded WallBuilders, a Texas-based organization with a goal of exposing the claimed US constitutional separation of church and state as a myth.^[2][3] Barton is the former co-chair of the Republican Party of Texas.

And Rick Scarborough is a self-proclaimed “Christocrat” who believes that it is his duty to “mix church and state God’s way” in order to stop the country’s “slide further into Communism/Socialism [and] sexual anarchy led by sodomites” and who stated, just a few months ago, that AIDS is God’s judgment for engaging in an immoral act. [Source:  People for the American Way]

The Christocrats never really went away – By A. James Rudin| Religion News Service, Published: March 1 – The truth, however, is that the religious right, Christian Reconstructionism and Dominionism have never gone away. And now they’re back, “big time,” as Dick Cheney might say.

In the 2012 presidential election, the Christocrats are out in force on many fronts: trying to eliminate prenatal care and all forms of contraception; defunding breast cancer screening; opposing civil rights for same-sex couples; contesting evolution and substituting creationism in public schools; denying the reality of global climate change; and discrediting the “lame stream media.”

Even though the Constitution specifically prohibits a “religious test” for elective office, the GOP primaries are poisoned with scornful remarks about whether a candidate is “Christian” or not, or whether Obama’s theology is “phony” or unbiblical.

Much of this takes the form of former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, who has been proud to claim the mantle of the “Jesus candidate.” But you can also see traces in the Gingrich and Romney campaigns, and from well-funded groups that aren’t attached to a particular candidate.

I draw no joy in continuing to warn about the profound dangers of the religious right and its various allies. What I wrote in 2006, sadly, remains true today:

Posted by bosskitty March 23rd, 2012 | Tags: Christian Terrorists, Christocrats, environmental impact, groundwater, hazardous waste, Nuclear, Rick Perry | Category: 2012 Apocalypse, Bob Perry, Christocrats, Harold Simmons, hazardous materials, Nuclear Waste, Nuclear Waste, profiteers, Rick Perry, Texas Environment | Comments (8)