The lies from Austin must stop

In today’s Dallas Morning News there are not one, but two articles that describe the condition that Texas’ Tea Party Government has forced us into. Conditions that make us the laughing stock of America.  And this, from a newspaper that supported the entire slate of lunatics that have us retreating into the 1920’s as fast as we can go.  From a Governor who sees the immanent threat of invasion by federal troops to a house and senate full of ideological nitwits, Austin has become so out of step with reality that is goes beyond comical and has become dangerous.

I don’t have permission to share either Steve Blow’s or  Mitchell Schnurman’s columns, but do so as a public service. In case you do not have access to the Dallas Morning News, I share them with you today. Both of these men open the wound of lies and deceit that Abbott,  Patrick and Paxton have been festering in our state capital.

It is time for Texans to awaken to realize the radical, right-wing, pseudo-Christian Tea Party is a power hungry organization who will stop at nothing to get its way, even lying to its constituencies. 

From the Dallas Morning News dated 6.5.2015

Steve Blow Follow dmnsteveblow sblow@dallasnews.com

Published: 04 July 2015 10:45 PM

Updated: 04 July 2015 11:24 PM

Politely, we could call it a ruse or a charade. But to put it in the plainest possible terms: They’re lying.

Texas public officials have been lying, and now the U.S. Supreme Court may decide if their lies amount to something unconstitutional.

Almost lost in all the attention to the same-sex marriage ruling was another action the Supreme Court took in the final hours of its term last week.

The court halted a Texas law that would have forced half the state’s abortion clinics to close. The action is only temporary — until the court decides this fall whether to hear a full appeal of the case.

But it was a solid sign that Texas officials may finally be held to account for their lies and underhanded tactics.

I wish this did not revolve around abortion. That’s such a huge, emotional subject that it almost obliterates the real issue at hand. And that’s abuse of government power.

Try to set aside your feelings about abortion for a moment. This is about Texas officials deciding they don’t approve of a legal right that all Americans have and using every possible inch of government intrusion to thwart it.

And they cover it all in a big lie: We’re only trying to protect the health and safety of Texas women, they say.

You know it’s a lie because they completely ignored the advice of those really working to protect the health of Texas women — their doctors.

Both the American Medical Association and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists opposed the 2013 law, which forced extreme, unnecessary and unaffordable new regulations on abortion clinics.

“Yeah, it’s a lie. And it’s a really cynical lie to claim to increase safety for women when you’re actually restricting their access to a doctor,” said Jessica Pieklo, senior legal analyst for the online publication RH Reality Check.

Burdensome regulations in the law had already forced a dozen Texas clinics to close. Half the remaining 18 clinics would have also been regulated out of existence if not for the last-minute reprieve from the Supreme Court.

Already, Texas women are being forced to turn elsewhere for this particular medical procedure. Nationwide, abortion rates are declining. But not in Louisiana, where much of the increase came from women traveling from Texas.

A clinic in southern New Mexico draws half or more of its clients from Texas. And women are increasingly crossing into Mexico to buy pharmaceuticals with the off-label effect of inducing an abortion.

This is Texas leaders’ idea of protecting the health of Texas women?

Mitchell Schnurman Follow mitchschnurman mschnurman@dallasnews.com

 

Published: 04 July 2015 06:16 PM

Updated: 04 July 2015 08:29 PM

Just before the Supreme Court upheld the Affordable Care Act last month, Gov. Greg Abbott was railing against it.

“Now is not the time to double down on the welfare state,” Abbott wrote in an op-ed piece in the National Review. The headline read: “Congress and Governors: Just Say No to Obamacare.”

Abbott was anticipating the law would be rejected, but the court voted the other way, 6-3. And that’s not the only way he was wide of the mark.

After the ruling, Abbott wrote, “Employers won’t face the job-killing Obamacare penalties” in states that refuse to buy into the law, such as Texas. And he urged them to move here.

“I proudly welcome more by doing everything I can to end Obamacare in Texas,” he wrote.

That may play to his base, but it’s just flat wrong. His rhetoric won’t move Texas ahead on health care, and it’s not a clarion call to business.

“I’m confused by his remarks,” said Bill Hammond, CEO of the Texas Association of Business. “It doesn’t work like that.”

While states have latitude in how they approach the health law, it’s a national program. No one can escape the mandate for coverage by simply moving to a state that opposes the ACA. Taxpayers, employers and providers also can’t avoid paying their share by living somewhere that doesn’t embrace it.

Everybody’s paying for health reform. But Texas is lagging big-time in what it gets back.

It has the highest uninsured rate in the country, roughly 1 in 4 residents. And it trails the U.S. average in enrollment on Healthcare.gov, the exchange that provides federal subsidies for most of its customers.

In theory, no state has more to gain from affordable coverage for all. But Texas leaders are constantly dissing the law and forgoing billions in federal dollars. Money is the main reason business groups, including Hammond’s, want to expand Medicaid.

Texas’ sign-ups lag

If Texas extended the program to low-income adults, as have 29 states and Washington, over 1 million residents would get coverage — with federal money paying for nearly all of it.

But even more Texans, over 3 million in total, are eligible to buy insurance on the exchange. Yet just 32 percent of them enrolled this year, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

While that’s an improvement from 2014, the national average is 36 percent. Many large states enrolled over 40 percent, and Florida hit 57 percent. Florida enrolled almost half a million more than much-larger Texas.

Top lawmakers in Florida often criticize Obamacare. But the state has exceptional outreach efforts among nonprofits and community groups, especially around Miami and the central part of the state.

On that point, would we see any of these personally invasive laws if they were directed at Texas men?

Imagine Texas men being forced to hear state-mandated information read to them before being allowed to make a decision.

Imagine Texas men being forced to submit to a medically unnecessary ultrasound examination and a 24-hour waiting period before being able to exercise a legal right.

And then imagine a big lie about it all being for the health and safety of those men.

I can’t see the Texas Legislature standing for it one minute.

Again, I’m not trying to sway your feelings about abortion itself. You may feel strongly that it’s wrong. I respect that. But one of the earliest philosophical points we learn as children is that two wrongs don’t make a right.

This weekend, we’re celebrating our American freedoms. And Texas leaders profess to be unrivaled in their passion to defend those liberties.

But part of being American is protecting the freedom of others to make decisions that you would never make for yourself. On that test of patriotism, Texas leaders have failed miserably.

Perhaps it will take the U.S. Supreme Court to set things right.

In Texas, large metro areas benefited from the work of consumer groups, local leaders and insurers. But the response has varied widely. In the College Station area, as few as 12 percent of those who were eligible signed up for coverage, Kaiser said. The share topped 81 percent in some Houston suburbs.

In northeast Dallas County, including parts of Richardson and Garland, 71 percent of those eligible signed up, Kaiser said. Several other areas — including Coppell, north Irving, Duncanville and DeSoto — topped 50 percent.

But there were no statewide initiatives to boost sign-ups, and a consumer program ended a few years ago. The governor’s office, insurance department and health department haven’t launched efforts to increase participation. And leaders required extra training, background checks and fingerprinting for navigators.

Researchers from Harvard compared the impact of state policies in three Southern states — Arkansas, Kentucky and Texas. Kentucky expanded Medicaid, branded its own program and had extensive outreach. That paid off in the highest application rates, enrollment and positive experiences.

Caught up in rhetoric

Texas performed the worst.

“Our study suggests that state policy decisions are likely having a critical impact not only on eligibility but also on who chooses to apply for coverage and whether they successfully enroll,” the researchers wrote in Health Affairs magazine last month.

The finding seems predictable: More residents enroll if a state promotes the program and provides more help. So what are we waiting for?

“Can’t we tone down the rhetoric and try to work collaboratively for the citizens of Texas?” said Steve Love, CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council.

As a starting point, he suggested Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion: “Congress passed the Affordable Care Act to improve health insurance markets, not to destroy them,” Roberts wrote.

Employers still have many concerns about the health law, including mandates and filing regulations. But they’re relieved the court upheld it, said Marianne Fazen, executive director of the Dallas-Fort Worth Business Group on Health. She wants the focus to shift to improving the law, not repealing it.

“Employers want health care to work better,” Fazen said.

Can Texas’ leaders even agree on that?

One man writes about the ACA and the other about the health care clinic debacle created by Austin. Both fundamentally flawed thinking that is hurting Texans.

It is time for the lies to stop.

Let's keep religion out of the arguments of the court.

SCOTUS just said clean air costs too much.

It ruled against the EPA restrictions on coal and gas-fired electrical plants. (The conservative justices’ actual argument wasn’t that we don’t need clean air, but that the EPA did not take into consideration the cost of their regulation. The EPA has only been working on the economic model of their regulations for about a half a decade. With that in mind, I am not sure how the right-wing justices pulled that one out of their collective asses.  But I’ll give them this one, for the sake of the argument.)

But because they did, and we are now stuck with a non-regulated dirty air environment, I am going to use some right-wing, evangelical rhetoric  on you that has been bantered about the past weekend about the same court’s ruling on gay marriage.

Here goes.

God left man in charge of the Earth. We were ordained to be “good stewards” of the planet. That means its environments, its people, its animals and everything that grows, breathes and lives on this rock — we are burdened with the responsibility of caring for it.   God said it was our duty. That’s in the Bible. So it has got to be true.  Right?  Come on my Baptist friends…speak up here. What would Robert Jeffress say about this? It came from God so it must be true… right?

Now, the EPA was just doing what God had told us to do. It was trying to take care of the Earth.  Trying to be good stewards of our resources. Air and water being resources we use a bit every day, the EPA was trying to preserve their qualities. You know, being good stewards and all. But now this evil court, using money as its foundation, has decided that it knows, once again, better than God what is good for mankind.

Today the court thumbed their nose at God’s edict.  It said, we don’t care what the Creator commanded, we think money (…the love of which is the root of all evil…also Biblical…) usurps clean air and drinkable water. We think money supersedes the will of God.

Now…let’s see how many pulpits in America get exercised over this breech of old and new testament hypocrisy.  Let’s see FOX News loose its cool over this ruling. Let’s see and hear from all the candidates running for election on the GOP ticket take a stand for God in this argument. 

They won’t ladies and gentlemen.

Because actually following God is not important to any of them. If the gospel doesn’t fit their politics, they turn their face away from it.   What they want to do is raise your ire and collect money in their coffers from you. Because…even to the church…money is more important than God.

So every time the court makes a ruling for or against your political point of view, quit running to the Bible to try and attack it or defend it. Because if you don’t, someday the court my just quote Leviticus and tell you that you must stone to death your wayward children.  And I know a lot of preacher’s kids that could use some very hard stoning.

Law and Order Versus the Pulpit Bullies.

Words are needed to heal wounds. In the aftermath of the glow of victory from the gay community and liberals across America, a lot of Christians feel that their faith and beliefs were trampled by the Supreme Court in yesterday’s ruling in favor of universal and equal marriage in America. (Some will even claim they are being persecuted, but that is an argument for another time.)

You have every right to feel however you want.  But allow me to give you some rationale and logic to help dissuade your fits of anger and fear.

First: this case was never about religion.

Never was. Never has been. The pundits and noise makers on the right-wing of the Republican party made that pitch to work you up…to get your pastors in the pulpit to work you up…to get under your skin.

This case and its trials have always been about the rule of law. From day one.

The law in this case, is the United States Constitution and specifically its 14^th Amendment. Let me quote you the applicable passage here:

                       

            “No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the

            privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor

            shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property,

            without due process of law; nor deny to any person within

            its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

This is referred to as the Equal Protection clause of the Constitution.  It means if you make a law favoring and protecting a class of people — let’s say, Catholics, then the Baptist get the same protection. And so do the Methodists and the Presbyterians and even the Mormons and the atheists — for that matter, so too would the Islamic members of our society. Every member of society is protected equally under the law. Every member.

It a nutshell, the 14^th Amendment says what is good under the law for the goose is also good for the gander. Equal. Protection by the law. By the constitution.

Why is it part of our law of the land? Too keep one group of people from bullying or overpowering another group because they can either, by vote or by abusive power, place their will over a subjugated class. It is YOUR protection that the law is as much for you as for your neighbor. It is there for white people. For black people. For Asians. For Hispanics. For Jews and Gentiles and even for Dallas Cowboys…(we think).

And it is there for gay and lesbian members of our country, too.

The parties fighting the lawsuit on behalf of gay and lesbian couples believed that their liberty had been usurped by states that refused to recognize their right to get married.

Now whether you believe in gay marriage or not, that is not the issue here. It may boil your blood and turn your stomach, but in America, those people have the same rights as you and me. It is in black and white. It is guaranteed in our Constitution.  And in this case, in this matter, that usurps scripture.

Sorry. That’s how it works.

Second:  This in no way diminishes your marriage.

It does not affect your family values.  It does not degrade either the act of or the institution of marriage. No one is going to force you to marry a gay person. No one is coming to take your religious beliefs away. No one is challenging your faith. And if you fear that it does challenge your faith, you need to reexamine your belief system.

However, in this case, marriage was and is being looked at as a legal tool of the state.  Truly nothing more.

People get married for love, true; but also, there are huge financial, tax and legal ramifications to being wed. Trusts. Wills. End of life directives.  Powers of Attorney. Tax issues. Home purchasing. The list goes on and on.

And the plaintiffs in this case said their ability to be rewarded and benefit from those things that are endowed to married couples were kept from them by the state(s) who refused to offer, condone or accept their marriages or opportunity to marry.

All they were asking for was the right to have a piece of paper just like you that tells the world, “Look we are a legal entity — a couple.” That does not take away from your union one iota no matter what First Baptist or Rome say.

No matter what your preacher or priest will rant about on Sunday, no matter what the governors of the very conservative states will say on TV or the one hundred thousand Republican candidates for President will shout out, the truth is, your marriage is your business.  Its sanctity is in your hands. No one else’s.

But as of today, so is the sanctity of the gay couples. It is in their hands. Not the government’s. Not the states’. They have to fight the fight and endure the battles and ups and downs of married life now like the rest of us. And they’ll do fine. Some will divorce. But many, many more will not. And they will love each other not unlike how you love your spouse. In fact, their victory actually strengthens your own liberty. As President Obama said, “(the ruling) affirms what millions of Americans already believe in their hearts: When all Americans are treated as equal, we are all more free.”

But through it all, it will not affect your marriage or your vows in any way. And believe me, that is exactly how the gay community wants it. What is your business is yours. What is their business is theirs.

Some of the gay and lesbians couples have suffered far more and for far longer than you have ever suffered for your marriage. And that builds unique and special bonds. So don’t try and tell me it is not true love they have. They may understand love and devotion far more than straight couples ever will.

Which leads me to point number three. There is a theological side to the issue of getting married. It runs deep and has all kinds of historical caveats. And right now it is yelling at the top of its lungs that this is all wrong — not God’s will.  Forbidden in the Word of the Lord.

In the past the scriptures allowed polygamy. Man stopped that.  Marrying a child wasn’t frowned on until mankind stopped it. The bible sure didn’t say anything about stopping it. Taking a slave for a bride was fine, too. Again man brought that to an end. In fact, scripture turned a blind eye to slavery all together. It took struggle and strife to end that dark practice.  And many clergy led the fight to stop slavery, even if their scriptures didn’t.

Sometimes you have to look past the scriptures to find inspiration for life. Sometimes ‘the way’ is not printed in the old or new testaments.  Sometimes it comes from other sources — sources deep within our hearts.

The Bible never said slavery was wrong. But we knew it was. Even though many claimed biblical rights to own slaves. The point here is that theology is not law. Law is law. And the ultimate law in our land is the Constitution. It is not a theological idea or notion or edict found on a page from the Bible or a Koran — it is not preached from some pulpit nor does it come handed down in a Papal decree. It exists in the Constitution.

And because of the Constitution, now gay people can wed. As Justice Anthony Kennedy wrote: “The right to marry is a fundamental right inherent in the liberty of the person, and under the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment couples of the same sex may not be deprived of that right and that liberty.”

Now that may well go against your religion and church doctrine. I’m oaky with that. So long as you do not use that as a hindrance within and under state law to disallow people, not like yourself, to get married. Then you have violated the 14^th Amendment of Federal Law. You will have broken the law of the land.

What you believe in your faith is your business.  Keep it that way. I will respect you for that. That way we will all get along a lot better.

You see, this was never about religion. It was always about equality… equal justice…always about the law.

One for freedom and liberty

I have to make a confession right up front.  For years, I was against the notion of gay marriage.  Not the union of gay couples. I have always supported that. But the use of the word marriage bothered me.

Then I had a friend who was denied access to his partner at Baylor Hospital because the hospital did not recognize the couples "marriage." Leave it to a Baptist institution to change my mind.

Marriage, beside the bond in love two people share, is also a major legal document within our society. It affects wills, trusts, bank accounts, insurance policies, taxes, home purchases and yes, even visits to a hospital.

Marriage is about a union — a legal union recognized by the state.

Today the Supreme Court got it right.

Today they said that if you could issue licenses to couples of different sex, then you could not discriminate against couples of the same sex. It is based on the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution — called the equal protection clause.  Allow me to quote it here for you in case you went to a Texas school and studying the constitution was denied to you in your education.

“No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”

It is black and white. Everybody gets treated the same in America. Baptist, Methodists, atheists and even gay and lesbians. Can't discriminate against them. Any of them.

I believe our governor and state attorney general will try. God knows they are just crazy enough to fight this. But the rest of the world knows the truth. What is good for the goose is also now legally good for the gander.

That is how the constitution works.  So don't quote me your bible passages.  Don’t kneel in front of me in pious prayer. Don’t paste pictures of Billy Graham bemoaning the fact that America has just gone to the Devil.

No we haven’t.

We have just corrected a wrong in our society.  And the same type of people opposing this are also the ones whose kinfolk opposed the freeing of slaves.

If you want freedoms — freedom of religion and freedom of speech and whatever else you hold dear, you have to make sure the other guy gets those freedoms as well. 

For a final and personal note to Governor Abbott and Attorney General Paxton: "...nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property..."  any state, gentlemen. That means Texas, too.

Bye-bye Mr. Mike.

I know Mayor Rawlings is going to hate this because will place copious amounts of egg on his face, but the Dallas School Superintendent, Mike Miles is leaving, even though the mayor has given him his unending support.  (Some people like lost causes.)

And it is about time. It is time for Miles to go. Period.

I have said it in this column before and i will say it again. He was never in tune with the Dallas schools and never understood the scope of the problem facing an urban school district.  He was overmatched from day one.

But he could raise political capital when he needed it.  And lots of it.  Unfortunately his administration mis- appropriated real capital and that was his undoing. That, and he screwed with very popular schools and their principals who were doing good jobs.  Why?  To be vindictive.

Mike Miles was a little man with a huge ego.

Dallas needs just the opposite to run our schools.  We need a giant with an ego that is sensitive enough to listen.

Good-bye Mike. Don't let the door hit you on the way out.

On another note, but one that has to do with leadership, Kudos to President Obama for speaking out so openly about racism in America.

And here is a strange kudo coming from me...to Ted Cruz for not returning his money from the Concerned Conservative Citizens (the extreme right wing racist organization) but instead donating that money to the families of victims on south Carolina. Good play, Ted. 

Fool's Gold.

I have been following articles about Governor Gregg Abbott of Texas wanting over a billion dollars in gold returned to the State of Texas, so that he and his demented minions can start their own treasury.

Has someone put something in the water in Austin?  Are the members of the state GOP taking LSD nighty to see how crazy they can get? Or is absolute power corrupting absolutely, as Machiavelli suggested?

I think the answer is the latter. The power party in Austin has become intoxicated with its Tea Party fundamentals and the success it has had in passing most of them into law in the Lone Star State. They have become high on their victories and no longer display common sense.  After all, if you can put guns on college campuses, close down women's health centers, pass laws to protect pastors who are not endangered, and thumb your nose at federal law, what's keeping you from creating your own monetary system?

Abbott is just crazy enough of a zealot to try.  He thinks his knowledge of the law places him above it. The whole GOP does.  (Example:  our Attorney General is a FELON; a self-admitted felon at that.  But he would have to stand trial for his actions in his home country— Colin County — and the local prosecutor {also a Tea Partier} is a friend and will not follow up on the charges, even though the AG himself said, "Yeah I did it.") Talk about a disregard for law and order. Now that same AG is telling the University of Texas that they must allow a rouge board member access to all admissions paperwork because he said so...The felon says do it, so you better...he is above the law.

See the state of dysfunction the state of Texas has become.

And now, the GOP wants "its" gold back from the United States Treasury so that it can start its own, gold back treasury. Forbidden in the constitution.

But hey, why should these dimwits let a law stand in their way. And where did they get a claim that the gold in reserve in the Federal Treasury belongs to Texas in the first place? I know the GOP is trying to totally re-write the history books in Texas, but come on — this is ridiculous. Gold from the original Republic of Texas and from the Confederate State of Texas that was placed into the Federal Reserve after the Civil War does not belong to the state of Texas. It belongs to the United States of America. Call it the down payment for getting to sit at the big table of fifty states.

And no, you can't have it back.

And no, you can't print your own money or establish your own banking credit system.

And no your logic does not hold up.

What is the next damn crazy idea that is going to come out of right-wing talk radio and filter its way to the state capitol and to the governor's mansion?  Remuneration for lost slaves? I probably shouldn't have written that, for somewhere, some Tea Party idiot is reading those words and saying. "Yeah. That’s it. We want to be paid for our slaves or give them back to us."

God help Texas. And if you can't...just wash away the rift raff you've got trying to govern us.  Thanks.

It is time the shooting stop, or we all take aim at the NRA.

In Texas, our state legislators want to put guns in the hands of everybody. All the time. their employers,  the NRA have deemed it so.

In schools.  In churches.  In bars. In banks. In grocery stores. Open carry everywhere. On university campuses, for God’s sake.  Put a freakin’ gun in the hands of young men whose hormones are raging... Put a gun on your hip, dude, you’re in Texas.

Then today’s headlines.  “Nine lives lost in biker shootout in Waco.” Now don’t get me wrong. I’m not going to lose a minute’s sleep over a bunch of bad-ass bikers taking each other out or the police taking them out during a gun fight.  But I am concerned about the callousness of our society that the gun has become the Almighty.  The gun is Supreme Being in the Lone Star State. And open carry means any fool (on a bike or not) can carry his death machine around with him or her, and use it at any time.

This foolishness has to come to a halt. The second amendment didn’t mean for this armed lawlessness to go on. It was aimed at supplying a “well-regulated militia” with the means to protect itself from insurgents and wild natives. It was not meant for every Tom, Dick and Harriet to have a side arm strapped to their butt looking for a fight.

Get over it. It is time for the Wild West Days to come to a screeching halt.

I am not a fan of the bikers. Never have been. They live by a code all their own. but their shootout occurred in a public place where any number of civilians could have been shot and killed.

Yesterday it was nine bikers.  But earlier it was school children and teachers in Sandy Hook. And moviegoers in Colorado. And college students crouched in a classroom in Virginia. When will it end?  Who has the guts to stand up to the NRA and tell them, “Enough.”

Obviously our politicians don’t. They are too well paid by the gun lobby. Maybe it is time guns are turned on the NRA.