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Archive for the ‘Good Government’ Category

Sunset Commission hearing keeps going and going and going

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Good Government, Sunset, TCEQ, Texas Legislature, tagged , , on December 15, 2010 |

Here I am at the Armadillo Christmas Bazaar people watching Christmas shoppers (for those readers not  from Austin, the Armadillo Bazaar is an annual artist Christmas venue which has been happening in our fair city for 30+ years and runs every day the two weeks before Christmas – yes they are here until 11pm on Christmas eve for those last minute shoppers).  I’m talking to people  about workplace giving and Texas environmental organizations while Jimmy LaFavre is performing about 300 feet away from me. 

At the same time. I’m streaming the Texas Sunset Advisory Commission hearing, which is finally getting around to TCEQ.   I can’t hear anything that is being said (what with that Jimmy Lafavre concert going on in the background), but I keep seeing folks, who showed up at 8:30 this morning ready to testify, finally getting to say their piece.  Many of them have a 3 to 8 hour drive home ahead of them.  All I can say is “Bless their hearts”, they are, in fact, the stuff of which Texas is made and I admire them greatly.

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TCEQ Sunset Town Halls – Victoria

Posted in Air Quality, Energy, Global Warming, Good Government, Sunset, TCEQ, Texas Legislature, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 23, 2010 |

Texans living around the Victoria region attended a town hall in September to express their concerns about the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) on a number of different issues, including the proposed White Stallion coal plant in Bay City. On the panel were Sunset Commission Chairman Sen. Glenn Hegar, former TCEQ commissioner Larry Soward, the regional administrator of TCEQ for that area, and a lawyer with Blackburn & Carter who often take on environmental cases.

[vimeo=17100424]

This town hall was one of a series of events held to provide the people of Texas a way in which to voice their concerns to TCEQ. The official Sunset Commission hearing on TCEQ is scheduled for December 15th in Austin. For more video footage of these town halls check our archives and stay tuned to TexasVOX. For more information on the ongoing Sunset review of TCEQ check out Alliance for a Clean Texas.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We arePublic Citizen Texas.

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Delay trial winds down with closing arguments expected on Monday

Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, tagged , , , , , , on November 20, 2010 |

Testimony in Tom DeLay‘s money-laundering trial ended on Thursday, without the former House majority leader testifying and neither DeLay’s chief political aide, Jim Ellis, nor John Colyandro, who ran Texans for a Republican Majority, testified because they are being tried later as co-conspirators.  Closing arguments are set for Monday and with any luck we will have a verdict by the end of next week.

In the meantime, let’s recap this week.

Prosecutors in the political money-laundering case against former U.S. Rep. Tom DeLay continued their efforts to build a circumstantial case, but as the sixth day of testimony ended Tuesday, they still had not directly linked DeLay to the alleged scheme.  However, on Wednesday prosecutors presented the jury with statements DeLay made to investigators in 2005, indicating he knew of a $190,000 money swap before it occurred.

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Houston Redistricting Hearing

Posted in Campaign Finance, Consumers, Good Government, Texas Legislature, tagged , , , , , on November 13, 2010 |

Come one, come all. The House Committee on Redistricting is taking public testimony at hearings around the state regarding redistricting that will help shape the districts for both the house and senate of the Texas legislature, Texas congressional districts, and districts for the election of judicial officers or of governing bodies or representatives of political subdivisions or state agencies as required by law, including state board of education districts for the next ten years..

The HOUSTON REDISTRICTING HEARING will be held on November 20, 2010 at 10:00 A.M. at University of Houston, Athletic/Alumni Center, O’Quinn Great Hall, 3100 Cullen Boulevard, Houston, TX, 77004.

For more information on redistricting, including links to video of earlier hearings in other communities around the state, see our earlier blog by clicking here

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Public Citizen’s website or Tom Delay on trial yesterday?

Posted in Campaign Finance, Consumers, Good Government, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 2, 2010 |

As the Tom Delay trial got underway, the State’s first two witnesses were Craig McDonald, a former Public Citizen Texas director and now the executive director for Texans for Public Justice, and Austin attorney Fred Lewis, both of whom the defense characterized as being from the left end of the political spectrum which they attempted to capitalize upon.  Twice the defense moved for a mistrial, claiming there was an effort by prosecutors to push political opinions on the jury.  Both motions were ignored by Judge Priest.

Craig McDonald said he focused solely on campaign donations while with Public Citizen and that there were discrepancies between what Texas Republican Majority PAC (TRMPAC) reported to the Texas Ethics Commission in terms of its income and what Republican National State Election Committee (RNSEC) reported to the IRS.

The defense, in examining McDonald, reviewed 60 candidate names on Public Citizen’s website — only one of which was a Democrat (gubernatorial candidate, Bill White, and that was from a blog on yours truly, Texas Vox, which showed up on the site through an RSS feed).  DeLay, however, was mentioned 100 or more times on the site. But McDonald maintained political neutrality in his testimony, noting that DeLay’s appearance on the website did not mean he was the only subject of Public Citizen’s research. (more…)

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The Rally to Restore Sanity . . . What was it all about?

Posted in Good Government, tagged , , , , on November 1, 2010 |

Jon Stewart explains what the Rally to Restore Sanity is about in his speech at the rally in DC.

I can’t control what people think this was. I can only tell you my intentions. This was not a rally to ridicule people of faith. Or people of activism or to look down our noses at the heartland or passionate argument or to suggest that times are not difficult and that we have nothing to fear. They are and we do. But we live now in hard times, not end times. And we can have animus and not be enemies.

(more…)

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Delay’s trials and tribulations move forward

Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, tagged , , , , , , , on November 1, 2010 |

A jury for Tom DeLay‘s money laundering trial was selected quickly last week, but only after the prosecution challenged whether the defense was striking African American jurors without good cause.

The defense cut five African Americans from the jury because, in several instances, he said the would-be jurors appeared angry at him after he had criticized the lead prosecutor, who is black. (more…)

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Rally to Restore Sanity in Austin

Posted in Global Warming, Good Government, Renewables, tagged , , , , , , , on October 29, 2010 |

Come join us tomorrow, Saturday morning, for a satellite rally of John Stewart’s “Rally to Restore Sanity” which is happening in Washington D.C. The festivities start at 11am and go till 2pm (a march against the death penalty starts at 3). (more…)

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State Rep Kino Flores found GUILTY, exposes holes in our Texas campaign finance and ethics laws

Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, tagged , , , , , , , on October 27, 2010 |

From the Statesman:

A Travis County jury today found South Texas lawmaker Kino Flores guilty of multiple counts of tampering with a governmental record and perjury in connection with omissions Flores made on financial disclosure forms required to be filed by state elected officials.

Flores, a 14-year state representative, was convicted of five counts of misdemeanor tampering with a governmental record, four counts of felony tampering with a governmental record and two counts of misdemeanor perjury.

***“This verdict represents the public saying to public officials that they expect elected officials to maintain the highest ethical standards,” Travis County District Attorney Rosemary Lehmberg said. “That accurate and full public disclosure is an important part of public service and that the public will not accept excuses like ‘I was too busy’ or ‘I just didn’t know.’”

Flores was found guilty of two counts of tampering with government records with the intent to harm or defraud the state for failing to report on the forms income that he was accused of receiving from a list of businesses in 2002 and 2003. He was also found guilty of the felony tampering for failing to report his son’s job with the Capitol lobby firm HillCo Partners.

The jury found that he did not intend to harm or defraud by failing to report a list of properties he owned on financial disclosure firms, including a Guadalupe Street condominium. Because of that lack of intent, the jury found the tampering with a governmental record counts related to those charges are misdemeanors.

Flores’ lawyers argued that he did not intend to omit the properties on the forms and dismissed some of the omissions as clerical errors. They argued that he was not obligated under the law to report the income because he was working as a consultant.

What’s important here is not what he was convicted for, but what he was NOT convicted for.  As the article says, this case basically amounted to “clerical errors” but this still stinks to high heaven.  Unfortunately, (and probably by design) we have a State Ethics Commission which is relatively toothless and whose only major enforcement actions are for paperwork violations. Kind of like this:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtWBlDC2-ss]

When lawmakers are given gifts or even campaign donations, there are obvious strings attached.  We ought to ban all gift-giving from lobbyists, etc and move to a system of full public financing of elections so the public can be absolutely certain no favors are being traded.

Otherwise, we just have a system where as long as they’re telling us they’re taking bribes and fill out the proper paperwork, it’s ok.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Election spending by outside groups is concentrated and hidden, new Public Citizen analysis shows

Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, tagged , , , , , , , , on October 27, 2010 |

Cross-posted from our mother blog at CitizenVox. We don’t normally cross-post much because we’d prefer you to read their blog just as much as ours, but if you’re not, please add them to your rss feed now!

Of the $176.1 million spent by outside groups using large, often undisclosed contributions to influence the current elections, just 10 groups are responsible for the bulk of the spending, according to a new analysis released today by Public Citizen.

What’s more, 59.9 percent of the money comes from undisclosed sources. Of those contributions that have been disclosed, nearly two-thirds has come from just 0.12 percent of the contributors. The analysis of data from Public Citizen’s Stealth PACs database shows that:

  • Those groups have spent $176.1 million. Of that, $114.6 million, or 65 percent, was spent by only 10 groups.
  • From the 10 groups, money spent on behalf of Republicans has outpaced money spent on behalf of Democrats $79.4 million to $28.5 million.
  • Five groups have spent money on more than 35 races each. Eleven groups have spent money on more than 20 races each.
  • Eighty groups have not disclosed any information about the sources of their money. These groups have spent $105.4 million of the $176.1 million total. Only $70.7 million of the spending – just 40.1 percent – has come from disclosed sources.
  • Thirty groups have entered the fray for the first time in 2010 in the past two weeks.

“Outside group funding is shaking the foundations of our electoral democracy, but the situation is far worse than it seems at first blush,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen. “A tiny number of organizations, relying on a tiny number of corporate and fat cat contributors, are spending most of the money on the vicious attack ads dominating the airwaves. The vast majority of donors remain hidden behind a veil of secrecy, in many cases of doubtful legality. The biggest surge in funding will come in the next week. And this election cycle’s spending is merely a prelude to something far worse in 2012. The trigger for all this was the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United; the key to repairing our democracy is a constitutional amendment to undo the decision.”

The analysis includes charts identifying the groups spending the most to influence this year’s elections, the groups engaged in the most contests, the races that have been the subject of the most outside spending and the contests focused on by the independent groups that have sprung up in the past two weeks.

The Stealth PACs site allows users to search the expenditures and limited contribution data of independent groups that are intervening in this year’s elections using contributions of more than $5,000 or undisclosed contributions.

The site also enumerates the outside groups’ expenditures on each race, discloses the vendors and other recipients of expenditures of $1,000 or more, and provides links to the FEC filings on expenditure data.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Foreign Oil Companies Fund Climate-Skeptic Congressional Candidates

Posted in Campaign Finance, Energy, Global Warming, Good Government, green jobs, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on October 27, 2010 |

We were right when we said the Supreme Court ruling in the Citizens United case was going to have a negative impact on the political system in this country. The ruling has paved the way to make mid-term election campaigns the only growing industry in this economic crisis. The ruling has turned candidates’ focus from the policy to their pockets.

One of the issues that has fallen victim to the mid-term elections is the legislation to address climate change and regulate the energy industry. It was one of Obama’s main objectives on the campaign to cut emissions and provide incentives to renewable energy.  But as election approached, Congress backed out of its commitment to this issue.

A European-based organization, Climate Action Network (CANE) released a report that shows European energy companies are paying contributions to Tea Party Candidates and other Congressional candidates who have denied climate-change is even occuring and have been outspoken against regulating the energy industry.

Remember Oklahoma’s Senator James Inhofe? He thinks Environmentalists are out there to scare people and proclaims that “Global warming is the greatest hoax ever perpetrated on the American people,” and because of this “special” remark, he qualified to be one of the recipients of campaign funds from Europe’s biggest emitters. Inhofe is not the only one, many others in Congress have made some similar funny comments that got them some money. Montana’s Roy Blunt is another skeptic. made a blunt comment discrediting science on climate change, “There isn’t any real science to say we are altering the climate path of the earth.” this is more ridiculous than Montana’s law which makes it illegal to “have a sheep in the cab of your truck without a chaperone” but despite that, Blunts comments has put him as one of the top ten recipients from two of these companies.

Those companies, Such as BP(who is responsible for the US worst Environmental disaster), BASF (which spent $50,500 to block cap-and-trade), and others generally have two objectives: one is to stall and block climate change/energy reform legislation in the United States, second is to use that as an excuse to tell the European countries not to introduce such legislation. The companies who are funding those climate-skeptic candidates are based in countries  such as Germany, France, UK, and Belgium (so much for those candidates’ being anti-socialist).

In a time when the president has gone all the way to teaming up with Mythbusters to encourage American kids about math and science, our representatives are doing their best at discrediting them.  Climate Change is one issue that should cross partisan lines. I think every human being can agree that we need continue our existence on this planet and maintain it for the next generations. Al Gore says that in order for clean-energy advocates to achieve climate-friendly and renewable energy legislation, they need to get into the lobbying business just as the dirty energy lobbyist.

I disagree.

I think we need to reform the relationship between lobbyist and Congress. We shouldn’t need to write serious checks in order to get things done in this country.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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CALIFORNIA PUSHES BACK AGAINST TEXAS

Posted in Campaign Finance, Energy, Global Warming, Good Government, green jobs, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , , , , , on October 27, 2010 |

Supporters of a California law designed to battle climate change are pushing back against money from Texas oil and gas interests that’s helping to fund an initiative on the Nov. 2 ballot in the Golden State that would roll back some of the law’s provisions

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/v/Wo1wNpza2rM?fs=1&hl=en_US”]

Starring David Arquette – Written & Directed by Matthew Cooke – Produced by Gabe Cowen – Executive Produced by Peter Glatzer and Adrian Grenier.

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You can attend a hearing on redistricting in your community

Posted in Good Government, tagged , , , , , on October 26, 2010 |

The House Committee on Redistricting, as a function of it’s procedural jurisdiction and as part of the 81st legislature’s interim charges, is conducting public hearings around the state regarding redistricting that will occur during the 82nd Legislature, which begins January 11, 2011. 

The committee will be taking public testimony at these hearings and we would encourage you to attend a hearing in your area as the committee’s recommendations will help shape the districts for both the house and senate of the Texas legislature, Texas congressional districts, and districts for the election of judicial officers or of governing bodies or representatives of political subdivisions or state agencies as required by law, including state board of education districts for the next ten years.

Upcoming hearings include:

  • ABILENE REDISTRICTING
    October 27, 2010 at 12:00 P.M. at One AISD Center Board Room, 241 Pine Street, Abilene, TX 79601
  • AUSTIN REDISTRICTING
    November 17, 2010 at 10:00 A.M. at the Texas State Capitol, Underground Extension, Hearing Room E1.030, in Austin, TX
  • HOUSTON REDISTRICTING
    November 20, 2010 at 10:00 A.M. at University of Houston, Athletic/Alumni Center, O’Quinn Great Hall, 3100 Cullen Boulevard, Houston, TX, 77004

If you missed the hearing in your community, you can watch archived broadcasts of the hearing, just click on the link below.

Date Time & Link Redistricting Hearing
07/21/10 10:00 a.m. Corpus Christi Redistricting (part 1)
07/21/10 1:25 p.m. Corpus Christi Redistricting (part 2)
09/22/10 10:00 a.m. Dallas Redistricting
09/20/10 12:00 p.m. Dallas Redistricting
08/16/10 10:00 a.m. El Paso Redistricting
06/02/10 11:07 a.m. Joint Hearing with the Committee on Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence
07/20/10 10:10 a.m. Laredo Redistricting
08/18/10 12:00 p.m. Lubbock Redistricting
10/20/10 11:00a.m. Marshall Redistricting
07/19/10 12:06 p.m. McAllen Redistricting
06/21/10 10:00 a.m. San Antonio Redistricting
06/21/10 10:00 a.m. San Antonio Redistricting
09/21/10 10:00 a.m. Tarrant County Redistricting

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Tom DeLay’s trials and tribulations continue

Posted in Campaign Finance, Global Warming, Good Government, tagged , , , , , , , , , on October 26, 2010 |

Jury selection begins today in former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay‘s felony conspiracy trial.  In 2005, A Travis County Grand Jury indicted the former U.S. Congressman on charges he helped funnel $190,000 in illegal corporate donations into statewide elections in 2002.  State law prohibits corporations from contributing to political campaigns.

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By promoting cleaner energy, cleaner government, and cleaner air for all Texans, we hope to provide for a healthy place to live and prosper. We are Public Citizen Texas.

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Public Citizen joins League of Women Voters, denounces voter intimidation in Texas at Moody Park, Houston, event

Posted in Campaign Finance, Good Government, Privacy, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 25, 2010 |

Howdy folks.  We’re doing a press conference at 2pm with the League of Women Voters in Houston at the Moody Park Community Center (3725 Fulton, Houston, TX), one of the early voting locations with the most complaints of voter intimidation.  These activities must stop, and this highlights how Houston is ground zero for the creep of illegal, corporate money into our elections.  Here’s an early taste of our press statement we are making.  We hope to have some video available later this afternoon, possibly also video of other early voting activities.

I early voted on Friday at Buda City Hall, standing in a line that snaked around City Hall for 40 minutes.  Have you voted yet?  Get out!  Do it now!

Here’s our press release:

October 25, 2010

don't let voter intimidation sway the election

 

 

 

 

Last week as early voting for the Nov. 2 General Election got under way, there were complaints of poll watchers interfering with or intimidating voters and other potential election violations in Harris and Bexar Counties.  Our organizations–LWV-Texas, Public Citizen, and Common Cause–condemn any and all attempts to sway this election by controlling who gets to vote.

The right to vote is sacred. People have died for this right, both in our nation’s past and even in our recent history.   Registered citizens should never be turned away from being able to vote.  Our greatest patriots, such as Washington and Lincoln, waged war to insure that taxation without representation did not occur and to protect the notion of government for, of, and by the people. It was a Texan, Lyndon Baines Johnson, who pushed through Congress and then signed the Voting Rights Act which protects the rights of all citizens to register and to vote.

We want to encourage everyone, in Harris County, Bexar County, and across the state, to come out and vote, regardless of ideology, gender, race, income, whether your community is urban, suburban, or rural, and whether your preferred party is Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green, or Tea.  Do not let tales of intimidation frighten you away.  Instead, let these concerns be a call to action and a reminder of the importance of every citizen’s right to participate.
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