Texas Railroad Commissioner Michael Williams is running to replace Senator Kay Bailey Hutchinson in anticipation of her vacating her Senate seat to run for Governor, and he’s currently attempting to raise $10,000 by May 31st. Here’s some footage from him from the April 15th Tea Party:
If you like this, or his stance on current issues, feel free to donate.
Full disclosure: I am in contact with the Williams campaign.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
Texas.
As God is my witness, that’s the title of the article (Via The Sundries Shack, via RS McCain). After you’re done laughing, though, note why he quit before taking the oath of office: “[Former Mayor] Lown told the Standard-Times he chose not to take the oath of office while “aiding and assisting” a person who was illegally in the country.” That’s why he’s currently in Mexico; Lown’s trying to get a new visa for his partner, and won’t come back until then.
Assuming that the article is correct, you have to admit that this shows some basic respect for the concept of secure borders.
Moe Lane
Crossposted to RedState.
This is bad?
Sen. John Cornyn is worried that Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison is going to retire early this fall to run for Governor, but I’m missing the problem here (via Political Wire):
“My guess,” he told Texas reporters at his Senate office today, is that Hutchison will resign “this fall sometime.”
That would allow Perry to appoint an interim senator and allow a special election to take place in May 2010 instead of this November (which would happen if she resigned this spring or summer).
It seems pretty simple:
Come on, Senator Cornyn. This isn’t exactly rocket science.
Moe Lane Continue reading So we give Michael Williams a few months of incumbency as Senator.
The Democrats are trying to pass a public lands bill here. Besides, fossil enthusiasts are too small a group to be worth any consideration past the minimum. From CQ (no link, sorry):
A public lands bill on its way to the House floor is meeting resistance from an unlikely constituency: amateur fossil hunters.
The bill (S 22), which encompasses dozens of measures to expand national park and wilderness areas, includes language that would impose criminal and civil penalties on people who take fossils from federal lands. But Rep. John Culberson, R-Texas, opposes the provision so much that he is rallying opposition to the bill.
“I’m only asking that this section be stripped out,” said Culberson, who is concerned about its impact on casual collectors. Culberson himself is an amateur fossil hound who once discovered a wolf jaw from the Ice Age. “They’re going to destroy the hobby of fossil collecting,” he said.
Continue reading Well, so *what* if kids can’t hunt for fossils?
Via Instapundit, Warlord Rep. John Carter of Mars Texas (R, TX-31) is merrily causing trouble with an untroubled brow and a light heart:
Carter tries to push Rangel out
Republican Rep. John R. Carter of Texas offered legislation Wednesday that would require Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles B. Rangel to relinquish his gavel until the ethics committee completes an investigation into Rangel’s finances.
Under the rules of the House, members must consider Carter’s resolution by next Tuesday, forcing Democrats to confront Rangel’s ethics in the same week they will try to move the massive economic stimulus and a handful of late appropriations bills.
…which is, of course, the last thing that the Democrats want to do, given that it’s going to be kind of hard to explain why Rangel has quite so many rent-controlled apartments, was so behind on his taxes, and generally appears to be giving an excellent impression of a corrupt suckweasel. So now they’re actually going to have to do something about it, even if “something” is a whitewash. Which is the most likely result: if Congressional Democrats actually cared about corruption, they wouldn’t have quite so much of it in their caucus right now.
Still, Sunlight really is the best disinfectant. Well played, Warlord Carter. Well played.
Crossposted at RedState.
“Come, man!” cried Carthoris. “We are not dead yet. Let us hasten to the avenues and make an attempt to leave the city. We are still alive, and while we live we may yet endeavour to direct our own destinies. Of what avail, to sink spineless
It’s not up yet at THOMAS, but really: it’s the thought that counts. From Representative JOHN CARTER OF MARS!… err, actually, Texas’ 31st district (and a Republican, of course), we have this fun little bill:
All U.S. taxpayers would enjoy the same immunity from IRS penalties and interest as House Ways and Means Chairman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Obama Administration Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, if a bill introduced today by Congressman John Carter (R-TX) becomes law.
Carter, a former longtime Texas judge, today introduced the Rangel Rule Act of 2009, HR 735, which would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from charging penalties and interest on back taxes against U.S. citizens. Under the proposed law, any taxpayer who wrote “Rangel Rule” on their return when paying back taxes would be immune from penalties and interest.
Via AoSHQ, where they’re just as aware as we are that the Democratic Congress would never dare let this become law. After all, where would the country be if the proletariat was able to access the same considerations and exceptions currently enjoyed by the aristos running the place? – Still, nice point there, Warlord.
…
What? Has Edgar Rice Burroughs
Moe Lane
Crossposted at RedState.
Last week, El Paso’s City Council took an interesting stand on Federal drug policy.
The City Council had voted unanimously last week on a resolution originally drafted by the city’s Committee on Border Relations that expressed support for Juarez and called upon the federal government to take several steps to aid Juarez and Mexico.
Those steps included clamping down on gun-running and money-laundering; the controversy arose when O’Rourke amended a portion of the resolution calling for less focus on incarceration and more on rehabilitation to asking for an “honest open national debate on ending the prohibition on narcotics.”
There is, of course, a good deal of debate on whether what Robert Anton Wilson called “The War on Some Drugs” is a sensible policy or not; it’s one of those things that people disagree on, usually strongly. But this was a resolution, not something binding; its value lies in an indication that an official local government agency thinks that a particular policy position is important enough to make an official stance on it. We see this sort of thing happen all the time, ranging from nuclear energy to same-sex marriage to the war in Iraq: so it’s acceptable, right?
Only if you’re not a Texas Democrat. If you are, you have to threaten the City Council.
Continue reading Democrats shut down Drug War debate in El Paso.
