Weekly TPA blog round-up

The Texas Progressive Alliance is ready for this Saturday's rally to save Texas schools in Austin as it brings you the weekly roundup.

Neil at Texas Liberal noted that Texas State Rep. Borris Miles of Houston called upon Texans to flood the State Capitol just as we are seeing in Wisconsin. Rep. Miles made the strong point that it is up to each Texan to decide to fight back against the brutal and vindictive budget and social policy legislation now being considered by our legislature in Austin.

Letters From Texas closed the loop on how decisions the Republicans in charge are making affect every aspect of your child's public school education, and it's even worse than you thought.

John at The Texas Cloverleaf is looking for your support to win a DFA sponsored scholarship to Netroots Nation 2011, and shows how you can apply for your own chance.

Bay Area Houston says State Rep Larry Taylor's TWIA is in TWOUBLE.

Off the Kuff notes that quite a few Republicans are now talking about using the Rainy Day Fund. Will they have the guts to go against Governor Perry? That remains to be seen.

This Week on Left of College Station, Teddy looks at the Center for Public Integrityís investigation into sexual assault in Aggieland. Left of College Station also covers the week in headlines.

Is DosCentavos making a return? Stace teases us with a smack-down upon the Eye On Williamson shows what 30 years of GOP degradation of government has left us, Debt and privatization, is that the future of Texas?

At TexasKaos, Libby Shaw tells us Texas Taliban Impose More Government on Women . It is as bad as you think...

CouldBeTrue of South Texas Chisme notes that the republican war on workers, women, Hispanics, children and the poor is going gangbusters.

The Koch brothers are poised to make another bundle if the Keystone XL pipeline is approved, writes PDiddie at Brains and Eggs.

WhosPlayin went after Texas GOP Congressman Michael Burgess, who is pushing a bill to sell war bonds to finance Iraq, Afghanistan, and whatever war is next. Problem: Burgess thinks bonds are free money, having told the Air Force Times that they don't add to the debt and you don't have to raise taxes to pay for them. The Republican War on Arithmetic continues...

Free parking downtown a thing of the past?

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Sometimes the news media's favorite topic is themselves

Reporters are funny.

Remember the dust-up last week, when it was discovered that Governor Rick Perry was blocking some Texas reporters from his twitter feed? First reported in Dallas, the story instantly went national.

Except, Perry's behavior is nothing new. Back in early October of 2010, the Austin American-Statesman's Omar Gallaga reported that some of Perry's fellow Texans had been blocked from Perry's twitter feed, which not only prevents Perry's communications from appearing in the timelines of those blocked, but also prevents Perry from seeing any of the blocked Texans' communications in his own timeline.

The only new news here is that this time, it wasn't just constituents - the people the governor represents - being blocked. This time, it's reporters. Since reporters are so special and all, national media couldn't wait to report on local Texas media being screwed.

But here's what's really special: a state's governor, communicating by using a handle containing the title of his office of public trust, in the process of communicating with his constituents willfully chooses to block messages both to and from some constituents who might not agree.

The symbolism is unmistakable, and terrible: to some Texans, he's turning a blind eye to their views, and his own are none of their business.

So how many publications picked up the original Statesman story last October, when it was Perry's constituents being blocked? To my knowledge, none.

Let the Governor block a few journalists, however, and the Washington Post picks it up by sundown.

I can't imagine why the Governor would choose to block reporters, especially the ones he blocked, who are among the fairest journalists I know. But they're also among the journalists who never bothered to ask Perry about it until they themselves were blocked - only the Statesman's Gallaga had approached him before, to his credit.

I also can't imagine why they and the national media outlets who pounced last week didn't think it was worthy news when Perry was blocking regular citizens last October.

Perhaps Gallaga, the original reporter, who doesn't usually report on politics, tweeted it best on the day the story re-broke last week:

A link to something I wrote that's five months old is still better late than never!  Politics: I don't get it.

Sadly, Omar, I think you get it perfectly.

As for some of the other reporters, good thing they didn't instead become fire fighters. They might not show up to put out the fire until it's their own house in flames.

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Indiana stupid human tricks

Remember those good folks from the Indiana Secretary of State's office who keep showing up in the Texas Capitol to testify, first in the Senate and then the House, in favor of the Republican voter ID legislation?

Remember how they keep telling Texas legislators how well things are going?

Yeah, about that....

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A briefing on the Texas Republicans in charge: public education

Remember the State Board of Education? They're the Republicans in charge who so totally screwed up our public school textbook curriculum, because the SBOE is dominated by ideologue right-wing Republicans who re-wrote history and social studies to fit their "unique" world view.

But all the screwing up they did to textbooks? It apparently doesn't matter a bit, because the Republicans in charge of state government have also so messed up Texas budgeting process that there is now a structural deficit which will keep Texas in a perpetual budget crunch, so we will forevermore be unable to afford to pay for those screwed up textbooks anyway.

But who needs textbooks? Because those same Republicans in charge are going to balance the budget on the backs of our school children, which will result in laying off thousands of teachers, so there won't be anybody left to teach Texas' children the stuff in those non-existent screwed up textbooks.

So how are the Republicans in charge reacting to all this? The answer should be obvious - the Republicans in charge filed constitutional amendment legislation yesterday which requires the state to pay for the textbooks of children in private schools.

Whose children are in private schools? I'm glad you asked. Some of those little snowflakes are the children of the Republicans in charge.

So to review: the public schools charged with teaching our children will be devastated because of Republican budget cuts. The textbooks those public schools are supposed to use to teach them, which were already screwed up by some Republicans in charge, won't be printed, because other Republicans in charge say we can't afford them. But those little angels in private schools are going to be just fine, because the Republicans in charge will make sure of it, by using your money.

It all makes perfect sense to me. I can't imagine why we ever complained.

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Yet another pop quiz (yeah, we could be Qrank!)

Q. What is the most dangerous city in America?

a) St. Louis, Missouri

b) Camden, New Jersey

c) Detroit, Michigan

d) Juarez, Mexico

Note to Rick Perry: here is the real answer.

Additional note to Rick Perry: this might help.

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