House Appropriation Chairman Jim Pitts speaking to the Tribune early this month admitted that the 82nd legislature made the right decisions on K-12 funding.

This, despite liberal claims, echoed endlessly in the media, that the legislature made cuts that would harm children (actually, there were no “cuts” made – growth was slowed).

Pitts noted that the doom and gloom public education advocates promised us never occurred. Massive layoffs did not happen. Pitts said, “I don’t think we’ve underfunded education.”

Pitts’ Senate counterpart, Tommy Williams, had similar sentiments, and added, “We have a lot of very inefficient districts.”

Williams went on to say, “ I’ve had some superintendents from very large school districts say, ‘Thank you, I never could’ve fired these administrators unless you cut my funding,’” Williams recalled. “They won’t say it publicly but they say it privately.”

In general, spending issues like water infrastructure and education are being given priority over reform this legislative session. Conservative Texans are left with very few champions in Austin who make continued education budget growth conditional on spending reforms such as constitutional spending limits and zero-based budgeting.

The media is happily reporting that $2 billion towards undefined water projects is being fast-tracked, despite the Texas Tribune reporting that water is not on Texans’ policy radar. But, the lobby has told the legislature that it wants water and road money, so the legislature is performing – without conditions.

The education spending bonanza demanded by Democrats and educrats won’t go towards reforming a deeply flawed system. It will, sadly, slow the correction of mis-allocated spending.

And despite mythology peddled in Austin, being a responsible legislator is not electorally dangerous. A 2011 study published in The Economist showed that tough budget reformers are not electorally punished, and that even cuts that inspire protests do not attract increased amounts of electoral retribution.

The GOP establishment is in an uncomfortable spot. On the one hand, they want to give the lobby everything it asks for. On the other, they want lobby legislaotrs reelected. If only those darn constituents would get with the program.

Their current strategy is to put heavy pressure for the grassroots to change their politics – to get with the 21st Century liberal program.

Too bad for this strategy, the Harris County GOP has priorities putting it squarely on the side of the conservative grassroots. Here are some of them:

•Move the Texas primary up to the first Tuesday in February
•Support Toth’s bill to keep the federal government from our guns
•Support the pre-born baby pain bill
•Fight the repeal of definition of marriage being between one man and one woman
•Fight the proposal to have Texans vote on gambling

The Harris County GOP priorities are about the long term health of the state, a turn of mind the establishment likes to mock.

The establishment priorities are about maintaining the health and prosperity of various bureaucracies and crony political contributors. That is the “real business” that they’ll tell you the “real adults” care about. This is a convenient group excuse that gives them moral cover to do everything the lobby wants.

The priorities for the establishment are getting more money spent on infrastructure without having to make a real case for needing it, and without any of the reform taxpayers and parents of schoolchildren badly want. To boot, this is a lobby directive that the grassroots, according to polling, isn’t interested in.

The Chronicle blog piece was written by a Harris County GOP meeting attendee. He was even treated well by his hosts, as he recounts, when they recognized him as a Republican blogger in the county.

In return, he wrote a piece about how depressing it is that the GOP grassroots is still so backward.

Kudos to the Harris County GOP for their steadfastness, and their hospitality.

Two years after their first rally, Save Texas Schools will again descend on the capitol this weekend. Let’s take a look at what the establishment media failed to report in 2011:

We suspect the media will use this event to put pressure on lawmakers to expand funding to education. This tactic didn’t work last time. If funding is increased this time, it won’t be because of this rally.

For instance, Texans will continue to be falsely told that lawmakers cut funding to education in 2011. The Economist, reporting on Texas’ current fiscal status, notes this wasn’t the case:

‘The rapidly growing public-school system, for example, was allocated about $5 billion less than expected, given previous funding commitments.’

The truth is the majority of Texans have longstanding misgivings about how their tax dollars are being spent in education. The recent discovery of CSCOPE, a controversial curriculum development tool, is a particularly obvious example of why people feel this way.

One thing is sure, this crowd will not provide a welcome environment for conservatives.

Despite this, some conservatives are set to hold their own press event pushing against the funding increase that rally-goers are seeking. This is quite a show of commitment and adventure from these conservatives. Really, any more than one conservative showing up to a rally like this is downright impressive.

Of course, the media may prefer to do an apples-to-apples numbers comparison, with the rally on one side and and press conference on the other, as if the rally were for both sides. This is a big government rally that a few conservatives are resourcefully using to get an opposing message out.

We do hope the media doesn’t take this route, and in the spirit of fairness, we will post a follow up story one way or the other after the news cycle for this rally exhausts itself.

The International Socialists were runaway stars of the Save Our School Rally, fairly earning for themselves substantial ownership of this issue in the 83^rd Legislature.

Saturday’s rally attendance was much lower than it was in 2011. The Texas Tribune reported the attendance at 3,500, down from 12,000 they reported for the 2011 rally.

This isn’t a big surprise. Doom and gloom predictions about school funding turned out to be every bit the hype conservatives said they were, and it’s hard to motivate the honest people with identical propaganda just two years later.

One group that was out again in full voice was the International Socialist Organization. One of their chants was, “We’ve got an education fix: TAX-TAX-TAX the rich!”

So, if this rally represents our national politics, then the noisy hard left are the only ones motivated, but nobody is really standing in their way.

The GOP establishment is currently doing everything it can to reduce the difference between the two parties. Their star of the moment, Chris Christie, is a symbol of this, sitting next to Michelle Obama at the President Obama-hosted Governor’s Gala Dinner over the weekend.

While the fearful GOP establishment probably sees this as a symbol of Republican progress, the Democrats undoubtedly see it as a symbol of Republican conquer. Does anyone actually think Michelle Obama is sitting next to Chris Christie because she’s come his way?

The International Socialist Organization provided the energy for increased school funding and tax increases. It will be helpful to primary voters to see which legislators take the International Socialist Organization side of this issue when it comes up for vote.

–Texas Tribine 2011 rally estimate - 12,000

–Texas Tribune 2013 rally estimate - 3,500

Governor Chris Christie is currently charting a path for the New Republican that the establishment is pushing for.

The New Republican effusively praises, even in the most critical electoral moments, our liberal President, and is, in turn, given the seat of honor at his events.

The New Republican lays down in the face of even the most revolutionary changes thrust upon citizens, no matter how corrupt the process. ObamaCare is not only not opposed by the New Republican, the New Republican is an early adopter of the massive Medicaid expansions ObamaCare needs in order to work. The New Republican leads the way in capitulation to the enemy.

The New Republican is willfully deaf to crony capitalism and social rot. Following his good friends in the other party, the new Republican sees no evil and hears no evil in either the upper reaches of business and government or among average citizens. The New Republican brazenly expands the footprint of gambling in our culture, along with the corruption and gutter culture it always brings. This is done through friendly expansion of many kinds, such as the internet gambling just legalized in New Jersey. “New revenue” and “free markets” are the angel words the New Republican deceptively marshals to make this bad deed seem okay.

The New Republican completely cedes the playing field to his enemy, desiring that Republicans fully enter the market Democrats have had cornered for decades, the market for freebies and moral license. On the other hand, the Republican monopoly on long term, selfless, and usually thankless cultural stewardship has been long neglected, but the New Republican discards it entirely.

The New Republican is the white flag run up the founders’ flagpole.

The New Republican is not what Republican voters want. He is what the appeasers think is necessary. Fear gives the New Republican’s appeasement a false sense of safety.

However, faith and courage drive out the demand for appeasement. The New Republican must be defeated.

Yesterday Republican members of the State Affairs Committee screeched loudly about a bill that would force them to disclose the government contracts that they and their family members have.

And politicians wonder why they are so distrusted.

Representative Giovanni Capriglione won the confidence of his district by championing government transparency. The bill under review was HB 524, a bill seeking to require disclosure of contracts elected officials and their families enjoy with government entities.

The members couldn’t muster much substance against Rep. Capriglione’s bill, but that didn’t stop them from trying their best to discredit it with smoke and mirrors.

Rep. Patricia Harless complained incessantly about having to disclose her brother’s contracts, contracts she said she “may have had a minority interest in at some point”. Rep. Capriglione finally said he would consider taking siblings out of the reporting requirement, which immediately quieted her, but she would come back later.

Rep. Dan Huberty used any argument he could think of, deploying them in a scattershot, rapid-fire fashion.

First, Huberty complained that it was not fair for your competitors to know how much business you have with the government, but he didn’t explain why.

Then, Huberty tried to bluster away the difference between government officials making money on government contracts, and a government official making money in the free market.

Next, Huberty tried to minimize the transparency upgrade this bill would accomplish, since these contracts are technically available already, but hard for average people to get to. This bill would streamline access, but Huberty made it clear he didn’t want that to happen.

Huberty did several times emphasize that hypothetical contracts in his examples were obtained according to proper bidding guidelines. Former state Representative Vicki Truitt got her government contracts outside the normal bidding process.

Rep. Harvey Hilderbran did a Perry Mason impersonation to change the subject from legislators collecting government contracts to Capriglione’s reporting of income he earned privately. Hilderbran joined Huberty in pretending not to understand that officials making money with taxpayer-funded contracts are deserving of more public scrutiny than money made in the free market.

Hilderbran’s cross-examination then turned into a lecture about a campaign website that Capriglione controls. Capriglione could have said, “I’ll stop campaigning when she does,” but was much more gracious than that.

Hilderbran’s big finish was to say that this transparency bill from Rep. Capriglione, who was elected on transparency, looks motivated by vendetta.

After earlier backing Capriglione off of including siblings in reporting requirements, Rep. Harless came back to ask him to remove spouses. Harless talked about her husband government contracts before she ran for office, a defense she used for her brother’s businesses too.

She clearly seems to think having government business before you are elected to office somehow eliminates the possibility that you have abused government contracts after empowered. It doesn’t. In neither her husband nor her brothers case did Harless disclose how her new status has changed the amount of government business her family businesses are getiing.

This concluded the demonstration on how good can be twisted into evil in mere minutes when a committee full of politicians with microphones and seniority feel threatened.

Lawmakers have long used spouses as laundering mechanisms. In the past lawmakers would use campaign funds to rent houses from their spouse. Truitt engaged in the practice herself.

Interestingly it was defensive comments from a lawmaker that unearthed the practice in 2006.

We’ll be back tomorrow to further unpack comments made during this hearing and their context.

–Hearing video – Capriglioni bill discussion starts at approximately 1:59

Representatives Hildebran and Cook tried hard to shift a call for greater government transparency onto transparency for private entities, including new media who hold them accountable.

Representative Giovanni Capriglione’s HB 524 calls on legislators to disclose government contracts held by their family.

While grilling Rep. Capriglione, Rep. Hildebran said that he’d like to see more transparency on consultants. This was after asking Capriglione’s who his consultant was.

This is ironic, considering Hildebran’s consultant, Murphy Turner and Associates, has recently disbanded in the midst of a lawsuit brought by Texans for Fiscal Responsibility for trademark infringement.

Later, a representative of the Texas Press Association heartily endorsed the bill. After he spoke, Rep. Cook asked him to ponder 501c4 government watchdog groups. This was the second attempt to change the subject from the government transparency bill to transparency of a private entity; this time a private entity that holds government accountable.

Soon after, Hildebran jumped back in to try to switch the focus onto more transparency for media – new media in particular. Even more specifically, “agenda-driven news”. Evidently agenda-driven news is something other than the ‘objective’ mainstream media, for whom an recent Rasmussen poll shows only 6% of voters see as very trustworthy.

After the media TPA representative defended the honor of his craft, the slick Hildebran got a swipe in at the mainstream media too, saying, “Fortunately you get a lot of smaller ones than you do big ones and that’s what keeps you all clean-living, baby. If it was just all the big guys you wouldn’t be too clean.”

–hearing video – TPA tesimony and committee discussion starts at 2:28:55 mark

The fetal pain bill, introduced yesterday in the legislature yesterday after much political build-up, should be strong this session.

Unsurprisingly, pro-choice legislators, like Democrat Jessica Farrar, are introducing pro-choice bills as bargaining chips in their attempt to water down the life-saving measure even Brits embrace.

Unsurprisingly, the state’s biggest pro-life group, Texas Right to Life, is leading the charge for the fetal pain bill.

What is surprising, however, is that Texas’ number 2 pro-choice advocacy group, Texas Alliance for Life (TAL), isn’t supporting the bill at all.

The reason TAL is withholding support? Evidently, they don’t think the fetal pain bill can pass constitutional muster.

A Dallas Morning News article this morning reported similar sentiments, but put them in the mouth of pro-choice advocates, saying, “Abortion rights groups have challenged such laws as unconstitutionally restrictive.”

Pro-choice groups consistently appeal to heavily disputed constitutional interpretations contained in Roe v. Wade, and related decisions, as the basis for their opposition to pro-life bills. This is often the heart and soul of their legislative strategy.

On the other hand, finding cracks in the interpretation of Roe v. Wade, and related decisions, is the heart and soul of pro-life legislative strategy.

Texas Alliance for Life giving such deference to constitutional interpretations that the pro-life movement is dedicated to circumventing or overturning is surprising.

Speaker Straus is rumored to have told pro-life legislators before the session that they need not expect movement in the 83^rd Legislature.

Texas Alliance for Life endorsed Joe Straus ahead of his primary last May after having opposed him in the speaker’s race just months earlier.

Joe Pojman, executive director of TAL, said of Straus during the first speaker’s race, “Straus cannot be called pro-life. He had failed to pledge to oppose public funding for Planned Parenthood, received a $1,000 campaign contribution from a Planned Parenthood PAC, and has been given high praise by Planned parenthood for his ‘tireless efforts’ during the last (81^st) legislative session.”

While the 82^nd Legislature was a big pro-life session, many pro-lifers believe it was in spite of the speaker, not because of him, though, as speaker, he was able to collect a portion of the credit for these achievements, achievements that were nearly impossible to stop with 101 Republicans.

The fetal pain bill is quite strong already.

Governor Perry yesterday reiterated his strong support for the bill, which would outlaw abortions in Texas after 20 weeks.

Additionally, A University of Texas/Texas Tribune poll says that Texas voter support is politically overwhelming, better than doubling Texas voter opposition to the bill at 57%-26%.

The pro-life movement in nine other states has gotten fetal pain legislation passed already. Pro-life Texans have good reason to think we will be the tenth.

–Life News article with TAL opposition to Joe Straus, endorsement of opponent, in 2010 speaker’s race

–TAL endorsement of Joe Straus months later

–DMN article

Speaker Straus is leading the way on Lone Star capitulation to ObamaCare.

“Come on, cowboys and cowgirls. We do things the Texas way. We ain’t gonna spread ObamaCare like all the other yella states that have already caved in, and we can’t just refuse it – that just wouldn’t be Texas-y, ya’ll.

“Naw, let’s strike out on our own and  grease the skids for ObamaCare like real Texans – like ornery cusses, in a blaze of glory.”

You see, our House speaker has a brand new ten gallon hat for the occasion, and he’s chewing on a piece of straw, just waiting for us to remember the Alamo and expand Medicaid.

On second thought, maybe we should do the other Texas thing – the part about never caving in to tyranny, no matter the odds.

Maybe we should make our mark one of substance, and not style.

For this job, there is no better phrase than that of our beloved first lady from the 1980s, Nancy Reagan. She was born in New York City, lived most of her life in California, and spent some pretty important years in DC. Those are some of the least Texan places in the country, but her famous phrase is the most Texan answer there will ever be to tyranny – “Just say no.”

The clever class is talking right now about how conservatives can’t just say no anymore – we have to offer an alternative.

Yes, please, Republicans, swallow the premise that the only possible government is an activist government. That should provide a strong footing to then go out and argue to get the government out of our lives.

You gotta love the guts and vision of the New Republican.

Wouldn’t our teenagers love it if we adopted similar policies at home?

Teenager: “Mom, I need a thousand dollars to pay for alcohol and drugs over the next month.”

Parent: “(Hmmm, I’d like to say no but the hot new parenting thing is to give an alternative no matter what…)Okay, look, I’m gonna be tough but fair here. I’ll be making the purchases, and I have to approve the drug dealer, and some of this money will need to go to a good cause…”

Remember when this administration offered us, as if it were a gift, our own federal tax dollars to pay for expanding the unemployment insurance rolls, the catch being that we’d have to start paying for it with our state tax dollars later, which is impossible without major state tax increases? Now is an outstanding time to remember that.

‘No’ is evergreen; the timeless political alternative to bad ideas.

Long live ‘no’.

–Policy paper with 6 reasons no Texan will ever benefit from Medicaid expansion

Stephen King once said the trust of the innocent is the liar’s most useful tool. Gambling cronies are hoping Texas has enough trusting tools in it that they can pass scary pro-gambling legislation.

Jim Forsyth of WOAI in San Antonio has carried the gambling lobby’s water since the session started.

Early this year Forsyth worked to message that the Straus family had divested itself of interest in one racetrack, the one their name is most publicly associated with, freeing Joe Straus to publicly move the issue. Forsyth wasn’t so quick to point out that they still have stakes in other Texas tracks.

Today Forsyth switched strategies and acted as PR man for John Montford, the car salesman hired to sell Texans a gambling lemon. Montford was recently an Obama operative at GM, hired after the takeover.

One of the false impressions Forsyth’s propaganda would create is that Montford is a conservative. He is not. To help try to make it stick, Forsyth avoids mentioning the political party Montford has loyally served for decades – the Democrat Party. Forsyth also avoids mention of Montford’s previous associations with the Obama Administration.

Another false impression Montford’s propaganda would create is that Montford has won over many Republicans for pro-gambling legislation. Not true.

In fact, in a gambling propaganda piece published just this morning Forsyth had to soften his original subheading from “Republicans are signing on to bills they previously opposed,” to, “Republicans moving toward support for expanded gambling.” That is more like it. The first is untrue and the second is so thin it is almost invisible.

Gambling legislation proposed this session is being pushed uniformly by Democrats. In his story, Forsyth never actually gets around to mentioning his mythical Republican converts to the gospel of Montford.

Finally, Forsyth pushes the pro-gambling crowd’s favorite statistic about several billion dollars being spent on gambling out of state by Texans. Unfortunately, three dollars in government revenue are lost or spent for every dollar of government revenue paid by a casino. This is because of higher law enforcement costs, higher social service costs, and reduced productivity in locales burdened with casinos.

There is a reason gambling states nationwide are in terrible financial shape.

Forsyth’s attempts to generate pro-gambling momentum out of thin air aren’t very convincing.

In February the State Affairs Committee attacked Giovanni Capriglione over his government transparency bill. His bill would bring needed transparency to government contracts with elected officials and their families.

Leading the committee assault on Capriglione were Reps. Harvey Hilderbran, R-Kerrville, Dan Huberty, R-Houston and Patricia Harless R-Spring. Representative Byron Cook chairs the powerful committee.

This incident was widely reported on, including coverage in the New York Times. Follow up coverage included comments from a pleased Vicki Truitt, the State Rep. Capriglione defeated in 2012.

In 2010, Truitt came under fire from conservatives when she authored legislation to increase taxes. The Tribune reported in 2010 that conservative watchdog group Empower Texans launched autodials into Truitt’s district, informing her constituents about her bill. Truitt blamed Empower Texans calls into her district for her electoral challenges.

Yesterday, Empower Texans launched autodials into the districts of the Reps. Hildebran, Huberty, and Harless, alerting constituents about their attack on transparency, questioning potential government contracts the legislators may have with family members.

Writing about the issue, Texas Tribune executive editor Ross Ramsey shared sentiments close to those of Empower Texans on the matter.

… tell voters whether their candidates and candidates’ close relatives do business with governments over which they have influence. See whether the voters mind.

After this article was posted Empower Texans provided AgendaWise a copy of one of their calls.

Update: Our original post has been updated to include a recording of the calls made into Representative Patricia Harless’ district.

“There’s a concern you’ve got bad motives.” This is what State Representative Harvey Hilderbran said to Giovanni Capriglione during a committee hearing last month. The subject? Capriglione’s bill to bring greater transparency to government contracts held by elected officials and their families.

The same could be asked of Hilderbran today, and it might even make sense this time.

What is happening? Today the House Ways and Means Committee, chaired by Hilderbran, is scheduled to consider legislation Hilderbran authored that would provide tax breaks to a campaign contributor.

The Hilderbran contributor in question is CEO of Rackspace, a web hosting company.

Additionally, the legislation would give more power to the Comptroller, an office Hilderbran is planning to run for in 2014.

In the same hearing last month Hilderbran asked Capriglione, “Are you proud of this?” One wonders how Hilderbran would answer his own question today.

Pro-gambling interests are taking  a beating in Texas, the Texas political media is exposed with them, and the Texas Lottery Commission is very likely to take on water in the process.

Last week the gambling lobby, quarterbacked by John Montford, used the always-willing political media to feign strength in their quest for casino gambling in Texas.

Paid with racetrack money,  John Montford was billed as a high-powered problem solver for the gambling lobby. The racetrack crew has always wanted a Texas monopoly on slot machines, which are the real money-makers at casinos.

However, as a Dallas Morning News article in January said, past failures have shown that lawmakers aren’t interested in “creating a monopoly” with gambling expansion. This is not the most descriptive way to talk about gambling expansion in Texas.

In truth, Texas has several warring gambling crews – racetracks, Indian tribes, and non-tribe casino interests (Las Vegas interests). Any expansion of gambling in Texas is the expansion of the gambling oligopoly we are already burdened with.

To try to get gambling expanded, Montford was selling casino-style gambling that, supposedly, all of the gambling monopolies in Texas could have a piece of.

So much for cooperation. He has now switched back, mid-session, to singing the racetracks-only tune.

Jim Forsyth wrote one of the propaganda articles last week. He had trouble choosing the flavor of his propaganda, and softened his original published subheading from “Republicans are signing on to bills they previously opposed,” to, “Republicans moving toward support for expanded gambling.”

Another propaganda piece showed up in the Houston Business Journal, written by Bill Shaedwald. It was particularly bad, using all kinds of gambling funwords and phrases  like “bingo” and “odds are” and “in the cards” to distract from the near absence of substantive argument for the premise that gambling expansion is strong this session. They were playfully presented lobbyist talking points.

For all the showmanship, gambling expansion is now on life support this session.

Grand Prairie Mayor Charles England was quoted in the Dallas Morning News in January saying that if anyone can be successful on this issue it is Montford. Montford won’t even get close, and in mere months the gambling lobby will shine up this loser again and pretend it’s strong.

It is an instructive moment for conservatives in Austin. The Austin establishment lies a lot. They pretend they are strong when they are weak.

John Pitts, the lobbyist brother of House appropriation chairman Jim Pitts, was recently very open about a possible next step in the cynical scheme to expand gambling: wait for the school finance lawsuits to end, and if new funding school finding isn’t awarded, try to get gambling via a special session.

You see, when people are frantic they are more likely to believe lies, like the one that says gambling will give the state government more money to spend. The opposite is true. For every dollar of tax money casinos pay, the state loses three dollars to increased law enforcement costs,  increased social services costs, and reduced productivity in regions with casinos.

There is irony here. Our state is involved in a lawsuit about school funding in Texas. The Texas Lottery was sold in this state as a cure-all for school funding woes. The lottery has failed by every possible measure, and in the process, earned itself a reliable reputation for cooperating in schemes to expand gambling outside the legislative process.

The Texas Lottery Commission is a bad actor. The Texas Lottery Commission is up for sunsetting this session.

–AustinAmerican Statesman article

–Houston Business Journal article

–Dallas morning News article

–Jim Forsyth article

A Triblive discussion with three freshmen legislators gave a good snapshot of what a conservative state government run by moderates looks like in a liberal national political cycle.

When asked about first impressions and surprises, the two conservative Republican freshmen on the stage, Donna Campbell and Scott Turner, both gave answers that indicate disorientation.

Campbell started by saying that she realized when she got to Austin that one vote matters less than she thought it would on the campaign trail. Then she talked about being hazed when she introduced her first bill. She was asked to recite the Texas State fight song before she could proceed.

Scott Turner talked about “drinking through a firehose”, referring to the massive amount of information he’s had to process in a short amount of time.

Both freshmen had a noticeable “I’m trying to be a good member” undercurrent to their comments. You could see their wide eyes and feel their lack of equilibrium.

The Democrat freshman Gene Wu was different.

Wu was all smiles. He talked about how pleasantly surprised he’s been with all of the harmony, and with legislators not voting the ‘party line’. Wu said he was surprised after the more contentious 2011 session. He looked at home.

It was a perfect snapshot of what happens when moderates get the upper hand in a conservative government, something that is even easier in a liberal national political cycle.

The conservatives are confused and the Democrats are grinning ear-to-ear.

Campbell and Turner won their elections on “fix the mess” fuel. That is, their districts, like so many across the nation, don’t like what government produces.

But governments don’t produce an unpopular legislative product on accident, or out of clumsiness, or because they love being reviled.

They do it because special interests run capitol towns, fund campaigns, and want things done in a  way that makes politicians reviled.

And capitol towns like Austin are streamlined to reform firebrand reformers into special interest legislative factory hands.

On the ground it looks just like high school peer pressure. It’s a bunch of people either ignoring the reformer altogether, or saying things like, “be a team player”, “who do you think you are?”, “look at that idiot – he’ll learn”, “look, we have to live together”, “you’re not the only person here who wants to improve Texas, ya know?”, “quit preening for the cameras, show-off” and many other such gems.

These gems are all designed to create in the reformer a much better opinion of the legislative sausage factory than voters have, and to discourage the legislators from standing on principle.

Wu was right about the 82^nd Legislature. It was more contentious than usual. Far from being bad for Texas, it was good.

This is because the special interest legislative factory was stormed by general interest legislators, by patriots.

The result? Oh, just the most conservative legislature in anyone’s memory, that’s all. And it still included a bevy of special interest budget gimmicks and corruption.

Incredible pro-life legislation passed, the establishment assault on the budget and rainy day fund were largely repelled, crony gambling was stuffed, and much else besides.

There should be no confusion. When an institution streamlined to do bad things disguised as good things is pressured to do actual good things, there will be blood.

A wise man once said that our political system allows for political civil wars to be fought every couple of years so that real civil wars don’t have to happen.

It is for this reason that Texans should fear capitol city peace and quiet.

The good news about Campbell and Turner is that they still don’t look comfortable in this town. Good for them.

Comfort for politicos in capitol cities comes only one way – by working for special interests. The more honest a sellout is with himself about what he is doing, the more capitol city comfort he will enjoy.

Here’s to the brave ones who ride the bull.

–Triblive video

In Texas today, Democrats are only relevant when Republicans empower them. With so little attention on them, it is easy to forget why Texans have given them so little authority. However, they’ve done their best to remind us this month.

State Rep. Ron Reynolds (D – Fort Bend County) leads the charge. According to KHOU Houston, his offices were raided by law enforcement Monday in connection with a sordid case of barratry (an illegal activity also known as “ambulance chasing”). It includes tales of cash allegedly paid in envelopes by Reynolds to Robert Valdez, the reported ringleader, and this after Reynolds dodged the exact same charge last summer.

San Antonio mayor Julian Castro, a darling of the national Democratic Party, is in the news for 41 instances of accepting illegal donations. Mayor Castro might need to be more careful next time he’s out cruising for donations.

According to the FBI, a donor to Democrats named Marc Rosenthal was recently convicted on 13 counts relating to a bribery scheme in South Texas. The FBI’s press release included the following:

After a four-week trial, jurors convicted Rosenthal of conspiring to bribe a state district judge, bribe witnesses in both state and federal court cases, file fraudulent personal injury cases in both state and federal courts, and deprive the citizens of Cameron County, Texas, of the right to honest services of an elected official.

Rosenthal played a major role in Democrat State Rep. Diana Maldonado’s 2008 and 2010 election campaigns. He’s also given to Texas Trial Lawyers Association and other Democrats, something reported on by Williamson County political blogger Holly Hansen.

Freshman State Rep. Naomi Gonzales (D – El Paso) has made quite a name for herself already in Austin . According to the El Paso Times, Gonzales drove her BMW into a Fiat with two women in it, who then hit a cyclist.

According to the El Paso Times, Gonzales never even apologized for the incident, though she apologized to the state House, and got a standing ovation from colleagues trying to save her political skin.

The women hit by the drunken Gonzales were flabbergasted as to why the House would have given Gonzales a standing ovation. It is a credit to these women that they don’t seem to understand the political practice of turning evil into good, good into evil, heroism into cowardice, and cowardice into heroism.

Republicans get more scrutiny in Texas because they have more power, but things like these remind Texans why they don’t allow Democrats much power in our state government. When Republicans screw up, they usually pay a price, and this is because they have standards.

When Democrats screw up – well – Rep. Gonzales got a standing ovation. Democrats don’t make much of a pretense to strong moral fiber. As a result, there is less to talk about when they violate public confidence. However, this is not a compliment to them. Having low standards is nothing to brag about.

A writer name Francois de La Rochefoucald once said, “Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue.” It means that while hypocrisy and unvarnished evil are both bad, at least hypocrisy still acknowledges the superiority of virtue over vice. There is a lot of truth in this, and it has political implications today.

It is best for a politician to have good standards that they meet. Next best is for them to have good standards that they they truly try to meet, but fall short. Next, there is hypocrisy – pretending to have standards you don’t really have because you know you should. While this is not something to be admired, at least politicians like these create an obstacle for themselves to do evil. This is certainly preferable to no standards at all, which is the worst of all situations.

Politicians that don’t even make a pretense to virtue are the most dangerous, and it is their voters who are to blame.  The Democratic brand nationally has gotten pretty shameless, and this should ward off voters.

It seems to have just that effect in our state, thank God.

–Rep. Reynolds KHOU bribery scheme article

–Julian Castro campaign finance allegations press release from Texas Ethics Advisory Board

–FBI press release on attorney Marc Rosenthal

–Williamson County Conservative post on Rosenthal

–Rep. Gonzales’ unhappy drunk driving victims article

“Keep Texas Working” is a new confuse-the-grassroots business lobby initiative who want Republicans as a base, but who aren’t ruling out supporting Democrats too, according to Capitol Insider.

Run by high-powered lobbyists, Keep Texas Working are trying to build a grassroots network for the bi-partisan ruling class machine, who have newly decided their days of simply buying elections are numbered.

Their strategy seems to be to pretend Tea Party conservatives, a group originally galvanized by reckless bailout spending, are something besides the most staunch fiscal conservatives in Texas. In doing so, they hope to create the impression of a void for fiscal conservative grassroots that they have nobly come to fill.

In fact, it is Keep Texas Working’s favored establishment wing of the GOP that has softened its commitment on fiscal issues, not the ever-vigilant Tea Party.

Still, these fiscal moderates will take on the impossible task of painting Tea Party conservatives as social-issues-only voters in an attempt order to help justify their entrance into the political marketplace.

Keep Texas Working are crony capitalists, a clan that commonly pushes for more government spending, more bureaucracy, and better conditions for politically-connected businesses over small businesses. They are not fiscal conservatives.

In general, the business lobby isn’t the friend of mere businesses or would-be businesses. They are the friend of businesses with lobbyists. The conservative grassroots are already very fiscal-minded, but tend to be small business, economic freedom types, not crony capitalists.

Establishment rhetoric gives itself wiggle room via pseudo-synonyms for “fiscal conservative”. They prefer the terms “business conservative” and “economic conservative”.

The Capitol Insider reported on Executive Director Luke Bellsnyder, former chief lobbyist for Texas Association of Manufacturers and Texas Association of Businesses employee. According to the article, Bellsnyder thinks there is a “silent majority” who are motivated to vote by fiscal issues, not social issues.

This comment seems confused. The majority who vote, at least right of middle, are motivated by fiscal issues, but they are not silent. They are quite vocal, in fact. They sometimes call themselves the Tea Party, and they are motivated by conservative issues of every kind.

Taking a page from President Obama, these “conservatives” are currently trying to take the economic high ground by saying the word “jobs” much more than anyone else. “Pro-jobs”, “jobs agenda”, “jobs, jobs, jobs” – it’s worked for the Democrats in Washington DC, as they’ve mortgaged their grandchildren’s future, so why not try the same thing in the Lone Star state?!

A cocktail of “jobs” propaganda and attempts to smuggle anti-social issues snobbery from Austin into Texas districts is likely in store for Texans who cross paths with Keep Texas Working.

Such Texans will also get to meet Trent McKnight, who at last mention was still going to be the spokesman for this group. McKnight was the moderate establishment candidate who lost to two more conservative candidates in his District 68 primary in 2012. Drew Springer eventually won.

America is in a liberal political cycle, which means outcomes everywhere are mostly disappointing for conservatives.

However, things could be much worse here in Texas, which is a testament to our dominant principle-based conservative orientation. That is not to say our outcomes aren’t bad here, too – they are.

For example, a big water slush fund just passed through the House, without any of the common sense amendments that would have made it semi-responsible. Now connected people, especially government officials, can put your tax dollars in their bank account by selling land and services to the government as water development.

Also, all kinds of things that would have legislative life under a genuine conservative speaker have no pulse.

For example, with over 90% of GOP voters in favor of them, and with 92 House Republicans, spending limits have never even gotten a hearing.

Paring back our gargantuan bureaucracy by 10%, and reducing bloated budgets by 10% – these kinds things aren’t even a flicker in our imaginations.

Instead of opposing ObamaCare the Speaker is pushing Medicaid expansion in service of ObamaCare.

And, while the federal government just completed a work-around for Planned Parenthood to help restore funding the state government cut off last session, the Speaker has aborted the Hobby Lobby bill, which is a similar move going the other direction.

Jonathan Stickland’s Hobby Lobby bill is a Texas work-around to protect businesses from the oppressive anti-religious liberty Health and Human Services demand that all businesses pay for abortifacient drugs. These are “birth control” drugs that destroy a fertilized egg, which is against the moral commitments of many Christian businesses.

The heroic owners of Hobby Lobby have chosen to risk losing their massive fortune as a protest to this awful law. Stickland’s bill is much-needed relief. Unfortunately, it was written under the wrong Texas House Speaker.

Conservatives in the House are stuck with an unofficial whip (designated vote counter) from Team Straus.

The bottom line is, we are having a special interest session with a double helping of Obama-brown-nosing.

Opportunistic special interest moderate Republicans all over the country are triangulating Obama’s power to try to squash conservatives right now (“We gotta move his way fast to survive!”).

While, at different times, major statewide officials like Governor Perry, Lt. Gov. Dewhurst, and AG Greg Abbott have stood up to our rogue federal government, Speaker Straus has towed the special interest Republican line of using post-election power of the President to discourage opposition to his radical agenda.

Still, despite the liberal political cycle, and the crypto-Democrat Texas Speaker of the House it has empowered, the Texas legislature is still dominated by people who get voted in on conservative campaign promises. A 92-58 Republican/Democrat breakdown in the House tells the story, even after bad redistricting.

The special interest Republicans nationwide are trying their best to push the party left, and fast, but they have a much taller task than they let on. They must convince conservatives not to run for office, and they must convince conservative voters to behave in the voting booth against their own beliefs.

Getting the media to sing a tune in unison is easy, and they’d like us to believe it matters more than it does.  Endless polling that fishes for liberal answers is also easy. None of it means they’ve effected voting practices.

If conservatives run for office, and conservative voters vote their consciences, the whole GOP establishment has failed. The rest is just noise made by people nobody trusts.

And, in the meantime, Texas conservatives have some real bright spots to be inspired by.

Conservative courage by Giovanni Capriglioni has shown everyone what happens when people doing good things challenge people doing bad things without backing down. The bad guys and gals end up weeping, gnashing their teeth, and suddenly pretending to like the good thing.

The grassroots has given CSCOPE nationwide attention and raised its name ID in Texas tremendously. They have created a real chance that CSCOPE will not be able to continue propagandizing Texas schoolchildren in anti-Americanism.

The special interest press corps in Austin continue to elevate conservative activists by desperate propaganda against them, coverage they’d much rather not have to give. They know the constant coverage will grow their enemies if it doesn’t cow them, but silence is simply no longer a prudent choice.

In short, the ground is seeded for a serious resurgence of conservative principles in Texas politics when the political winds change, when Obama’s power declines, which is as sure to happen as the changing of the seasons.

Some conviction conservatives, finally realizing that the Speaker can never be their friend and stay speaker, are remembering who they are and getting ahead of the coming season change.

There is good reason for conservative Texans to have hope. The wood is stacked high, and though it was soaked with water, the water is drying. Have patience. Fire will come.

The Texas Legislature is going commit accounting fraud against the Texas taxpayer, if the state budget that comes up on the floor tomorrow doesn’t change.

For 20 years money taken in by hospitals affiliated with state-owned medical schools has been counted in the budget. It seems they plan to erase this line item worth over $6 billion, which mean when they spend $6 billion more it will look like they are spending the same amount.

When the money is spent again, either the Legislature will put it on a credit card or they will shake down the Texas taxpayer with new taxes, fees, or both. Then, if the Texas taxpayer complains, they’ll point at the books and say, “Hey this is just what we spent before! Be reasonable, you backward bunch of hicks!”

Let’s be clear: The Texas government owns these hospitals. These hospitals were created, and are maintained and promoted by the Texas taxpayer. Money they bring in doesn’t have a life independent of a legislature that continues to fund it.

If this accounting fraud happens, as it is set to, these institutions will appear to be getting less from the legislature this session than last when they are actually getting more.

The bad guys would love for the issue to be whether the money coming in to these hospitals ever should have been counted in the legislative budget proper in the first place. This is a meaningless philosophical argument meant to distract from the very important practical issue. The bad guys will be thrilled if can make the argument about this.

The real issue is the result this accounting change will cause, not whether it makes sense on a philosophical level.

The reality is that if this $6 billion is taken off the books that amount will be spent again, it will simply be $6 billion worth of brand new spending, and the Texas taxpayer will think it is old spending.

Last session $5.4 billion of education spending drove the establishment media to apocalyptic tones. This morning, the Texas Tribune tried to bluff that $6 billion is no big deal. Nice try. Six billion dollars is just as massive as it sound like it is.

This behavior is par-for-the-course by members on both sides of the isle of the ruling class. To them, the Texas taxpayer is a big dumb animal to be tricked, abused, and lied to, while they create various confusing piles of excess cash to get a piece of later on.

Until conviction politicians occupy every position of significant power in this state – the kind of politicians the media/government establishment does everything it can to belittle and demean – this kind of thing this will continue happening.

Last week Capitol Insider reported on a pair of open records requests submitted by AgendaWise to the offices of Speaker Joe Straus and Representative Phil King.

These requests have been filled, with each office leaving out emails the other included. These omissions are violations of the Texas Open Records Law.

Since public officials are not policed in filling records requests responses often appear to be dishonest.

In this case, Reps. King and Straus were given requests for the same set of information – all emails between King and one of Straus’ staffers, Patrica Shipton, dating back to November. So, anything one office sends, the other was obligated to include, and vice versa.

Ironically, King emailed the Speaker’s office expressing concern about the poor state of ethics in the House. Contra our state’s Open Records Law, he left this email out of his response to our request.

Another email King failed to turn over to AgendaWise showed him working as the Speaker’s whip of conservatives.

Writing to the Speaker’s office in January about the Tea Party Caucus, King signaled he would be working members and tea party leaders on the Speaker’s much anticipated water bills.

House Bill 4 passed last week without being amended to safeguard the fund from waste, fraud and abuse. The bill that left the House allowed for the creation of a “water infrastructure bank”, a water development slush fund.

In the coming weeks house members will likely be whipped by the Speaker, through King, to finish the job.

The first bill, HB 4, only created the shell of a water development slush fund. The next bill, HB 11, is the one that attempts to fill the slush fund with money from the Rainy Day Fund. King is a co-author of HB 11.

King’s office included a few emails the Speaker’s office omitted.

In one of them, King shared his access to a conservative group’s bill analysis. The conservative group is TCCRI. After sharing this information the Speaker’s office thanked King and asked him, “Will you help us get them good information in the future?”

In this we see any access conservatives give to King is access given to Speaker Straus, and King’s “concerns” are most likely coming from the Speaker himself.

Finally, last month King blind copied the Speaker’s office on an email he sent to Michael Quinn Sullivan, president of the conservative group Empower Texans. King was burned when Shipton replied all on that email chain, thanking “Phil” for copying her on his questioning of Sullivan.

In addition to her thanks, Shipton said, “Can we talk tomorrow on the floor?”

The next morning on the floor King decried “outside groups” and the problems they were causing.

This morning some members of the Texas political media are trotting out Texas Association of Businesses (TAB) support of gambling expansion as some kind of proof conservatives support this.

This is ridiculous on its face. TAB long ago fell out with fiscal conservatives. TAB belongs to the big-spending Austin establishment.

TAB collects members and dues, then shops its influence around Austin each session hoping to get some kind of carve out for its members so they can recruit more members and repeat the process next session.

Gambling junks-out states, costs more money than it brings in, and creates powerful political factions with zero scruples.

Bill Hammond, the head honcho at TAB, rudely, and seemingly with no sense of the damage he was doing his own cause, called Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico “third world countries”. Evidently, he thought insulting our legal-gambling next door neighbors would help Texans want to pass legislation to be more like them.

His comments, though rude, got laughter because there is something that strikes Texans as junky about how Oklahoma, Louisiana, and New Mexico look when we drive through those states.

What is it? Simple.

It is the gaudy, awful, decadent, degenerate billboard advertising for gambling that we are assaulted with when we drive through those states.

Keeping Texas first-world means opposing gambling expansion.

The good news is, the gambling expansion legislation TAB is supporting as “fiscal conservatives” is dead-on-arrival.

–WOAI pro-gambling piece with TAB wrongly portrayed