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The Texas Blue
Advancing Progressive Ideas

Monday Roundup - TAKS underway, Global warming

This week's featured article is an examination by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. of ExxonMobil's PR efforts and the lengths to which they go to combat the idea, rather than the actual problem, of global warming.

The Statesman has an editorial on the same subject, focused on the admission by Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson that global warming exists. Tillerson, like the rest of the oil and gas industry, immediately engages in some focus-shifting, saying that more research is needed, we can't harm economic development, and so on.

A round of TAKS tests gets underway today, and it is a cause of concern for both educators and students. Scotty Coppage provides us with a teacher's perspective on the matter, and news outlets have stories about everything from text-messaging and test security to parent's concerns about the program's overall utility.

State Representative Leo Berman finds himself in a little hot water after some remarks about immigration and business. Berman has a bill up for consideration that would deny citizenship to children of illegal immigrants. A group of Latino state lawmakers and the Texas Association of Business would like bills dealing with immigration sent to the state Attorney General's office for a Constitutionality check, and Berman, not surprisingly, is opposed to such action. Berman is threatening to drop his membership in the Association because "...they got involved in an issue of illegal aliens, which has nothing to do with business." Either he doesn't know much about how business works (especially in Texas) or he was telling an incredibly dry joke.

The HPV vaccine mandate continues to have a rough ride, and now Speaker Tom Craddick is recognizing the will of the State House and saying it needs to be publicly debated within a legislative process. I'm having a hard time trying to think of an ally Perry has on his side of the aisle on this issue. The sheer amount of pressure for him to rescind the order seems enormous, but to do so would send all kinds of bad signals, so it will at least be a bit before he takes such drastic action.

The New York Times has this story about how Presidential politics has changed a bit in Iowa, where living room meetings have given way to rallies at hotels with hundreds of people in attendance. Maybe that's because of the size and importance of this year's race, but I don't know about that argument; every presidential race is important, after all. I guess the star power of this year's field would make it hard for all those reporters to fit into someone's den.

Do you remember Richard Mellon Scaife? He's the heir to the Mellon fortune who spent millions of dollars digging up dirt about the Clintons and then publicizing it in the 1990's. Well, he's not going to be doing much of that this time, and neither are some of the Clinton's most vocal and affluent foes. The gist of the piece is that some of the values conservatives who worked hard to try and bring down the Clintons' image ran into difficulty convincing people their complaints mattered after 9/11, and after the war began. Even Rupert Murdoch has raised money for Senator Clinton now.

Finally today, the Dallas Morning News examines the effect that the current Democratic presidential candidate slate in general, and Obama in particular, are having on Texas politics and the black electorate. They start out with Ron Kirk, who calls himself "...an unashamed and unabashed believer in Barack Obama." The piece also goes on to refer to John Edwards as the candidate "...who has the most entrenched Lone Star campaign." Strap yourselves in, because the prognostication is going to continue until the first primaries, and those are only about, what, ten and a half months away?

14th Amendment, Plyler v. Doe

Either he doesn't know much about how business works (especially in Texas) or he was telling an incredibly dry joke.

Berman's practicing the Republican idea of "let's break it now and see what happens later." I'd swear some of these folks are taking a page out of Idi Amin's book when he ordered the explusion of all Ugandan citizens of Asian descent.

Not that Republicans have any use for the Constitution except making spitballs out of it, but I wonder if anyone has reminded Representative Berman that there's something called the 14th Amendment. Specifically, someone ought to remind him of Plyler v. Doe 457 U.S. 202 (1982) from right here in the Lone Star State.

But I forgot the Republican Golden Rule: When judges do what I want, they are strict constructionists; when judges don't do what I want, they are activists.

In the political landscape, the concept of "strict constructionism" is the second-funniest thing to a politician who says he or she believes in a "literal interpretation" of the Bible.

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