Wednesday Roundup: Accenture Get Canned

During the 2006 race for Governor, Chris Bell said that if he were given the opportunity, he would fire Accenture. Accenture was the company chiefly responsible for administering many of Texas' social services. As an example, they had a huge contract to administer CHIP, and I've heard stories which include forms with incorrect fax numbers or applications going unprocessed for weeks or months. The news that Texas is ending Accenture's contract is good news to you if you would rather not have social services provided by government continue down the path to privatization.

The House threw another beating on Governor Perry yesterday, voting overwhelmingly to nullify his HPV executive order. The vote was 119-21, and the bill prohibits the HPV vaccine from being a prerequisite for enrolling in school. Democrat Jessica Farrar stuck to her guns, as is illustrated in this DMN story. The real gem of the whole deal was a statement from Perry's spokesperson Krista Moody, though, when the Gov's office reached way back and brought out the Bible:

"The governor believes we should protect as many young women as possible – rich and poor, insured and uninsured – while maintaining parents' rights to opt their daughter out of receiving the vaccine," spokeswoman Krista Moody said in a written statement.

"Governor Perry will always stand on the side of protecting life."

Oh snap. Guess where this argument's going?

The state Senate would like the TYC board to know that they ought to be fired. The Senate Criminal Justice committee all got behind the bill that would do the firing. The only part of the bill that didn't seem to make sense to me was that it would fire this board who was appointed by Governor Perry, who would then immediately appoint another board. Obviously that set of board members has problems, but while we're treating the symptom, maybe we should treat the sickness and examine the whole leadership selection process a little more closely.

Speaking of TYC, things continue to get worse all over, both in the investigation and also at the facilities. There was an uprising at the San Saba institution involving a couple dozen detainees. I think I was most troubled by the line from the TYC spokesman in which he stated that "such uprisings are not rare." This could be a case where I don't know enough about prison environments in general and youth prisons, specifically, but wouldn't regular uprisings indicate there might be problems at hand? During political scientist training, they tell you to look out for things like rebellion.

Guess who's getting sued for a billion dollars? Start out by counting how many companies you think can afford to be sued for a billion dollars, and you'll be pretty close to the answer. Viacom has gotten its knickers in the proverbial twist over what it calls Google's "massive copyright infringement" via YouTube, and has now filed suit. Viacom owns Comedy Central, so if you want to get your YouTube fill of ThreatDowns and Carlos Mencia, I guess you'd better get started.

Finally today, Senator John Cornyn is concerned about Alberto Gonzales. Cornyn is now going to great lengths to put distance between himself and the White House, or any sort of Republican unpleasantness. You can expect to see a lot of tales like this one in the coming months, in which Cornyn will bluster about how disappointed he is in everyone from his team.