In a nutshell, the Texas Senate's 31-0 vote approving a state budget that actually cuts spending from 2015, along with being bullshit-full of accounting tricks that might not be constitutional, is why we need Green Party candidates running for every state Senate seat, and especially those of incumbent Democrats.
John Whitmire's halfway a Republican anyway. Jose Rodriguez of El Paso reportedly, per the first link, "spoke critically" of the proposed budget — then still vote for it.
Meanwhile, Sen. Jane Nelson, who got elected, what, 25 years ago, in part due to a campaign against term limits, proves herself to be an ever-bigger political whore slouching toward Gomorrah.
And, I don't care if Comptroller Glenn Hegar officially supported the budget gimmicks.
Hegar would support his mother getting screwed in downtown Austin, or even in East Austin, if it kept peace with Lite Guv Danny Goeb and his tea partiers.
Back to Senate Dems.
No, "primarying" isn't good enough — and might not be done anyway.
Sylvia Garcia? Needs a Green opponent. Hey, Brains, are you in her Senate district? In Whitmire's? In Borris Miles'? (Hopefully not in Bettencourt's.)
Kirk Watson? Needs a Green general foe, to keep Austin Weird and to keep Dems from making assumptions.
Carlos Uresti, Juan Hinojosa, Judith Zaffirini, Jose Menendez? Need Green challengers — and I know there are Hispanic Greens.
Miles and Royce West? Maybe a couple of good African-American Greens — and at least one at the Congressional level, for Eddie Bernice Johnson, while we're at it.
This isn't even token opposition, and the fact that Joe Straus and the rest of the Texas House is almost certain to reject the Senate budget as it currently stands is no excuse.
Update, April 12: If this is because Goeb is threatening to hold your pet bill hostage, that's still not an excuse. First, it might not pass his Gestapo state senate anyway. Second, all that does is further enable him. Third, it also enables crackpot Sen. Jane Nelson, who has long exceeded her shelf life.
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As for Whitmire and West, their sponsorship of some have turd-polished as "comply, then complain" bill to teach high school students how to interact with traffic cops when pulled over is yet another reason to DemExit, in my opinion. The bill itself is "nice," but not so nice when it doesn't include other elements. These could have included:
1. A statewide ban on "pick a friend" grand juries, notorious in Harris County for no-billing cops even if they would screw Glenn Hegar's mother on Westheimer Street.
2. Stiffening the state law on abuse of public authority.
3. Stiffening West's pet law from a decade ago, the annual racial profiling report, to require video verification of all stops.
4. Requiring schools to teach something like the ACLU rights when stopped as part of the bill's main portion. While West says he met with civil rights leaders, somehow, I'll bet that's not in the bill.
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Re Jane Nelson on term limits? I've slept since then, but, IIRC, she halfway and backhandedly admitted this in an email exchange or Twitter or whatever 15 years ago when I was at a now-defunct suburban Dallas newspaper group.
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