Texas Progressives talk Bum Steer Awards AND bum steers in awards

This year's Texas Monthly Bum Steer for 2024? Who else but Dannie Goeb himself, aka Dan Patrick. Kenny Boy Paxton was a runner-up (natch) as were Elmo Musk and Texas A&M. And, per the piece, since Texas Democraps still suck, he'll be leading the state (he does) for another six years. That said, the last graf of the piece is funny:

But though Patrick has prospered here and has lived here for nearly a half century, he still does not fully understand Texas. He knows what the small group of Republican primary voters who elected him want: endless culture war. He knows how to role-play a version of a Texan, posing in his campaign ads with a brush jacket and an old pickup truck. But Texas contains multitudes. This place is too wild and weird to fit in Patrick’s narrow and exclusionary ideological vision. His failure to see Texas is a pitiable thing.

Yeah, right. Genteel moderately librul Tea-Sippers writing Texas Monthly pieces don't understand today's Tex-ass. Presumably someone with the brains (I think) of a Mimi Swartz had nothing to do with that write-up. As OC wingnuts Californicate Tex-ass, Patrick fully understands what today's Tex-ass is becoming on the Republican side.

School chaplains IS the camel's nose of the Religious Right in the tent, but just as I said long ago about what would happen if school prayer were revived, many of the initial backers of the idea are more hesitant now about THEIR denominational ox being gored.

Despite being a Paxton impeachment manager, my state House legiscritter, Spiller, is a wingnut indeed, per Trib rankings.

Tyler has had a strictly secular holiday season display area for years, but a rabbi still decided to go wingnut when told his menorah wouldn't be allowed.

Off the Kuff points out that three of the Supreme Court justices that refused to let Kate Cox get an abortion are on the 2024 ballot, including the most notoriously anti-abortion zealot on the Court. 

SocraticGadfly says RIP Craig Watkins.

Neil at the Houston Democracy Project said State Senator Carol Alvarado would better serve democracy by working hard for Democratic voter turnout rather than criticizing active rank and file Democratic volunteers. 

Texas 2036 provides a sneak peek at its joint report on trends in extreme weather in Texas with Texas State Climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon. 

Shock me that the (currently) second-largest United Methodist church in the US is in Southlake, tilts semi-wingnut within the UMC, and has its growth being driven by Californication.

 Your Local Epidemiologist looks at the life-threatening aspects of anti-abortion legislation.  

Law Dork reviews SCOTUS' decision to take up the mifepristone appeal. 

The Dallas Observer explores the excesses of a Plano megachurch's Christmas extravaganza.  

The Bloggess announced the 14th Annual James Garfield Miracle.

Texas heat and a "hotter than a firecracker" future

At least up here in North Tex-ass, it is NOT hotter than a firecracker on the Fourth, thanks to overcast weather and pop-up showers over the past weekend.

But, it was last week, and the state is expected to be hotter than average for the rest of the summer. (Don't forget that the National Weather Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration do NOT use overall historical averages for their "average temperature" on a date; it's just the average of the last 30 years, rolled upward a decade at the start of a new decade, which means the feds are making global warming the new normal.)

As Peter Holley notes, the "new normal" is not the old normal, as shown last week, and semi-legendary Texas grit, just like the "willpower" of Schopenhauer, only goes so far in dealing with this. 

The Observer talks about hospital visits in the recent heat wave. Remember Strangeabbott signing the bill killing local water breaks.

And, it's going to get worse in the future.

Environmental author Jeff Goodell, whom I've read before, and is good, has a new one out, titled straightforwardly, "The Heat Will Get You First," reviewed by the Monthly, Holley in specific. Among other things, Goodell notes, per East and Central Texas vs West Texas and beyond, that it is indeed not just the heat. And, of course, warmer air can hold more humidity. Beyond that, he says climatologists have not ruled out a 125F degree day in Austin in the future.

In the interview, Goodell says he's optimistic, though, noting how growth in renewables has grown. (This ignores, though, as non-Gang Green environmentalists know, that nationally, renewables as a portion of total US energy use have NOT grown that much, and that a fair chunk of that remains hydroelectric from dams that are often older, and that, due to climate change [Hoover and Glen Canyon dams coming immediately to mind] often generate less electricity than 20 years ago due to less of a water "load" behind them.)

Russell Gold talks about the solar power within Texas' renewables' deck of cards. He claims the Lege's war on renewables has so far "failed." He really ought to read Chris Tomlinson before saying such things. Or me. Or others. But, his reporting on energy has often been questionable for years. He also ignores what I said above about renewables as a percentage of portfolio.

And, here's another reason I'm NOT optimistic, but it's at the national level. Neoliberal Joe says he's open to geoengineering. Showing its collective values and mindset, the EU is also looking at it. Geoeingineering could well be Homo sapiens' biggest self-induced clusterfuck this side of causing a global nuclear war. It is hugely neoliberal, it is hugely in the realm of "salvific technologism," as in, thinking that the tech cavalry will always come riding over the hill, a phrase I've not used in a couple of years, and it is hugely a "solutionism" idea, per a word of Yevgeny Morozov.

"Come and take it": The Canon of the Battle of Gonzales

Otherwise called: Rich Lowry must still be brain-fogged from thinking Sarah Palin is winking at him.

In.a Politico column about Trump vs the field in the 2024 GOP presidential run, Lowry penned a doozy:

I could have put a "(sic)" in the header, but, that might have spoiled things.

There’s been a lot of buzz about DeSantis, understandably, who’s done all the right things to establish a national brand, win credibility with populists, and cultivate big donors. But there should be no mistake regarding Trump’s leadership of the party, he can set up like the Texans defending their canon at the Battle of Gonzales and defy his adversaries to “come and take it.”

As I said on Twitter:

Rich Lowry not knowing or misspelling the difference between "Canon" and "Cannon" is funny! Were Texians at Gonzales defending the Protestant Old Testament against Catholics with Apocrypha, daring them to "come and take it"? .@RichLowry .@cltomlinson https://t.co/lAoowsQ1Xi

— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) March 2, 2023

Or, this might have been the case:

Possibility B., under Rich's spelling, is that the Battle of Gonzales was fought over cameras. Texians were determined to resist Nikon-wielding Mexican troops trying to take their Canon 5Ds.

— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) March 2, 2023

Oy, in either case.

We could go other angles, like the canon of "dead white males," per Allan Bloom and "The Closing of the American Mind." We don't need no steenking Hispanic books! 

Or we could go Pachebel! Can't you play SOMETHING for late night classical music besides the Canon in D? "You'll pry this canon out of my cold, dead earbuds"? That's not to mention Pachebal having a bad rap in the canon of dead white composers.

Or Bach, with the Endlessly Rising Canon being how you "walk in" yardage on a canon's range?

And, of course, there are lesser, but more serious, errors beyond that goof.

First, it's TexIans, not Texans, as I noted in the first Tweet, showing Lowry knows little about the actualities of Texas history, which is why I tagged Chris Tomlinson. 

Start with Wikipedia on the Battle of Gonzales. Then, re legend vs facts?

Related to that? The Twin Sisters? Especially if they were only 4-pounder, not 6-pounder, they were pop guns. And, just about everything about them is disputed, so that Texas legend photo is probably not right.

A 4-pounder bronze would have been about 75mm in caliber. But, its range? With solid shot? A Civil War 6-pounder shot a little under a mile. A 4-pounder, if the Twin Sisters were this, even with the best of black power, would have been no more than 1,500 yards. With crappy powder, likely the real situation? 1,200 yards max, if that.

The reason they helped win San Jacinto was that some artillery was better than nothing, especially after Mexican artillery had been neutralized. (Mexican conscripts probably wouldn't have fired well, anyway.) But, in an open field, with trained troops, especially if they marched in double time between rounds? Even with canister or grape, just two of them would have been of minimal effectiveness.

Dear Yankee Dum Fuqs: It's ice, not snow in Texas

I wasn't born in Tex-ass, nor, contra the Tex-ass immigrant cultist saying, did I get here as fast as I could. And, for the right position in the right location, I'd leave. (That said, I could be in a lot worse places.)

That said, the Yankees laughing at Texans over their driving in the recent ice storm, and related cluelessness, is too much. My locales before getting here include St. Louis and Michigan. I've driven on plenty of snow, and have driven on enough bits of snow in North Texas, that I haven't entirely forgotten that. Now, in part it's due to how long I've lived here, but I've driven on more ice here than all other places combined.

First, per the header, it's ice, not snow. Yes, there are some dum fuq drivers here either driving too fast for conditions, or being Texas yahoos. (And don't get me started on people driving without their daytime running lights in general, let alone in bad weather.) If the header doesn't convince you, ice going all the way down to greater Austin, per the pic at left, from Pflugerville, will hopefully do the trick.

But? Many people have simply been trying to do their best to get around, and not always being fully successful.

Monday-Tuesday, on precipitation, all we had in my neck of the Tex-ass woods was either sleet or freezing rain. Those combine well to become ice.

The street in front of my office was a pebble-grained sheet of ice yesterday.

One of the "gotcha" attempts on Twitter was by a person called "FROSun Liberal." I quote tweeted her, and I see that now she's deleted:

I didn't vote 4 either Abbott OR Beto, aka R(ump) F(uck) O'Rourke. Ice storms happen here in Tex-ass cuz of this big thing called the Gulf of Mexico combined with North America, unlike Europe or Asia, not having a major east-west mtn range. Feel free 2 bring more science nxt time https://t.co/ioq15LAhbH

— TheRealSocraticGadfly (@real_gadfly) February 1, 2023

Maybe a small bit of guilty conscience on deleting her tweet?

Or maybe not. 

She was also saying this was comeuppance for Abbott being governor.

Anyway, as far as the meteorology? Yes, ice storms happen in the plains because of that geography. Ditto on tornadoes, and it's a factor in Gulf hurricanes. It's why North America has the most and most varied severe weather of any continent.

Second, as far as 340K people being without power as of the time I was typing this Wednesday evening? No, that's not good, but, some perspective? In a state of nearly 30 million, that's 1.1 percent of the population. Ice storms up north do worse. And again, nothing to do with Abbott.

Third? Texas does use salt, at least down as far south as Austin. (City of Austin uses only dolomite crushed stone for grit, not salt.) And, that includes pre-treating roads in advance of storms with brine.

Fourth? I hadn't thought of that new play on the name of Beto-Bob until yesterday.

Fifth? #BlueAnon gotchas on something like this are like Kos himself, Markos Moulitsas, saying "poor whites" in red states had earned their COVID deaths.

Nastiness over Luckenbach

I've been to Luckenbach once, a little over a decade ago, when I lived in Marble Falls, and spent a whole weekend touring the heart of the Hill Country. Even then, the surrounding area probably wasn't exactly what it was a decade before that, with San Antonio starting to creep out that way in northwestern development. (I'd been to Boerne half a decade earlier.)

Anyway, I had no idea that a whiskey company and other issues would flash fuel inflame a division within Hondo Crouch's descendants, a division that, even if he won't admit it, seems to be purely and ultimately about money on Kit Patterson's side, and one that stands on both legal and historic shaky ground, per the story, even as me makes himself into more and more of the bad guy. And, more and more of a hypocrite to boot.

Anyway, it's all about Texas legend, so ...

Take it with a grain of salt.

That said, I think some transplants drink Texana Kool-Aid more than natives, per the old "I wasn't born in Texas but I got here as fast as I could" bumper stickers, etc.

Texas Progressives: Status Quo Joe is officially large and in charge

The Lege has started, it faces a budget shortfall that Comptroller Glenn Hegar is surely turd-polishing, and we await seeing just how wingnut it will be this year.

Meanwhile, Texas Democrats are again overpromising. And, somebody besides me is telling them to stop it.

Finally, Texas Monthly must have had a really slow month because it's got not just one, but two, pieces of bullshit in its February issue.

Meanwhile, yes, it's Jan. 20 and Trump is gone, but Trumpism isn't; Joe Biden is here, and Democrat neoliberalism is back.

Let's dig into this week's Roundup.

Texas

The Texas Observer offers its analysis of the new Lege session, and reminds anybody with a brain that if we didn't live in a banana republic with an every other year Legislature, we wouldn't have the worst of national economic slowdowns (see 2010 after the Great Recession).

In Captain Obvious news analysis, the Texas Tribune notes that the bankrupt (morally as well as financially by legal definition) NRA's planned move to Texas will be more a legal than physical one. That said, there's no guarantee the Chapter 11 filing will be approved. And NY State AG Letitia James can appeal if it is. She also can probably seek to bounce some of this to federal court, and ask for that to be heard in the Southern District of New York.

Will last Tuesday be the last Confederate Heroes Day in Tex-ass?  A number of Dem Legiscritters say yes, but, we know how much the Texas Democratic Party continues to overpromise and underdeliver.

Speaking of, the Observer suggests they stop overpromising and instead celebrate what they've done the past few years and build on that.

Off the Kuff takes an early look at voting-related bills that have been filed in the Legislature.

Raise Your Hand Texas asserts there's enough money to fully fund public education.

Texana

Texas Monthly peddles a novella of placebo miracles about a eucalyptus tree that ain't an olive tree in South Texas.

The Monthly, in what must be a slow month, goes on to peddle bullshit about Sanderson being the new Marfa East or something. (No-follow settings on both links; no clickbait assistance from me!) I guess we need to talk about Texas-fried self-Californication or something? (I've been through Sanderson on a return home on one of my trips to Big Bend; it' AIN'T all that or even half of all that.)

North Texas

The protestors over Cooke County's Confederate statue have not given up on trying to get that removed. Sadly, and not for the first time, they're engaging in untruth when they claim Gainesville is the most racist small town in the former Confederate States of America. The fact that the city of Gainesville voted to remove its statue is one refutation. (You too get the "no-follow," Simone Carter.)

National

Racist cops and Army grunts? Say it ain't so. Well, Parler location data on smartphones DOES say it's so.

There is, if you will, a "deep state." It's the unelected, hired-not-nominated, federal bureaucracy, which includes branches such as the national security branch. Nicholas Grossmann notes that the QAnon nutters at the heart of the Capitol insurrection have kicked a deep state beehive. (That said, given racists among the Capitol Police and other things, I'm less certain than him of how dire the consequences may be.)

 

The Facebook-Google incestuous ad sales collusion has been publicly exposed. Thanks, a big thanks to whomever failed to redact Kenny Boy Paxton's legal filing.

Trump's flirtation with a Patriot Party will be a flop, if it even gets off the ground — which it likely won't, says this take.

Noah Horwitz minces no words in claiming treason on Jan. 6, and obviously doesn't know the constitutional meaning of the word "treason." Noah, make sure you learn better at law school if you ain't gradu-ma-wated yet. (I have so commented there; Noah, as do I, have a moderation hold. I don't really care if it posts or not, just that he sees it.)

Independent Political Report talks about the first two (of maybe three?) state Green parties being booted by the national organzation.

Steve Vladeck explains the Insurrection Act.

Rick Casey draws a parallel between Ken Paxton and Earl Warren.

Mean Green Cougar Red worries that things will get worse before they get better.

Friday Night Lights quick hits

It's been three years since I wandered the sidelines, but the camera eye, skills and reflexes seem sharp, still.

And with that, a few hot takes from Zero Week.

Let's start with the first play of the game.

First, coaches of small high schools? Like 3A and 2A?

That "sprint my whole kickoff team up to the ball and have them stop on a dime before going into normal kickoff formation"?

Looked kind of cool 10 years ago.

It was already getting halfway passé 5 years ago.

Now? It's tired. And, if you're at a small school with a closely matched opponent and you're only fielding 25 players, you might just wear out enough of your team enough more to give up a late game-winning touchdown, or to run out of steam on a would-be winning drive of your own.

Also, to me, it makes you the head coach look like somebody who thinks "grit" and "willpower" will always win out, and if that doesn't work, then maybe you yelling at your players more.

You want to really show grit? Have somebody do pushups on the sideline for every yard of offense you gain on every play, or at least, every yard on defense you force the other offense back.

You want to show something better than willpower? Make sure your players are thinking of the game's flow better.

And, speaking of that?

At one of the two games I shot tonight, somebody called a timeout on defense in the first half when the team was already out. I didn't catch who, whether it was one of the players or a coach on the sidelines, as I was already locking in on my camera when the whistle blew. It was, IIRC, on a fourth-down play, and it gave the team on offense a first down.

When I heard the whistle and saw the flag, then saw the crossed arms, I knew why the delay of game call was made. If this was made by a coach, you certainly should have. If it was made by a player? Isn't this why coaches, especially on defense, at the high school level, keep control of time-out calling themselves?

Third, are coaches really getting that wussy with rain?

I mean, moving a HOME game off your grass field because of a medium, but not heavy, North Texas rain that stopped about 4 hours before game time, just as the weatherman predicted, to move to a neutral site with turf? If it rains like this in two weeks (or three, or four) are you going to look for a turf field again when you know the nearest one remains verboten to you?

A collegiate friend of mine, when softball or baseball opponents looked to walk, said "Swing the bat or wear a dress."

Well?

"Play the mud bowl or wear a dress."

Maybe Dave Campbell's Texas Football and/or Texas Bob, since they're now some sort of partners, could put an asterisk next to such a team's home schedule in future years, at least on non-district games.

And that's your quick Zero Week take from this corner of the world.

Nacogdoches ... really the oldest town in Texas, or not?

Nacogdoches is supposedly the oldest town in Texas. Founded in 1716, it celebrated its tricentennial this year. 

There's just two or three problems with this, which included Texas history, Texas myth, privileged viewpoints and more. 

First, there were towns older than it, or villages, or whatever, by settled Indian tribes. They don't exist today, true. But, they were older. (Indeed, per its Wiki page, Nac is near the site of an old Caddoan village.) 

Second, Nac itself has not been continually inhabited over those 300 years, as Wiki also makes clear, and as Nac historically-minded folks know. Per Wiki, Gil Y'Barbo got it to get official Spanish designation as a pueblo, or town, in 1779 after resettlement at the site. 

Third, it ignores that El Paso, whether town, village or whatever — and yes, on both sides of the Rio Grande, or Rio Bravo del Norte, not just on the south/west side that became Ciudad Juarez — are older and continuously older. 

I guess that means that the Republic of Texas claims to the Rio Grande as its border all the way up to its source in southern Colorado, as staked on the post-San Jacinto treaty under duress with Santa Anna, actually weren't true and that Texans of today are admitting that. 

Or else, outside of Nac boosters, they're more clueless of their own state's history than I previously thought. 

Meanwhile, it's got other "issues."  Even before Mexico had finished seceding from Spain, rebellion problems were happening with Anglo settlers in the area, as well as some of the earlier Hispanic ones. Hence Nac's claim to outdo places like Six Flags of America amusement parks with its Nine Flags. 

I'll have more on one of those, the Fredonian Rebellion, and its relation to some modern comedy history, in a second column, which will be an adaptation of an editorial column of mine.

Patterson mixes Alamo with appeal to "Tejanos"

Why do I say exactly that about Texas Republican Lite Guv candidate Jerry Patterson? Because he doesn't use the word "Hispanic" or "Latino," but rather, "Tejano," in this press release email, and that's not all:

Today, Jerry Patterson launched "Tejanos for Patterson," a group comprised of Texans locally and statewide who support Jerry Patterson's candidacy for Lt. Governor.

So, is he filming an announcement on Alamo grounds?

Anyway, next comes a bit of untruth.

"Tejanos represent over 1/4 of all the eligible voters in Texas. Most embrace conservative values. They should be Republicans," said Jerry Patterson, candidate for Lt. Governor. "That's why I'm launching Tejanos for Patterson. It is important for all Hispanics, or Tejanos, as they've proudly called themselves, to know that their voice is not only welcomed here, but sorely needed. My campaign is focused on including all Texans."

Really, on the conservative values? Then why do they consistently lean Democrat in voting?  And, do that many Hispanics in general, or Mexican-Americans in particular, really call themselves "Tejano"? I think that's three lemons, or three noes, Jerry!

And, I wasn't joking about the Alamo part.

Jerry gets some b-roll Alamo (or perhaps San Jacinto, but let's still pretend it's the Alamo) footage in his video of the announcement. Unfortunately, no pix of him unstrapping his hogleg from inside his boot, while at the Shrine of Texas Mythology:



Hey, I guess giving us a laugh factor helps us non-GOPers get entertained by the Repubs in the Lite Guv primary, what with the weird psyches of Dudley Dewless and the Three Blind Mice.

That said, I do know a reason why he uses that particular word. Due to the GOP's voter ID law, panty-knotting worries over voter fraud by illegal immigrants, more panty-knotting worries about keeping a brown tide on the other side of the border, etc., Jerry can't appeal to "Hispanics" or "Latinos" without coming under the guns of Dewless and the other two of the Blind Mice as being soft on immigration.

I also know why there's no footage of him whipping out his pistol. A Mexican-American seeing a batshit-crazy white man talking about "Tejano" while he waves a gun is going to quickly be running like hell.

Besides, with the Alamo and concealed handguns? We know what's really behind that: Texas tiny-penis syndrome, something that infects about three-quarters of the likes of Jerry Patterson, I do believe.

More seriously? If he wants to make a real appeal to Tejanos? Jerry should support the school funding lawsuit.

Back to the Alamo schtick, though. At times, I wish a Texas wing of al Qaeda would blow the damned thing up.

I remember the first time I visited San Antonio. The John Wayne movie had me prepared for something about three times as big as reality. And that's the problem.

And, arguably, since the tiny-penis syndrome at San Jacinto was deliberately built taller than the Washington Monument, it, too, is some sort of Shrine to Texas Mythology, is it not?

I've been to Sonoma, where California's brief Bear Flag Republic was started. (California was one of three states besides Texas — ignore history that claims Texas was one of two states — to be an independent republic before joining the United States, along with Vermont and Hawaii.) There's a tasteful, reasonably-scaled monument on the courthouse square.

Texas budget official; time for school suits against Perry?

With the Texas Legislature officially passing a new state budget that, from the start of the current legislative cycle, officially said "eff you" to school districts in the state (among other entities), will we see lawsuits by Texas school districts?

After all, the Rick Perry-sponsored franchise tax revisions are what led us to this point in the first place. And, as bad as they are, to the degree they did help schools, they were in response to previous legal activity against the state.

The shortfall was a result of a business tax that has consistently failed to generate expected revenues and a slump in sales tax receipts. Many commentators said it wouldn't bring in the revenue Perry claimed it would when he drafted its parameters in 2006. And, per the linked story, both Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst said they *refused* to consider addressing this issue - five years later.

For public schools, the budget is at least $4 billion short of what districts would be owed for basic operations under current funding formulas. To accommodate the lower spending, the Legislature also is working on a companion measure that would change the formulas so the reduced funding levels are legal.

Note that? Unless the Lege makes the current cuts slashes legal, they ARE ILLEGAL! Can anybody say "ex post facto budgeting"?

Please, Rick, run for president. Even though I would still vote Green, I'd love to see the grudge match between you and Obama (if you made it past the primaries), with the "Texas miracle" getting torn to shreds by public scrutiny.

More about the myth behind that "miracle" here at Salon.

Wouldn't you love to have the Silver Fox, Barbara Bush, quoted against Perry?

Our schools are in crises: We rank 36th in the nation in high school graduation rates. An estimated 3.8 million Texans do not have a high school diploma. We rank 49th in verbal SAT scores, 47th in literacy and 46th in average math SAT scores. We rank 33rd in the nation on teacher salaries.

Not crisIS, either, for old Barb, but crisES.

And, that op-ed column by her was in early February, before school districts found out they were going to get this stiffed by the state.

The myth that Texas never raises taxes?

Things like Section 7 of Senate Bill 1811 of the Texas Legislature, with passenger airlines and Amtrak getting nickeled (literally) with a five-cent per-drink-served tax, instead of old beverage permit fees, show that it's a myth indeed.

And, no, not surprising ... this is the "smoke" half of smoke and mirrors.

Plus, is it business-friendly to make airlines go through all this paperwork? And, how do you determine a drink served in Texas with an airplane?

Beyond that, SB 1811 has plenty of other smoke, like speeding up business reporting requirements to the last day of August rather than Sept. 15, for example:

Each permittee who is liable for the taxes imposed by this subchapter shall file not later than the last workday of August of each odd-numbered year the report that would otherwise have been due on or before September 15 of that year under Subsection (a) without accounting for any credit or discount to which the permittee is entitled. The report must contain estimates for the month of August of the information ordinarily required on the report if it were filed in September.

Another bit of smoke? Increasing the cigarette tax a teeny bit:

SECTION 7.06. Section 154.021(b), Tax Code, is amended to read as follows:
(b) The tax rates are:
(1) $70.51 [up from $70.50] per thousand on cigarettes weighing three pounds or less per thousand;

A penny a thousand? Not even "nickeling," BUT ...

It IS a tax increase.

===

And, Tricky Ricky, aka Gov. Helmethair, and a GOP with a supermajority in the state House and the equivalent of one in the state Senate still aren't likely to get a budget passed without a special session.

AP, Texas independence, urban legends, myths, lies

Let me spell out a few mistruths and half-truths that lie behind this Associated Press story on the 175th anniversary of Texas declaring itself independent from Mexico.

What came out of the discussions over a few days 175 years ago this coming week was the Texas Declaration of Independence, a handwritten document proclaiming Texas was freeing itself from its oppressive ruling government in Mexico. The declaration was modeled after the American Declaration of Independence authored 60 years earlier by Thomas Jefferson.

No other U.S. state has such a distinction.

Wrong.

Four U.S. states established themselves as independent republics before joining the United States: Vermont, California and Hawaii as well as Texas.

Otherwise? Vermont also had a declaration of independence. So did California, from Mexico. In both cases, I'm talking about official documents, just like in Texas.

I have e-mailed author Michael Graczyk at what I am guessing is his address, mgraczyk@ap.org. We'll see if I get a response.