Archive for January 2011
TX GOP’s opening gambit on the budget
After kicking around the budget “issue” with some family this weekend I’ve come to the determination that the Texas GOP’s opening gambit is to try and make things look as bad as possible. Then, eventually, they will come up with a finished product that won’t look as bad as it does now. It will still be horrible, but will be looked at not as bad, or more likely even good, as compared to what Rep. Jim “throw ’em out in the streets” Pitts (R-Waxahachie) proposed last week.
HB 1 is only a starting point. The budget will go through many changes before it passes the Legislature at the end of the 82nd session in May; some of the empty line items almost certainly will be filled. But the breadth of the opening round of cuts can been seen in a by-no-means comprehensive A to Z primer of state programs whose new bottom line now stands at $0.
The main problem for working and middle class Texans is that both the major parties in Texas appear to be against raising taxes on the wealthy and corporations, (which are currently getting of easy), to fund our state’s government at a reasonable level in this horrible time. This shouldn’t come as a surprise since the Democrats candidate for governor last fall said that, “”No tax increases; you reduce spending,”…”We don’t have a revenue problem in this state”. We most certainly do. The Democrats have been getting shellacked in Texas for damn near 20 years and, and for whatever reason, seem to believe using the same failed campaign strategy of competing with Republicans for corporate cash is a good way to go. If they keep that up they will continue losing as they have been.
Working and middle class Texans need politicians that will work for them, not politicians that will continue losing while vying for campaign contributions from wealthy and corporate donors. The only way back for Demcorats is to help the people of Texas who are struggling. Outside of that, Texas voters will continue electing Republicans.
As stated below, what needs to be done is that the cuts, no matter how much less horrible they wind up being, must be blamed on Texas Republicans and their greedy and selfish campaign donors. Use the rainy day fund, close the corporate loopholes, and make everyone pay their fair share in taxes, then the budget shortfall will become much more manageable, and sensible cuts should be the last step. Until then what the GOP is doing must be called out the callous, heartless, selfish act that it is.
Two links for more information:
Tax Expenditures.
It Wasn’t Just the Recession.
Report: Texas gave away billions to businesses.
Perry/Texas GOP’s Voter ID “emergency” will cost Texas taxpayers more money
The Texas GOP, now that the election is over, sees nothing wrong with growing the size of government. Spending tax payer money on non-problems, creating fake emergencies, while cutting education, health care, etc… (Information via TDP email).
Jobs:
- 9,600 state jobs eliminated that could cause the loss of 14,400 more jobs. Economist Ray Perryman explained that every lost public sector job creates a “multiplier effect”, resulting in an additional 1.5 jobs lost.
- $1.15 BILLION reduction in Closing the Gap programs, designed to attract students to study in fields that help Texas’ economy. These cuts will negate over one million new jobs and $122 billion in personal income that economist Perryman calculated these programs would create by 2030.
Children:
- $9.8 BILLION in cuts from our public schools
- Elimination of Pre-K Early Start and Early Childhood School Ready program funding, meaning that nearly 200,000 kids will be kicked off these important school-readiness programs.
Elderly:
- $1.57 BILLION cut in nursing home payments
The first item of business for the Texas Seante, and likely US Senate candidate Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, is a sham issue – a fix in search of a problem – Voter ID. This from the Brennan Center for Justice tells anyone all they need to know about the issue, Voter ID a Misguided Effort.
The Brennan Center has researched the impact of voter identification legislation and the frequency of the only type of voter fraud that voter ID bills have the potential to address: the impersonation of registered voters at the polls. Our research has established that impersonation fraud rarely occurs. Indeed, more Americans are struck by lightning each year. But while there is no credible evidence that impersonation fraud occurs, reliable evidence proves that photo ID and proof of citizenship bills erect hurdles that prevent real citizens from voting. The citizens affected are predominantly elderly and indigent voters, and citizens from minority communities.
Still, the legislative fixation on voter ID remains.
[…]
But as long some remain fixated on voter ID, they must be prepared demonstrate the requirements are worth the harms they cause—a tough task given the lack of evidence of fraud, as Colorado Common Cause Executive Director Jenny Flanagan to wrote the Denver Post on November 25. Legislators should also be prepared to carry the financial burdens of implementing voter identifications laws that meet constitutional requirements. For if voter ID is to be implemented, states will have to provide ID cards free of charge to those who cannot afford them, to make sure that those cards are widely available, to undertake mass outreach and public education programs on the new requirements, and to include fail-safes and exceptions for certain categories of voters. This adds up to a lot of money—at a time when state budgets are strained.
This will be the first issue this legislative session where Texans will get to see what they really voted for, or more likely didn’t come out to vote for, and instead endorsed by indifference (the consequences of not voting).
The story that isn’t being told about the Texas budget shortfall
The story that isn’t being told is the the story of why Texas has a $27 billion budget shortfall. It is not being told by the media in Texas or Texas Democrats. The people must be told who has caused them so much pay, and will inflict more upon them in the future. The only way that Democrats can change the current media theme – “that the GOP is so sorry for what they are about to do but they have no choice” – is to show the people of Texas that this has been their plan all along.
Historian Rick Perlstein pointed this out in a 2009 talk, excerpted here, Rules of Liberal Political Success.
- (Taken from his talk “Whatever Happened to Hope: Why Barack Obama Cannot Become a Transformational President”)
- Got to make people feel good.
- No liberal regime has ever succeeded in American History without successfully stigmatizing the conservatism that preceded it as a failure that ruined ordinary people’s lives.
- A transformational Democratic president must be a credible defender of the economic interests of ordinary Americans to a preponderance of those ordinary Americans sufficient to push through their distrust of cosmopolitan liberals as such. (Anti Big Business Populism).
- No liberal regime has ever succeeded in American History without successfully stigmatizing it’s opposition as extreme, as alien, as strange, as frightening to ordinary Americans who want order in their lives.
I like to shorten it. There can be no savior, or “saver” of the working people, unless there is a satan, or cause of their pain. And that is the story that the Democrats MUST start telling if they want to return to power in Texas. The Republicans in Texas are the cause of your pain, we are here to help you. Make them feel good, that they are not alone, and you will help them, and they will vote for you.
As this blog post shows, the Legislative Study Group (LSG) points out, that this shortfall was, purposefully and knowingly, caused by a GOP tax plan that was put in place in 2006.
The Legislative Study Group, chaired by Rep. Garnet Coleman, now has an analysis of the Pitts budget outline, which you can read here. The main point to remember:
How We Got Here: Built-In Budget Shortfall Comes from the 2006 Tax Package
The current $26.8 billion budget shortfall is partly the result of a built-in budget hole created in the 3rd Called Special Session of the 79th Texas Legislature, which has now created a structural shortfall in three successive legislative sessions. Unless the tax structure is changed, Texas lawmakers will begin every legislative session with the built-in budget shortfall.
In 2006, Governor Perry signed into law a tax package that changed the state’s business tax structure, redirecting billions each year away from public schools and into a newly created Property Tax Relief Fund. The tax package consisted of four major pieces of legislation:
- House Bill 2 (3rd Called Special Session of the 79th Texas Legislature), creating the “Property Tax Relief Fund” which collected money from the other three tax bills in the tax package
- House Bill 3 (3rd Called Special Session of the 79th Texas Legislature), the franchise tax or “margins tax” bill
- House Bill 4 (3rd Called Special Session of the 79th Texas Legislature), the motor vehicle sales and use tax
- House Bill 5 (3rd Called Special Session of the 79th Texas Legislature), the $1 cigarette tax
At the time the tax package was presented to the Legislature and signed into law by Governor Perry, the Comptroller estimated that the revenues generated from the new tax package would fall $14 billion short of the cost of the legislation in the first five years. The predicted shortfall has come true, leaving the state billions short of necessary funds to maintain basic state services.
They have charts to go along with the words for all you visual learners. No matter what we do this session, we will continue to have shortfalls until we plug this hole.
And as with any budget, it shows prirorities, or the lack thereof.
The old adage is you spend money on your priorities. If that is the case, then the Republican Party doesn’t give a damn about students, struggling families, teachers, the elderly, people struggling with medical bills, state employees and so many more.
The Texas GOP caused this. Their intention was to cause a shortfall and use it as an opportunity to cut government spending that benefits poor, elderly, needy, and working Texans. They will not ask for the wealthy and corporations to help in this time of need. They planned for this, they want this, this has been their dream for decades – to cut all of these things they don’t, and never have, believed that the government should be involved in. Despite their calm demeanor, they are smiling on the inside, (all the while lying to our faces, telling us we can have budget cuts and still have everything we want).
It’s not a hard story to tell – the Texas GOP is responsible for the budget shortfall in Texas – Texas Democrats and the media in Texas need to start telling it.
Tax the rich – not austerity
I alluded to it below but should probably expand on the point. Republicans like Perry like to make the case that taking away needed jobs and services of the poor and middle class is less severe then raising taxes on the wealthy. But that’s just not true. The worst thing to do is to cut education, health care, jobs, and infrastructure.
Inaugural sacrifice
I sacrificed and read the inaugural speeches of Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst. They can be read here and here. As I read over both speeches I was looking for what these two leaders did and didn’t say about sacrifice, and who should sacrifice. Both of them spoke of sacrifice in terms of our military and their families and, of course, we are all very thankful for their sacrifice. But I was more interested in what kind of sacrifice they were asking for, in terms of the looming budget fight in the legislature, from ALL Texans.
As for Perry the word was not spoken in any other context, and here’s essentially what he’s asking for when it comes to the budget:
“While our budget challenges are substantial, for the good of the 25 million pioneers we call Texans, for a people who work hard to get ahead – we must balance our budget without raising their taxes.
“Since the last legislative session ended, I have traversed this great state, meeting with Texans from every walk of life and I have listened.
“I heard their belief that tough economic times require strong leadership and tough choices for everyone.
“I have heard their calls for government that is smarter, leaner and more accountable.
“They reminded me that there is no such thing as government money; it’s the people’s money in government’s hands.
“Texas families have endured this long season of economic trouble by tightening their own budgets, and making tough choices.
“Texas employers have streamlined operations, becoming more innovative and efficient.
“Making their lives harder just to make our jobs easier would be a failure of leadership.
“As Texans, we always take care of the least among us.
“The frail, the young, the elderly on fixed incomes, those in situations of abuse and neglect, people whose needs are greater than the resources at their disposal – they can count on the people of Texas to be there for them.
“We will protect them, support them and empower them, but cannot risk the future of millions of taxpayers in the process. We must cut spending to keep our economic engine on track.
“As legislators do the hard work of trimming agency budgets, the headlines will be dominated by impacted constituencies, but these tough times dictate government doing more with less.
“That’s what we campaigned on, and that’s what we’ll deliver.
“We need to prioritize and justify every penny and validate every investment made.
“During this session, Texas will prove again that fiscal responsibility, sound policy making and a passion for individual liberty are essential to the success of employers, institutions and families.
Notice the twist that Perry makes in the three highlighted statements above:
- The “Texas families” that have done what he speaks of are the poor and middle class Texas families, not wealthy Texas families.
- “..employers have streamlined.” means that as workers have become more efficient, business needs fewer (layoffs), and their profits have risen as wages have stagnated.
- “Making their lives harder..” he is implicitly threatening poor and middle class Texans with tax cuts. The reality is the American people, and I would hazard to guess, Texans too would be just fine covering this budget shortfall by taxing the wealthy and corporations.
Here is what Dewhurst had to say on the subject.
“It was not just my father and the millions of servicemen who sacrificed; it was all of American society. It was the factory workers; it was the women who not only raised families without their husbands, but worked in plants to support the war; it was citizens who bought war bonds and prayed every night for the safe return of their loved ones. Each had a role to play, and virtually all rose to the challenge. We see that same spirit of sacrifice alive and well today in our fighting men and women in Afghanistan and Iraq. They are freedom’s greatest ambassadors: warriors willing to sacrifice all, including their own safety, for a greater good. We must never become oblivious to their sacrifice or fail to remember the generations that came before them. We, too, as individual citizens and civilians must be willing to sacrifice for the good of our state and our country.
“Many in America have been trained to believe we can have all we want when we want it. But at the core of being a Texan and an American is not what we get from society, but what we give back. For most of us Texans, the question is not what government can do for us, but what we can do if government doesn’t stand in our way. Government cannot replace the role of parents in families, cannot legislate personal responsibility, cannot replace the private sector in creating jobs, and cannot govern an individual’s life better than his own conscience.
“Texas still offers the promise of a better tomorrow, where a little boy or girl can grow up with nothing, work hard, and have the storybook ending they would never dare to imagine as a child. I know because that’s my story. And it’s the story of millions of Texans who have lived the American Dream in this state so abundant with opportunity – those who sacrifice, those who persevere, those who dust off their boots and get back up every time they get knocked down. They are the ones who know the meaning of the American Dream, the Texas Dream.
“The promise of Texas is a light on the distant horizon piercing the darkness. It’s a promise available to any and all who are willing to work hard, sacrifice, and never give up. This has never been more true than today with thousands of new pilgrims settling here each day in this modern Promised Land we call Texas. We who have inherited that promise must preserve and protect it. We must never allow its light to lose its luster. We must be united in our quest for a better Texas – a Texas rich in values, abundant in opportunity, wealthy in spirit. One people, one star, one destiny.
To be fair Dewhurst, in the highlighted section above, left out some sets of people that sacrificed considerably during and after WW II, and the Great Depression. Those were the wealthy and corporations, (Don’t forget as far as the US Supreme Court is concerned corporations are people). They sacrificed much in tax revenue for the benefit of our nation during the war and for future generations. They no longer do, and are no longer asked to, by our supposed leaders to do so in tough times like these. Shouldn’t the wealthy and corporations pay as much in taxes as a school teacher or their secretaries?
It’s clear that if raising taxes was such a bad idea during an economic downturn, then we never would have gotten out of the Great Depression, or won WW II. Not only did we get out of the Great Depression, we won WW II, we then had the greatest economic expansion in World history as the wealthy and corporations continued to contribute tax money, and the middle class grew to heights never before seen.
While Perry and Dewhurst plan to call for sacrifice only from the poor and middle class, we must continue to shine a light on the class warfare they and their party in waging on this state.
Texas “wingnuts” release budget proposal that will damage Texas
Here’s the story from the Austin American Statesman’s “Postcards” blog. Click [HERE] to read the whole plan.
The group found $18 billion in potential savings without touching transportation, public safety or criminal justice. Among their suggestions are the following:
— Lift the elementary classroom size from 22 students to 25: $558 million
— Eliminate the pre-kindergarten grant program: $209 million
— Institute a 10 percent pay cut for state employees and two-day furlough per month : $1.7 billion
— Reduce the state’s contribution to health care for dependents of employees: $108 million
“The projected budget shortfall demands that legislators make significant changes to extraneous programs that are outside the core mission of agencies, and enact cost-saving measures and reductions in the public sector workforce to prevent long-term fiscal insolvency as a result of too many people relying on taxpayers for a salary and retirement benefits,” according to the report.
What a total disaster that would be. As noted below, there is no call for the wealthy or corporations to sacrifice ANYTHING. Just more from the poor and middle class, and budget cuts that will insure Texas moves into the future less educated, less healthy, and with a more worn infrastructure. Also in the report they continue to use a highly disputed number for how much Health Care Reform will cost. Bravo, wing nuts. Great job.
A plan like this would irreparable damage to the current generation of school age children and damage Texas for decades in the future.
We must listen for who is being asked to sacrifice
As I was driving to work this morning I switched over to Austin’s KUT and heard this item, Texas Job Cuts Coming. This part in particular was striking.
Another thing to consider is these kinds of cuts don’t happen in a vacuum. Economist Ray Perryman says there’s the “multiplier effect”. He says public sector layoffs will have a multiplier effect of about two and a half.
“What that basically means is that in addition to the direct job that’s lost you have one and a half additional jobs in the economy that are lost,” said Perryman. “Because it impacts suppliers. It impacts – the payroll not there. It impacts spending on food, clothing, shelter other items that are made in the state.”
Republican budget writers haven’t said the cuts will be easy. But they have argued that making cuts is a better solution than raising taxes. Because they say increasing taxes slows the state’s economy by limiting private sector spending…which can also lead to layoffs. Perryman says cutting state jobs could even help bolster the economy.
“If it’s something the state’s doing that’s inefficient that they could effectively do with fewer people, then society is better off if we take that resource and use it somewhere else that’s more productive. Either the public sector somewhere else or the private sector,” said Perryman.
But this budget isn’t about reshuffling resources. Money cut from one state program won’t be going to pay for another. It will simply be cut.
What Perryman says first is that cutting state jobs will have an extremely bad “domino effect” on the Texas economy. It reminds me of this chart from back during the stimulus in 2009.
Essentially what that chart shows is which types of fiscal stimulus do the best job of actually stimulating the economy. Notice that spending on unemployment, food stamps, and infrastructure have the best returns and tax cuts have the worst. One way to think of this is that we need to get the money going to the people that need it most, and will spend it almost immediately, in a time like this when demand is the problem. Giving more money to the rich, who already have enough and won’t spend anymore (they will save it), is not going to stimulate the economy right now.
Making sure those looking for work have enough money to live on, in the form of unemployment insurance, keeps them from losing their house and going hungry. It also keeps someone else from losing their job down the line, as the economy continues to spiral down. At the same time spending money on infrastructure to put those unemployed people back to work gets the economy moving even more. In essence it’s the old axiom, it takes money to make money, or a rising tide lifts all boats.
It also seems from Perryman’s statement that he realizes he made a mistake in arguing that budget cuts are likely to make a bad economy even worse. And makes a feeble attempt to say that raising taxes can be bad too. But as the article says at the end, these cuts are not coming because of “inefficiencies” they are coming because the politicians in Texas still don’t want the rich and corporations to pay their fair share in taxes.
As the budget debate plays out over the next several months in Texas we have to keep asking ourselves are all Texans,- of every economic class, being asked to sacrifice equally? Or is it just those at the bottom and middle, not those at the upper end or top? When Gov. Rick Perry speaks today at his third inauguration what is he asking in sacrifice from the wealthy and corporations in Texas? As Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst prepares his run for the US Senate, what is he asking? House Speaker Joe Straus? Budget writers Sen. Steve Ogden and Rep. Jim Pitts? Listen because, so far, I’m not hearing a thing.
So far it appears the plan is to balance the budget on the backs of the poor and middle class while corporations and the rich get off scot-free. And that’s is immoral.
[UPDATE]: As if on cue. Look What Gov. Perry and Lt. Gov. Dewhurst were going last night.
Remembering MLK
I can’t remember where the idea was imparted on me but it was that Martin Luther King, Jr. was not assassinated until he made it his sole purpose to bring together poor people, of all races. And that has stayed with me ever since, and what a different country this would be if he had not been assassinated. I knew little about the man until reading this biography of him, Let the trumpet sound: a life of Martin Luther King, Jr. But his legacy has been on my mind ever since.
Here are a few excerpts from a few items I’ve read/listened to over the last couple of days about this great man.
Martin Luther King: misunderstood icon.
It frustrates Lerone Bennett, Jr. The venerable historian, author of Before the Mayflower: A History of Black America, says King lives on the top tier of American heroes with Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln. But the King holiday gets “bogged down” in soundbites of I Have A Dream, “and gives no sense of the greatness of the man and the majesty of the man and the fundamental changes he demanded.”
For Bennett, King’s last crusade, which he died trying to fulfill, is symbolic of his broader vision: The Poor People’s Campaign was designed to move the struggle for equality beyond race to the common ground of class.
“He believed, and he said as much almost, that one demonstration after another will not solve this problem. You must have a consistent structural approach to deal with the structural problems. One of the major structural problems is the continued inequality … between poor Americans and other Americans. His message to us — and I hope somebody this January will hear it now, especially — is that we need a Poor People’s March. We need poor people to stop begging and start organizing. Black people, white people, Hispanic Americans, we need poor people to go to Washington” he says, and demand “a level playing field.”
Michael K. Honey, editor of All Labor Has Dignity, a collection of King’s speeches on labor issues, notes that while he deplored communism for its totalitarian bent, King longed for some modifed form of socialism. “King was really impacted when he went to get the Nobel Prize,” says Honey, “and he talked about how Norway and Sweden and Scandinavian countries didn’t have homeless people or poor people on the streets. They were capitalist countries, but they also had this socialist democratic framework. He was that kind of socialist.”
Doubtless, that will come as a jarring surprise to some people (paging Glenn Beck) who have grown comfortable with an image of King that is static and safe, unthreatening of the status quo, frozen forever at the Lincoln Memorial saying, “I have a dream.”
But the same King who said that once said this:
“I am now convinced that… the solution to poverty is to abolish it directly by a now widely-discussed measure: the guaranteed income.”
And the same King who spoke of color of skin and content of character also said this:
“It is a cruel jest to say to a bootless man that he should lift himself up by his own bootstraps. It is even worse to tell a man to lift himself up by his own bootstraps when somebody is standing on the boot.”
And the same King who declared he had been to the mountaintop also declared:
“If we assume that life is worth living and that man has a right to survive, then we must find an alternative to war. In a day when vehicles hurtle through outer space and guided ballistic missiles carve highways of death through the stratosphere, no nation can claim victory in a war.”
The point being that King did not just fight for racial equality. He fought for labor rights. He fought against economic exploitation. He fought for fair housing. He fought for better schools. He fought against war.
The common denominator in all that he fought for was simply a demand that America do better by its most vulnerable: the poor, the racial minorities, the unhoused, the uneducated, the left out, left behind and forgotten, the ones the Bible calls “the least of these.”
King, says Bennett, “talked about a dream that has never existed in this country. George Washington didn’t believe in that dream. Thomas Jefferson didn’t believe in that dream. Abraham Lincoln didn’t believe in that dream.”
But King did. So for those who share that belief, perhaps it is not all that hard to find a way to mark his day. Maybe it ought to be a day for commiting acts of faith, seeking some small way, some big way, to make a difference for the least of these. Why not do that on Martin Luther King Day?
And then, the next day, do it again.
Tim Wise on the distortion of King’s legacy, We Twisted King’s Dream, So We Live With His Nightmare.
The way in which we have forgotten or been misled about King’s legacy is never more apparent than when asking children what they know about his message. Sadly, when I have done so, the most typical answer given is that King stood for not “hitting people,” or “not hitting back if they hit you first,” or that his message would be, were he alive today, “don’t join a gang.” While all these things are true I suppose, they rather miss the point.
After all, King’s commitment to non-violence had a purpose larger than non-violence itself. Non-violence was, for King and the movement, a means to a larger end of social, political and economic justice. Non-violence was a tactic meant to topple racism and economic exploitation, and lead the world away from cataclysmic warfare. That so many young people seem not to get that part, because teachers are apparently loathe to give it to them, renders King’s non-violent message no more particularly important than the banal parental reminder that we should “use our words” to resolve conflicts, rather than our fists. Thanks, but if that message were all it took to get a national holiday named for you, my mother would have had her own years ago.
So we compartmentalize the non-violence message, much as we compartmentalize books about King and the movement in that section of the bookstore established for African-American history; much as we have compartmentalized those streets named for the man, locating them only in the blackest and often poorest parts of town.
Were this tendency to render King divisible on multiple levels—abstracting non-violence from justice, colorblindness from racial equity, and public service from radical social transformation—merely an academic matter, it would hardly merit our concern. But its impact is greater than that. Our only hope as a society is to see the connections between the issues King was addressing and our current predicament, to see that what affects part of the whole affects the greater body, to understand that racism and racial inequity must be of concern to us all, because they pose risks to us all.
This awesome sermon of his from 1957, Love Your Enemies.
There’s another reason why you should love your enemies, and that is because hate distorts the personality of the hater. We usually think of what hate does for the individual hated or the individuals hated or the groups hated. But it is even more tragic, it is even more ruinous and injurious to the individual who hates. You just begin hating somebody, and you will begin to do irrational things. You can’t see straight when you hate. You can’t walk straight when you hate. You can’t stand upright. Your vision is distorted. There is nothing more tragic than to see an individual whose heart is filled with hate. He comes to the point that he becomes a pathological case. For the person who hates, you can stand up and see a person and that person can be beautiful, and you will call them ugly. For the person who hates, the beautiful becomes ugly and the ugly becomes beautiful. For the person who hates, the good becomes bad and the bad becomes good. For the person who hates, the true becomes false and the false becomes true. That’s what hate does. You can’t see right. The symbol of objectivity is lost. Hate destroys the very structure of the personality of the hater. And this is why Jesus says hate [recording interrupted]
. . . that you want to be integrated with yourself, and the way to be integrated with yourself is be sure that you meet every situation of life with an abounding love. Never hate, because it ends up in tragic, neurotic responses. Psychologists and psychiatrists are telling us today that the more we hate, the more we develop guilt feelings and we begin to subconsciously repress or consciously suppress certain emotions, and they all stack up in our subconscious selves and make for tragic, neurotic responses. And may this not be the neuroses of many individuals as they confront life that that is an element of hate there. And modern psychology is calling on us now to love. But long before modern psychology came into being, the world’s greatest psychologist who walked around the hills of Galilee told us to love. He looked at men and said: “Love your enemies; don’t hate anybody.” It’s not enough for us to hate your friends because—to to love your friends—because when you start hating anybody, it destroys the very center of your creative response to life and the universe; so love everybody. Hate at any point is a cancer that gnaws away at the very vital center of your life and your existence. It is like eroding acid that eats away the best and the objective center of your life. So Jesus says love, because hate destroys the hater as well as the hated.
Now there is a final reason I think that Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” It is this: that love has within it a redemptive power. And there is a power there that eventually transforms individuals. That’s why Jesus says, “Love your enemies.” Because if you hate your enemies, you have no way to redeem and to transform your enemies. But if you love your enemies, you will discover that at the very root of love is the power of redemption. You just keep loving people and keep loving them, even though they’re mistreating you. Here’s the person who is a neighbor, and this person is doing something wrong to you and all of that. Just keep being friendly to that person. Keep loving them. Don’t do anything to embarrass them. Just keep loving them, and they can’t stand it too long. Oh, they react in many ways in the beginning. They react with bitterness because they’re mad because you love them like that. They react with guilt feelings, and sometimes they’ll hate you a little more at that transition period, but just keep loving them. And by the power of your love they will break down under the load. That’s love, you see. It is redemptive, and this is why Jesus says love. There’s something about love that builds up and is creative. There is something about hate that tears down and is destructive. So love your enemies.
And a report from United for a Fair Economy, State of the Dream 2011.
This report starts in Memphis on the eve of Dr. Martin Luther King’s death. It builds on King’s call for economic equality in a “second phase” of the Black Freedom Movement. Section 1 explains why progress has stalled in recent decades, opening the door for a new era of growing inequality. Section 2 looks briefly at how inequality has played out within the Black and Latino communities at the point where class intersects with race. Section 3 analyzes the racial impact of Congressional Republicans’ economic agenda, documenting how the proposed policies will retard progress toward closing the racial economic divide. Section 4 explores positive policy directions that can begin to close the racial wealth divide and promote economic justice for all Americans.
While this report focuses on the negative policy implications of the GOP agenda on Blacks and Latinos, we also hold out hope for greater progress in the years ahead. History has demonstrated — as with the great Civil Rights victories of the 1960s — that when Americans come together across lines of race and class to forge a new and equitable path, we can achieve positive and lasting change. More than 40 years after Dr. King was assassinated, we must continue the cause of his life and ensure that his belief that “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice” is proven true.
Perry vs. Pitts on budget cuts – the definition of Armageddon
Texas’ three Republican leaders reiterated their mantra of no new taxes Wednesday, but they acknowledged that the state’s lagging business tax might need to be revised.
Gov. Rick Perry, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst and House Speaker Joe Straus held a breakfast discussion and shared goals for a 140-day legislative session overshadowed by a daunting $15 billion budget hole.
In a joint news conference afterward, Perry said that “proponents of Armageddon” are needlessly arousing concern over deep budget cuts.
House Appropriations Chairman Jim “throw ’em in the streets” Pitts, R-Waxahachie:
Pitts will introduce a budget on Tuesday that assumes no new revenue, no new taxes and no use of the Rainy Day Fund (although he said it might be useful for closing the smaller shortfall the state faces in the current biennium). For those lawmakers that oppose looking for new revenue, Pitts speculated that, after they go back to their local school districts and hospital and nursing home administrators and share the details of the proposed budget cuts, they might be persuaded to reconsider that position. One thing Pitts says will surely happen: “There will be less state employees” and fewer state programs. There could also be furlows for state employees who keep their jobs. One specific proposed cut Evan got out of Pitts is eliminating some early c-sections as a way to cut Medicaid costs (he’s opposed to the state dropping out of Medicaid).
Depends on what ones definition of “Armageddon” is.
The Texas Commons 
A solution in search of a problem – GOP controlled Texas Senate is wasting precious time on Voter ID
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Were so many Republicans elected in 2010 because there was so much voter fraud going? That’s seems to be what the Texas GOP is saying. Voter ID is a solution in search of a problem, always has been, and always will be. It’s always been a ploy by Republicans further restrict access to voting. Instead of this, we should be making registration easier, and trying to make it easier for those registered to vote. It is the job of the local voter registrar to verify that a voter is eligible to vote before registered and sent a registration card.
There is no problem of in person voting election day voter fraud. To the extent that voter fraud exists in Texas it’s largely through mail-in ballots which a new Voter ID law would do nothing to prevent. Just like in 2009, the bill this year state’s only that there is a “potential for fraud” in the current system. See the Author’s statement on SB 14.
Even if the bill passes there will still be a potential for fraud. Ever heard of a fake ID? Anyone who has worked the polls on election day understands that this just does not happen. The GOP is also, for political reasons in this time of tight budgets, extremely underestimating how much this will cost the taxpayers of Texas to implement.
(As an aside there are many, more important, issues that should be raised regarding making voting easier. In addition to what was mentioned above, there should be same day registration. Also the need or reasoning behind having precincts should be rethought. Do we really need them anymore? They are essentially a party organizing unit, and now that we are a more mobile people, we could certainly look into whether we can make do without them. Having more “commuter friendly” voting meg-centers along commuter routes that would function like an early voting location, should be looked at. Also making election day a holiday, would spur turnout and make it easier to find workers on that day. I sure there a more fixes to our election process but that’s what comes to mind right now. If you have any leave them in the comments).
More articles on today’s GOP Voter ID shenanigans:
Governor Pushes Poll Tax, Distracts from Real Problems Facing Texans.
Written by ndd33
January 25, 2011 at 1:58 pm
Posted in Commentary, Voter ID
Tagged with Texas GOP