Houston Democrats

Great post, Stace! Let's just say it: Republicans are bad for America!

Hmmmmmm......Vinson and Elkins. Where have I heard that name before? Gee whiz. I guess V&E doesn't give two hoots about the state of public education in Texas. I guess they also don't mind having Texans pay a regressive 8.75% state sales tax!

Once again, we're talking about corporations NOT wanting to pay their fair share of taxes!!! Corporations and the power they yield are the root of our problems, people, along with having evil, greedy fascist idealogues in charge of the country.

Grab the lube, people, and get ready to bend over again. Damn! I really prefer to be kissed BEFORE I get f*****!

Right on, Kris and Stace. And in my most recent conversation with Babs Rad (the V&E Lawyer who rolled out of bed one day and thought..."Geeze, maybe I run for Senator"), I challenged her to cite on example of a V&E Lawyer who raised a voice in protest to the early and later abuse of the system and people by their client, Enron, just for example of working for the public good. Silence was the response. Certainly she, as a partner, was not that voice of dissent. She was too busy screwing hospital patients for her mega-clients.

Can I vote for you, Stan? I love your post. Remind me to kiss your ass in the middle of the street next time I see you! :-)

You'll be bitterly disappointed in its condition and age ! Stan

LOL! I don't care if your butt has " slid down the back of your leg and hit the ground running"! I appreciate the fact that you tell it like it is without pulling any punches. I have worlds of respect for you.

Now, enough of the lovefest! On to battle.......

By all means, let us put things in perspective. Here in Texas we are in crisis with a broken taxation system resulting in public education funding with its back to the wall, a health care system which has fully 1/3 of our Texans without health insurance, the highest in the nation and in our urban areas, air quality problems from unregulated industry and concrete freeway parking lots full of humvees and suv's belching toxic fumes resulting in among the highest asthma rates in the nation, among other resultant maladies. These are but a few of our crisis issues. But, thankfully, we have Democratic legislators like Rep. Al Edwards who are stepping up to the plate with solutions to vexing societal issues. Al is saving us from offending cheerleaders exposing and vibrating body parts in such a way as to potentially cause oversexed fans to lose control of their personal restraint and cause harm to someone. Similar logic, by the way,is used in fundamentalist Islam in covering the bodies of women with burkas so as to not ignite the passions of unsuspecting sheiks and mullahs. Anyway, thank you Al for finally addressing a core Democratic value and appealing to our "better angels" with some much needed legislated morality. I will rest easier tonite knowing you are there for us. I do feel badly for you that in your effort to reach out and appeal to the right wing theo-Craddicks in the Texas Republican legislature, you were lampooned and dismissed as a fool today by national Fox News. They showed no appreciation for your presumed affiliation with the Democratic Party while taking up such a vital moral issue, in contrast to the heathens with which you are forced to cavort in our Party. Such disrespect for a moral titan is unthinkable. But, maybe you'll be taking comfort in the statuary in your image being prepared in your honor. A grateful Stan Merriman

Some Republicans want to see public education dismantled because they truly don't believe in it. Others are willing to let it crumble because they just don't give a rat's ass what happens to other people's kids, even if a strong public education system IS in their own long-term best interest. It's simple philosophy: make somebody else pay, or don't do it at all.
Do I sound like I'm being negative here?

No, Mike, I don't believe you are being negative. I believe you are being realistic. Many Republicans, especially far right wing Republicans, would just as soon public education fail. That way the majority of the poor and middle class children would be forced to either go to a substandard school with substandard teachers, be homeschooled (if that's an option for the parents) or just drop out. Only the wealthy in this country would be able to afford to send their kids to private, theologically based schools. If public education failed then society, as a whole, would be "dumbed down". Perhaps Republicans feel the only way they can remain in power is if they control the education our children get. An uneducated populace amounts to uneducated voters.

Many people don't know that the hotel lobby, working with the restaurant lobby and attractions lobby, have sponsored an amendment to the education bill that will force schools statewide to begin after Labor Day. It's been approved by the House, thanks to intensive lobbying by the Texas Travel Industry Association. The idea is that we can extend the summer, make more money on hotels and tourism, and shorten the school year. Everyone wins big except the kids (less learning, bigger gap between school years), and working parents, who will have to come up with as much as 3 weeks of additional daycare or arrangements to look out for their kids. There are several problems with the amendment, aside from the obvious. One--when has the tourism industry ever been a player in education issues? There's not even a pretense that this affects education. It's simply legislating a better business environment--this from the political party that argues for non-regulation and laissez-faire. Two--it highlights the major difference between parties. One party believes that public money should be spent for real people with real problems as well as for businesses. The other party believes that there should be no spending on social issues, and that public resources should only be spent to benefit business. America is being destroyed by its decaying educational system. Even the supposedly elite private schools are a joke compared to average public schools in places like Japan, where I lived for ten years. Outsourcing occurs because other people can do the work better and more cheaply. If the tourism industry in Japan tried to manipulate the school year it would be pilloried. Here, everything's for sale when it comes to education. In proof of fact TTIA's web site suggests a main "talking point" as the economic impact of additional spending. What about the economic impact of uneducated, non-competitive students? India has 8 major technical universities, each of which is about 4 times harder to get into than MIT. And we're trying to extend the summer? Unbelievable...unless you live in Texas.