light seeker, back from his sabbatical leave at Texas Kaos, reexamines the state of the Democratic Party and the need for and challenges to grow its voter base. The Great Progressivism Debate, Part I.
Texas Leftist kicked off the 84th Legislative Session with a new blog series. Big Government Texas is a catalogue of the endless hypocrisy waged from Texas’ TEApublican CONservative leaders. Check out Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.
All year we’ve heard from various Texas lawmakers about their rights the 2nd amendment… even Governor-Elect Greg Abbott himself has pledged to sign the first Open Carry Bill that comes across his desk. If enacted open-carry legislation would allow gun owners to take their lethal weapons to virtually any public venue.
But apparently what legislators seem to keep forgetting?? The state capitol is also a public venue, and these guns ain’t just for show. From the Houston Chronicle, here’s a rundown about how legislators got a big dose of reality…
AUSTIN – The Texas House on Wednesday approved new rules that will allow legislators to eject hostile members of the public from their offices and recoup the cost of installing panic buttons to summon Department of Public Safety officers following confrontations between a handful of lawmakers and pro-gun activists on the opening day of the session.
The move, which was approved 137-5 in the Republican-dominated House, has some open-carry advocates worried the bad impression left by a small number of activists could endanger their legislative agenda.
“The chances of passing what they call ‘constitutional carry’ got more remote with yesterday’s shenanigans,” said former Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson, who supports efforts to legalize the unlicensed open carrying of handguns in Texas. “That set the stage. That’s the topic of discussion now.”
On Tuesday, roughly 15 to 20 members of the group Open Carry Tarrant County visited several lawmakers’ offices urging them to support House Bill 195, which seeks to undo Texas’ 125-year ban on carrying handguns openly. Several House members, including Democrats Poncho Nevarez of Eagle Pass and Celia Israel of Austin, said the group hassled them or staff members.
In a video posted Tuesday online by Kory Watkins, the Tarrant County group’s leader, open-carry activists can be heard calling Nevarez “a tyrant to the Constitution” and telling him he “won’t be here very long, bro.” Nevarez, who repeatedly asked the group to leave, later said he was concerned for the safety of his staff, family and constituents and complained one activist “reeked of marijuana.”
Catch the video in question right here…
Yep that’s right… even TEACONs in the Texas legislature felt threatened enough by the vigilante group from Tarrant County that they quickly wanted to protect themselves with beefed up security and panic buttons. Which begs the rest of us to ask one question…
Where is our panic button??
If a couple of gun-toting guys can spook grown adults at the Texas state capitol, why on earth are Republicans in the lege pushing for any and every person in the state to be able to take their guns wherever they choose? No where in the bill does it say that the state of Texas will pay for all 27 million of us to carry around panic buttons and a security guard. I suppose the protection of lawmakers far outweighs protecting the rest of us?
Here’s the simple answer to this conundrum. Guns have a place, but that place is not in the public arena. The best way to keep Texans safe is to have fewer deadly weapons around, not more. Even without the threat of some mysterious criminal looking to do harm, guns, by their very nature, are dangerous. Children in the United States are 17 times more likely to die from accidental gun deaths than children in any other developed nation. This is not a talking point… it is fact. Why? Because the United States has more guns in public use than other developed nations. A parent could be the most responsible person on the planet, but when they have a young child, they should know that children pick things up. They touch hot stoves and irons. And if they see a gun, there’s a huge chance they will try to play with it. No matter how many people in Open Carry Tarrant County or other groups threaten, they are still a clear minority and do not represent the views of most Texans, as evidenced by swift actions from the Texas House.
As this legislature gets rolling, let’s hope that they remember one thing about guns. If you pass an Open Carry law for Texas, you pass it for everyone. All the panic buttons in the world won’t change that. It’s time for Texans to unite for common-sense policies, and say no to a Big Government legislature that would force all of us to be less safe.
You know the old saying Everything is bigger in Texas right? Well that’s especially true when it comes to government oppression from the state legislature and Governor’s office. Sure, Texas TEA-CONs (TEApublican CONservatives) like Greg Abbott and Dan Patrick love nothing more than to scream and yell about how President Obama and Washington are violating their rights and liberties to govern their own state how they see fit. But the ugly truth?? In an ultimate show of hypocrisy, the TEA-CON leaders turn right back around and oppress the citizens of Texas and our municipalities with a much heavier hand than Washington could ever hope for.
So, as a way to finally expose this TEA-CON oppression, Texas Leftist is beginning a new blog series for the 2015 Texas Legislative Session.
B-I-G Government Texas.
And on this first day of the 84th, hypocrisy abounds, especially for any and all fighting for equality. Here’s the story from John Wright of the Texas Observer…
Four Republican lawmakers from the Plano area plan tointroduce legislation that would bar cities and counties from adopting ordinances prohibiting discrimination against LGBT people, the Observer has learned. The proposed legislation also threatens tonullify existing LGBT-inclusive nondiscrimination ordinances in cities that are home to roughly 7.5 million Texans—or more than one-quarter of the state’s population.
The bill comes in response to the Plano City Council’s passage last month of an equal rights ordinance banning discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations.
“There is legislation that’s being worked on,” Rep. Matt Shaheen (R-Plano) told a group of pastors who gathered in mid-December at Plano’s Prestonwood Baptist Church in response to passage of the city’s equal rights ordinance, according to an audio recording obtained by the Observer.
“Jeff Leach, who’s also a state representative—he and I represent the majority of Plano—he’s actually leading an effort to nullify these types of ordinances statewide,” Shaheen said. “There’s actually four state representatives that represent Plano—all of us will be joint authors of that legislation—but Rep. Leach will lead that effort.”
Shaheen declined the Observer’s request for an interview about the legislation, which had not yet been filed as the session got under way Tuesday. Shaheen, Leach and the other two GOP Plano lawmakers—Reps. Pat Fallon and Jodie Laubenberg—wrote a letter to the Plano City Council opposing the equal rights [ordinance] prior to its passage. Calls to the offices of Fallon, Leach and Laubenberg went unreturned.
In one swoop, this bill would take away critical protections for Texans living in Texas’ largest cities like Dallas, Houston Austin and San Antonio, along with other smaller, brave municipalities. It is a bill based solely on discrimination and lies, most of which are against the LGBT community.
As if that wasn’t offensive enough, the greater hypocrisy here is that the state legislature, many of whom have made their careers preaching about “liberty” “freedom” and “self-governance” all day every day, are now seeking to squash the rights of Texas cities and counties to prevent and discourage the discrimination of their citizens! It’s the textbook definition of “Big Government”. Last time I checked, the Houston Equal Rights Ordinance was passed by that city’s governing body, the Houston City Council. They have every right to make decisions about the laws governing their municipality.
For a true Conservative or Libertarian, this bill slowly creeping into the Texas Legislature has got to be most troubling. How can one stand against government interference at the Federal level, but then condone an even more substantive intrusion from the state??
So the next time you hear that Texas TEA-CON lawmakers are trying to “limit government” or “ensure personal freedom”, you’ll know what they are really trying to do. If passed, this bill would put decades of hard-fought gains for Texas equality behind bars.
The Lone Star State cannot let that happen. If you or your loved ones live in Texas, now is the time to contact your state representatives and urge them not to support this bill. They need to know that YOUR rights and freedoms stand to be violated if this monstrosity is passed.
