On the third day of the 84th legislative session, the Texas House is set to take up a rules resolution, which if adopted, would make permanent an investigatory committee with an Orwellian name and draconian powers. The proposal, House Resolution 4, is scheduled for...
Since the grow-government establishment in Austin cannot win when they take their case to the voters, as witnessed by this year's elections, they must rely on deception and strategic power plays to keep their noses in the taxpayers’ trough. Lately, some of these...
Last month, Austin was rocked by the latest in a slew of scandals suggesting widespread corruption in state government. Health and Human Services Commission Chief Counsel Jack Stick resigned after newspaper investigators revealed that he had been funneling no-bid...
Close allies of Texas House Speaker Joe Straus were rejected by Republican primary voters last March, and his Democratic allies were routed in their efforts to “turn Texas purple” in November. Yet Straus refuses to relinquish power and give the people of Texas the...
Several weeks ago, Speaker candidate Rep. Scott Turner penned a letter to State Rep. Charlie Geren and House Speaker Joe Straus, calling on them to end their divisive rhetoric about a roll call vote for Speaker and join him in jointly asking the Secretary of State for...
The United States of America is unique in human history for its founders’ experiment in self-government – the belief that educated people did not require rulers to order their lives but were capable of ruling themselves. The framers of the Texas Constitution announced...
Recently the Austin media published internal campaign memos from the Wendy Davis campaign depicting the dysfunction amongst Davis’s campaign staff leading up to her historic loss. In a January 2014 memo, Davis’s political consultants clashed with her campaign manager...
In Austin, as it is in Washington, DC, there is an overriding, cynical culture that suggests campaign promises are merely a tool one uses to get elected, to be tossed aside at the first convenience. But while those who are more interested in self-promotion than...
During the most recent legislative session, lawmakers passed a bill – SB 1773 – requiring a joint committee of senators and state representatives to examine our state’s so-called ethics laws and determine whether they are fulfilling their purposes or in need of...
The contrasting words and actions of two establishment moderates and two rising conservative stars surrounding Monday’s meeting of the Legislative Budget Board (LBB) perfectly summed up our current legislative zeitgeist: Texans are experiencing an end to government by...