Rep. Lamar Smith has drafted a bill that would replace peer review at the National Science Foundation (NSF) with a set of funding criteria chosen and overseen by Congress... and he wants to use it as a model for every federal science agency we have.

Rep. Smith's bill would force the NSF to prove the "worth" of their grants men and women who are politicians, not scientists. And take a look at two of the main points those looking for a grant need to meet: securing national defense and answering questions he feels are important to society at large.

If we sit back and let the House pass this bill, we will be handing over our scientific research to men and women whose jobs are about political bias, not objective reasoning.

There's a reason no one before Rep. Smith has tried to pull this off -- because it opens the door to the defunding of research, the suppression of facts, and the injection of party politics into scientific research. Don't let him open that Pandora's box: join us in calling on the House to oppose Rep. Smith's egregious bill immediately.

PETITION TO MY REPRESENTATIVES: Don't let Lamar Smith undo all the NSF has done for scientific progress. Oppose his bill to turn objective research into political fodder today.

AAS 5/6/13
House passes campus-carry bill 102-41

By a vote of 102-41, the Texas House on Monday approved a final version of controversial legislation that would allow concealed weapons on college campuses in Texas.

But the final version of House Bill 972 does not automatically allow guns in dormitories, classrooms and other campus buildings.
Public schools would have the ability to prohibit them, and private schools would have the option of allowing them.

An amendment added to the bill on Monday gives the president of the university or college the authority to make the decision on whether or not to permit concealed weapons. That decision which has to be made with input from students, faculty, administrators, law enforcement and a school’s board of regents has to be ratified on an annual basis, according to state Rep. Allen Fletcher, R-Cypress.

(snip)
The measure now goes to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.

Huffington Post 4/30/13

Texas Judge's Order Upholding 'Bikini Tops For Strippers' Law Is Completely Hilarious

This is one of the funniest, most eloquent court documents we've ever seen.

In allowing the city of San Antonio, Texas, to enforce an order that strippers wear bikini tops instead of nipple-covering "pasties," U.S. District Judge Fred Biery noted that the issue had once again "fallen into the court's lap."

Biery's opinion, titled "The Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Bikini Top Vs. The (More) Itsy Bitsy Teeny Weeny Pastie," said his job was to answer "the age old question, now with constitutional implications: 'Does size matter?'"

Although Biery ruled that San Antonio's strip clubs did not prove their need for an injunction to block a 2012 law requiring exotic dancers to cover their breasts "from the top of the areola" down, he also cast doubt on the city's claim that such regulations would cut down on violent crime, drug dealing and prostitution:

DailyKos 4/30/13

Look, this isn't even funny at this point. We need an intervention. Somebody help this man:


No, I mean it. Is there a number we should be calling? Can someone check for a medical alert bracelet? Because this poor man is seeing invisible Muslims everywhere, and in every federal department:

AAS 4/26/13

Sacramento Bee political cartoonist Jack Ohman caused a stir this week with a cartoon that some are calling insensitive.

The cartoon features Gov. Rick Perry saying that “Business is booming in Texas!” followed by a large explosion. Behind Perry are signs saying “Low Tax!” and “Low Regs!”

Ohman said he stood behind the cartoon, which he said depicted “Gov. Rick Perry’s marketing of Texas’ loose regulations, juxtaposed with the explosion of the fertilizer plant in West, Texas.”

DailyKos 4/18/13
Texas wants federal disaster aid it refused to give others

U.S. Rep. Bill Flores, whose district includes West, called on all Americans to pray for the victims of this tragedy.


How does Flores plan on assisting? By asking for federal aid presumably (his prayers won't accomplish anything tangible), the same kind of federal aid he voted against for Sandy victims.

(snip)
U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz of Texas released a joint statement saying they are among those grieving for those who were injured or lost loved ones in the blast.

Both Cornyn and Cruz voted against Sandy aid as well, of course. What kind of aid do they think they are proposing for West? Aside from their prayers, that is.

Laughing Squid

On March 17th, 2013 the steel US 281 Bridge in Marble Falls, Texas was demolished to make way for the construction of two new concrete bridges. Here’s a video showing the bridge being destroyed in slow motion.

Huffington Post 1/16/13

EPA's Water Contamination Investigation Halted In Texas After Range Resources Protest
WEATHERFORD, Texas (AP) — When a man in a Fort Worth suburb reported his family's drinking water had begun "bubbling" like champagne, the federal government sounded an alarm: An oil company may have tainted their wells while drilling for natural gas.

At first, the Environmental Protection Agency believed the situation was so serious that it issued a rare emergency order in late 2010 that said at least two homeowners were in immediate danger from a well saturated with flammable methane. More than a year later, the agency rescinded its mandate and refused to explain why.

Now a confidential report obtained by The Associated Press and interviews with company representatives show that the EPA had scientific evidence against the driller, Range Resources, but changed course after the company threatened not to cooperate with a national study into a common form of drilling called hydraulic fracturing. Regulators set aside an analysis that concluded the drilling could have been to blame for the contamination.

For Steve Lipsky, the EPA decision seemed to ignore the dangers in his well, which he says contains so much methane that the gas in water pouring out of a garden hose can be ignited.

"I just can't believe that an agency that knows the truth about something like that, or has evidence like this, wouldn't use it," said Lipsky, who fears he will have to abandon his dream home in an upscale neighborhood of Weatherford.

Talking Points memo 11/29/12

Swift Boat Backer Bob Perry Funded Mysterious Super PAC

A mysterious super PAC that dumped close to $1 million into Senate races in Montana and North Dakota just before the election was funded by a Texas homebuilder who underwrote the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth attacks on John Kerry in 2004, according to a filing this week.

Bob Perry, the 80-year-old billionaire who founded Perry Homes, gave $1 million to Freedom Fund North America on Oct. 16, according to a filing the organization made with the Federal Election Commission on Wednesday. The donation came just a day after the organization was formed.


(snip)
Freedom Fund North America spent $990,000 on advertisements opposing Democrats Sen. Jon Tester in Montana and Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota as well as an ad in support of Heitkamp’s opponent, Rep. Rick Berg (R). Both Tester and Heitkamp won their races.

AAS 11/20/12

Andrade resigns as Texas secretary of state

AUSTIN, Texas — Secretary of State Hope Andrade announced Tuesday she is stepping down after four years as the chief elections officer in Texas and the first Hispanic woman to hold the office.

Andrade was the fourth-longest serving secretary of state in Texas history. In her resignation letter to Gov. Rick Perry, who appointed he in 2008, she said the "time has come for me to step down" but did not elaborate.

Rich Parsons, spokesman for the secretary of state's office, reiterated that Andrade felt it was time to leave but would not comment further.

"As the first Latina secretary of state, Hope has a permanent place in our state's history books and her personal commitment to making Texas a place of unlimited opportunity will leave a lasting impression on our state's future," Perry said in a statement.

Andrade's last day is Friday.