Huffington Post 1/11/12
Rush Limbaugh Compares Rick Perry To Fidel Castro

Rush Limbaugh lashed out at Rick Perry on Wednesday, comparing the Republican presidential candidate to Fidel Castro for his attacks on Mitt Romney.

Limbaugh has been aghast at the attempts by many GOP hopefuls to tarnish Romney's tenure at Bain Capital, the company he helped found. On Wednesday, he played a clip of Perry strongly criticizing Romney.

After hearing Perry attack so-called "vulture capitalism" and hit Romney for presiding over layoffs at companies Bain helped buy out, Limbaugh was incensed.

"That is indefensible!" he fumed. "It's absurd...this is the language of leftists! This is the way Fidel Castro thinks, or says he thinks."

Postcards from the Lege AAS 1/10/12

Texas can enforce sonogram law while case proceeds, federal court says

Texas can enforce a new law requiring doctors to show sonograms to women seeking abortions, a federal appeals court ruled today.

Texas Tribune 1/8/12

Texas Keeps Close Eye on Mexico's Presidential Race

Texas economists are confident that the financial upheavals long associated with Mexican elections are a thing of the past. Still, they are closely watching what this summer's presidential contest means for the peso and, in turn, Texas' symbiotic business ties to Mexico.

Texas politicians are paying close attention, too — to whether the trade, security and energy policies of President Felipe Calderón’s successor will affect illegal immigration or the state’s robust trade relationship with Mexico.

Three Texas customs districts, Laredo,El Paso and Houston, rank among Mexico’s top four trading partners. Collectively, they accounted for roughly $235 billion in trade between Texas and Mexico from January to September 2011, according to United States Census data analyzed by WorldCity, which tracks global trade patterns. The figures show an increase over 2010 despite the American recession and unprecedented violence in Mexico because of warring drug cartels.

Texas Redistricting blog 1/9/12
http://txredistricting.org/post/15561146468/a-viewers-guide-to-the-supreme-court-case

A Viewer’s Guide to the Supreme Court Case

The start of a “January to remember” kicks off Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. (ET) with arguments in the Supreme Court about the interim legislative and congressional maps drawn by the San Antonio panel.

Here’s a preview of the case:

What will the Supreme Court decide?

There are three interlinked core issues.

The first, and most basic issue, is whether the San Antonio panel abused its discretion in drawing interim maps that did not hew closely enough to the maps adopted by the Texas Legislature.

Then, if the Supreme Court concludes that was the case, the court will have to explain to the San Antonio panel what it needs to do to fix the maps – or how it should draw new ones.

Related to that, the Supreme Court will need to decide whether there is enough time to fix any problems that it finds in the interim maps or whether it should just order the elections to go forward on the state’s maps (as the state argues) or the court-drawn interim maps.

Mixed in with those more pedestrian issues is the lurking and potentially explosive issue of whether the preclearance process under section 5 continues to be constitutionally viable nearly 50 years after enactment of the Voting Rights Act.

Houston Chronicle 1/6/12

Kilday Hart: 'This is a get-rich deal,' consultant says of Perry

Back in July, when Gov. Rick Perry was evaluating a presidential race, the Chronicle's Richard Dunham interviewed an Austin political consultant whose words now seem prescient.

"Anytime people are telling you that you're the salvation of the country … it's the high water mark," said lobbyist and consultant Bill Miller. "Before you get in, it's a perfect moment. Enjoy it, because it's fleeting."

Now that Perry's dignity has been shredded by the debate circuit and the Iowa Caucuses, it's worth exploring the wise warning. Miller left unsaid, but heavily implied, that advisers advocating a presidential campaign might have hidden agendas. Like their own personal fortunes.


(snip)
When Perry announced he would continue his campaign in South Carolina, I doubt there was a George Christian in the room. Instead, the biggest factor in the decision was likely the $3 million to $4 million left in the $17 million Perry has raised (at least that's what Karl Rove estimated in a Wall Street Journal column Thursday). Somewhere, there's a consultant willing to advocate continuing the campaign - at least, until the money's all spent.

(snip)
From the moment he began thinking about running for president, Gov. Rick Perry's decision-making scales have been heavily skewed by enormous stacks of cash.

Burnt Orange Report 1/5/12

What's Going on with Voter ID in Texas?

Last Sunday, New Year's Day, was the day that Texas' new photo voter ID law (SB 100) was supposed to go into effect.
It didn't.

Instead, Texas is still waiting to see whether the Justice Department signs off on the new law - a required step known as 'preclearance.'

That's a step that Texas and 16 other (mostly southern) states, or parts of states, have to go through under section 5 of the Voting Rights Act before any new voting law goes into effect because of their history of discriminating against minority groups.

But Texans may have gotten a preview of what's coming with the DOJ's eve of Christmas Eve rejection of a very similar voter ID law in South Carolina on the basis that the law had a disproportionate impact on African-Americans.

And when he was in Austin just a few days before that, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder delivered a much heralded speech at the LBJ Library on voting rights in which he expressed serious concerns about efforts to erode the franchise around the country:

Texas Tribune 1/5/12

Texas Payday Lenders Face New Rules, Scrutiny

Payday lenders are about to come under the microscope.

New laws aimed at curbing predatory lending take effect this week, meaning payday and auto title loan businesses will have to be licensed by the state and post a schedule of fees in a visible place, similar to the overhead menus seen in fast food restaurants.

Proponents of the new regulations passed by lawmakers during the 2011 session say they're needed because the practice of offering short-term, high-interest loans to consumers has led thousands of Texans into a cycle of debt and dependency. Lawmakers heard horror stories about consumers being charged interest rates in excess of their initial loans.

Absent these regulations, the number of payday loan businesses in Texas has more than doubled, from 1,279 registered sites in 2006 to more than 3,500 in 2010. Opponents say this industry has flourished because of a 1997 law intended to give organizations flexibility to help people repair bad credit. A loophole allowed payday lenders to qualify, giving them the freedom to operate without limits on interest rates.

Though the new laws took effect on Jan. 1, state regulators have been working for months to finalize the language of the rules, and businesses are in the process of coming into compliance. Eventually, lenders will be required to disclose more information to their customers before a loan is made, including the cost of the transaction, how it compares to other types of loans and interest fees if the payment is not paid in full.

Texas Observer 1/4/12

Goodbye to the Brazos River?

(snip)
Over the decades, the river has been increasingly drawn on by cities and the Comanche Peak nuclear power plant, and plagued by fish-killing golden algae. But perhaps the greatest threat to the river comes from the agency charged with overseeing it: the Brazos River Authority.

For the past seven years, the authority has been angling to lock up every last drop of water left in the Brazos. In 2004, the authority filed for a permit with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for the right to withdraw up to a million acre-feet per year from the Brazos and use it however it sees fit.

The plan is an audacious, perhaps unprecedented, water grab by a quasi-public entity in Texas. In October, an administrative law judge—after five years of legal proceedings—recommended that TCEQ either deny the permit or require the Brazos River Authority to explain its plans more thoroughly. The judge agreed with interested parties like Friends of the Brazos River and Dow Chemical, which relies on river water at its coastal Freeport facility, that the authority has failed to show what impact its plans would have on cities, industry, agriculture and the environment.

Now it’s up to three Perry appointees at TCEQ—not known for their environmental sensitivities—to accept the judge’s recommendation or grant the river authority’s water rights request.

Postcards from the Lege blog 1/4/12

Perry says he will go to South Carolina

In a surprising development, Gov. Rick Perry said today he’s heading to South Carolina — presumably to continue his presidential campaign.

“And the next leg of the marathon is the Palmetto State…Here we come South Carolina!!!” Perry wrote on Twitter.