Category Archives: National news

John Cornyn bragged to his buddies the other day about how awesome health care is in Texas. U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, representing the state with the highest share of population without health insurance, said Tuesday that Texas is a national … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Bill Gwatney, the chair of the Democratic Party in Arkansas, was shot dead in his office today by a lone gunman. Chairman Bill Gwatney died at 3:59 Wednesday afternoon after a gunman entered his Little Rock office and shot him … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Well, it’s not like the concept of the border fence could get any more ridiculous. While many view the contentious border fence as a government fiasco, an animal rights group sees a rare opportunity. People for the Ethical Treatment of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good for the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission. The commission, which oversees the state Parks and Wildlife Department, voted last month to essentially tell the feds to get lost, saying no thanks to an offer from the federal government to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good for them. A federal court agreement reached Thursday with the Department of Homeland Security removes the threat of an 18-foot fence splitting the campus of the University of Texas-Brownsville/Texas Southmost College. Instead, the federal agency agreed to accept the … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Former Senator and Vice Presidential candidate John Edwards was in town this week to promote his anti-poverty agenda. Edwards, from North Carolina, said he would “fight with every fiber of my being” to help low-income Americans. The former Democratic vice-presidential … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Last week, when Rep. John Culberson criticized NASA by saying it had “failed us miserably” and “wastes a vast amount of money”, I wrote that I expected Culberson would wind up walking back his remarks. Looks like I was right. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

MSNBC recently asked the question “Could you pass the latest citizenship test?” Naturally, I had to find out. Here’s the answer: I thought it was pretty easy, and I think most people reading this will find it easy as well, … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The repo man cometh. In a bad economy, fun is often the first casualty. For James Hedrick, that means it’s a busy time in his line of work. He’s one of those dreaded repo men. He spends his days scanning … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This ought to be fun to watch. Two days after telling an online town hall meeting that NASA had “failed us miserably” and “wastes a vast amount of money,” Houston Rep. John Culberson said Thursday he was weighing legislation to … Continue reading → Continue reading →

So I’m reading this article about the National Park Service and its attempts to reach out to minority communities, who represent a disproportionately small fraction of their attendees, and I came across this curious paragraph: The Park Service is prohibited … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I don’t often write about this kind of stuff, but I find myself particularly annoyed by it, and that’s what having a blog is all about. The Bush administration wants to require all recipients of aid under federal health programs … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Loren Steffy adds his two cents to the discussion of the Pickens Plan. It’s hard to grasp, though, how parts of the plan would be implemented. Assuming all the rights to millions of acres could be acquired and the wind … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Speaker Pelosi speaks about the great Congressional Twitter battle. I’m going to quote her entire letter to House Minority Leader John Boehner, because it’s worth reading. Dear Leader Boehner: Thank you for your letter on the recommendations by Franking Chair … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Rep. Mike Capuano, chair of the Committee on House Administration, who has come under steady assault from Rep. John Culberson and a growing number of Republican activists for his recent letter (PDF) on modifications to House rules concerning standards for … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Following up on yesterday’s post about the battle over Twitter (*) and other uses of social networking software from the floor of Congress, TechPresident’s Daily Digest tries to inject a little calm to counteract some of Rep. John Culberson’s fulminations. … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Robert Boyd writes about T. Boone Pickens and his plan for wind and natural gas. The plan, in a nutshell, is this. The U.S. should convert as much of its automobile fleet as possible from gasoline to compressed natural gas … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Various techies gave US Rep. John Culberson a round of applause last month when they noticed his use of Twitter to post updates from the floor of Congress. But a recent tweet that says Congressional Democrats “want to require prior … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Former Senator Jesse Helms is dead. Former Sen. Jesse Helms, who built a career along the fault lines of racial politics and battled liberals, Communists and the occasional fellow Republican during 30 conservative years in Congress, died on the Fourth … Continue reading → Continue reading →

(The following is a guest post from Joe Jaworski.) This week, we mark 232 years since our nation declared its independence and launched the greatest experiment in democracy the world has ever known. That experiment continues to illuminate. The Founders … Continue reading → Continue reading →

I had wondered why the recent ICE raid at a rag plant didn’t result in any charges being filed against the employers. Now I see that has happened. This morning a U.S. magistrate in Houston is scheduled to preside over … Continue reading → Continue reading →

As we know, the Texas Medical Association recently rescinded its endorsement of Sen. John Cornyn after his vote against a Medicare-funding bill, HR6331. Now the American Medical Association is getting into the act. Reflecting physicians’ frustration with a group of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This is one of many reasons why the current crackdown on undocumented immigrants is such a sham. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are staging dramatic raids across the country that routinely seize hundreds of undocumented workers at their jobs — … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Disappointing. Not surprising, but disappointing. The Supreme Court on Monday gave the green light to the Bush administration to press forward with plans to complete a controversial fence along the U.S.-Mexico border. The high court, without comment, declined to hear … Continue reading → Continue reading →

There’s so much heat and noise about immigration these days, it’s good to see articles like this that break it down into something basic and understandable. [A]lthough the immigration system is complex, the basic problem is simple: There are many … Continue reading → Continue reading →

We should all have as cool a way to depart this vale of tears as this. The man who designed the Pringles potato crisp packaging system was so proud of his accomplishment that a portion of his ashes has been … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Apparently, Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has decided that the way to get the border fence done is to demonize the opposition. Chertoff, speaking during an interview with the editorial board of the Houston Chronicle, pitted the safety … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good. U.S. District Judge Sam Lindsay issued a permanent injunction barring the city from implementing Ordinance 2903, which voters approved 2-to-1 in May 2007. But the newer version of the effort, Ordinance 2952, remains and is slated to go into … Continue reading → Continue reading →

This was something I didn’t expect. The U.S. discriminates against blind people by printing paper money that makes it impossible for them to distinguish among the bills’ varying values, a federal appeals court ruled today. The ruling upholds a decision … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Some stories are so goofy that all you can do it sit back and marvel at them. The dossier spills over into two drawers of files full of hand-scribbled notes, maps marked with sharp black dots — and snapshots of … Continue reading → Continue reading →

The fight over the border fence moves to a new front. Texas mayors and business leaders filed a class-action lawsuit Friday alleging Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff hoodwinked landowners into waiving their property rights for construction of a fence along … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Seems to me if you’re going to go on the record to condemn a bill for containing pork-barrel provisions, you ought to be able to name at least one such provision in said bill if asked to do so. You … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Good for them. The California Supreme Court decided today that same-sex couples should be permitted to wed, ruling that gay unions must be given the “respect and dignity” of marriage. In a 4-3 vote, the court became the first in … Continue reading → Continue reading →

Farmers Branch. Irving. Now Carrolton. A newly elected mayor near Dallas says his top priority will be ridding his suburb of illegal immigrants, the same focus that has drawn national attention in a neighboring city. But Ron Branson said Carrollton … Continue reading → Continue reading →