Category: Politics

Re: Better re-learn your pledge

Ok… just one more post today. I couldn’t resist.
This is also from Vince: Oh, yes. We’ve got a juvenile prison system in a state of disaster, a department of transportation out of control with its “gap” estimates, and more…and the House will debate whether or not to make the pledge more Jesus friendly.

Re: Better re-learn your pledge

Capital Annex has even more on HB 1034. I appreciate Vince’s great coverage.

In a runaway vote, the Texas House voted on third reading this week to pass HB 1034, the bill by Rep. Debbie Riddle (R-Tomball) that would essentially destroy the historical integrity of the pledge to the Texas flag in favor of making it more Judeo-Christian friendly.

Here’s how the third-reading vote went down:

HB 1034 was passed by (Record 983): 124 Yeas, 12 Nays, 2 Present, not voting.

Yeas — Alonzo; Anchia; Anderson; Aycock; Bailey; Berman; Bohac; Bonnen; Branch; Brown, B.; Brown, F.; Callegari; Chisum; Christian; Coleman; Cook, B.; Cook, R.; Corte; Crabb; Creighton; Crownover; Darby; Davis, J.; Delisi; Deshotel; Driver; Dukes; Dunnam; Dutton; Eissler; Elkins; England; Escobar; Farabee; Farias; Farrar; Flores; Flynn; Frost; Gallego; Garcia; Gattis; Geren; Giddings; Gonzales; Goolsby; Guillen; Haggerty; Hamilton; Hancock; Hardcastle; Harless; Harper-Brown; Hartnett; Heflin; Herrero; Hilderbran; Hill; Hochberg; Homer; Hopson; Hughes; Jackson; Jones; Keffer; King, P.; King, S.; King, T.; Kolkhorst; Krusee; Kuempel; Latham; Laubenberg; Leibowitz; Macias; Madden; Martinez; McClendon; McReynolds; Menendez; Merritt; Miller; Morrison; Mowery; Murphy; Noriega; O D’ay; Oliveira; Olivo; Orr; Ortiz; Otto; Parker; Patrick; Paxton; Pena; Phillips; Pickett; Pitts; Puente; Quintanilla; Raymond; Riddle; Ritter; Rodriguez; Rose; Smith, T.; Smith, W.; Smithee; Solomons; Strama; Swinford; Talton; Taylor; Truitt; Turner; Van Arsdale; Vaught; Villarreal; Vo; West; Woolley; Zedler; Zerwas.
Nays — Allen; Bolton; Burnam; Castro; Chavez; Cohen; Davis, Y.; Hodge; Howard, D.; Miles; Naishtat; Thompson.
Present, not voting—Mr. Speaker(C); Mallory Caraway.
Absent, Excused—Eiland; Isett; Martinez Fischer; Moreno.
Absent — Gonzalez Toureilles; Hernandez; Howard, C.; Lucio; McCall; Pierson; Straus; Veasey.

As Vince pointed out, Austin Democrat Valinda Bolton had an excellent statement of intent, and I wish all House members saw things the way she did on this:

I am and have been a Baptist all my life, and the concepts of religious liberty and separation of church and state are firmly ingrained in me. Roger Williams who lived in the 1600s is widely viewed as the father of Baptist life in America.
He gave up a very powerful position in England and came to the colonies, fleeing religious persecution. However, even in the colonies he faced persecution because he wouldn’t worship as the leaders prescribed. In fact, late in his life he was banished to an uninhabited island and expected to die there. When, by God’s grace, he prospered there, the leader of the colony sent him a scathing letter demanding to know why he hadn’t just gone ahead and died as expected.
Roger Willliams risked everything for what he believed. I have not been asked to risk as much, but my belief in religious liberty is that it is worth fighting for. It would be very easy to vote yes on this bill to avoid being seen as voting against God but I am very confident in my Christian faith and my relationship with God. I will be voting no and voting for religious liberty.

Vince also shares another exchange between State Rep. Riddle and State Rep. Hochberg:
REPRESENTATIVE HOCHBERG: Thank you, Mr. Speaker, thank you, Ms. Riddle. I’m just trying to get clear in my own mind, because I’m going to have constituents ask me about my vote, of course, one way or another, and I voted with you last night.
REPRESENTATIVE RIDDLE: Thank you.
HOCHBERG: And I expect to vote with you today. Tell me why you picked out, you said last night that you were trying to essentially conform our pledge to the national pledge, and if I m’ misstating what you said, please clarify that for me.
RIDDLE: No, that, I think, is what I made very clear, that in our national pledge, we say, “one nation under God.” I felt like it was altogether right and appropriate for us to have in our state pledge, that we would say, “one state under God.”
HOCHBERG: We also, in the national pledge, if I’m not mistaken, say, “with liberty and justice for all.” You didn’t include that in your bill, I don’t believe. Was there some reason that you didn’t include that, but you did include the “under God” part?
RIDDLE: No.
HOCHBERG: No? Would you take a third reading amendment to add, “with liberty and justice for all?”
RIDDLE: No.
HOCHBERG: Because?
RIDDLE: I think that the way we have it now, it reads smoothly, it says what we wanted it to say, and I think that we voted on it yesterday, and I think that we have a consensus that basically says what we want it to say.
HOCHBERG: Okay, but you’re basically trying to pick up the religious piece from the national pledge and just move it down to our state pledge. Is that fair?
RIDDLE: What I said yesterday is that it simply mirrors the national pledge in that area.
HOCHBERG: It mirrors the religious part of the pledge.
RIDDLE: This pledge is, in fact, unique to Texas, and we’re not trying to replicate the entire pledge, but there are parts of the pledge that I thought we could put in it.
HOCHBERG: And why did you think that that particular part was appropriate to replicate rather than the other?
RIDDLE: That is the part that I thought of. I didn’t even think about the other, sir.
HOCHBERG: And so why would you be opposed to the “with liberty and justice for all” part, isn t’that important, too?
RIDDLE: We’re in the third reading.
HOCHBERG: I just thought of it.
RIDDLE: You just now thought of it?
HOCHBERG: I did, ma’am.
RIDDLE: You just now thought of it?
HOCHBERG: I did, ma’am. I really did. It was a little late last night, ma’am, it really was. Had I thought of it then, I really would have brought it up to you then, but I didn’t, and so I guess what I’m trying to understand, because I don’t want to mess with the purpose of your bill, and I don’t want to put a point of order on your bill, I don’t want to do any of that stuff. If the purpose of your bill is you’re just trying to do the religious part of it, I understand that. If the purpose of your bill was to mirror the federal pledge to the national flag to the star-spangled banner, then it’s not getting that, because you’re missing an important part. I want it to serve whatever purpose you said that you think it’s supposed to serve.
RIDDLE: Well, I didn’t think of the other, our pledge is unique to Texas, and I think that we have it the way we want it, but next session, if you’d like to put that in it, then I welcome you to do that.
Read more…

Re: Better re-learn your pledge

Capitol Annex has a transcript of the interesting questioning of State Rep. Riddle by State Rep. Burnam over HB 1034 – which would add the phrase, “One State Under God” in the Texas pledge.

REPRESENTATIVE BURNAM: You know it’s a bill that doesn’t have very many words in it, Ms. Riddle.
REPRESENTATIVE RIDDLE: I’m sorry, I couldn’t hear you.
BURNAM: It is a bill that doesn’t have many words in it.
RIDDLE: It has three words.
BURNAM: But it is as fundamental as when the pilgrims stepped on the rock at the founding of this nation and I have a lot of questions that I need answered. Do you know that in the bill analysis it’s stated that your bill will acknowledge “our Judeo-Christian heritage”?
RIDDLE:Yes, sir.
BURNAM: I’m sorry?
RIDDLE:Yes.
BURNAM: Thank you. Are you aware that Native Americans that lived on this land did not have a heritage based on Judaism or Christianity?
RIDDLE:Yes.
BURNAM: Are you also aware that within the last few decades, our country has become vastly diverse, in regards to culture and religion?
RIDDLE: That is true, and I think we all understand that. All this bill does—
BURNAM: Is it also true that today we are citizens who are Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Baha’i, Zoroastrian,Wiccan, etc.?
RIDDLE: What this bill does, yes, I’m aware of those things, but what this bill does, it simply replicates, mirrors our national pledge.
BURNAM: Ms. Riddle, are you going to allow me to ask a question?
RIDDLE: When you say our national pledge, you say “one nation, under God.”
BURNAM: Ms. Riddle I know what the bill says. I have other questions.

Fun stuff. Read more.

I’m liking Huckabee more and more

I’ve skimmed the transcript from the Republican Presidential Candidate debate last week.
I’m liking Huckabee more and more. I’d still love to see him and Obama square off in the election.

Here are a couple highlights I found:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: Governor Huckabee, the question is, how do you unify the country the way Reagan did, a good portion of the country?

GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: I think it’s important to remember that what Ronald Reagan did was to give us a vision for this country, a morning in America, a city on a hill. We were reminded that we are a great nation not because government is great; we are a great nation because people are great.
Chris, I want to go back, though, to say why we’re a great nation. We are a culture of life. We celebrate, we elevate life. And let me just say, when hikers on Mount Hood get lost, we move heaven and Earth to go find them.
When coalminers in West Virginia are trapped in a mine, we go after them because we celebrate life.
This life issue is not insignificant, it’s not small. It separates from the — us from the Islamic fascists who would strap a bomb to the belly of their child and blow them up. We don’t do that in this country.

—

MR. MATTHEWS: Governor Huckabee, you’ve criticized Governor Romney for saying his faith wouldn’t get in the way of his public life, his governing. Do you want to back that up tonight?

MR. HUCKABEE: I’ve never criticized Governor Romney for that.

MR. ROMNEY: Thank you! (Laughs.)

MR. HUCKABEE: I’ve said in general, and I would say this tonight to any of us, when a person says my faith doesn’t affect my decision- making, I would say that the person’s saying their faith is not significant enough to impact their decision process.
I tell people up front my faith does affect my decision process. It explains me. No apology for that. My faith says, “Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you.”

MR. MATTHEWS: But you answered a question that George Stephanopoulos of ABC — about this governor, one of your rivals — and you answered it in this way. “I’m not as troubled by a person who has a different faith. I’m troubled by a person who tells me their faith doesn’t influence their decisions.” That’s in direct response to George Stephanopoulos on February 11th of this year. Why are you changing that point of view now?

GOV. HUCKABEE: Well, I didn’t know I was changing the point of view.

MR. MATTHEWS: No, you’re changing your quote.

GOV. HUCKABEE: I’m saying that of anyone, whether it’s Governor Romney or Governor Gilmore —

MR. MATTHEWS: But you answered in direct response to the — Governor Romney and his Mormonism. Why are you pulling back now?

GOV. HUCKABEE: I don’t mean to be puling back. I want to state very clearly: a person’s faith shouldn’t qualify or disqualify for public office. It shouldn’t do that. But we ought to be honest and open about it. And I think it does help explain who we are, what our value systems are, what makes us tick and what our processors are.

—

MR. MATTHEWS: Okay, let’s start with an enjoyable down-the-line, okay? I want each candidate to mention a tax he’d like to cut, in addition to the Bush tax cuts, keeping them in effect.

MR. HUCKABEE: Well, I cut taxes 94 times as governor, but I realized tinkering with it doesn’t work. I’d overhaul it. I would work for the fair tax which meets the four criteria: flatter, fairer, finite, family-friendly. We’d get rid of the IRS. We’d get rid of all capital gains — income, corporate — and we’d have a consumption tax. The fair tax proposal, I believe, offers the best opportunity for all levels of America.

—

MR. VANDEHEI: Governor Huckabee, this question comes from a reader in New York. In light of the scandals plaguing the current administration and its allies, involving corruption and cronyism, which mistakes have you learned not to repeat?

MR. HUCKABEE: The most important thing a president needs to do is to make it clear that we’re not going to continue to see jobs shipped overseas, jobs that are lost by American workers, many in their 50s who for 20 and 30 years have worked to make a company rich, and then watch as a CEO takes a hundred-million-dollar bonus to jettison those American jobs somewhere else. And the worker not only loses his job, but he loses his pension.
That’s criminal. It’s wrong. And if Republicans don’t stop it, we don’t deserve to win in 2008.

—

MR. HUCKABEE: I want to make sure that we went to a place where the states had more power and not centralizing the federal government. That’s been a mistake of this administration, I think an honest and sincere one, but a huge mistake. And instead, we need to honor the 10th Amendment, we need to remember that we are a nation of strong states and weak federal government, not strong federal, centralized government and weak states.

Read the full transcript

Better re-learn your pledge

On Friday, May 4th, The Texas House passed a bill by a vote of 124-12 that added the phrase “state under God” to the Texas Pledge of Allegiance.

Honor the Texas flag. I pledge allegiance to thee, Texas, one state under God and indivisible.

Really? Is that necessary? Ok. I give up.
Read the full story here.
Thanks to Christian Conservative for the heads-up

DNC poll

Received this from e-mail:

The Democratic National Committee is currently polling Americans through the internet to determine the electability of Sen. Hillary Clinton for the presidency of the United States in 2008.

To show your support for Hillary and encourage her to run for President of the United States in 2008, add your name to the bottom of the list below and send it on.
Please forward this note and don’t break the chain.

This poll has been circulating since 1/03/07.

1.