Folks with normally good sense for some reason (let’s hope it can be blamed on deskmates) voted for House Bill 489 today. Billy Clyde finds it difficult to believe that people like Robby Cook, Todd Smith and John Smithee knowingly voted for Leo Burman’s silly-ass traffic bill, which actually passed on second reading yesterday cuz no one was paying attention before dying today.
When I told some folks about this vote in the cafeteria this afternoon, they didn’t believe me at first. Fortunately, I had my laptop and we looked it up, and they examined my hard evidence – actually TLS’s hard evidence – and said, “Damn!”
Here’s a list of House members whose deskmates misvoted them:
Allen, Alma(D); Anderson®; Berman®; Callegari®; Christian®; Cohen(D); Cook, Robby(D); Corte®; Crabb®; Crownover®; Darby®; Delisi®; Driver®; Eissler®; Farias(D); Garcia(D); Goolsby®; Hartnett®; Herrero(D); Hilderbran(R); Jackson, Jim®; Jones, Delwin®; King, Phil®; King, Susan®; Latham®; Leibowitz(D); Macias(R); Miller(R); Parker(R); Riddle(R); Smith, Todd(R); Smithee(R); Solomons(R); Swinford(R); Vaught(D); West, Buddy®; Woolley®; Zedler®
Representative Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, who is smart and fairly hot, and Representative Harold V. Dutton Jr, who is kinda smart but is definitely not hot, offered up a third reading amendment to exempt kids, senior citizens, and crazy people. (Not A Joke. See http://www.telicon.com/www/tx/topnav1.htm). But that mitigating amendment was not enough to get Leo 40 votes on final passage (he garnered 38). This bill had Century Club written all over it.
Can someone please explain to me why (1) this bill found its way on the General State Calendar during the beginning of crunch time and (2) people think Representative Berman is a conservative when all he wants to do in the Legislature is have the government regulate and monitor and nanny regular ordinary citizens?
As a very, very conservative right-wing rural red-neck, about the only House member who makes sense to me these days is Donna Howard, an Austin progressive. But please don’t take that out on Representative Howard. (Editors Note: Donna Howard and Charlie Howard are NOT married.) We live in a Capitol World in which Kip Averitt and Steve Ogden are considered big liberals, so go figure. I can’t.
The bill itself was not that important and was unlikely to affect you. But just the notion of setting up all this new Big Brother BS seems peculiar to me. The Republicans gained a majority in the House and Senate. So last week, on the exact same day, the House legalized marijuana and the Senate, not to be outdone, passed a free needle exchange bill for intravenous drug users. If thought about properly, Billy Clyde – true conservative that he is – could probably agree to a drug legalization deal. But never would he imagine that Jerry Madden and Bob Deuell would be leading the charge.
BC has about three more weeks in his lobby career. So be nice. This system has gotten so convoluted that I have a major brain ache.
When I told some folks about this vote in the cafeteria this afternoon, they didn’t believe me at first. Fortunately, I had my laptop and we looked it up, and they examined my hard evidence – actually TLS’s hard evidence – and said, “Damn!”
Here’s a list of House members whose deskmates misvoted them:
Allen, Alma(D); Anderson®; Berman®; Callegari®; Christian®; Cohen(D); Cook, Robby(D); Corte®; Crabb®; Crownover®; Darby®; Delisi®; Driver®; Eissler®; Farias(D); Garcia(D); Goolsby®; Hartnett®; Herrero(D); Hilderbran(R); Jackson, Jim®; Jones, Delwin®; King, Phil®; King, Susan®; Latham®; Leibowitz(D); Macias(R); Miller(R); Parker(R); Riddle(R); Smith, Todd(R); Smithee(R); Solomons(R); Swinford(R); Vaught(D); West, Buddy®; Woolley®; Zedler®
Representative Yvonne Gonzalez Toureilles, who is smart and fairly hot, and Representative Harold V. Dutton Jr, who is kinda smart but is definitely not hot, offered up a third reading amendment to exempt kids, senior citizens, and crazy people. (Not A Joke. See http://www.telicon.com/www/tx/topnav1.htm). But that mitigating amendment was not enough to get Leo 40 votes on final passage (he garnered 38). This bill had Century Club written all over it.
Can someone please explain to me why (1) this bill found its way on the General State Calendar during the beginning of crunch time and (2) people think Representative Berman is a conservative when all he wants to do in the Legislature is have the government regulate and monitor and nanny regular ordinary citizens?
As a very, very conservative right-wing rural red-neck, about the only House member who makes sense to me these days is Donna Howard, an Austin progressive. But please don’t take that out on Representative Howard. (Editors Note: Donna Howard and Charlie Howard are NOT married.) We live in a Capitol World in which Kip Averitt and Steve Ogden are considered big liberals, so go figure. I can’t.
The bill itself was not that important and was unlikely to affect you. But just the notion of setting up all this new Big Brother BS seems peculiar to me. The Republicans gained a majority in the House and Senate. So last week, on the exact same day, the House legalized marijuana and the Senate, not to be outdone, passed a free needle exchange bill for intravenous drug users. If thought about properly, Billy Clyde – true conservative that he is – could probably agree to a drug legalization deal. But never would he imagine that Jerry Madden and Bob Deuell would be leading the charge.
BC has about three more weeks in his lobby career. So be nice. This system has gotten so convoluted that I have a major brain ache.
2 comments:
Has anyone ever done a study on the IQ points lost per minute when you are forced to listen to a debate with Tommy Merritt at the front mike and Jessica Farrar at the back? Is the damage permanent?
We so desperately need a respite from the annoyances. Post! Make a wonkette's day!
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