Texas Bloggers: Stand Up To Get Protections We Need Under Texas Law

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Friday April 24, 2009 · 11:36 AM PDT

2009/04/24 · 11:36

[If you are a commenter or blogger on DailyKOS from Texas, please read this post! My contact info is below if you have questions]

On Monday, the Texas House Judiciary and Civil Jurisprudence Committee will hold a public hearing on a bill which will give Texas bloggers and citizen journalists some much-needed protections under Texas law.

The committee will take public testimony on House Bill 4237 by State Rep. Aaron Pena (D-Edinburg).

This bill gives bloggers and citizen journalists the same protections that the mainstream media has when it comes to covering matters of "public concern," such as legislative proceedings, school board meetings, and the actions of state officials.

vpltz

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Thursday July 31, 2008 · 10:18 AM PDT

2008/07/31 · 10:18

John McCain's $520 Ferragamo shoes have been the buzz of the blogosphere this morning, but in Texas, a $520 pair of shoes for a lawmaker is nothing. After all, everything is bigger in Texas and one ethically-challenged State Representative, John Davis (R-Houston), recently spent a cool $1,537.15 on his footware.

Nobody in Texas can really begrudge anyone--especially a macho member of the Texas Legislature--a a nice of boots. But Davis didn't pay for his boots out of his own pocket. He paid for his boots with money he collected from lobbyists, political action committees, and right-wing donors who filled his campaign coffers.

vpltz

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Sunday December 09, 2007 · 2:25 PM PST

2007/12/09 · 14:25

In Crawford v. Marion County Board of Elections, the landmark Voter ID case presently before the U.S. Supreme Court, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has taken the lead for the right wing and, along with eight other state attorneys general, filed a brief in support of an Indiana Voter ID law.

The problem is that the brief [.pdf], written by Abbott and his staff at the AG's office is riddled with errors and outright lies.

vpltz

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Tuesday October 16, 2007 · 9:26 PM PDT

2007/10/16 · 21:26

With the state's juvenile prison system mired in controversy, transportation in a near-crisis state, and countless other issues facing Texas lawmakers, State Sen. Kevin Eltife (R-Tyler) would like to add another item to legislators' to-do lists: regulation of condoms on college campuses.

In an interview with KLTV, Tyler's ABC affiliate which aired Tuesday night, Eltife said he was concerned about free condoms being distributed by the student health clinic at the University of Texas at Tyler, especially that some may have been paid for with tax dollars, since the University Health Clinic at UT-Tyler is operated by the University of Texas Health Center at Tyler:

vpltz

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Tuesday August 21, 2007 · 9:04 AM PDT

2007/08/21 · 09:04

A former Texas Secretary of State staff attorney is has filed a lawsuit against ex-Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams and the state of Texas claiming she was fired as a result of embarrassing former presidential adviser Karl Rove.

Elizabeth Reyes was fired in September of 2005, after she was quoted in newspaper articles concerning whether or not Rove was eligible to vote in Texas.

Reyes alleges she was dismissed in September 2005 after Rove called Williams concerning her comments.

vpltz

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Monday August 20, 2007 · 5:23 PM PDT

2007/08/20 · 17:23

As Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick tried desperately tried to hang on to his position in late May in the wake of a bi-partisan insurgency that sought to remove him, he shredded the state constitution and showed little regard for Texas law.

New documents show that as Craddick tried to hold off insurgents during the last days of the 80th Legislature in May, he conspired with a former Republican state legislator--the same man he would later appoint as House Parliamentarian--to come up with a solution to keep him in office.

vpltz

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Thursday July 26, 2007 · 10:55 PM PDT

2007/07/26 · 22:55

Following her resignation as Parliamentarian for the House of Representatives, House Speaker Tom Craddick (R-Midland) sent Denise Davis a harshly-worded, insulting letter instructing her to essentially keep quiet about his business and any advice she had given him during her tenure as Parliamentarian, Capitol Annex has learned.

vpltz

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Monday July 23, 2007 · 11:08 PM PDT

2007/07/23 · 23:08

The troubles at Texas' facilities for the mentally retarded were starting to bubble to the surface during the 80th session of the Texas Legislature. Now, thanks to this report from the Dallas Morning News, we have a full-blown scandal on our hands (yet again):

vpltz

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Wednesday July 18, 2007 · 12:29 PM PDT

2007/07/18 · 12:29

Earlier this today, at Capitol Annex, we told you about some of the big-money donors and "establishment folks" that would-be Senate candidate Mikal Watts has amassed support from during the first month of his senate exploration, including:

vpltz

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Thursday June 21, 2007 · 8:00 AM PDT

2007/06/21 · 08:00

(Please feel free to distribute this to any Southern state bloggers you know!)

In the American South, in states like Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia, Florida, Virginia, South Carolina, and others, Democrats and Progressives face many of the same issues every election cycle. A lot of the typical "God, guns, and gays," plus abortion and other so-called "wedge issues," Republicans have made effective use of to turn the once Solid Democratic South into a Republican stronghold.

Bloggers in these states face unique challenges when it comes to framing issues and advocating for candidates in election cycles.

Recently, a new group has been started to help Southern State Bloggers "unite" and explore strategy and issue-framing options in anticipation of the 2008 election cycle: Progressvie Bloggers of the South.

vpltz

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday May 07, 2007 · 7:24 PM PDT

2007/05/07 · 19:24

A Texas State Representative called for a "challenge" to the 14th Amendment and blamed illegal immigrants for increases in communicable diseases following debate on a border security bill in the Texas House of Representatives Monday night.

State Rep. Leo Berman (R-Tyler), who made national news late last year for introducing a slew of anti-immigrant legislation — including one bill which would strip legally born children of immigrants of rights to state services including public education — made the comments during a point of personal privilege following the passage of House Bill 13, a border security bill which passed to engrossment 140-5.

"This is probably the only time you are going to hear anyone talk about illegal aliens on the floor of the House of Representatives because we've been shut out of this bill at every turn," Berman said.

During his remarks, Berman railed against Rep. David Swinford (R-Dumas), chair of the House State Affairs Committee, and said that Swinford "unilaterally decided no illegal alien legislation would be heard on the floor of the House this year."

vpltz

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Thursday April 12, 2007 · 6:46 PM PDT

2007/04/12 · 18:46

Governor Rick Perry's homeland security office is supervising the maintenance of a giant illegal database containing "tens of millions" of records constituting a massive intelligence gathering operation targeting the citizens of Texas.

The Texas Observer this week revealed the existence of the database and several alarming facts surrounding its creation, maintenance, and accessibility.

First and foremost, the premise on which the Department of Homeland Security and the state's Department of Information Management base their to create and maintain the database (called the Texas Data Exchange, TDEx for short) is tenuous at best and most likely fundamentally illegal.

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