Bad Deeds for 1-30-2012

Republican Wants to Bring Back Public Hangings – There’s something about a public hanging that strikes me as very oh, I don’t know, “cruel and unusual” and offensive to every last bit of human decency. Not so for North Carolina Republican Larry Pittman. He wants to bring back public hangings in North Carolina as a deterrent to crime. He expressed his views in an email sent Wednesday to every member of the General Assembly. “For my money, we should go back to public hangings, which would be more of a deterrent to others, as well.”

Mitt Romney Donates to Anti-LGBT Groups While Saying He Opposes Discrimination Against LGBT Americans – Two weeks ago, Mitt Romney claimed that he opposed discrimination against LGBT Americans. But his tax returns reveal a different story. The Republican presidential hopeful donated at least $35,000 to the Massachusetts Family Institute and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberties. These organizations are notorious for their anti-LGBT discrimination. If Mitt really opposed discrimination, he wouldn’t throw money at groups that, among other things, have actively opposed making schools safer for LGBT kids. Click on the link above and tell Mitt that we’re living in 2012. This is not okay.

Texas Budget Cuts Are Having a Significant Negative Impact on Our Schools – A recent Texas AFT survey of public school superintendents from 241 districts found that state budget cuts of $5.4 billion are having a significant impact on classroom instruction, teacher morale and help for struggling students. Superintendents are saying that teacher layoffs, larger class sizes and cuts in services for struggling students are creating a stressful environment and creating concerns about how to deal with the implementation of the new standardized tests being rolled out this spring.”

As one superintendent noted, “The funds to produce a world‐class educational system in Texas are there. The willingness to invest in our kids and our state is not. Cut now, pay later. Our state leadership has failed us.”

Right-Wing Politicians Are Stealing the People’s Property – State officials are sacrificing parks in order to keep the tax-dodging moneyed elites who pay for their campaigns from paying even a dime more in taxes. The majority of states have been closing many of their parks, slashing hours and services at others or simply handing the public’s asset to profiteering corporations. Idaho’s governor has proposed eliminating the entire parks department; California shut the gates of a fourth of the state’s parks last year; officials in Arizona and Florida intend to privatize their parks; Washington state has cut off most of its park funding; and Ohio has okayed oil drilling in its parks to replace state financing.

Last year, the gang of Republican hucksters who control our state government pulled off a huge heist, covering it up with an equally huge boast: “We balanced our budget. Not by raising taxes but by setting priorities and cutting government spending,” bragged the gang leader, Gov. Rick “Oops” Perry. How’d they fill the $27 billion shortfall that they themselves had created by their previous budgetary mismanagement? By stealing money from already poorly funded programs — from education to parks — that ordinary Texans count on.

Many of our Texas state parks are now understaffed, open fewer hours and in disrepair because the system’s budget was whacked by 21.5 percent in order to spare the wealthiest families and corporations in this enormously rich state from paying a teensy bit more in taxes. But that was only part of the robbery. A state sales tax on sporting goods, dedicated by law to help finance the people’s parks will generate about $236 million this year and next. But the governor and his legislative henchmen raided this pile of revenue, filching two-thirds of it for the state’s general fund so they could claim that they “balanced our budget (without) raising taxes.”

Bad Decision May Cause Loss of Wildlife at Lake Conroe – Lake Conroe is experiencing record low water at present following severe drought conditions. These drought conditions have left a portion of the standing timber fish habitat structure uncovered. This in unfortunate because now the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission is seeking to destroy this structure which occupies much of the north 1/3 of this reservoir without any proper data impact studies being done. This reservoir is not only home to many species of fish, but also waterfowl and endangered species such as the American Bald Eagle. This structure creates a shoreline habitat that many of these species have come to depend on.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission’s own biologist less than two years ago described it thus, “Most of the ecologically functional shoreline habitat occurs in this section of the reservoir,” meaning that the bulk of all wildlife supported within this reservoir depends heavily on this specific portion of the lake and the habitat formed by the timber fish habitat structure.

To remove it poses no benefit aside from potentially making the lake more aesthetically pleasing to people stopping by. That said, without the wildlife supported by this structure, the volume of people coming to the reservoir would likely dry up anyway, thus defeating the only potential purpose.
The removal of standing timber tops and cutting away of them needs to be stopped before the entire structure is gone and the Lake Conroe ecosystem completely altered. These animals need a habitat, even during drought seasons.

Peaceful Occupy DC Demonstrator Tased – Until now, Occupy DC has been protected from eviction because the National Park Service — not the DC police — have jurisdiction over them. The National Park Service said publicly, “We don’t have any issues with these folks” and “The core of their First Amendment activity is that they occupy the site.” But last week, Republican Rep. Darrell Issa politicized the Park Service — holding hearings where he pressured them to crack down on Occupy DC under the pretext of enforcing camping regulations. The Park Service quickly buckled.

On Sunday, the National Park Service brutally tased a peaceful, young Occupy DC demonstrator. Click on the link above and watch the video here (warning: it’s graphic). And please join me in petitioning the National Park Service to leave Occupy DC alone.

Have You Heard This One? – An adulterer-turned Catholic whose campaign is underwritten by a Jewish casino tycoon, walks into a Baptist church where the audience has been primed with speeches about how “God intended” marriage to be “between one man and one woman” and how their state was on the verge of being taken over by the “vice” of gambling.

But it’s not a joke. It was a Newt Gingrich campaign appearance at a Presidential Forum, hosted by the conservative Christian legal group Liberty Counsel and others, at Aloma Baptist Church in Winter Park, Florida, just north of Orlando.

Regards,

Jim