Tag Archives: texas

Business/Economics, U.S.

Christian governor Rick Perry slashed and burned funding for Texas firefighters to save money, now Texas is buring to the ground at a cost of $5 billion+!

Texans are suffering the worst fires in Texas history.  Did you know that Governor Rick Perry slashed the state firefighting budget by 75%?

Earlier in 2011 Perry said he was planning on slashing funding for the volunteer fire department from $30 million down to $7 million!  Back in May, Forest Service Director Tom Boggus told Reuters that volunteer programs were the number one defense against wild fires.  Despite this, the Texas Forest Service is expected to see $34 million in cuts over the next two years, no thanks to Rick Perry.

Rick Perry recently tried to blame Obama for lack of funding for Texas firefighters: “It is not only the obligation of the federal government, but its responsibility under law to help its citizens in times of emergency.”

Perry’s cronies say their cuts are necessary to save money: “We understand the difficulty they have had in dealing with almost unprecedented numbers of fires this year. We also understand that in order to balance the budget, everybody needs to endure some reductions.”-Talmadge Heflin, Center for Fiscal Policy/Texas Public Policy Foundation

But get this, the ‘savings’ in cuts to Texas firefighting services have been totally negated by the cost of this year’s ongoing fires.   So far damages are estimated to be $5 billion, and counting!

And yet the historic fires of Texas aren’t enough to stop ‘christian’ Rick Perry from campaigning for President of the United States!

U.S.

Texas Christian Governor Rick Perry is a Porn Kingpin?

Independent journalists have been tracking down where Texas Governor Rick Perry made his fortunes.  Turns out one of his early investments was in one of the biggest porn video distributors, Movie Gallery.

That was back in 1995, so some Perry supporters will likely try to defend it as something that happened in the past, and he should be forgiven.

The problem is that as recently as 2006, Governor Perry actually pushed for legislation that protected Movie Gallery, and other porn companies, from lawsuits.  Clearly he’s still involved in the Texas porn industry.

On one hand Perry claims to be for Christian family values, he even has support of the Christian organization American Family Association, while on the other hand is clearly making money off the porn industry.  To make things even stranger, the American Family Association is actively trying to shut down the very porn distributor that Perry is invested in.

And don’t think Perry’s personal financial activities aren’t affecting what happens in his administration.  Here’s what a Texas newspaper said, in 2010, about Perry’s state Film Commissioner, Bob Hudgins: “Gov. Rick Perry’s outgoing director of the Texas Film Commission has been allowed to stay on the job despite being disciplined for sexual harassment in 2009 and after a subsequent investigation found similar behavior again this year.”-The Statesman

 

U.S.

Texas tries to criminalize TSA grope fest, gets slammed by Department of Justice, Utah says will criminalize TSA

“The absolute overbearing audacity of the federal government in threatening Texas while Texas is trying to protect their citizens should really offend any red-blooded American.”-Carl Wimmer, Utah State Representative

Texas tried to make it a crime if Transportation Security Administration screeners touched your fiddly bits during a pat downs.  The U.S. Department of Justice stopped it by threatening to shut down flights in and out of Texas.

Now Utah says they want to criminalize TSA pat down grope fests as well: “Texas needs us to stand with them.”-Carl Wimmer

The Utah Legislature will vote on their bill next year.

Business/Economics, Opinion, U.S.

Obama ignores pleas for help from Texas Governor, FEMA out of money

“If you hit Houston with a Category 4 or 5 (hurricane), and we’ve only got a couple billion dollars in the rainy day fund, instead of going in and rebuilding and recovering, we’re talking about bankruptcy. That’s the choice that we have here.”- Rick Perry, Governor of Texas

Texas Governor Rick Perry asked President Obama for help, two weeks ago, in fighting the biggest fires in Texas history.  Obama has not responded.

FEMA is still trying to reply to the request for help from Texas.  The problem? No money!  Rachel Racusen, FEMA spokeswoman, says they’ve approved 22 grants to help local firefighting agencies, by there’s no money to fund the grants.

Maybe FEMA would have the money if our government wasn’t so happy with spending it on wars?

 

Idaho, U.S.

Firefighters from Yellowstone & Gallatin heading to Texas

Four firefighters from Yellowstone National Park and Gallatin National Forest were sent to help fight the fires in Texas.

The ‘Pipeline’ wildfire, one of many in Texas, is burning on the Big Thicket National Preserve.  The local firefighters were sent in because of a inter-agency request.  Officials believe the ‘Pipeline’ fire was started by people.

 

Fukushima, U.S.

Planned Texas Nuke Plant, Abandoned

A company that was going to build two reactors in Texas, abandoned the plan.

NRG Energy, in cooperation with Toshiba, was planning on building two reactors in Texas. The company now says the investment environment has become too risky to continue with the plans.  They will now write off U.S.$ 481 million on their taxes, for the canceled project.

 

U.S.

Texas fires from border to border

“We’re actually seeing Texas burn from border to border. We’ve got it in west Texas, in east Texas, in north Texas, in south Texas — it’s all over the state.”-April Saginor, Texas Forest Service

Firefighters from 34 states are helping Texans battle the blazes.  More than 170 homes have been destroyed.  One firefighter has been killed, five injured.

To show how difficult the situation is, a firefighter using a bulldozer ran over a gas line, causing an explosion.

Texas has been dealing with drought.  The National Weather Service said Texas is so dry, that even if it rained right now, it would not be enough to help put out the fires.   In fact, there would probably be more fires from the lighting that accompanies most Texas rain storms.

U.S.

Fire and Ice in Texas

Fire fighters in one part of Texas are reporting a strange phenomenon in their battle to control wildfires: ‘Ice capping’.

70 miles west of Fort Worth, embers from the fires have gone so high into the atmosphere that they’ve frozen and fallen back to the ground.  It’s an indicator of how hot the fires are, for embers to go that high.

The fires continue, out of control, homes burning.  One family, in the city of Austin, returned from a weekend trip to find their home, and their pet gone.  What makes it worse is they say their home was the only one on their street that burned: “All the other houses got saved except ours … we’re just kind of speechless right now.”-Kris Griffin

U.S.

Texas fire 1 million+ Acres, Texas asks Obama for help

I used to live in Texas, back in the mid 1980s, and asking the Federal government for anything was a dishonorable thing to do, if you’re from Texas.  I guess things are pretty bad if Texas Governor Rick Perry is asking President Obama for help.

“Texas is reaching its capacity to respond to these emergencies and is in need of federal assistance. I urge President Obama to approve our request quickly.”-Rick Perry, Texas Governor

One person has been arrested for starting one of the fires, near Austin.

Because of bad weather conditions, drought and winds, it looks like the fires will get worse: “It doesn’t look good, going into the season, to already have a fire this size, without any rain in sight.”-Chris Morris, National Weather Service.

Texas Forest Service officials say conditions are still explosive.  The fire is now burning residential areas.  Officials say, as of April 17, the fires have burned one million acres (404,685 hectares)

 

U.S.

Texas Wildfires turn Deadly

As of Saturday, more than 700,000 acres (283,279 hectares) of land has burned, more than 30 homes destroyed, and now a volunteer firefighter was killed by the Texas sized wildfires.

Many fires combined and are continuing their rage across the state.  One fire was started, accidentally, by a welder’s torch.

Gregory Simmons was killed fighting the 3,000 acre (1214 hectares) Eastland County fire.

Fire officials say ten new fires started on Saturday.  Because of the severe drought, officials fear the fires could rage for two more months.