I hope Texas Latinos Are Registering To Vote... Cause There Are Some Really Bigoted Republicans There Lookin' For Some Ethnic Cleansing

If you were asked to make a short list of the most radical extremists holding high political office in America (so not a crazed teabagger candidate running as a Republican like this guy or this guy, but someone who's already been elected), certainly Texas Governor Rick Perry would be on that list. With the help of the far right of Texas' GOP he just won renomination against a mainstream conservative, Kay Bailey Hutchison. So... it wouldn't be a crazy and wild supposition to figure that were you to read-- as you may have yesterday-- that Republicans fired their party chairwoman, Cathie Adams, and tried firing the state's House Speaker, both crazed kooks as far from the mainstream of American political thought as Perry, and bucked their own governor-- that said Republicans were moderates sickened by the extremism their party had drifted into. But you'd be wrong-- dead wrong.

The GOP activists at the state party convention in Dallas are even crazier than their leaders. The Fox website pointed out that "fired-up Republican activists in no mood for compromises threw out their party chairwoman Saturday, then bucked Texas Gov. Rick Perry by pushing for a crackdown on illegal immigration similar to Arizona's new law." They're convinced that everything that's wrong with their miserable, worthless lives is because of the dread... anchor babies. By the time the scripted convention was due to end in an anti-Democratic unity love-in, there was practically a civil war being fought between conservatives and teabaggers.

The immigration proposal, a hard-line approach that Perry has said isn't right for Texas, was one of several initiatives debated as delegates wrapped up the two-day convention. The Republican Party platform is a blueprint of the policies that GOP activists want elected officials to pursue.

Delegates voted to include a plank advocating for a state law that would bar illegal immigrants from "intentionally or knowingly" living in Texas. Similar to Arizona's strict law that has sparked nationwide debate, the proposal would require local police to verify U.S. residency when making arrests.
Perry has said the Arizona law, if adopted in Texas, would unduly burden police.

Another potentially controversial plank advocates an "open carry" law, which would allow residents to openly carry firearms in public without a concealed weapons permit.

Meanwhile, Texas is suing the EPA-- they don't need no stinking environmental protection-- over how the state regulates (very laxly-- kind of the way Ayn Rand or Rand Paul would-- emissions from oil refineries and other petrochemicals plants. And A gaggle of Republican congressmen, led by Big Oil's #1 House whore in the history of Congress, Joe Barton, are demanding President Obama get over his foolish idea of a moratorium on deep-sea drilling until it's safer. Joining Barton in this endeavor, which flies right in the face of what Americans want in an energy policy, are notorious Big Oil shills Ted Poe ($208,450), Michael Burgess ($195,246), Kevin Brady ($445,697), Michael Conaway ($651,718), John Culberson ($423,561), Ralph Hall ($529,468), Michael McCaul ($207,734), Randy Neugebauer ($440,772), and Pete Olson ($216,300). Together they represent a sizeable investment by Big Oil: $4,766,826-- not counting nearly as much in wining, dining and lobbing these friendly fellas!

Congressman Joe Barton of Ennis, who often backs oil and gas interests, says there may be a need for additional offshore inspections and safety requirements. But Barton says the moratorium goes too far.

Barton: I don't think anyone up here wants a white wash. I don't think anyone up here says this isn't a huge problem. But as has been pointed out we've drilled thousands of wells in the Gulf of Mexico, hundreds of wells in the deep Gulf. This is the first accident of any size in the history of the OCS.

The OCS is the outer continental shelf where the Deepwater Horizon is still gushing oil.

President Obama said the moratorium is needed until safety measures are in place to prevent another drilling tragedy.

Wouldn't it be better to just jettison all those old slave-holding states now and admit we were wrong to fight to keep them. If they want to drill, let them. If they want to abolish public education, let them. If they want to mine the borders, let them (in fact... maybe we should mine ours too-- with them).

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