Texas Energy

In the article, "Clean energy to Texas", the author writes about the benefits that Texas/Texans gain from the involvement of companies working for clean energy. I agree with the author in that it could be good if Texas becomes self reliant for energy. I'm glad that energy conservation has become the new "in" . Mother nature is in need of some help after the years of being on the back burner. I read the article, "Pond scum could be the fuel of the future" by the Asher Price of the Statesman. This article talks about how the University of Texas is hopeful about gaining government funding for a new technology that could provide bio diesel from algae cells. The University of Texas is home to the largest collection of algae in the world. I have also heard that Pedernales Electric Company, which is the electricity company in my area, allows for you to ask that your electricity come from wind farms. I think it is good that companies support energy advances because they have a lot of pull in the government and a lot of influence in society. There is alot of potential in Texas because of its array of different environments, and we are in need of something to replace our oil income.

Permanent Texas Relief Program

The process to get Texas's coast cleaned up and it's citizens in a live-able situation is taking FEMA an unreasonable amount of time. I could not agree more with Governor Rick Perry when he said, “Such a pace is unacceptable when we have Texans sleeping in cars next door to trailers with locks on them.” It has been almost three months since hurricane Ike hit the Texas coast and there are still people without homes and debris everywhere. Although they did make some quick response efforts, it may be out numbered by the stagnant relief for Texas citizens. Mike Synder of Houston Chronicle, covers a story of Edna Barlow who is diabetic along with heart and lung problems. Edna goes out to her car to get relief from the temperature of a house that has no power. This seems to be a widespread problem but, why are they not in some form of a live-able home?

When Katrina hit I think they threw a lot of money out where now it is being withheld. Mike mentioned that "some advocates for the poor said FEMA has overreacted to reports of fraud in the aftermath of Katrina, imposing rigorous requirements that delay assistance to people who desperately need it." There was a lot of wasted spending with the Katrina aftermath. FEMA needs be cautious but not overprotective. If they are going to try to be more restrictive of funds they need to do it in a timely manner. People are trying to get their counties up and running but lack of money is delaying the process. After three months going by I would think things would at least be cleaned up. Although not all blame can be placed on the federal government. Texas could learn from this Ike situation there were a lot of problems in the shelter arrangements, although they seemed to have fixed them in an efficient amount of time. I think this is a good time for Rick to step up and figure out a way to get people in stable situations. He could bank on this for his political campaigns if he does it right. Maybe Texas should have it's own permanent relief program, Rick could sponsor the program. What if people get so frustrated that they don't go back. That area is very rich in resources and a large part of Texas economic income. If there are no workers there is no refineries.

Union Control

In the article “The Strike of Capital Metro”, Haowei seems to keep a neutral and information view in her article on the strike. I have a neutral stance but I worry of unions driving up costs and instability of the business. As we have heard recently in the struggling Big 3 automakers with the heavy expenditures of union workers. I believe people should always try to better themselves. There are consequences like automotive and computers companies just outsource to other countries to get around unions causing fewer jobs in America. I work for public education and forced to do personal bargaining. I don’t believe companies should just pay you more because you want; you have to be able to present a reason for further investing in you. One way is taking a form of training or education.
Not my position to judge whether the strike was valid or not. My point about unions is they are good in control, so don’t abuse the great idea of a union. You should bargain when conditions are unfair, not abuse your power because if the company goes down your members are worse off than before the union. I couldn’t believe I saw on the ballot asking if firefighters and police officers should be allowed to strike, there are certain services you cannot put on hold while contract terms are worked out.

Texas wants Clean Energy and Clean Oceans. What about Clean Money, Clean Elections?

Texas political candidates should jump on the clean election (public election) train. “Dirty” money, or interest and PAC funding, cause pressure for political leaders to pass legislature for bully groups. Previous practices of these tactics have occupied the attention of political leaders from the public. Instead, political leaders are focused on whatever interest group they are “indebted” to. Examples of these unrepresented citizens are listed. Some of the Texas Supreme Court Justices who are running for office have been campaigning with sagging pockets from large contributions stemming from lawyers and litigants. Groups or individual contributions to Supreme Court Justice’s campaigns seem to allow easier access to the Supreme Court. A study by the Texans for Public Justice states that over half of the donations for Justice’s campaigns are from these contributors. I say we pull the rug from under favoritism for large donors and support a public funded campaign system.

Public funded campaign systems have been tested by some states that have successfully switched to them; these states include Maine, Arizona, and recently Connecticut. California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger passed the Fair Elections Act, which would allow public funding for the Secretary of State. There are various ways to achieve public funding. One way that is being practiced is each voting-citizen donating a maximum of say $5 towards their candidate and the candidates who do not pull a certain number of votes or are underfunded are dropped out of the race. If the candidate accepts no other source of donation, he could be rewarded with a grant from the government. This could be funded through say a raise on criminal fines. This makes candidates accountable to the public and not to special groups like they should be. It also could save taxpayer dollars in the long run from inappropriate spending on issues not affecting a majority of the population. It allows candidates to spend more time focusing on national priorities instead of on campaign funding. It gives every person, rich or poor, a shot at changing problems in their life and it also causes more political involvement. Not only has this idea been favored by the public citizen, but the candidates that used public funding seem to favor it too. If the federal campaigns have limits and other states are having a lot of success, why not give it a try?

Sneaky Spending

In the blog “Posh redo of House Lounge ‘not our project,’ Craddick’s office says,” by Paulburka of Burkablog. The author provides an inquiry to why the Texas House of Representatives is decided in time of financial crunch to do “remodeling” of their lobby. Using the article Tax dollars used to fix Texas House lounge of MSN as his source, the author informs his tax-payer readers of the House expenditures. I found another article by the Dallas News that provides the same information as the blog and its source. The author seems to be more concerned with the time and presentation of the event rather than the actual event. As the author said,” Up to this point, the story is just routine, if delicious, “gotcha” journalism. There is nothing wrong with spiffing up the lounge before the session. It does not involve any new tax dollars; the money has already been appropriated. Craddick’s office should have just said, Yes, that’s what we’re doing, it hasn’t been done in [fill in the blank] years, the speaker thinks it’s important.”

I agree with the author, I try to sit back and have an open mind about the situation. I believe it is the wrong time to make substantial upgrades to a lobby, especially with Rick Perry asking businesses and agencies to conserve expenses. I found a video of Rick Perry having a meeting with “key trade associations” about how the economic situation is impacting Texas industries. I’m glad Rick Perry is having a pro-active attitude towards Texas economy but his administration needs to practice his lectures. The renovations probably aren’t necessary but it probably would not hurt. A presentable lounge is probably somewhere on the list of things to do but when you have media hunting for reasons to blast unnecessary spending it’s a bad time to upgrade the lounge. The other problem is presentation. Like the author said don’t pretend like you’re sneaking around to upgrade the lounge, or blame it on fellow team members. This act brings more suspensions and foul play into mind. The only way to roll with the blows from the media is to be upfront about the upgrades.

AIG Caught In Their Towels

In the article “As America stews, AIG’s big shots settle for a soak” by the Austin American Statesman, the author reveals the companies’ excessive spending on failure executives. The recent bailout for $700 billion of taxpayers’ dollars to bailout the failure lending companies to try to save the economy, has already come up misspent. The company AIG has spent $442,000 on its failing employee’s to “motivate and educate” them at a ritzy retreat known as the Ritz-Carlton. The previous month they spent $23,000 for spa services at St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach. The first loan that was released to AIG was for $85 Billion. After these events the Federal Reserve still released another $37.8 Billion to AIG. This is exactly how big businesses get away with whatever they want. The new CEO, Edward Liddy, claims that the meetings were planned months before AIG received the loans from Federal Reserve. The author states that AIG continued to pay “the head of that money-losing unit, Joseph Cassano, $1,000,000 a month in consulting fees after he left the firm.”

To me the idea of poor money management coming from a loan company sounds absurd. Are they saying that when they decided to make these expensive “educational meetings” they were unaware of their financial problems? If someone was claiming bankruptcy and they went on a cruise right before, would they not be questioned? This is exactly what happens when company executives aren’t held accountable for the actions. The government owns 79.9% of AIG according to the loan rules. It will be interesting to see if any punishments are enforced upon those who are accountable. When I read about the bailout I knew this would happen. I don’t know all the details on how the companies are reporting their expenditures to the government, but apparently they don’t have tight enough regulations. If all AIG receives is a scolding from congress, then similarly we should start scolding criminals instead of sending them to jail. The company should have to pay back the money spent on these retreats and those in AIG who orchestrated these events should serve jail time or at least be fired. It is depressing to think that our government is at such mercy to these corrupt companies that they can test their boundaries. The presidential candidates should take an aggressive stance towards matters such as this in order to restore Americans’ morale in their government.

Holding Your Ground

I read the article, "Perry's stand on bailout could be governor's race issue" by Jason Embry of American Statesman. The article talks about Perry's ideas on the Government bailout plan. Governor Rick Perry wants it to seem he has a neutral stance towards the bailout plan, I think only so he is not chastised by the ones who support the bill. Perry shows his views of the plan by saying, “leave partisanship at the door and pass an economic recovery package." Take what you will of this statement to me it does not support the plan, but supports a plan that betters the economy. Good statement because it does not directly lean toward a side and can be interpreted in multiple ways. I think Perry has a good point when he says, "In a free market economy, government should not be in the business of using taxpayer dollars to bail out corporate America." I’m not a finance expert but in my opinion they could have tried other options. I don’t remember which senator it was but one of them mentioned leaving it to the private enterprise to fix with support to them. One idea I thought of was creating incentives maybe tax breaks for people or business to buy these properties. Whatever the plan I’m glad Perry stood up for his opinion and didn’t go with the flow.