The big news to come out of Austin yesterday was the Texas House taking a mulligan and reversing itself on continuing the Texas Lottery. First they voted 81-65 to not authorize it then they came back with a 92-53 vote to continue it. Now that is embarrassing!
Didn’t the sponsors of the bill bother to count votes before they put it on the floor? Don’t they have whips or floor leaders for this stuff? Didn’t the high paid lottery lobbyists put together a vote count? Somebody dropped the ball big time.
This also sends a message to the public that the Texas Legislature doesn’t have a lot of confidence in the lottery so don’t plunk down your dollars on the lotto, or power ball, or scratch-off.
As I recall the voters approved the lottery back in 1991. Don’t you think the voters ought to have a say in continuing the lottery? Way to go!
The Mariners are in town. How many AL West titles do the Mariners own?
Burkablog has a take on what Guv Dude said the other day about regulating fertilizer facilities. Here is from a Chron story on Dude:
Gov. Rick Perry on Monday defended the state’s inspections process regarding the West fertilizer plant where a fire and explosion last week killed 14 people and devastated the small Central Texas town while officials began offering theories on a cause.
Perry said he remains comfortable with the level of state oversight following the West Fertilizer Co. blast that leveled several blocks of homes, schools and buildings. The governor added that Texas residents have sent the same message about regulation through their elected officials.
Here is Burkablog:
Gov. Rick Perry said Monday that spending more state money on inspections would not have prevented the deadly explosion at the West Fertilizer Co. plant that was last investigated by Texas environmental regulators in 2006. Excuse me for asking, but … how would Perry know? You can’t prove a negative.
The governor told the Associated Press that he remains comfortable with the state’s level of oversight following last week’s massive blast that killed 14 people and injured 200. It’s so nice to hear that Perry is comfortable with the state’s level of oversight, but perhaps the people who lost their loved ones and property in West might have a different idea. Perry also suggested in his interview that "the majority of Texas residents agree with him." And he knows this because . . . why, exactly? Does that include the survivors in West? Who conducted that poll? This is just Rick Perry engaging in desperate CYA tactics. That isn’t leadership–it is an embarrassingly lame response.
The Mariners won the AL West in 1995, 1997, and 2001 of course.
At the fan focus group the other evening a few fans griped about the nine non-holiday weekday games. There is one today as the ‘Stros wrap up the homie with the Mariners and only 13,000 and changed showed up last night.
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