Top Stories
- Texas objects to federal judges' redistricting maps – Aman Batheja, Fort Worth Star-Telegram
Lawyers for Texas accused a San Antonio federal court Friday of overstepping its authority and ignoring voters’ interests with new legislative redistricting maps.
Accurate on both counts.
- State: Court overstepping authority on redistrict maps – Mike Ward, Postcards
“Because unelected federal judges possess neither the constitutional power nor the political competency to make the policy choices essential to redistricting, the (U.S) Supreme Court has prohibited lower courts from disregarding the Legislature’s intention as expressed in an enacted redistricting plan, unless it is necessary to avoid a constitutional or statutory violation,” Abbott’s filing on the House maps states.
His conclusion: The Legislature-drawn maps have no such violations.
“The court’s proposed interim plan would eviscerate countless legitimate, considered judgments of the Texas Legislature,” the filing states.
“Indeed, the court’s proposal denies the Legislature the presumption of good faith and legality to which it is entitled. Moreover, it does so without any explanation, much less a compelling or narrowly tailored justification for the race-based ‘remedy’ it imposes. The court’s proposal appears to reflect the policy choices of unelected federal judges.”
The left (and too many journos) seems to prefer rule by our judicial betters to self-government.
- Did Texas let guns 'walk' into Mexico? – Dan Freedman, Houston Chronicle
ATF officials in Dallas remain adamant that there was no Fast and Furious in Texas.
“This case has nothing to do with Fast and Furious,” said Thomas Crowley, spokesman for ATF in Dallas. “There hasn’t been any gun-walking in the Dallas division of ATF.”
The records reviewed by the Chronicle, some of them obtained from Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley – who along with Republican Congressman Darrell Issa of California is probing the Fast and Furious debacle – suggest the Zapata gun case instead may have been an instance of missed opportunities, intelligence-sharing failures and the inability to connect the dots and make arrests before the weapon was ever purchased in October 2010.
The Chronicle has since changed that misleading headline, but the current headline still isn’t as clear as it might be. Let’s be very clear that it is not in dispute whether the STATE of Texas “let guns walk into Mexico,” but rather whether Eric Holder’s Justice Department also had an additional Texas component to its Fast and Furious fiasco. It’s not entirely reassuring that the excuse may simply be that the Dallas ATF was incompetent.
- Dewhurst, Running in Front, Avoids Competitors – Ross Ramsey, Texas Tribune
- Ted Cruz Is a Test for the Tea Party in Texas Race – Kate Zernike, NYTimes.com
Recommended
- One drawback of Texas’ amateur legislative model – Mark Jones, Baker Institute Blog/chron.com
- Ron Paul Gaining Momentum From Niche Voters in Iowa Polls – Trip Gabriel, NYTimes.com
Isn’t Ron Paul’s constituency almost entirely niche voters (in terms of presidential politics)? - Houston Muslims question FBI terror tactics – Zain Shauk, Houston Chronicle
The Texan convicted last week of attempting to aid al-Qaida…
That excerpt from the lede negates almost every graf that follows.
- About Abbott – Paul Burka, BurkaBlog
Republican sources tell me…
Unnamed sources are ALWAYS problematic and should be avoided if possible.
But given Burka’s outright hostility towards conservatives (scroll down to the Michael Quinn Sullivan links, or “Meltdown“) and the fact he turns his blog over to gossip way too often, there is no reason ever to take seriously a post of his with that sort of lede. No reason. Ever.
- The Senate redistricting map: why? – Paul Burka, BurkaBlog
The question, “What was the Court thinking?” comes to mind.
One problem with fiat rule by our judicial betters is that they don’t always rule as those who favor it might (a problem that fans like Burka never seem to acknowledge). That’s why we are fans of republican rule with clearly defined constitutional powers.
- Several arrested during Occupy Austin protest – Chris Tomlinson, AP
AP coverage of Occupy Austin tends to be much less sympathetic and much more factual than the Austin American-Statesman coverage. - Justice Department: When Texas targets vote fraud, is it targeting Democrats? – Wayne Slater, Trail Blazers Blog/DMN
When the Justice Department targets self-government in Texas, is it targeting Republicans? See how that works? - State Board of Education member acknowledges he's gay – Terrence Stutz, dallasnews.com
- New study suggests educrats cried wolf – Daniel Greer, AgendaWise Reports