[Swordmaker]

This is the face of evil.

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Three of his fellow colleagues should know. They were defeated for re-election as Ronald Reagan swept into the White House in 1980

Unfortunately, Lloyd Doggett, the ringleader of the Killer Bees, now proudly serves the Austin area in the U.S. Congress. Fortunately, the audacious antics of these leftist 'Bees' were a catalyst in the transformation of Texas politics from virtual one-party Democratic rule, to a rough balance, to GOP dominance. Thanks, Lloyd!

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

Tejas pingue

[Diddle E. Squat]

I am praying hard that these brats try and pull this stunt, and that the lapdog national media gives it ample coverage and tries to portray them as heroic. It will backfire bigtime, because the GOP can then use it as another example of Democrats just playing childish games and being obstructionist. If the media plays it nationally, no matter how much they try and portray it as standing up to attempts to starve the elderly and poison children, it still will have a synergistic effect in framing the Dems as petty, extreme, unprofessional, and preventing work from being accomplished in a critical time of a shaky economy. In 1979 half the country was doped up or drunk, now half the country is invested in the stock market.

This will not play well in Palestine, Pasadena, or even Peoria, and I wouldn't be surprised if the GOP House leaders have a backup strategy. I wonder if they can employ the Dems old trick of stopping the clock at 5 minutes to midnight on Thursday?

[Constitutionalist Conservative]

You know, it just occurred to me that these TxDems are simply taking a page out of the national Dem playbook, recently seen in action in the U.S. Senate: they are using parliamentary maneuvers to thwart the will of the majority. Expect to see much more of this in the future.

[DrewsDad]

From News 8 Austin

House Democrats walk out in protest
5/12/2003 9:34 AM
By: News 8 Austin Staff

Action in the Texas House of Representatives will come to a stop on Monday.

The House clerk?s office has received 51 absentee letters. With 51 members absent, the House does not have enough members to satisfy its quorum: two-thirds of all members must be there to conduct business.

Democrats have ?walked out? in protest over redistricting legislation.

Early reports say that the members plan to be absent for four days, which would effectively kill many key bills.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

I thought the Killer Bee's were the Dixie Chicks.

[PetroniDE]

If they don't show, do they still get PAID? Withholding their salary will get them into the chamber.

[MeekOneGOP]

Texas Freepers: New 'killer bees' aiming to break
legislative quorum (More Democrat Obstructionism)

Excerpt:

The GOP has 88 members, the Democrats 62. In major legislative battles thus far, Republicans have used their majority to aggressively push major legislation, such as the reorganization of state government, House Bill 2, and the school finance bill, House Bill 5.

Those and other Republican-promoted measures must pass out of the House and be sent to the Senate by Thursday or risk dying.

"We're leaving, and we'll stay gone till Thursday," one member from South Texas said Sunday evening. He asked that he not be identified.

The group planned to issue a news release this morning to explain its actions, sources said.

It is not clear how legislative leaders will react, but several of the legislators who planned to be absent said they were expecting the worst.

"I guess we will be called obstructionists, or maybe worse. But we are making a statement. If this is going to be the only way to stop bad legislation from being rammed down our throats, then so be it," the South Texas legislator said.

The unique parliamentary maneuver hasn't been used in 24 years and is likely to put pressure on legislative leaders, who have three weeks left in the regular session and major pieces of legislation still pending.

It was not clear late Sunday how many members were participating in the breaking of the quorum, as the action is termed. Nor was it known where they planned to hide out for the week.

It would require at least 51 members to be absent from today's session, scheduled to convene at 9 a.m., for House activity to be brought to a halt. Under legislative rules, the House cannot convene without at least two-thirds of the membership, or 100 members, present on the House floor.

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas ping list!. . .don't be shy.
No, you don't HAVE to be a Texan to get on this list!

Full Texas Ping List . . .

[zeugma]

More power to them. Perhaps they'll take a decade-long vacation.

No one's Life, Liberty, or Property is safe while the legislation is in session.

[Humidston]

"We're leaving, and we'll stay gone till Thursday," one member from South Texas said Sunday evening. He asked that he not be identified.

Names. We want NAMES. Let the Pubbies get up on the floor and READ OFF THE LIST OF NAMES OF ALL MEMBERS WHO ARE NOT PRESENT!!

[anymouse]

I say that Texas (with help of other FReepers) conduct their own "Rat hunt" to out these Texas Rats to the media and DPS or appropriate law enforcement officers.

They can run, but they can't hide from the long arm of FReepers.

If their location is make public it defeats their plan. We don't need to find all of them, just enough to make a quarum of 100 (approx 20 of the Rats.)

Someone can even make up a "most wanted" poster to show FReepers and the public what these perps look like.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Ya'll might find this interesting. It is going to be the story of the week here in Texas, and my hunch(and hope) is that it gets national play.

[Teacher317]

"I guess we will be called obstructionists, or maybe worse. But we are making a statement. If this is going to be the only way to stop bad legislation from being rammed down our throats, then so be it," the South Texas legislator said.

I love their open hypocrisy. When it is their agenda, it is merely "majority vote rules" and "the will of the people." When they are in the minority, a simple majority-vote motion is "rammed down their throats". The same "logic" is being applied in the US Senate, with the judicial nominations. My uber-liberal professor wrote in to the local paper, supporting the filibuster as it prevents justices from "being forced upon us"... as if the centuries-old majority-vote method is suddenly somehow illegitimate, but the thousands of previous nomination votes are acceptable.

LOL. Dems in disarray. Gotta love it. The best part is that they have no clue that Joe Six-Pack can actually see through political BS that is that blatant. Here's to hoping for an additional 3-6 seats in the Senate and the House in 2004!

[Texas Chrystal]

Here's the e-mail I'll continue to send my Rep, although the server appears to crash each time I attempt to send it. I guess I'll just have to send it to KLIF or O'Reilly... :-)

Dear Ms. Giddings,

As a taxpayer and registered Independent voter in your district, I do not appreciate my hard-earned dollars paying for your notable absence from the capital this week.
As an elected official, I expect you to show up for work and record your vote. I do not expect 51 Representatives, yourself included, to record absences in an effort to obstruct legislation supported by the majority.
Please rest assured--if these tactics continue, thousands of voters like me will gravitate to the GOP. I have already given up on the Democrats and this action confirms my decision.
Get back to work and do the job you were elected to do!
Sincerely,
Chrystal Leamon

[lonestar]

In Email from my rep--

"This is worse than fiddling while Rome burns. These Democrats have taken a torch to Texas government," said Representative Wayne Christian (R - Center). "And they did it to advance the narrow, partisan agenda of Nancy Pelosi and her liberal cohorts in Washington, D.C.. I never thought I'd see the day that Texas state government was held hostage by a liberal congresswoman from San Francisco. And now they're on the run from the law. House Republicans believe in the bipartisan legislature that President Bush envisioned for Texas, and we continue to stand for his beliefs today," Christian continued.

[asneditor]

Here is a few statements from groups on the "bees"
http://www.allsouthwest.com/bees

[Bubba_Leroy]

The Killer Bees were greeted as heroes.

In their dreams.

I remember that little episode of liberal democRAT obstruction very well. In those days, there were very few Republicans in Texas. The two parties were the liberal democRATs and the conservative democRATs. The liberal democRATs didn't like what the democRATic leadership was doing so they played hookie for a few days. They accomplished nothing other than waste lots of State money and get press coverage for their egos.

[Lancey Howard]

The scumbags always seem to come up with these neat tricks. Surely they understand that the Republicans carefully note this stuff down for a possible time in the future when the scumbags are back in control?

[Flyer]

I also printed this to a PDF file but I couldn't get the page breaks right. If anyone else wants to fool with it and re-do a PDF the HTML file is here.

WANTED IN TEXAS

KILLER BEES II

Dawnna Dukes	Jim Dunnam	John Mabry, Jr.
Elliott Naishtat	Eddie Rodriguez	Patrick Rose
Roberto Alonzo	Kevin Bailey	Lon Burnam

===

Gabi Canales	Jaime Capelo	Joaquin Castro
Garnet Coleman	Byron Cook	Yvonne Davis
Joe Deshotel	Harold Dutton	Craig Eiland

===

Dan Ellis	Juan Escobar (?)	David Farabee
Jessica Farrar	Pete Gallego	Timoteo Garza
Ryan Guillen	Scott Hochberg	Terri Hodge

===

Mark Homer	Chuck Hopson	Jesse Jones
Pete Laney	Trey Martinez-Fischer	Ruth Jones McClendon
Jim McReynolds	Jose Menendez	Joe Moreno

===

Paul Moreno	Rick Noriega	Rene Oliveira
Dora Olivo	Aaron Pena	Joe Pickett
Robert Puente	Chente Quintanilla	Richard Raymond

===

Allan Ritter	Jim Solis	Barry Telford
Senfronia Thompson	Carlos Uresti	Mike Villarreal
Miguel Wise		Steve Wolens

===

Absent, did not submit letter (6)

Norma Chavez	Al Edwards	Kino Flores
Helen Giddings	Glenn Lewis	Sylvester Turner