"Texans for Sale or Rent"

special to FreeRepublic ^ | 17 August 2003 | John Armor (Congressman Billybob)

[TexasCowboy]

What gets me, HC, is that the Republicans act like this is a surprise - even the SECOND time!!
Cheeeezzzz!
They knew the first time this happened that they were dealing with Democrats - the lowest, scum sucking vermin on the planet!
Didn't ANYONE have any idea how to prevent this?
Why wasn't there some effort taken to pass measures to change the Texas Constitution to prevent this?
I've never read of one thing being done before hand!
My God! Are all Republican Congressmen retarded?

[Graewoulf]

Gov. Perry should fine the AWOL democrats, declare their sorry seats vacant and appoint Republicans to take the vacated seats.

Willie Nelson can serenade the AWOL democrats with the lyrics "Got along without you before I met you, gunna get along without you now."

[RichInOC]

Texans for sale or rent,
Rooms way more than fifty cents,
Satellite, heated pool, and pets...
No one here but us Democrats.
Less than two hours of turbo zoom
Buys our safe seats some breathing room
We're Texas legislators...Kings of the road.

Southwest Flight 902
Destination, ABQ
New spiffy shirts and shoes
We don't pay no union dues.
We smoke Cohibas we just "found"
Short, but pretty big around.
We're Texas legislators...Kings of the road.

We know every stew on every plane
All of their children, and all of their names.
And every party hack in every town
And every lock that's open when the Pubs ain't around...

We're just Texans for sale or rent,
Rooms way more than fifty cents,
Satellite, heated pool, even pets...
No one here but us Democrats.
Less than two hours of turbo zoom
Buys our safe seats some breathing room
We're Texas legislators...Kings of the road.

[Congressman Billybob]

Hi, Brandon,

Please let the NC folks know about the latest column.

John / Billybob

[Congressman Billybob]

Thank you VERY much for your comments. I called Roddy before writing my piece to see if he could give me an Internet link back to his article. If so, I would have put that in mine. Didn't hear from him, unfortunately.

The Express is already on this story, good and solid. The rest of the nation, however, is not. I hope this goes on UPI. Can't even offer it elsewhere until I hear from them.

Billybob

[LiteKeeper]

INTREP

[okie01]

As an aside, 58% of all Congressional ballots cast in Texas during the 2002 election were for Republicans.

However, as you note, the 58/42 margin netted only 15 seats out of 32 (47/53). Can you say "gerrymander"?

[The South Texan]

Fantastic writing!

[jf55510]

The first Special Session was brought to a screeching halt when one-third of the House (all Democrats) skedaddled off to a Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and had meals and press conferences in a nearby Denny's. Now in the second Special Session it's the Senators (all Democrats) who have gotten out of Dodge and are now located in a luxury resort in New Mexico. (They were flown there in a jet belonging to a bank, raising a federal legal problem.) The Texas Senate is still nominally in session, so the Senators are still receiving their salaries and per diem expenses in the amount of $125.

This is a good article but you have this wrong. The House Dems left during the regular session. There is a point in the session that all bills (House or Senate) must be passed out of their respective houses. If the bills are not passed out, then they are dead. This is the deadline that the House Dems used to kill redistricting the first time. In the first special sessions redisctricting was killed by the Senate Dems because they have a rule known as a blocker bill. It says that 2/3rds of all senators have to agree to bring up a bill. There were only 18 votes to bring up redistricting, you need 21. All the Dems and one republican were not going to vote to bring up the bill. So the bill was dead. Then Gov. Perry called the second special session and the Senate Rats ran.

[lowbridge]

Chicken D's Anthem
Click here or on the pic !

[Constitution Day]

Good morning John,

I will be glad to ping the NC list.
Also, I just saw your FRmails you sent me last week.
I was on vacation and will get back to you as soon as I get some messages & e-mails returned here at work.

All the best,
CD

[Constitution Day]

Congressman Billybob's latest!
Please FRmail me if you want to be added to or removed from this North Carolina ping list.

[MeekOneGOP]

Excellent ! Excellent ! Excellent ! Thank you Congressman Billybob for this great article !

[To the Roger Miller tune, Trailers for sale or rent] ...

Texans for sale or rent / Having our room service sent / Lounging ‘round by the pools / Playing our whole state for fools ....

We know every lawyer in every court / And all of their partners, and all of their torts / And every hangout, in every town/ And every lock that ain't locked when no one's around ....

Texans for sale or rent ....

Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Texas or General Interest ping list!. . .don't be shy.

[MeekOneGOP]

alilrainmustfall
Nobody by that name.

Pesky skeeters, LOL !! That was a SHORT life ...

[Dog Gone]

That's correct. You have accurately stated the chronology of events.

For the record, the Democrat senators claim to be refusing their per diem at this time, although they continue to draw their rather meager salaries.

They admit that "their supporters" are helping them with their hotel bills (meaning they're getting a totally free vacation).

[mathluv]

Excellant article - 1 correction. The House dims fled from a regular session. The Senate dims fled at the end of the first special session, and are absent from the second.

[mathluv]

Have you sent it to Bob Sellers at Fox News? He did a great interview with van der Putte when he subbed for John Gibson on The Big Story. His wife is from Texas - he may be also.

[autoresponder]

===

[Congressman Billybob]

Several keen-eyed Texas readers have pointed out that my article as written contains a serious error. To make the article correct, the following two paragraphs should replace paragrah seven of the original.

Admin -- I know you don't do editing. But do you do footnotes, so readers won't be misled?

Note to all readers on this thread: This correction has already been made on my two submissions of this for publication. Anyone else who thinks others in the media should see this are welcome to send it thither and yon. Just BE SURE TO MAKE THE PARAGRAPH CHANGE before sending it out. And preserve my byline and copyrght -- that's all I ask.

Billybob

Here are the substitutes for paragraph seven:

The first Regular Session was brought to a screeching halt when one-third of the House (all Democrats) skedaddled off to a Holiday Inn in Ardmore, Oklahoma, and had meals and press conferences in a nearby Denny’s. The First Special Session was brought down by a Senate rule which allowed one-third of the Senators to block introduction of any matter. When Senate leaders proposed to change this rule and the Governor called a second Special Session, that’s when Senate Democrats took action.

Now it’s the Senators (all Democrats) who have gotten out of Dodge and are now located in a luxury resort in New Mexico. (They were flown there in a jet belonging to a bank, raising a federal legal problem.) The Texas Senate is still nominally in session, so the Senators are still receiving their salaries and per diem expenses in the amount of $125.

[Congressman Billybob]

Yours were the first keen eyes to catch my error. I've made the necessary corrections to the article as submitted for publication, and have noted the corrections on this thread.

Thank you for saving me from a moderate case of brain freeze. The instant I read your note I slapped my forehead and said, "He's right."

Billybob