Things For Which Texas Will And Will Not Take Federal Money
• "El Paso City Council did the right thing Tuesday when it approved spending $773,000 in federal stimulus money to buy 1,145 M-4 rifles," opined the El Paso Times editorial board this week. "Police have to be ready for anything these days, from a Columbine-like school shooting to a terrorist attack."
• "Texas won't compete for up to $700 million in federal stimulus money for education because the program 'smacks of a federal takeover of our public schools,' Republican Gov. Rick Perry said Wednesday."
What does that twee bumper sticker say?
"It Will Be a Great Day When the Schools Get All the Money They Need and the Air Force Has to Hold a Bake Sale to Buy a Bomber."
Yes. That.
ugh too many capital letters. copy and paste fail.
It will be a great day when I can afford a car with that big a bumper.
"It will be a great day when I can afford a car."
Fixed.
It will be a great day when I can afford a bumper sticker.
Bumper sticker? We used to dream of having a bumper sticker!
Funny from a state intent on leveraging their textbook purchasing clout to impose their narrow political and theological views on the rest of us.
Asshats.
This is confusing me! I thought stimulus funds were intended to create jobs– but perhaps I am to extrapolate the creation of EMS, hospital and morgue positions as a result of the first? And don't Texans pay federal income tax, which I would imagine to be source of the stimulus $ and would thus contradict what Perry said about his constituents not bearing the cost?
I have a baaaaad feeling about this guy. He's just awful enough to be a worthy successor to you-know-who.
Okay, maybe not the source! But certainly ultimately related to the dreaded income tax, right?
Simple way to solve the deficit — wait, CREATE A SURPLUS:
1) Obama personally announces the billions distributed to states with Republican governors each year
2) Republican governors reject that money
3) Fill the White House swimming pool with $10,000 bills.
I don't see what the problem is. Why spend $700M on education when it only costs $700K to TEACH THOSE KIDS A LESSON?
Bullseye!
Texas is without a doubt one of the most ideologically fucked places on earth (IMHOoooo) but I have to say that the El Paso Police probably do need those rifles. With a major Narco-war reaching a boiling point right under our nose, the likelyhood of Mexico's problems spilling over are high. If any of y'all have ever seen how much drug money has colored the El Paso hills with tacky narco-mansions… you know what I'm talking about. The downside is, let's hope the local police don't start putting their hands in the Narco's pockets like they are across the river.
OK, yes, not taking that money for education smacks of truly insane hubris. But in all fairness, the shit that's going down in Juarez, which is within spitting distance of El Paso, is scary as all hell. We're I an El Paso cop, I'd want a big fucking gun, too.
"Were"
And also: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/mexico/6976210/Mexican-violence-spirals-as-69-are-murdered-in-one-day.html
heh! yeah, there was that, too!
The murder rate quoted there for the 1st 10 days of the year in Ciudad Juarez would come out to about 60 people killed per day in in NYC. Just terrifying.
I for one don't want the government to run our public schools.
…like Bush did, with No Child Left Behind. I didn't see Rick Perry throwing a shit-fit about that.
Keep the government out of my Medicare!
50% of all gun deaths are suicides. So I'd say it's money well spent.