Former Texas Lt. Gov. Hobby, An Establishment Figure, Wonders If The Republican Intent Is To Ruin Texas

The Texas Observer has posted this nine minute talk by former Democratic Texas Lt. Governor William Hobby. Mr. Hobby served as Lt. Governor from 1973-1991.

In this talk, Mr. Hobby wonders if the intent of Governor Perry and the Republican majorities in the Texas legislature is to ruin the future of Texas with sharp cuts to education and other essential services and functions of government.

Mr. Hobby says our tax structure is not adequate to meet the needs of Texas. He says that the Republican leadership of Texas is engaging in a kind of “insanity.”

Mr. Hobby is not a big liberal. He is very much an establishment figure. He simply seems to have a hard time believing what he seeing in Texas.

All the facts are out there about the impact of the budget being discussed in Austin and where there budget will take our state.

It really comes down to the decision of each individual Texan that they are going to make the call to work with others to bring about a better future for Texas.

Every individual has the ability to attend a public meeting, attend or organize a protest, write or call an elected official, talk to friends and family, start a blog, donate money, write a letter to the editor, volunteer for candidates and causes you value, and even run for public office.

The Texas Observer is an important resource for Texas. The Observer offers a needed forward thinking view to public policy debates in our state.

Obama Birth Certificate Issue Will Never Go Away—“Test The Ink On It And See How Old It Is”

President Obama has released his birth certificate. 

The President was born in Honolulu, Hawaii.

(Above—Honolulu from space. Many on the right persist in the far out view that President Obama was born outside the U.S.) 

I’m not sure why the birth certificate was released. Why not take the political gain offered by folks who never let up on the birth certificate issue?

With Donald Trump taking the credit for the release, maybe the intent is to enhance Mr. Trump among Republican primary voters.

Maybe the Obama folks know exactly what they are doing. When you are dealing with folks who are not rational, facts are not going to matter. Let them be seen for what they are.

What they are at this point is the mainstream of the Republican Party. Two-thirds of registered Republicans believe that President Obama was born outside the country or are not sure.

Among these not so rational people are Republican elected officials. Already this morning Republican Texas State Representative Leo Berman has said he is still not convinced that Mr. Obama was born in the United States.

From the Texas Tribune–

State Rep. Leo Berman, R-Tyler, has checked out the birth certificate President Barack Obama released this morning — and he’s not satisfied. Berman, who has raised persistent questions about Obama’s birthplace, said he has many more questions and that it will take “someone like a Donald Trump” to really determine whether the president has “pulled the greatest swindle, the greatest hoax, in the history of the United States.”  Berman, who has filed a “birther” bill this session that would force future presidential and vice presidential candidates to show their birth certificate in order to get on the Texas ballot, said he’s got several key questions with Obama’s birth certificate: Why did it take the president so long, amid a conservative firestorm, to release it? Why does it look “brand new,” he said, when it’s supposed to be five decades old? Why doesn’t the hospital listed on the birth certificate have a “plaque on the door” commemorating Obama’s birth there? And has anyone checked with the delivery room doctor listed on the birth certificate (whose name Berman says is curiously difficult to make out)?

I’m hesitant to write about this silly issue at all, but the matter is an insight into the nature of American conservatives. Are these the people you want running our nation? Are they grounded in day-to-day reality?

On the Facebook page of Houston right-wing talk radio station KTRH, a posting was made about the release of the birth certificate.

Below is a sampling of what people had to say at the KTRH page —

If you believe that, I have 40 acres of swamp land to sell you !!! He did not produce it till TRUMP put the pressure on him. Test the ink on it and see how old it is!!

Took a while to get it doctored I see !

Ok and as has been discussed before a cert of live birth is very diff from a birth cert…. Just saying….

About time…he probably had to find somebody to do it under the table. I highly doubt that is real and genuine. That cert is about as real as Pam Andersons Boobs.

Question: 1) Why does this one look VERY different than the one released years ago? 2) Why is he just now releasing this one if the one released years ago isn’t the real one? 3) How can be believer this one is real if there has already been a fake one released in the past?

But its the same old COLB. NOT a certified copy of his birth certficate.

Wonder which flea market he purchased it from?

Is this a real one? or one the CIA made for him?

I’ll never believe it’s real!

“As long as an adult can walk into Hawaii’s version of the Department of Records and provide proof that they are a legal resident of Hawaii, the document is issued. The child, on the other hand, could have been born in Hawaii, Kenya, or a back-alley in Budapest.”

Throughout Kenya, people will chant “You Lie”