Texas House Decides to Audit Rick Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund

[TexasTowelie]

Rick Perry's Texas Enterprise Fund has granted $485 million in grants to private companies, allegedly to create jobs in Texas. Many of those companies are owned by the governor's largest donors. Since the creation of the fund ten years ago, Perry has collected $2 million in campaign donations from its recipients. It is a slush fund and crony capitalism at its worst.

On Friday, using a simple voice vote, the Texas House decided to audit the fund. The report is due no later than January 2015. But though the Senate approved an earlier version of the bill, the audit is not yet official.

"The measure must pass a final, procedural House vote. It then heads to conference committee to reconcile the latest version with what the Senate previously approved," the Associated Press explains.

Source: http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/13545/texas-house-decides-to-audit-rick-perrys-texas-enterprise-fund

[mbperrin]

1. Ruh-ro.

Ricky shoulda kept a lower profile....

[AndyA]

2. Who did Rick Perry piss off in Texas?

I thought he was their shining star down there.

[summerschild]

3. He can veto it, right? (I guess that would be pretty blatant, even for Perry.)

[freshwest]

4. January 2015? Plenty of time to do an ENRON shredding operation...

The horses will long gone by then.

[Ilsa]

5. Well, at least the continuous diversion of

Taxpayer funds into that slush fund will be stopped.
When is his next election cycle?
Speaking optimistically, maybe somebody will be in jail by then.

[freshwest]

6. Yes, stopping the bleeding is worthwhile. As far as his next election, I'm not sure he was elected

the last time he ran...

Houston Scrambles After Blaze That Destroyed Voting Machines

HOUSTON — Arson investigators have been called in to scrutinize a fire that destroyed the warehouse where all of Harris County’s voting machines were stored. The blaze left county officials scrambling to find enough equipment to hold an election in the nation’s third-most-populous county.

Election officials have come up with emergency plans to buy new electronic voting machines, borrow hundreds from other counties and use paper ballots as well. Still, the destruction of nearly 10,000 voting machines in the fire last month has raised fears here that voters will face long lines or other disruptions at polling stations.

Troubles at the polls in Houston could skew the governor’s race, some Democratic strategists say. Bill White, the former mayor of Houston and a popular Democrat here, is trying to unseat the Republican incumbent, Gov. Rick Perry, and he needs strong support from the city.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/11/us/politics/11voting.html?_r=0

Fire Destroyed All 10,000 Texas Harris County Voting Machines: Accident or Arson?

Voter Suppression Brought to New Heights in Texas

Glenn W. Smith at Huffpost uncovered a doctored photo posted at King Street Patriots, a right-wing tea-party organization trying to defame the nonpartisan organization “Houston Votes.”

True the Vote and King Street Patriots are doing a classic voter suppression tactic by attacking “Houston Votes,” an organization trying to help people register to vote, regardless of party affiliation. The stakes are high because the governorship of Texas is up for grabs between Republican Rick Perry and challenger, Democrat and former mayor of Houston, Bill White.

As Smith points out, it is more than a little suspicious that all 10,000 voting machines in the Harris Country warehouse suddenly caught fire at about 4:00 am in the morning of August 27th. The three alarm fire occurred the same day that Houston Votes released a press release regarding voter suppression tactics in Harris County, Texas.

http://kittyreporter.wordpress.com/2010/09/12/fire-destroyed-all-10000-texas-harris-county-voting-machines-accident-or-arson/

The fires of fascism? More at the links above about the GOP trying to stop minority registrations with the Tea Party 'True The Vote' teams. After 2000, anything goes. Did Perry win honestly? Really?

[Ilsa]

7. Election thievery by Perry & cronies

Wouldn't surprise me one bit. There was lots of money to pass around out of this Tx Ent Fund.

[freshwest]

8. There was so much ruckus nationally with the teahadists, when I heard of this fire, I nearly freaked

from thousands of miles away.

The GOP has done everything they could to destroy the state, and I felt White had a chance. It's not the place I grew up in. But it'll be a battleground in the years to come, even though the GOP are working to thwart it. I have concerns Jorge may get some of the hispanic vote, but the ones I know there hate all the Bushes. So, we'll see.