Texas: Harris County

November 20, 2009 - 07:46 pm
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

Bend over, you are in good hands....

After the 2003 insurance welfare act, rates have skyrocketed, and it only gets better, or worse:
Home insurance rates will jump an average 9.8 percent next month for thousands of Allstate customers.

The increase will start Dec. 17 as policies come up for renewal and affect 143,000 customers of Allstate Fire and Casualty Insurance. It's the Allstate unit's second increase this year.

Really...it gets better:

Another 450,000 home insurance policyholders are insured by Texas Allstate Texas Lloyds, which stopped selling new policies in Texas in 2006.

And remember you are in good hands........................

Also in 2006, Allstate Texas Lloyds began to drop wind coverage upon renewal of 65,000 policies along the coast, and stopped renewing coverage on thousands of non-brick homes in Harris County and others that border counties immediately on the Gulf Coast.

As they said in Aliens: Drop your linen and stop your grinnin'.

November 18, 2009 - 07:18 am
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

Harris County Attorney doing his job

Well this is refreshing. Harris County Attorney, Vince Ryan, is coming under attack by Harris County Commissioner's Court for ....uh.... doing his job.
Ryan had already signed a deal with the city to help it prosecute polluters in exchange for use of experts and monitoring equipment with which the county can build cases.
Wow. Our County Attorney is going after polluters by working with the City of Houston and sharing resources. Who can possibly argue with that?
"I think that it's your responsibility to do those things that we, Commissioners Court, ask of you, and I see that you've got the cart in front of the horse," Commissioner Jerry Eversole told Ryan.

November 17, 2009 - 08:39 am
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

Twashing TWIA

What a load of TWIA crap, but what can you expect from an insurer of last resort when TWIA:
is a pool of all property and casualty insurers operating in the state. TWIA is governed by a nine-member board dominated by insurance company representatives.

TWIA is now being sued for not paying claims. Imagine that, an organization run by the insurance industry not paying claims. How can this ever happen in the great State of responsibility where in 2003 the republican party of Texas ushered in massive insurance reforms to lower our rates and allow insurance companies to compete?

The only thing the insurance companies are competing for is the chance to screw the consumers of Texas. With the highest rates in the nation, some right here in Harris County, insurance companies have profited handsomely even after hurricane Ike since 2003.

According to the republican party, insurance reform has worked.

November 8, 2009 - 09:17 am
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

Leo Vasquez punked by Paul Bettencourt

Did Harris County Tax Assessor, Leo Vasquez, know what kind of poo Paul Bettencourt left him in when he quit just days after his re-election? Obviously not.

Harris County Commissioners Court voted unanimously to accept a settlement of a lawsuit filed by the Texas Democratic Party against Paul Bettencourt's Voter Registration Office. Included in this settlement:

  • The voter registrar must now comply with all Texas Election Code deadlines. In sworn discovery, Bettencourt's staff admitted that more than 11,350 timely submitted applications were not processed and on the voter rolls when voting started as required by law.
  • The voter registrar's employees can no longer have employment or financial interests in outside companies that provide voter information to candidates or political parties, a practice Bettencourt allowed and Vasquez defended regarding moonlighting Republican political consultant Ed Johnson.
November 7, 2009 - 11:23 am
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

Dogpiling on the Hispanic voters who don't vote

As I said after the early voting totals were in, Hispanics are not voting. The Hispanic population could be the largest block of voters in Harris County unless they don't vote. And they proved that for the City races.

According to Marc Campos of Campos Communications Hispanics voted in the 9-11% range in the city elections and he has some pretty strong words for all Hispanics:
I’m going to recommend that the next Houston Area Latino Summit focus on Latino voter participation. For now, our “Si Se Puede” slogan has been temporarily revoked. We can’t Si Se Puede if we keep doing No Se Puede! All of us Latinos that are involved in H-Town politics ought be hanging our heads in shame right now.

November 5, 2009 - 10:10 pm
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

As predicted, Clear Lake goes for Morales

Did I predict this or what?

It just goes to show you how voters in the Clear Lake area think. It doesn't matter if your insurance rates triple, or your electricity rates double, or it costs twice as much to send your kid to college, if someone has an R by their name, they are voting for him! And they did in Clear Lake.

Roy Morales, the perennial city candidate with little if any experience in city politics got over 33% of the vote in Clear Lake. Parker received 30%, Brown 24% and Locke a very distant 11%. Maybe it was the biker vote.

November 5, 2009 - 08:06 am
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

Why a Democrat should challenge Jerry Eversole

City Council Member Toni Lawrence has decided not to challenge ethically challenged Jerry Eversole. Why?
"We have a lot of mutual friends, we really do, and it was really tough on a lot of those mutual friends," Lawrence said. "It was putting pressure on those people of who they were going to support and what they were going to do."
This is an indication that ethics is just another word for nothing left to steal. Lawrence had an opportunity to challenge one of the most unethical County Commissioner in the history of Harris County, and yet declined. Lawrence and the republican party of Harris County obviously thinks what Jerry Eversole has done with his donors money is within ethical guidelines of the party.

October 30, 2009 - 10:12 pm
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

What does it take for a Harris County republican to resign?

Harris County Commissioner, Jerry Eversole, has decided to seek re-election.

This is the same Jerry Eversole that was fined by the Texas Ethics Commission $75,000, the largest fine in its history. The same Jerry Eversole under investigation by the FBI. The same Jerry Eversole under investigation by the Harris County District Attorney. The same Jerry Eversole who took over $180,000 from his donors and spent it on fancy western art, cowboy outfits, western books, coffee, cattle, personal trainers, coffee, and more.

What does a republican have to do to get fired? Have sex with a hooker? Have sex with one of their staff members? That didn't seem to work since republican United States Senator Vitter and Ensign are still Senators.

October 27, 2009 - 07:10 am
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

What does $640/hour buy you?

What does $640/hour buy you? According to the Houston Chronicle, $117 million in debt:
Harris County taxpayers may have to inject up to $7 million a year into the Harris County-Houston Sports Authority for the next two years due to a financial crisis sparked by the souring of bonds used to build Minute Maid Park, Reliant Stadium and the Toyota Center.
The $640/hour is what the law firm charged for legal services to the Sports Authority. This is a complicated situation, but at $640/hour you would think this would have been prevented or resolved.

This is also Gene Locke's law firm. This story isn't what Locke wanted just 7 days before the election while sinking in the polls with a solid 3rd place and Morales creeping up on him.

October 24, 2009 - 07:19 pm
NEWS FEED: Bay Area Houston

Harris county republicans stealth endorsement

Harris County republicans have secretly endorsed Roy Morales for Mayor, which now amounts to two endorsements, with one being a right wing obscure blog. Morales at the KHOU debate claims he had 101 precinct chairs vote for him for this endorsement, but the city has over 800 precincts. Not exactly a resounding endorsement.

But more secretly, I believe the Harris County republicans are supporting Gene Locke. Locke has the Harris County Clerk, republican Beverly Kaufman endorsement, and according to Muse has recently been working with Stephen Hotze and Alan Blakemore, both very right wing supporters involved in republican campaigns. He has the support of corporate attorneys representing Metro, the Sports Authority, and the Port of Houston. And he has waffled, depending upon who he is speaking to, on the 287g program.

It is a secret that Locke is the elephant in the room.