Finally, Republicans named
Re: “Voters, Please Send Paxton Packing — Texas attorney general has no business instructing any of us on mortality or law,” Wednesday editorial.
You finally did it. You were specific, naming the Republicans as the cause rather than an all encompassing word like legislators or Congress. The corruption has always been there. Just now it is so great it can’t be ignored by the editorial staff. Finally.
Michael Bulkeley, Richardson
Opinion
Send Paxton to Washington
This editorial recommends voting Ken Paxton out of political office. Currently he is the Texas attorney general and is a candidate for U.S. Senate, trying to defeat incumbent Sen. John Cornyn in the upcoming GOP primary.
I strongly support Paxton for U.S. senator. His departure from Austin governance would raise the bar for integrity and morality in Texas. His political profile indicates he will fit in perfectly in Washington GOP circles, and he is supported by the president. This is a no brainer.
Jim Wells, Irving
Country is in danger
Kudos, DMN! The Wednesday editorial section had excellent and prescient editorials from the editors. The first excoriated Ken Paxton, not a hard target, but very well done the way you proceeded to cover his many undeserved escapes from his many illegal activities.
The second one about the Republican redistricting plan was even better. It’s true that both parties gerrymander, but the results are different. The Democrats accomplish helpful things in power — Social Security, Medicare, voting rights, environmental protection and more — to help their constituents.
Republicans in power, as we are seeing, destroy our social safety nets, lessen consumer protection and individual rights, attack education from top to bottom and attack voting rights and women’s rights.
Even the First Amendment is tossed out the window and the rest of the Constitution and Bill of Rights fall by the wayside.
In the past this was somewhat lessened by the three branches of government doing their jobs. Unfortunately since two of them have ceded power to a self-serving executive branch, our entire way of life and our country are in danger.
Chuck Elkins, Plano
STAAR score influence
Re: “Rescored STAARs shoot up,” Wednesday news story.
When I first glanced over this story, I was surprised at how such a large percentage of the scores being reviewed went up but never down. Then when I reread, I found out the scores cannot go down, only up or stay the same. Talk about gaming the system!
Sounds like something the teachers unions negotiated for. I then did a Google search and found out the reviewers were a group of Texas public schoolteachers. Since the story admits that the reviewers can also get it wrong and teachers’ raises are tied to how well students perform, it’s easy to see how this might influence their final grade.
Les Gregory, Frisco
Judicial appointment criticized
Late Tuesday evening, Texas Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz voted with 48 other Republican senators to approve Emil Bove to be a judge on the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Cornyn and Cruz supported Bove despite co-workers’ testimony that Bove misled the courts, demanded that those he supervised do the same and told those he supervised to defy court orders.
I would be troubled enough by Bove’s positions, such as supporting the pardon of the Jan. 6 convicted criminals who attacked police, but the key point here is not a political one — we now have a federal judge who supports lying to courts and ignoring orders.
And the even bigger point is that our two senators supported this nomination. This demonstrates a complete abandonment of integrity on the part of Cornyn and Cruz, and I would extend to their political party that seems to be fine with this.
Cathy Murphree, Richardson
Who’s accountable in Dallas?
Re: “Audit: Lead removal a failure — $2.3 million program only serviced 4 homes despite 70 residents applying,” Tuesday news story.
It doesn’t seem to matter what the subject is, our city government just reinforces its own ineptitude. Four houses out of 50 inspected? Waco used D-FW area contractors to redo their lead-filled house? Why weren’t they working in Dallas?
We clearly see a frequent pattern of poor management and a mostly absent mayor with no accountability for failures.
I’ve lived in Dallas for 47 years, and paid taxes for 47 years, and am continually disappointed by the mismanagement, or should I say non-management, by people looking for someone else to blame instead of doing the jobs they are paid to perform. Where is the oversight? Who is accountable?
Paul E. Duduit, Far North Dallas
Why the low Biden blow now?
Re: “Biden’s legacy is all but ruined, and it’s his own fault,” by Talmage Boston, Sunday Opinion.
The next time I read that many subscribers believe The Dallas Morning News is too liberal, I’ll probably think about this opinion piece. I’m accustomed to reading absurd (but usually harmless) center-right/near-right opinions, such as “Hey, let’s bring back nuclear power!” in a paper published in Dallas and beholden to far too many conservative readers, but I didn’t think Boston would stoop so low. And particularly now, with our democracy as close to disappearing as anytime since just before our Civil War.
Talk about rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic! While all of the facts he cites may be true, so what? Will there be a follow-up column on the many deficiencies of both Bush presidencies? And why now, of all times?
Could this piece not have waited until after we elect a Congress and a president both not determined to destroy this country?
David Spires, Garland