Border Security Comment

I agree with you Kalpana's blog entry that border security is going to get worse, and will only become more violent. This also proposes a big challenge on the Governor even if he is reelected will have to address this even more.. The state keeps throwing money at the border war with no end in site. Mexican government wants to stop this as well. Everyday though more and more border guards are getting killed by cartel soldiers. The Washington Post reports over 22,000 deaths of US guards have occurred. Cartel soldiers are turning to guerilla tactics launching against US troops. I don't think there is any ending in site as well. There needs to be some full military intervention in this and have a general actually deploy a plan rather then just sending national guard troops in. Washington posts also that over four journalists that were reporting along the Texas border have been kidnapped as well. I think we should not be bullied around by these cartels and keep losing innocent lives.

'Where's My Rebate"

An editorial in the Austin Statesman goes into the pushback and horrible handling of the Texas federal rebate cash for appliances program. Texas received 23 million dollars in federal money for the rebates or trade up program as it is called. People could receive any where from $35 dollars to $1200 dollars depending on what you were trading up to. The program was to start on Wednesday March 31^st, though it became delayed due to Easter, and various different religious holidays. The rebates for the appliances went online Wednesday April 7^th.

You could apply for the rebate on the Texas Powerful site for your rebate. Once the website went live the whole entire site was jammed up. No one could get on to even submit for people’s forms, this was caused by the system only having one single IP address. People had another option to call in to get their rebate. This was even worse, with hold times over 3 or 4 hours. This wasn't necessarily going to grant you a rebate, the reason why is because it was just to apply for it and not to receive an instant verification.

I agree with the editor that there should have been some kind of drawing or lottery to give people that really need these rebates. This would have gone a lot smoothly then the way it was handled, almost like how NCAA holds lottery’s for tickets to bowl games or the final four. I believe this process should have been planned out more wisely then it was. Then the state is paying a third party company Helgeson Enterprises Inc, based out of Minnesota. Texas is paying Helgeson $983,000 dollars for the rebate program. The editor goes into telling us that the company dealing with the rebates has a very bad track record as well.

It seems to me another lazy attempt by the state to just throw everything out there rather then carefully prepare for it. This can be seen in my earlier blogs about the states lack of preparation to the border wars. I thought in my mind we are getting a rebate from the state not a third party company. Then again doesn’t surprise me in this day and age. Everything gets insourced or outsourced no one seems to be able to do anything on there own any more. I believe the cash for appliances is a great idea but here in Texas has been done very poorly.

Facebook Creates New Jobs In Austin

In the North Texas Conservative the Blogger Shawn Griffith goes into explaining, how great it is that Austin won the honor of the social networking site Facebook bid for them to open an office in Austin. We see in the Austin statesman that the giant will create over 200 jobs. The statesmen also reported that "Gov. Rick Perry announced the Facebook proposal this morning, and said the state would provide $1.4 million in incentives, conditioned on the approval of local incentives." This I believe is another big win for the state in Job growth rate and will make companies look even more at Texas.

The blog then state’s how Texas has not needed any of the government’s involvement with anything in our state due to our state of strong economics and job growth. I agree with Griffith in this manner that Texas does have a great growth rate and economic principles. Facebook saw this as a strong point and also with the big Technological business that are already in Austin.

Austin is number one in Job growth due to the high technological industry and along with a few other cities here in Texas. I do agree that corporations are seeing Texas as an expanding ground for their companies.

I disagree with the author on that on his approach on President Obama “President Obama continues to push irresponsible policies to spend money the federal government does not have in order to satisfy his own political agenda.” I don’t believe the president has his own agenda in my own opinion he is fixing the mess that the previous administration had put us into.

I think It is a good think that Texas can survive on it’s own with out having to plug any money into our state. He quotes his saying that “Our state is not dependent on the Obama administration, and President Obama doesn’t like that.” I think the government sees that as a breath of fresh air. That it’s one less state that does not have to be funded and can focus on the states that really do need the money and the help. To create jobs and have business open up shop.