Kerry Debate 2 Rope-A-Dope Strategy-Bring up Bush's Texas record

[zulchzulu]

Talk about Bush's record as governor in Texas. He is always railing against Kerry's record. So...

"I think it is nothing short of unbelievable that the governor of a major state running for president thought it was acceptable to mock a woman he decided to put to death."
- Republican Candidate Gary Bauer

The Texas governor has vetoed legislation which would have provided funding for basic indigent defense. He called that bill, which had bipartisan support, "a threat to public safety." Bush also opposed legislation instituting life without parole and banning the execution of people with IQ's less than 65. In general, he has been a leading spokesperson in favor of the death penalty.

While Chimpy was governor, here are some examples of his leadership in Texas:

#1 In overall toxic releases

#1 In recognized carcinogens in the air

#1 In suspected carcinogens in the air

#1 In developmental toxin in the air (affecting brain and nervous-system development in children)

#1 Cancer risk

49th in spending for the environment

#1 In major discharge facilities with 575 major facilities

#2 In total number of minor Nipdes facilities, about 5,700.

3,000 Miles, or one third, of Texas rivers and 44% of Texas bays are polluted to the point that they do not meet the standards set for recreational and other uses.

13 Texas lakes were covered by advisories or bans on fish consumption in 1996.

#1 in use of Deep Well Injectors as method of Waste Disposal

#1 in Total Number of Hazardous Waste Incinerators

#1 in Environmental Justice Title 6 complaints

#1 in production of Cancer causing Benzene & Vinyl Chloride

#1 Largest Sludge Dump in Country

#1 in the Emission of Ozone Causing Air Pollution Chemical

The state of Texas under G.W. Bushís leadership is ranked 50th in spending for teachers salaries

41st in per capita spending on public education

43% of Texas teachers plan to leave or are considering leaving teaching.

Money that could have gone into raising teacher salaries went into tax cuts for the rich.

The high school dropout rates in Texas are 30% overall

The high school dropout rate in Texas is 50% among minorities

Missing students and other mirages in Texas enrollment statistics profoundly affected both reported dropout statistics and test scores.

At the start of every school year, school begins with literally hundreds of classrooms without teachers

Governor Bush appointed a teacher certification board that, instead of working on improving the standards for the teaching profession and improving teacher quality, he decided instead to allow people who have poor credentials to enter into the teaching profession

One in five Texas high school teachers are not certified

About 41,000 of 63,000 vacancies in Texas public schools were unfilled in 1999

Since about 1982, the rates at which Black and Hispanic students are required to repeat grade 9 have climbed steadily, such that by the late 1990s, nearly 30% of Black and Hispanic students were "failing" grade 9.

Texas charter schools were even poorer than public schools. Even though the racial mix was skewed to non-white, and the number of schools (66) is small, the economically disadvantaged rate was very similar, the percent of special ed students was less in the charter schools, and the test scores were uniformly substantially lower.

On national tests (NAEP), with one exception (4th grade math), Texas scores have remained flat over the period Bush was governor

After Bush took office, Texasís own state test TASP (a college readiness test) results showed a sharp decrease (from 65.2% to 43.3%) in the percentage of students passing all three parts (reading, math, and writing).

Performance on the SAT in Texas did not improved since the early 1990s, (compared with SAT takers nationally)

79% of Texans who are 25 or older have a high school diploma or equivalency certificate and 24% have bachelor's degrees - both lower than the national average

147,000 people in state prisons.  Counting state jails and on parole, there are 545,000 people in the system.

On any given day 450 people were on death row.  Since 1976 Texas has executed 138 people - some of which were people who were mentally ill, profoundly retarded, and people who are innocent.

48th in per capita funding for public health

47th in delivery of social services

5th in percentage of people living in poverty

#1 in percentage of poor working parents without insurance

#1 in children without health insurance

[shraby]

1. Bush has plenty at the white house to

hammer him with. The actions he took as governor is just icing on the cake. Let's face it, Bush has done nothing good in years and years.

[fujiyama]

2. I kinda agree

It would have been more effective to bring up his dreadful record as 4 years ago. Most people already see what he's done - to ALL of the nation.

However, I do think it should be brought up if say the death penalty is brought up. Kerry's record is more defensible than Bush's.

[Barney Rocks]

3. I think the

death penalty will come up--and I am glad. I watched the 1996 debate where Kerry blew Weld into little pieces with this very issue. I loved it that he does not support killing--not even for terrorist. And he backed it up with logic--because other countries will not cooperate and extradite them if they know we are going to kill them.

This is a great issue--Kerry is humane--Chimp is not. A big bonus is that Kerry has always been consistent on this issue--he has never supported state sanctioned killing for anyone. I look forward to this issue--I think people will be very glad to hear Kerry's view--we will probably be 12 points up after the domestic policy debate!