That Great State of Texas' Rising Poverty, and Lt Gov. Candidate Kleefisch is being TOLD what light bulbs to use.

Secessionist Texas, home of independent conservative workaholics, have a problem with reality. In an energy producing state that should have the ability to “lift all boats,” it has quietly allowed many to sink below the surface.

Dallas Morning News: Nearly 4.3 million Texans lived in poverty last year, up 11 percent from a year earlier, the Census Bureau reported today.

But for some, these statistics aren't necessarily bad. For those not feeling the pain, it’s not impossible to “envy” how much they imagine the poor have in this country, and maybe hope someday to be as lucky. Like this comment below, one I hear a lot from my conservative friends:

I wonder if the poor are the ones with cell phones. I wonder if the poor are the ones with two cars. I wonder if the poor are the ones with (deluxe) cable. I wonder if the poor are the ones who can afford all those tattoos. I wonder if the poor are the ones who barely have enough to eat, but are obese. I wonder if the poor are the ones who can get a free education (yes, even college). I wonder if the poor are the ones who can afford all those piercings. I wonder if the poor are the ones who can afford to eat steak every day of the week (that’s all I see in their grocery carts). . I wonder if the poor are the ones who can afford Cigarettes and beer. . I wonder if the poor are
the ones who can afford those Cowboys jerseys. I wonder what they would call these people anywhere else in the world? Oh, I know RICH.

Sweeping generalizations make everything easier to explain. It's a standard conservative ploy, like their all-encompassing vision of a government takeover. Wisconsin Lt. Governor candidate Rebecca Kleefisch provides a few perfect examples of government overreach.

Big Government: I don’t think the state government should select my dishwashing soap or tell me what light bulbs to use or whether I should use paper or plastic at the grocery store. I can make those decisions myself, thank you.

Rebecca’s idea of progress in energy savings and environmental protection is our constitutional right to be free to ignore all that.

The last I checked, government didn’t tell us what dishwashing soap to use and what light bulbs to put in our lamps. I may have missed the government guy at the store passing out permission slips the day I was shopping.

As for plastic bags, I love using them because I can carry three or four at once, but when do the area citizens have the right to reduce the stuff they put in their landfills? Maybe Rebecca doesn’t mind a little extra state wide trash filling up our local back yards. We love having people like Kleefisch living in our neighborhoods, don’t we.

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