Another Frustrating Day With The Texas DPS

One of the things I have not been happy about since I came back home is the Texas Department of Public Safety (our Texas state troopers) consolidating offices into this mega center concept and putting them far off the beaten METRO path in the 'burbs or a long bus ride from the hood and barrio.

Had another negative experience with the DPS yesterday.

Since I've recently moved, I now have 30 days to update my Texas ID to the new Westchase area address.  I set yesterday aside to accomplish that task.   The nearest DPS Mega Center to me is six miles away from my new digs on S. Gessner, about 15 minutes by car but an hour by METRO bus. 

Interestingly enough, that Mega Center, which has lots of nonwhite folks using it because of the composition of the nearby surrounding neighborhoods, is closed for a renovation that started May 24 and is scheduled for completion November 30. 

The S Gessner location is also considered one of the busiest in the state of Texas. The other Mega Center is even farther north (12.9 miles) on Veterans Memorial, and two I won't be able to access near The Woodlands, and in Rosenberg in Fort Bend County. 

That leaves on the METRO bus accessible list the DPS Dacoma office in NW Houston near Northwest Mall and one that just opened off Old Galveston Rd 22 miles on the far southeast side of town from moi.   I'm having to go in person to do the address change because I don't have a printer right now in order to do so online. 

So after getting up early Monday morning in order to catch three buses to get to the Dacoma location, I get off  at the stop for the DPS office to see a line wrapped three quarters of the way around the building just to enter it.   Needless to say the heat index for Houston that say was predicted to reach triple digits and it was close to noon when I got there.

So after resigning myself to a long wait, I got in line.   I was there about ten minutes when three DPS employees came out to ask if anyone was in line for renewals or to get a new license.

I told the employees I was there for a change of address, to which she responded "We don't do those at this location, you have to go to a MegaCenter." 

I responded, "That would have been nice to know before I took three buses to get to this location."

She then handed me a flyer with the addresses of the two Mega Centers that that I already knew were light years in bus travel time from my current location in NW Houston, so since I had other things to try to accomplish I headed in the direction of my bank branch in the Galleria area cursing my buzzard's luck and once again dealing with the impact of the voter suppression apparatus that DPS Mega Centers are part of. 

Past time the DPS puts one of those Drivers License Mega Centers closer to downtown well inside the city limits of our major cities instead of near the freaking 'burbs.  But then again it would defeat the Texas GOP  purpose of putting a roadblock in being able to use the Motor Voter Law to be able to register to vote.

Trust I will get it done.  But right now I'm pissed that i couldn't get it done yesterday when I had set time aside to accomplish that task.   

Angela Rye Schools Lying GOP Pundits Again

I love CNN pundit Angela Rye who is always on point and doesn't let conservafools get away with trying to peddle disinformation on her watch

The latest example of Ms. Rye handling her pundit business is in this discussion on Anderson Cooper 360 that drifted into voter suppression territory



Thank you Angela for keeping the conservafools in check.

Down Goes The Texas Voter Suppression Law Again!

You know how much I despise the Texas voter suppression law that is considered one of the most restrictive in the nation.  The GOP dictatorship controlled Texas legislature passed the law in 2011 to as they gleefully admit suppress the votes of Black and Latino Texans in their desperate bid to keep political control of a state that  non-white Texans since 2009 have been the dominant population group.

SB 14 requires Texans to have one of six forms of ID, a Texas driver's license or ID card, a concealed handgun license, a US passport, a military ID card or a US citizenship certificate with a photo.

African American and Latinx Texans have contended since the unjust SB 14 law was passed in 2011 that it was discriminatory, and have been fighting it in court ever since.  Texas, and specifically our texas republican overlords keep spending our Lone Star tax dollars ($3.5 million) so far to keep the unjust law in effect.

Doing the happy dance right now because the Dallas Morning News is reporting the Texas voter suppression law was once again struck down in federal court under the VRA's Section 2.

In a 9-6 en banc ruling. the 5th Circuit affirmed previous rulings that the Texas Voter ID Suppression Law violates federal laws prohibiting racial discrimination in elections and struck it down today..

'The record shows that the drafters and proponents of SB 14 were aware of the likely disproportionate effect of the law on minorities, and that they nonetheless passed the bill without adopting a number of proposed ameliorative measures that might have lessened this impact," wrote Judge Catharina Haynes in her ruling.  BTW, in case you're keeping score, surprise surprise, Judge Haynes is a GW Bush appointee.

I'm not the only Texan happy about this ruling.   The Texas Democratic Party and a long list of liberal social justice groups are hailing the decision striking down the odious SB 14.

"Texas Republican's discriminatory Voter ID law has held some 700,000 Texans away from their right to vote for many elections now," said Gilberto Hinojosa, the chair of the Texas Democratic Party as he commented on the decision. "Unfortunately, that damage by Republicans has already been done to our families.  However we can now look forward to a fairer election system, worthy of our great state. This is a huge win for voting rights in Texas and across the nation."

The law has been struck down now three times, twice under the now eviscerated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act, and now under Section 2 of the VRA,   May it stay dead.

Hillary Clinton TSU Voting Rights Speech

Hillary Clinton has been in Texas for the last three days to do some fundraising and other events in the Lone Star State to shore up the Democratic base here.

Yesterday afternoon she was on the Texas Southern University campus to receive a public service award named for the late Rep..Barbara Jordan, who was an alumnus of the university.

The speech was broadcast live on C-SPAN, and for those of you missed the speech, here's the video of it.

Hasselbeck Forgot About Literacy Tests

I'm not shocked when one of the FOX Noise Fembots opens their mouths and something stupid, racist, bigoted (or all of the above) comes out of it.

Today's latest example of them reinforcing the dumb blonde stereotype is Elisabeth Hasselbeck.

She parted her lips to state during a Monday Fox and Friends conversation on civics education that all voters should have to pass a 'citizenship test' before they were allowed to vote.

Yeah Liz, guess you ignored that chapter in your history books about literacy tests.   They were supposed to be administered to all voters, but were exclusively used to disenfranchise African-American voters back during the bad old Jim Crow days from thw 1880s to the 1960s before they were banned by the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.

She sounds even more hypocritical because she in her past utterings has been railing against Common Core and standardized testing.



I sincerely doubt that Liz, her Fembots and most conservafools could even pass a standardized citizenship test, seeing that their understanding of American history is so distorted, and they only care about the Second and Tenth Amendments of the Constitution.

And you conservafools wanna know why I and other no-white Americans consider conservatism and conservatives racist.   You never fail on a daily basis to do or say something that verities and validates our perception that conservatism is the political arm of white supremacy.

Racist Georgia State Senator Wants To Keep Blacks From Voting

I've said more than a few times that the most dangerous bigot is one that has the power to write legislation.  I have also called the Republican Party the political arm of white supremacy. 

The fool  that is going to openly co-sign both statements is Republican (surprise, surprise) Georgia state Senator Fran Millar from Dunwoody..

When DeKalb County, of which his state senate district covers a portion of, announced that they were going to allow Sunday voting, and set up an early voting location in a popular shopping mall, you would think that any politician would welcome making it easy for people to cast their ballots in this upcoming election.  

But that's you and I thinking logically, which is not where the Republican Party lives right now.   Republicans are hellbent on keeping voter turnout low because they have basically pissed off very demographic group except rich white males, clueless white males, their Stepford wives and sellout people of color.

And the fact Michelle Nunn, the daughter of former senator Sam Nunn is on the ballot as the Democratic US senate nominee along with Dem gubernatorial candidate Jason Carter, the grandson of former governor and POTUS Jimmy Carter, already has the Georgia GOP on edge.

When Millar heard that the mall in question was The Gallery at South DeKalb Mall,  which is popular with the ATL's African-American population, it was enough to trigger a bigot eruption for the Senior Deputy Whip of the Georgia Republicans.

"Now we are to have Sunday voting at South DeKalb Mall just prior to the election. Per Jim Galloway of the AJC, this location is dominated by African American shoppers and it is near several large African American mega churches such as New Birth Missionary Baptist. Galloway also points out the Democratic Party thinks this is a wonderful idea – what a surprise. I’m sure Michelle Nunn and Jason Carter are delighted with this blatantly partisan move in DeKalb.

Is it possible church buses will be used to transport people directly to the mall since the poll will open when the mall opens? If this happens, so much for the accepted principle of separation of church and state."

He even went there and suggested he is “investigating if there is any way to stop this action”.   Millar also stated that  he and State Representative Mike Jacobs (R) “will try to eliminate this election law loophole in January,” as it might boost Democratic voter turnout.

Your white sheets are showing, Fran.  

FYI, if your party actually tried to pursue policies more popular with my people instead of demonizing us, maybe you might have a shot, slim as it is these days of actually earning our votes.  But the more you act like James Crow III oppressors, the more you piss us off and ensure that we will keep voting for Democrats for another generation. 

And Black Georgians, what's up?  This Republican State senator openly said that he was going to work to restrict your voting rights.   If that's not a call for you to bumrush the polls and vote him and everything else out of the Georgia Legislature with an 'R' behind its name, then the next post I write will be calling your asses out for allowing this BS to go unchallenged.

If you don't bumrush the polls this November, then you are spitting on the fact that Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) took a po-po beatdown in Selma for you to have the right to vote in the first place.

Show Georgia, the country and the world just how seriously you take any threat to shut down your right to vote. Send this conservafool and his party a message that we don't play when it comes to our right to vote.

Moni's TDL Test Today

Y'all know I absolutely hate the Texas voter ID suppression law that Greg Abbott and his GOP friends have been pimping since 2011, and I got ensnared in it as I have attempted since May 2013 to exchange my Kentucky drivers license for a Texas one. 

And yeah, pending this driving test, I'm going to take out my anger at the GOP at the polls for all the Republican inspired drama and so far $107 in fees, expenses and unnecessary drama I've gone through just to get a Texas drivers license   

Well, after taking and passing the written test in October, I've had to reschedule the driving portion of it twice due to people flaking out on me at last minute.  I have a looming January 19 deadline to complete that part of it otherwise I forfeit the $25 I've already plunked down and have to start the licensing process from scratch.

So wish me luck.  My ability to vote in the 2014 election cycle depends on me passing this driving test.

No pressure.

TransGriot Update:  Passed with a score of 94, so I have my Texas DL until the end of the decade.  Lost points for forgetting to signal after successfully completing my parallel park, nose of car being past a stop sign pole and driving 10 mph too slowly in a 30 MPH zone.

Be afraid Texas GOP, be very afraid of the wrath of Moni.  Electoral payback is coming. 

Why Is It Taking 5 Months (And Counting) To Renew My Drivers License In TX?

I despise conservatism and GOP run governments with a passion and have not minced words by calling them the political arm of whiteness and white supremacy.

And they keep proving my point.  See North Carolina, Michigan and Texas as  concrete examples of it 

The crap I'm dealing with as a girl like us to switch my driver's license from the Kentucky one I had to a Texas one is only adding to my deep dislike of the Republican Party and their jacked up policies.

When I moved to Kentucky from Texas in 2001, it was a simple, hassle free process to swap out my driver's license even though my Texas one had expired at the time.  I filled out the application, paid the then $8 fee, took and passed the written test, took my photo and walked out of the drivers license facility with my new Kentucky drivers license in my possession.    

While I was a Texan in exile our GOP controlled state legislature for political reasons made it harder to get a TDL in preparation for implementing their 'Voter ID' suppression scheme during the 2011 legislative session.  You have to prove US citizenship and Texas residency at a gatekeeper desk upon arrival in the Texas Department of Public Safety (our state troopers) license megacenter facility before the DPS employees even give you the application for the Texas driver's license and call your queue number to start the process.

The DPS in 2011 began closing many of the urban TDL offices, including the ones on Bissonnet and Dover streets that I'd gone to when I lived here in the 80's and 90's and renewed my licenses from 1980-2001 in the name of addressing the long wait times.  The DPS created Drivers License Mega Centers that interestingly enough here in Houston are all outside Loop 610 and are at least an hour bus ride away from many non-white inner city neighborhoods and closer to the surrounding GOP voting 'burbs.

So the day after my May birthday, since my license was expiring in four weeks, I roll out to the closest DPS megacenter to me near Hobby Airport at 7 AM.  I'm one of the first five people through the door when it opens at 8 AM 

While I was a Texan in exile they also changed the style of birth certificate they will accept as proof of US citizenship and I find out to my horror at the gatekeeper desk the one I've been using since they issued it in 1962 is no longer valid and I have to get a new certified one. I immediately leave from the Winkler DPS megacenter location in SE Houston to go to the City of Houston Bureau of Vital Statistics building by Reliant Stadium because I'm trying to get it renewed before an upcoming family trip.

I get to the City of Houston Vital Statistics building before noon where they issue birth and death certificates on N. Stadium Dr., wait 20 minutes, get to the window and now discover that since the name on my Kentucky drivers license and the name on my birth certificate don't match (which I already knew) they can't issue the conservative approved certified birth certificate to me.  I now have to file the 2001 name change I did in Kentucky in Austin with the state Vital Statistics Unit before they will issue the new certified birth certificate. I also have to get the application form notarized before I can send it and my paperwork off to Austin.

So frustrated as hell me goes back to the house, gets home about 1:30 PM and fortunately find a notary public a few blocks up MLK.  I pay her fee ($10) and then head to the post office a few blocks from that location to mail the forms off.  In my haste to get it to Austin as quickly as possible ($10 express mail) I realize to my horror I forgot to get the money order to pay the $37 filing and copy fee for the new conservative approved certified birth certificate. 

I call Austin to find out what I can do to get the process started, which is nothing until they either get the money order from me or wait until they receive and send the paperwork back to the house for me because it doesn't have the money order in it.   In the meantime I can't get the license exchange process started with the DPS until I receive the new certified birth certificate copy and my Kentucky DL expires on June 4.  

That date comes and goes, which means I now have to take the driving AND written test over, which is what I was trying to avoid in the first place. I could have renewed the Kentucky DL, but since I now live 1000 miles from Louisville and Kentucky requires an in person visit to a drivers license facility there for a new photo, that option is dead to me. 

It's the middle of June before I get the papers I originally sent to Austin without the critical money order back. I immediately head to my friendly neighborhood post office, purchase and stick my money order in the envelope, double and triple check to make certain every necessary document is in there, pay postage ($5), make copies of everything and wait.

The word in late June that the Supreme Court eviscerated Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act and Texas AG Greg Abbot's (R)  immediate implementation of the voter suppression law has now heightened the urgency of me getting this license renewal done.   In the meantime I'm still waiting through the month of July and early August for word my resent paperwork has been received in Austin.

Now I have another reason pop up that adds even more urgency to expeditiously deal with my license renewal situation besides the upcoming Houston city election.  I get the invitation from Kortney to come to Oakland for Trans" H4CK, which means I have to now fly to the Left Coast from Houston with an expired photo ID and won't know until the day I get to the airport how TSA security will react. 

At this point, I'm so pissed off about this situation I contact my state Rep. Garnet Coleman's office since I still haven't heard jack from the peeps in Austin.  And yeah, my computer having to be put in the shop didn't help my stress level either.  

I make what turn out to be two in person visits to Rep. Coleman's office on Almeda Rd in which his staffer Greg was a major help to me getting to the bottom of what was taking so long to process my certified birth certificate.   The state is claiming I never sent the money order but I have the post office receipts and a pile of paperwork that say otherwise.

Meanwhile it's now September.  I take my trip to Oakland for Trans" H4CK and I bring my current voter's registration card with me to prove my Houston residency in case I have problems either here or in Oakland with TSA security and it's a good thing I did.   I had no problem on the HOU-OAK leg going out there but did coming back through TSA security at the Oakland airport.  I had to show the voter registration card and explain my situation concerning the expired photo ID before the TSA agent was satisfied enough to let me through after undergoing a pat down search.     

Get back home from Oakland, have letter waiting for me and get phone call from Vital Statistics in Austin confirming what I knew concerning the money order, and assurances the name change was filed and new conservative approved certified birth certificate is being processed.

Don't receive it until last week and spend most of Monday morning at the DPS office finally getting the opportunity to fill out the Texas DL application, shelling out license fee ($25), taking photo, and passing written test.   But I now have to come back to the Winkler DPS location (since it is the closest to my house) to take a road test and pass it before I can receive my new Texas license.   And I have until mid January 2014 to set the date up and pass it or else I have to start the process all over again. 

So when is the first open date they have at that location to take the road test?   On November 5, Election Day.

Since the SCOTUS frakked with Section 4 of the VRA and Greg Abbott instituted the Voter Suppression law two hours after their 5-4 ruling  this is one of the ripple effects of it. 

The unacceptably long holdup in renewing my drivers license has cost me time, money and pissed me off.
It has also added additional hurdles I've had to deal with that are potentially messing with my ability to participate in this mayoral election, which was the intent of this bovine feces voter suppression law in the first place. 

And yeah, I'm not a happy camper it has taken me this long just to get my Texas driver's license and it's only increasing my determination that the GOP be ejected from power in my birth state.