Download or read book Bill Ratliff written by Robert Edward Sterken and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2016-11-14 with total page 219 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lt. Governor Bill Ratliff is an engineer, a widely respected senator, and according to Caroline Kennedy he is “an inspiration to all who serve in government, and to all Americans.” Senator Ratliff, nicknamed “Obi Wan Kenobi” by his colleagues, was a revered and much loved leader in Texas for more than a decade. He singularly wrote the Texas Robin-Hood school finance law, a major Ethics reform law, a Texas tort reform law, and held a great disdain for narrow partisanship and politics. This is the inspirational story of a great man doing good work in a time when many are cynical about political leadership and government. His courageous stand on principle brought him to a showdown with powerful forces in the Bush White House and earned him the public vitriol of right-wing billionaires.

Download or read book When You Are Facing Change written by J. Bill Ratliff and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 146 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the types of changes one is likely to encounter in life and tells how to deal with uncertainties and new beginnings

Download or read book When Children Suffer written by Andrew D. Lester and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1987-04-15 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Children Suffer is a collection of essays designed to help pastors, Christian educators, and other care givers work effectively with children in crisis. This illuminating book includes background in child development and psychology as well as specific guidance for helping children who are facing difficult situations, such as their parent's divorce or their own illness.

Download or read book The Alcalde written by and published by . This book was released on 2004-11 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As the magazine of the Texas Exes, The Alcalde has united alumni and friends of The University of Texas at Austin for nearly 100 years. The Alcalde serves as an intellectual crossroads where UT's luminaries - artists, engineers, executives, musicians, attorneys, journalists, lawmakers, and professors among them - meet bimonthly to exchange ideas. Its pages also offer a place for Texas Exes to swap stories and share memories of Austin and their alma mater. The magazine's unique name is Spanish for "mayor" or "chief magistrate"; the nickname of the governor who signed UT into existence was "The Old Alcalde."

Download or read book Every Song Ever written by Ben Ratliff and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2016-02-09 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is music in the age of the cloud? Today, we can listen to nearly anything, at any time. It is possible to flit instantly across genres and generations, from 1980s Detroit techno to 1890s Viennese neo-romanticism. This new age of listening brings with it astonishing new possibilities--as well as dangers. In Every Song Ever, the veteran New York Times music critic Ben Ratliff reimagines the very idea of music appreciation for our times. In the age of the cloud, the genre of the recording and the intention of the composer matter less and less. Instead, we can savor our own listening experience more directly, taking stock of qualities like repetition, speed, density, or loudness. The result is a new mode of listening that can lead to unexpected connections. When we listen for slowness, we may detect surprising affinities between the drone metal of Sunn O))), the mixtape manipulations of DJ Screw, and the final works of Shostakovich. And if we listen for more elusive qualities like closeness, we might notice how the tight harmonies of bluegrass vocals illuminate the virtuosic synchrony of John Coltrane's quartet. Encompassing the sounds of five continents and several centuries, Ratliff's book is a definitive field guide to our musical habitat, and a foundation for the new aesthetics our age demands.

Download or read book The Mastermind written by Evan Ratliff and published by Random House. This book was released on 2019-01-29 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The incredible true story of the decade-long quest to bring down Paul Le Roux—the creator of a frighteningly powerful Internet-enabled cartel who merged the ruthlessness of a drug lord with the technological savvy of a Silicon Valley entrepreneur. “A tour de force of shoe-leather reporting—undertaken, amid threats and menacing, at considerable personal risk.”—Los Angeles Times NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • NPR • Evening Standard • Kirkus Reviews It all started as an online prescription drug network, supplying hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of painkillers to American customers. It would not stop there. Before long, the business had turned into a sprawling multinational conglomerate engaged in almost every conceivable aspect of criminal mayhem. Yachts carrying $100 million in cocaine. Safe houses in Hong Kong filled with gold bars. Shipments of methamphetamine from North Korea. Weapons deals with Iran. Mercenary armies in Somalia. Teams of hit men in the Philippines. Encryption programs so advanced that the government could not break them. The man behind it all, pulling the strings from a laptop in Manila, was Paul Calder Le Roux—a reclusive programmer turned criminal genius who could only exist in the networked world of the twenty-first century, and the kind of self-made crime boss that American law enforcement had never imagined. For half a decade, DEA agents played a global game of cat-and-mouse with Le Roux as he left terror and chaos in his wake. Each time they came close, he would slip away. It would take relentless investigative work, and a shocking betrayal from within his organization, to catch him. And when he was finally caught, the story turned again, as Le Roux struck a deal to bring down his own organization and the people he had once employed. Award-winning investigative journalist Evan Ratliff spent four years piecing together this intricate puzzle, chasing Le Roux’s empire and his shadowy henchmen around the world, conducting hundreds of interviews and uncovering thousands of documents. The result is a riveting, unprecedented account of a crime boss built by and for the digital age. Praise for The Mastermind “The Mastermind is true crime at its most stark and vivid depiction. Evan Ratliff’s work is well done from beginning to end, paralleling his investigative work with the work of the many federal agents developing the case against LeRoux.”—San Francisco Book Review (five stars) “A wholly engrossing story that joins the worlds of El Chapo and Edward Snowden; both disturbing and memorable.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Download or read book Reports of Cases at Common Law and in Equity Argued and Decided in the Court of Appeals of the Commonwealth of Kentucky 1824 1828 By Thomas B Monroe written by Kentucky. Court of Appeals and published by . This book was released on 1829 with total page 766 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Orders From Hitler written by Bill Ratliff and published by Newman Springs. This book was released on 2023-10-03 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the final weeks of the Second World War in Europe, Russian, American and British armies are closing in on Berlin. Adolf Hitler is getting increasingly paranoid and desperate. He orders a select group of Hitler Youth on a mission that, if successful, could change the course of the war. The only thing standing in his way are two American soldiers who believe they have discovered the target of the mission. Can they stop the Hitler Youth in time or will Hitler's orders be carried out?

Download or read book The Advocate written by and published by . This book was released on 1994-11-01 with total page 80 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Advocate is a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender (LGBT) monthly newsmagazine. Established in 1967, it is the oldest continuing LGBT publication in the United States.

Download or read book Journal of the Senate of Texas written by Texas. Legislature. Senate and published by . This book was released on 1911 with total page 1236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Lines in the Sand written by Steve Bickerstaff and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-01-01 with total page 485 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The events of 2003 in Texas were important to the political history of this country. Congressman Tom DeLay led a Republican effort to gerrymander the state's thirty-two congressional districts to defeat all ten of the Anglo Democratic incumbents and to elect more Republicans; Democratic state lawmakers fled the state in an effort to defeat the plan. The Lone Star State uproar attracted attention worldwide. The Republicans won this showdown, gaining six additional seats from Texas and protecting the one endangered Republican incumbent. Some of the methods used by DeLay to achieve this result, however, led to his criminal indictment and ultimately to his downfall. With its eye-opening research, readable style, and insightful commentary, Lines in the Sand provides a front-line account of what happened in 2003, often through the personal stories of members of both parties and of the minority activist groups caught in a political vortex. Law professor Steve Bickerstaff provides much-needed historical perspective and also probes the aftermath of the 2003 redistricting, including the criminal prosecutions of DeLay and his associates and the events that led to DeLay's eventual resignation from the U.S. House of Representatives. As a result, Bickerstaff graphically shows a dark underside of American politics—the ruthless use of public institutional power for partisan gain.

Download or read book 1981 1982 Miscellaneous Tax Bills XII written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance. Subcommittee on Taxation and Debt Management and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book 1981 82 Miscellaneous Tax Bills XII written by United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on Finance. Subcommittee on Taxation and Debt Management and published by . This book was released on 1982 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Follow the Money written by John Anderson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-09-11 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With its barbecues, new Cadillacs, and $4,000 snakeskin cowboy boots, Texas is all about power and money -- and the power that money buys. This detailed and wide-scope account shows how a group of wealthy Texas Republicans quietly hijacked American politics for their own gain. Getting George W. Bush elected, we learn, was just the tip of the iceberg.... In Follow the Money, award-winning journalist and sixth-generation Texan John Anderson shows how power in Texas has long been vested in the interconnected worlds of Houston's global energy companies, banks, and law firms -- not least among them Baker Botts, the firm controlled by none other than James A. Baker III, the Bush family consigliere. Anderson explains how the Texas political system came to be controlled by a sophisticated, well-funded group of conservative Republicans who, after elevating George W. Bush to the American presidency, went about applying their hardball, high-dollar politicking to Washington, D.C. When George Bush reached the White House, he brought with him not only members of the Texas legal establishment (among them former White House counsel Harriet Miers and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales) but empowered swarms of Republican lobbyists who saw in Bush's arrival a way to make both common cause and big money. Another important Beltway Texan was Congressman Tom DeLay, the famous "Exterminator" of Houston's Twenty-second District, who became majority leader in 2003 and controlled which bills made it through Congress and which did not. DeLay, in turn, was linked to lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who used his relationships with both DeLay and Karl Rove on behalf of his clients, creating a shockingly corrupt flow of millions of dollars among Republican lobby groups and political action committees. Washington soon became infected by Texas-style politics. Influence-peddling, deal-making, and money-laundering followed -- much of it accomplished in the capital's toniest restaurants or on the fairways and beaches of luxurious resorts, away from the public eye. The damaging fallout has, one way or another, touched nearly all Americans, Democrat and Republican alike. Follow the Money reveals the hidden web of influence that links George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the Texas Republicans to the 2000 recount in Florida; the national tort-reform movement; the controversial late-hour, one-vote passage of the Medicare Reform Act; congressional redistricting schemes; scandals in the energy sector; the destruction of basic constitutional protections; the financial machinery of the Christian right; the manipulation of American-Indian tribe casinos; the Iraq War torture scandals; the crooked management of the Department of the Interior; the composition of the Supreme Court; and the 2007 purges of seasoned prosecutors in the Justice Department. Some of the actors are in federal prison, others are on their way there, and many more have successfully eluded a day of reckoning. Told with verve, style, and a not-so-occasional raised eyebrow, Anderson's account arcs directly into tomorrow's headlines. Startling in its revelations, Follow the Money is sure to spark controversy and much-needed debate concerning which direction this country goes next.

Download or read book Bob Bullock written by Dave McNeely and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2012-09-21 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renowned for his fierce devotion to the people of Texas—as well as his equally fierce rages and unpredictable temper—Bob Bullock was the most powerful political figure in Texas at the end of the twentieth century. First elected to the Texas House of Representatives in 1956, Bullock held several key statewide posts before capturing the lieutenant governor's office in 1990. Though nominally the state's number two official, Bullock in fact became Texas's top power broker, wielding tremendous influence over the legislative agenda and state budget through the 1990s while also mentoring and supporting a future president—George W. Bush. In this lively, yet thoroughly researched biography, award-winning journalists Dave McNeely and Jim Henderson craft a well-rounded portrait of Bob Bullock, underscoring both his political adroitness and his personal demons. They trace Bullock's rise through state government as Assistant Attorney General, Secretary of State, State Comptroller, and Lieutenant Governor, showing how he increased the power of every office he held. The authors spotlight Bullock's substantial achievements, which included hiring an unprecedented number of women and minorities, instituting a performance review to increase the efficiency of state agencies, restructuring the public school funding system, and creating the state's first water conservation and management plan.

Download or read book Big Orange Black Storm Clouds and More written by Ron Leadbetter and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2015 with total page 637 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Leadbetter's book offers behind-the-scenes information in a, here-to-fore, unpublished history from the Office of Associate General Counsel for the University of Tennessee. All events discussed come from his personal knowledge and years of meticious notetaking covering a period from 1967 to the present. The book, over 600 pages in length, takes readers through the years of his life that Leadbetter lived to the fullest. Beginning with his role as a student leader of conservative orientation during the tumultuous years of the late 1960s and early '70s, the book moves to Leadbetter's surprising hire by the University as its first law clerk in the Office of General Counsel, only days after completion of litigation brought against the University by Leadbetter to obtain in-state classification.

Download or read book Shrub written by Molly Ivins and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2002-08-13 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When it comes to reporting on politics, nobody does it smarter or funnier than bestselling author Molly Ivins. In Shrub, Ivins focuses her Texas-size smarts on the biggest politician in her home state: George Walker Bush, or "Shrub," as Ivins has nicknamed Bush the Younger. A candidate of vague speeches and an ambiguous platform, Bush leads the pack of GOP 2000 presidential hopefuls; "Dubya" could very well be our next president. What voters need now is an original, smart, and accessible analysis of Bush--one that leaves the "youthful indiscretions" to the tabloids and gets to the heart of his policies and motivations. Ivins is the perfect woman for the job. With her trademark wit and down-home wisdom, Molly Ivins shares three pieces of advice on judging a politician: "The first is to look at the record. The second is to look at the record. And third, look at the record." In this book, Ivins takes a good, hard look at the record of the man who could be the leader of the free world. Beginning with his post-college military career, Ivins tracks Dubya's winding, sometimes unlikely path from a failed congressional bid to a two-term governorship. Bush has made plenty of friends and supporters along the way, including Texas oil barons, evangelist Billy Graham, and co-investors in the Texas Rangers baseball team. "You would have to work at it to dislike the man," she writes. But for all of Bush's likeability, Ivins points to a disconcerting lack of political passion from this ascending presidential candidate. In her words, "If you think his daddy had trouble with 'the vision thing,' wait till you meet this one." Witty, trenchant, and on target, Ivins gives a singularly perceptive and entertaining analysis of George W. Bush. To head to the voting booth without it would be downright un-American. From Shrub: The Short but Happy Political Life of George W. Bush " The past is prologue in politics. If a politician is left, right, weak, strong, given to the waffle or the flip-flop, or, as sometimes happens, an able soul who performs well under pressure, all that will be in the record." ¸ Bush's welfare record: "Texas pols like to 'git tuff' on crime, welfare, commies, and other bad stuff. Bush proposed to git tuff on welfare recipients by ending the allowance for each additional child--which in Texas is $38 a month." ¸ Bush and the Christian right: "Bush has learned to dance with the Christian right. It has been interesting and amusing to watch the process. Interesting because it's sometimes hard to tell who's leading and who's following; amusing because when a scion of Old Yankee money gets together with a televangelist with too much Elvis, the result is swell entertainment." ¸ Bush's environmental record: Since Governor Bush's election, Texas air quality has been rated the worst in the nation, leading all fifty states in overall toxic releases, recognized carcinogens in the air, cancer risk, and ten other categories of pollutants. ¸ Bush's military career: "Bush was promoted as the Texas Air National Guard's anti-drug poster boy, one of life's little ironies given the difficulty he has had answering cocaine questions all these years later. 'George Walker Bush is one member of the younger generation who doesn't get his kicks from pot or hashish or speed,' reads a Guard press release of 1970. 'Oh, he gets high, all right, but not from narcotics.'"