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Saturday, May 10, 2008
Local Texas Elections Today In many Texas communities go find your precinct and vote for some local issues and candidates if you didn't early vote. Local issues often hit your pocketbook and your quality of life. Taking it back begins at the local level in your neighborhood. In Harris County go to HarrisVotes.com for your voting location. I had to tell my parents it was not at their normal location. My earlier Early Voting Political News Roundup is still valid except I decided I liked Phillip Hoot and John Black in La Porte. I still like the San Jac College bond issue despite thinking they should give regular non-Senior Citizens a much bigger homestead exemption. The local high schools now have better science and vocational-technical facilities then some at the college campuses. Paying for better educational institutions raises your community quality and brings better jobs. Some free voting advice. Don't vote for any race where you don't know a single fact about them. Try to know at least one candidate in races you vote in. In partisan races they provide a clue but don't count on it all the time. Don't use numerology or astrology to choose a candidate, unless you really believe in that stuff. Don't vote on a name or gender or what you think is their race if you know nothing about the person. You may be unpleasantly surprised. Start being a good citizen and get informed. My free advice and worth every penny. Tags: local, Texas, elections Gary Permalink on 5/10/2008 Thursday, May 08, 2008
Ah Houston I seem to get comments and emails from these people.Maybe she is really a little old jingoist mispeller from Pasadena? Gary Permalink on 5/08/2008 0 comments Wednesday, May 07, 2008
Join The War On Greed See how the buyout artists don't pay their fair share of taxes. How is it possible for us to be entering a recession while buyout billionaires like Henry Kravis saved $96 million through tax loopholes in 2006 alone? That's just one buyout billionaire, in one year, making use of one loophole!Robert Greenwald's new film and movement. He is also connected to A Dream Deferred movement. This seeks to provide undocumented students, kids, who have lived in the United States for years a way to become U.S. productive citizens. Visit the A Dream Deferred blog. Read about two of the students in Dallas about to be tossed out of the country after living here in Texas nearly all of their lives. Gary Permalink on 5/07/2008 GOP Running Scared in Harris County Yesterday a friend of mine received a push-poll aimed at smearing the Democratic judges running in Harris County. These push-polls are designed to smear opposing candidates with little interest in the poll results. Sometimes there is some interest to see which smear was most effective. To the best of her recollection here is part of the push-poll: Last night, shortly before 9:00 p.m., I received an interesting call. The caller identified himself and stated he was doing a political survey (sorry, but I neglected to jot down the name of the polling company, but it was not a national pollster or a name I recognized). I love surveys, so I readily agreed to participate....It is highly likely that the Texas GOP will lose the lock they have had on Harris County wide races for over a decade and to try and stop it they are going to the third leg of what they know best - fear, hate, and smears. Gary Permalink on 5/07/2008 Victory for Obama Hoocoodanode, my new word of the year - means who could have predicted or known among all of the highly-paid big-ego experts that.... it is often offered by so-called-experts trying to explain their failures, that Hillary Clinton had no plausible pathway to get the Presidential nomination? Very few in the media were willing to write or say that she had no chance. After last night it is obvious even to them. w00t! w00t! w00t! In North Carolina Obama by 14%. In Indiana Hillary wins by 1% unless provisional ballots change that. In any case, it is probably a one or two delegate win for Hillary there. Hillary needed a close race in North Carolina and an easy victory in Indiana. She didn't get it despite this being the worst weeks of the Obama campaign and her campaign feeling that she was finally connecting and clicking on all cylinders. She also didn't win despite many hard core Republicans voting for her as part of Operation Chaos. My only worry now is that the the race will be over before I can vote at the Texas Democratic Convention June 5th. I doubt it but I expect a quieter campaign and some movement on Florida and Michigan. "Given how far she's come and how little time there is to go, I can't imagine [Clinton] drops out before the last primary," says pollster and Democratic strategist Mark Mellman in Campaigns and Elections. The Hillary campaign is running on loans and the results last night will bring sharp questioning from her financial backers. It should also continue her slide in super-delegates and more defections of those that had declared for her last year joining those switching to Obama. The Clintons should be considering their roles in the party and in the 2008 election with Obama the nominee. Of the election night coverage that I watched MSNBC was the best and Fox the worst with CNN still spending huge amounts of time playing with their fancy huge hand-operated monitor screen. Gary Permalink on 5/07/2008 Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Politicians - liars and crooks OK, I have referred before to the fact that Mr. Straight-Talk Express this year has become a repeated brazen liar. He is at it again with another lie to go with his many others. Arianna Huffington in 2000 asked McCain and his wife who they voted for and they both said they didn't vote for Bush after the smears Bush's campaign ran against them. Now McCain is denying that conversation. More on this and McCain's recent history of brazen lies here. One thing to keep in mind was that Arianna was once the darling of the Republican Party because she really believed all of that stuff about compassionate conservatism. It took her learning firsthand from the GOP leaders that it was all a ruse to get votes that she had enough of hypocrisy and left the Grand Oil Party. The other crooked politician portion of this post has been deleted in the interests of Democratic party unity and to avoid dissing a possible vice presidential nominee when she is down. Gary Permalink on 5/06/2008 Monday, May 05, 2008
Is America Still Sane? Howard Dean also attacked Fox News on Fox News Sunday. Over half of the people entering bankruptcy did so because of medical bills. Over 70% of these people had health insurance at the beginning of their health problems - video. Our health care system is insane. Gary Permalink on 5/05/2008 It's SuperPander Girl! Wow, you have to read it or see it to believe it but Hillary transformed into SuperPander Girl right before our eyes. Didn't we have enough of ignoring scientists and economists and all experts from Bush? Hillary now thinks that is a winning strategy. STEPHANOPOULOS: Good to be here.Wow. "Don't talk to me about economists or scientists, I know what the public wants. And I know what my campaign needs - some issue to show I am on their side and will do anything to get their votes." I have been getting dissatisfied with Obama not focusing more on helping the working and middle-class but Hillary illustrates the dangers of just following that approach. Gary Permalink on 5/05/2008 Texas 2008 May 05 Roundup It's Monday and time for the Texas Progressive Alliance Weekly Blog Round-Up. Easter Lemming couldn't decide which of his fine posts was the best last week and so missed the round-up. CouldBeTrue from South Texas Chisme notes Republican-run government favors crony money over Texans' health. Asarco, a proven polluter, is given a permit to start polluting again and Abbott says lead poisoning landlords have a right to privacy. John Coby at Bay Area Houston, thinks Bob Perry should go to Hell. Doing My Part For The Left's Refinish69 joins Austin high school students in Breaking the Silence. WhosPlayin writes about the disturbing trend for hospitals to require payment up front for expensive services like chemotherapy. Even "non-profit" hospitals like U.T.'s M.D. Anderson are doing this, even while reducing free care and racking up huge surpluses. Off the Kuff looks at the race for Harris County Sheriff and foresees immigration issues playing a big role. The Texas Cloverleaf wonders why Governor 39% appointed a policy nerd to chair the Transportation Commission, rather than someone who knows anything about roads. Cronyism perhaps? In the wake of the SCOTUS decision approving voter ID legislation last week, PDiddie of Brains and Eggs fact-checks the need for it. North Texas Liberal's Texas Toad takes a look at the new Republican culture war over something just as useless: allowing guns in national parks. Thank you, John Cornyn. WCNews at Eye On Williamson has this post on the Reaction To Perry's TxDOT Appointments. McBlogger take a moment to talk about the state of the TTC and Guv. 39%'s appointments to the Transportation Commission. Lightseeker shares his opinion On Trusting Free Market to Regulate Government over at Texas Kaos. Vince at Capitol Annex shows another example of Voter ID Idiocy, this time highlighting an editorial from the Texarkana Gazette's pseudo-ivory-tower-intellectual editorial board and explains why such thinking is typical of suburban newspaper editors. Gary Permalink on 5/05/2008
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