Texas Tuesdays

Rally and Supporting Candidates

I went Sunday afternoon to a Bay Area New Democrats rally at Armand Bayou Nature Center - "Mother Nature Son's - Kerry and Morrison Indoor Picnic." We got to wander around the nature center a bit.

Richard Morrison could not be there but the great Democratic candidate for the Texas Supreme Court, David Van Os, was. Texas now has a Supreme Court that is composed entirely of corporate judges who receive millions from large corporations and the law firms representing them. It is possible to tell how any case will be decided just by looking at the law firms on each side or just seeing the parties involved. They have yet to rule against a large corporation and always shaft the public. I hope to have more on this later.

Just remember "David Van Os is a fire-breathing populist Democrat."

Lefty Hootenanny from Galveston gave a great performance of their musical/comedy variety radio show "Brother can you Spare a Dime." Their name comes from King of the Hill - DALE: "Oh, man. What kind of lefty hootenanny is this?" Looks like over a hundred people enjoyed their show. I should also have more on them soon.

Meanwhile it is Texas Tuesdays and we are highlighting the Texas House races where there now looks to be a good chance the Democrats can take back control. Up today is Texas House 10: James "Jake" Gilbreath who at 21 is the youngest person running this year. He has an uphill battle but the incumbent has not served his majority low-income and middle-class district well at all.

A short interview with Gilbreath is here.

His opponent Rep. Jim Pitts and his subcommittee cut or considered cuts many educators opposed during the 2003 regular session including:
- cutting $15 million from state grants for expanded prekindergarten and kindergarten programs;
- cutting $17 million from funds dedicated to programs for teen parents;
- cutting $30 million from the Student Success Initiative funds for accelerated reading programs;
- cutting $50 million allocated for career and technology education;
- cutting $300 million from the compensatory-education allotment;
- cutting the entire discretionary budget for the commissioner of education;
- cutting funding for both educational service centers and the Windham schools in Texas prisons;
- eliminating funds for outside fund managers for the Permanent School Fund;
- eliminating dedicated funds for extended-year, after-school, and Communities in Schools programs;
- and cutting the staff of the Texas Education Agency.

Pitts also introduced legislation that would lower the age at which offenders would be eligible for the death penalty to 11. What a warm and friendly guy.

If you can afford to help defeat this man and support a new young Democrat for the Texas House make a contribution here. Please add $.36 to let it know it came from the Texas Tuesdays internet campaign. I would also encourage you to look at and contribute to the Morrison and Van Os campaigns.