A Veteran Speaks on Gay Rights

Harris County Voting Info

2009 locations,dates & times for early voting in Harris County

	Location	Address	City	City
	Harris County Administration Building	1001 Preston, 1st Floor	Houston	77002
	Moody Park Recreation Center	3725 Fulton	Houston	77009
	Julia C. Hester House	2020 Solo St.	Houston	77020
	Ripley House	4410 Navigation Blvd.	Houston	77011
	H.C.C. Southeast College-Learning Hub	6815 Rustic	Houston	77087
	Palm Center-Justice of the Peace/Constable Entry	5300 Griggs Road	Houston	77021
	Fiesta Mart., Inc.	8130 Kirby Drive	Houston	77054
	Metropolitan Multi-Service Center	1475 W. Gray	Houston	77019
	Northeast Multi-Service Center	9720 Spaulding	Houston	77016
	Galena Park Branch Library	1500 Keene Street	Galena Park	77547
	I.B.E.W Hall #66	4345 Allen Genoa Road	Pasadena	77504
	Sunnyside Multi-Service Center	4605 Wilmington	Houston	77051
	The Power Center	12401 South Post Oak Road	Houston	77045
	Bayland Park Community Center	6400 Bissonnet (near Hillcroft)	Houston	77074
	Tracy Gee Community Center	3599 Westcenter Drive	Houston	77042
	Trini Mendenhall Sosa Community Center	1414 Wirt Road	Houston	77055
	Acres Homes Multi-Service Center	6719 W. Montgomery Road	Houston	77091
	Hardy Senior Center	11901 West Hardy Road	Houston	77076
	Octavia Fields Branch Library	1503 South Houston Ave.	Humble	77338
	Humble ISD Instructional Support Center	4810 Magnolia Cove	Kingwood	77345
	North Channel Branch Library	15741 Wallisville Road	Houston	77049
	Baytown Community Center	2407 Market Street	Baytown	77520
	East Harris County Activity Center	7340 Spencer Highway	Pasadena	77505
	Freeman Branch Library	16616 Diana Lane,	Houston	77062
	Henington-Alief Regional Library	7979 South Kirkwood	Houston	77072
	Lac Hong Square	6628 Wilcrest Drive	Houston	77072
	Courtyard by Marriott	12401 Katy Freeway	Houston	77079
	Franz Road Storefront (DPS)	19818 Franz Road	Katy	77449
	Bear Creek Park Community Center	3055 Bear Creek Drive	Houston	77084
	City of Jersey Village-City Hall	16327 Lakeview Drive	Jersey Village	77040
	Tomball Public Works Building	501 B James St.	Tomball	77375
	Barbara Bush Branch Library	6817 Cypresswood Drive	Spring	77379
	Ponderosa Fire Station No. 1	17061 Rolling Creek Drive	Houston	77090
	Cypress Top Park	26026 Hempstead Highway	Cypress	77429
	George Bush Park-Glen Cheek Education Building	16002 Westheimer Parkway	Houston	77082
	Lone Star College-Willowchase Campus	9449 Grant Road	Houston	77070
	Crosby ISD Administration Building	706 Runneburg Road	Crosby	77532

Early Vote Hours of Operations

Oct 19 - 23rd

8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

October 24th

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

October 25th

1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.

October 26th - October 30th

7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Early Locations, PDF

- www.harrisvotes.org/docs/EV/earlyvotinglocations_schedule_ENG.pdf

- http://www.harrisvotes.org/docs/EV/earlyvotinglocations_schedule_SPAN.pdf

Election Day, Look-up: www.harrisvotes.com or (713) 755-6965

Constitutional Amendments - November 2009

Here is where to vote in Harris County. The map is by Greg Wythe.

When to Vote:

Early Voting Hours
» 10/19 - 10/23 : 8:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
» 10/24 : 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.
» 10/25 : 1:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.
» 10/26 - 10/30 : 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m.

Election Day is November 3rd : 7:00 a.m. - 7:00 p.m..

What to Vote For:

Proposition 1: Allowing cities and counties to issue bonds for improvements around military bases.

Proposition 2: Prohibiting property tax appraisals of homes from being based on the property's potential use as a business.

Proposition 3: Providing for uniform statewide enforcement of property tax appraisal standards.

Proposition 4: Establishing a permanent fund for the advancement of Texas public research universities.

Proposition 5: Allowing neighboring counties to share appraisal review boards.

Proposition 6: Allowing the Veterans' Land Board to reissue bonds that had been previously paid off.

Proposition 7: Removing the provision that prevents officeholders from serving in the Texas State Guard.

Proposition 8: Allowing state funds to be used for federal veterans hospitals.

Proposition 9: Placing provisions of the Texas Open Beaches Act in the Constitution.

Proposition 10: Extending the terms of Emergency Services District boards to four years.

Proposition 11: Placing restrictions on the use of eminent domain in the Constitution.

I think I am for all of these. Some beach property owners and developers are against 9 because they hate the open beach laws Texas has. Number 4 is particularly good, the University of Houston should qualify for state research money next year and it is money the state has but is simply not using. Tier One Research Universities are job creating machines. Number 11 has drawn some opposition because the actual amendment is worded poorly and contains loop holes even if it is better than what we have now.

Scott Hochberg has a lot more on these amendments.

League of Women Voters Guide to Amendments -PDF.

Milestones in the Quest for the Historical Jesus

This is a the new heretics view.

I consider myself to be one on the outskirts. More a mostly skeptical Universalist.

Saul who became Paul is very bad and Jesus seems a religious fanatic who thought he could bring on the End Times. James the Just, the brother of Jesus, seems the real leader and hero. When Jerusalem and most of Israel was destroyed only the Jewish communities outside survived and the Pauline Christianity community in Rome eventually became the most powerful and wrote the Bible, they also received the authority to destroy books that they did not support throughout the Empire. Jesus did not talk about atonement, that innovation came from Paul of Tarsus. It is to Paul that Christianity should trace its roots. The origins of Christianity as we know it came, not from Jesus, but from Paul.

The New Testament are letters that often chronicle the disputes between the Family of Jesus Church and Paul. The mysticism and miracles that are in the New Testament are superstitions that were copied down. A number of the Dead Sea Scrolls are from the first century and recount the struggles of the early church against "the liar" we now know as Paul.

Some of this is summarized here.

You Can't Please Everyone - WP edition

In Today's Viral World Who Keeps a Civil Tongue? the Washington Post asks in a front page story about someone who read at a school suddenly becoming hated by the right. Not for something she said but because at the school some children sang a song about Obama. Michelle Malkin was one of the first to lead the attacks.

Of course, the WP is scolded over this front-page column by the conservative so-called fact-checker Newsbusters.

They get facts wrong, of course. The repeal of "don't ask - don't tell" is something Obama has pledged many times before. In a nothing new speech he pledged it again and that speech was not a front page story. You rarely get front page stories when the President says nothing new - you might get angry editorials about him saying nothing new which is Andrew Sullivan's function for the Atlantic.

Another righty blog is outraged that the subject of the story is a government worker who has time to be a writer as well. Other than slams at the liberalness of it all that is about all that is there.

Pandagon.net has someone scolding the WP for only focusing on the nastiness of the right, not doing fact-checking on the inaccuracies.

Anytime the Washington Post puts an article scolding Michelle Malkin on the front page instead of one praising her I'll take it.

Climate Change - Is It Just Too Damn Late?

No

We must start now to not only decrease emissions but also to increase the rate of atmospheric carbon reduction.

Dying because of no healthcare in Texas

“If you don’t qualify for Medicaid or the county indigent program, you are in no-man’s land. If you can’t pay for your treatment, you are out of luck.”

Anyone who thinks that America has the best health care system in the world should visit the county clinics around Texas as people come there as a last resort. If they have gotten sick enough to can't keep a job they may get help - if the county clinic can find someone to take them.

Usually poor people would be on Medicaid. But Texas has the most misery Medicaid qualification in the country. To qualify in Texas a family of three can't make more than $188 - a month.

Texas Observer - Sick + Tired
How Texas' health-care system bleeds county coffers and sends some to early graves.

Shroud of Turin replicated

Jobsanger has the info on the Shroud of Turin being replicated using materials easily available several centuries ago. Scientists proved by radio-carbon dating it was made in the Middle Ages but conservative Catholic members on the teams disputed the findings. This touched off a long debate with supposedly scientific evidence against the radio-carbon results presented.

Wiki has a good article on the controversies.

Goppy lies over National Competition

"Why are you so viscerally opposed to personal choice (ability to buy policies across state lines, HSAs, etc.) and instead insist on a government solution ? - Someone in the Washington Post comments.

"Why are Democrats opposing the real way to reduce costs, allowing health insurance companies to cross state lines?" Republican strategist on MSNBC.

The last time conservatives went on a big campaign for personal choice and increased competition by crossing state lines it was over credit cards. Increased competition would lower rates they cried.

Immediately after it passed every credit card company went to the states with the least regulations. Competition diminished and rates skyrocketed past the usury levels most states had set.

They count on people not knowing history and buying into these supposedly free market myths.