Now that you're all done with Labor Day, it would be a great time to re-dedicate yourself to making Texas a swing state by turning it blue one district at a time.
Blue 19th's $5 Friday has been a success - but there's still room for more. 14 people have donated $220 (and a penny) to put Robert Ricketts in Congress. You can still donate.
There's no better way to top off a sunburn/hangover/day with the family/all of the above than by helping build a patch of blue in West Texas.
Blue 19th is happy to offer its first ever Op-Ed, written by the Democratic Party candidate for Texas' 19th Congressional District, Mr. Robert Ricketts.
Throughout this campaign, Mr. Ricketts has demonstrated how different he is than the incumbent Prairie Dog Republican, Randy Neugebauer. Whereas Neugebauer speaks first and engages his brain at sometimes in the distant future, Mr. Ricketts has shown that he can deal with any topic with intelligence and forethought. As our country wrestles with the decision of what its image should be in the 21st century, we must call on all the wisdom and compassion that marks our history.
Mr. Ricketts writes on immigration this week, and shows that this is a topic in which he cares deeply - too deeply to let a Prairie Dog bandy about dangerous and racist rhetoric. Mr. Ricketts states:
At an Olney campaign stop last week, Neugebauer suggested that, like the Hezbollah terrorist organization in Lebanon, the Hispanic community in the United States wants to take control of our country. He further declared that over half of the prisoners in the federal prison system are “foreigners.” Nothing could be further from the truth.
You'll never guess what was number one on Prairie Dog Randy's wishlist this weekend. Ok, maybe you will. If you said, "Kneejerk tax cuts," then give yourself a big fat cookie. Apparently, everyone in Fisher County has better things to do than hear a Prairie Dog spout nonsense:
Neugebauer, R-Lubbock, spoke to 12 people, including his staff and news media, at the community center in Roby. Earlier Tuesday, he stopped in Rotan.
So, if we subtract his staff, who had to be there, and the news media, who were there to get a paycheck, we are talking about what - 2 people? Did anyone check their pulse? Did Randy wander into the morgue (again?)?
To win a campaign, it takes four things. A quality candidate, a winning issue, a professional campaign organization, and enough money to bring it all to the people.
We have a quality candidate in Tx-19. Robert Ricketts is a professor of tax policy, a CPA, and operates a horse stable in Lubbock County. Robert's strong community ties make Lubbock County a possible win in a county where Prairie Dog Randy has underperformed every other Republican by a significant margin - particularly since the Prairie Dog actually held office in Lubbock County. Robert Ricketts is a throwback to the Jeffersonian idea of a citizen-lawmaker who is qualified to hold office because he knows the needs of his constituency and isn't afraid to fight for them.
The battle against Prairie Dog Republicans has begun! There can be no retreat, no surrender! There is only our honor and dubious web-skills standing between our beloved state and total abject destruction of Biblical proportions!
Click the prairie dog and learn how a Prairie Dog named Randy became a cookie-cutter Congressional critter. Then click through to Act Blue and help Robert Ricketts smoke the Prairie Dog out of his hole forever!
A case far from District 19 has implications for electrical power availability here on the high plains. South and east from here lies Robertson County, where TXU wants to build a new coal-fired electrical power plant. The reason TXU wants to use coal is simple: It owns nearby coal mines. It simply wants to maximize its profits - which is what corporations do.
Two administrative judges are recommending to the Tx Commission on Environmental Quality that the permits for building this coal plant not be approved. Why? Because the pollution from the burning coal will not be contained based on the plans currently submitted by TXU. This is not news to TXU - it isn't news to anyone. TXU certainly has the engineering know-how to submit a plan that would meet environmental standards, but they just don't want to. They'd rather try and see what the minimum they can get away with is.
As Blue 19th has documented, Prairie Dog Republican Randy Neugebauer has been totally AWOL on fighting for drought relief. In 2004, Randy helped hold up the farm relief bill so he could shave $100,000 million from it and make sure that farmers didn't get relief for more than a single year. He made sure that losing a third of your crop still wasn't enough to qualify for assistance. Then, just to add insult to injury, he voted for a bill that funded drought relief by raiding land conservation funds. Now he's having coffee throughout the district, all but breaking out the fiddle while West Texas burns to a crisp.
But Randy couldn't wait to vote for the Sensenbrenner Immigration Bill that would have extravagant costs. It is estimated to cost $7 per person over the next four years - that's more than $2 billion! Where will this money come from? Why is Randy throwing open the checkbook on Immigration but sitting on it hard and heavy for farmers?
Give Randy Neugebauer the boot - give to Robert Ricketts today!
The Abilene Reporter-News' Sarah Kleiner writes the bare facts:
''Our representatives for this area have been AWOL,'' said Robert Ricketts, the Democratic candidate for the District 19 seat in the U.S. House, held by Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock. ''We needed aid months ago.''
The breech of public trust is astounding. Kleiner gives us the details:
Texas agriculture officials estimated crop and livestock losses total $4.1 billion so far this year, according to a recent Associated Press report. The previous worst agriculture loss was $2.1 billion in 1998.
Texas is forecast to produce 5.2 million bales of cotton, down from 8.5 million bales harvested last year, according to the AP report.
