Bill Spelman, candidate for Austin City Council Place 5, is hosting a "Community Town Hall" on "Neighborhoods, Public Participation, and Open Government".
Join us and share your ideas. Be a part of this unprecedented Public Participation process in local city government. President Obama has inspired millions to believe in their ability to bring change. Lets bring that can-do spirit to the local level!
We'll meet Sat., Feb. 21st, at 10:00am at the Will Hampton Library, 5125 Convict Hill Rd., Austin, 78749
There is no cost to attend. All are welcome.
I'm excited to see the energy that we started Nationally and county-wide flowing into Austin city politics.
It's sad that Austin only had an 8% voter turn-out in last May's election. Lets change that. Get involved. Be part of the process as we build an Austin that works for everyone.
State of TX Representative Mark Strama, is our guest speaker.
Join us to learn about the top issues facing our great state and associated bills proposed in the 81st Legislative Session.
We'll meet Sunday, Feb. 22nd, 4:00pm-6:00pm at the First United Methodist Church Family Life Center (1300 Lavaca, at 13th/Lavaca, next door to the TX Capitol, diagonally across the street from the church).
This is a FREE event, and lot of free parking available.
We're expecting at least 80 people. Seating is limited.. Last week we had folks travel as far as 100 miles to attend this forum for Donna Howard's presentation. It's worth it. Get There! Get involved. Network. Meet other civic-minded citzens. Get Informed.
The following is the third installment of a Left of College Station series: The Issues We Face, an in depth look at the issues that progressive activist will face in the coming year and the coming 111th Congress and 81st Texas Legislature.
Possibly the most difficult task for progressive activist is continuing the movement to abolish the death penalty, particularly in a state that has executed more people than any other in the United States since 1976. There is a particular urgency to this issue; every battle fought is literally a battle for life and death. Organizations such as the Innocence Project of Texas have worked to save lives; Texas has wrongfully convicted 32 people which is more than any other state in the country.
On Friday's episode of Meet the Bloggers there were several activist and progressive bloggers who discussed the death penalty including Mike Farrell, President of Death Penalty Focus, and Liliana Segura, rights and liberties blogger at AlterNet.org. This discussion ranged from the racial inequality that is present in the justice system to the inhuman and uncivilized nature of the death penalty.
The United States has prided itself on being an example for the rest of the world, yet this country is the only developed western nation that has not abolished the death penalty and finds itself in the company of nations that we often point to as the most egregious human rights offenders. There are four countries that executed more people in 2007 than the United States (42): Pakistan (135), Saudi Arabia (143), Iran (317), and China (470); the United States and those four countries represented 88% of all the executions carried out throughout the world in 2007.
The following is the second installment of a Left of College Station series: The Issues We Face, an in depth look at the issues that progressive activist will face in the coming year and the coming 111th Congress and 81st Texas Legislature.
The environment is a critical issue that facing progressive activist; this issue includes global climate change to protecting our environment here in Texas. The most dangerous thing about climate change and the affect that we are having on our environment is that it is unprecedented and unpredictable; there are not models that can predict what may happen in the future and if we do not act we will find out what the worst possible outcomes may be.
According to the Department of Energy Texas produces and consumes more electricity than any other State; however, Texas also leads the Nation in wind-powered generation capacity. With the resources that Texas possesses it is in the unique position to be one of the leaders of alternative energy, and it could also be one of the leaders in addressing climate change.
As Katherine Haenschen of the Burnt Orange Report reported, lawmakers such as Phil King are standing in the way of progress and are disseminating false information about pollution and climate change.
While the "clean coal" lobby spends millions on advertising, without actually having one "clean coal" power plant, and oil companies continue to spend minuscule amounts on alternative energy research, we must continue to pressure our legislatures to mandate the production of alternative energy and the reduction of green house gas emissions.
The following is the first installment of a Left of College Station series: The Issues We Face, an in depth look at the issues that progressive activist will face in the coming year and the coming 111th Congress and 81st Texas Legislature.
Reproductive rights will continue to be an important issue and the public debate may intensify in the next year, despite electing a pro-choice President, having Democratic majorities in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, and defeating anti-choice legislation in California, Colorado, and North Dakota. The defeats that the anti-choice movement has been handed this year will galvanize the activist in that movement, even though for the first time in eight years the anti-choice movement will be on the outside looking in.
(can't wait to see you all there - promoted by Matt Glazer)
At long last, we have an issue caucus schedule for the TDP convention in Austin next month - all meetings are scheduled for Friday, June 6 and all rooms are located in the Austin Convention Center unless otherwise indicated.
Doing my daily news sweep across the state's papers, I came across this article from the Houston Chronicle.
More than $41 million churned through the Texas political system in 2007, a year in which there were no high-profile races and only a few constitutional amendments on the ballot.
$41 million in a seemingly timid political year. But the really interesting stuff is what follows:
Millions went into political action committees that are bulking up for the 2008 elections. Those PACs include the Texas Association of Realtors, Texans for Lawsuit Reform and Texans for Economic Development, which is a collection of horse- and dog-track owners who want to legalize slot machines.
The rest of the article goes into detail about the individuals who donated the most money to political causes. But let me use the above quote as a jumping off point into something more substantive.
While millions of dollars will go through PACs such as those mentioned above, who will donate the millions of dollars to elect public servants who are truly dedicated to helping put food on their constituents' tables, or intent on ensuring them proper healthcare, determined to build a renewable energy foundation, and take care of the fundamental, and common sense issues?
One might argue that because issues such as the economy and healthcare are indeed fundamental issues that will come up for debate year after year, they do not need the funding push more specialized interests need to get a piece of the discussion.
Even with the attention devoted economic, healthcare, energy independence, civil liberties, and other recurring political issues, on how many have lawmakers come to workable, and notable, consensus?
While downturns, recessions, and depressions are unavoidable parts of a free-market business cycle, predatory and speculative lending practices are wholly within regulatory reach. While decision-makers work to fend off today's recession, would we be here had they stepped in earlier?
The same goes for healthcare, our dependence on foreign energy sources, and the extent of our civil liberties. On each account the situation has deteriorated to the point where lawmakers are forced to act. But why did we have to be here in the first place?
A counter-argument may claim that these are the thorniest and most difficult issues of our day, and that consensus shouldn't be expected easily or quickly.
I would agree with that. So while we have honest to god issues to contend with, issues that affect every citizen, do we really need to hear so much about lawsuit reform or legalizing slot machines?
But politics is a game of money. You and I can editorialize all we want about these issues, but we can't change much until we reserve our money to politicians that pledge to tackle the most difficult issues of our day, and dismiss the fluff.
And yet for every one of us that is willing to fund legitimate decision making, there will be many more offering dollars for more selfish interests. And how many viable solutions are there for this? Whatever they may be, I certainly hope they redirect that $41 million to much more worthy causes.
...or what to do the next time (also what NOT to do). We need to start an honest dialogue on what went wrong stateside, why it happened, and how to fix it. The "What's Wrong with Texas Ds" blog really caught our eyes. I need some help here, as I'm open for critism and ideas.Here are some points I want to make: The primary campaigns and voting for a challenger are important, but whichever one wins, he or she, if they do the right things, can win or lose a general.
