The Texas Progressive Alliance announced on Wednesday the annual list of "Gold Star Texans" for 2009: Ramey Ko, Calvin Tillman, State Representative Elliott Naishtat, Texas Watchdog, and Hank Gilbert. This recognition is voted on annually by the members of the Texas Progressive Alliance, the largest state-level organization of bloggers, blogs, and netroots activists in the United States.
Ramey Ko Ramey Ko is an attorney and activist in Austin. He should be best known for his work in Asian Americans for Obama, but Republican stupidity assured us he will be best known as "the guy who held his cool while on the receiving end of a massive dose of both ignorance and racism from Betty Brown." With extreme professionalism, he tried to help Brown understand why it would behoove her and all Texans that voting rights for Asian Texans and all Texans not fall prey to bureaucratic errors creating name mismatches. Brown's ignorance/racism and Ko's cool reasonableness drew worldwide media attention. Watch the video of their exchange.
Calvin Tillman Calvin is mayor of a tiny town at the epicenter of the Barnett Shale. Several industry giants seized DISH land and installed a several huge compressor stations and processing plants right next to neighborhoods. They built a crisscross of pipelines all through the town and on private property. He has taken a hard line with industry, crafting a strategy to get the most bang for his press releases.
Calvin and the DISH City Council spent @ 10% of their yearly budget for a private ambient air study. This is the first such study where the results were made public so that all citizens in the Barnett Shale area might benefit. The levels of toxins were amazingly high and many DISH residents are seriously ill but they are poor and do not have health insurance. Calvin worked with TDSHS and finally got them to agree to test DISH residents. This is the first time a state agency has tested residents for drilling toxins. Calvin travels to other areas and speaks about these issues. He has offered to speak and assist others and refuses any compensation for travel or time.
Calvin is largely responsible for TCEQ's changed policy, announced today, in responses to Barnett Shale air emissions. Also, he is a blogger.
State Rep. Elliott Naishtat and his Capitol Staff While he may not be a native Texan, the work that Representative Naishtat has done for the State of Texas earns him a spot on the Texans of the Year List for 2009. Even with Voter ID putting a choke-hold on progress, Naishtat and his Capitol staff worked diligently to pass more legislation than any other member of the House during the 81st session. The Representative from Queens, who just completed his 10th session, has consistently proven himself to be an advocate for the sick and elderly, passing legislation that will create the Legislative Committee on Aging and ensuring Texas receives $15.2 million in Violence Against Women Act grants. We would be remiss in acknowledging Elliott Naishtat -- as the Representative is always quick to remind people -- without also recognizing his longtime staffers (Dorothy Browne, Nancy Walker and Judy Dale) who work tirelessly behind the scenes to help make Texas a better, safer place to live.
Texas Watchdog Texas Watchdog had a role in breaking stories in the just-completed Houston city elections. Though their work can, at times, be controversial, we welcome another online news organization to the Texas media landscape with our nomination of the group.
Hank Gilbert For his continuing work to defeat infrastructure privatization schemes and working with Democrats and more than a few Republicans, he helped put a stop to CDA's this past session and handed Governor Perry and Commissioner Todd Staples a rare defeat.
You'll recall earlier this week that the intolerant Republican Representative from House District 4, Betty Brown, announced her campaign for re-election to a sixth term to the Texas House.
As mentioned in an earlier post, the Asian Political Leadership Fund made it clear that they intend to launch television advertising against the intolerant Terrell Republican. You can view the ad here.
As reported by the Quorum Report this week, Brown faces a crowded Republican Primary field:
First elected in 1998, Brown is seeking her sixth term as legislator. One of her opponents, Lance Gooden, said that he's running because Brown doesn't have too many accomplishments to show for her time spent in the Capitol. ... Others filing papers this summer to run in HD 4 include Jeffrey Fulgham Jr., an executive at the First State Bank of Brownsboro, and Melissa Pehle-Hill who announced her candidacy at the Athens Texas Independence Day Tea Party.
Brown has her hands full with an upcoming primary challenge from many angles of the Right. She narrowly held off a formidable opponent in 2008 with just 52.5% of the primary vote. The Asian American Leadership Fund is clearly looking to knock Brown off in the primary and might just accomplish that task. That likely means House District 4 will be represented by a Republican not named Betty Brown, as the district is clearly drawn for someone from the Right versus the Left.
Republican State Representative, Betty Brown of Terrell, announced her bid to run for re-election to House District 4, indicating she has no worries about being a high priority target of a large, national based Asian-American organization known as the Asian Political Leadership Fund.
You'll recall that the twelve year incumbent made news by demonstrating her, and her Party's level of intolerance during Voter Suppression Committee hearings this past spring, by interrupting Ramey Ko and his testimony with this bigoted remark:
"Rather than everyone here having to learn Chinese - I understand it's a rather difficult language - do you think that it would behoove you and your citizens to adopt a name that we could deal with more readily here?"
"The world should see Texas as a big, modern, important state with the twelfth largest economy on earth.
Unfortunately, some of our politicians still seem pretty small.
Betty Brown - she made national news when she said U.S. citizens with Asian names should give up their birthright in order to vote.
If Texas is going to play a bigger role on the world stage, shouldn't our leaders be bigger, too?"
Matt Glazer rightfully pointed out in April of this year that Asian-Americans are a growing population in Texas. Clearly the remarks by ultra-conservative Brown have drawn the community's ire--and rightfully so. Brown has indicated that she intends to keep Voter Suppression as one of her top issues in her platform for re-election as a Republican in 2010---that, and say "no" all the time versus proposing constructive, forward-thinking legislation to solve problems of every day Texans.
The question is who will the Asian Political Leadership Fund actively back? In 2008, Brown easily won re-election to a sixth term in defeating former Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Victor Morales. Where Brown ran into deep trouble was in the Republican Primary, where she squeaked by with only 52.5% of the vote. Will this national Asian-American organization back a Republican challenger or hold their gun powder for a general election? My bet is that the Leadership Fund will do whatever it takes, primary or general, to knock the intolerant Terrell Republican off the ballot.
Following her comments last week, State Rep. Betty Brown has proven to be been an attractive target for comedians. After a mention of the incident on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update, The Onion published this today.
It is unfortunate that Betty Brown's comments served to reinfoce stereotypes people have about Texans. If you haven't seen it yet, be sure to watch Ramey Ko's response.
This is a fantastic interview done by KXAN's Jenny Hoff with Ramey Ko in reaction to Rep. Betty's Brown's remarks about Asian American's adopting "easier names" in relation to his testimony regarding the Voter ID bills.
Be sure to watch the last minute of Ko's response- it's solid.
While this video was shot before Obama's announcement of Joe Biden as his running mate, check out Elise Hu's coverage of Austin area national delegate Ramey Ko and DNC member elect Rick Cofer.
Also, Blogger Mean Rachel is on her way to Denver already, same flight as delegate Rep. Mark Strama according to her twitter.
Capital City Young Democrats will be hosting a fundraiser this Saturday, June 28, 2008 from 7:00 to 10:00 p.m. at the home of Kim Hokanson and Vincent Cho in Austin, Texas. This fundraiser is in honor of CCYD members who are going to the National Convention in August, including delegates, an alternate, and a new DNC member! Proceeds will help convention-goers with the costs of traveling to Denver.
