Bio:
A US History teacher in East Texas, I have worked for various Democrats throughout Texas, including several campaigns and in the state Senate, House and US House. My wife and I, both Texas Exes, call Tyler home.
Samuel L. Jackson came to East Texas today, spreading the message of hope and reminding voters to get out and vote for Barack Obama. Jackson made stops in Texarkana and Longview before rounding out his visit in Tyler where he spoke to over 600 people.
I was there tonight within the Obama headquarters, a large office recently vacated by a furniture store, and watched as Obama supporters began arriving to see Samuel L. as early as 2:00 for a scheduled 5:45 stop. The energy, the excitement was more than evident as people came in ready to help out. Tables were set up so that as people arrived they could sign up to be precinct captains, block walkers and phone bankers. Before the night was over, we were looking for more sign in sheets.
As happens so often with these events, Samuel L. was a tad late, but received an incredible reception upon his arrival. He spoke for about 15 minutes before moving on the press pool before finally staying late to take hundreds of pictures and sign lots and lots of autographs.
Six hundred people in Tyler, Texas for an Obama event only begins to paint the full picture of excitement. Early voting numbers show that Democratic voters are actually outpacing Republican voters at the ballot box. Here's to hoping that trend continues!
(Expect a tidal wave of announcements after Labor Day - promoted by Matt Glazer)
In what is a small surprise to many Tylerites, State Representative Leo Berman (R-Tyler) has decided to seek a 6th term in the Texas House of Representatives. Berman, who seems to care more about illegal immigration than he does about his district, is sure to face opposition in his campaign. Many are expecting a challenge from Republicans, as well as a Democratic challenger.
Berman remains an adamant supporter of the current occupant of the Speaker's office and a dinosaur of the worst kind in the legislature.
I'll be keeping you up to date with all that is happening in District 6 over the next year running up to the election.
We previously introduced the BOR crowd to Jim Dow from the Texas 20/20 PAC. I thought we would check back in with him and see how he thought the 2007 legislative session went and what was up with the 20/20 PAC's members.
So another legislative session come and gone. What, really, did supporting members of Texas 20/20 do for us this session?
Your support helped re-elect a few of the members of the legislature that are still willing to put policy ahead of politics. They brought a small measure of civility to a process that was heavily colored by partisan posturing and legalistic parliamentary maneuvering. Today, Texas is better for it.
What are some other issues during the last session that the 20/20 members were working hard on?
20/20’s members worked on the issues that were important to their constituencies—whether or not that meant they had a consensus among the group and regardless of whether it fit neatly under an ideological umbrella. As an organization, we don’t have issue litmus tests. About the only thing that’s required is that you vote the way your district dictates you should. That’s why these members serving in tough swing districts have had such great longevity in the legislature.
Public education, affordable higher education, water rights, eminent domain, transportation. Those were some of the big issues facing Texas and those were things you’d find members of 20/20 concerning themselves with.
Bellwether polls are beginning to show what I had already suspected in areas throughout the country, especially East Texas. Rural voters have been turned off by Republicans and are looking for other options. Many are finding their way to the Democratic Party and many more need to be found and brought in.
The poll comes to us via NPR and introduces some really interesting thoughts regarding some changes throughout the country.
The article states, "I think there are two big headlines out of this poll," says Anna Greenberg of the Democratic polling firm of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research. "The first is 'Republican Collapse in Rural Areas.' And the second is 'Rural is the Battleground in 2008."
I certainly agree. The next issue, though, is bringing those voters over to our side. We don't want this to be just something that changes the Republican Party and see the opportunity to expand go by without even taking a swing. I think we've seen a really interesting type of candidate resonate with these types of voters in people like Jim Webb, Jon Tester, Brian Schweitzer, Paul Hackett, and more locally guys like Max Sandlin, Chuck Hopson, and Jim McReynolds. When I meet Republicans in this area, their one reason to dislike these guys is that they are "Democrats" and nothing really beyond that thought process. When you get into the issues with them regarding these types of candidates, they lose their argument and begin to become intrigued. But, when they meet these candidates, many of them come on over if they just give an open mind.
The poll looks at the always fun "unnamed" candidate against each other withe following results. "Forty-six percent of the survey respondents indicated they'd vote for an un-named Democratic candidate for president if the election were held today; 43 percent favored a Republican. That's a statistical dead heat, given the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 3.46 percent." I think this shows a couple of things. A real open mind this time around, to at least some candidates not named Hillary. I also think it does show some ambivalence to the current Republican field.
This does, at least, make the rural voter in play for 2008. The right candidate can make this interesting. I don't think that Texas, as a whole, is in play on the national level at this point. But, it shows a real weakness and a real possibility of strength for the Democrats in the future. This poll, in my opinion, shows a need for rural efforts being refocused.
We've got to continue to tie the War in Iraq and all of the Bush failures to the Republicans, even locally. I don't like how we are giving a free ride to many more local politicians regarding the Republican neo-con shift that has taken their party into a strange and out of touch place. God knows that Republicans haven't been so nice through the years with our national politics.
I hope that the writing is on the wall for our state leaders that now is the time to reengage in the debate. I think the current water rights debate is another shift that is bringing some voters out of the abyss that is the Republican Party. Let's seize an opportunity that is certainly there for us. This isn't just the midwest or western voters that are turning, it really is Texas, as well. Time to get to work.
We know the districts. No, not even those districts that are 65% one party or the other and in the right environment and the right candidate you never can tell what will happen. I'm talking about the districts, and there are a few, where the straight ticket numbers put it out of reach to the other candidate sometime back in the summer.
My state representative district is one of these currently. And, with little doubt, we get one of the worst state reps in the state because of it. His popularity, even in a 76% Republican district isn't exactly what we call terrific. In the last primary, he was nearly taken out by a fairly weak candidate. Since that time, all Leo Berman has done is embarrass himself on the national, state and local stage, get rebuked by the leader of his party (well, if you call the Governor that), and be one of the last diehard supporters of a failing and corrupt Speaker.
There is a lot of talk around Tyler about the need to replace such a blow hard. I've spoken to Democrats (who obviously want him gone) and even quite a few Republicans who are just ready to have some sort of a change. But the question rarely focuses on what Democrat will run to challenge this ridiculous man. It always, even with most Democrats, goes to who can we get to challenge him in the primary that would be better.
As a life-long Democrat, I find this so very frustrating and, yet, irritatingly realistic in this particular district. This is the issue with the last gerrymandering of the current lines and why we have to work hard to put Democrats in a better position by the time the next redistricting process comes along.
Further proving his idiocy, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Tyler, on the floor of the US House, linked Tuesday's massive drop in the stock market to Rep. Murtha and the Democratic Congress.
Think Progress has the video from the floor. Take a moment and go watch it. Rep. Gohmert doesn't seem to understand that it might be a good idea to vet your comments through someone smart before announcing them to a national stage.
Here's a copy of the transcript:
GOHMERT: You know, over the last 12 years, the Democrats have been in the minority, Republicans have been in the majority. The economy boomed in the late-90's. We had this tragic event on 9/11. It should have sent this country in a terrible depression, but this Congress, Republican majority, pushed through tax cuts that has allowed the economy to rebound and be robust and provide jobs and better standard of living. And in two months of talking about raising taxes and more regulation and we are not - one committee chairman talking about how he's going to undermine the President's national security policy - two months! - we have this terrible damage to the stock market, to the economy. Unbelievable. They were saying last night on the news that this is the biggest drop since 9/11. In two months of talking about all these new plans, we are going to cost people jobs. I just encourage my friends across the aisle, be careful. We built a great economy. Don't blow it quite so quickly.
Most analysts, who bothered to read books and articles and some of that hard stuff, have linked Tuesday's stock market drop to the Chinese market, to Alan Greenspan's comments, and, well oil prices that continue to fluctuate due to instability in the middle east.
Louie Gohmert is the worst kind of congressman: smug, uninformed, totally partisan, and uninterested in working for the greater good if it doesn't in some way score political points for him and against his opponents. East Texas deserves better.
Update: Louie Gohmert was named to Keith Olbermann's Worst Person in the World countdown. Gohmert was identified as the "Worser" person of the day for his idiotic comments, bringing the silver medal all the way back to District 1. We're all so proud. Here's the link.
Amtrak currently runs through a significant portion of the state. My hometown, Mineola, is one of the stops in East Texas. What most people don't realize, however, is that if you get on the train in Mineola and head for Chicago, the infrastructure doesn't currently allow for high speed rail in any part of Texas. However, once you leave out of St. Louis, heading north, your same train can go to speeds of 90 to 110 miles an hour. The trains have the capacity, our rails do not.
The Texarkana Gazette had a recent article discussing the current attempt to work on providing this infrastructure for East Texas and the rest of the state.
"If we're able to do what needs to be done, which is to have the higher speed rail along this corridor, then we'll be able to have much greater freight capacity ... moving the freight faster and more efficiently," Boswell said, noting more capacity is needed.
...
In Texarkana, developing a high speed rail corridor strikes Texarkana Chamber of Commerce President Jeff Sandford as a good idea.
"The chamber is cautiously optimistic about the potential availability of high speed rail in our area," said Sandford. "It has proven to be an added benefit in other regions who have this type of rail service. Much is still to be done, as it is anytime there is a public-private partnership, but the chamber will be following and investigating this effort as more information becomes available."
Ok, well, maybe Governor 39% didn't put it quite like that, but I know he's thinking it. For those of you not following Looney Toon Leo Berman, he's been on a rampage attempting to make every national news spoof program possible through his idiotic legislation.
The bill garnering foreign born (yes, I mean he was born outside of Texas) Berman the most discussion is none other than his proposal that the American born children of illegal immigrants should not be given American citizenship (14th Amendment be damned!). Berman hopes this will help get rid of the brown people he's been seeing around the north side of Tyler. I think we should pass legislation banning people born outside of Texas from filing bills on immigration.
Interestingly, Berman hasn't been backed up by his party's state leader. Governor Perry called the bill divisive and public health officials have pointed out that newly born children inside of Texas not being named American citizens could cost hospitals millions of dollars in Medicaid cash, which offset the losses. If the children are considered illegal, there is no such program and the hospital often just eats the cost.
Berman managed to isolate himself from basically all parties by going after children, proposing a plan that would cost hospitals millions, and well, is probably the most openly xenophobic bill filed in a while.
Others still point out that should any of this make it through the House, Senate and gain the signature of the Governor, it's not really legal. See the Supremacy Clause of the US Constitution says Federal laws are supreme to State law and the 14th Amendment says, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States..."
Any guess as to whether Representative Berman is willing to split the bill with the State of Texas when it gets sued by children born inside of Texas, but find themselves without the rights guarenteed to other naturally born citizens of the United States?
Looney Leo considers himself a conservative, but would really like to take your tax money and waste it on harming the weakest among us, the institutions that help keep us alive, county and state governments, and then use your dime to put together a court case to explain to the Supreme Court why he doesn't think the 14th Amendment should apply to Texas. As hard as this is to say sometimes, Leo Berman is too far out there even for Tyler.
U.S. Representative Louie Gohmert of Tyler met with the Lions Club of Hallsvile in Longview on Monday night. While there, he discussed many of the issues facing the nation and East Texans, including high gas prices, drilling of natural resources in the region, a short time on the war in Iraq, and of course his favorite topic: immigration.
Gohmert found himself in wading in head level waters of his own making while discussing immigration and Mexico in general. I don't know where to start with his remarks, other than to just provide them to you.
Returning to the topic of unused natural resources, he emphasized the importance of tapping into the resources available in the U.S. to make the country less dependent on foreign oil.
He also said the U.S. had become a prosperous nation, while its neighbor Mexico is still considered a third-world country. Gohmert said the natural resources of the two countries aren't that different.
"The difference," he said. "We are a nation of laws. As imperfect as our system is, we are still the most law-abiding nation in the world."
He praised Mexican people for being hard working, but he said they live in a land of lawless corruption.
I guess my first thought is, who wrote this rambling crap for Gohmert? Second thought, wonder if the 2.1 million people in lock up in the United States think we are the most law-abiding nation in the world?
I sure am glad Gohmert could clear up those questions for everyone. U.S. vs. Mexican resources...basically equal. And, since Mexicans are hard working, what could the problem possibly be? Well, its just that while the US is law abiding, Mexico is just a place of lawlessness and corruption. Way to speak in generalities and with such depth. Exactly what you want out of a US Congressman. Paging: Non-idiot to run against this guy.
DALLAS - Texas' largest Baptist group is taking a rare step into environmental advocacy, working to block Gov. Rick Perry's plan to speed the approval process for 18 new coal-fired power plants.
The Christian Life Commission, the public policy arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, is mobilizing Baptists against the coal-fired plants and urging the convention's 2.3 million members to voice their opposition to state lawmakers.
"A lot of people felt like our industries, our policy leaders, are going to take care of these big issues like air quality, (and) it's not going to be something our local people are going to have to get up every day and worry about," said Suzii Paynter, director of the commission. "It can't be left to big interests to make these decisions in our behalf."
I'm happy to learn that the legislative arm of the Baptist General Convention of Texas is willing to use their clout on helping to stop the desecration of God's work. I'm more than happy to praise groups when they do the right thing. Kudos to the Texas Baptists.
