Wed., March 31st, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m., Mindy Montford and Karen Sage Debate.
Broadcasting live on 91.7FM KOOP Radio, Austin or you can stream it live and free from your computer from 12 p.m. -1 p.m. at www.koop.org
Montford and Sage are candidates running for the Travis County 299th District Court. Both are Democrats. This is the only Travis County Democratic Party Run-off Election for this primary season. This is a criminal court that hears some of the most serious crimes in Travis County. This seat is being vacated by Judge Charlie Baird.
Experts unfortunately are predicting a very low turnout for this runoff election. I'm hosting this debate live on the radio to help educate the public about these candidates and help drive more individuals to vote.
I'm interested in hearing any suggested topics, themes, or questions that you'd recommend I ask either Karen, Mindy or both candidates.
Please post any recommended topics, themes or questions on this blog or email them to me at cleanair999@yahoo.com. Please keep them fair, concise, and professional. I'll do my best to ask them. I can keep the source confidential or I can reference you on the air.
At this time, this appears to be the only debate scheduled between these two candidates for this runoff election. This is a very important race for anyone living in Travis County and we hope you participate in the voting process.
Thank you for your suggestions, and for tuning into the show.
Best,
David Kobierowski
Talk Show Host
"A Neighborly Conversation"
91.7FM KOOP Radio, Austin
"The Urgent Need for Health Care Reform: People Over Profits"
When: Sun., Aug. 23rd, 2:00pm-4:30pm
Where: AFL-CIO Hall, 11th Street and Lavaca (just West of the TX State Capitol), Austin, TX. Lots of free parking available. We'll be inside with Air Conditioning. We'll have complimentary ice water, drinks, and light snacks.
What: Health Care Reform Forum hosted by the Gray Panthers. Expert speakers will include Anne Dunkelberg, Center for Public Policy Priorities; Regina Rogoff, People's Community Clinic; John Troutner, MD, Physicans for a National Health Plan. We'll also have a Q&A at the end.
Cost: FREE. Everyone is welcome! We expect over 150 attendees. Join us!
Best,
David Kobierowski
Gray Panther Board Member
512-249-0716
A group of San Antonio activists I interviewed yesterday, say their city council passed an ordinance that puts a price on free speech.
According to the website, www.esperanzacenter.org/freespeech; on Nov. 29th, 2007, the SA Mayor and City Council passed an ordinance requiring groups to pay the cost of traffic barriers, police officers, and clean-up for their city events, which can amount to $15K or more.
The website goes on to say
While the original goal of this ordinance was to streamline the permit and fee process for "Parades, Runs, Walks, and Related Events", concerns over limitations of our First Amendment rights have become a key point.
Although the ordinance passed says that the City will pay for the first $3000 of any "First Amendment Activities" on the streets, the remaining costs could still easily prevent free speech marches from occurring.
The group has sponsored bumper stickers saying "Our Streets Will Not Be Silenced", both in English and Spanish.
My Take: This ordinance is concerning and could likely be interpreted as a violation of citizens' rights to free speech and assemply. It clearly adds a heavy burden on any group looking to protest or march. Likely only corporate-backed groups will be able to afford these fees. It could destroy grassroots efforts.
What do you think? Is the SA City Council violating citizen's First Amendment rights?
Keep in mind, this ordinance might be coming to your city next. What if they did this in Austin? Or in your city? What side would you take?
Texas Dmoecratic Party Chair Boyd Richie authored a solid op-ed in yesterday's Austin American-Statesman (Sat., Aug. 1st) titled "Texans Lose Helping Hand Because of GOP Finder-pointing".
Richie makes a lot of interesting points in the letter. Some include:
Here's the Republican primary politics price tag on just this one issue. The state will have to borrow - with interest - as much as $2B to cover the shortfall in our unemployment fund. Texas employers will pay a "Republican Primary Tax Hike" because our tax dollars went to other states.
The unemployment fund fiasco should send an ominous warning to voters about what happens when politicians stay in office so long that they put their political careers ahead of what's right for Texas.
Today, we are paying the prices for a Republican primary between two politicians who have shown neither the character nor the leadership that made Texas great.
My Take:
Realize, what Rick Perry did, as horrible as it is for Texans, was politically brilliant. This is candy for his 400,000+ Republican primary votes he'll need to secure his win over Hutchison.
Perry was down by as much as 25% before this, and up at least 10% after.
Smart move for Perry, horrible for Texans. This is the reason Perry will win the Repub Primary in March 10'. He will do anything to win.
Can you blame Gov. Perry for wanting to win and doing whatever it takes to win? A lot of folks in that position might have done the same thing. He's simply pandering to his conservative primary base.
What would you do if you were in his shoes, knowing this act would likely help you win the Governor's seat?
Dan Rather, former CBS Evening News Anchor who spent over six decades as a working reporter, calls on President Barack Obama to launch a White House Commission on Public Media.
This was the message during a speech Rather delivered at the Aspen Institute in Aspen, CO on Tues., July 28th.
Quotes from Rather during his speech:
"I personally encourage the president to establish a White House Commission on Public Media".
"A truly free and independent press is the red beating heart of democracy and freedom".
"This is not something just for journalists to be concerned about, and the loss of jobs and the loss of newspapers, and the diminution of the American Press' tradional role of being the watchdog on power".
At state, Rather argued, is the very survival of American Democracy.
Rather presently hosts "Dan Rather Reports" on HDNet a "high-definition" network.
My Take: This is awesome. It's time to inject respect, integrity and truth back to the media industry.
One aspect not totally clear yet is how much the loss of integrity and respect toward the mass media has caused the recent death-spiral media crisis. There's been a gradual new media eclipsing old media for a while, and this is also part of the picture that needs to be accounted. As well as our overall economy in the dumps. In any case, we need and deserve a respected media.
Rather has taken a great step forward in encouraging Obama to form this commission.
Obama For America - Austin, Texans for Obama, the TCDP, numerous local elected officials, and many other organizations and over 562 people officially enjoyed the "largest OFA Health Care Rally in the country today". Local news reported "about 1,000 people".
But Per Mike Litt, OFA-Austin, the official count for sign-ins was 562. (We had clip boards up front for them to sign as they stormed into the hall).
562 is a very conservative estimate. Since a fair amout of folks did not sign-in. (I personally witnessed a number of folks walk in without signing up). We probably had nearly 900 people total if you count everyone, including those in the parking lot that didn't come inside.
Thank you to everyone for being part of history today. And thank you for everyone working to get the word out in such a short notice. Y'all know who you are. This all happened in about a week. Super job.
Overall, everyone appeared civil. I was impressed that citizens on our side (Obama side) kept our cool and took the higher road, even when challenged by the other side.
The "other side" included about 40 people that mostly lined the other side of Lavaca with signs and cheering against "Obama Care".
As for the other side, I feel they're doing themselves a disservice by crashing our party. This is why:
- Their arguments are weak and often don't make much sense.
- They don't have an alternative for reform. (I purposely stuck around for another 1/2 hour after the event, and talked with over 15 of them. I put myself in their shoes and tried to see it from their side. None of them could offer an alternative. They only wanted to stop Obama. I just walked away wondering what the heck they were trying to accomplish.
TXCN News (KVUE's top story this evening) quoted an individual opposed to Obama's plan at the rally saying
..."Mark Keedy is against the current plan. He believes if it passes everyone will get substandard care.
"There are always going to be people who need help," he said. "We'll always be here to help those people, but for everyone who says they need help there maybe a way for them to get help without this type of radical change."
Well, so what's the alternative???
- We outnumbered them by such a huge number that it was almost embarrassing for the other side.
- They crashed our party. Wedding crashers don't get a lot of respect by anyone.
- More and more Republicans and Independents in TX are joining us in this effort each day with about 70% in agreement that we need to invest in Health Care Reform.
I'd like to know how y'all feel about the "political wedding crashing" effort in general. (no need to call them the name that starts with a "T", as they clearly don't like it).
Please share.Do you feel this is helping their effort or not? Not just for Health Care, but for any topic or event, has our side or their side had any postive consequences resulting from the practice of crashing the other side's event(s)? Why don't they host their own event? Why crash ours? Do we ever crash their events?
Best,
David Kobierowski
Co-Founder
Texans For Obama
Andy Brown, Travis County Democratic Party Chair released the following letter, this afternoon regarding Voter Suppression Legislation (full letter in quoted section below).
One note is that I was told by a House Member that a Republican Representative is attending a wedding on Saturday, so my guess is that might not be voted on tomorrow, but in any case, please contact your representatve today and ask them to vote AGAINST Voter ID.
With Rep. Kuempel still recovering and assuming Speaker Straus does not vote, we have a 74 Dems to 74 Repubs match-up...
The Republican Voter Suppression legislation is scheduled to reach the House floor tomorrow. Senate Bill (SB) 362 is on the Texas House calendar for Saturday. It is critical that your State Representative and House Speaker Joe Straus hear your opposition to this unnecessary, partisan legislation.
The Republican controlled House and Senate both struggle to debate local bills and find solutions on important issues ranging from windstorm insurance, green jobs, and the use of the Federal Recovery and Reinvestment Act, among others. The Texas House is now slated to spend an entire day debating voter suppression legislation.
There are three things you can do to prevent this waste of time.
Call or e-mail House Speaker Joe Straus and tell him to focus the House's efforts on real priorities instead of threatening Texans right to vote. His capitol phone number is (512) 463-0686 and you can e-mail his office directly here.
Contact your State Representative and let them know you oppose SB 362 because; it has nothing to do with voter fraud and everything to do with using the reins of government to gain partisan advantage by making it harder for certain Texans to vote. You can find your State Representative online.
Show your support to our Democratic leaders by going to the House gallery, wearing blue, while they debate this bill on Saturday. Republicans have flooded the capitol wearing red in previous debates, and we need to support our Democrats while they spend the entire day debating this Republican voter suppression legislation.
Join in the fight to stop this restrictive and unnecessary bill.
Voter Suppression Legislation (Voter ID) is likely to hit the TX House Floor Thursday or Friday for a vote.
I've analyzed this from many angles, and each time it ends up within 1 vote - either for or against.
One of the big deciding factors is how much the bill might be amended before the final vote. That is still TBD.
We need everyone across the state to make a quick call to their reps and ask them to please vote AGAINST Voter ID.
All of our local Travis County Dem Reps are voting against it, and most Democrats are voting against it, but not all (latest #'s are 3 or 4 Dems can go either way. My sources report that Rep. Farabee will vote for it, yikes! Heflin voted for it in committee, but sources report he's on the fence and could go either way).
Some Repubs are voting against it (likely that Delwin Jones and Tommy Merritt will both do the right thing and vote against it...please thank them for this!!).
If you live outside of Travis County, PLEASE call your rep today and ask him/her to vote AGAINST voter ID!
Below is a msg from Terri Burke, Exec Dir ACLU released this morning:
Here are just a few reasons it's a bad bill:
Voter ID is an idea allegedly designed to eliminate voter impersonation. Except our state doesn't have a voter impersonation problem. Not one case of in-person voter fraud has been prosecuted in the state of Texas. The worst voter fraud problems have occurred with mail-in absentee ballots and this bill doesn't address those issues.
Voters without the required ID could cast provisional ballots, which would be counted later after the proof of identity is provided. Already, Texas has the highest rate of UNCOUNTED provisional ballots in the nation. What makes us think more provisional ballots added to the total will lead to more being counted?
It will require substantial expenditures by your county that will only be slightly compensated by the state. Other states that have implemented Voter ID have shown no proven benefits so why should we waste our taxpayer dollars in these tough economic times?
Voter ID is a bad idea. It's bad for Texas. It's bad for Texans.
Tonight the NxNW Democrats have invited former TX State Representative Ann Kitchen to speak to our group during our monthly meet-up.
We'll meet at 6:15pm-7:30pm at Sherlock's Baker St. Pub/Grill, 9012 Research Blvd., Austin. (It's at the corner of 183 and Burnet).
This is a free event and all are welcome. There's lots of free parking.
We have the private dining room reserved for our meet-up.
Ann will give us an update on the latest/greatest from the TX State Legislative Session (two weeks left in the 81st session), with a focus on Health Care and other important topics.
