Stay with me on this one as it can be a little technical to follow. I will try to make plain what our friend Commissioner Staples appears to be up to. In essence is it about corporate friendly control over broadband access and the limiting of competition in its provision. My bumper sticker/30 second sound byte would be: Staples whores for Big Broadband - Rural Texas is road kill on the Broadband highway!
You should know for starters that rural areas are severely underserved by current broadband suppliers. No news there, rural Texas also gets the short end of the educational resources as well. But this inequity has a real bite on the larger stage of international commerce. The US lags behind in access to broadband and this hurts us.
Staples draws fire over broadband map contract A March study by two Philadelphia organizations - Digital Impact Group and Econsult Corp. - estimated that the U.S. loses more than $55 billion a year in economic activity because of spotty access.
So, closing this digital divide is not just a matter of equity, but of economics. Big Broadband is not in love with the thought that they will be forced to provide broadband to Podunk - no big bucks in that prospect. Along comes the government providing money to map broadband available, hopefully documenting the holes in the coverage. This would in turn produce pressure for Big Broadband to fill these holes, and/or provide funds for smaller local providers/competitors. What to do? Rig the mapping process/outcome!
As a political and civil rights activist, I have been excited about candidates before. The ones I have been most excited about are usually not from Texas as Texas candidates play it safe when it comes to civil rights issues. I am proud to endorse one candidate who is not playing it safe. I am personally endorsing Hank Gilbert as the Democratic nominee for Texas Governor and also as the next Governor of the great state of Texas.
Hank Gilbert has released a sweeping plan for civil rights for the GLBT community in Texas. This sweeping plan that leads towards fairer treatment of Gays. Lesbians, Bisexuals, and Transgender Texans is a step in the right direction. No longer would the GLBT community be forced to have hundreds of dollars of legal documents to try and ensure fair treatment by the law and hospitals in Texas. The community would be dealt with dignity and fairness under the law of the state. This is a great leap in the right direction for a state that believes in the strength of the individual and leaving government out of personal lives. I salute Hank Gilbert for his courage and his belief in Equal Rights for All Texans and encourage everyone to donate and volunteer for Hank Gilbert for Governor!!!
Follow me below the fold for Hank's sweeping call for Fairness for All Texans.
Political journalism tends to put things in "little boxes" and festoon them with a lot of "ticky-tacky" -- remember that tune? And, of course, political consultants like to "own" individual candidates and ignore the fact that actual government works more like a well-crafted party "ticket".
Finally, ideologues and flim-flam men try to "frame" everything as a simple, radical "choice" of "options" or "alternatives" or "dialectic". Actually, a lot of things only work if carefully blended and ... brewed.
That is certainly the case with energy policy which, in fact, begins as transportation policy that effects every voter, right now.
Yes, there is projected climate change. But, there are also manifestations of it right now that we can and should start addressing in a systematic and sustainable way.
This Sunday, all across Texas, Hank's supporters will have the chance to hear him on several different radio shows and one television show to cap off his 13-media market Road to Prosperity Tour in which Hank unveiled his Pledging Allegiance To Texas Public Schools k-12 public education plan and announced his run for governor.
First, Hank will be headlining Inside Texas Politics on WFAA-TV Channel 8 in Dallas-Fort Worth. The show will air this Sunday, Sept. 27, 2009 at 9:00 a.m. CST on WFAA Channel 8 in Dallas/Fort Worth.
Hank will also appear as a guest on the Texas State Network's This Week In Austin. The show airs on dozens of TSN radio stations across the state. Check TSN's website (link: http://www.tsnradio.com/statio... for the name of your local station, and contact your local station for the airtime in your area.
Finally, Hank will appear on the public affairs show ACCESS on five radio stations along the Texas Gulf Coast. The call letters for stations and their local broadcast times for ACCESS are as follows:
KLVI ( klvi.com ) 10am
KYKR ( kykr.com) 10pm
KKMY (mix1045.com) 6pm
KCOL ( cool925.com) 9pm
KIOC (bigdog106.com) 7am
It's gonna be a long road till the primary, and then on through to the general.
I must say, I'm really liking the active and assertive way the Gilbert campaign started out.
If you get a chance to check out one of Hank's appearances this weekend-let us know what you think.
Here is the response from Tom Schieffer's campaign:
Tom Schieffer has been addressing these same issues for months. Improving public education has been his No. 1 priority from the beginning of his campaign. He was talking about attacking high dropout rates and expanding early childhood education when Hank Gilbert was still talking about running for agriculture commissioner.
I have heard some others say that Tom considers Education a signature issue as well.
That however, makes me wonder why all his website has to offer on the subject is this paragraph:
Our children are competing against the best and the brightest in the world. We have to have a new educational paradigm, one that recognizes that we need to begin educating children before they are five years old and long after they graduate from high school and college. We cannot give up on public education. It is still the ladder up and out for millions of young Texans, and we must find a way to make it work.
Talking about it for months, and that's all we get?
When Hank Gilbert announced he was going to run for Governor, I thought it would change the fundamentals of the race. That even if he doesn't prevail in his admittedly uphill battle, that he would make whoever did come out as the Dem nominee a better candidate.
I didn't expect it to play out as Tom Schieffer wholesale lifting the Gilbert platform.
Hank being Hank, the campaign didn't waste any time calling Time Warp Tommy out:
"While Hank is flattered that Tom Schieffer thinks enough of his 'Pledging Allegiance to Texas Public Schools' comprehensive pre-K - 12 education reform plan in order to adopt parts of it as his own, the larger issue remains that Schieffer is copycatting Hank in an effort to breathe oxygen into a moribund campaign.
I'm sure it's not as bad as all that for Schieffer. Somebody in that campaign must have a pulse.
But according to multiple sources that have confirmed this to Burnt Orange Report, Hank Gilbert, our 2006 Agriculture Commissioner candidate is gearing up to run statewide in the Governor's race. Gilbert was one of the first three TexRoots endorsed candidates, which included soon to be Assistant Secretary of the Navy Juan Garcia.
April 11th, 2007, the Texas House of Representatives passed the two year moratorium on private public (CDA) partnership for toll road construction bill. It was passed as an amendment to another bill. In the House and Senate, the Chairs of the Transportation Committee refused to pass the moratorium bill out of committee, despite both housing having a majority of the members committed to pass it. On April 11th, the text of the moratorium bill was added as an amendment to another bill. In debating House Bill 1892, there were 22 amendments proposed. Several attempts were made to exempt proposed CDA toll projects from the moratorium. Some projects in the Houston area were exempted from the bill but it appears that SH121 in Collin County and some of the proposed Tarrant County projects remain under the moratorium
WHAT HAPPENS NOW: The bill (text below) with the amendments will go to the Senate. Hopefully, it will pass the Senate. The biggest hurdle will probably be getting Rick Perry to sign it instead of allowing it to lanquish on his desk until after the session is over.
It would be wise for citizens to keep the heat up on the Senate and Rick Perry. Perry should be persuaded to call a special session to consider all the bills he allows to remain on his desk unsigned at the end of the session and/or which he vetoes.
We need to remind people of the fate of Kent Grusendorf when the Legislature failed to adequately address critical school funding issues. This year the focus is on Transportation.
Thousands of people from all over the state of Texas descended on Austin Friday, March 2nd, registering extreme discontent with the Trans Texas Corridor and Mandatory Animal Microchip ID.
(DVO's weekly column. Be sure to come down for the DTT Rally if you can. - promoted by boadicea)
This Friday, March 2, will be the 171st anniversary of the issuance of the Declaration of Independence that proclaimed the free and independent Republic of Texas, the second Constitutional democracy to enter the world community of nations. Though Texas ceased its independent republican existence after nine years, something unique has yet ever run deep. Whether you are a sixth-generation Texan or a sixth-month Texan, you are an heir to the love of liberty and democracy that stirs the true Texas soul.
Please join thousands of your fellow Texans who will be marching and rallying in Austin on Friday afternoon against the twin torrents of corporate greed and governmental power grabbing known as the Trans-Texas Corridor (TTC) and the National Animal Identification System (NAIS).
Many of the "netroots" received my friend Barbara Radnofsky's Internet newsletter describing the meeting that took place on January 21 between Texas Democratic Party Chairman Boyd Richie and some of his staff and advisors, and five of the 2006 statewide candidates, including myself.
With all due respect to my honorable colleague Barbara, her newsletter did not objectively or accurately describe the meeting. To be fair, her description may be subjectively sincere. But it conveys an inaccurate picture.
(Edited to fit FrontPage - promoted by krazypuppy)
Fred Head releases documents showing that SUSAN COMBS failed to disclose income or expenses or ownership of a small business. In her campaign TV commercials she states that she "has met payroll on time in her small business for 25 years."
(Crosspost from Grassroots News You Can Use and Daily Kos)
When Fred Head filed to run for public office, he was in his twenties. Some folks said: "That Fred … he's a nice lad. Smart too. Shame that he just isn't electable!"
But Fred Won. He went to Austin and served in the House of Representatives.
When his term was up, he ran for re-election. The Speaker of the House and most of the other members of the house (those pledged to the Speaker) discounted Fred's chance of being re-elected. He was one of only 30 House members who refused to sign a pledge agreeing to vote with the Speaker on all bills. Fred believed the people elect Representatives to REPRESENT THEM, not to please the Speaker. Even though there was little chance that he’d ever be able to get enough other members of the house to agree with him and vote for the good of the people, Fred persisted in SHOWING UP, WATCHING and LISTENING and casting his vote. He debated issues and discussed what was going on with people back home and with the media, stood with only 29 other House members representing the people rather than letting the Speaker determine how the votes were cast.
His new website is: http://votefredhead....
That's the profit Exxon is taking in every second of the 2Q 2006.
Every single second. That's beyond outrageous. And they're being enabled by state and federal officials who think that government is for the corporations instead of for the people.
Corporations are not people-for one thing, they don't have to wait 10 years for the prospect a $2 hour raise.
(Is it possible that Good Hair's greed will do him in??? We can only hope.... - promoted by lightseeker)
(Crossposted on Daily Kos) Without watering down their populist message, Texas's most populist Democratic Challengers are winning over traditional Republican activists. The Trans Texas Corridor Hearings by TDoT are uniting activists who usually face off against each other. Democratic Candidates Hank Gilbert (TX Agriculture Commissioner), David Van Os, (Attorney General) and Fred Head (Comptroller) all face opponents who received money from Zachry which is the Corporation chosen by TDoT to share with Citras in the $190 billion 50 year tolled Trans Texas Corridor.
TDoT continues Tran Texas Corridor Public Hearings in various communities across Texas. They open the door shortly before 5:00 p.m. From 5:00 to 6:30 p.m. citizens can examine maps, listen to taped explanations of the project, and speak one-on-one with TDoT and TTC planning staff. (They call this a RECEPTION). At 6:30 p.m. TDoT presents a powerpoint presentation on the TTC and follows that by hearing local officials and citizens comments. Each person is given three minutes of mike time to speak in favor or opposition to the TTC initiative and/or the process that is creating the TTC. Stenographers are present to record citizens' statements from those who prefer to go on the record but do not want to speak to the assembly.
(Good stuff! Give it a read! - promoted by lightseeker)
(Cross posted from Daily Kos)
I take it back. Chris Bell is not too tightly zipped!
His first television ads are airing in major markets in Texas this week. Kinky and Grandma have consistently upstaged the more serious former U.S. Congressman Chris Bell during most of this election cycle. Most print and electronic news teams have concentrated on the comedian Kinky Friedman and the sharp tongued Republican Comptroller turned Independent who now calls herself "Grandma" as she runs against her former buddy Rick Perry for his job. Now the Chris Bell for Governor of Texas Campaign has fired their "rocket" into the living rooms of Texans and is waging his campaign's pocket book on this hilarious, definitely not stodgy, television ad.
Chris, usually seen only in suit and tie, appears in blue jeans with a sports coat jacket, in this campaign. He is a GIANT. The Alamo comes to his knees, the country side is small and the skyscrapers of Texas are minute compared to Chris Bell who tells folks that "We must Think Big. Texas needs a Moon Shot" and touts the need for higher education.
Link to hearing calendar. Please let Katy or Hank know if you can help spread the word.
From Hank Gilbert, our Ag Commissioner candidate who's pulling BIPARTISAN support on this issue:
A local Republican activist, who is also a precinct chair, stated that he told Perry personally that he would do all that he could do to see that he and any other elected Republican officials that supported this highway would be beat in November! He went on to tell the audience that this highway project is a bipartisan issue and that he would be supporting me and Fred from this point on! This issue will be the key issue that wins the election for us. I tried to tell the party this months ago, but it fell on deaf ears. Probably because we had some democrats that supported it in the house and senate. This highway is part of a master plan that needs to be stopped just as the Republican master plan of Bush/Perry needs to be stopped! I will be making a meeting every night for the next 5 weeks. I desperately need volunteers to attend the other meetings that I cannot attend to pass out these flyers. This will be our best opportunity to communicate with a large disinfranchised Republican base before the election; A base that we can turn to our side because of our stance on this issue alone, and how we plan to fix it for all Texans. If you can help with any of these meetings, please contact my campaign at gilbertfortx.ag@cox.net or katycutright@aol.com.
If you can attend, please step up now to make a difference.
I'm trying to find a copy of the calendar of meetings. When I do, I'll update this diary.
(The Trans Texas Corridor is something that will effect whole communities as proposed. Even wiping some completely off the map. Thanks to TXSharon for pulling all this info together. - promoted by boadicea)
As I read through all the information on the Trans Texas Corridor, I discovered that there are two issues:
The Corridor itself
The conversion of publicly funded highways into toll roads which is double taxation
What follows are Cliff Notes to the TTC and the new tax on Texans. I have posted them at Wise Dems. Please look over this information and make any recommendations. Once they are complete and accurate, I will format this into a flyer and make it available in a pdf file.
