March 19, 2014

Texas Democrats-Please sign up and go to Senate District/County Conventions on Saturday-March 22

The Texas Democratic Party has eliminated the old precinct caucuses that took place after the Texas primary. Now you can go directly to the your county party conventions or senate district conventions which take place this Saturday, March 22. You can sign up and find where your county convention/senate district convention is being held on this link http://register.txdemocrats.org/countyconvention/signup

This is the best way to qualify or become a delegate to the state convention in Dallas. Rumor has it that the keynote speaker will be either Senator Elisabeth Warren or Hillary Clinton.

I have signed up and will be attending my convention on Saturday.

March 19, 2014

Greg Abbott Says He Would Not Sign Lilly Ledbetter-Like Fair Pay Bill

This is not a big surprise other than how long Greg dodged this question http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/19/greg-abbott-equal-pay_n_4993761.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

Texas Republican gubernatorial candidate Greg Abbott said Wednesday that as governor, he would not sign legislation making it easier for women to sue their employers over pay discrimination.

Abbott's campaign told the Associated Press that the attorney general opposes bills like the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which expands the amount of time women have to challenge their bosses in court when they realize they're being paid less than their male colleagues for the same work.

Abbott's Democratic opponent, State Sen. Wendy Davis (D), introduced such legislation in the Texas State Legislature, but it was vetoed by Gov. Rick Perry (R). Until Wednesday, Abbott had dodged the question of whether he too would veto that bill.

The equal pay issue has plagued Abbott's campaign for weeks. Two of his top GOP allies gave controversial and convoluted answers this week to the question of what Republicans propose in lieu of fair pay legislation, and news broke Wednesday morning that Abbott has an equal pay problem in his own office.

Greg has been dodging this question for a while and the two surrogates sent out by Greg really flopped. One claimed that women are too busy to worry about equal pay http://www.juanitajean.com/2014/03/17/there-is-no-such-thing-as-a-republican-woman/ The next claimed that women are bad negotiators which is why they are paid less http://www.juanitajean.com/2014/03/18/and-its-our-fault-when-we-get-raped-too/ Greg is doing his best to give Wendy Davis an issue to use in the general election.

I keep posting that I think that Greg is running a bad campaign and is not as strong of candidate as Rick Perry aka Gov. Goodhair. Greg keeps on doing his best to prove me right

March 18, 2014

Greg is a bad attorney and is trying a stunt in voter id lawsuit

Greg was a toxic tort defense litigator who took joy in cheating widows and orphans out of money due to them. This line of the law does not take a great deal of intelligence. Since becoming Attorney General, Greg has been losing cases right and left. Greg lost both the redistricting and the voter id case but was bailed out when Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act was gutted by the SCOTUS. Right now Greg is defending two major cases involving the redistricting of Texas and the Texas voter id law. Both of these cases seek to bail in Texas and make Texas subject to preclearance under Section 3 of the Voting Rights Act.

The voter id case is not going well for Greg and so he is doing a typical insurance defense trick of trying to change the subject to point fingers someplace else. When you can win on the facts, the next best thing to do is to confuse the issue with red herrings. Greg is seeking to obtain each and every form of electronic communication (whether or not stored or in form to be searched) from every branch of the executive branch to try to prove that there is voter fraud in Texas. http://txredistricting.org/post/79922055563/state-of-texas-seeks-records-relating-to-voter-fraud As the DOJ pointed out in its motion for protective order, Greg's fishing expedition would require all forms of electronic communications whether or not under the control of the DOJ from every branch of the Executive and from all 535 members of congress. https://docs.google.com/file/d/0BxeOfQQnUr_gc2VORzFfejhxMk0/edit?pli=1

Greg is sort of backing down on members of congress and is now only seeking data from the following people:

In addition, to current and former members of the Texas Democratic congressional delegation,** the state told the court that it was entitled to discovery from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, as well as Senator Bob Casey of Pennsylvania and Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina who “both opposed voter ID laws in their respective states.”

** The current and former Texas members of Congress from whom the state is discovery are:

Al Green (CD-9)
Ruben Hinojosa (CD-15)
Silvestre Reyes (CD-16)
Beto O’Rourke (CD-16)
Chet Edwards (CD-17)
Sheila Jackson Lee (CD-18)
Charlie Gonzalez (CD-20)
Joaquin Castro (CD-20)
Nick Lampson (CD-22)
Ciro Rodriguez (CD-23)
Pete Gallego (CD-23)
Lloyd Doggett (CD-25 and CD-35)
Solomon Ortiz (CD-27)
Henry Cuellar (CD-28)
Gene Green (CD-29)
Eddie Bernice Johnson (CD-30)
Marc Veasey (CD-33)
Filemon Vela (CD-34)

This is a silly fishing expedition by Greg and is a clear attempt to change the subject. Remember that the Bush DOJ spent years looking for examples of voter fraud and could not find sufficient examples to justify voter id laws http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/12/washington/12fraud.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

WASHINGTON, April 11 — Five years after the Bush administration began a crackdown on voter fraud, the Justice Department has turned up virtually no evidence of any organized effort to skew federal elections, according to court records and interviews.

The bush DOJ did its best to manufacture examples of voter fraud and could not find such examples. Now Greg is expecting to find the missing cases in the DOJ files. This is really sad.

Again, I stand by my opinion that Greg is a bad attorney and this latest stunt shows that Greg is getting scared. If the DOJ wins this trial, then Texas will be bailed in under Section 3 of the VRA and could no longer cheat voters.

March 13, 2014

Are Americans souring on voting restrictions?

This polling shows that the American voters are waking up to the fact that voter id laws and GOP attempts to restrict voting are not due to concerns about fraud but are due to the GOP's desire to steal elections http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/are-americans-souring-voting-restrictions

As Republicans have pushed for voter ID in states across the country, they’ve been emboldened by polls showing such laws are popular with voters. But new research—conducted partly in Ohio, still the most pivotal presidential swing state—suggests that when it comes to making voting harder, the tide of public opinion may be turning.

There isn’t enough data to draw firm conclusions. But a genuine shift would be a major boon to the movement to protect voting rights, and it would significantly complicate efforts to enact new restrictions.

A Des Moines Register poll released Monday found that 71% of Iowa voters—including two out of three Republicans—think it’s more important that every eligible registered voter has the chance to vote than that no ineligible voter is allowed to cast a ballot. Just 25% said the reverse.

And focus groups involving swing voters in Columbus, Ohio found strong support for making voting easier:

Twenty-two of 26 participants said people should be able to register and vote on the same day, and the same number expressed support for expanding early voting. Twenty said they’d back providing a mail-in ballot to every registered voter. Twenty also said that every American citizen should be automatically registered to vote on their 18th birthday. Meanwhile, not a single participant wanted to eliminate early voting.

“It’s sinful that even one person is denied the right to vote,” one Columbus man said. “It’s much more appealing to ensure that everyone can vote than to focus on the very few instances of fraud.”

There was also evidence that support for voting rights could boost candidates for office. Eighteen of the 26 Ohioans in the focus group said they’d back a candidate who opposes voter ID, wants to expand early voting, and supports same-day registration. Just eight of the 26 said they’d back a candidate with the opposite stances on those issues.

We need to continue making noise about GOP attempts to steal elections. The American public is slowly beginning to realize that the GOP is not concerned about voter fraud but that these laws are designed to steal elections.

Back when the Texas voter id law was passed, there was polling that showed a high level of support. It appears that these numbers can be driven down by hard work and getting the word out.

March 13, 2014

Comparison of Texas voter id law with the proposed Alabama voter id law

The Texas law is designed to discourage voting and to make it as difficult as possible to vote. The Alabama law is still bad but has some provisions that make it easier to vote. http://txredistricting.org/post/79312624147/the-striking-contrast-between-voter-id-laws-in-texas Here are the striking differences between the two laws.

•In Texas, student IDs are not acceptable forms of ID for voting. In Alabama, an ID from any public or private college or university in the state can be used.

•In Texas, government employer IDs, other than military IDs, cannot be used for voting. In Alabama, any federal, state, county, or city employee ID is acceptable.

•In Texas, only Texas drivers’ licenses and identification cards can be used. In Alabama, any ID issued by a state can be used.

•In Texas, to obtain a ‘free’ voter ID, a voter must use a birth certificate or other narrowly proscribed official documentation to get a voter ID. In Alabama, voters may use private employer IDs, high school IDs, and nursing home IDs to obtain a voter ID - and, if they don’t have any of those, they can use any non-photo documentation with the voter’s name and date of birth, including Medicare and Medicaid statements and official school transcripts.

•In Texas. election identification certificates are available only from select Department of Public Safety offices - and those notably aren’t available in every county. In Alabama, a voter ID can be obtained in each county at registrars’ offices.

There is no voter fraud in either Texas or Alabama and so the only reason for the more restrictive provisions of the Texas law is to make it more difficult to vote. When repugs try to tell you that the Texas voter id law is necessary to stop fraud please tell them that there are less restrictive alternatives. BTW, most of the alternatives were proposed by Texas democrats back in 2011 but were rejected by the Texas GOP because the Texas GOP was only interested in making it harder to vote

March 13, 2014

Paul Ryan- an overrated fraud

I love this Salon article on Paul Ryan. http://www.salon.com/2014/03/13/paul_ryans_worthless_attempt_to_save_face_why_hes_still_an_overrated_fraud/ I have never been impressed with Paul Ryan and overrated fraud is one of the nicest things that you can say about him. Here are some good parts from the article

Ryan denied that Wednesday night. “This has nothing to do whatsoever with race. It never even occurred to me. This has nothing to do with race whatsoever.” On Thursday morning, he issued a statement saying he regretted being “inarticulate” in trying to make his point.

A tip for Ryan: If the racial subtext of your remarks “never even occurred to me,” as you cite a writer who has been repeatedly charged with racism, who is categorized as a “white nationalist” by the Southern Poverty Law Center (I’m not sure I’d go that far), well, that in itself is a problem. As Murray himself told the New York Times about his landmark book “Losing Ground:” “A huge number of well-meaning whites fear that they are closet racists, and this book tells them they are not. It’s going to make them feel better about things they already think but do not know how to say.” Apparently Ryan is one of them, if we give him the benefit of the doubt and call him “well-meaning.”....

But there’s one final reason that Paul Ryan’s hailing a “culture of work” and stigmatizing government assistance is particularly offensive. This is the same Paul Ryan whose family’s construction firm fattened itself on government contracts; who received Social Security survivor benefits after his father died and used that public money to put himself through college; who then went on the government payroll and has never done anything other than attack poor people while on the government’s dime; who makes $174,000 a year in taxpayer dollars while keeping himself camera-ready with his PDX90 routine (Paul Ryan shirtless is still one of the top prompts on Google); who enjoys $350 bottles of wine thanks to lobbyists; and then dumps on the lazy, immoral inner-city poor with gambling addict and fellow government assistance recipient Bill Bennett.

This is the guy to whom the GOP is outsourcing its anti-poverty policy. Maybe he can hook the “inner city poor” up to the gravy train he’s ridden his entire life.

Ryan is both overrated and an idiot. His budgets are true jokes. If you took one of Ryan's budgets to an investment banker, he would laugh at you

March 10, 2014

Juanita Jean thinks that Bobby Jindal questioning President Obama's intelligence is amusing

Jindal is an idiot who believes that he has the power to cast demons out of people. Jindal's latest stupidity was to attempt to raise doubts about President Obama's intelligence http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bobby-jindal-obama-intelligence

Juanita Jean found Jindal's comments to be amusing http://www.juanitajean.com/2014/03/10/frontiers-of-ignorance/

Bobby Jindal, Louisiana’s Governor, is once more not happy with President Obama.

Although he has no suggestions as to how to handle the situation in Ukraine, he feels sure that the whole thing would just go away if people would just stop saying that President Obama is smart.

Yep, that right there is the solution.

This president is often praised for his intelligence. The events in Crimea should spur us to revisit that notion, or at least to mark the difference between wisdom and intelligence.

But, Jindal has that wisdom. He says …

… wise presidents have always understood that American weakness leads to violence, American strength to stability.

Jindal questioning anyone's intelligence is really sad. Juanita Jean is correct to call Jindal out on this stupidity

Oh yeah, that’s why we had stability under Bush and violence under Clinton. No, wait. The people at the WMDBS, Inc. corporate headquarters are telling me that I have that backwards.

I’m wondering about Jindal’s thought processes here, too. He whimpers that, “our president is reducing the size of our military and boasting about the record number of Americans on food stamps.” Oh, so Bobby wants to be North Korea. Well hell, Bobby, if that’s your solution, see if Dennis Rodman will help you out.

Have I told y’all today that I hate these people? ”Be strong” is not a solution. ”Bring it on!” didn’t work, Bobby. They brought it and our economy tanked and our soldiers died.

Cripes, offer a solution or sit down and shuddup

Jindal's questioning of President Obama's intelligence is really sad given that he has no solution. Juanita Jean is in good form today

March 10, 2014

Abbott vs Goodhair on the campaign trail

I know Greg Abbott and he is a weak speaker. Greg was a toxic tort litigator who relied on beating victims with procedural tricks and not on winning verdicts in jury trials. Last week, Goodhair gave an enthusiastic speech that lacked substance but was well delivered. Greg is not capable of giving this type of speech and is a far weaker campaigner compared to Goodhair.

Juanita Jean had some fun discussing the reaction to Goodhair's CPAC performance http://www.juanitajean.com/2014/03/09/houston-sets-the-bar-loooooow/

Actual article in the Houston Chronicle.

Actual headline.



So if he speaks and doesn’t weewee in his pants or laugh hysterically at a ta-ta pun, he’s suddenly Cicero?

Dude, that right there is some of that “soft bigotry of low expectations."

Goodhair is an idiot but he can read a speech well. Greg lacks this ability and so far has been running a very weak campaign. The stupidity with Ted Nugent is just one example of the mistakes that Greg is making on the campaign trail. I am hoping that Greg continues this performance.

March 7, 2014

I said goodbye to my bearded collie yesterday

My family has been raising bearded collies for a while. Two of our bearded collies were in the Shaggy Dog movie with Tim Allen (they had 6 dogs trained to do the tricks when Allen was in dog form). I had to say goodbye to my beardie yesterday. He was 15 years old which is a good age for beardie. My dog had a major scare back in May of last year and we put him on nsaids and pain killers. My dog was alert and active until the very end. He had been slipping on the tile some that week and he was laying down when we left for election duty. When we came back from being election judges, my dog could not walk and we knew it was time. Everyone in the family got to say goodbye and I even flew my middle child down from law school in Iowa for the day to be with my dog at the end. I picked up my middle child at the airport at 4 and we were at the vets by 5 in time to say goodbye and be present when the drugs were administered. My daughter caught a plane at 8 this morning and made her afternoon classes.

When my dog was on the show circuit, he was the number 4 or 5 dog for that breed and could have gone to Westminster. My dog had a herding title and enjoyed moving sheep. If you get a chance, you need to watch a herding trial or competition. Beardies are beautiful when they herd compared to border collies who act like wolves when they move the sheep. Beardies bounce when they herd sheep and it is beautiful to watch. It is joy watching these dogs do what they were bred to do.

Until the very end, my dog was active and enjoyed bossing my youngest around. My youngest was 7 when Spencer came to live with us and Spencer considered her to be a puppy who needed to be supervised.

March 4, 2014

Fort Bend County has active SWAT situation at key voting site

There is a SWAT situation that shut down a key Democratic precinct in Fort Bend County. http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Armed-man-in-Houston-home-holding-SWAT-team-at-bay-5287880.php?cmpid=hpbn. We think that they will extend voting hours. Right now, voters can get to the polling location