Lubbock Left

Let’s prognosticate!

I know I said it already, but my predictions for the two Republican State House candidate runoffs: John Frullo and Delwin Jones. I don’t think Frullo will win in November, but I think he is best-positioned within his party’s primary.

My predictions for contested City Council races: Mayor Tom Martin will be reelected, Victor Hernandez will win District 1, and Karen Gibson will win District 5. No offense meant to the other candidates in these races. I’m not going to involve myself in the City Council races at all this year, so these are my armchair best-guesses.

I also predict that John Miller will be successful in gathering enough signatures for his race for County Judge as an independent.

Also, congratulations to Councilman Todd Klein, the only unopposed City Council member in the May 2010 election. Todd’s reputation for being approachable and thoughtful is well-deserved; I’m not surprised that no one challenged him.

As of this morning, all four LISD Board member positions are unopposed as well, but I can’t really explain that one.

What are your thoughts about the pre-summertime state of Lubbock politics?

The open carry movement is a fascinating one to watch.

Today I read a New York Times article describing the U.S. open-carry movement, and it’s got me thinking about what motivates people who happily wear a gun all over town.

A California group is wearing their guns to draw attention to the difficulty of getting a concealed carry permit in California versus the relative ease of open carry. It’s an interesting form of civil protest, but I don’t think it has the effect that second amendment advocates desire.

See, open-carry meetings are like the gay pride parades of the pro-gun movement. Sure, second amendment advocates are (in most states) within their rights to openly carry guns, but doing so creates an aura of unease around them. As the above NY Times article mentions, the NRA is (wisely) distancing themselves from the open carry movement — at least publicly.

Texas doesn’t have open carry, so this doesn’t apply too much here in Lubbock. However, I feel compelled to state what good “gun people” already know: you don’t need to wear your guns like a fashion statement. No one is coming to take your guns, either. Next time you feel the need to strap on a gun (or knife, for that matter) where it can be seen, don’t. Unless you’re a peace officer, you’re just going to scare people.

I’ve been reading Marilyn Johnson’s excellent, brand new book This Book Is Overdue!: How Librarians and Cybrarians Can Save Us All, and it’s reminded me of that disaster of Bush-era legislation: The Patriot Act.

Chapter 5 in Johnson’s book describes the story of the Connecticut Four, who were librarians and library administrators who resisted the Patriot Act. Unfortunately, their court-ordered gags did not let them speak out about their resistance before the Patriot Act was first renewed in 2005. Because of the gag order, Bush and company were free to lie to the public, saying that no official challenges to the Patriot Act had been received.

Earlier this Week, Congress and President Obama extended the Bush Patriot Act for yet another year. This is a huge disappointment to me.

A key factor in the Connecticut Four’s ability to resist the Patriot Act was their organizing ahead of time. In consultation with their lawyer, they devised a policy to refer all “national security letters” and other requests for patron information all the way up the chain to the Executive Director of the library consortium (one of the Connecticut Four). This well-rehearsed policy prevented FBI agents or anyone else from pressuring library staff at the bottom of the totem poll into compliance with a “national security letter” — compliance that meant not only breaching library users’ privacy but also covering up that breach of privacy.

An old children’s story comes to mind: Drummer Hoff. Look it up some time if you don’t know it; or better still, ask a librarian to help you find a copy. At any rate, I bring up Drummer Hoff to illustrate the point that, ultimately, it’s up to us whether we follow unjust orders.

So, I take heart that, out there among the people of all walks of life who are willing to defend our civil liberties, the librarians have got our back. And librarians by nature know how to organize. Some librarians are even sly enough to post signs like:

THE FBI HAS NOT BEEN HERE
(watch very closely for the removal of this sign)

I’m very pleased with how Election Night went tonight.

My Precinct Convention went smoothly — we had 3 attend and passed 2 resolutions and 4 delegates on to the County Convention. The Republican Precinct Convention in my Precinct had one lonely attendee. (I’ve been in that situation myself in my old precinct, but there was also only one Republican there at the time, so I consider it a tie.)

Local races went pretty much as I expected. Pam Brink will continue as Lubbock County Democratic Party Chair, thank goodness. On the Republican side, runoffs are where I expected them to be, and incumbents kept their place where I expected they would (and one judge that really needed to go, went).

My Predictions for the Republican State House District 83 and 84 runoffs: Jones and Frullo.

And remember, the race for Lubbock County Judge is not over yet. John Miller plans to run as an independent if he can get the signatures, and I believe he can.

Statewide, I’m not surprised that Perry got the GOP nod without a runoff, since he’s been playing to the Republican base for over a year with all kinds of outrageous stunts and sound bytes. For me, this is great news, because I think Bill White can mop the floor with Rick Perry in November.

Lastly, as of this writing, it looks like Hank Gilbert will win out over Kinky Friedman, which is a relief. We have a serious, strong ticket from top to bottom in 2010.

What are your thoughts about the outcome of Primary 2010?

Tomorrow is Election Day. After voting, don’t forget about your Democratic Party Precinct Convention!

Even if you voted early, you can still participate in your Precinct Convention tomorrow.

The Precinct Convention takes place at the Election Day polling place for your precinct. A full list of Election Day polling locations is available online from the Lubbock County Office of Elections.

The packets for the Democratic Party Precinct Conventions will be released at 7:15 by the Election Judge at the polling place. The Democratic Party Precinct Chair for the Precinct should call the convention to order, but if your precinct has no chair — or if that person is not there — anyone else who voted in the Democratic Party Primary in that Precinct can call the Precinct Convention to order. The instructions in the packet will explain what to do. If you want to get a head start, check out the rules on the Texas Democratic Party’s website.

Since this isn’t a presidential year, the most important thing you can do is to bring resolutions to your precinct convention. If a resolution is passed by a precinct, it is automatically considered at the County Convention (March 20 at Cavazos Jr. High). New resolutions can also be introduced from the floor at the County and even at the State conventions, but, practically speaking, new resolutions are harder to introduce at each higher level.

For me, the joy is always in meeting my Democratic neighbors, sometimes for the first time. This will be my third Precinct Convention, but the first one in my new precinct.

I’m looking forward to it, and I hope you are too.

Sick of tea parties?

How about a coffee party movement!

I was excited to hear about the Coffee Party USA website a few days ago, and equally excited friends of mine have been contacting me about it over the past few days as well.

The basic idea is this: form a grassroots group of people who want to be involved in their own governance because they believe we can solve some of our problems through good government. From their about page:

We are diverse — ethnically, geographically, politically, in age and in experience.

We are 100% grassroots. No lobbyists here. No pundits. And no hyper-partisan strategists calling the shots in this movement. We are a spontaneous and collective expression of our desire to forge a culture of civic engagement that is solution-oriented, not blame-oriented.

We demand a government that responds to the needs of the majority of its citizens as expressed by our votes and by our voices; NOT corporate interests as expressed by misleading advertisements and campaign contributions.

We want a society in which democracy is treated as sacrosanct and ordinary citizens participate out of a sense of civic duty, civic pride, and a desire to contribute to society. The Coffee Party is a call to action. Our Founding Fathers and Mothers gave us an enduring gift — Democracy — and we must use it to meet the challenges that we face as a nation.

Anyone want to start a Lubbock chapter?

(I do a gazillion things already, so I won’t be organizing this one. But, I will gladly attend!)

On a somewhat related note, I may have found a new favorite T-Shirt.

CoffeePartyUSA.com
Facebook.com/coffeeparty
Twitter.com/coffeepartyusa

On Thursday, the Lubbock City Council voted 4-3 to ignore the homeless situation in our city.

Thank you Councilman Klein for introducing the resolution to form a committee to evaluate the homeless situation in Lubbock. Thank you also Council members DeLeon and Price for supporting the resolution.

To the rest of the Council: what were you thinking?

This is the most willful head-in-the-sand moment I can recall. Sure, the City Council has ignored the recommendations from citizen committees in the past, but now they don’t even want to form a committee in the first place. Advisory committees don’t cost anything, so why not form one? How can Council members Beane et al make final pronouncements about what our city government can and cannot do without even studying the problem?

The A-J article covering the Council’s vote is online, and the discussion on that article has already fleshed out some of the main positions. Here’s Councilman Beane from that article:

“What do homeless people need?” Beane asked. “They need shelter. We don’t need a committee to study it to death.”

What proud ignorance! Homelessness is more than a question of roofs over heads. How about finding out why people are homeless in the first place? How about connecting homeless people with existing social programs that might be able to help? How about City/County/State cooperation?

What about grants?

What about tax breaks for businesses that provide food or shelter to the homeless?

What about any outside-the-box thinking at all?

This is a fundamental flaw of conservatism, by the way: a lack of imagination and vision when it comes to problem solving. The conservative impulse is to say “not my problem” and move on. Conservatism applied on a society-wide scale means that “not my problem” becomes “not our problem,” which is a recipe for disaster.

Applied on a Lubbock-wide scale, “conservative” “leadership” has resulted in a volunteer community that is struggling to keep up with huge social problems like homelessness largely without government support.

Churches and volunteer organizations are showing great leadership on the issue of homelessness. It’s a shame that 4 members of the Lubbock City Council won’t do the same.

Today an angry citizen flew his plane into an IRS (and other folks) office building in Austin in an act of domestic terrorism.

When the story first broke on LubbockOnline.com, a reader going by lubbock57 put a mirrored link to the original webpage of Joseph Stack’s rant/suicide note online in the comments. Thanks to this person for a useful service to citizen journalism.

Bob Moser over at the Texas Observer has probably the most balanced take on it. There are elements from the guy’s suicide note that appeal to those on the left as well as on the right.

However.

Which end of the political spectrum has pundits irresponsibly inciting their listeners to violence?

Which side gins up as much faux-populist anger as they can for short-term political gain?

Which side treats taxes as the highest concern and money as the highest good while ignoring systematic problems of social justice?

In the end, this sad episode of plane-into-building is the work of a crazy person, or at least a person who snapped. But, as with all terrorist acts, there is a rational component in pursuit of a political goal. It’s not hard to spot the goal, the rationale, or which end of the political spectrum it came from.

“A picture is worth a thousand words.”

Sometimes, to cut through the Gordian details of a debate, we need an Alexandrian chart.

This is the one.

We can argue all day over whether a “saved job” counts as job growth, but it’s clear from the chart to the left that the Recovery Act is working.

Now, we need to get a strong jobs bill through Congress, and hopefully it will be one that focuses on what worked best from the Recovery Act.

And since I’m enjoying the power of image today, have one more:

(I heartily recommend the other web comics at leftycartoons.com by the way.)

Last night KCBD and the League of Women Voters of Lubbock County (nonpartisan) put on a candidate forum for Texas House District 84 candidates. I highly recommend watching the hour-long video of the forum in its entirety. It’s rare that Lubbockites get such an unfiltered and unbiased look at candidates from both parties, especially this early in the campaign process.

The race for HD84 is the most competitive local race, and will remain so to the end. I believe that Carol Morgan demonstrated her knowledge and compassion in this forum. She also offered clear differences. For example, check out the candidate responses to the question about “Race to the Top” education funds about 15 minutes in. When the rubber hits the road, no one in the Republican Party really seems serious about improving public education.

Carol’s strong stance against wasteful privatization of government services is also refreshing. Thanks to effective marketing by special interests, the idea is out there that private industry is automagically more efficient and more accountable than government. These claims are demonstrably false. Look at the recent trouble with the Texas contract with Evercare, or the recent disaster of privatizing CHIP administration. How many more privatization horror stories are out there?

I think Carol can hold her own against whichever of the Rs emerges from their primary (and most likely their primary runoff as well).

I also want to draw attention to Andy Wilson’s latest newsletter. See especially the “Old School for a New Century” section. Again, he writes these insightful and inspiring newsletters himself.

It’s a good time to be a Democrat in Lubbock, TX.