The Texas Progressive Alliance thinks Mrs. Sarkozy would have been the better candidate than her husband as it brings you this week’s roundup.
Three more Congressional candidate interviews from Off the Kuff: State Rep. Joaquin Castro, the heir apparent in CD20; Bexar County Tax Assessor Sylvia Romo in CD35; and former Bastrop County Judge Ronnie McDonald in CD27.
The Libertarians selected former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson as their presidential nominee at their national convention in Las Vegas this past weekend, and then pushed all their chips in on the pivotal issue of 2012: weed. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs doesn’t think it’s a smokescreen.
In Fact Daily is running a story about the effort to green the F1 track coming to Austin mixed in with the city election on Saturday. The bullshit kicked off when Mayoral Candidate Brigid Shea accused Mayor Leffingwell of failing to properly disclose bundled money from people involved in the effort to bring the F1 track to Austin. Unnamed sources responded by releasing a memo created by Shea that discussed proposals to really green the track, rather than greenwash it as had been proposed by Councilmember Skeletor.
Further accusations were made that Shea actively solicited a consulting contract with the F1 group. This accusation comes with no proof, aside from the word of Richard Suttle and Steve Sexton, that a proposal for consulting services does or did exist. For myself, I seriously doubt the veracity of that account especially since Shea was originally brought into this by Ian Davis (husband of Leffingwell staffer Amy Everhart) during the summer of 2011 to help him with ideas and proposals for greening the track as part of his effort to secure employment as part of the track’s environmental sustainability team, either directly or as part of a consulting arrangement (that part isn’t clear).
This story has all the coherence of the failed WTP4 smear in which several people claimed, erroneously, that Shea had bid in 2010 for a contract on the plant. The reality was that she’d been involved in a bid on another plant in 2002 and did, in fact, oppose WTP4. This effort represents a clear desire on the part of some to lie and distort the truth with regard to Shea’s work.
That’s about all for the ‘I can’t believe how ugly a political campaign can become’. Honestly, this doesn’t make a tinker’s damn bit of difference. It also does little to address the highly questionable and costly subsidies which the City gives to developers building new subdivisions and, oh I don’t know, racetracks. While the City may not be directly contributing to the cost of the F1 facility, they’re bending over backwards (at taxpayer expense no less) to extend water service to the track. No where, in any of this bullshit, is that mentioned.
At the end of the day, I’m going with Shea. Lee reminds me of Shade. Good person but absolutely appalling when it comes to negotiating subsidies and tax abatements. Austin is a fast growing, vibrant community with a massive talent pool that is attracting good employers and developers who actually have a positive aggregate impact on the City. So, why the hell do we bend over backwards to help out every schmuck with a business plan and promises?
Running the City isn’t like a goddamn baseball game. You don’t have to swing at every pitch and sometimes, it’s OK to say no. On Saturday, we have the chance to elect someone who might not be a such a pushover. That person is Brigid Shea.
The Quitter has endorsed Ted Cruz in the Republican Senate race. Sources within the Cruz campaign have confirmed the endorsement and stated that the staff is split into two camps, one which is excited about the endorsement (internally, they’re called ‘The Fucksticks’) and the other which is busily preparing resumes in the desperate hope they will be picked up to work on a general election race after Cruz loses.
Here at Team McBlogger, we’re absolutely stunned by the run of bad luck Cruz has had. We considered him a legitimate threat mostly because he actually believes the sophomoric bullshit he spouts, is a great speaker and could have proven a formidable opponent for any of the Democrats.
Oh, who the fuck am I kidding… all the Republican candidates, even the one who drools and sporadically urinates in his pants, are formidable opponents for any of the Democrats who will be running their campaigns on essentially nothing.
Up in the gas patch, Sharon Wilson has been tangling with a company called Range Resources that’s really pulling out the stops to try to shut her up. It’s not working, but it’s providing as great deal of amusement to folks in the area watching Range and their attorneys, for example, make a big deal out of a photo which is an obvious homage to Rosie the Riveter.
Republicans are talking like they want a race war. Either that, or they want to just kill all the liberals. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs documents last week’s conservative verbal atrocities.
BlueBloggin wants American voters to understand that until they force honesty and accountability from the leaders they elect, they will become subjects to the Koch Brothers Machine vs American Destiny.
We do, in fact, have a revenue problem in Texas. But there are few, of either party, willing to admit it. WCNews at Eye On Williamson points that out in this post, Little human interest side notes.
Neil at Texas Liberal posted the newsletter of Occupy Wall Street: Houston. A strong effort to reboot the Occupy effort in Houston, OWSH is meeting on a regular basis, and has a Facebook page where you can join in and take part.
Driving down I-35, I saw this campaign sign for Stanley J Wilson.
WTH?
Now, I’ve never been a fan of campaign signs with photos of the candidates on them, no matter what you’re running for. They’re cheesy as all hell. It’s just begging for a mustache, missing teeth, and other such vandalism. But this sign has the candidate, AND the former office-holder superimposed over his left shoulder. Seriously?
Ok, so Nelda endorsed you. Apparently, she’s also haunting you, dude. You should look into that.
Perry Lorenz and his partners, the Trammell Crow Company, are making some major changes to their proposal for the redevelopment of the Green Water Treatment Plant site on Cesar Chavez between Congress and Lamar. They’re sharply reducing the percentage of the project that would be affordable as well as the percentage of the project that would be moderately priced. They also killed the plan for a retirement community.
In its place? Another hotel, way more high priced condos and yes, premium office space. Surprise! You’re totally wearing your shocked face, right?
Now that the economy has improved and the dynamics of the downtown market are providing stronger support (we reached the bottom in July, 2010), the Lorenz/Crow group has decided that maybe they need to rethink all this affordable stuff. Here’s the quote you should be reading…
“Yeah, back in 2008 it made sense to do all that feel good crap what with a depressed market and financing hard to come by, not to mention that it helped us win”, Lorenz said. “Now that the market’s back we decided to fuck all that stuff and go with what we originally wanted to do.”
For those of you who are unwilling or unable to read between the lines, that’s what all this means. Rather than just own it, Lorenz plays this horrible bullshit about how all the affordability stuff went out the window when the city decided to not build an underground parking garage on property ADJACENT TO LAKE LADY BIRD. Yeah, didn’t take a genius to see that one coming.
Now that the agreement has changed, the city needs to look at this as an opportunity to scrub the whole thing and submit it back out to bid. With the growth in downtown and the strength of the overall market, it won’t be hard to get a better deal from a developer who cares more about the community.
The unusual arrangement would secure highway money for the area that TxDOT might otherwise direct elsewhere in the state because of tight federal deadlines. This approach, mobility authority officials said Monday, could save the agency tens of millions of dollars in interest and other costs associated with borrowing money through the bond market.
But it also presents a public relations problem as the CAMPO board, which is made up of local elected officials, would be abetting the mobility authority as it charges tolls on a road that essentially would already be paid for.
Combining the new money with $70 million in taxpayer funds that TxDOT already committed to the project would mean that the added toll lanes on each side of MoPac Boulevard (Loop 1) would be built with cash.
Toll projects typically involve a substantial amount of borrowed money, which is then paid back by the tolls from drivers. Under this scenario, the toll money would all be profit initially, other than the relatively low percentage needed to cover operating costs.
Just so it’s clear, these are taxpayer dollars that the State would give to CAMPO and which CAMPO would then loan to CTRMA to build the toll facility as part of a low interest 22 year note. Money from that note would then go to other projects in the area. So, why not just build the additional lane without tolls? It would make the project cheaper.
I don’t really know why there’s even a debate over this, aside from the desire to put a Lexus lane on MoPac. Until the Lege gets off it’s teabagging ass and actually funds our transportation needs, tolls will have to be in the mix. HOWEVER, there’s little point in doing this on MoPac unless we’re just dying to test out a managed lane.
Especially since we have the money to do it for free.
The Texas Progressive Alliane is wearing a hoodie this week as it brings you the blog roundup.
Many groups and organizations provide guides telling you who to vote for. This year, Off the Kuff has a guide of who not to vote for in the 2012 Harris County Democratic primary.
We’ve moved so far to the right, as a state and a country, it’s hard to see how we move back. WCNews at Eye On Williamson points out that A Budget for All is the place to start.
Annise Parker is quite possibly the best mayor Houstonians could have ever hoped for, if you consider her actions from a moderate Republican point of view. PDiddie at Brains and Eggs breaks it down.
Neil at Texas Liberal continued to focus on the fact that the Texas forced sonogram law is state-mandated rape. In the week ahead Neil will post at Texas Liberal a letter he co-authored asking Amnesty International to come to Texas to investigate this human rights abuse.
THE PRESIDENT IS NOT A SOCIALIST. IT IS COMPLETELY REASONABLE FOR GOVERNMENT TO REGULATE HOW HAZARDOUS WASTES ARE HANDLED AND DISPOSED. YOU’VE WASTED $18M ESSENTIALLY KEEPING KARL ROVE WELL FED. VERY, VERY, VERY WELL FED.
