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Randandal posted:If East Austin is so tired of being poo poo on why doesn't it just secede and form its' own municipality? Poor parts of the country seceding to rule themselves don't have a good track record of success.
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Dec 18, 2014 12:17
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So some people threw a bit of a poo poo-fit about Wendy Davis getting Texas Monthy's Bum Steer award. Here's the original Texas Monthly announcement of the award.. Here's RH Reality Check going way overboard claiming that giving her the award was sexist and undemocratic. And Here's Texas Monthly going into more detail on why the gave the award. Basically Wendy Davis hosed up big time, completely mismanaged her campaign, and set the party back 10 years. She gets called out for how bad she did and the clickbait advocate media decides that they need to leap to her defense despite the fact that it's their side that she let down.
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Dec 18, 2014 19:55
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Yeah, pretty much everyone I know thinks it was justified. Plus TM so rarely gets to give the Bum Steer to a Democrat.
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Dec 18, 2014 19:59
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e_angst posted:Wendy Davis hosed up big time, completely mismanaged her campaign, and set the party back 10 years. The first two parts are true, but she didn't hurt the TDP or set them back at all. That assumes they had progressed at all towards winning races which is false. She deserves the bum steer still.
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Dec 18, 2014 21:08
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zoux posted:Yeah, pretty much everyone I know thinks it was justified. Plus TM so rarely gets to give the Bum Steer to a Democrat. To be fair, Texas Democrats are mostly punch-clock politicians. Show up, don't make too many waves, collect your graft. There's generally not a huge amount of pressure to do or say something incredibly stupid. Meanwhile, Texas Republicans have to out-do each other's anti-intellectualism or face getting elected out. Which is prime material for Bum Steer awards.
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Dec 18, 2014 21:11
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Well, Dallas is semi-freaking out about their bag ban. So much so that the DFW-based Inside Texas Politics show devoted a huge segment to it. http://www.texastribune.org/2015/01/04/inside-texas-politics-looking-ahead Prediction: There won't be any other bag bans in the rest of the Metroplex, so it'll be like the weird wet/dry/damp situation where you'll have to check which block you're on and which city you're in to know if you'll need to bring a bag or not.
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Jan 5, 2015 21:14
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http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2015/01/the_most_harrowing_stories_of_dallasites_affected_by_the_plastic_bag_ban.phpquote:On January 1 Dallas residents faced a 5-cent charge on grocery bags for the first time. These are their stories.
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Jan 6, 2015 06:39
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Randandal posted:
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Jan 6, 2015 15:44
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The best part of the Austin bag ban is that I don't see bags in all the trees, bushes, and streams. It is a huge change. The second best part is watching people too proud to spend the 25 cents for a reusable bag at HEB try to juggle an arm full of loose goods to their car.
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Jan 6, 2015 15:45
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You forgot the third best part: watching good ol' boy "small government", "local decision-making" conservatives run crying to Austin, begging the state to come in and pass a state law to stop cities from passing ordinances about plastic bags that they don't like.
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Jan 6, 2015 15:49
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For god's sake, how hard is it to carry around a few extra bags in your backpack? And if you don't have a backpack, fix that.
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Jan 6, 2015 16:09
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I get paper bags where ever I shop so it's never an issue. Even Central Market gives you bags.
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Jan 6, 2015 16:12
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Shifty Pony posted:The best part of the Austin bag ban is that I don't see bags in all the trees, bushes, and streams. It is a huge change. This is really true, and shopping in places that still give out plastic bags now seems barbaric to me. Sounds like people in Dallas are being incredible babies. Some creep ran for Austin city council (probably won) mostly on an END THE BAG BAN platform, if I recall.
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Jan 6, 2015 17:01
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Shifty Pony posted:The best part of the Austin bag ban is that I don't see bags in all the trees, bushes, and streams. It is a huge change. Considering that Austin is a heavily wooded and incredibly beautiful city, it really is amazing and wonderful to just not have bags stuck in all the bushes.
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Jan 6, 2015 17:10
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zoux posted:I get paper bags where ever I shop so it's never an issue. Even Central Market gives you bags. The lack of plastic is a demonstrably good thing and I usually have a bag in the car but I prefer not to pay $1 for a re-usable bag because I had an unplanned shopping trip and the re-usable bags are in the other car. California has it right, let me buy a disposable paper bag for a dime(heck, even a quarter is fine).
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Jan 6, 2015 18:18
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There's a local election in parts of San Antonio Texas Senate District 26 and House District 123, so if you didn't vote early, you can still go vote, the polls are open until 7 PM. Voting is anemic as hell elections like these, and with 5 or 6 candidates running in each race, two or three votes could literally make a difference in who the winner is, so go vote! Election day sites can be found here. Not quite sure if it's quite kosher, but here's my voting recommendation: Trey Martinez Fischer for Senate One of the most liberal/left members in the Texas House. Republicans loving hate him, and have (unofficially via a PAC) dumped a ton of money into a smear campaign against him. Diego Bernal for the House Dude who was the force behind San Antonio's non-discrimination ordinance. He is awesome. fade5 fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 00:22
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So can someone explain that Circle C Scruggs race? I don't know poo poo about south Austin politics. I live in Cedar Park, and voiced my concern about the runoff in District 6 to maybe a dozen people who live within the voting district. None of them voted. Zimmerman really does have pull with the Tea Party crowd, and Flannigan's fancy hammer signs and ridiculous video didn't do anything to sway my lazy, fat, tech-industry friends, though his platform was pretty much built for them.
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Jan 7, 2015 08:36
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fade5 posted:
I saw some of the anti-TMF ads on TV when I was visiting my folks for the holidays. It was basically the most Republican ad ever. "TRIAL LAWYERS!!!!  "
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Jan 7, 2015 10:02
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All three specials are going to runoffs, the SD 26 race is going to be between TMF and Jose Menedez, so whoever wins, we also win. Both are fine candidates, though I prefer TMF.
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Jan 7, 2015 15:13
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Amusingly also yesterday the 911 truther and "fluoridation is poison" candidate for Austin City Council ponied up the 13.5k deposit required for a recount. It resulted in her gaining two votes. Her opponent gained three. So she lost 64.61% to 35.39% instead of 64.62% to 35.38% She considering filing a lawsuit for... I dunno maybe mole people interference with the election or something? * Original results: Casar 2851/Pressley 1561 * Recount: Casar 2854/Pressley 1563
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Jan 7, 2015 16:16
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Another year of our state government wasting time loving around with cities and bitching about Austin and California.Austin Statesman posted:Declaring that freedom and private property rights should not be bound by city lines, Gov.-elect Greg Abbott on Thursday called for doing away with a “patchwork quilt” of local bans on everything from paper and plastic bags to fracking that he said threatens to turn Texas into California.
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Jan 8, 2015 20:00
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Collectivism? But that's another word for.......COMMUNISM!! BAG BAN IS COMMUNISM!!!
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Jan 8, 2015 20:03
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VitalSigns posted:Another year of our state government wasting time loving around with cities and bitching about Austin and California. "We're going to show what small government, hands-off conservatives we are by overriding local governments and forcing them to act against the will of their citizens."
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Jan 8, 2015 20:24
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This doesn't do away with local bans does it? Because that's loving nonsense.
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Jan 8, 2015 21:57
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Nonsense posted:This doesn't do away with local bans does it? Because that's loving nonsense. The plan is to pass a state law (like Oklahoma's law banning municipal minimum wage laws) to overturn local bans. Because local government is only good until it does something Republicans don't like.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:00
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It's a lot of presession bloviating. If you're following state politics right now, realize that most of the poo poo they say they want to do ain't gonna happen.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:03
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Speaking of bag bans, my parents went grocery shopping in Austin the other day and had about half of their reusable bags stolen out of their cart when they weren't looking. The situation was so bizarre that all I could do was imagine it as a Kelly cartoon.
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Jan 8, 2015 22:14
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Alkydere posted:Speaking of bag bans, my parents went grocery shopping in Austin the other day and had about half of their reusable bags stolen out of their cart when they weren't looking. Liberalism spawns new-crime that wasn't there before!
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Jan 8, 2015 22:23
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Patrick is still withholding the money for the Public Integrity Unit.quote:Incoming Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick vowed Thursday to keep even his most fiercely conservative promises, saying Texans are counting "on Republicans to lead." http://keranews.org/post/dan-patrick-vows-drop-funding-texas-public-integrity-unit
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Jan 9, 2015 02:08
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e_angst posted:Well, Dallas is semi-freaking out about their bag ban. All I can say about the bag ban is that I'm loving glad I don't work as a cashier.
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Jan 9, 2015 03:21
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I know it is all just pre-session posturing because when it really comes down to it overturning the bag ordinance is very low on their priority and they'd rather the very precious space on the legislative schedule be filled with other things. Still I really do hope they don't gently caress with it because after the initial pain and accumulation of a few reusable bags everything is fine. Dan Patrick intending to keep his insane tax jut promise is much more worrying, especially in conjunction with ending the gas tax reallocation (which would be a good thing by itself). Education is gonna get walloped. On the subject of bags I think where the Dallas ordinance isn't going to work out as well as the Austin one is that it allows for you to keep using the cheap disposable bags if you pay a nickle or whatever. In Austin if you forget your bags and have to pay for them you get a reusable bag which is reasonably durable and eventually even the more forgetful person has so many of these reusable bags that they can't help but have some in their car when they go shopping. Unless Abbott does something insane like call a special session to pass a bag ban ban.
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Jan 9, 2015 05:27
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There are two things I'm legit worried will pass: vouchers and campus carry.
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Jan 9, 2015 06:24
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Could they do anything about Robin Hood?
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Jan 9, 2015 06:25
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Aliquid posted:Could they do anything about Robin Hood? They probably won't do anything about school funding until the current round of court cases is over.
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Jan 9, 2015 06:41
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zoux posted:There are two things I'm legit worried will pass: vouchers and campus carry. Campus carry is almost certainly going to pass, but it'll be a fight. Honestly, though, I'd rather they waste the very limited session time fighting over that kind of red meat stuff that will ultimately have a fairly limited effect on things than on stuff that. It'll be like the big anti-"Sanctuary Cities" bill in the last session. Ultimately kinda pointless except for scoring points with the conservative base, but it was enough of a fight that it helped push other things further off the agenda.
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Jan 9, 2015 14:41
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Nothing that they want bad enough is going to get put off for time's sake. Abbott can call as many specials as he likes. Also, even the most bitter, contentious issues won't take more than 24 hours of floor time. The only reason that this session won' t be a complete smorgasboard of ALEC's greatest hits is because most of that stuff is on the books already.
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Jan 9, 2015 15:10
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I'm most worried about the drastic tax cuts they keep promising, even in the face of the massive revenue hits caused by the drop in oil prices.
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Jan 9, 2015 15:13
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They'll use RDF money to pay for them. We'll know how bad it is when the Comptroller's rev estimate comes out later this month, but people I know who know say this is going to hurt funds more for the 2017 session than the next biennial budget.
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Jan 9, 2015 15:16
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Comptroller is giving the revenue estimate for the next biennium right now, and he put it at $113 BN. Last biennial estimate was at $101 BN. He's projecting moderate growth in the state economy and revenue, with a stronger national economy offsetting potential losses from the oil and gas industry.
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Jan 12, 2015 17:05
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zoux posted:Comptroller is giving the revenue estimate for the next biennium right now, and he put it at $113 BN. Last biennial estimate was at $101 BN. He's projecting moderate growth in the state economy and revenue, with a stronger national economy offsetting potential losses from the oil and gas industry. 11% growth. Not terrible. We may be able to avoid some terrible cuts, but we can also expect a lot of push for "tax relief".
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Jan 12, 2015 18:37
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