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Thanks much for this thread Xarthor and the excellent info about Battleground Texas in the OP. I've said it before but, I've been really disappointed in the campaign run by Davis up to this point. The person I feel really bad for is Leticia Van De Putte, and by extension, the people of Texas who are going to get Dan Patrick as our Lt. Governor. I was expecting commitment, not just participation from Davis; Ann Richards', Barbara Jordan level of commitment. I was hoping from someone who was going to ignite the young voters of Texas with new, progressive ideas; bold and exciting ideas.
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Jun 18, 2014 03:29
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Omi-Polari posted:
This is the frustrating part. As much as I support and agree with the need to increase voter registration and turnout, there has to be something for a target group to show up and vote for. I can think of dozens of issues that hispanic voters could get behind and support; some not even targeted specifically at them. How about being for bilingual education and supporting legislation that actually says Texas is a bilingual state; screw english only. How about being for an increase in the national standing of the Texas public education system and by the way, hell yes all those kids are welcome in our public schools. How about a goal of free higher education at all state schools; free tuition for all in state students and hell yes those immigrant children are drat well welcome. How about an increase in the minimum wage to at least $10 per hour. How about accepting Medicaide expansion under Obamacare and gently caress it, lets just go for single payer in Texas; Vermont's not better than us. Hell I can think of a gently caress ton of issues that would make a distinction between the GOP and a new Texas Democratic party that would attract young hispanic and minority voters. And, I really thought that this was the year that stuff like that should have been rolled out and given a test drive. But, it's not going to happen. edit: by way of explanation, I know that a lot of those things would never be acceptable, even though they should be, on a national level. But on the state level, I don't think that Democrats, especially in Texas, can continue to just sit back and say, "well we're not Republicans, vote for us". radical meme fucked around with this message at 14:57 on Jun 18, 2014 |
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Jun 18, 2014 14:49
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Shear Modulus posted:So noted Big Aggie Jerk Rick Perry seems to have finally gotten his way on the UT Austin President's job and Powers will step down in June 2015. If you haven't been following this, Perry has always hated Powers, but a few years back when Perry tried to force some so-called "Seven Breakthrough Solutions" crafted by an old buddy of his (if you're curious they're just bog-standard conservative reform principles intended to businessify public education like ranking teachers on "cost-effectiveness" (salary and grant awards divided by students taught) and using MOOCs for everything) Powers has been standing up to him and put himself on Perry's poo poo list. The UT Board of Regents, who has firing authority, is 100% Perry appointees and as I expect most of you know have been digging like crazy to find something offensive to their sensibilities in admissions decisions that they could use an excuse to fire him. Apparently about a week ago something changed, and the Chancellor told Powers to submit his resignation or he'd be canned. I just read about this today; fell behind on Texas politics. What a sad turn of events. I know plenty of UT alums and none of them wanted to see Powers leave. The first time I read about this feud, was the fall of 2011; Texas Monthly had a long article on Perry's attack on the entire UT System. The constant, relentless assault on the entire Texas' education system by Perry and his cronies is just awful. Nothing good is going to come of this and Texas will be paying the price for decades to come.
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Jul 13, 2014 00:34
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I have no delusions about the outcome of the Governor's race but I wish Abbott would just shut the gently caress up between now and the election instead of reminding me of what a slimy prick he is every time he opens his mouth. He has helped to gut the education system in Texas and now one of his new great ideas for higher education is to allow participants in what are termed Massive Open Online Courses to get college credit for them. This seems to me to be the ultimate in the attempt to dumb down a college degree and turn Texas flag ship universities into glorified community colleges. He's not going to debate Davis so just shut up already and take your win.
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Sep 2, 2014 22:38
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Dante Logos posted:I am hoping that there are enough key Democratic wins to pacify the Texas GOP from going full hog on their policy ideas. Because if there is a sweep, the policy that will come out will make Kansas, Wisconsin and North Carolina seem like liberal bastions in comparison. It's been happening in Kansas for longer than the other two and now, in this election, the people of Kansas have swung back to support the Democrats in some of the races. That's a good thing but, it took at least 12 years of insanity for that shift to occur. With the change in demographics here in Texas, maybe we won't have to wander in the wilderness for a decade.
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Sep 22, 2014 13:06
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zoux posted:There are literally no barriers to a school voucher program if the election shakes out like it's gonna. Pick a crazy Tea Party policy; that will be the law in Texas after next session. gently caress it let them do it. They are going to do it sooner or later anyway so let them go for it and let the litigation begin because a voucher program would do nothing but screw school financing even more than it already is and nobody in the Leg has a clue as to how to solve the financing problem. Let's get this poo poo back into the courts and have some court mandated reform because nothing is going to come out of the Leg. Here's some Texas stupid for you that shows that the children ain't learnin poo poo in Texas public schools anyway. Let the litigation begin. edit: I agree with everything zoux said below. I should have said, "Let the litigation continue, ad infinitum". The only thing I question is how they could call a voucher program a fix to lack of equitable funding for public schools when all it does is take money out of the public schools and gives it to private schools. I'm sure Abbott and Patrick will justify it some how. radical meme fucked around with this message at 16:27 on Sep 22, 2014 |
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Sep 22, 2014 16:12
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ReidRansom posted:So in news about Perry's slush funds, in what I'm sure comes as a complete shock to absolutely no one, "An independent audit released Thursday said Gov. Perry's office failed to take basic record-keeping and compliance tracking efforts in awarding hundreds of millions of public funds to private companies through the Texas Enterprise Fund." How do you spend your entire adult life in politics and walk away a millionaire? I'd really love for Perry to go down in flames in the 2016 primaries and then turn around and write an honest to God tell all book about every slimy land deal and under the table transaction he engaged in, then ride off into the sunset giving the finger to everybody in Texas.
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Sep 26, 2014 15:08
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zoux posted:But what do they worry about with respect to Mexicans? Why are they afraid of them. I think someone must have hijacked zoux's account; they worry because their afraid of them and their afraid of them because, their skin is darker, they speak a different language, they're catholic, they come from a different culture, they like funny music, they might vote Democratic, just choose any one of those. I've lived in Texas my whole life, which has been a long one, and I always felt Texans were more accepting and understanding of Mexican immigrants. The GOP has done a good job of stoking the fear and hatred and, that feeling of kinship with our Mexican neighbors may have been destroyed for a generation. The poo poo storm created by the cartels along our border hasn't helped and at some point, that stuff is gonna spill over into Texas and will have to be dealt with. vvvvv Hey I understand. It really is a head scratcher for me because I've always thought we had a kinship and good neighbor policy with our latin immigrants here. That's been changed by a deliberate marketing campaign by the GOP, a decision that was obviously made at the national level and that is bad for our state. radical meme fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Oct 27, 2014 |
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Oct 27, 2014 21:06
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QwertyAsher posted:http://www.houstonchronicle.com/new...tter-premium#/0 Open Carry Tarrant County is demonstrably worse than Open Carry Texas and that Kory Watkins is going to wind up getting people shot. Watkins and his organization are the worst of the worst.
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Jan 14, 2015 22:51
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Trabisnikof posted:That's all you had to say. Hey now, compared to Dallas, Johnson, Parker and Denton, Tarrant is practically an urban paradise. At least Tarrant's "most popular tourist site" isn't the location of a presidential assassination.
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Jan 14, 2015 23:07
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Nonsense posted:My favorite part of that documentary is how absolutely "300" the Mexican atrocities resemble Persian atrocities. I was intrigued by the scenes showing American Indian involvement. I seriously didn't remember, was probably never taught, anything significant involving Indian tribes in the Texas Revolution. A quick google lead me to the fact that there are two Indian Reservations in Texas; something else I never knew. I implore the Alabama-Coushatta tribe to immediately build a casino on Lake Livingston. The Kickapoo tribe's reservation is on the Mexico border, south of Eagle Pass and I'm not going anywhere near that place.
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Jan 14, 2015 23:41
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This Indian stuff is interesting. I found this, which definitely sounds like the invisible hand of washington lobbyists was at work herequote:In 1987, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that since federally recognized Indian tribes are considered sovereign entities they could have casinos outside of state jurisdiction. Yeah, can't have those indigenous tribes earning their own money. radical meme fucked around with this message at 00:02 on Jan 15, 2015 |
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Jan 14, 2015 23:59
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A group of conservatives is suing Dallas County under the Voting Rights Act claiming that not enough white people, I mean Republicans, are elected to the Commissioners Court.quote:"Like something out of the bad old days, a southern electoral body plays naked racial politics, intentionally using its power to minimize a dissenting race’s political sway," according to the lawsuit, filed last week in federal court by the Equal Voting Rights Institute on behalf of individual white plaintiffs.
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Jan 21, 2015 02:00
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zoux posted:Patrick met with reporters this morning and said open carry is unlikely. In that article, Patrick says that "campus carry" is likely to pass. Who the gently caress is pushing for this and why? Is there really a burning desire by a huge number or college students to carry their drat guns to class?
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Jan 27, 2015 19:27
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Good job gun nuts!
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zoux posted:Who do you think is pushing it? Do they not remember this guy? Does history really have to repeat itself? 
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Jan 27, 2015 19:31
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Lote posted:This is a direct reference to SH130 --the tollway that bypasses Austin. Right? It's not just Austin. There are places in north Texas that are almost impossible to get to without using a toll road. From Fort Worth or the Mid-Cities, try to get to Allen or Frisco without using a toll road. And I don't know if any of that revenue comes back to Texas.
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Mar 3, 2015 23:34
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Dahn posted:Bill to legalize pot the Link in the Texas house. The Christian values argument for legalization, is a new one I haven't heard before. This is a pretty good article in Mother Jones about the 85 year old lady that started the group pushing this bill. I'm kind of glad she's looking specifically for GOP support because if it was just being pushed by Democrats, it'd never have any chance at all.
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Mar 4, 2015 22:26
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zoux posted:Yeah I sure hate how my house smells like good rear end barbeque all the time - a liberal piece of poo poo. I love BBQ and the smell of burning mesquite but drat, too much of a good thing always gets old.
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Apr 2, 2015 01:26
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Shifty Pony posted:The solution to police not uniformly applying the laws to all races is not to make the laws unenforceable. It is akin to saying we shouldn't let police pull people over for stop sign violations because that is often used as a reason to pull someone over for driving while black. Without the ability for an officer who sees someone carrying to ask for their CHL the law requiring a CHL to carry becomes useless and only those stopped for some other who are incidentally illegally open carrying will be caught. This is the first nonshit response to LeJackal's nonshit question. Thank you.
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Jun 1, 2015 02:03
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e_angst posted:I think somehow the University of Texas Austin collectively beat him up and took his lunch money as a kid. Part of the Perry appointees who just poo poo all over higher education in Texas*. He launched this quixotic quest to "clean things up" at UT Austin when there wasn't really that much to clean up, trying to kill a fly with a bazooka. He made a poo poo-ton of enemies in the system, at the university, and in the lege, and now it's just a bullheaded quest to "win" over those enemies. The first complete and in depth article I read about how Perry was trying to fundamentally change the entire system was an article in Texas Monthly, which I can't even find now but, it was in a Fall issue in 2012 or 2013. It went into detail about how Perry had bought into the idea that the University system should be more profit motivated; doing away with tenure and any school or program that didn't turn a profit. Texas Monthly has a ton of articles about this ongoing battle. The blog of Paul Burka, Burkablog, which is not pay walled like the magazine articles, are full of stories about this ongoing war; and it wasn't just aimed at UT Austin, it was every school in the system. edit: found it and it's not behind a pay wall, my mistake: Storming the Ivory Tower , October 2012 by Paul Burka and then a ton of articles since then in Texas Monthly radical meme fucked around with this message at 21:34 on Jun 19, 2015 |
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Jun 19, 2015 21:25
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Badger of Basra posted:If I remember correctly the big problem was that Powers didn't like these profit ideas. Yeah, he actually believed that a university was supposed to educate and enlighten young people; loving communist.
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Jun 19, 2015 22:11
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Any half rear end attorney is naming AG Paxton and TX as a party so screw you, you gutless fool. Texas still has to pay the bill for the suit.
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Jun 29, 2015 01:36
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Violating the law is Per Se Negligence. gently caress Paxton, file a grievance and have his law liscence revoked for malpractice. And yes Texas will be on the hook for all costs.
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Jun 29, 2015 01:45
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Ok you defend the State of Texas and I'll represent the Plaintiffs and we'll see who gets hosed.
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Jun 29, 2015 01:52
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zoux posted:Observer has a good article about how state Republicans haven't circled the wagons around Paxton like they did Perry. Just for context for those who may not know it, Collin County, where the indictment was issued, is one of the most conservative and wealthiest counties in Texas. Imagine the citizens of Highland Park or River Oaks returning an indictment against a rich person for being rich, that's how amazing this indictment is to me.
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Aug 5, 2015 23:34
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enraged_camel posted:When do we find out the results of the Paxton scandal? After the trial. There's going to be a trial. He can't plea bargain this away and still keep his law license so a trial is inevitable. vvvv: at least one year out if not more. radical meme fucked around with this message at 03:56 on Aug 9, 2015 |
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Aug 9, 2015 02:21
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I'm putting this here because in Texas, football is political and the conviction and sentencing of this fine young man shows just how political football is in Texas. A much-talked-about football player at Baylor University—whom coaches “expect back” this fall—is currently on trial for the sexual assault of a fellow student. Questions now swirl around what the program knew and when they knew it. This young man was convicted of Sexual Assault and, even though the jury found that he should serve 8 years in prison, the Judge gave him six months in jail and ten years probation. Everybody at Baylor, the player's roommate, the police, the local news media and now, even the Judge did everything they could to cover this up and make it go away. But the young man can play football so that makes it all OK. Icing on the cake is that Ken Starr, yes that mother loving Ken Starr, is the president and chancellor of Baylor. If anyone can find a dick in a forest, it should be Ken Starr.
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Aug 22, 2015 00:34
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thefncrow posted:You've got your facts wrong here. OK. I was going by a news report on the radio because I couldn't find anything quickly in the news that talked about the sentence so I went with the radio report. My mistake. So a jury in Waco listened to evidence of the violent rape of a freshman virgin at a religious university and said, " oh but the poor boy can play football so lets give him probation". gently caress Waco and Baylor for ever!
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Aug 22, 2015 01:18
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Malleum posted:And even then you have to brave the metroplex's lovely as hell roads or go to loving Southlake. I love Central Market and I refuse to shop at Whole Foods because of the Libertarian shitheels that own it so I make the drive to Central Market when I can. The roads in the Metroplex suck primarily because every community is dominated by Tea Party fucktards that refuse to raise taxes or issue bonds for anything; maybe school construction if you're lucky. I expect the roads to get much worse before anything is done. Colleyville finally gave in and started some road expansion and repairs when it just got so bad that they couldn't ignore it. And since I'm on a rant, let me just say, gently caress all of this highway construction that's solely intended to create toll lanes; it sucks that the only way to get from West or Central Metroplex to Allen/Frisco is by using a drat toll road. In real political news. The State has asked the Texas Supreme Court to dismiss or remand the school finance lawsuit. The State says that the Legislature is the proper forum to resolve the issue which means that fuckall would eve be done about school finance reform. The Texas Racing Commission has closed it's doors so all of the race tracks in Texas had to shut down as well. The Legislative Budget Board has refused to fund the Commission because they are in a pissing match over the Commission allowing something called "historical racing", which makes absolutely no sense to me. Anyway, hope none of you guys planned a trip to the track anytime soon.
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Sep 2, 2015 01:39
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jaegerx posted:I guess you guys don't know about the 21 foot rule. I'm gonna miss Justified.
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Sep 3, 2015 06:10
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Pervis posted:The two were very similar back during the 80's (and early 90's), home of Reagan, etc. There is truth in all of this. Texas has always been conservative because of the huge influence from it's rural population. But, its particular brand of conservative always had a progressive tinge to it up until the Reagan Revolution. That's really when the FYGM wing of conservatives in Texas really took off. If you look at Texas' past, lots of very conservative, yet Democratic, politicians did some amazing things to champion civil rights and the advancement of education, especially higher education in the state. It was the whole Reagan Revolution and the anti-tax, anti-government shitheels that have dominated Texas politics over the last 35 years. And, let's not forget the ratfucking efforts of Tom Delay; the Dancing With the Stars fucktard that is the father of modern day gerrymandering. He used Texas as a blueprint to show the rest of the red states how to gerrymander their states into Tea Party Hell.
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Sep 3, 2015 22:59
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OK, stupid question in coming. How do you copy/paste tweets here? I see them all the time but can't figure out how.
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Sep 21, 2015 20:00
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zoux posted:One of these days ill do a big old effort post about TxDOT funding, planning and construction in order to haunt your dreams. Please do this.
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Nov 10, 2015 21:56
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Not political but, with all the bad news, just a friendly reminder that Wurstfest is going on in New Braunfels this week, thru Sunday. It's always a good time so, enjoy yourselves if you can.
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Nov 11, 2015 06:37
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e_angst posted:Goddamnit. Also, as gun-nut as Texas is, DFW seems to be even more gun-nut than that. What is wrong with the goddamned metroplex?  Not all him but, he's bug-hosed crazy. edit: it's Kory Watkins for anyone wondering
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Nov 22, 2015 21:41
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Can someone explain this historical racing controversy to me? I understand the legislatures point of view on it; claiming the Racing Commission overstepped it's authority which was also the ruling by a District Court. I don't understand why the horse people are so adamant about wanting it or why the Commission has decided this is the hill they are going to die on. I also don't understand the whole argument about how repealing something that wasn't legal for decades is going to destroy racing in Texas. The whole idea of historical racing seems like bullshit to me. Where's the fun in loosing your drat money on a computer generated race? It's almost like betting on that arcade race you find on the midway at the State Fair.
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Dec 15, 2015 22:23
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blue squares posted:Nope. You can vote in either primary but that locks you out of the other, and you can't vote in run-off elections in the other either I think you are correct with one exception. Lots of elected Judges and maybe even a lot of other local officials can get on the ballot if they collect enough signatures from their constituents. Obviously, they collect these signatures well before the primaries so their name appears on the ballot. If you sign a petition for a Judge running as a Republican, then you can't legally vote in the Democratic primary; of course it works the other way as well. I don't think there's any central registry kept of who signs whose petition to be on the ballot but, it's still the law; or was the last time I checked.
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Feb 28, 2016 09:27
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ComradeCosmobot posted:$62 million in taxpayer funds to be spent on a high school football stadium in exactly the city you'd expect. Our fetish for huge, gaudy stadiums that have a limited use is really pissing me off these days. I realize it's money that wouldn't otherwise go to full or even part-time teachers but, god drat, how we can justify raising money for a sports complex when communities won't even consider raising taxes for education is loving mind numbingly stupid. Plus, I honestly and sincerely don't know how much longer high school football will be around. I don't even know how a parent can justify letting their son play the sport in this day and age; and I'm someone who played and I've coached Pop Warner leagues. I'm almost ashamed of having coached those kids now. The cost vs. benefit of letting young boys play the sport is just not there any more; there are too many other team and individual sports available that won't lead to early onset of dementia and brain disease. OK, now everyone can pile on and crucify me for hating on the official god given sport of Texas.
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May 10, 2016 17:19
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go3 posted:You must live somewhere strange because I have literally never met a parent that wasn't gung-loving-ho about their child playing football Yeah, I'm definitely in the minority in regards to my feelings about tackle football for young boys. But, I'm also more knowledgeable than most parents letting their boys play the sport. For most parents, their first real education on the subject comes when their son is required to undergo the concussion protocol required by UIL rules now. That trip to the doctor can be a real wake up call.
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May 10, 2016 18:01
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e_angst posted:Well, Paxton is gonna have a very hard time running for Senate from prison. Anecdotal but, a criminal defense attorney I know explained to me that Paxton was totally hosed because the criminal charges were based on admissions he freely made to settle civil complaints and he is totally bound by those admissions which means he's going to prison unless the Texas Supreme Court pulls some kind of poo poo to save his rear end. So I fully expect the TX Supremes to pull some kind of poo poo out of their rear end to save Paxton. But, that only applies to the State charges, not the Federal ones that recently came down. edit: I think it would be the Tx Court of Criminal Appeals not Tx Supreme Crt that would have to save his rear end radical meme fucked around with this message at 02:52 on May 12, 2016 |
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May 12, 2016 02:39
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