Bloggers at the 2010 Texas Democratic Convention

I counted at least twenty-one progressive bloggers at the Texas Democratic Party State Convention in Corpus this past Thursday-Friday. The highlight for me was the very well attended blogger party Friday night. The $10 per person cover was coming in as fast as we could grab it out of folks' hands,  and was then handed over to the bartenders just as fast, to keep our tab going. If anyone has a guess as to the total attendance, let me know. Definitely hundreds. We paid for around 850 drinks, if that gives you any idea.

Many elected officials and candidates were in attendance, including Bill White, Barbara Radnofsky, Senator Kirk Watson, Council Member Melissa Noriega, Congress Member Gene Green, Rebecca Bell-Metereau, Senator Leticia Van de Putte, Representative Aaron Pena and Representative Ryan Guillen. Thank you to the sponsors, guests and organizers for making the event so successful!

Bloggers were at the convention doing much more than blogging. I was on the Temporary Platform Committee, mostly contributing to the education plank, Brian Hamon was on the Temporary Rules Committee, Phillip Martin was helping to run the convention in his roles with the TDP and the Texas Democratic Trust, Matt Glazer was working with his GNI clients, as well as being a panelist at a social media workshop, Rachel Farris organized a successful tweet-up, Vince Leibowitz and McBlogger represented Agriculture Commissioner candidate Hank Gilbert (who was not in attendance due to the death of his mother), TexBlog PAC board members organized the blogger party (all money raised in excess of the bar tab goes to House Democratic challengers), and then, of course, many bloggers were delegates to the Convention, participating in their Senate District caucuses.

Some highlights from Convention blog posts:

George Nassar with The Texas Blue does the best job I've seen anywhere describing the pros and cons of the Texas Two-Step - and the near brawl at the Convention over it. I agree with him that if we can get "to the point where we can cast aside the system that causes so much strife within the party and smacks of unfairness to so many people, all the better."

As mentioned above, Brian Hamon from Eye on Williamson served on the Temporary Rules Committee, which addressed the Two-Step. His opinion of that is definitely worth a read.

Dos Centavos reported on what I thought was the best speech of the convention - from Lt. Governor candidate Linda Chavez Thompson.

John Coby blogged the race for Party Chair, and was critical of the effort of the challenger.

McBlogger talked about the most talked about thing at the Convention - the heat and humidity in Corpus. I see he finally agrees with me - that Boyd Richie has been doing a great job as Chair of the TDP! He hints at some dysfunction in the Senate District 23 caucus.

PDiddie updated the Convention goings-on and brought up something I wondered about - why so few seats for media in the arena?

David Ortez liveblogged his Senate District Caucus - all 45 minutes of it.

Rachel Farris has a great post recapping the tweet up she organized, along with Twitter tips for candidates, photos and a link to all the tweets with hashtag #tdpsc.

And Harold Cook of Letters from Texas summed up the convention with one photo and one sentence. He got it right!

Other bloggers at the convention included writers from: Texas Cloverleaf, jobsanger, Asian American Action Fund Blog, Lubbock Left and Burnt Orange Report.

Bloggers, if I left you off this post - let me know - it was an oversight and I'll add you in!

I enjoyed seeing so many of my friends and readers - including finally meeting some folks face to face who I had only known through social media. The people who attend and participate and provide leadership to our biannual conventions are the Texas Democratic Party and each and everyone of them deserves a round of applause for being in Corpus and doing the work. I'm looking forward to 2012 in Houston!

Rick Perry Wakes Me Up as Disco Chicken

I'm till not able to process that Bill White came out to "Start Me Up" last night. Oh, well. Maybe I've had the meaning of the lyrics wrong all this time.

Anyway. The TDP convention is a little slow right now. I need some caffeine or maybe a comedy blast from last night . . . Rick Perry as Disco Chicken starts me up! This is hilarious - you are going to want to watch this!

Sue Sylvester Comments on Rick Perry's Hair

A must see video!

Linda Chavez Thompson!

Out great candidate for Lt. Governor is speaking at the TDP Convention. Lots of energy. Love her!

LCT Remarks for Texas Democratic Convention
Saturday, June 26, 2010

Hello Democrats!  Can you hear me!  Are we ready to win in November?

My name is Linda Chavez-Thompson and on November 2nd I’m going to be the next Lt. Governor of Texas.

I’m what the State Board of Education considers a figment of your imagination …

That’s right, I’m a Latina who is about to make history.

Have we had a great convention?  

    Later this afternoon when we walk out of this hall, we’re not apologizing for being Democrats and speaking out for working families.

We’re not apologizing for standing up for the education of our children.

    And we’re not apologizing for holding corporations accountable when they put fishermen out of business and leave our Gulf polluted for decades.

This story has played out over and over again.  And the result is always the same: Republicans have trouble with the truth. 

We may never know what really happened that fateful day when the Governor went out for his jog and came under attack by the fearsome coyote …

But the tall tale that I still can’t get over, are the stories Rick Perry told in his TV ads this past primary.

Did you see any of these?  One of them bragged that while Washington was running up massive deficits, Texas had a balanced budget with cash in the bank.

Of course, what Rick Perry and David Dewhurst fail to confess is that they balanced the budget with $14 billion in federal stimulus money.  And even at that, a balanced budget doesn’t mean we’ve taken care of our schools, our teachers and our children.  

You may have heard that Rick Perry is coming out with a new book called “Fed ‘Up” — I think he should call it “Fess ‘Up” because after being in office for 10 years we’re still waiting for him to tell the truth.

And that cash in the bank he bragged about in that ad — what he doesn’t tell you is that at best, the Rainy Day Fund will cover half of the $19 billion budget shortfall that threatens the education of every Texas child.

Do you know how many zeros there are in $19 billion?

11 when you count Perry and Dewhurst. 

And let me tell you why.  Because while Perry and Dewhurst put their hand out to Washington to pay their bills, they turned their backs on unemployed Texans who needed help paying theirs.

That’s what makes them zeros in my book.

They say they don’t raise taxes, but tell that to small businesses who just got a hike in their unemployment taxes thanks to the Governor’s short-sighted “tough talk.”

According to CNN, Texas employers are now forced to pay an additional $40 per employee — meanwhile, Texas is still one of the hardest states to qualify for unemployment insurance.

I’m not going to say, “I told you so.”  But Republican Senator Kevin Eltife did.  He said, “At a time when small business is hurting, the last thing we need to be doing is raise their taxes.”

For those who don’t know my story, I had to quit school after the ninth grade to help support my family in the cotton fields of West Texas.  It’s ugly, hard work.  So when I got a chance to work as a bilingual secretary for the local construction union, I took it.  

Twenty-eight years later, 25 of those with the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.  I was the first woman of color to serve as the Executive Vice President of the AFL-CIO.  

After a lifetime of working to lift wages up for working families, I’m not going to sit idly by as Republican neglect of education — from pre-K to college — drives wages down.

Perry and Dewhurst like to brag that while other states are hurting, Texas is creating jobs.  But a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics tells the real story, that Texas has the highest share of minimum wage workers in the nation.

I’ve worked for minimum wage.  And for an even longer part of my life, I’ve worked for people earning minimum wage.  Let me tell you this, it’s hard to provide for a family earning minimum wage.  It’s even harder to be there for your children, and do the real work of parenting when you’re constantly working just to get by.

Here are the facts, 63% of all new and replacement jobs require some college education.  Speaking about the state of education in our state, the Texas Association of Business declared we’re facing a “Texas-sized crisis that requires unprecedented leadership.”  The Chairman of TDI Industries and Board Member of the Texas Business and Education Coalition added that it’s time for the state’s leaders to “muscle this thing up.”

Well Perry has had 10 years in office and Dewhurst 8.  If the boys aren’t prepared to muscle up then it’s time they step aside.

I’m sure you all heard about what happened in Laredo, Texas.

With a population of 250,000, Laredo now has the distinction of being the largest city in the nation without a bookstore.  B. Dalton’s bookstore shut its doors for good on January 16th.   

And you can put another tombstone in the predominantly Hispanic south side of San Antonio now that Waldenbooks has left, leaving no bookstore for miles.

It’s time Republican leaders recognize that this is an economic crisis of their own making. 

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, by the year 2014, over 2 million jobs will be created in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math.

A bookstore would sure come in handy.

But despite the bragging of Governor Rick Perry and Lt. Governor David Dewhurst that Texas is creating jobs, the reality is one out of three students are walking out of our high schools without a diploma.  Among Latinos, it’s nearly one out of two.  

But dropouts are just a symptom of a larger broken system — a system that has already failed our children before they’ve even entered the first grade.  Parenting Magazine, recently spelled out the epidemic that is the early literacy crisis:

“While a child growing up in a middle class neighborhood will own an average of 13 books at any given time, low-income communities average about one book for every 300 children.”

In the face of such a daunting crisis, what does the Republican Party offer?  A platform that calls for abolishing federally sponsored pre-kindergarten classes. 

They just don’t get it.

Studies show that a child who enters the first grade with reading difficulties is more likely than not to still have reading difficulties in the fourth grade.

They just don’t get it.

From 1999 to 2008 Texas schools took in 659,000 more students.  Over 90% of them are classified as low economic status.  This problem isn’t going away.

They just don’t get it.

But if the Republican leadership doesn’t want to listen to a lifelong labor organizer and the daughter of a cotton sharecropper, they should at least listen to their own advisors.  Steve Murdock, the former state demographer and Bush appointee, warned years ago that, “our fates are intertwined”.  “How well our non-Anglo citizens do in Texas is how well Texas will do.” 

Murdock warns that if nothing changes — and with Perry and Dewhurst nothing changes — average wages in 30 years will be $6,500 lower than they were in the year 2000.

And that number doesn’t account for inflation, so it’s even worse than you think.

I realize us Texans are known for our big talk.  But the outside world needs to know there is some truth to the Texas myth.  Because when you’re born in the Lone Star State, you just grow up believing the sky is the limit.  It’s true for this daughter of a cotton sharecropper.  And in today’s economy, it can still hold true for any Texas child with a book in their hand.

But at the recent Republican Party Convention, the same Rick Perry who has trouble counting dropouts made a bold statement that just knocked my socks off.  He said, and I quote, “This is the home of a Hispanic in America:  The Republican Party.”

Listen, any home that neglects children like the Republican Party of Texas should be reported to Child Protective Services.

So what is their grand scheme to get the Latino vote?

According to the Dallas Morning News:
•    Perry hired a Spanish speaking Press Secretary 
•    He launched a Spanish language web and twitter site
•    And he hired a Hispanic ad agency that sells beer and Domino’s pizza.

Por favor!

To paraphrase my good friend Jim Hightower, you can stuff a jalapeño in a pig but that doesn’t make it chorizo.

But here’s what really gets me.  Rick Perry and David Dewhurst haven’t lifted a finger for the children of Texas, yet they have the gall to attack Bill White?

Listen to me carefully … Bill White lifted the aspirations of thousands of kids who had fallen through the cracks.  He launched Expectation Graduation — went personally into the homes of dropouts and got them back in school and showed us what it really means to leave no child behind.

Bill White lifted the economy of the 4th largest city in the nation — creating in 6 years more jobs in Houston than 37 states combined.  

And Bill White lifted the hearts of a nation when without hesitation, he opened up his arms and his city to the evacuees of Hurricane Katrina — real leadership that doesn’t shy away from the responsibility that we are our brother’s keeper.

When they attack Bill White they’re attacking Texas at its best.  And I for one won’t stand for it.

Now we must follow in Bill White’s example.

It’s up to you and me to lift the aspirations of those who have given up hope … it’s up to you and me to lift our economy by electing leaders up and down the ballot who will invest in education … and it’s up to you and me to lift up our hearts and send a message loud and clear that we will not stand for the neglect of any child.

Nosotros tenemos la responsibilidad de luchar por nuestros hijos y nuestros nietos.    Y como Demócratas, no olvidamos nuestros responsibilidades.

We have enough challenges, and 11 zeroes is two zeroes too many.

    There is a lot at stake in this election.

Today, we gather together as family.  But tomorrow we need to take it to the streets.  Are you ready?

We need to tell the teacher in Dallas who is worried about her job, “Your home is in the Democratic Party and we’re standing up for you.” 

We need to tell the fishermen and women in the Gulf, who could lose their livelihoods if the currents change, “Your home is in the Democratic Party and we’re standing up for you.” 

We need to tell the business leaders — from the mom and pop shops to the large employers — “Your home is in the Democratic Party because we’re educating the workforce that Texas needs to compete.”

We win when we lift up our voices.  So make sure they hear you.  Are you ready to go to work?  Are you ready to win?  I am. Thank you and God bless.  Muchisimas gracias y que dios les bendiga.

Katie Naranjo

Texans for Linda

Pol. adv. paid for by the Linda Chavez-Thompson Campaign, Martina Alvarado, Treasurer.

Linda Chavez-Thompson • P.O. Box 6719 • San Antonio, TX 78209 • P: 210-829-0902 • F: 210-829-0221

Copyright © 2010 Linda Chavez-Thompson – All Rights Reserved

Start Me Up! Today's TDP Convention Schedule

Start me up!

Today's excitement is again in the press room with my buddies juancoby and dos centavos. For those who dearly wish you were in the convention hall, this is what you are missing:

SECOND GENERAL SESSION SATURDAY, JUNE 26

• Convention reconvenes Arena, American Bank Center Permanent Chair calls the Convention back to order
• Report from the SDEC on its nominations for Permanent Officers (other than Permanent Chair)
• Election of Permanent Officers (other than Permanent Chair)
• Report of the Rules Committee and action on the report
• Report of the Nominations Committee for Party Officers and action on the report including the Committee’s nominations for State Party Officers and SDEC members recommended by their respective Senate District Caucuses
• Permanent Chair reads the list of Senatorial District nominees to SDEC followed by a formal vote of ratification by the Convention
• Report of the Platform Committee and action on the report Report of the Resolutions Committee and action on the report Announcements and further business Adjournment. Following Adjournment, there will be a brief meeting of the SDEC in front of the Stage.

Rick Perry Chicken Recipes

Let's start an online recipe book with chicken recipes in honor of Rick Chicken Perry. I'll go first.

Easy Chicken Perry A La King

Ingredients

• 1 pound skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - cut into bite-size pieces
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 cup milk
• 1 (10.75 ounce) can condensed cream of chicken soup
• 1 cup fresh sliced mushrooms
• 2 tablespoons chopped pimento peppers
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a large skillet, heat oil. When hot add chicken and saute 4 to 5 minutes until about halfway cooked. Add mushrooms and continue to saute until chicken is lightly browned and cooked through (juices run clear). Stir in the milk, soup, mushrooms, pimentos, onion powder and pepper. Bring all to a boil. Cover skillet and reduce heat. Let simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir together and serve.

From allrecipes.com. 

Please send me your best Rick Chicken Perry recipes and I'll post them!

New Media Workshop at TDP Convention

I'm at a great new media workshop at the TDP convention. My friend Matt Glazer is doing a great job talking about how social media needs to be integrated with all of your communication tools and strategies - and that you need to use all of the social media tools. The integration he's talking about is vertical integration - putting buttons on your website and in your emails that offer the opportunity for people to connect with you the way they want to- through Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, email list, etc.

Here are some resources we've been given on social media and politics:

Wikipedia - article from Politics magazine

Google campaign toolkit

Study of best online advertising practices

Facebook Resources:

tips for advertising

Inside Facebook blog 

How to Facebook from Wellstone Action

Twitter how-to blog and Twitter guidebook

Singing in the Center!

I got attacked at the TDP convention!! Just got accosted by LaRouchies outside the convention center. I told them NO and no, again, when they tried to give me some Kesha  propaganda. Once inside - and by inside, I mean inside the bat cave (press room) - all I can hear is the LaRouche choir, singing something that sounds very hymn-y. My friends said they had "Obama is a Nazi" sign. I wouldn't know. I turned my back to them and hurt their feelings. They are out in the hall.

The hymn selection so far:

As We Gather By the Center
We're Marching to Britain, Beautiful, Beautiful Britain!
All Hail the Power of Kesha's Name
Come Ye Crazy People Come
We've Got the Whole Extraterrestial World in Our Hands
LaRouche, LaRouche, We Adore Thee

and. . . Standing in the Need of Prayer. Which they do need . . . a prayer and divine intervention for Kesha to have chance.

Mapping the Minor League Baseball Stadium in Sugar Land

Sugar Land City Council has selected their preferred site for the minor league stadium. It's at the northeast corner of Highway 6 and Highway 90. It looks like that is pretty much right across Highway 6 from the airport.

I'm curious what improvements would be made to Hwy 6 to allow for the increased traffic. It already takes increasingly long times to get to Lifetime Fitness out that way, as well as Super Target and restaurants. The traffic backs up all the time both ways on 6, at the light at 59.

The ballpark is supposed to be ready for Opening Day 2012. It sounds like Sugar Land is gearing up fro AAA, and possibly the Atlantic League. The Astros appear to be blocking any affiliation with a major league club.

I spoke with the Sugar Land City Manager at the preview of the Houston Museum of Natural Science Sugar Land. He explained to me how the Museum was part of the City's strategic planning to make Sugar Land a destination city. It's clear the baseball park is part of that same vision.

I've lived in Sugar Land now for 16 years, and the growth here has been a two sided coin. It's great we have more to do and more amenities within close driving distance. But, crime has gone up and the traffic is bad and getting worse. I'm mostly an optimist, and I embrace progress, so I'm ready to see Sugar Land make the most of this new opportunity.

I'm betting on Sugar Land Express as the name of the team.


View Larger Map

BP Disaster Gets More Disastrous

It's time for the creators of "BP Coffee Spill" to update their comedy. The news today is that the already not so fabulous cap thingy had to be taken off the underwater oil gusher because a vent on it somehow got closed, probably from one of the underwater rovers bumping into it. Perhaps they could add a rogue toy truck to the video below, to make the coffee spill worse.



On a serious note, two people involved in the cleanup effort died today. And, BP continues to be non-transparent about what's happening in our ocean.

Which Came First, the Chicken Suit or Egg on Perry's Face?

It's always a great day when Mark Miner (Perry campaign spokesmodel) gets shut down.

His very bad day started with his idiotic idea for a press conference that I feel disrespected Houstonians who suffered during and after Hurricane Ike. Miner or Perry can feel free to bring me one of those generators he had in the truck, while at the same time he can shut up about Bill White's efforts to help get our community back up and running quickly after Ike.

Elise Hu with the Texas Tribune has video of sixty Bill White volunteers - including a guy in a chicken suit - completely shutting down the Perry campaign press conference today.

Which begs the question, when is that chicken Rick Perry going to man up and agree to debate Bill White?

Bill White and the 3 E's

I attended a political meeting at my friend Sherrie Matula's house in Clear Lake a couple of nights ago where the featured guest was Elena White (Bill White's daughter), along with key White campaign staff.  One of my fellow blogateers was there, and he asked the right question, "What are the three top things White is running on that we can use when we talk to voters about him?" I like the rule of three. Make three concise points, or ask me to remember three things, and I'm with you. Go beyond that, and I've tuned out.

The White staffer gave an answer about what White was running on that made sense and wasn't too, too rambling, but I turned to my friend and said I had heard two "E's" - education and the economy and was there a third E? . . . oh, the other one was "jobs," so hey! We can remember three E's!

Education

Employment

Economy

I'm a fan of White running on education, because that's my area of expertise, but also because it's the base for our economy . . . and employment. (On a tangential note, I'm not crazy about the 5 E model we use for education instruction because how are we supposed to remember five? Engage, explore, explain . . . something, something . . .)

Education, employment and the economy are three great talking points with Clear Lake voters who are extremely fearful right now about the potential for huge layoffs with NASA contractors this year. They've got a great school district in Clear Creek ISD, that they are proud of.

Does anyone else have a different 3-point message they have heard from the Bill White campaign, or that they use when they talk to Texans about why they support White? Leave 'em in the comments!