In case you were getting convention hungry and ready for another chaotic representation of democracy, the county convention is next Saturday and here is the Travis County info for those of you who plan on attending:
Democrats:
Sign-in begins at 7:00 a.m.
Convention convenes at 10:00 a.m.
Expect the County Convention to last until at least 7:00p.m. \
PLACE: Travis County Exposition Center, Luedecke Arena, 7311 Decker Lane
#37 Colony Park bus runs to the Expo Ctr about every 30 minutes for most of the day on Saturdays
Concession stand open from 7:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.
Because of the thousands of delegates and alternates that we are expecting, TCDP strongly suggests that you arrive EARLY to sign in. In years past, the TCDP has always mailed a courtesy postcard to all who were elected Delegates and Alternates out of their Precinct Conventions advising them of the County Convention. However, this year is different; we simply cannot mail out courtesy postcards. This is due to the sheer volume of people. HOWEVER, the TCDP will be contacting all the Precinct Convention Delegation Chairs, our current Travis County Democratic Precinct Chairs, local campaign organizers for the two Presidential campaigns and will also be sending out alerts via our E-Newsletter list.
AND even if you were not elected a Delegate or Alternate, the County Convention is open to the public; no charge. Anyone is welcome to attend. But only Delegates and Alternates can participate.
Parking at the Expo Center is $5, which is less than the $7 that the Palmer Events Center charged in 2006.
Republicans:
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Registration begins — 7:30 am
Call to Order — 9:00 am
Delco Activity Center
The convention will accomplish two things:
Select as many as 164 delegates and 164 alternate delegates to represent Senatorial District 14 at the Republican State Convention in Houston on June 12, 13, & 14.
Adopt a Party Platform for what Republicans in Senatorial District 14 stand for. This Platform will be forwarded to the Resolutions Committee at the State Convention for consideration.
Four thousand men and women have died in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. When I hear that, I think about all the wonderful people I met in Afghanistan who are serving…moms, dads, young kids just out of high school.
I can’t speak for those who continue sending troops overseas but I can speak for the soldiers I met. While in Kabul, those serving told me what keeps them going are the children–children who were given so little in life and yet find happiness in the smallest gestures of kindness. Gestures like the offer of food or water. Here are some of the children I met on my trip…when I saw the soldiers I was traveling with interact with these kids, I also saw the bond between people who face death everyday: some by choice, others by birth.
My heart goes out to all of the families who have lost someone they loved, to all those who continue to serve and to all of the Afghans who have suffered so much for decades.
Actually, this would be a shot in the cellulite. Governor Perry is throwing his support, or rather your support, behind a drug that is meant to prevent people from getting obese.
Perry put $250 thousand of your enterprise fund tax dollars towards the drug, which is being researched by Halsa Pharmaceuticals. The drug is supposed to cut body fat and, hopefully, cut Texas’s soaring obesity rates. I like it already–the only bad news, it won’t be on the market for ten more years.
You can watch the story KXAN reporter Matt Flener did on it here.
Hillary Clinton was caught telling a tall tale about the time she spent Tuzla, Bosnia…she says she was under sniper fire but those travelling with her remember a different story. This video (although from a competitor) is pretty fun to watch. On the left side is video from her trip to Tuzla and on the right, you’ll hear Clinton’s recent description of that trip. You tell me if the picture fits the tale.
And, who says politics is too partisan? See, look at how the nice Republican is willing to help the Democrats out!
An attorney for Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick has reversed himself and now says the Republican speaker specified that his $250,000 donation to a political committee go to several House Democrats who supported him.
Last month, when Travis County prosecutors began investigating the donations, Austin lawyer Roy Minton denied that Craddick had directed how the money be spent. Craddick’s donation was to the Texas Jobs & Opportunity Build a Secure Future committee.
But on Tuesday, Minton said Christi Craddick, the speaker’s daughter who runs his political operation, wrote the Texas Jobs committee a letter in January asking it to give $50,000 each to four Democratic incumbents who had opponents in the March 4 primaries.
“Of course, they were happy to do it,” Minton told the Austin American-Statesman. “Tom knew everything that was going on.”
I guess after Bill Richardson threw high support behind Obama, the pundits decided to start putting their two cents in–this is Halperin’s 14 reasons Hillary should throw in the towel:1. She can’t win the nomination without overturning the will of the elected delegates, which will alienate many Democrats.
2. She can’t win the nomination without a bloody convention battle — after which, even if she won, history and many Democrats would cast her as a villain.
3. Catching up in the popular vote is not out of the question — but without re-votes in Florida and Michigan it will be almost as impossible as catching up in elected delegates.
4. Nancy Pelosi and other leading members of Congress don’t think she can win and want her to give up. Same with superdelegate-to-the-stars Donna Brazile.
5. Obama’s skilled, close-knit staff can do things like silently kill re-votes in Florida and Michigan and not pay a political price.
6. Many of her supporters — and even some of her staffers — would be relieved (and even delighted) if she quit the race; none of his supporters or staff feel that way. Some think she just might throw in the towel in June if it appears efforts to fight on would hurt Obama’s general election chances.
7. The Rev. Wright story notwithstanding, the media still wants Obama to be the nominee — and that has an impact every day.
8. Obama might not be able to talk that well about the new global economy, but she (and McCain) can’t either.
9. Many of the remaining prominent superdelegates want to be for Obama and she (and Harold Ickes) are just barely keeping them from making public commitments to him.
10. She can’t publicly say more than 2% of all the things she would like to say about race, electability, beating McCain and experience.
11. If she somehow found a way to win the nomination, she would have to offer Obama the veep slot, and she doesn’t want to do that.
12. This is a change election, and Bush-Clinton-Bush-Clinton can never truly be change.
13. Obama is having fun most days, and she isn’t.
14. Even though her campaign staff is having more fun than it has for a long time, there’s hardly anyone there who, given half a chance, wouldn’t slit Mark Penn’s throat — and such internal dissension won’t help her in the home stretch.
Obama gave his famous race speech and its been all the news can talk about for days. Here is the latest analysis on that speech:
“Sixty-nine percent of voters who have heard or read about Obama’s speech say he did a good job addressing the issue of race relations, and 63 percent of voters following the events say they agree with Obama’s views on race relations. Seventy-one percent say he did a good job explaining his relationship with Wright.
When registered voters were asked if Obama would unite the country, however, 52 percent said yes — down from 67 percent last month.”
Ashley Alexandra Dupre is America’s next pin-up. Hustler Magazine has reportedly offered the woman former NY Gov. Spitzer just couldn’t resist— a million dollars to pose nude for their magazine. Penthouse is making comparable offers as well. And, all those kids on American Idol begging for votes. This, apparently, is how you attain instant celebrity status in the good ole’ U.S. of A.
From the Washington Times: “President Bush threatened to veto the latest House version of an update to foreign surveillance law, as the chamber’s members last night held their first “secret session” since 1983 and only their sixth since the end of the War of 1812 to hash out the issue.”
The House went into secret session last night, at the behest of Republicans who wanted to speak more freely about the nature of intelligence threats and to explain past cooperation by telecommunications companies with the government. The House often held such sessions in the republic’s early years, but before yesterday there had been only five since 1815.
The White House is seeking legal immunity for these telecom companies, which is a major sticking point for Democrats.
You’re looking at a picture of Admiral William Fallon, the former US commander of US forces in Iraq and Afghanistan-former as of today. He announced his retirement, citing the “embarrassing situation and public perception of differences between my views and administration policy” as the reason for retiring.
His difference of opinion? He is opposed to the use of force against Iran over its nuclear program. He was described in an Esquire magazine article as “the strongest man standing between the Bush Administration and a war with Iran”.
