You've Been Left

Auto Industry Bailout

2008-11-18T10:11:00.002-06:00

Is there any non-Ike local news that I'm missing? I guess this is the "lull" before the local elections start ramping up next year.

So the big national news is the proposal to bailout the auto industry:

Democratic leaders in Congress are in favor of some kind of help, as is President-elect Obama. But the Bush administration has balked on proposals to let the automakers tap the $700 billion Wall Street bailout approved in October.

Many leading Congressional Republicans have suggested that a better option is bankruptcy, enabling the Big Three to restructure and ultimately emerge as leaner and viable businesses.

I've got to go somewhat with the Republicans on this one. However, I wonder why Bush was so gung-ho about bailing out the financial institutions, but not the auto makers? Personally, I'm a believer in the free-market... and these companies failed. Like any other business, they should be allowed to fail. Why should they be rewarded for their incompetence?

I find it strange that we've created a culture where "corporate welfare" is somehow acceptable, but "personal welfare" is not. Instead of giving the company (which failed) $25 billion, why not invest that money in the employees they lay off? Give them a few months of salary, and paid job training so they can go into a different field if they desire. If ALL 1.6 million lose their jobs, that would account for $15K per person, and if they were making $50K/year, that's FOUR MONTHS they could use for training and looking for another job. This rewards the WORKERS... the people who are actually DOING their jobs. There's no need to reward the executives who screwed things up.

The problem is, we've already started down the corporate welfare road with the financial industry. It would be hypocritical to bailout one business sector, while forcing another to fend for themselves.

UTMB cuts almost 4K jobs

2008-11-13T10:15:00.002-06:00

This is sad - the University of Texas Medical Branch is cutting 3,800 full-time workers within the next 60 days:

In one of the most staggering blows to both families and the county’s economy in recent memory, about 3,800 full-time jobs will be cut at the University of Texas Medical Branch as officials sharply downsize the island’s only hospital after Hurricane Ike caused severe flooding and deep financial losses.

It hits home because apparently many UTMB employees actually live in League City. Also, the specialty care center that was planned to be built here may be in limbo.

From Leigh Jones' Twitter:

Mayor Lyda Ann Thomas says the layoffs will be harder on Galveston than Hurricane Ike was. Recovery will take years, if at all, she said.

The Dog Park (a little late)

2008-11-10T10:38:00.002-06:00

I'm fairly ambivalent about the new dog park:

In a 4-3 vote, city council members OK’d the initial phase of the park on 8 acres down the street from the police station. The vote was a victory for Councilman Neil Baron, who advocated for the park even before his election to the council.

I drive by the dog park in Houston, off the west Loop, quite often... and it's always bustling with activity. Of all the idiotic things the city can (and probably will) spend money on, a dog park seems fairly innocuous.

It would be nice if they did something over in my neck of the woods (the oft forgotten west League City). Or even take one of the community parks we already have and add a dog run to it.

Soooo... What's next?

2008-11-06T11:05:00.002-06:00

We've just finished the most exciting and interesting election cycle in my life. No matter if you're a Democrat or Republican, you have to admit, it's been like a Democracy Soap Opera almost every day. So what's next?

Well... three League City Council seats are up for grabs in about 6 months or so. Tommy Cones in #3, Chris Samuelson in #4, and Phyliss Sanborn in #5. I wonder if we can make the council election anywhere close to as interesting as the national election?

Updated Galveston Co. Results

2008-11-05T13:48:00.003-06:00

Freddie Poor is still ahead after the latest results were posted. So that's good.

The low numbers I noted earlier did go up, and by about the 7000 that was reported as out-standing. The overall turnout was still a bit lower than 2004, and McCain's percentage over Obama was still larger than Bush's over Kerry.

Though, I still find it strange that Obama only got 1800 more votes than the total votes in the Democratic primary.

Galveston County - still Republican

2008-11-05T09:57:00.003-06:00

According to TJAulds at the Daily News, they're still counting votes in Galveston county. But it's still pretty clear that Galv. Co. is still a Republican county, at least by 6 or 7 points. It's sad that the county's Democratic party website has been "Under Construction" for this entire election cycle... arguably one of the most important in recent (or all of) history. Consider THAT ball dropped...

Of course, that's not to say the candidates themselves weren't out there doing a great job. They fought a good fight and should be proud. But alas, from the initial results, it appears that's only ONE Democrat (with a challenger) won in Galveston Co... and that was Sheriff Freddie Poor, so congrats to him (update: not so fast).

There are couple of numbers I thought were interesting. First, looking back at 2004, Kerry actually was 4 points closer to Bush than Obama was to McCain. And when considering how many people predicted record turnout, in Galveston County, there were actually 9000 MORE votes in 2004. Even if the current results don't include the 7000 or so mail-in votes that may be out, that's still LESS votes this year than 2004.

Second, there were 39,557 votes cast in the Democratic primary this year. And 38,479 votes for Obama in the general. Typically, the votes in the primary a way less than in the general election, and looking back at 2000 and 2004, the trend was that the Democratic primary had about 1/4th of the total number of votes for the Democrat in the general. So something was going on this year...

There are a couple of possible reasons for this. One is the Republican ploy of trying to extend the Democratic primary, in an effort to increase the fractures between Obama and Clinton supporters. The other is simply that Hillary Clinton supporters weren't automatically Democrats, and were possibly swayed by Palin's inclusion on the McCain ticket. Or a mixture of both.

Lastly, for all the "anti-tax" uproar against Obama... it's strange that Galveston Co. residents voted to voluntarily increase their taxes.

Twitter

2008-11-04T14:08:00.003-06:00

If you don't know what Twitter is, then don't worry about it. If you do, I'm now twittering away at twitter.com/ybl . If you have an account, feel free to "follow" me. Also, let me know if there are any other relevant people I should be following.

I've also got a widget over in the right column that will update with my tweats, AND I've set it up so that when I add a new blog post, it's sends a twitter message.

If you would LIKE to know what I'm talking about, please check it out.

This morning in Pct. 464.

2008-11-04T08:49:00.002-06:00

I went with my wife to polls this morning, just because I was curious about how many people would be there, etc. We got to Bay Area First Baptist right at 7am, and the line was out the door. Maybe 60 people in front of us? And soon after, there were 30 or so people behind us. Yeah Democracy!

After everything got up and running, the line moved pretty quickly. There were lots of paper ballot stations, and 2 electronic voting machines. Honestly, I don't understand the appeal of the machines. Of all the ballots I've used, the "fill-in-the-circle" (or rectangle) type ballots seem like the easiest, most straight-forward way to do things. There's no problem with "hanging chads" or "computer hackers", and you can SEE who you voted for. Simple.

There was one problem, though. They had two lines for people to sign the voter rolls, one for people with last names A-M, and the other N-Z. Then they had two more people with the sheets to sign for getting your ballot. But the first 20 or so people may not have signed that second sheet. One gentleman, who had just turned in his ballot, asked one of the ladies "There's a second sheet to sign? I don't think the other people knew that." I'm not sure if that effects anything... but it should show a discrepancy between the ballots turned in and signatures on the second sheet.

They did remedy the problem though, by putting the second sheet right next to the registration list, so it was easier to get to.

We turned in our ballot right at 7:30am, so it only took 30 minutes. And as we walked out, the line only had about 5 or 6 people in it. Now, it's just a matter of waiting until tonight, when Obama is officially named President.

Who I voted for...

2008-11-03T15:38:00.002-06:00

Just in case anyone actually cares, I voted straight Democratic except for 3 races: 1) Republicans Michael Williams for Railroad Commissioner, 2) Wallace Jefferson for Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court, and 3) Cheryl Johnson for County Tax Assessor/Collector.

After researching all the candidates, I found that most of the Court positions were fairly inconsequential, as far as the difference between the candidates. So I simply voted to get more Democrats in.

But for the three I mentioned, it just seemed like the incumbents had the experience and record to justify their keeping the position. Especially for the RR Commissioner, Mark Thompson just doesn't have anything to offer, other than simply being "not the incumbent". From what I can tell, Williams has done a fine job and deserves to continue doing a fine job.

For Chief Justice, Jefferson has simply been good. I don't hate Perry or the Republicans so much that I can't see a decent person in one of their candidates. I imagine Jim Jordan would do a wonderful job as well, but he doesn't offer so much difference that I saw fit to vote for him.

Now... Tax Collector. This has been hard-fought battle, to say the least. And I can honestly say, if Matt Crowder wins, I'll be happy with it. But I really think Johnson has done a decent job, and I hope it continues. However, I hope this is only the beginning of Crowder's foray into political office, because I would definitely vote for him in the future.

More about "Toxic Mike" Jackson.

2008-11-03T11:49:00.002-06:00

I'm surprised I didn't know more about "Toxic Mike" before. After watching the awesome Jaworski ad, I decided to look a little deeper and find some of the sources of the information in the ad. I found this site, with some astounding facts about "Toxic Mike". I'll paraphrase:

He authored a bill that basically said - if a city's air is being polluted by a company that is NOT in the city, the city can't do anything about it.

Texas Monthly called him "furniture" saying, "a legislator so inconsequential that he is indistinguishable from the desk and chairs...Jackson, by doing less than any senator in memory, evolved into more than run-of-the-mill legislative furniture."

His LaPorte business "Force Corporation" is incorporated in Delaware, so he can avoid paying Texas taxes. You can find his company listed on the Delaware Corporation website.

"Mike Jackson said he supported term limits when he first ran for office over 20 years ago". Now, he's consistently voting against term-limits.

And just for good measure, please watch the video again:

Almost half of Galveston County has already voted

2008-11-03T11:38:00.003-06:00

Some pretty astounding numbers from the Daily News:

Galveston County set a record for the number of people casting ballots during the early voting period. Final figures from the county’s election office show 71,600 people voted at the county’s 14 early voting polling locations.

Add another 5,669 mail-in and military ballots received during the 12-day early voting period and 77,325 of just less than 190,000 registered voters went to the polls before Election Day.

That's 40.8% of voters having already voted. Personally, I think early voting has been one of the best things to happen to the Texas election system... or even the whole US election system. I wish every state would start doing this.

Watch the Toxic Mike TV

2008-10-31T08:12:00.001-05:00

Thanks to the Jaworski campaign for uploading this:

Candidate's Sites

2008-10-30T16:53:00.002-05:00

I discussed some of the Propositions before, but looking over my Sample Ballot, I decided to try and find the websites (if any) of the down-ballot candidates running for various positions. It's still rough-looking at the moment, but mostly complete. I left out most of the races with only one candidate, and trying to find the Libertarians' sites proved WAY too time-consuming, so they were mostly left out too.

If there's anything missing, comment... or email me. youvebeenleft at gmail dot com.

The quest for the Toxic Mike TV ad.

2008-10-30T12:39:00.005-05:00

I mentioned earlier the TV ad running about "Toxic Mike". It is my absolute favorite political ad this year, mostly for its simplicity and direct message. I really want to get a YouTube version of it and post it here, but I can't find it.

So, I contacted the Texas League of Conservation Voters, who are behind toxicmike.com, and they say it's not them. They directed me to Joe Jaworski's campaign, and I have an email out to them, but for some reason I don't think they are behind it.

Do anyone have any clue? I keep missing it with my Comcast DVR... so I haven't been able to capture it, or read all the fine print.

UPDATE: It was Jaworski, and they'll be posting it shortly. Awesome.

UPDATE 2: The Jaworski interview from last night is quite good. It's in the first half or so of the show. Too bad this was the last one.

The Propositions

2008-10-30T11:55:00.003-05:00

I admit, many times in the past I've gone to the voting booth with NO information about the propositions on the ballot (and even some down-ticket candidates). This year, I'm not making that mistake. So here we go... Prop. 1:

THE ISSUANCE OF $75,000,000
GALVESTON COUNTY ROAD BONDS AND THE LEVYING OF THE TAX IN PAYMENT THEREOF.

Prop. 2:

THE ISSUANCE OF $15,000,000
GALVESTON COUNTY FLOOD CONTROL BONDS AND THE LEVYING OF THE TAX IN PAYMENT THEREOF.

Prop 3:

THE ISSUANCE OF $45,000,000
GALVESTON COUNTY BONDS FOR BUILDINGS FOR OFFICES, STORAGE AND OTHER PUBLIC BUSINESS, INCLUDING (BUT NOT LIMITED TO) AN ANIMAL SHELTER, AN AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION OFFICE, CONVERSION OF EXISTING JAIL FACILITIES TO STORAGE FACILITIES AND A MULTIPURPOSE COUNTY HEALTH AND ADMINISTRATIVE OFFICES FACILITY, AND THE LEVYING OF THE TAX IN PAYMENT THEREOF.

According to a small Daily News clip, here's a summary of what these propositions will do:

The $75 million road bond proposition will repair and improve roads throughout the county and alleviate gridlock and help improve commute time.

The $15 million for flood control projects will include clearing and de-snagging Dickinson Bayou, as well as drainage improvements in the Dickinson Bayou Watershed and along FM 646.

The $45 million facilities bond will move the Agriculture Extension Building to Carbide Park, build a new animal shelter, convert the old North Jail for records storage and purchase the old Wal-Mart building in Texas City, which will be used by the Galveston County Health District, Central Appraisal District and 4Cs Clinic offices in Texas City.

And they've fully endorsed the propositions, as well. Though, they also endorsed McCain... so I'll take it with a grain of salt.

On one level, I would oppose ALL of these measures, simply because they would do almost nothing to help me. I live a mere 30 feet from the Harris County border, and most of my time is spent in Harris County. So roads around Texas City or Sante Fe being improved wouldn't affect me in the least... nor would a "de-snagged" Dickinson Bayou... or a renovated Wal-Mart in Texas City.

On another level, I can understand the benefits of Prop 3. County infrastructure does need to grow, and it sounds like it's really needed. And I know that people might really benefit from some of the road construction and creek renovation in the other propositions.

My biggest sticking point is - do we really need higher taxes RIGHT NOW? Can any of this be put off until after people have fully recovered from Ike? I don't know. But if I were to early vote today, I'd vote "No" on all of them.

A New Era (soon?)

2008-10-29T13:13:00.003-05:00

After the closing down of the LC blog and internet radio show, I've decided to focus some more on You've Been Left. I've got ideas, but nothing set in stone. Currently, I'm pondering:

A podcast, both audio and video

More humorous. Shedding light on just how insane LC politics can get, then making fun of it

Less about my Liberal/Democratic activism, but still... Democrats are WAY better than Republicans in just about every way. :)

STILL aggregate all League City/ Galveston County/CCISD political news, though

????

But time is still a factor. Family and work take up a lot more time than they used to, and I'm going to need to figure out scheduling if I really want to do some of this stuff.

We'll see.

In the meantime, I'm still going to do my thing. Also, you can check out Mallios's new blog at THE League City Blog.

Daaaaaaamn... (or, This is What Happens When You Don't Pay Attention)

2008-10-29T11:20:00.004-05:00

I just now, at this very minute, saw that the League City Blog got closed down. And it's was apparently Mallios's fault:

Jimmy and I (ed. note: Marc) can not knowingly participate in libel and just plain meanness that came to a head this past Saturday with Chris Mallios's out of control posting.

Ouch! But Doggonit, I can't find what Mallios posted... Chris, if you're out there, feel free to post it again in the comments here. I've got way less scruples than Edelman does. Just make sure you encapsulate it with "Allegedly" or "In my opinion".

More Edelman:

Good luck to all of you and I hope those of you that were part of this blog, will try to build a positive new blog to replace this one. To me this blog was a tremendous success and a tremendous failure all at the same time.

Does this mean I need to start posting more, again? Crap!

For starters, what the hell is up with Ken Clark posting links to his gmail? It's 2008 and our county commish does grasp basic internet usage?

update: dammit again. I totally missed the comments on my previous post. It sucks that people have gotten "hurt" or whatever, but in all honesty... how many people REALLY know/knew about this (or Edelman's) blog? I would get about 100 unique visitors a day in my prime, and considering dynamic IPs and multiple computers, I figured at most 70 - 75 knew about it, and maybe 10 - 20 were regular readers. Pretty small potatoes. I'll post my thoughts in a new post later.

Toxic Mike

2008-10-29T11:08:00.002-05:00

My favorite TV ad of the season HAS to be the Toxic Mike ads. The grayscaled, cutout head of Mike Jackson floating around is AWESOME. Why is this NOT on YouTube somewhere?

Anyway, I'm voting for Jaworski. Surprise, surprise.

Quick thoughts

2008-09-22T12:59:00.002-05:00

It seems like members of the council were out and about during the post-Ike cleanup. And Chris Reed was organizing everyone on the municipal front. Kudos to all of them.

I was initially distraught because in the couple of days right after the hurricane hit, there didn't seem to be ANY information coming out of L.C. Listening to radio, I heard just about every mayor from the towns around us (some multiple times), and NOTHING from League City. The city website was up and running with some info on Monday morning, but again, that was it.

Amazingly, I actually read this comment about the mayor's non-activity:

I don't fault [the mayor] for one minute as I'm sure her business took a major hit.

Really? It's okay for the mayor to forget about the city and focus on her business? I don't think so.

Blog drama (or "Blorama"?) in L.C.

2008-09-10T13:56:00.004-05:00

I started this blog a few years back, and in May of 2005 I started focusing on the craziness that is League City politics. At the time, there was nowhere on the web to see everything compiled, and everyday brought forth a new treasure trove of wonderful things to shed light on... remember Keith Dill? Ahh, the good ol' days. And the blog grew... created a bit of controversy... sparked some discussion... and things were good.

Well it looks like our new mayor is putting the "fun" back into League City government. I'm still not totally up-to-speed on everything that's gone on, but one thing's for sure: She really is "shaking things up". For better or worse.

Sure, I've implied that the council is full of clowns, but come on... it kind of is. And I mean that with the utmost respect. These people are public servants, and some ego-checking is ALWAYS a good thing.

Anyways, after I left League City, Marc Edelman's blog become web discussion central for LC. And it's quite active. Especially the most recent post... where we find Edelman and local hyper-activist Chris Mallios in a head-to-head. After Mallios calls Edelman out for not speaking at the council meeting last night, Edelman responds:

Mallios, I work at a J. O. B. I could not get there in time to sign the sheet, but I got there as fast as I could and hoped that they would ask if there was anyone else who wanted to address council and I fully intended to speak. This question was not asked after the last name was called. So stifle. I publicly speak plenty and I clearly express my opinions on the matters here and in public forums like "The Political Party" So stuff it with your pompous "Nobody Sticks their neck out like Chris Mallios" whining.

That's pretty rough, but just wait.

A. We all stuck our necks out when we mistakenly supported you.

Emphasis mine. He's saying that his support for Mallios's run for mayor was a mistake! OUCH!

B. Your history of involvement is littered with poetic diatribes and manic moments of grandeur at the podium,

Well sure... but it's fun. It's pretty much the only reason I watch Channel 16.

C. On the show you are rude and cut people off when they are speaking with your not so funny side comments that make you look stupid.

Again, while definitely annoying to the interviewee, it's entertaining for the listener. That is, if the listener enjoys car crashes and reality TV... and who doesn't.

D. I know you think the Mayor’s behavior last night was just fine and you think she is doing the right thing, but I see it differently. It does not surprise me that you thought it was funny when she asked for popcorn prior to Chris Reed’s portion of the council meeting. It would be something I would expect you to say.

Awesome. Our mayor has a sense of humor. Not a great one, but hey, it's something.

I was unfortunately unable to witness the awesome-ness that was last night's council meeting. But it sounds like it was a "hoot". ~~However, I will NOT be missing tonight's The Political Party (prev. Anything League City)~~ darn... the website says "Tonight's Show Has Been Canceled"

LeftyBlogs shoutout

2008-09-10T13:43:00.003-05:00

I haven't looked over the site's stats in many months, but I see I'm still getting about 40-50 unique visits a day. That's pretty awesome for a blog that has essentially been untouched for about 2 years. Anyway, it seems I'm getting quite a bit of traffic from people putting a LeftyBlogs blogroll on their sites.

So in an effort to pay it back, I've just included the blogroll in the right hand column.

Council Webpage links

2008-09-10T12:25:00.003-05:00

This is just a reference post. I only just recently moved back to LC, and I'm not too familiar with some of the council members.

#1 Neil Baron
#2 Mike Barber (can't find personal/election page)
#3 Tommy Cones (can't find personal page)
#4 Chris Samuleson (can't find personal site) (business site)
#5 Phyllis Sanborn (can't find personal page)
#6 Tim Paulissen
#7 Jim Nelson (can't find personal page)

WWE Smackdown! Reed vs. Randall

2008-09-10T11:56:00.002-05:00

I don't know Chris Reed, but this whole thing about him being fired/ resigning is a(nother) stain on League City and its silly municipal government.

Paulissen, who gets the last word in TWO Daily News articles today, has it right:

"We already talked tonight about … being the laughingstock of the entire county. Now we’re out here with our mayor and our city administrator airing our dirty laundry. It’s sad."

On a related note, I was looking for a "class picture" of the current City Council, and found this:

It's up to YOU to decide who's who.

FYI. Max is Dead.

2008-09-09T14:40:00.002-05:00

The name's Terry.
As in Bradshaw, Puhl, Gilliam, or Hulk (Terry Bollea)Hogan.

Why Men Are Stupid.

2008-09-09T14:17:00.002-05:00

Men are more supportive of Sarah Palin than women:

Is it fair to raise questions about her experience?

"A majority of women say yes, but it's close; men are slightly less likely to see those questions as fair game," said CNN polling director Keating Holland.

Overall, 50 percent of those polled say criticism of Palin is fair...

Really? Only HALF of the U.S. thinks it fair to question the experience of someone running for the second highest office in the land?

So... we could take a crack-whore, give her the pygmalion treatment, put her up for the VP spot, and NO ONE should question her experience. Because THAT'S off-limits.

Or maybe, if I ever apply for a new job, I'll refuse to send in a resume and then be SHOCKED that they would DARE question my experience. Are half of the Republicans really THAT stupid?