GOP Starting To Duck Spotlight of Citizen Journalists

The premier political story of the past few months has been the Republican plan to dismantle Medicare and the resulting voter backlash. In town halls across the country, voters are expressing their anger at the GOP priorities of ending Medicare, extending tax breaks for the wealthy, and protecting subsidies for oil companies.

Citizen journalists have attended those town halls and recorded video of that voter backlash on smartphones. Those citizen journalists then published their reports, with video, on the Internet, allowing others who couldn’t attend in person to see the event. Those videos have often been picked up and broadcast by national cable news outlets. The GOP does not like the exposure because it puts a lie to their claim that they are doing only what the people elected them to do.

TDP Video Chronicles Headlines From Around Texas

The Texas Democratic Party today released a new video in its continuing "GOP Price Tag" series that chronicles recent headlines from print and broadcast media outlets around Texas. The headlines chronicled in the video include the following:

“The Texas GOP Chose to Decimate Our Educational System” - $9.8 Billion Cut From Public Schools - Texas Tribune

• 41% Cut from State Grants for Higher Education - KXTS
• State Grants for Pre-K Programs Eliminated - Texas Tribune
• Texas budget passes without Demos – El Paso Times
• GOP Budget Will Cost Texas 335,000 Jobs - Business Week
• 12,353 Fewer Public School Jobs In Texas (And Counting) - Burnt Orange Report
• Lawmakers choose tax break for gas producers over schools - San Antonio Express News
• Texas Nursing Homes Concerned Over Medicaid Cuts - Houston Chronicle
• Republicans propose tax breaks for yacht owners - Minnesota Independent

Starving the Government Beast

The Big Picture with Thom Hartmann

"Starving the beast" is a fiscal-political strategy adopted by American conservatives in the 1970's to create or increase existing budget deficits via tax cuts to force future cuts and eventual privatization of Medicare, Social Security, Public Education and every other public service. [see Forbes and the video left.]

Paul Krugman, columnist for The New York Times: For readers who don't know what I'm talking about: Ever since Ronald Reagan, the GOP has been run by people who want a much smaller government.

Fighting Climate Change Through Innovative Initiatives

Actual Climate Scientists Rap

Huffingtonpost: Floods and droughts may be the "new normal" and sea levels may be rising faster than previously thought, but the younger generation isn’t willing to accept these climate change consequences for their future.

As the grownups duke it out in Washington, kids take action with visible results, proving they may be more capable than adults in fighting man-made climate change.

Plano City Council Place 7 Runoff Election - June 18, 2011

Plano voters reelected two incumbents and elected one newcomer to the Plano City Council in the May 14, 2011 election, while a fourth race for Place 7 will be decided in a runoff election on Saturday June 18th. Early voting starts Monday June 6th. All Plano City residents registered to vote in Collin Co. may vote in this election.

Pat Miner, André Davidson and Jim Duggan were clear winners, but Greg Myer and Pat Gallagher will head into a June 18 runoff election for Council Place 7, since no Place 7 candidate received 50 percent of the votes.

Myer, an information technology project manager, drew 40.3 percent of the vote and Gallagher, a retired executive and Addison police officer, received 36.7 percent. Myer, who ran unsuccessfully for the position in 2008, knocked on thousands of doors and was bolstered by an endorsement from the influential Collin County Association of Realtors. Gallagher, a virtual unknown in Plano politics before this year, did surprisingly well. The third person in the Place 7 race, Mark Greer, a businessman who has been active in civic affairs, ran a distant third with 23 percent of the vote.

Early voting for the Saturday June 18th runoff election between Gallagher and Myer for Council Place 7 is scheduled to run from Monday June 6th through Tuesday June 14th.

Sun	Mon 6/6 8am-5pm	Tue 6/7 8am-5pm	Wed 6/8 8am-5pm	Thur 6/9 8am-7pm	Fri 6/10 8am-5pm	Sat 6/11 8am-5pm
Sun	Mon 6/13 7am-7pm	Tue 6/14 7am-7pm	Wed	Thur	Fri	Sat 6/18 7am-7pm

The usual early voting locations around the City of Plano will be open. The major exception is that Davis Library rather than Christ United Methodist Church will be the substitute location for Carpenter Rec Center, since the Rec Ctr remains close for renovation until Aug. 2011.

Full location information and sample ballots for the June 18th special election will be posted on the Collin Co. Elections website a few days after Plano holds the "Drawing for Ballot Placement" on Thursday May 19, 2011.

League of Women Voters of Plano/Collin County Voters Guide - Plano City Council

Early Voting Locations for McKinney and Plano City Runoff Elections
Collin County Elections (Main Early Voting Location)	2010 Redbud Blvd, Suite 102	McKinney
Christopher A. Parr Library	6200 Windhaven Pkwy.	Plano
Collin College - Central Park Campus	2200 W University Dr	McKinney
Collin College - Spring Creek Campus	2800 East Spring Creek	Plano
Haggard Library	2501 Coit Rd	Plano
Harrington Library	1501 18th Street	Plano
Maribelle M. Davis Library	7501-B Independence Parkway	Plano
McKinney Fire Station #5	6600 W. Virginia Parkway	McKinney
McKinney Performing Arts Center	111 N. Tennessee St	McKinney
Plano ISD Administration Center	2700 West 15th Street	Plano

Collin Co. Election Results - May 14, 2011

May 14, 2011 Combined Election Day & Early Ballots - Accumulated Totals:

Did you know that the 2010 US Census reported a voting age population of 557,664 persons in Collin Co? Did you further know that the Collin County Elections Registrar reported 439,740 Registered Voters in Collin Co for the May 14, 2011 local elections? If every one of those 557,664 voting age persons are US Citizens, which they likely are not, there are 117,924 possible Collin Co voters who are not registered to vote. That makes the county's voter registration rate close to 80 percent. That registration rate may be closer to 90% depending on how may of those non-registered voting age people are not US Citizens and therefore not qualified to vote. The problem in Collin Co is not registering new voters - it is more about figuring out how to get already registered voters out to vote.

Registered Voters 439,740 - Votes Cast 35,917 (8.17%)

Num. Precinct Reporting 100%

Mayor - Allen Steve Terrell 2185 85.52% Blake Beidleman 370 14.48%

Happy Mothers Day

Norman Rockwell's
Mother Tucking
Children in Bed
(1921)

Beyond Red vs. Blue: The Political Typology

Pew Research Center for the People & the Press Survey Report: With the economy still struggling and the nation involved in multiple military operations overseas, the public's political mood is fractious. In this environment, many political attitudes have become more doctrinaire at both ends of the ideological spectrum, a polarization that reflects the current atmosphere in Washington.

Yet at the same time, a growing number of Americans are choosing not to identify with either political party, and the center of the political spectrum is increasingly diverse. Rather than being moderate, many of these independents hold extremely strong ideological positions on issues such as the role of government, immigration, the environment and social issues. But they combine these views in ways that defy liberal or conservative orthodoxy.

Osama Bin Laden Dead, Pres. Obama Announces

Huffington Post: Osama Bin Laden is dead, President Obama announced Sunday night, in a televised address to the nation. His death was the result of a U.S. operation launched today in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Bin Laden was tracked by U.S. intelligence agencies to a mansion in an affluent neighborhood 35 miles north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. After a firefight, a small team of American forces killed bin Laden and took possession of his body, the president said.

President Obama announces that Osama bin Laden has been killed.

REMARKS BY THE PRESIDENT ON OSAMA BIN LADEN - 11:35 P.M. EDT

President Obama Skewers Trump At The Correspondents' Dinner

President Barack Obama had some fun with would-be Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump Saturday after taking weeks of Trump's birther attacks. "No one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than 'the Donald,'" Obama said, referring to Trump's claims the same day that he was responsible for solving the issue.

With Trump in attendance, Obama used the White House Correspondents' Association annual dinner to mock the reality TV star's presidential ambitions, joking that the billionaire businessman could bring change to the White House, transforming it from a stately mansion into a tacky casino with a whirlpool in the garden. The president said Trump has shown the acumen of a future president, from firing Gary Busey on a recent episode of "Celebrity Apprentice" to focusing so much time on conspiracy theories about Obama's birthplace.

Trump chuckled at some of the earlier jokes, but was seemingly less amused as comedian Seth Meyers picked up where Pres. Obama left off. "Donald Trump often talks about running as a Republican, which is surprising," said the Saturday Night Live actor, entrusted with providing some of the comedy for the evening. "I just assumed he was running as a joke." Trump stared icily at Meyers as he continued to criticize the real estate tycoon.

Pres. Obama Speaking


Seth Meyers Speaking