Penny Phillips For 5th Court Of Appeals Video

Penny Phillips is an Air Force JAG Veteran and 20-year experienced attorney with a long history of dedicated public service.

Penny Phillips, Democratic candidate for 5th District Court of Appeals, Place 5, is out with a very well done campaign video on YouTube.

Penny served the state of Texas as an Assistant District Attorney in the 1990s. She also served the United States as a JAG officer in the Air Force. She current has her own law office in Plano.

Civil and criminal cases from district and county courts in Collin, Dallas, Kaufman, Rockwall and Grayson counties are appealed to the 5th District Court of Appeals, which includes one Chief Justice and twelve other Justice "places."  No Democrats currently sit on Fifth Court of Appeals.

In the 2012 General Election, five Democratic Candidates, including one other woman, Tonya Holt for Place 11, are running for place seats on this appellate court:

• Tonya Holt for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 11
• Penny Phillips for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 5
• Larry Praeger for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 12
• David Hanshen for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 9
• Dan Wood for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 2

The Texas District Courts of Appeals are distributed in fourteen districts around the state of Texas. The Courts of Appeal have intermediate appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases appealed from district or county courts.

Like the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals, Justices of the Texas Courts of Appeals are elected to six-year terms by general election. Graphical Guide to the Court System of Texas) (map)

The Biggest Problem Faced By Texas Democrats

by Michael Handley

The biggest problem faced by Texas Democrats is that too many Democrats don't vote because they have been fooled into thinking that their vote does not count. They have been convinced by the popular media that Texas is a RED state that Republicans will win because the state has more Republican than Democratic Voters.  Democrats, don't believe the Republican propaganda.

Texas is the only minority/majority state in the Union where Democrats are not winning statewide elections.

If every voting aged person who rejects the Republican Party's platform agenda for Texas and America will register and vote in the coming election, President Obama will win Texas' 37 electoral college votes and Paul Sadler will be Texas' next U.S. Senator.

Do the addition - it adds up - Texas is a blue state by voting age population!

Whoever wins in November will likely have the opportunity to appoint at least one and possibly up to three justices. And remember, it is the U.S. Senate that confirms the president's court appointments. So think about that before you skip the U.S. Senate ballot position, when casting your vote.

Are you a voting age person who believes every woman should have the right of privacy to make her own health care and family planning choices?  If Romney wins, he will certainly nominate extremely conservative justices to appeal to the Tea Party elements within his party.  President Romney would appoint conservative justices who support Justice Scalia's position that women have no constitutional right of privacy to choose to use contraception or choose to have an abortion, even when her life is at risk from a pregnancy.  If you are a voting age Texan who rejects these Republican policy positions, then you must make sure you are registered to vote and vote a straight Democratic Ballot.

Are you a voting age person who believes every child has the right to a quality education in an adequately funded public school system and who rejects the Republican position that our American school system should be privatized and corporatized with vouchers?   If you are a voting age Texan who rejects this Republican policy position, then you make sure you are registered to vote and vote a straight Democratic Ballot.

Are you a voting age person who believes that every American, particularly retired Americans who have spent a lifetime building a better America, have a right to life guaranteed by access to health care and who rejects the Republican policy position that the Affordable Care Act must be repealed and that Medicare and Medicaid should be privatized and corporatized with vouchers?  If you are a voting age Texan who rejects these Republican policy position, then you must make sure you are registered to vote and vote a straight Democratic Ballot.  And, by the way, don't believe the Republican lie that Medicare is  going bankrupt - it's not.

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More Differences Between Texas Democratic Party Platform and Republican Party of Texas Platforms

Reception For Democratic Candidates On The Ballot For 5th District Court of Appeals

Today, there is a reception at Plano Parr Library for the Democratic candidates for 5th District Court of Appeals. This is your opportunity to talk with the judicial candidates to find out why it is so important who serves on your Court of Appeals.  The reception is sponsored by Democratic Precinct Chairs of Collin Co. The reception is today, Thursday, September 27, 7:00pm at Plano Parr Library, 6200 Windhaven Pkwy, Plano, Tx. (map) For more information, contact Barb Korman at silverfox1026@aol.com.

The Texas District Courts of Appeals are distributed in fourteen districts around the state of Texas. The Courts of Appeal have intermediate appellate jurisdiction in both civil and criminal cases appealed from district or county courts. Like the Texas Supreme Court and Court of Criminal Appeals, Justices of the Texas Courts of Appeals are elected to six-year terms by general election.

The Court of Appeals for the Fifth District of Texas at Dallas, which includes one Chief Justice and twelve Justices, has jurisdiction over appeals from both district and county courts located in Dallas, Collin, Grayson, Hunt, Rockwall and Kaufman counties. The Court hears both civil and criminal appeals.

No Democrats currently sit on Fifth Court of Appeals. In the 2012 General Election, five Democratic Candidates are running for the 5th Court of Appeals:

• Tonya Holt for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 11
• Penny Phillips for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 5
• Larry Praeger for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 12
• David Hanshen for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 9
• Dan Wood for 5th District Court of Appeals Place 2

Penny Phillips talks about Court of Appeals Justice. Penny is an Air Force Veteran, 20-year attorney, and dedicated leader. Penny is an experienced lawyer with a long history of dedicated public service.

Both civil and criminal appeals are typically heard by a panel of three justices, unless in a particular case "en banc" hearing is ordered, in which instance all the justices of that Court hear and consider the case. (Graphical Guide to the Court System of Texas) (map)

Women At Risk Of Being Disenfranchised

Women add to the list of voters who are potential casualties of disenfranchisement from restrictive voting laws, as reports show that women have an increasingly difficult path to obtaining proper photo ID.

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Discrepancies over a voter's legal name and the name displayed on their photo ID could stand in the way of their ability to cast a ballot in states that have enacted strict photo ID laws.  That means if a woman's name or address has changed due to marriage or divorce and her photo ID does not reflect the change, she could be turned away at the polls.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, as many as 34% of voting-age women—who have proof of citizenship—do not have documents with their current legal name.

And as MSNBC host Melissa Harris-Perry points out, in Pennsylvania where a controversial voter ID has returned to a lower court, recently married or divorced women face an uphill battle in order to vote.

In an asterisk section at the bottom of the Pennsylvania Department of State Voter ID rules, the requirements reads:

* In this example a voter who recently changed her name by reason of marriage presents a valid Pennsylvania driver's license or Pennsylvania ID card accompanied by a PennDOT update card, which is sufficient to satisfy the requirements of the Voter ID law regarding proof of identification.

"You need not one, but two forms of ID if you are a [woman]—there is officially a tax on being a woman in Pennsylvania if you want to vote," Harris-Perry said.

Ari Berman, who has covered voter ID laws extensively for The Nation magazine, added that Pennsylvania voters would also be subject to the individual discretion of workers at over 9,000 different polling places.  "We're talking about, at the very least, a lot of chaos on election day," he said.

Sarah Silverman Explains Voter Photo I.D. Laws

  Caution - It's Sarah Silverman! You will hear words some might consider "inappropriate."
Comedian Sarah Silverman explains why 12 states have passed laws requiring voters to present select government issued photo I.D. photo identification before casting a ballot. She explains that new voting laws passed by Republican controlled state legislatures since 2008 require voters to present select photo I.D that up to 25 percent of some population groups do not hold. And those population groups, including African Americans and young people of every ethnic and racial group, voted predominately for Pres. Obama in 2008.

Bluntly, Silverman said that “lawmakers are trying to fuck you in the asshole” and ended up recommending everyone buy guns, because states like Texas and Tennessee have passed laws that say gun permits work as voter IDs, but Social Security cards and student IDs do not.

Polls That Include Cell Phone Only Voters Give Obama A Big Lead!

Fox News released a new poll Thursday showing that President Barack Obama leads Mitt Romney in three battleground states, topping off a week of bad-news polling for the Republican presidential nominee in toss-up states.

The poll, which covered Ohio, Virginia and Florida, shows Obama leading Romney by seven points in both Ohio (49 to 42 percent) and Virginia (50 to 43 percent). In Florida, Obama leads by five points (49 to 44 percent), which is within the poll's margin of error. Obama won all three states in 2008, marking the first time Virginia voted for a Democratic president since 1964.

In Michigan and Wisconsin, Obama has also opened up a lead against his rival: A CNN poll puts him up eight points in Michigan (52 to 44 percent), and one from Marquette Law School has Obama leading Romney by 14 points in Wisconsin (54 to 40 percent). In August, Obama led Romney in Wisconsin by only three points.

New York Times pollster Nate Silver notes that Obama tends to do better against Romney in polls that include cell phones and use live interviewers instead of automated questions.  Silver writes that Obama has shown a clear lead in the 16 cell phone-inclusive polls of seven top battleground states taken since the convention. (The Fox, CNN and Marquette Law School polls all included cell phone respondents.)  On average, Obama has a 5.8 percentage point lead in surveys that include properly weighted cell phone (only) respondents.

The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted September 12-16, 2012 among 3,019 adults, including properly weighted cell phone only respondents, finds that Obama has an eight-point lead over Mitt Romney among likely voters on which candidate gets their vote.  Not only does Obama enjoy a substantial lead on Pew's ballot preference question, he tops Romney in a number of other key categories, too.  Obama continues to be the more likable candidate by a substantial margin; his favorability rating has risen to 55% from 50% in late July, with only 42% now expressing an unfavorable view of him.

Pew Research Center leads other public polling organizations for polling expertise in our increasingly cell phone only society.

The number of Americans who have no landline phone service, who rely solely or mostly on cell phone service, has been growing for several years.  The cell phone only trend poses an increasing likelihood that public opinion polls conducted only or mostly to landline phone respondents have a conservative bias.

Analysis by Pew Research Center in 2010 shows support for Republican candidates is significantly higher in polls calling only or mostly landline respondents, than in dual frame surveys that combined properly weighted landline and cell phone respondent polling.

Pew Research found in 2010 up to a 10 point conservative bias gap between those who could be reached by landline and those who could be reached only by cell phone. Those who have gone cell phone only hold significantly more progressive / liberal political views than those who can still be polled by landline live or automated robo calls. This gap has likely widened over the last two years.

TDWCC 6th Annual Fundraiser Dinner

Click here for details, to RSVP and to purchase tickets.

Presidential Debate Watch, October 3rd

We invite you to get "fired up and ready to go" for the rest of the campaign Wednesday evening, October 3rd by attending a Debate Watch at Rugby House Pub, in north west Plano ~ 8604 Preston Rd., Suite 100, Plano, Tx 75024. (map)

The October 3rd debate between Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney and President Barack Obama is going to be an enormous event.   Some 200 million television viewers worldwide are expected to focus on the debate held at the University of Denver in Colorado.

The 90-minute October 3rd debate, moderated by Jim Lehrer, will be broken up into six 15-minute segments. Three of the segments will focus on the economy, with the remaining three segments focused on health care, governing and the role of government.

The Texas Democratic Women of Collin County, Democratic Network and Democratic Blog News have reserved the Rugby House Pub media room for debates on October 3rd, October 11th and October 22nd.  Watch for information about the October 16th debate watch location. Debate schedule posted below the more jump...

Texas Judge Halts Faulty Dead Voter Purge

State Court Judge Tim Sulak in Austin temporarily barred the Secretary of State's office from ordering county election officials to purge voters from registration rolls, who are listed on the state's highly inaccurate dead voter report. Judge Tim Sulak agreed with plaintiffs that the purge this close to election day may violate state and federal election code.

The ruling came in a lawsuit filed today by four very much alive Texas voters who were told they would be purged from the voter registration rolls as deceased. They asked Judge Sulak to stop the state from striking about 77,000 names from the rolls, arguing the plan violates the U.S. Voting Rights Act and Texas election code.

The secretary of state is “restrained from further instructing the counties to remove any other names from the voter rolls,” Judge Sulak said in his order. “Plaintiffs are entitled to temporary injunctive relief.” He also barred the secretary of state from ordering county officials to remove from the rolls any voters who failed to “timely comply” with the dead voter notice letters already mailed out.

Pew: Obama Pulls Ahead with Strong Support

With an eight-point lead over Mitt Romney among likely voters, Barack Obama holds a bigger September lead than the last three candidates who went on to win in November, including Obama four years ago.Not only does Obama enjoy a substantial lead in the horserace, he tops Romney on a number of key dimensions.

His support is stronger than his rival’s, and is positive rather than negative. Mitt Romney’s backers are more ardent than they were pre-convention, but are still not as enthusiastic as Obama’s.

In elections since 1988, only Bill Clinton, in 1992 and 1996, entered the fall with a larger advantage.

Roughly half of Romney’s supporters say they are voting against Obama rather than for the Republican nominee. With the exception of Bill Clinton in 1992, candidates lacking mostly positive backing have lost in November.
 
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center for the People & the Press, conducted September 12-16, 2012 among 3,019 adults including 2,424 registered voters, finds that Obama continues to be the more likable candidate by a substantial margin; his favorability rating has risen to 55% from 50% in late July, with 42% now expressing an unfavorable view of him.