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citybeatnik posted:... you know what? gently caress it, i'm down. The stronger together meeting, yes? I look forward to asking the pressing political question of "do you have stairs in your house". That's the one. And you'll never find me unless you trawl through my post history to find pictures of my tattoos or something
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Nov 17, 2016 16:11
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citybeatnik posted:Eh. If we do a If you want to figure out how to get involved, start talking to people who already are and ask them what to do. Tell them your skills and find out how you can use them. That's what I am and have been doing. I've emailed several staff members of city politicians, I emailed the DNC Travis County Chairman or something, have talked to a few organizers, and my friend put me in touch with State Rep. Donna Howard, who my friend knows. I graduate from UT in May and my plan is to go into politics/government as a full time career.
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Nov 17, 2016 16:13
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blue squares posted:That's the one. And you'll never find me unless you trawl through my post history to find pictures of my tattoos or something That's no fun at all. But i'm mostly looking for moral support / someone else to BS with so i'm not sure sitting on my thumb being overwhelmed. blue squares posted:If you want to figure out how to get involved, start talking to people who already are and ask them what to do. Tell them your skills and find out how you can use them. That's what I am and have been doing. I've emailed several staff members of city politicians, I emailed the DNC Travis County Chairman or something, have talked to a few organizers, and my friend put me in touch with State Rep. Donna Howard, who my friend knows. I graduate from UT in May and my plan is to go into politics/government as a full time career. Well now i feel old.
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Nov 17, 2016 16:16
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Donna Howard owns and I was part of her keeping her seat in 2010 by two votes against some UT and Broncos player. In other news, Don Zimmerman has been ranting about "racist progressive fascists" on Facebook for the last week. Feels good.
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Nov 17, 2016 16:22
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citybeatnik posted:Well now i feel old. I'm 27 (Navy vet)
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Nov 17, 2016 16:23
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Can anyone tell me about the Texas Freedom Network? I read about them in an article about the Mexican American Heritage textbook fiasco. I'm a supporter of the issues they list on their website, but any feedback anyone has on them would be appreciated. edit: You young folk getting involved is awesome. I didn't give a poo poo about anything until I turned 30, and now I'm closer to 40 than 30 and raising kids of my own I realize how important some of these issues are. Not so much for me, but for my children.
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Nov 17, 2016 16:30
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citybeatnik posted:... you know what? gently caress it, i'm down. The stronger together meeting, yes? I look forward to asking the pressing political question of "do you have stairs in your house". I was gonna go too but I have a previous engagement. I'll be at the next one though.
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Nov 17, 2016 16:40
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skipdogg posted:Can anyone tell me about the Texas Freedom Network? I read about them in an article about the Mexican American Heritage textbook fiasco. I'm a supporter of the issues they list on their website, but any feedback anyone has on them would be appreciated. I've been following TFN on facebook for maybe four years now. They've never once posted something I disagree with, and provide good insight into organizations like the SBOE that nobody else talks about.
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Nov 17, 2016 17:00
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Apparently Houston PD is picking up Austin PD's police chief. What was the consensus of his tenure in Austin?
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Nov 17, 2016 17:25
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Dameius posted:Apparently Houston PD is picking up Austin PD's police chief. What was the consensus of his tenure in Austin? I spent some time looking up some info on him this morning. He apparently came pretty close to heading up Dallas PD if that counts for anything and Austin really wanted him to stick around - until the shooting of David Joseph it seems. quote:Freemans attorneys have said he fired at Joseph, 17, who was nude and wasnt armed, after the teen charged at him in the street when Freeman responded Feb. 8 to a disturbance in Northeast Austin. And... quote:The Combined Law Enforcement Associations of Texas Executive Director Charley Wilkison issued a statement in response to the incident saying, in part, Rank-and-file police officers in Austin have been sounding the alarm for months about Chief Acevedo's habit of bad-mouthing the cops he's supposed to be leading. Finally, his supervisor stepped in with decisive action to bring the chief back into line. Surely, the city manager realizes the harm the chief's comments do when an on-duty officer involved in controversy is hung out to dry by the chief of police. Sounds like the union and other officials were doing the typical "You weren't automatically supporting us when we hosed up and shot an unarmed person!!!!  " as Acevedo decided against remaining silent on it. Perhaps someone from Austin can shed some light on it if I'm mistaken about anything, but from just a cursory glance on Facebook and a few other local news sites it doesn't seem Ott has been particularly well-liked after this went down.Maybe the combination of him and Kim Ogg will be good for marijuana laws here at least?
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Nov 17, 2016 18:01
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It the union doesn't like the police chief, that means the chief is doing a good job.
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Nov 17, 2016 18:05
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Aliquid posted:I've been following TFN on facebook for maybe four years now. They've never once posted something I disagree with, and provide good insight into organizations like the SBOE that nobody else talks about. Thanks. I can deal with an org that I think does good work even if it's not 100% aligned to what I want to see happen. I don't know if there's a charity navigator or something for political groups, if I do give them money I'd like to know it being put to good use. edit: I dug into TFN's last 990 I could find (2014). 600K in total revenue, and the President/Exec Director sees fit to earn a 150K base salary (165 total comp). The deputy earns over 100K. Almost 1/2 of the money going to them goes to 2 peoples paycheck. That doesn't make me want to give them money to be honest. They do seem to run a sister org the TFN Education Fund, but no transparency on how any of the money gets spent. skipdogg fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Nov 17, 2016 |
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Nov 17, 2016 18:57
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Them getting mad that the police chief they hired to address excessive force against minorities was addressing excessive force is pretty fun. Austin is super liberal but a lot of people from Austin don't notice it's race relation problems until they leave
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Nov 17, 2016 19:12
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blue squares posted:It the union doesn't like the police chief, that means the chief is doing a good job. Basically this. I seem to recall him meeting up with/at least not being a turbodick to Occupy Austin as well. But then that group was literally infiltrated by undercover cops to get them to do something stupid so...
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Nov 17, 2016 20:00
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Awesome Welles posted:I spent some time looking up some info on him this morning. He apparently came pretty close to heading up Dallas PD if that counts for anything and Austin really wanted him to stick around - until the shooting of David Joseph it seems. This is a massive loss for Austin. And you're pretty much right that he received a ton of push back for the majority of his tenure due to entrenched good ole boy poo poo that infests the Austin PD. He's a very hands on chief been known to drive through the most problematic neighborhoods on patrol, and would be readily available to the public. This really sucks for that town especially with the incoming political climate change next year and Austin's gentrification.
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Nov 17, 2016 21:23
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Collin County officials have new plan to avoid paying for Ken Paxton case: Stiff a public defender
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Nov 17, 2016 23:54
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i'm running late to this tcdp meeting. i assume they don't bar the doors at six.
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Nov 18, 2016 00:43
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citybeatnik posted:i'm running late to this tcdp meeting. i assume they don't bar the doors at six. So you're not the extremely goony guy I spotted
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Nov 18, 2016 00:53
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blue squares posted:So you're not the extremely goony guy I spotted Good god now. Iēll be the other goony guy in glasses and a blue polo.
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Nov 18, 2016 01:10
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karlor posted:Collin County officials have new plan to avoid paying for Ken Paxton case: Stiff a public defender Is this because of those changes that the Travis County prosecutor can't handle corruption cases anymore.
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Nov 18, 2016 01:16
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Open mic night it appears. Volunteered for some data entry grunt work this sunday. We'll see if it's worth a try.
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Nov 18, 2016 02:02
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citybeatnik posted:Open mic night it appears. Do you have a beard and are you standing near the door
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Nov 18, 2016 02:13
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blue squares posted:Do you have a beard and are you standing near the door Short beard. Chilling on the couch atm.
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Nov 18, 2016 02:14
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Still on the couch in a blue polo near the snacks. Lots of rallying calls on the mic, not so much plans for action.
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Nov 18, 2016 02:43
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Dameius posted:Apparently Houston PD is picking up Austin PD's police chief. What was the consensus of his tenure in Austin? He came to one of my public admin grad-level classes once and yelled at us for three hours, it was pretty weird.
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Nov 18, 2016 03:03
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PostNouveau posted:Is this because of those changes that the Travis County prosecutor can't handle corruption cases anymore. It's not a corruption case, but rather securities fraud. It occurred in Collin county, so he gets prosecuted there
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Nov 18, 2016 03:42
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TCDP is pretty good but if you live in Austin and want to do some progressive canvassing, Left Up To Us is also doing all sorts of neat stuff. We recently campaigned for several downballot candidates. http://leftuptous.org/home There's also the option of getting involved with Austin Democratic Socialists of America. We worked a lot with LUTU recently and there's some overlap but really we show up and organize for all sorts of progressive causes in the area. http://dsaaustin.org/
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Nov 18, 2016 03:47
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I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting tonight (and saying hello to citybeatnik). I had a chance to do some good networking with elected officials and other people who want to get heavily involved.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:02
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TBH the guest list at that TCDP thing sounded awful besides Greg Casar.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:16
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Anyone in Dallas that knows the Democrat/liberal game and goes to events?
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Nov 18, 2016 04:20
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nikitakhrushchev posted:TCDP is pretty good but if you live in Austin and want to do some progressive canvassing, Left Up To Us is also doing all sorts of neat stuff. We recently campaigned for several downballot candidates. http://leftuptous.org/home I would probably implode if i got anywhere near either of those but if they're looking for oppo researchers let me know. Badger of Basra posted:TBH the guest list at that TCDP thing sounded awful besides Greg Casar. It seemed kinda eeeh as well save for a few, yeah. Felt more like a general call to arms or campaign stump at times. blue squares posted:I thoroughly enjoyed the meeting tonight (and saying hello to citybeatnik). I had a chance to do some good networking with elected officials and other people who want to get heavily involved. Pleasure meeting you too man. You're better at networking than i am but it still is giving me a chance to use my skillset in a decent enough fashion.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:20
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citybeatnik posted:I would probably implode if i got anywhere near either of those but if they're looking for oppo researchers let me know. haha I know it's not for everyone, just figured I would do my part and let the thread know about options! I love that y'all are going to meetings of any type since it's the only way we'll get things done.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:25
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Badger of Basra posted:TBH the guest list at that TCDP thing sounded awful besides Greg Casar. The majority of the time was not elected officials speaking. First, we broke into small groups for about 15-20 minutes and went through a list of five questions. Then there was 30 minutes of open mic speaking, with 60 seconds for each person. A lot of great stuff was said, some orgs were promoted, and it was a great way to show a bunch of first-time attendees (of which there were many, I think) that there are lots of other people there who are feeling and thinking the same things as they are.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:27
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I'm still mad Leslie Pool and Alison Alter are getting hailed as Good Democrats by TCDP when they're actually terrible.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:34
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Alter is better than Gallo, from what I can tell.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:44
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mastajake posted:Anyone in Dallas that knows the Democrat/liberal game and goes to events? I'm interested in the same thing. I've checked out the Democratic Socialist of America, who are base at UT-Dallas, and also looked into volunteering for Marc Veasey in Fort Worth.
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Nov 18, 2016 04:51
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blue squares posted:Alter is better than Gallo, from what I can tell. She's bad on land use which is one of the most important issues in Austin today. Build more housing in west Austin? But my quaint neighborhood!
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Nov 18, 2016 05:00
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That isn't the biggest issue we are facing, though. Yeah, expensive housing is awful, but we need someone who is willing to spend money to help our poorest residents and who is willing to raise taxes to meet their needs, if necessary. I live literally right across the river from downtown Austin, right by the Palmer Center, and I pay (not including my roommate) $750/month for rent, electricity, and Google fiber internet. Affordable housing still exists.
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Nov 18, 2016 05:18
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Badger of Basra posted:She's bad on land use which is one of the most important issues in Austin today. Build more housing in west Austin? But my quaint neighborhood! Yeah the flier comparing her to Gallo had her listed as being against the PUD. That's about when I went "welp nope". ... oh my god I'm some leftist version of a libertarian ain't i?
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Nov 18, 2016 05:34
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blue squares posted:That isn't the biggest issue we are facing, though. Yeah, expensive housing is awful, but we need someone who is willing to spend money to help our poorest residents and who is willing to raise taxes to meet their needs, if necessary. I live literally right across the river from downtown Austin, right by the Palmer Center, and I pay (not including my roommate) $750/month for rent, electricity, and Google fiber internet. Affordable housing still exists. There's a fairly consistent majority of the council willing to do that, though (I count Tovo, Houston, Casar, Garza, Renterķa, Pool, Adler). Both Alter and Gallo want to keep raising the homestead exemption, so she's no help there. If it was Gallo running against Garza or Casar I wouldn't say vote for her but Alter is just a Tovo or Pool clone and four of them is enough. I wish Garza and Casar could run for every council seat.
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Nov 18, 2016 05:43
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