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Cool, it's here. Nice job on the OP Xarthor. E: You can use a portion of this (or all of it) as the write-up for Julian Castro, I am happy to give my home town mayor props on all he's done. Politics-wise, Julian Castro has been nominated by Obama to be HUD secretary, and the confirmation hearings are starting today. Hopefully it will be a smooth process, but I've learned never to underestimate the spitefulness of Republicans. Since this is the Texas politics thread, a (giant) recap: Julian Castro was elected in 2009 as mayor of San Antonio (aka my awesome hometown ), and re-elected twice, in 2011 and 2013. As mayor, he got SA 2020 going (SA 2020 is basically a citywide project to help make San Antonio a leading, powerful city by 2020), got Pre-K 4 SA passed (it aims to eventually get Pre-K for every child in San Antonio, and is funded through a 1/8 cent sales tax. Good god did the "muh taxes" parts of San Antonio scream about that, but it passed), and finally, he was a big push behind getting San Antonio's non-discrimination ordinance passed, which bans discrimination based sexual orientation and gender identity. Julian Castro rose to national prominence when he gave the keynote speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention. That speech was great, and it made me so happy that now everyone knows how awesome he is.  On the non-discrimination ordinance, just because I am so drat proud of my city: Texas does not have a statewide non-discrimination policy (because Republicans), so we did it ourselves. As with Pre-K 4 SA, there was a hell of a lot of screaming and complaining and fearmongering; councilwoman Elisa Chan ended up being revealed as a horrible bigot and later ended up resigning. When it was all said and done, the non-discrimination ordinance passed 8-3, and all the screaming was for naught.  Given all of the above, Julian Castro's been an excellent mayor, I'm pleased as hell to have voted for him twice, and look forward to seeing him work his magic as HUD secretary. Oh and hope that the goon  So basically, say hello to the guy my dad unironically refers to as "the new great Brown hope" (the previous one being Henry Cisneros, before his affair came out). He says and means that in a positive way believe it or not; he's a solid, party-line Democrat, voted for Julian Castro all three times and is also pleased as hell at how he's done as Mayor, and would happily vote for Julian Castro for President. Xarthor posted:This fact, along with the magic of latino sex 
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Jun 17, 2014 23:13
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ufarn posted:I'd love some kind of chart with the power rankings of people like the Lt. Governor and Land Commissioner (or whatever the title was). I did a class presentation on Texas politics and holy poo poo is Texas's Lt. Governor powerful. I made up this chart for the presentation, this is what our Legislative Budget Board (IE the guys who draw up the entire Texas state budget) looks like:  It's ten people, five of whom are appointed by the Lt. Governor or the Speaker of the Texas House, who are also members of the board. That means two people essentially control Texas's entire state budget. Welcome to Texas politics, please pick your jaw up from the floor when you leave. Also, welcome to why Texas is chronically underfunded in everything and probably will be for the foreseeable future, even VitalSigns posted:All right, I can't do this anymore. What the gently caress is with the pro-child-beating planks? I mean okay, you want to whip your kids, does that really need to be in the state political platform? 
fade5 fucked around with this message at 00:58 on Jun 20, 2014 |
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Jun 20, 2014 00:55
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Crew Expendable posted:How is education fairing in Houston and San Antonio ISD? I'm not sure if you're from San Antonio or not, but here's an explanation/education mega-post for those not familiar. This is Texas Politics, so of course it all goes back Rick Perry: a couple years ago, Perry managed to "balance the budget" by cutting 5.4 billion dollars from education. That's Billion, with a B.  "Wait, how the gently caress can you guys function like that?"Welcome to Education in Texas: everything is hosed edition. Education in San Antonio is similar to the rest of Texas: chronically, horribly underfunded, but we try to do the best we can in the face of adversity, while knowing education is basically hosed for the foreseeable future. On the Elementary/Middle/High School level it's basically cutbacks and more cutbacks, layoffs, teachers stretched to the breaking point, no new classroom materials, larger classes, teachers having to bring their own supplies, and even a proposal to move to a 4 day school week, all to save money. In addition, there's also the imbalance in school district funding. There's an extremely in-depth guide here, but a gist is that funding for school districts is partially based on property taxes, which means that schools in rich places have better funding, schools in poorer places have less funding. The Robin Hood Plan was an attempt to fix this, but I know there have been lawsuits relating to this recently, so some of this info may be out of date or no longer correct, someone more familiar can fill me in if I missed anything or on recent changes. So for San Antonio, these are the various school districts:  Alamo Heights is doing somewhat okay since Alamo Heights has a bunch of rich white people, Northeast ISD has some bleedoff of this, although both still have general problems, and most of the other districts are varying degrees of hosed. Higher education is a bit better. San Antonio has the Alamo Community Colleges which I've been taking classes at. They've also been hit by cuts, they're going to that 4 day school week mentioned earlier. Even so, classes at Community Colleges are so much loving cheaper than the universities that it's astounding, and there are a lot of people taking classes. Universities I'm less familiar with, although I know St Mary's is a private college and expensive as all gently caress; one semester there would pay for your entire time at Community College. Finally, San Antonio also got Pre-K 4 SA passed, which aims at eventually providing universal preschool. How did that happen during all these cutbacks? If the state isn't gonna do poo poo, we have to do it ourselves. Basically, you can breakdown support of Pre-K 4 SA by income/property taxes. Alamo Heights and the other rich areas voted against it (because it's an 1/8 cent sales tax, and why should we pay for the kids of those poors to get preschool) but luckily the rest of the city outnumbers them, and it passed. There's also standardized testing, but this effort-post is long enough, so I or someone else can go into that clusterfuck later. If you note anything incorrect here let me know so I can fix it. Otherwise, stare in pure horror at the endgame of the Republican's "gently caress you education" stance. Please go and vote, it's how we managed to get Pre-K 4 SA in my awesome hometown.
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Jul 10, 2014 19:06
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Lubbock and El Paso are distant worlds on the outer rim.
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Alkydere posted:Woo! Went and voted today. Like you, I have also done what the OP and the thread title wants, I have got out and voted. Also, policywise I voted yes on Amendment 1, for pretty much exactly Tatum Girlparts's reasoning: Tatum Girlparts posted:I'm for it. It's not enough and yea in a perfect world I'd love the rainy day fund to be used for slightly more pressing issues like education but we do objectively need more money in infrastructure and I'd rather have something than nothing. It's a typical Texas proposal, we'll throw some money at it but not enough so we can huff and puff about how the gaddang gubmint can't do nothin right, but it's better than voting no which would result in absolutely nothing. fade5 fucked around with this message at 01:14 on Oct 23, 2014 |
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Oct 23, 2014 01:11
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To be somewhat fair, I think it's partly to prevent vote buying; IE, you vote exactly how someone says to, you take pictures with your phone as proof, and they give you money.
fade5 fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Oct 28, 2014 |
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Oct 28, 2014 07:32
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In interesting news, and in contrast to the constant string of Republican victories, Republican Susan Reed is no longer Bexar County's District Attorney; she was defeated by Democrat Nicholas “Nico” LaHood. Susan Reed has been DA for 16 years, so this is a bit of a shock; I thought LaHood was just a sacrificial lamb. The win is partly due to greater than average turnout in Bexar county, but also largely due to Thomas J. Henry, who dumped an absolute shitload of money into the race. http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/LaHood-defeats-Reed-for-Bexar-district-attorney-5871454.php quote:In 2010, LaHood lost his bid for DA against Reed, in a race decided by about 8 percentage points. Also in good news, my congress-critter Joaquin Castro won re-election.  Not that there was ever any doubt about Joaquin winning, he didn't even have a Republican opponent, just some no-name Libertarian. Ah, the benefits of living in the majority Hispanic, majority Democratic part of San Antonio, I can actually vote for a Democrat who can win and who actually represents me.
fade5 fucked around with this message at 04:07 on Nov 6, 2014 |
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Nov 6, 2014 04:02
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There's a local election in parts of San Antonio Texas Senate District 26 and House District 123, so if you didn't vote early, you can still go vote, the polls are open until 7 PM. Voting is anemic as hell elections like these, and with 5 or 6 candidates running in each race, two or three votes could literally make a difference in who the winner is, so go vote! Election day sites can be found here. Not quite sure if it's quite kosher, but here's my voting recommendation: Trey Martinez Fischer for Senate One of the most liberal/left members in the Texas House. Republicans loving hate him, and have (unofficially via a PAC) dumped a ton of money into a smear campaign against him. Diego Bernal for the House Dude who was the force behind San Antonio's non-discrimination ordinance. He is awesome. fade5 fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Jan 7, 2015 |
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Jan 7, 2015 00:22
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quote:Last December, Uber agreed to temporarily suspended operations in Portland, Oregon, until April 9, 2015, while the city crafts rules to allow ride-sharing. Last November, the company exited Nevada over the state's strict taxi regulations, and in January of this year, Uber vacated Auburn, Alabama, citing "burdensome regulations that disregard our innovative business model." God you couldn't come up with a more  phrase if you tried.karlor posted:Good. If you don't like our rules then you can  Heaven forbid San Antonio does our own background checks instead of just taking Uber's word that "hey these dudes are totally all good, honest". It's not like you're completely placing your personal health and safety in another person's hands when you get into a cab or anything. It does suck that they're leaving, but San Antonio can get by with VIA and our existing Taxi service. Badger of Basra posted:I guess San Antonio doesn't want to get disrupted quote:The Council of San Antonio has prudently protected the public safety. Society does not need disruption, it needs security and stability to move forward. If you want disruption, go to Syria or Nigeria.  I shouldn't laugh, but that is a pretty good poke at Uber's slogan.
fade5 fucked around with this message at 21:27 on Mar 6, 2015 |
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Mar 6, 2015 21:03
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Xibanya posted:Sounds like San Antonio is the best town. I'm in Austin now, is it worth moving there to escape the inflow of rich coastal folk or is it too late?  You can definitely get far away from "rich coastal folk" in San Antonio as long as you don't move to Alamo Heights or any of the new housing places on the (far) north side.
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Mar 8, 2015 02:15
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Crosspost from the gay marriage thread: http://www.dallasnews.com/news/state/headlines/20150626-interactive-map-how-texas-counties-are-handling-same-sex-marriage-licenses.ece  All the counties in E: Fixed the colors 
fade5 fucked around with this message at 22:53 on Jun 27, 2015 |
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Jun 27, 2015 21:38
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enraged_camel posted:You mean yellow and red are cowards.  Sheng-ji Yang posted:Hays County is issuing gay marriage licenses, so chalk another one up for blue (it's grey on the map). Also the wedding industry is big up here in the Hill Country so this will probably be a bit of a boom.
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Jun 27, 2015 22:58
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ReidRansom posted:You screenshot it and host the image. There's no embedding tweets in SA because that would require lots of coding changes, and messing around with SA's/radium's coding tends to cause things to break, sometimes very badly.
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Sep 21, 2015 20:20
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I early voted, so no worrying about voting today.An Angry Bug posted:Prop 7 - Dedicates certain taxes and fees to fund non-toll roads. On the one hand this would keep that revenue from being stolen for other things, but on the other hand the "non-toll" part sounds like an attempt to reduce funding to toll roads to make the tolls seem more necessary and funnel more profits to private owners. Not sure on this one. zoux posted:The problem is that it's another dedicated fund. Something insane like 80% or more of the state budget is statutorially allocated before the Legislature ever steps foot in Austin. So dedicating another revenue source to another fund limits the ability of budget writers to respond to needs that crop up. If there's another hurricane or other huge black swan cost, well we just took another $2.5 billion out of available funds because it's required to go to Fund 6. So, while TXDoT desperately needs the money, the proper way to do it would be to put a line item in the budget rather than force future legislatures to do it. fade5 fucked around with this message at 17:34 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 17:30
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An Angry Bug posted:Definitely voting no then. It's not like a dedicated fund would prevent misappropriation in this state anyway. quote:It won’t solve all of our road-funding problems immediately, but voters still should say yes to a constitutional change that at least gets investments in roads back on course. Early voting begins Monday. If approved, 35 percent of all motor vehicle sales and rental taxes in excess of $5 billion, along with $2.5 billion a year from state general tax revenue in excess of $28 billion, would go to road construction and maintenance. fade5 fucked around with this message at 18:09 on Nov 3, 2015 |
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Nov 3, 2015 18:04
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Tatum Girlparts posted:gently caress this retard city loving Christ that's depressing though, seriously. 
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Nov 4, 2015 02:55
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oldpainless posted:Building a rail system doesn't help "keep Austin weird" hth radical meme posted:Please do this. Reading up on that Trans-Texas Corridor crap was insane, and I'm sure I only scratched the surface of the insanity there.
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Nov 10, 2015 21:56
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Badger of Basra posted:Lloyd Doggett and Marc Veasey voted for the republican anti-refugee bill for some reason. Geoff Peterson posted:It was very clearly unwhipped-suggesting the Dems know it'll die in the Senate-without requiring any vote that could be used against them later. For reference, it was such a nonissue that Muslim MN rep Keith Ellison flew home instead of delaying his trip to vote. fade5 fucked around with this message at 19:14 on Nov 22, 2015 |
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Nov 22, 2015 18:51
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Omi-Polari posted:I live in Austin.
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Jan 21, 2016 03:04
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FBS posted:I voted!
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Mar 1, 2016 17:21
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Unofficial Bexar county election results: http://home.bexar.org/el45a.htm Trey Martinez Fischer lost.  And Grady Yarbrough won. (His website gives off a faint "crazy religious fucker" vibe). http://www.gradyyarbroughjr.com/ On the plus side, that fucker Lauro A. Bustamante lost, and that was probably one of the more important elections: District Judge, 438th Judicial District Vote for 1 (WITH 712 OF 712 PRECINCTS COUNTED) Lauro A. Bustamante . . . . . . . 38,083 41.07 Rosie Alvarado. . . . . . . . . 54,654 58.93 http://www.mysanantonio.com/opinion/columnists/gloria_padilla/article/Voters-beware-Know-your-Bustamantes-5721884.php (Artile is talking about a past election, but everything else is still very relevant.) quote:Every election draws perennial candidates, and in elections with low voter turnout, they do more than just clutter up the ballot. They can actually get elected.
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Mar 3, 2016 01:09
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Aliquid posted:Who the hell is that? Grady Yarbrough is an old black man who drove his truck around campaigning for Senate in 2012. I voted for him over Paul Sadler. 
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Mar 3, 2016 22:59
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Apparently there are elections in San Antonio today for school board stuff, so everyone who can vote, go vote. (This always applies.) It's a good thing my parents and I always go vote as a family, cuz I sure didn't get any other notifications that there were elections today. I voted for Alderete for Alamo Colleges District 1 Trustee, see if you can figure out why: quote:Joe Alderete, 71, a marketing consultant, is being challenged by Adan Hernandez, 64, an artist, in the district that includes parts of the West and Northwest sides. Also I like that Alderete wants the board to include professors in important decisions.
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May 7, 2016 19:37
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e_angst posted:Wait, I can't tell what Hernandez is getting at there. It feels like it could be either end of the spectrum. Either he's saying that these peasant careers in things like cosmetology are worthless and everyone should be in hard-STEM now, but the fact that he's an artist has me wondering if he's saying that sitting down at a data processing job your whole life is a waste of your beautiful existence and you need to do something "meaningful" like art and poetry. It'd be funny as hell if this guy wasn't running for a position of actual power. The one plus is that the incumbent usually wins in these types of elections, and anyone who did even a cursory glance for info should find the same story I found. fade5 fucked around with this message at 20:34 on May 7, 2016 |
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May 7, 2016 20:20
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Well good news, Alderete won. Total number of votes: 1754. http://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Incumbents-win-in-school-board-races-7421018.php
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May 8, 2016 04:20
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EwokEntourage posted:You do realize the vote wasn't to kick uber out? And that they left on their own? And that uber, a massively unprofitable company, claimed that finger printing would make It too expensive, even tho the company burns money pretty much all day every day everywhere? https://twitter.com/jacksmithiv/status/635925087640793088
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May 10, 2016 00:29
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litany of gulps posted:I think the native view here is "you'd have been shocked to see it ten years ago" - even just five years. No poo poo there's traffic, the growth is astounding. Austin and San Antonio are rapidly becoming one continuous entity. The rural is now the suburban. Much has changed, and it has changed quickly. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_San_Antonio 1990: 1,407,745 2000: 1,711,703 2010: 2,142,508 2015: 2,384,075 Recession? Nah, we've just been expanding by more than 300,000 people each decade with no sign of stopping. VH4Ever posted:Yeah I hadn't made the I-35 corridor trip between the two in about 5 years before I moved here so in 2014 I did and wow, when did Kyle and Buda become full fledged cities? Stuff like that, right? Another bit of writing on the wall: The cities of Kyle, San Marcos, Buda, Austin and San Antonio have been having meetings to devise a regional authority of some kind to start that process of becoming one big megalopolis, so that does seem to be how things are evolving.
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May 10, 2016 00:55
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jaegerx posted:Just support the Spurs. It's really the best option to have a somewhat happy existence.
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Jun 2, 2016 21:15
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skipdogg posted:Bexar county early votes surpassed yesterday's count. 38.6 K votes today. 74k+ votes in only 2 days. +3 votes for Dread Abuela in Bexar, and all the other downballot races. Also Joaquin Castro had no Republican opponent, just a Libertarian and a Green. Given how much Republicans control Texas, it's hilarious they can't even find a sacrificial lamb to run against him.
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Oct 26, 2016 15:31
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skipdogg posted:Early vote in Bexar went 53% Hillary, 41% Drumph
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Nov 9, 2016 02:24
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