Monthly Archives: August 2010

Commissioners Approve $13.6 Million for Voting Machines

Posted on August 30, 2010 | Comments Off

Well, one way or another there will be an election in Harris County. As far as how effectively and securely it will be run and how voter access may be affected will not be determined until November 2nd.

The Harris County Commissioners approved over $13 million for 2,325 new voting machines and other equipment needed to run an election. Plus the few that may come in as “borrowed.”

And just in case…

Kaufman’s request included 1.4 million paper ballots, which will be distributed to polling stations as a backup in case a shortage of machines leads to long lines.

According to a Quorum Report tweet, Dems are calling for the Department of Justice to oversee the election. Obviously, there will be concerns about ballot security, and just plain access. Vote tabulations may go far into the night, or even the next day, and ensuring the security of the tabulation process is of the essence. While there seems to be a plan to buy the machines, I hope we hear more about security measures in the near future.

Frankly, I think we need international observers and the Jimmy Carter Center as impartial eyes to provide some oversight.

All of a sudden, Harris County voter and election services under Republican rule have something to prove in regards to ensuring secure elections, other than complaining about non-existent voter fraud and voter registration.

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Posted in Chicano Politics, Houston Politica, LatinoVote '10, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege

Exposing Vasquez and King Street

Posted on August 30, 2010 | 3 Comments

Why on earth would losing Republican Leo Vasquez want to be associated with a right-wing anti-voter group which uses fake video to make their false voter fraud accusations?

If you go to 1:36 of a video on the front page of the King Street Paranoiacs (truethevote.org), one will find a doctored photo of an African American woman with a sign that states, “I only got to vote once!” Of course, the “homemade” sign is written in perfect Comic Sans MS font, one of the numerous fonts available on Photoshop.

DosCentavos.net questioned the validity of Vasquez’s accusations toward Houston Votes given the fact that he allowed access to voter information to an obviously partisan organization.

Anthony Gutierrez, spokesperson for the Texas Democratic Party, has released this statement regarding Leo Vasquez and his work with the right-wing anti-voter group, King Street Patriots.

“Not only have they completely destroyed whatever credibility they had, but all Harris County residents should be deeply disturbed by how closely Republican Voter Registrar Leo Vasquez is working with this Republican group.  They apparently are being given access to voter registration applications [1] [2] which contain personal, private information and which the Voter Registrar’s Office refused to turn over to the Democratic Party in the course of our lawsuit arguing that the personal nature of the information on the cards needed to be protected, an argument they even made in federal court.”

[1] King Street Patriots Press Release 8/24/2010

“King Street Patriots is double-checking all registrations leading up to the election…”

http://texasgopvote.com/blog/volunteers-expose-voter-fraud-harris-county-tens-thousands-registrations-questioned-king-street-08244

[2] Link to the Powerpoint Leo Vasquez presented at his press conference.  In the powerpoint are several voter registration applications which were made available to the King Street Patriots and which clearly show voters’ name and date of birth.

http://www.hctax.net/News/PressreleaseForm.aspx?inputName=2010/voter/Irregularities_08242010.aspx

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Posted in Bigots and Liars, Dumb Houston, LatinoVote '10, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege

Lobbyists Pull Perry’s Strings

Posted on August 30, 2010 | Comments Off

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Posted in LatinoVote '10, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege

Thoughts on Viernes…08272010

Posted on August 27, 2010 | Comments Off

Houston Votes Responds to Leo Vasquez Political Attack

On Tuesday, August 24, Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector and Voter Registrar Leo Vasquez made reckless and false allegations against Houston Votes in an apparently coordinated, partisan effort to suppress voter registration and to intimidate citizens into not voting. Sadly, this type of shameful tactic has worked all too well in the past.  Houston Votes is committed to non-partisan voter registration and helping register the over 600,000 citizens eligible to vote who are not even registered in Harris County.

Fred Lewis, head of Houston Votes, said, “Those who propagate lies and distortions like those of Mr. Vasquez and his partisan allies are eroding our democracy, and we ask the Voting Rights Section of the Justice Department to immediately investigate and monitor his office and his radical allies.”

Mr. Vasquez’s histrionic complaints are false and defamatory. Houston Votes seeks to register as many Houstonians as are eligible, which Mr. Vasquez unfortunately sees as a “burden” and a threat. Rather than celebrate new registrants, Mr. Vasquez apparently intends to reduce his workload by intimidating people from registering. He and his staff are paid with taxpayer dollars to process voter registration cards.  They should do their jobs without complaining or engaging in partisan, political activity.

The recklessness and falseness of Mr. Vasquez’s allegations, combined with his unprofessional and partisan actions, raise serious questions about his political motivations. Houston Votes is asking the Justice Department to investigate voting rights violations by Mr. Vasquez and his office through a political campaign to intimidate voter registration.  The Registrar’s Office has a long history of voter suppression. We have reason to believe that his office is continuing its systematic practice of illegally not approving registration applications from eligible citizens despite public outcry and costly litigation.

Mr. Vasquez’s press conference, as part of his official non-partisan duties, was a political circus, with dozens of partisan operatives present. Mr. Vasquez appears to have abused the power of his office by collaborating with the King Street Patriots, a partisan organization that took credit for uncovering the “fraud” alleged against Houston Votes This political organization’s website states “that current political initiatives must be focused on mobilizing the conservative electorate”.  It appears that Leo Vasquez openly coordinated with King Street Patriots to further personal political goals and retard the efforts of Houston Votes in registering people. He also appears to have shared legally confidential voter registration data with partisan political third parties, which is unlawful. Both activities warrant a criminal investigation by the Justice Department.

Democracy–It’s Hot!

At least at the Harris County Clerk’s Voting Machine storage building. This is going to be very interesting, indeed. Perhaps they should put together an ALL-MAIL BALLOT election for this one.

Just a thought…

As Democracy is under attack, please try to have a good weekend.

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Posted in Thoughts on Viernes

Sore Loserism Takes Over The Voter Registrar’s Office

Posted on August 26, 2010 | 3 Comments

Perhaps the appointed and losing candidate for Tax Assessor-Collector Leo Vasquez is doing one last favor for his Republican Party.  Yes, the same Republican Party which abandoned him for being Latino, yet, Vasquez still feels the need to stop the voter registrations of Latinos, African-Americans, the elderly and poor Whites by spreading outright lies about a voter registration group, Houston Votes.

DosCentavos.net recently covered Houston Votes and found them to be impressive and up to the challenge of registering 100,000 voters before the deadline.  Vasquez’s wholly political move attempting to somehow tie Houston Votes to some Acorn-ish type of thing (which really was another Republican voter suppression tactic in itself), is similar to past Republican actions to stop voter registration efforts that target voters that do not fit the “Republican” mold they created for themselves–in their own image.

There’s something different this time around, and that’s the use of a right-wing voter suppression group calling itself “True the Vote.”  Given their own description that they seek out “voter fraud” by placing “conservative” poll watchers at the polls is suspect in itself–reminders of the good ol’ Texas way of running polling locations where the boss is looking after the workers making sure they vote his way.

As they say, “Unmonitored elections invite fraud,” which this blogger has seen in various “unmonitored” polling locations in conservative areas of the County. I still recall an attempt at being turned away from a Kingwood polling location because of an error made by Bettencourt’s folks–they had misspelled my name and it didn’t match my ID.

Needless to say, I find the motives of such a right-wing group suspect–they yell “fraud” whenever too many Latinos and Blacks votes, such after the 2008 election. But to find out that Vasquez allowed them to pore over applications containing voter information is something that should be investigated.

Unfortunately, DosCentavos will not be able to cover the HoustonVotes press conference. But Leo Vasquez and his Republican Party’s voter suppressing ways will be outed from here and out.

IF YOU DON’T VOTE – YOU DON’T MATTER!

Related Posts:  Bay Area Houston, Texas Liberal, Brains and Eggs, South Texas Chisme.

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Posted in Bigots and Liars, LatinoVote '10, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege

Guerra: On Manufacturing Wedge Issues…

Posted on August 24, 2010 | Comments Off

by Carlos Guerra

The “mosque on ground zero” is a manufactured controversy, just like the “terror baby” immigrant threat, ginned up to foment fear among the ignorant and poorly educated.

It isn’t a mosque but a community center, for starters, and it is blocks away from the site of the Twin Towers. If such a center were such an affront, aren’t the several strip joints closer to the site an even greater affront?

It also amazes me that Muslim prayer services have been held openly at the Pentagon for years without a peep from the suddenly fearful. Did the fear mongers simply forget to get the word out about that?

As for “terror babies” born to immigrant mothers here so they will grow up as citizens and wreak havoc, and to serve as “anchors” for their relatives to also become U.S. citizens, think of what that would really entail. Has anyone considered the time that this would take, since they can’t be “anchors” until they are 21 or older, and that their relatives would still go to the end of the waiting line?

Then, if they were admitted, they would still have to wait five years to apply for citizenship.

In the meantime, terrorists with European passports could enter sans visas; and did anyone consider that native-born Americans could also be recruited and trained with far less trouble?

Watch as both issues die — as did the urgent drive for an anti-flag-burning amendment — right after the November election has taken these suckers’ votes.

They can fool lots of people a lot of the time. And they do more often than we would like to admit.

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Posted in Bigots and Liars, LatinoVote '10, Republinutiness, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege, U.S. Ethnic Relations

Back to Basics PAC Spreading Outright Truths

Posted on August 23, 2010 | Comments Off

They need to run this in Latino publications with the caption…

“COBARDE”

Update:  As the Chron failed to run the ad, we gladly run it–from now until November!

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Posted in LatinoVote '10, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege

The Ugly Truth About 10%…

Posted on August 23, 2010 | Comments Off

…they are qualified to be accepted to UT and A&M!  That’s the ugly truth.

The Top 10% rule has allowed for geographic parity around the state of Texas; however, as Rick Casey reminds us:

The rule is “unfair” because it keeps “the most qualified” students, which is to say, their children, out of our best universities.

The rule degrades the quality of the student body at UT-Austin and leads to a “brain drain” from Texas because many of those students who go away to college don’t come back.

These are serious concerns, so let’s stack them up against reality.

The rule says that students whose grade point averages put them in the top 10 percent of their classes at whatever Texas high school they attend are entitled to admission at the state college or university of their choice.

I had to listen to a five-minute tirade on the matter at a Democratic meeting once–let’s just say I was a bit miffed at the suggestion that someone from my little hometown would be less qualified to “make it” at UT or A&M. Needless to say, I’m sure glad Rick Casey wrote a bit on the reality of those who lobby and whine against the top 10% law.

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Posted in Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege

Brad Neal Opens District 150 Campaign Center

Posted on August 21, 2010 | Comments Off

Candidate for Texas House District 150 Brad Neal welcomed a great crowd of Democrats to the grand opening of the District 150 Campaign Center. Along with serving as Neal’s campaign HQ, Neal has provided space to the Bill White Campaign  and to the Harris County Democratic Party to roll-out the 2010 campaign. (Click on photos to enlarge.)

Democrats in District 150 and other parts of North Harris County are welcome to come by 4884 Louetta at Kuykendahl to pick up signs, stickers, and materials. Better yet, you can also volunteer to phone bank and canvass the neighborhoods to remind voters of the importance of the 2010 election.

Participating in today’s grand opening were Democratic Chairman Gerry Birnberg, Candidate for Congress-10 Ted Ankrum, candidate for Tax Assessor Diane Trautman, candidate for County Clerk Ann Harris Bennett, candidate for County Treasurer Billy Briscoe, Chief Deputy District Clerk Ken Olive spoke on behalf of District Clerk Loren Jackson, and candidate for Criminal District Judge Jim Sullivan. Also visiting was another candidate for the criminal bench Brandon Dudley.

Trautman had a serious question for Democrats:  Do you think your vote counted in 2008?  In fact, when it came to the 2008 race for Tax Assessor-Collector, it did not. No sooner had Paul Bettencourt squeezed by to re-election, he up and abandoned the office so that another Republican could be appointed. 2010 proved that Bettencourt’s and the Republican’s hand-picked successor was not even wanted by Republican voters. Trautman reminded them, “This time, make your vote count.”

Judicial candidate Jim Sullivan spoke about the need for equal justice in the criminal courts, especially through a well-managed public defender’s office which would not be under the charge of a judge. Sullivan is passionate about service and he, along with all of our Democratic judicial candidates, would be an asset to our County’s justice system.

Ann Harris Bennett spoke about the need to have a secure elections system that ensures every citizen’s right to vote. Recalling her vast experiences working in the County’s court system, Bennett stated she is ready to work hard to ensure the needs of the constituents are met.  Candidate for County Treasurer Billy Briscoe spoke about his experience and preparation to address the financial needs of the County, contrasting his experience and knowledge with that of his opponents.

There was little doubt that Democrats in the ‘burbs are fired up and ready to get out the vote to help our statewide and countywide candidates to victory in November.

A tip of DC’s sombrero to Neal’s campaign manager Ashley Williams, Spring Dems’ Karen Wheaton, Bill White volunteer Michelle (soon to be) Perry, among all those who helped with everything. Special mention goes to the Harris County Democratic Party for promoting the event and participating today.

More photos here.

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Posted in 2010 Profiles, LatinoVote '10, Texas Dems 2010, Texas Lege

RIP: Mario G. Obledo, Co-Founder of MALDEF, Civil Rights Leader

Posted on August 20, 2010 | 1 Comment

From MALDEF:

LOS ANGELES, CA – Civil rights pioneer and MALDEF Co-Founder Mario G. Obledo passed away in Sacramento on Wednesday August 18, 2010 at the age of 78.  Obledo was Co-Founder of MALDEF, “the law firm of the Latino community.”

A long-time leader in fighting for Latino empowerment, furthering humanitarian efforts and protecting civil rights, Obledo was currently serving as the President of the National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations, and previously served as former California Governor Jerry Brown’s Secretary of Health and Welfare from 1975 to 1982.  As Secretary, Obledo is credited with opening access for positions of government service to countless Latinos and other minorities.  In addition to being a Co-Founder of MALDEF, the nation’s leading Latino legal civil rights organization, Obledo also co-founded the Hispanic National Bar Association and served as National President of the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC).  For Obledo’s efforts and accomplishments in law, advocacy and civil rights, in 1998 President Clinton awarded Obledo the Presidential Medal of Freedom Award, the nation’s highest civilian award.

Mario G. Obledo is survived by his wife Keda Alcala-Obledo.

From the NYT Article:

During the administration of Gov. Jerry Brown, he became the first Hispanic chief of a California state agency: health and welfare, the largest in both budget and workers. In 1982, he was the first Hispanic citizen to mount a serious run for governor of California.

When President Bill Clinton presented him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998, the citation said Mr. Obledo had “created a powerful chorus for justice and equality.” He was called the “Godfather of the Latino Movement” in the United States.

His approach was as unsubtle as it was impassioned. He created a national commotion in the 1990s by protesting the stereotypical Mexican accent of the Chihuahua in Taco Bell commercials. When someone put up a sign at the California border saying, “Illegal Immigration State,” he threatened to burn it down personally.

Condolences and contributions can be sent to:
National Coalition of Hispanic Organizations
PO Box 1026
Sacramento, CA 95812
http://thencho.org/

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Posted in RIP