Precinct Convention Training

Go to your precinct convention and help influence the Democratic party to be more progressive. You can influence your own party and your voice and vote will be heard.

Attend a precinct convention training session Sunday.

The Houston GLBT Caucus is joining with members of Harris County Young Democrats and Houston Stonewall Young Democrats to offer "Texas Two-Step Precinct Training" Sunday at 1pm-3pm at the Harris County Democratic Party Headquarters, 1445 North Loop West, Suite 110.

What: Precinct Convention Training
Where: HCDP Offices - 1445 North Loop West, Suite 110, Houston, TX 77008
When: Sunday, February 28, 1:00pm - 3:00pm

Introduce Pro-Equality Resolutions

Election Day, March 2nd, is rapidly approaching, but not only is it Election Day in Texas it is also the day to attend your precinct convention. After voting, return to your precinct's polling location at 7:15pm to caucus. The GLBT Caucus is urging you to attend your precinct convention and to help promote equality by introducing pro-equality resolutions at your precinct convention. Approved resolutions ultimately determine your political party's state platform. You can help shape the party platform by participating in the resolution process. It is important to attend because the precinct convention approves resolutions that can, ultimately, determine the state party platform. The convention also elects delegates for the next level in the convention process, the Senate/County convention. Our friends at Equality Texas have put together a list of pro-equality resolutions you can introduce at your precinct convention.

Also, please follow the link to pro-equality resolutions.

HGLBT PAC

Voting March 2nd in Harris County

The Following is from the GLBT PAC in Houston:

Precinct Caucus Training
Time to Texas Two Step Again
Vote in the 2010 Primary, then attend your Precinct Convention &
Introduce Pro-Equality Resolutions

Connecticut Politics

The Democrats retire a once popular incumbent to retain a Senate seat in the general election. Click on the following link for a Mother Jones article on Chris Dodd.

I was recently reading the Mother Jones Article on Chris Dodd


The Democrat's filibuster-proof majority of 60 in the Senate has seemed mythical; like a unicorn sighting around the Smithsonian, or funding for W. Bush's No Child Left Behind. I guess it was always based on fuzzy logic or new math. (Non-Democrats were being counted as Democrats minus the conservative Democrats.)

There is another Senator from Connecticut who has been dictating the terms of Obama's health-care reform bill which is beginning to read like the fine print in an adjustable-rate mortgage. Joe Lieberman, the once-Democrat who lost the democratic primary, and then ran as an independent, has been using your healthcare as his own personal body shield. He caucuses with the Democrats, but he is officially an Independent Democrat. (Not a Democrat) He voted to prohibit Federal funds for abortion services by voting for an amendment to the healthcare bill that has this restriction. (see Project Vote Smart). This will disproportionately hurt poorer women.

The financial melt-down, a predictable result of laissez-faire economics has resulted in the populace grasping for scape goats. It doesn't matter if you are no more guilty than the other senators. True, Dodd took money from Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Who wouldn't have on Capitol Hill?

-Jim

California's Prop 8 Appeal

(Spring 2010)

I was recently reading a TruthOut Article on the latest news on California's Prop 8 Federal Appeal.

California's Prop 8 is being challenged in Federal Court to reverse the decision of the California voters which resulted in taking away the right of same-sex couples to marry. Prop 8 is a California Ballot Measure passed in November of 2008. It represents the latest tyranny of plebiscite government; The California voters have become the lawmakers making a mockery of representative government. A California Supreme Court ruling legalized same-sex marriage, however, the voters stripped same-sex couples of this right by voting for prop 8 which won with 52% of the voters. A subset of a subset of the population thereby eliminated the rights of an entire group of people.

The Straight Slate

Louie Welch, and the supporters of the "Straight Slate" ticket played on fears of employment rights for homosexuals (supported by Whitmire), and AIDS. In this most recent election we witnessed the Straight Slate Redux. A group of conservative pastors, lead by Steven Hotze, organized. And a large number of anti-gay flyers were mailed out, to mobilize on a negative emotion. Gene Lock accepted Hotze's endorsement.

You have to read the Shoot the Queers: Equality Article

Annise Parker was endorsed by Equality Texas and Texas Equity Pac. The Shoot the Queers article is an appeal to voters to do their civic duty and choose the most qualified candidate. And vote.

We lost in New York, when same sex marriage legislation did not pass, and Maine, the Maine Gay Marriage Law was repealed. But then we won in the Deep Red of Texas.

Note: HIV infection is considered to be a pandemic by the World Health Organization.

Deep Red Texas

You must read the nytimes article on the 1985 vote in Houston

Kathy Whitmire won the election for Mayor of Houston in 1985 despite the Homophobic rhetoric. She was the good mayor Annise Parker will be. I do not think that Parker's victory was inevitable, though, by any stretch of the imagination. She had an army of volunteers and less money than the other candidates. Although, Brown's endorsement certainly helped.

Economic downturns are cyclical. In 1985, though, the AIDS epidemic was entering full swing. Kathy Whitmire's opponent was hoping to play successfully on those fears.

Kathryn Jean Whitmire was a professor at the University of Maryland, College Park. She was the first female elected to Houston city government. And like Parker, she was City Controller.

Unicorn sighted near Smithsonian

As dangerous as prognosticating is, I predict that Attorney General Martha Coakly will win the election necessary to ensure that the Democrats retain their filibuster-proof majority, despite what little they have done with it. I have seen the mythical unicorn near the Smithsonian, I believe in the return to the age of Camelot, and that our society is healing. Our capacity for stupidity may be coming to an end. There is only so much of it we can afford.

For those who haven't heard, Attorney General Martha Coakly is running in the Massachusetts state-wide special election and it has become like a photo-finish, neck-to-neck kind of race. Boston Globe Article on Coakly Race

Martha Coakly's campaign website: marthacoakley.com Give what you can to help her.

The voters of Massachusetts have spoken. A Republican who campaigned to filibuster Obama's health-care reform to death won the election.

**Update: I was wrong.