Strictly for your entertainment

Dear Democrats and Republicans:

Strictly for your entertainment, the following is Presidential contender Rudy Giuliani in drag receiving two kisses from fellow New Yorker Donald Trump.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrE6FMpai8

Lloyd

MEDDLING

Meddling
In February the Galveston County Daily News published the following Letter to the Editor. It explains the Galveston County Democratic Party’s position on meddling in local non partisan city and school board elections.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The outcome of city and school board elections should be determined by the voters who reside within each jurisdiction. Texas law and its constitution were designed to exclude partisan politics from these elections.
Here is what happens when outside partisan politicians inject themselves into someone else’s local election. A Republican state senator, Dan Patrick, and our Republican County Tax Assessor Collector Cheryl Johnson have become involved in the Texas City rollback elections. Neither resides in Texas City nor have any personal stake in this election’s outcome. Patrick, in addition, is a radio talk show host whose only interest is in generating controversy to increase his ratings.
This pair in pushing their “no tax something for nothing” political philosophy has taken this issue to the extreme. Both are appearing on radio talk shows and attempting to stir up folks against Texas City’s elected officials not only locally, but even statewide and nationally. Through their influence, an extremist right wing group “The Americans for Prosperity” has already held a press conference in Texas City on this issue.
The worse thing about this is all of the above are utilizing bogus statistics furnished them by our Tax Assessor.
It is the Democratic Party in Galveston County’s belief that the voters in Texas City have the intelligence to determine for themselves what is best for their city. After all, Texas City earned for itself “All American City” status without any help from either Patrick or Johnson.
Lloyd Criss, Chair
Galveston County Democratic Party

Soon thereafter, the County Republican Party jumped on the Cheryl Johnson bandwagon endorsing the roll back election. This move surprised me because practically every member of the Republican County Executive Committee including its Chair resides in a city with a substantially higher city property tax rate than Texas City.
According to a March 11, 2007, edition of the Galveston County Daily News, the current city tax rates are:
Texas City .45624
Dickinson .63886
League City .6088
Friendswood .5821
Galveston .494
La Marque .51436
Hitchcock .55505
Kemah .625395
When the votes were counted on Election Day, the roll back effort was defeated by a resounding 57% majority. The bottom line here, and hopefully the lesson learned is “local folks generally resent outside meddling.”
Lloyd Criss

My friend Glen Smith has consented to authorize me to share this with the Galveston County Politics Blog.

Lloyd Criss

Abandonment of the Innocents
by: Glenn Smith
Mon Mar 19, 2007 at 10:10:14 AM CST

When historians look back upon this era they will confront a moral failing so profound that the bloody misadventure in Iraq may be relegated to Chapter Two. The moral failing is the systematic abuse, neglect and abandonment of children by callous Republican leaders who unblushingly describe themselves as "pro-family."
Lobbyist and Right Wing commandant Grover Norquist, whom Karl Rove called "an impresario of the center-right," famously said he wanted to drown government "in a bathtub."
Norquist's choice of a tragically frequent method of child-murder as a metaphor for his political philosophy is damning evidence of the current GOP's abandonment of the innocents.
Norquist is, of course, the Bahamian sailing buddy and advisor to Gov. Rick Perry. The man who speaks favorably of bathtub drownings taught Perry his approach to public education.
Perry and his accomplices are running the water in the tub. They are not just negligent; their policies and state budgets reflect an almost pathological disregard for our children.
The sexual abuse of youth by their captors in Texas Youth Commission facilities and the cover-up of that abuse are grabbing headlines. But the brutal killing of a 14-month-old San Antonio girl should force us (and the press) to broaden our look at the treatment of our kids.
Child Protective Services is underfunded and overburdened. Children die because of that. CHIP is underfunded so kids can't get health care. Children die because of that. Kids arrested for simple theft are locked away in dungeons run by mad supervisors and systematically raped and tortured. Children's souls are lost because of that.
In order to reward wealthy Republican contributors with property tax cuts by slashing state spending, GOP leaders have rendered the state's Child Protective Services so ineffective that even after the bodies of little Sariyah Garcia and four-month-old Sebastian Lopez were discovered, CPS mailed out form letters saying their investigation of earlier complaints about the mother's treatment of these children had turned up no evidence of abuse.
Five months ago, the evidence turned over to authorities included a cell-phone video taken by an alarmed family friend. Sariyah's bruised jaw, from her mouth to her ear, is clearly visible. The video condemns a generation of Republican leaders.
As the Houston Chronicle's Terri Langford reported Sunday, the state two years ago boosted the budget for child protective services. Obviously, it was too little too late. And GOP leaders, always looking for ways to turn tragedy into profit, have also been "privatizing" foster care. The murders of three children in the care of such privatized programs are causing, thankfully, second thoughts. To be fair, among those having second thoughts is GOP Senator Jane Nelson.
The murder of children in privatized foster care has so far been overlooked in the insane voucher proposal to turn over all our children to privatized education. It should be overlooked no longer. Children are not "inventory" who can be stored in warehouses until the market grows more favorable.
Morally, there is no difference between the impulse to profit from children's plight and kidnapping kids to serve as cannon fodder and trigger fingers. This is beyond the imagination of Charles Dickens.
Much has been written about the Baby Boom Generation. Typically, those complaining are Right Wing nuts whining about "spoiled" progressives who won't obey Right Wing authority. But isn't it much more the case that the authoritarian zealots, raised under the protective suburban cover made possible by the progressive GI Bill, are proving to be the most selfish
and irresponsible cohort in American history?
Theirs is a generation blessed by a responsible and remarkably effective community response to the unprecedented number of GIs returning home from Europe and the Pacific. The availability of health care, the quality of their education, the relative safety of their streets, were all made possible by the nation's collective response to post-war economic conditions.
Aided by their exaggerated, Horatio Alger myth of the self-made American, they ignore the benefits handed to them by an entire nation and speak of drowning subsequent generations in bathtubs so they can afford the filigreed gates to their isolationist neighborhoods.
CPS says it needs $91 million to hire an additional 1,100 employees to investigate abuse of children. Stung by 2006 election defeats, even some Republicans are jumping on the CHIP bandwagon. And the state is canceling its contract with the private CHIP administrator Accenture after wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and denying health care to hundreds of thousands of children.
It is feared that many children will still not benefit from increased state spending on CHIP and the federal dollars it leverages because they will not be told how to apply. I have an idea. If the government can spend billions on manipulative ads designed to sucker young people into the military debacle in Iraq, can't we afford a few bucks to tell those families who qualify for CHIP how we'll help save their children's lives?
I have a 20-year-old daughter, and we've received the phone calls from military recruiters. The recruiters are persistent and aggressive. They try not to take 'no' for an answer. Can we imagine how many lives would be saved if that sort of commitment and investment were made to take care of our children before they are of military age?
In the Texas Legislature, Democrats are are fighting for budget priorities that reflect the values most Texans take for granted, values that put children first, that recognize our responsibilities to the innocents. These responsibilities can be met with fiscally responsible and thoughtful budgeting. It doesn't take Big Government to save our children.
In fact, in the hands of our Halliburtonized government, we're discovering that the GOP's Big Government may be the most vicious domestic enemy America has ever faced. At least our children, and the historians who write about this era, will see it that way.

153 Years of The Grand Old Party

The Republican Party was formed on this day in 1854 in Ripon, Wisconsin. It was a grassroots movement, formed to oppose the extension of slavery into the western territories. The democrats in control of Congress were pushing the Kansas-Nebraska Act, which allowed such extension. A democrat president signed the bill into law, forcing Americans to decide if they were for or against slavery. From that bad choice, the Republican Party was born.

I welcome the opportunity Mr. Trojanowski has given me to post information on this new blog about Galveston County politics. Please let me hear from you if you agree with me or think I am totally wrong. That should make this a fun forum over what is looking to be a very long campaign between now and November 2008.

I couldn't help but laugh at Lloyd's opening salvo. Neither "Lonny" Cox nor Cheryl Johnson are competent, he wrote. Well, the truth is Judge Lonnie Cox took over a court which was heavily backlogged, and has now turned those numbers around. The lawyers who practice in his Court not only know him to be competent, but to be fair and very knowledgeable about the law. There have been many changes in both civil and criminal law over recent years, and he is known for his command of those laws. That is why many lawyers have already begun to organize to make sure he is reelected.

Cheryl Johnson took over a department which had essentially been leaderless for years. It was truly adrift. Before she took office, January tax payments weren't processed in less than 6 months. They were done this year by February 12! Motor vehicle registrations were 6 weeks behind, and now take 2 to 3 days. She opened a new office on Bolivar to better serve taxpayers, and extended the hours of some offices for the same reason.

Working with recently reelected Republican County Treasurer Kevin Walsh, Cheryl found a collaborative way to use a check production system which will save the taxpayers of Galveston a great deal of money. That is what Republicans are about - spending taxpayer dollars in an efficient way, and always looking for other ways to do so. We know it isn't the government's money - it is your money.

Spirited debate and opinion is what Jimmy expects from these columns, and I'll try to do just that. I am proud to be a Republican, look forward to the coming political season, and feel very confident for our Grand Old Party, 153 years old today. I promise to try to be civil, funny, serious and informative - but never timid.

Kerry Neves, Chair
Galveston County Republican Party

On Saturday, Feb. 24 the Democratic Executive Committee had a meeting at 10:00 a.m. at the Steel Workers Union Hall in Texas City. A meeting of our 2008 Democratic Campaign Committee followed at 10:30 a.m.
At the Executive Committee meeting, officers were elected to represent our county party. The officers are:
Secretary – Loretta Davis Galveston Vice Chairman – Marcey Casey
Treasurer – Sam Munn Mainland Vice Chairman –Rev. James Daniels
Parliamentarian – Neil Baron Chaplain – Senior Advisor – Ivan Arceneaux
The Committee took action on two issues:
1. The Committee by unanimous action passed a resolution urging our County Commissioners Court to allow voters the option of paper ballots in elections where Democratic candidates are involved in primary and general elections.
2. Also by unanimous vote, the Committee passed a motion endorsing proposed legislation to move up the state’s primary elections to February 5, 2008. The purpose of this motion was to give Texas voters more say in the selection of our Party’s presidential nominees.
At the Campaign Committee meeting, upcoming Party sponsored events were mentioned.
Scheduled for May 10, 2008, will be a Democratic Party sponsored event honoring our County Judge Jim Yarbrough.
This banquet will be held at the Charles T. Doyle Convention Center in Texas City. The Master of Ceremonies will be none other than the Honorable Charles T. (Chuck) Doyle. Our three Democratic County Commissioners will serve as Honorary Co-Chairs.
The Party is also planning an event in early October honoring our County Sheriff Gean Leonard and our six Democratic Constables, Charles (Skip) Gay, Don Cherry, Terry Petteway, Derrick Rose, Doug Considine and Michael Montez.
There was also discussion of a Turn Texas Blue event in January, 2008.
In 2008 we have some very important political races. In addition to re-electing our incumbents, our goals are to carry Galveston County for our Presidential candidate, our two Congressional candidates, and our state Senate candidate. Also locally we will have strong Democratic Party challengers to Republican District Judge Lonny Cox and Republican Tax Assessor-Collector Cheryl Johnson. Both Republicans are vulnerable and neither are competent.
To accomplish the above, our party needs to organize, register voters, stay united, stay energized and to get out a record Democratic vote in Galveston County in 2008.

Lloyd Criss, Chair

Welcome To The Galveston County Political Blog

Greetings Galveston County.
Welcome to the Galveston County Political Blog. This blog will be a truly unique place for political information primarily because of the key contributors. We have the Chairman of the Galveston County Republican Party, Mr. Kerry Neves. We also have the Chairman of the Galveston County Democratic Party, Mr. Lloyd Criss. I have had the pleasure of meeting both of these individuals on the “Anything League City” show and hve found them to both be a wealth of information and sincere about their desire to do what is best for our county.

That’s where the similarities end.

I expect some spirited debate and opinions on this blog. Tempers and patience will surely be tested but keep in mind that these two people have agreed to come together to provide a single resource where the voters of Galveston County can come for information.

Hope you enjoy the site.