Houston

Tory Gattis, a Social Systems Architect from Houston, has some great recommendations for infrastructure projects that the City of Houston should undertake in the near future. I normally entertain these same ideas and I was pleasantly surprised to find some of my ideas in the mix.

One savvy strategy that FDR implemented during the Great Depression was to spend money on building infrastructures in the American communities because those investments would pay off for years to come.

When over 25% of the population of the Unite States was unemployed, instead of having them sit around waiting for big business to rebound, FDR put people to work and built the schools, libraries, roads and public venues many cities still use to this day.  Read More »

The H-Town All-Stars who consist of Bun B, Chamillionaire, Paul Wall, Cory Mo and Trae have released a complimentary song that whole heartily endorses Barack Obama and urges the listener to vote for change on November 4th.

The song is well produced and intersperses spoken clips from presidential candidate Barack Obama between each lyricist verse. This is a rallying call for those undecided voters that need that extra push or incentive to vote … and vote for the right man for the job.

Bun B claims, “We don’t need a sequel of 4 more years … we need real ideas about the future, not war mongers.” He adds, “Republicans, you had your chance but you blew it. It’s time to turn Texas blue.” Bun B is critical of the Bush Administration and John McCain and details the policies which they have failed to address these past 8 years.  Read More »

I am looking for and trying to follow any stories of voting irregularities that may be occurring this election. Early voting just began this week and machines are already up to their shenanigans that created a circus of the 2000 election.

There are machines that are flipping votes from Barack Obama to John McCain. I read about it in the Houston Chronicle and thought it was an isolated case but now I am starting to think that it may not be.

The Houston Chronicle reports that, “County Clerk Beverly Kaufman's office was informed early Monday that some of the first voters had cast straight-ticket Democratic ballots only to discover that the machines had recorded their presidential vote as Republican.”  Read More »

The media and political campaigns were introduced to a new way of informing the general public of the latest news by a Presidential candidate. The Barack Obama campaign released their text messaging campaign so you can find out who his Vice President will be. This is an innovative and intresting way to promote the campaign and the interest in the decision. This should not be a surprise coming from the Obama campaign who has not conducted the normal campaign.  Read More »

Jose Ernesto Medellin was executed on Tuesday night for his role in the murder of two Houstonian teenagers in 1993. Medellin confessed about to the murder but his case has sparked national and foreign debate about its procedure.

I am against the death penalty, not because I want guilty murders to roam the streets, but because the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent to crime nor is it a pragmatic approach to punishment of those that are guilty. That being said . . . I am not going to argue whether Medellin should have been executed because according to Texas law, his punishment was justified. It is the process that that concluded with his execution that I am at odds with.  Read More »

A Federal judge has ruled that Texas has failed its students who are enrolled in bilingual education. This comes as no surprise to me as the Texas public education system is flawed in my opinion. Students no matter if they are enrolled in regular or bilingual classes are not receiving the best education that the state can provide. I do not blame the teachers. I blame the administrators who are pressured to provide "results" that they teach to the test. Students do not learn . . . they are taught how to memorize and apply their new skills on the TAKS test.

I speak English and Spanish fluently. I never once attended a bilingual classroom growing up. My parents believed that the best approach to learning English, since my native language is Spanish, was to be in English only classes. They spoke to me in Spanish at home so that I could practice and maintain a dual tongue. I am grateful that I became fluent in both languages and see it as an asset. Unfortunately, not many Hispanic parents took the same approach. They were sold on this idea that the state would provide  bilingual education but the state did not even know what they were doing. I am not against bilingual education. I think all U.S. students should speak a second language. Western Europe has figured out how to produce citizens that speak multiple languages, perhaps we could learn something.

I have a cousin that lives in Sweden. She speaks Swedish, English and Spanish. Her school curriculum is in Swedish and all students must learn English. Furthermore, Sweden has dictated that students must also learn their parents native language in school and time is allotted for a session each day. I foresee a future when this will be possible in the U.S. but only after nationalistic people realize that a society where people speak multiple languages is not a threat but an asset.

Folks that are against bilingual education claim that students should only speak English. The U.S. it seems is the only developed nation where teaching a second language in school is looked down upon. No one is requesting that school be taught in a language other than English but there are students that do not have any foundation in the English language. What do you do about the elephant in room now? Just because you close your eyes does not mean that the issue will disappear. The same individuals that complain about the people they have to deal with that do not speak English are the same folks that criticize the purpose of bilingual education. In their eyes, students should only learn English in school yet they do not provide a solution on how these students will magically learn the language if it is not taught to them. How can they complain about non-English speaking students when they do not support bilingual education. You can't eat your cake and eat it too. It is the states objective to educate and immerse those students as soon as possible into the general student population. Texas has been failing these students unfortunately. This is not just an issue about "bilingual" education but "education" as a whole. We provide sub-par education and produce sub-par citizens and complain about it. Until we realize the correlation we will understand why everything else does not seem to be working. Our education system is flawed . . . not just the bilingual part of it.

American Cancels 850 More Flights - American Airlines canceled 850 flights Wednesday — more than a third of its total — as its efforts to inspect and in some cases reattach wiring bundles in the wheel wells of its 300-plane fleet of MD-80s dragged on. The total could climb above 850, a spokesman said, as only 30 of the 300 single-aisle planes were so far cleared of the inspection process and operating.

IMF slashes world growth forecast - The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said that the world economy will grow much more slowly in the next two years as a result of the credit crunch. In its latest economic forecast, the IMF says that world economic growth will slow to 3.7% in 2008 and 2009, 1.25% lower than growth in 2007. The downturn will be led by the US, which the IMF believes will go into a "mild recession" this year.

New downtown park's a beauty, but is it money spent in the right place? - Twelve acres in front of the George R. Brown Convention Center have been transformed into Discovery Green, adding green space, restaurants, an interactive fountain, model boats, a jogging path and a small library to the downtown landscape. The new park --downtown's largest-- opens this weekend, almost four years after a massive fundraising campaign that kicked off in October 2004. In total the park cost $122 million, of which the city paid $41 million. The rest came from donors.

Oil jumps to near record on weak supply - Oil prices surged to near record levels Wednesday after a government report showed an unexpected decline in crude supplies. Light, sweet crude for May delivery rose $2.40 to $110.90 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract traded as high as $111.43, within 40 cents of the all-time intraday mark of $111.80 set March 17. Oil prices had risen to $109.31 immediately before the report's release.

Petraeus: Another troop buildup in Iraq unlikely - The top U.S. military commander in Iraq said today that he is unlikely to call for another troop buildup in Iraq, even if security deteriorates after the extra American soldiers return home this summer. Gen. David Petraeus told a House panel that such a move would be considered the last resort, in part because of the strain it would place on the Army. First, the military could try to reallocate existing troops to respond to any hotspots. It also would rely more on Iraqi forces, which are improving in capability, he said.

I am currently blogging live from the Harris County Delegate Convention taking place at the Geroge R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. The hype about the Texas Primary and Caucus may be over but the this two-step continues. Unlike the Precinct Convention, this convention is a bit more organized which makes sense. Texans learned the hard way how democracy works during their Precinct Convention so most expected the next step to be a bit more brutal since it is larger That is not the case though. I would estimate that there are around 1000 delegates and it seems like they expected around 2000 with all the empty chairs visible.

Currently we are waiting for the event to take off at approximately 9 am CDT. I spoke to my girlfriend briefly who is a delegate out in Travis County aka Austin, Texas and she said parking and signing in was hectic. I understand why parking may have been an issue since their convention center provides free parking unlike Houston. I had to shell out about $15 but thats okay because I am contributing to the democratic process right? It is no secret that Obama won the caucus in Texas and I expect that to play out our convention since we are the largest urban city in the state. The Obama supporters and Clinton supporters are out in full force and it was pleasant to see a Rick Noriega volunteer informing fellow Democrats of this fellows run for the Senate in November.

[Update @ 10:25 am] So the convention had been at full swing for about 1 hour or so. I was surprised with the morning prayer that began the convention . . . so much for separation of church and state. Nonetheless, after the Pledge of Allegiance and National Anthem, we heard several local politicians speak about the change in administration and policy expected in November. We currently voted for the delegates that will represent this Precinct at the State Convention. My Precinct was only allocated 2 delegates. Nonetheless, I am going to apply for an at-large position and hopefully make it out on the first weekend of June to Austin. I now understand why there are not as many people as I expected at this convention. Apparently, this is a Senatorial convention, unlike what is going on throughout the state in which there are county conventions. Houston and what I expect is going on at other large metropolitan areas is divided into conventions based on the Senate district. That explains why the process has been smooth so far.

[Update @ 3:50 pm] I am still at the Senate Convention and two cups of coffee later we have ordered pizza and expect to spend the next three hours here. Currently, we are approving and amending resolutions. Most of our precinct has left and only those that are going to be delegates are hanging around. I spoke to Becky and it seems that it is the same situation in Austin. There was a moment when there was a heated debate about recognizing same-sex marriages.

I left around 7:30 while resolutions were being read. I grew restless and tired after being there for over 10 hours. For about 15 minutes there was controversy as some Obama supporters failed to follow parliamentary procedure when nominating a secretary for the convention. That was laid to rest once their concerns were taken care off. Nonetheless, it went smoothly after that. The resolutions took a while since some people had opinions about certain ones such as tolls, same-sex marriages and medical marijuana to name a few.