Posted on 08/23/2006 7:43:39 AM PDT by Froufrou
Why can't the health "clinicas" be run by local government or charities.
BTTT
I am leaning to skipping the gubernatorial contest, something that I have never before done.
You're right: there are precious few to choose from, but why is that the fault of discouraged voters?
LOL, such drama!
Some here, and in the article, were making the claim that Perry wasn't "listening to the people" because X number of people showed up at a meeting and most were against the TTC. Implying that if a lot of people are against something, then we ought to not do it. In response to that argument I gave an example of where 20-30 times as many people showed up for another issue, but what they were chanting for was something most of us agree shouldn't be granted. It was a quick and simply way to illustrate that just because a good size crowd is against something, that doesn't mean that they are correct or representative of the majority view.
The dog-and-pony show that she got at the meeting was basically a shiny video showing the bountiful blessings of the TTC, and a backhanded warning that if she doesn't like it, too damn bad. She has never written her representative before, but she is now. The opposition to the TTC isn't from some phantom liberal plot to overthrow Perry - it is growing from the ground up, and will be settled in the Legislature, where it should have been settled all along. Maybe it will get built, and maybe it won't. But if you think that it is just flaming liberals from Austin that are against the TTC, you need to get out of the city limits more often.
I've been to a couple of meetings, and every representative I talked to was straight-forward, full of facts, and tried to answer every question I have. But because the actual facts don't fit with many of the lies and gross exaggerations being tossed about, nor is it what you want to hear, all of a sudden it is a 'dog and pony show.'
Unfortunately there are some people who will lose their land, and I can certainly understand their opposition. The flip side is that if we don't do the TTC (which reduces the total amount of land taken for roads, truck lanes, rail lines, and various utilities because in a single corridor the buffers for each can overlap and use less land total) and instead build each component individually it will take more land in all the various corridors (separate ones for rail, road, and each kind of utilities) and affect far more owners because the ROW through the urban areas isn't nearly wide enough. So sooner or later someone is going to lose land, either a relative few in rural areas or many more in urban areas. There are others who have looked into this and are opposed for a variety of reasons. I disagree with them, but can understand if they've actually researched the facts. Then there are those who hear the most ridiculous lies and get all up in arms and storm to the keyboard and meetings to save Texas, when in reality they know almost nothing about the facts, and don't care to. So yes, I realize that there are a fair number of vocal critics who are extremely ignorant yet they holler the loudest. I remember their angst and fervor towards the coming Y2K collapse, of how the interstate would divide Texas and destroy rural farmers, read predictions of how the horseless carriage would run over our children and leave the poor blacksmiths penniless and destitute, and how the South would be destroyed by evil Abe Lincoln and never recover. Yet somehow we survived. Sometimes good people get worked up and crusade for the wrong causes. William Jennings Bryan was devout, did great work in several areas, and yet was wrong on economics.
Bottom line, Perry is proposing a conservative approach to building roads, where only the users pay instead of forcing everyone to pay regardless of desire. Privatizing a gov't service, just like Reagan advocated. But it cuts middle class welfare, which burns some people. And like any road project, it takes some land from some owners. But every 10 years the area from San Antonio-Dallas adds 2.5 million new residents, the equivalent of another San Antonio, so like it or not we are going to need more roads. Perry is choosing to build them where it costs the least and affects the fewest. That is the kind of decision-making most conservatives say we want our elected officials to engage in (unless it gores our particular ox.) Dig deeper, the truth is a lot different than how Strayhorn and CorridorWatch spin it.
He's on the take,very questionable ethics, no doubt.
***
Republican Gov. Rick Perry's former liaison to the Legislature is working once again for the Spanish company that won the rights to develop the state's $7 billion Trans-Texas Corridor toll road project.
Lobbyist Dan Shelley worked for the firm as a consultant just before he went to the governor's office, a connection first revealed in 2004.
State officials denied any connection between that circumstance and the decision, three months later, to award Cintra-Zachry the huge highway contract. Now Shelley has left the governor's office, and he and his daughter have large contracts to lobby for the road builder, The Dallas Morning News reported Friday.
http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/local/08/19shelly.html?cxtype=rss&cxsvc=7&cxcat=52
Different road than TTC-35, but fair enough. Were you aware that TTC-69 is simply the replacement for the long-planned I-69, which was to be the upgrade of the existing US59 which already runs from Laredo-Houston-Texarkana? Various local and state officials have been lobbying for literally decades to get portions of this road upgraded to an interstate. TXDOT is studying shifting this upgrade from a multi-decade piecemeal approach (first bypasses around certain small towns, then more bypasses, then overpasses on cross roads in rural areas, etc.) to a TTC project so that they can get most of it privately-financed instead of using taxes and federal funding. Especially since the days of the traditional 80-90% federal funding of roads is ending. Without private funding the upgrades won't happen for at least a decade, but most who drive from Houston to Lufkin, Shreveport, or Arkansas think that an upgrade would be a vast improvement. BTW, TXDOT has also said that for much of the way going southwest from Houston the TTC will probably be able to follow the existing road, just like the eventual San Antonio -Laredo portion of TTC-35 will.
Another factor is that for years the Brownsville and McAllen areas have been lobbying to upgrade one of the roads to a freeway standard to connect with Corpus and San Antonio. TTC-69 may incorporate that, and not build to Laredo until after 2025.
have no problem with the portions that actually address the congested highway system. I have been to West Texas and don't see a congestion problem there. Would be even less congested without illegal border traffic.
Neither TTC-35 nor TTC-69 involve W. TX and those are the only Trans-Texas Corridor projects being looked at. The proposals for TTC projects out there are just 50-year concepts, with no guarantee of being built because demand may not be there even 50 years from now. But Speaker of the House Tom Craddick is from W. TX, which may explanin why those lines are on the concept map. BTW, there was an article here yesterday where Strayhorn said that instead of the TTC she would push to speed up and upgrade the Ports to Plains Hwy, which runs from Laredo-Del Rio-San Angelo-Midland-Amarillo-Colorado.
I dunno, but how much worse off would they be if the job growth of the last 10-years hadn't taken place?
I asked that question because I had never seen Hydroshock post anything good about any Republican, just lots of attacks at current candidates and endorsement of their non-GOP opponents. So apparently there are at least 3 he will vote for, or so he claims.
While we are at it, could you also please name any Republicans you will support and vote for this election?
I could.
Please do, because I've never seen you post anything but attacks on free markets, President Bush, and Republicans.
What Republicans (by name) will you support and vote for in the current election?
bump.
You sure seem to be looking for a lot of heretics.
That's interesting. St. Sen. District 7 (Patrick) and Congressional District 22 (Gibbs) don't overlap. I hope you plan on only voting for, at most, one of those candidates.
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