In Response to "No Kid Hungry"

I would like to take this opportunity to both commend Ms. Murken and throw a couple comments her way as well. I can appreciate the initiative which Texas has joined in feeding kids at school for free, however this can lead to a bigger problem on the home front. My son gets free breakfast at his school because more than 50% percent of the students at his school live in a family who lives below the national poverty level and I commend the school for doing this. But, if they were to give away free breakfast and lunch to kids who could not afford it, then even the families that could afford it would try to find a way to get if for their kids as well.

We make a pretty good living and I don't mind paying a little more for my kid to eat lunch at school because we can afford it. I would think though if the school was going to offer a free lunch there are the families teetering on the bubble that would find a way to qualify. Also, I believe every child should be afforded the right to go to school and be treated equally, but kids are the meanest little things on earth when they see the chance to make fun another kid or hurt someone’s feelings. On the other front, if a parent truly needs their kid to eat for free what are they doing to remedy the situation? I know the job market is horrid right now, but if your kid needs to eat, then we have to make some sacrifices along the way. Don't we as a state throw enough money toward the needy and less fortunate without taking more from the ones who do have means?

Ms. Murken, thank you for bringing this article to light and I hope the kids who really need the free lunch get them and those that don’t need it never find a way to take advantage of the system, but I already know the sneaky ones will find a way.

How Can Governor Perry's Hold on Texas Not be Affected by Poor Performance as Presidential Candidate?

 
  I tend to disagree with the article R.G. Ratcliffe wrote regarding Governor Perry and his hold on the Office of Governor in Texas if he fails to win his White House bid. I am not at all saying that he will not be re-elected as Governor but I do think it might be a much closer race and be a stepping stone in the right direction for a future gubernatorial candidate.

  It would seem as though Gov. Perry does have several commissions and Departments which are loyal to him and as we have learned in class this semester, the Governor is a desirable position to own but not necessarily a powerful one, and with all that being the case I can see how he (Perry) may come home relatively unscathed on the surface. However, I still contend that people feel the need to react when they see a leader fall on his sword. I am saying this as a dedicated Republican and avid Perry Party Supporter, but when leadership fails it must be replaced and if nothing else Perry's poor performance so far in the Presidential race will give democrats a feeling of power not recently felt in regards to winning the gubernatorial race.

  I believe these statements will have a true impact on how Rick Perry is perceived when he returns to Govern the state.  "He was in control of Texas government like no governor before," said Southern Methodist University political scientist Cal Jillson. "Then he goes out there and barely gets across the Red River before he tips over and embarrasses himself time and again, taking the edge off the respect tending toward fear of him in Texas politics. A good deal of that may be gone if he does come back."

  Again, I am in no way saying that he will lose financial backing or even a great deal of party support but there will be a significant doubt in voters’ minds come election time. And this could all change if Perry were to go ahead and win the Republican Primary but as it stands right now; I am saying that the Texas Gubernatorial race is a lot closer than it has been in a number of years.

A STAAR is born

  In this my most recent post I am going to attempt to capture a couple of the factual and mildly disturbing truths in my colleagues post about Texas implementing the new STAAR Test to replace the TAKS.  Mr. Bailey brings some interesting fodder to the fight.  His facts seem to be in order and me being the parent of a rather intelligent six year old, I could not agree more with him. 
  Some parents will  be over the moon with the replacement of TAKS, but that is only because they have not spent enough time teaching their kids what they need to know to advance to the next grade.  STAAR is only going to allow kids who are borderline on advancing to the next grade be advanced when they should actually held back or have to attend summer school.  Anytime a student is given a test and told it is pass/fail, if they know the material it will give them a sense of comfort knowing they can get so many answers right or wrong and still be OK. 
  I don't like to brag about my little man being a uber smart fellow but in this case he will not be rewarded in any way by doing better on his STAAR exam than the kids who struggle with it but pass it just the same.  How are we going to keep track of the kids who are excelling if the teacher is lumping their entire class together with a average pass/fail grading criteria? 
  Sebastian was just tested and evaluated for the Gifted and Talented Program and he was placed in the top 3% of all first graders in the nation which means he will be advanced to third grade assignments in certain subjects.  What does that mean?  To me it means he has an aptitude for learning but it also means he will still be a simple statistic on his teachers feedback form when her results come back for her class. 
  I am not one for holding a kid back or punishing a child that is meeting the minimum criteria for passing onto the next grade but where is the incentive for learning if a child knows he/she is just required to pass or fail?  Its kind of like saying whether or not you make $50,000 a year or $100,000 a year you still have to pay the same amount in taxes because you fall in the same tax bracket! Who knew we were increasing the gap with other countries on education of our youngsters? Oh, that's right, Its been like this for a while now!

Are we really Exceptional?

 
OK, so we all know that I am big on the topic of water and more specifically water use and conservation. In this addition of my Blog I am going to directly critique what the City of Round Rock says about water restrictions and what they are actually doing to make sure citizens are within the limits.

First of all, I commend the city for being one of the more proactive areas in Central Texas to implement water restrictions early on in the drought. I do however still have concerns that the information posted on the city web page is only there for informational purposes and is not being used as a tool to hold people accountable. Now I do understand that a great number of people do not have access to or even choose to use the Internet as a source of information but when it comes to one of our most precious and ever decreasing natural resources, then get a clue people!

Now for my evidence of the above cited accusations. Just yesterday I stopped at two different houses on my way home from the Round Rock Campus and asked the occupants to stop watering their lawns. One of these home owners were watering by hand in the middle of the day, not only is that ignorant with the sun beating down, but also a clear violation of city policy. The second offender had the automatic sprinkler running, again not only stupid but also a violation. I am certainly not a model citizen nor a goodie two-shoes but I SERIOUSLY do not approve of people wasting our water resources to have a nice looking lawn. It's grass people, who cares!

Onto why this is an oversight on the city's part. After leaving each residence I called the Round Rock Police Department (RRPD) to report the violations and was told to basically mind my own business and they would take care of it. I was not even allowed to give them the addresses of the two blatant violators. On the city's website it clearly states that violations are a Class "C" Misdemeanor and people wanting to report violations should call the RRPD. That is exactly what I did and who knows how many others out there are violating the restrictions and how many others are trying to report them?

Look, all I am trying to say is that if you put the information out there and people choose not to abide or follow it then there must be some accountability. Again, I compliment the city for imposing the restrictions, now all I am asking is that we enforce them and hold violators accountable.

Perry getting creamed in the "Race for POTUS"

  This week I am taking my frustration of Perry's poor performance so far in the debates out on David Muto of the Texas Tribune.  Muto authors "The Brief", a daily recap of important Texas news highlights.  In The Big Conversation portion of October 12th's news there were some examples of how poorly Perry continues to show himself, his ideas and his credentials to the rest of the world.
  In Tuesday nights Washington Post Debate at Dartmouth College it seemed as though Gov. Perry would be able to redeem himself after a couple of slip ups in recent debates in regards to Immigration reform and a failed HPV vaccination plan.  However, Tuesday turned out to be no different than any other debate so far.  Perry continues to backslide and fall father behind a resurgent Mitt Romney and strong unexpected adversary Herman Cain and his 9-9-9 plan.
  You may find yourself asking "why is this important in my Texas Gov't class?"  Well, here is why; right now our Governor is making himself and all of us "Exceptional" Texans look like bozos.  This is particularly frustrating for me because I have been very outspoken about Gov. Perry being our next President of the United States (POTUS). 
  Professor Seago was correct in one thing about correcting and critiquing blogs, there are not a lot of good ones out there.  I do like what Mr. Muto has to offer on his daily blog and his writing is well researched and not heavily opinionated one way or the other.  Check out "The Brief", I think you will find some great Texas news to catch up on yourself.

CONSERVE WATER AUSTIN...Why wait so long?

  It is imperative that we conserve out water resources!  I could not agree more with what the Editorial Board is saying here (Conserve Water), I just don't know why it took so long for us to go to Stage 2 water restrictions.  As I stated in my last post and my class presentation, if we conserve water the only people who will have to pay more are the ones who abuse and waste it. 


  Before the city of Austin went into Stage 2 water restrictions, there were less than 100 fines written or warnings cited.  Since September 6th, when Stage 2 began, there have been 675 water waste complaints received.  I am not sure how many fines that adds up to, but at least people are reporting those who are abusing this finite resource.  Contrary to a lot of popular belief CONSERVATION does work!  All we have to do is get the word out and hold people accountable for their actions.  For example, and I am not saying we can do this, but in the military when water is becoming low in supply they will mandate water hours.  Water hours is a simple way of conserving water.  You shower during your allotted time, maybe once a week, and you only use water for drinking and cooking.

  I would not expect Austin to do anything that drastic but just look at how much water we saved in the first week of stage 2 restrictions, over 100 million less gallons of water were used in the very first week alone.  I agree with this writer, if your make conservation a daily habit, it will eventually become routine. Check out the article for yourself.  The link is just below.

http://www.statesman.com/opinion/water-conservation-a-habit-we-must-keep-1878937.html

A comment about why Gov. Perry calls himself a Republican

I did not write this, it is from Statesman.com and even though I don't agree with it at all, it does pose some interesting points.

I would like to know why Rick Perry has a Republican Membership card when he speaks of Texas secession from the Federal Government. Wisconsin and illinois were the center of the press with the Lincoln and Douglas debates. Frederick Douglass was a non-citizend when he followed Lincoln and S.A. Douglas during the debates of keeping this Union together free or with slavery. From these debates secession was the next move when Lincoln was lected President 1860. Texas would not accept the leadership of the “Black Republican President Abraham Lincoln because of fear. This fear was the right to own human beings taken away as a state right to own human flesh as private property. Frederick Douglass did not like the direction the Republican Party was going and he wanted his people free and enfranchised with equal rights. Texas named Wisconsin the home of the Republican Party a belligerent because of the fugitive slave law not being enforced and the Radical Republicans. Frederick Douglass worked with Lincoln during some very tough times while his brothers were in the chains of slavery and the black Union soldiers captured returned to slavery. Frederick Douglass and the late president Abrham Lincoln became two of the utmost great Americans making the Constitution a real document of freedom for all Americans. These men were at the forefront of the formation of the Republican party and restoring common sense about the Constitution being a document to forever make Americans free. It was not a document for the lobbyist or corporate donors but a document Americans would have the right to decide our freedoms at the ballot box. The Republican Party along with Republican Frederick Douglass made the Constitution about individual rights and not a document of corporate America. We have turned into a document of campaign donations, political pacts, bought and purchased elected political leaders. (State and Federal) How does Lincoln fit in Perry’s election to be President as the Party that restored the constitution a document for the people and by the people. I don’t think all these men died to make it a document of corporate America. The Tea Party Express and so called would-be Republicans with the support of the U. S. Supreme Court and State Suprme Courts make it adocument for coporate America and that is a Socialist Capitalist document for corporations. Usurping the vote of the citizen at the ballot box.

And the winner is...The City of Austin! Resisdents loose the fight and have to dish out more money

As a follow up to my assignment, here is the outcome of the article I wrote about yesterday.  I will spare you my witty humor and disdain this morning and allow you to read the article for yourself.

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/austin-residents-face-higher-tax-bills-utility-fees-1849697.html

Sometimes I wonder why we even bother trying to figure it out...

Keeping in mind I am writing this only minutes or (days) before the outcome will be released based on the amount of political jockeying or debate.  The article or issue I am referring to is the Austin City Council's vote on the new budget.  The proposed budget for 2011-2012 is 2.8 billion (not million, billion for the city of Austin), I for one would not have seen that, but again I live in Round Rock.  A couple of things of note, the average Austinite would pay $267 more in taxes and utility bills and if you are an ex-offender of any sort you may qualify for city funded job training.  Yep, you read it correctly, you could possibly pay more in taxes to help fund a program to give ex-offenders job training!  Heck, let me go commit a crime today so I can qualify for that program.  Seriously, you can read the article for yourself and I may have over-embellished a tad bit but; how about fining more people (I don't know how many have been fined in Austin, but in Round Rock less than 100 fines have been issued by RRPD) who are watering their lawns on non-designated days as a way to increase the city's revenue without over taxing yet again.  Come on, $6 to each person's water bill for water conservation, when I already obey the water conservation regulations!

http://www.statesman.com/news/local/as-austin-city-council-prepares-to-vote-on-1844086.html

Perry Now on Top of GOP

Well, that was easy. Two weeks after announcing he'd seek the Republican presidential nomination, and just as the country is starting to pay attention, national and key state polls show Gov. Rick Perry has vaulted to the top of the GOP field.

"He timed it just dead-on perfectly," said Dave Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University. "Every time a candidate comes out, the media narrative is, 'What does he or she bring to the race, and why are they running?' And it's always positive."

Now, Perry must show that he can withstand the scrutiny that comes with being the front-runner.

http://www.statesman.com/news/texas-politics/perry-jumps-to-front-of-gop-pack-now-1800534.html?cxtype=rss_texas-politics

Pledging To Work Toward A Stronger Future

As governors of states whose citizens, like all Americans, are desperate for the restoration of fiscal responsibility in Washington, D.C., we are proud to have signed the Cut, Cap and Balance Pledge in the midst of the ongoing debate over once again raising the federal debt ceiling.

Put simply, we oppose a federal debt limit increase unless all three of the following, common-sense conditions have been met: substantial cuts in spending; enforceable spending caps to put the country on the path to a balanced budget; and Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. That amendment should also include a requirement for a super-majority vote of Congressional approval before taxes are ever raised.

http://governor.state.tx.us/news/editorial/16403/