Sunday, October 28, 2012

Nelda Martinez For Corpus Christi Mayor!

I did some block-walking in my neighborhood today for Nelda Martinez, my choice for the next Mayor of Corpus Christi.  I love Nelda because she is honest and truthful and devoted to our community.

Even though Nelda is in real estate and we really do have too many people in the real estate business on the Council, she is the only one of them who recuses herself from votes in which she has a financial interest.  The others rely on the city's super-weak ethics ordinance to make a buck off of being on the Council.  She never does.

Nelda won my loyalty forever when she stood up for our children's health and opposed the building of Las Brisas.  I trust her to put the children of Corpus Christi first which is why I voted for her.

It was a beautiful afternoon for block-walking.  I hung information cards on doorknobs on Ralston, Harrison and part of Ponder before I ran out of rubber bands and it started getting dark.  I'll do more later this week.  It is easy to help in mother-sized doses with block-walking - you can just get the information and pass it out in the pockets of time you have.  I got to help our city's future and get exercise and look at all the neighbors' Halloween decorations - very pleasant.

The most important thing to do, though, is to vote, of course.  I voted for Nelda Martinez for Corpus Christi Mayor yesterday.  Have you voted yet?

The Supermarket Shop And Being Legal in Texas

The Goblin Princess' birthday is this week so I bought all her favorite junk food and not-junk food in today's massive trek to H-E-B for the week:  toaster strudels (ewww), Wild Cherry Pepsi, goat cheese in two varieties, organic potatoes, deviled eggs, strawberry cake mix and Ben and Jerry's.  Not groceries I would normally buy together and I promise the toaster strudels and cake only happen on her birthday week.

She will turn 17 on Halloween.

She says "Can you believe that on Wednesday I will be an adult?" 

I have explained over and over again that being seventeen is not being an adult - the Texas Legislature just had to put the age of majority low enough to include all of their girlfriends. I replied "That's not an adult!"  

It's not!

Saturday, October 27, 2012

I Voted!!

I voted today! The Lone Star Baby and I waited in line for over an hour to vote at Half-Price Books, one of today's early voting locations - a good opportunity to reinforce how important it is to vote.  Though I guess waiting in lines tops few people's lists of enjoyable activities, I was happy that so many people were out voting!

To democracy!!!!

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Mayoral Race Highjinks

Sooo....Corpus Christi mayoral candidate Chris Adler said in a recent forum that she has been "unjustly labeled" as in favor of Las Brisas.

Excuse me?

I wonder what she thinks would be just.

It would be one thing if Ms. Adler said that she has changed her mind about supporting Las Brisas - a very welcome thing indeed - but to say she never supported is just not true.

I was in Council chambers on the day that Ms. Adler voted in favor of water incentives for Las Brisas.  She also was quoted as saying (before the vote, I think) that if Las Brisas was permitted, she  would support it however she could and that she could not think of a more important  thing that could happen to the city than a $3 billion investment.  That sounds in favor to me.  Ms. Adler was also very dismissive of the mothers and doctors who came before Council to plea for the health of our community's children.

I am voting for Nelda Martinez, who voted against water incentives for Las Brisas and who cares for our children.


Thursday, October 18, 2012

Girl Effect

I know I brag on the Girl a lot, but she is just so amazing!  One of the Take Action projects she decided to do after attending the WAGGGS Girls World Forum this summer was to start a Girl Effect club at her high school. 

Girl Effect is an organization that helps girls and Girl Effect clubs are clubs where girls in first world countries raise funds and supplies for girls in developing countries.  This is a very effective form of philanthropy:  girls grow up to be women and women invest 90% of their incomes into their families, as compared to the 30-40% of income invested in families by men.

The Girl's club is currently holding a soap drive at school for an organization that helps girls and is trick-or-treating for UNICEF with collection boxes in all of the classrooms.  When we went to her school's Open House on Monday night, I saw her flyers for both projects and for the club itself up and down every bit of hallway at that huge school.

I am so proud of my girl.  She is the solution.

For more on the Girl Effect, watch this video.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Streamlining Tax Deductions For The Middle Class

Still wondering what tax code Governor Romney was talking about when he said middle income families would need to look at their deductions and maybe pick like just $25,000 worth.  

He remains confused, I think, as to what "middle income" means.  

I do not think there are any middle income families with any combination of tax deductions that add up to anything close to that.

The child tax credits aren't like those tax shelters in the Cayman Islands.  No wonder he thinks he can pay for his 8 trillion dollars with this whole "simplifying the tax code" business.  

(Someone needs to explain this to him.  Kind of like when they had to take President Bush to see a grocery store.)

 

Binders

Yeah.  Women do need some flexible work arrangements, Governor.  Men, too.  Because they also should be balancing their careers with caring for their children, don't you think?

World Food Day

Today is World Food Day.  This year's theme is that agricultural cooperatives are key to feeding the world.  Find out more about World Food Day and how you can get involved here.

Monday, October 15, 2012

No Las Brisas In District Two

Both Brian Rosas and Chad Magill who are running for City Council in District Two where I live have contacted me and assured me that they are against Las Brisas, if it should come up, which they do not think it will.

Mr. Magill spoke for Las Brisas before Council and the Commissioner's Court on behalf of the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce a couple of years ago, but he says that is not his position now.

I'm surprised that any candidate would contact me about such things as I am so busy with work and keeping my kids afloat through some tough times that I have scarcely poked my nose into any sort of public policy issues in over a year - and, really, only a few people read this blog if one can judge from the number of comments -  but I certainly appreciate the candidates letting me know their positions on something that is of crucial importance to my family (even if they are overestimating my completely non-existent influence on the moms of District Two).

Thank you, Mr. Rosas and Mr. Magill!  Good to know!


Tuesday, October 09, 2012

Monday, October 08, 2012

Sunday, October 07, 2012

Make Sure You Are Registered To Vote, Mamas!

The deadline in Texas for getting registered to vote in time to vote on this upcoming Election Day is this Tuesday, October the 9th.  Are you registered?  Please make sure and get registered in time, Texas Mamas!

First Day School: Simplicity Testimony

Today was Meeting and the Lone Star Baby and I had First Day School.  This day being full of lovely cool weather in the sixties, we walked to and from Meeting playing acronym games, at the Lone Star Baby's request. It was very nice.  

We've had some general lessons about our Quaker SPICES recently  and have more recently begun working on the Simplicity Testimony.  Today we continued our reading of the Quaker children's classic, Thee, Hannah!, and had a lovely discussion about what we were reading and about simplicity and clothing on the way home.

Texas Republicans And Voter Suppression: Purging The Possibly Dead

In a very Halloween take on Republicans' voter suppression tactics, Republican Texas Secretary of State Hope Andrade recently directed county voting officials in Texas to send out letters to about 80,000 voters supposedly suspected of being deceased and requiring that they prove they are still living or be purged from voter registration rolls.  Many county clerks around the state balked at this, since about 68,000 of the voters were identified as being possibly dead based on very weak data, such as having the same birth date and last four SSN digits as a deceased person, which means practically nothing in a state the size of Texas.

The voters targeted for letters seemed to have an amazing correlation with voters living in African American neighborhoods in Texas.  What a strange coincidence.

Four living voters who were told that they would have to prove they were alive in order to not be purged from the voter registration rolls sued the state and Texas has now settled the lawsuit, agreeing that county officials will have to verify that someone is dead before purging them from the rolls rather than randomly forcing poor or minority voters to prove that they are alive in order to stay on them.

Thursday, October 04, 2012

41 And Arms Full of Daughters

Last Friday was my birthday and the whole weekend was full of festivities - a wonderful dinner prepared by the Girl on Friday night, a wonderful brunch out with the family on Saturday, a wonderful brunch prepared by the Girl for more family on Sunday and a wonderful get-together with friends Sunday night.

Every year I am just more and more amazed at what results from my rule that presents to me from girls have to be made or found.

Here are my presents from the so-sweet Lone Star Baby:




Here is a sweater that the Lone Star Girl knitted for me!   A sweater, I tell you!!!


And here are the shelves that she modge-podged hundreds of millions of family photo print-outs onto for me!!!!!




I have the most amazing girls in the universe.  In the mul-ti-verse...