Purity Pledge For Texas GOP

Texas state Sen. Dan Patrick (R-Houston) announced the formation of a new political action committee, the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas. Most of the Republicans in the state senate and over half in the house were invited and joined the PAC. Notable names absent include Richardson legislators Sen. John Carona (District 16) and Rep. Angie Chen Button (District 112). GOP candidate Stefani Carter, who is challenging Democratic Rep. Carol Kent (District 102), is not among the list of five GOP primary winners who joined the PAC.

The press release announcing the PAC's formation begins:

"On the eve of the 'Tea Party' movement's anniversary, conservative legislators in Texas have banded together to form a new organization -- the Independent Conservative Republicans of Texas. With conservative voters organizing like never before to protest the unprecedented overreaching intrusion of the federal government, voters need to know there are Republican legislators who share their beliefs and will uphold their principals [sic]."

After the jump, my initial impressions of the new PAC.

Glaring Urban Failure

"Glaring urban failure." That's what The Dallas Morning News' Rodger Jones calls Richardson's pedestrian access to its DART stations.

"There's no way to safely walk from the Galatyn and Bush DART rail stations to the nearest residential neighborhoods. C'mon, folks. Build some sidewalks."

Does he have a point? Yes. Does he omit some important information? Also yes. After the jump, the context.

Reverse 911

Did you receive a robocall from the city of Richardson today on your cell phone? If you did, chances are you registered your cell phone with the city's Reverse 911 service.

After the jump, what Reverse 911 is all about.

OTBR: New England Covered Bridge

Latitude: 44.169201° N
Longitude: 71.960999° W

A child on a road trip with his family asks, "Where are we?" and the father answers, "Let's check the map. We're off the blue roads [the Interstate Highways marked in blue on the road atlas]. We're off the red roads [the US and state highways]. We're off the black roads [the county highways]. I think we're off the map altogether." It was always my dream to be off the map altogether.

After the jump, a few of the random places (and I mean random literally) that I visited vicariously last month that are "off the blue roads".

A Tale Of Two Cities

It was the best of meetings. It was the worst of meetings. The meeting referred to was the first of three community meetings to gather input on redevelopment plans for the west Spring Valley Road area in Richardson. After the jump, two different perspectives of that meeting.

Easter In The Steger Garden (2010)

Lady Banks Rose

From Flowers

Hill Country Weekend

Photos from a weekend trip to the Texas Hill Country, including the LBJ National Historical Parks (Boyhood Home and LBJ Ranch) and the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg. All photos can be seen here.

From 2010 04 Hill Country

Tomato The Town

Still weeks away from the big launch event for Richardson City Council member Amir Omar's ambitious green initiative "Tree the Town", he reportedly has his sights set on his next project, community gardens. Community gardens typically exploit neglected public space (vacant lots, open land along highways, etc.) by putting the idle land to productive use growing vegetables. I've got nothing against the concept, but the concept will have difficulty getting a foothold in Richardson.

After the jump, some reasons why.

What Color Is Pete Sessions' Sky?

Rep. Pete Sessions

It's a beautiful Spring day in north Texas. The temperature is expected to reach 80 degrees for the first time in over five months. The sky is blue. Health insurance reform is the law of the land. God's in his heaven and all is right with the world. But not on Rep. Pete Sessions' world. There, the sky is dark and the deluge is coming. According to one of Sessions' hand-picked experts from the medical industry, misquoting Mao, "It's always darkest before it's totally black."

I previously gave my initial reaction to Sessions' town hall meeting held Monday night at the Eisemann Center in Richardson. After the jump, I'll fill in some of the details of what was said.

Crazy Does Too Count

Rep. Pete Sessions

I said previously that Republicans will have a tough sell trying to repeal the recently enacted health insurance reforms. There are too many benefits to too many Americans. To repeal, Republicans would have to propose specific legislation. With that, the tables would be turned. Just like Republicans were able to club Democrats over the head with legislative language taken out of context, Democrats will be able to do the same with any proposed legislation by Republicans. Don't count on repeal.

After the jump, why that doesn't mean the debate is over.