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I just voted in the Collin County area of Dallas, TX. I searched the web and found a few voter guides but the one on the Collin county site and the Dallas Morning News helped out some for the local issues. When you go to vote you will notice a lot of the Judges are already assigned seats who are Republican – but I did notice fewer of these this election. I hope there will be a day that every party has someone run against them. These people should not be able to hold on to their seats without some kind of competition.  Here are the issues I voted on November 7, 2006:

City of Dallas Bond Election
Voted Yes (for) to:

• The Issuance of general obligation bonds for street and transportation improvements
• The issuance of bonds for flood protection and storm drainage facilities
• The issuance of bonds for park and recreation facilities
• The issuance of bonds for library facilities
• The issuance of bonds for cultural arts facilities
• The issuance of bonds for city hall, city service, and city maintenance facilities
• The issuance of bonds for farmers market improvement
• The issuance of bonds for court facilities

Voted No (against) to:

• The issuance of general obligation bonds for land acquisition under the land bank program development for low and moderate income family homes
• The issuance of bonds for acquisition of land in the Cadillac Heights area for future location of city facilities
• $41,495,000 bonds to promote economic development in the southern area of Dallas and in other areas of the city in connection with transit oriented development

Never Vote Straight Ticket – I think you should never vote straight party because there are many judges and other politicians who may not be listed who are not in the party you voted for but are the only people running against the party you do not want to win.

United States Senator

DEM – Barbara Ann Randofsky
REP – Kay Bailey Hutchison

US Representative District 3

DEM – Dan Dodd
REP – San Johnson

Governor

IND – Carole Keeton Strayhorn (Grandma)
DEM – Chris Bell   IND – Richard Kinky Friedman  REP – Rick Perry

Lt. Governor

DEM – Maria Luisa Alvarado
REP – David Dewhurst  LIB – Judy Baker

Attorney General

DEM – David Van OS
REP – Greg Abbot

Comptroller of Public Accounts

DEM – Fred Head
REP – Susan Combs

Commissioner of the General Land Office

REP – Jerry Patterson 

DEM – Valinda Hathcox 

Commissioner of Agriculture

REP – Todd Staples

DEM – Hank Gilbert

Railroad Commissioner

DEM – Dale Henry
REP – Elizabeth Ames Jones

Chief Justice, Supreme Court- Unexpired Term

REP – Wallace Jefferson

DEM – Tom Oxford

I noticed that the rest of the Judges were Libertarians running against republicans so make sure you vote for the Libertarians instead of the republicans to help rid of republican control. They abbreviate on the ballots so some may even confuse LIB with Liberals. I hope everyone gets out to vote this midterm election and helps take back the government here in Texas. If not this election there is hope for the next election. Stay tuned for the Dallas, Texas voter updates.

I plan to do early voting this week here in Texas. I cannot seem to find anywhere online that displays the Governors issues and state issues we vote on. I did find newspaper articles from the Dallas Morning News and Wikipedia information but I would rather have a chart that summarizes the issues at hand. I remember the last election the judges did not seem to be listed as democrats or republicans which makes a big difference to me.

Kinky Friedman is for good issues like biodiesel while all the underdog candidates the independent grandmother, Kinky, and the democrat are all against the Mega Tollroad in Texas that we need badly. Do I have to vote Republican to get an improved road system? This is nuts! The highways to Austin and Houston are horrible including the interstate 35 to Oklahoma City. Texas is a huge state and needs mega-roads with 4 or 5 lanes on each side. This new Trans-Texas Corridor means you not only get a less congested highway to drive on but you can drive 85mph which is close to the 100mph id rather be driving.

The U.S. should have autobahns like they do in Germany but making it a toll road can be very expensive (relatively) to people making minimum wage or just a little above and who have kids, no health insurance, etc. We really have to think in those terms when we make public policy because a lot of people are adversely affected by expenses that seem minor to us. Then again if you want a decent highway to drive on that is less congested it ends up saving you time, gas, and money. There are also alternative highways to drive on that are free in most cases.

I will vote for the Democrat Chris Bell who plans to put an immediate stop to the project and open it up to public debate which is better than stopping it without a debate like the Grandma and Kinkster running for office might do.

Also on the Texas Elections: When I put out my John Kerry sign a few years ago a democrat-hater stole it from my lawn and I have been scared to put out a sign ever since it could happen again and the money would be wasted. There is now a neighbor who has a sign that says to Vote Democrat. This is a “sign” that the times are finally changing and these former republicans are waking up to the fact the Republicans have been in power too long and are all corrupt. The sign has been there a few weeks and no one has touched it I am glad to say.

The fact that the sign in 2004 vs. 2006 in my neighborhood has changed is not surprising. The whole country’s rethinking the idiocy of Iraq and of letting a very few have enormous privileges while the working majority suffers an economic backslide. It’s time for a change to get rid of the egotistical republicans that have been in office way too long and on with some new minds.

With Halloween just around the corner this is a fun game we found on the Huffington Post.  We first heard about it on CNBC’s The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch. Here is the Sen. Foley Spoof Video:

http://foleytrickortreat.cf.huffingtonpost.com/

Oh, don’t you love it? Finally, a sign that the Democrats are getting a little disciplined. But we’ll see how his Naderesque campaign goes…

The democrats have spoken about Senator Joe Lieberman who sucks up to Bush on a regular basis on the Iraq War. Now he is going to run as an Independent… Give it up Joe…it is over.

While we are against him running as an Independent hurting the Democratic cause we do find wrong in the site being hacked. We notice Lieberman’s website is still down. Hopefully they catch the person who hacked his site. That is certainly not a fair way to play. Whoever did that should go to prison for a very long time. They should treat hacking just like they would any other fraud, or voter/jury tampering.