Bastrop County Progress

Bastrop Co. Precinct Maps added

2009-10-09T15:46:00.005-05:00

As part of our mission here at the Progress to provide something more useful than, say, a broken screwdriver, or Rick Perry, I've added a couple of MAPS of our fair county, linked in the right-hand sidebar under "Useful Maps and Info". Note that the voting precincts are subdivisions of the commish precincts; thus each voting precinct number begins with a 1, 2, 3 or 4 to denote the corresponding commish precinct. Basically, pct 1 is the Bastrop area, Pct 2 is Smithville and the rural eastern parts of the county, Pct 3 is Cedar Creek and the TX 71 corridor to Austin, and Pct 4 is the Elgin area.

Know your precinct!! New demographic and census data will be added as a soon as I get it and can hammer it into something understandable...

Happy weekend to all and enjoy the cool front...all our football teams are on the road tonight - Bastrop puts their 5-0 record on the line in Westlake (and since it's Westlake, you can hear it on the radio at 1300 AM. Woo woo woo...). The Wildcats of Sausagetown (1-4) try to get untracked down at Hays, and the Mighty Smithville Tigers (4-1)look to continue a potential storybook season downstream in Columbus...

Primarily Speaking

2009-10-08T00:18:00.004-05:00

Bastrop County Democrats held an open seminar of sorts for prospective candidates back on September 10. District Judge Chris Duggan held forth on the demands of a campaign and some 'best practices' (e.g., work your ass off), and gave us a general overview of campaign finance law. Yours truly was asked to expound on 'what the party can do for candidates', and so I set out to gather information and assemble something vaguely coherent about the matter, including a cursory outline of statutes, party rules and other principles under which we would endeavor to operate with respect to candidates.

And wouldn't y'know it - a few people actually showed up for this dog-and-pony gig, including some current office-holders seeking re-election in 2010. Chris and I were both less-than polished, but I think we managed to communicate some helpful information and suggestions.
During my stand-up, it was necessary for me to differentiate between our role in the primary process vs. that in the November election. To wit: the Party itself does not endorse, or work on behalf of , any candidates in the primary, though individuals may; the Party does not 'decide' who can or will run for a particular office, and it is not our place to prevent or actively discourage people from running - even against Democratic incumbents. Once the primary is over and we have a Democratic ticket, our duty is to do what we can to support our whole slate of candidates in the general election. I also briefly outlined the concept of a Coordinated Campaign (thank you Shelly @ TDP!) for the general election and how it could benefit candidates who might choose to participate. More on that later...
County Chair Barbara Nichols also made it known that there were GOP incumbents in our county and districts who did not yet have Democratic challengers, and encouraged others to run for office if they believe they have what it takes. We directed them to online TDP resources and made it clear that our door is open and we are willing to assist any serious candidate in getting started with paperwork, info, and generally navigating the process. As we should, of course.

Pretty dry academic stuff, all in all, but of course SOMEONE had to get their Fruit of the Looms all wadded up over this. Right? Right...

Apparently, one incumbent officeholder (who shall remain nameless for the time being) decided that encouraging qualified and interested people to run for office was tantamount to treason, or meant we were out to purge our own incumbents, or install a socialist regime (what else?), or....something. I'm still not quite sure what this person thought we were saying. At any rate, angry threats were issued to me, our county chair, and others, and strident calls to TDP offices were also logged, all with nonsensical claims that BCDP is somehow breaking party rules or going rogue or are out to get somebody, or....something. So there it was just a week after Labor Day and already we had an episode of manufactured outrage. Ah well, contact sport and what not...Play ball!

Now, certainly the issue of how the Party relates to it's own incumbents during primary season is worthy of debate and discussion, though. One thoughtful attendee questioned whether it was wise of us to "encourage" people to run even against incumbents, rather than "protect" them, reasoning that primary challenges drain resources that a Dem incumbent will need for the general. That's a fair question and tells me that the woman who asked was thinking strategically, which I always like to see.

But I think this strategy is rather one-dimensional and I can think of several other considerations that come into play and must be accounted for in our zeal to win.

- For one, this is a representative democracy, for good or ill, and our modus operandi should reflect democratic principles.Voters (rather than party insiders) should be the ones who ultimately decide who their nominees will be and what direction their party will go.

- For another, how much a primary "drains" an incumbent depends entirely on the race, the incumbent themselves, the reasons for the challenge and it's viability. Some primary challenges are vanity cases or are extremist or from out in left field, and don't require the incumbent to do much of anything. Some are forthright and credible, and may come after an incumbent has neglected their office and/or constituency and bred distrust. Some are of the single-issue (or limited-issue) variety, looking only to give voice to a minority or get some of those issues on the table. Nearly all primary challenges to established incumbents are hopelessly underfunded.

- How an incumbent handles a primary challenge can tell you a lot about them. The best of them will see it as an opportunity to re-connect with their base and remind them of why they elected him/her in the first place. Elected officials who have done their job, can stand on their record with some integrity and have nothing to hide will usually approach it this way. If this type of incumbent is facing a serious challenge, their positive approach can go a long way towards mending whatever rifts may have precipitated the challenge and bringing their coalition back together united behind them for the general fight.

Others may choose to see a challenge from their own party as an affront; a slap in the face, as though once elected they have a God-given right to their power for as long as they choose to stay. These incumbents will scoff at their challenger or ignore them altogether, and spend more time bemoaning "extremists" or "turncoats", etc, in their party, creating bad blood and running off potential help for the general election. Activists tend to not be inclined to help candidates who throw them under the bus and insult them. This is the type of incumbent who is most vulnerable in a general election fight with the other party.

-Discouraging or steering candidates away from challenging for office can ultimately make a political party too insular, top-heavy and out of touch, as it sends the message that new blood and new ideas are not welcome. A party that tries to insulate itself from renewal and re-evaluation is a party tying the noose around it's own neck, because sooner or later the unheard faithful will come busting in the door and all hell will break loose. Witness the current train wreck that is the GOP.

- Turf protection is a major reason why Texas Democrats have such a thin bench of qualified and viable candidates to challenge for statewide office, or even for smaller districts that are becoming more winnable. We need to be building a talent base for the future. The way to do that is to good people run in primaries and not freak out about it. Rather, we should applaud and welcome their initiative - running for office is an exhausting 24/7 job and doesn't pay a thing. Experience is the best teacher, and many of the candidates who won races in Bastrop County in 2008 - like Kleinschmidt, Pina, Pickering, Duggan - had all run and lost races before. We should encourage both incumbent and challenger to shake hands, make their case to the voters, and may the best one win.

I know - "ha ha fatchance, Rob" - but it is possible. Last year, Chris Duggan and Ernie Bogart ran perhaps the most civilized primary race I've ever seen. They were good friends, cordial, positive, and behaved like perfect gentlemen through the campaign, never going negative against each other, and both worked hard applying for the 423rd District bench. Chris won by a strong margin, and Ernie enthusiastically put his full support behind Chris in the fall, where Chris also won going away.

And last but not least: 2008 demonstrated (quite convincingly) that a primary with something genuinely at stake can be a tremendous party-builder. Even one as contentious as Hillary-Obama brought people together for common cause. It forced us to show ourselves for the first time in many years, and to have conversations about where we were going as a country and as a party. Once we all met each other, and realized that we generally all wanted many of the same things, the barriers built by campaign rhetoric came down. We talked, debated, networked, and realized that we weren't islands in a sea of right-wing sharks, and that our differences paled in comparison to the gulf between us and regressive conservatism. Adding 2 million voting Democrats to the turnout in Texas didn't hurt us either. That's a pretty strong foundation, and we have a primary battle to thank for it.

Unlike, say, the DCCC, I don't believe it should be our job to protect or shield incumbent Dems from primary challenges. That should be the incumbent's job. The Party's role is to facilitate the primary process and create ample opportunities for candidates to be sized up by those voters. It is customary - and not the least bit improper - for the Party to recruit good candidates for open seats or to challenge Republican incumbents, as the case may be. And it bears repeating that public officials retire or move on to other offices regularly, and we we'll need capable people ready to step up and fill their shoes.

So let's just play nice, OK kids? :)

High School Football Update

2009-09-28T02:17:00.000-05:00

Feast and famine out in the BC this season.

Elgin wandered down to Giddings Friday night, looking to get off the schneid after a two straight losses (one a rather ugly affair up the tollway against Hendrickson). But they picked a bad week - Wildcats were bruised, half the team and coaching staff were sick, and the 4th-ranked (3A) Buffs had a week off to prep for this revenge game. They ran the 'Cats outta town with 26-3 beating. Elgin (1-4) now gets a badly-needed week off to recuperate and try to turn their season around when district play starts Oct. 9 at Hays.

Meanwhile Bastrop (4-0!) bounces from one triumph to the next. Da Bears cranked up some offense last week and laid down a whuppin' of last years' 25-5A champ Pflugerville, putting up 46 points against the team everyone thought would be Westlake's only real competition this year.

Yes, Bastrop. I know, my left eyebrow is still cocked too. Apparently the Bears new stadium out on TX 21 has been tetched by either Jehovah, the Dalai Lama, or a secret colony of 7-eyed aliens hiding in the woods north of Cedar Creek - this was the first offensive play on the new field on Sept. 20.
Freaky deaky eh? Go Bears. Hell, even i'll root for Bastrop if they're playing Westlake (Oct. 9; Connolly next week).

The Mighty Tigers of Smithville kept their streak alive with a bye week!

And by squeaking out a down-to-the-wire road win over Hallettsville, 25-24, back on Sept 18. If you're looking for a gutty underdog to pull for this year, Smithville just may fit the bill. The 3-1 Tigers, at home against Yoakum this week before starting district play at Columbus on Oct. 9, will have to move mountains (or lots of round bales at least) to make the playoffs this year. Three of their five district opponents - Giddings, Sealy, and LaGrange - are ranked among the top 30 in the state; they get LaGrange and Giddings at home...

Catching Up, Striking Down, and Piping it Out

2009-09-18T12:00:00.005-05:00

OK, perhaps "Progress" was a poor choice, considering how little I've made lately - at least on this little start-up. I'd say sue me, but we've had something called 'tort reform' in Texas lo these last 4 years, so it wouldn't really be worth your trouble, and you can't squeeze blood from a rock anyways.

But things have been a-happenin', that's for sure. When you head off to the hills of northwest Arkansas in August, all manner of strange things can go down. For instance, Rick Perry went to talk to Hispanic business leaders, began making oddly excited hand gestures, and called his once-beloved border wall idea "nonsense" - then sent in the Texas Rangers to lock things down, just in case the faithful got the wrong idea. Joke's on him, since the Rangers just dropped three straight to the A's and played themselves out of playoff contention.

Meanwhile, a no-bullshit Democrat with a pulse named Hank Gilbert threw his cowboy hat in the ring for Governor and started firing some real shots at Rick and Senator Sparkle Pony. Some of you may recall Hank ran for Agriculture Commissioner back in 2006 against generic Republican Todd Staples, and managed to out-poll every other Democratic executive candidate by 4 points statewide (nearly 42%), despite being outspent 6-1 by his opponent and unsupported by his own state party.
Since then he's been leading the rural rebellion against the Trans-Texas Corridor and the toll road lobby catered to by Perry and deposed House Speaker Tom Craddick (among others). I like what Hank is putting down so far, so I gave him a few bucks - ya'll should do the same and spread the word, if for no other reason than to send a message to the Tom Schieffers of the world that we're not just gonna roll over for some non-threatening rich boys so they can go joy-riding in the Democratic brand and wrap it around a telephone pole like they did back in 2002.

As for our fair county, we finally got the gift we'd been waiting months for: RAIN. Real rain. Three solid days of it came last week, conveniently enough just after most of the hay harvest, or what their was of it. Local farmers and ranchers did not appreciate Mother Nature's cruel sense of humor. After being one of the driest counties in Texas for the last year and a half, we even got wet enough to get the burn ban lifted, and brush pile cookouts started up from Shady Grove down to Rosanky. Small comfort, since we're still well below our yearly average, and the damage has been done. Estimates of dry-land crop losses this season are running as high as 80%, and the Governor's disaster declaration should have been made months before it was. County Judge McDonald declared a local disaster and requested assistance from the state back in February. The Goodhaired Guv pled poverty and half-heartedly punted to the Feds, then finally declared a state of emergency for Bastrop (and 166 other counties) in late July. Declaring a crisis but not actually taking steps to fund recovery - how's that for leadership and looking out for your constituents? Perhaps that's why he only pulled 30% and finished behind Chris Bell in Bastrop County in 2006.

Of course September brought us football as well, and some nasty and curiously-timed lightning displays were shortening high school games, gifting the Bears (3-0) a 3-point win over San Marcos and Elgin a much-needed win over Lanier (after they coughed up a late lead against Travis - Travis! - to take an OT loss in week one). The 'Cats (1-2) couldn't make a streak of it, though, coming up 9 points short in the Barbecue Brawl with the hated Taylor Ducks in week 3. The loud and proud Tigers of Smithville (2-1) avoided being thunderstruck, and are riding high after a 53-point thrashing of Luling last Friday.

But perhaps the best case of poor timing in the last month: yet another flock (gaggle? den? coven?) of regional water speculators made their intentions known - this group operating under the chosen name of (i shit you not) Sustainable Water Resources

Besides Gilmore, a handful of competitive water speculators are banking that the water beneath the largely rural area in Lee and surrounding counties is their crystal-clear gold. As anxieties about water supplies rise among the public and politicians, private speculators see an opportunity to tie up water rights and sell their goods to cities. But they have struggled to land big buyers.

Emphasis mine. Wonder why they're struggling? Perhaps it's because they need to build a $300 million pipeline to make it work, and the likeliest candidates to finance such an undertaking are urban areas whose council members and commissioners are smart enough not to put their fingerprints on what will surely be a future boondoggle at , while also hurting local landowners who'd rather use their water rights to farm and ranch and benefit their neighbors. Go figure.

The different water speculators have different plans about who would then pay for the pipeline construction, which could add hundreds of millions of dollars to water bills.
But in the long run, Mason and other water officials said, pulling water from the Simsboro is a near-inevitability, and the speculator who lines up the most customers stands to make a mint.

You don't say? Notice no one in the article explains why the people of Texas should sign over control of our most vital resource to private investors. I guess that's just a given at this point. I mean, somebody's gotta make a stack of cash on the most basic of public infrastructure, right? Otherwise, why bother? It's just water after all.

Hmm...plundering essential resources, potential for sticking the taxpayers with the lion's share of the tab to get your rainmaker up and running? Maybe that's why this 'business' is drawing in guys like...

...Austin developer Gary Bradley, who has lobbied officials including the Lower Colorado River Authority and the San Antonio Water System to get together to build a pipeline to tap into the Simsboro, which is part of the Carrizo-Wilcox Aquifer.

Yes, this is exactly what we should do. Open our aquifers to conglomerates of middlemen like Bradley so they can fleece taxpayers and make a killing exploiting our most precious resource of all. I'm sure these guys and their T. Boone dreams are all on the up-and-up, like they've always been...

So what does a neutral scientific observer say? Approach with caution here:

Allan Jones, who stepped down in January as director of the Texas Water Resources Institute at Texas A&M University, said it's hard to determine the volume of the Simsboro and how quickly it will replenish itself.

"We probably don't know enough at this point about some of those aquifers, because there's not that much use," he said.

Hmm. No help there. Sounds like we need a study. Fair enough...

A study paid for by Sustainable Water Resources [emphasis mine]and conducted by the Thornhill Group, an Austin hydrogeology firm, found that although the company could take out 40 million gallons of water a day for decades with little impact on the aquifer, regulatory issues would be an obstacle.

Them pesky regulators. Looking out for the communities they're sworn to serve. Don't they know some businessmen have real money to recoup?
Now, I have no reason to impugn the integrity of the gentlemen at the Thornhill Group; I don't know their staff or their track record so I'll gladly assume they're sound professionals who do quality research. But as a former student of hydrogeology, I'd love to take a look at the study and see their methods and what levels of uncertainty they were working with. Often the difficulty & expense associated with sampling and data collection from a deep water-bearing formation can yield degrees of uncertainty large enough to make the 40 million gallons/ day figure quoted above a cherry-picked gnat on the ass of an elephant of variables. Conclusions like the above can have an awfully wide margin of error, which our young journalist of course fails to note. Spoonful of salt until I can get a look at some hard data.
Another note for you cubs wrasslin' with science: be consistent with your units. For those of you trying to keep track, 40 million gallons equals roughly 123 acre-feet of water. That's per day; multiply it by 365 and you're talking close to 45,000 acre-feet a year. That's what Thornhill's hydrogeologists say could be sustainable over "decades".
Now, an "estimate" cited in the article (but unsourced) is that approximately 2.8 million acre-feet of water sits in the Simmsboro beneath Lee County alone. So, no worries, right?

Clearly, then, the thing to do is....get pumping!

Limmer said his group is seeking permission to pump 56,000 acre-feet a year from beneath Lee and Bastrop counties. He said his group, which includes about 20 investors ranging from oil-and-gas men to developers, has spent several million dollars developing their project since it began in 2007.

By the by, at 56,000 acre-feet a year x 50 years = 2.8 million acre-feet. That's from ONE group. Let's remember that the recharge rate of this aquifer is also an uncertainty (like our yearly rainfall), and add in 40-50,000 acre-feet/year proposed pumping by SWR, and the 70,000/year already permitted to Cumming's Blue Water. Now we're up to about four times what Thornhill says is sustainable - assuming we're talking about the same water, and the study citation is accurate, none of which is really clear from the article. You can see where this might be headed if we're not careful.
But woe is they. Oil men and developers, riding to the poorhouse in their philanthropic quest to save us all from future water problems. I bet you can guess who they'll cite as their biggest obstacle to their proposed shifting of resources:

"Nothing is more politicized than water," said Brent Covert, president of Sustainable Water Resources. "Politicians are scared to death constituents are going to call them without water.

Crazy, all that. Elected officials worrying about their constituents' basic needs when no one is really sure how fast an essential resource can replenish. The horror.
Covert is most likely referring to those dadgum regulators agin - groundwater districts like Lost Pines GCD, who lack the capital muscle of speculators, but who may end up having something to say about how much water these guys can siphon off from us. We should endeavor to pay attention to their proceedings over the coming months and years, neighbors.

But here's the money shot:

Some landowners who stand to gain if water is pumped out from the leased land are bullish on the deal. It could be an economic boon to rural Lee County, where the biggest private employer is the Alcoa mine, which provides coal to power the company's aluminum smelters; the high school has its own rodeo ring; the chief restaurant on the Lexington square goes in and out of business; and garbage trucks and truck cabs sit in people's driveways.

...and they've got a hometown state legislator in Tim Kleinschmidt (R-Lexington), who would almost certainly love to get some credit for a deal that brings a short-term windfall to his locals - and makes him a little extra scratch in the bargain off of his own water lease to wholesalers - before he high-tails it out of the House for a swankier political gig of some sort and leaves the disaster to whoever inherits it. Indeed, Tim spoke before the Lost Pines GCD back on August 19, no doubt the first of many visits. I'll be interested to see how cuddly he tries to get with area GCDs, and what legislation results - assuming he gets re-elected next year, which isn't a given in this swing district. Keep an eye on this "conservative voice for rural Texas".

Back from shopping with Rick Green, TK smiles at legal immigrants while keeping one eye trained on a suspicious-looking solar panel.

Bastrop Dems foil wingnut hijacking

2009-08-03T18:10:00.003-05:00

Suh-prize, suh-prize suh-prize. Sorry, goofballs - not in our backyard.

Many of you may have heard about Congressman Lloyd Doggett being ambushed by a mob at Randall's in South Austin this past Saturday, as he tried to hold his traditional "office hours" at the shopping centers where his constituents go.
The full force of the anti-health care reform "movement" was brought to bear on Lloyd as he tried to answer absurd questions and get a word in edgewise while a cabal of teabaggers shouted at him, waved outrageous signs (including a tombstone with "Doggett" written on it) and eventually forced him and his staff to leave (as they pounded on the cars of Lloyd and his staff). They prevented a congressman from communicating with constituents.

Which is what those tools wanted in the first place. The mobs disrupting town halls this week are part of a carefully orchestrated and financed nationwide PR campaign being waged by big insurance and other corporate lobbies, astroturf groups like Americans for Prosperity, and of course, the infamous Ralph Reed and his PR firm Century Strategies, along with Creative Response Concepts - who handled the media game for the Swift Boat Vets.

Yes, the same crowd. Now they are feeding and leveraging the ignorance of their useful idiots to wage holy war on behalf of their corporate clients against health care reform. These groups and firms are stoking and advising loose-meat online gangs of birthers, tin-foil 'libertarians' and other deluded paranoiacs and sending them out to ambush and harass Democratic Reps and Senators at their various constituent meetings over the August recess. They are instructed to disrupt, shout down and shut down any real dialogue on health care reform (or any other issue, for that matter). The idea, of course, is to keep those who favor reform from making their case to the people, and to create the appearance of mass opposition to health care reform ("Obamacare means euthanasia for old people"), when in fact no such mass opposition exists.

Quite the contrary - many of you know that the vast majority of Americans favor reform, universal coverage with a public plan option, and are fine with an equitable plan to pay for it. Thus the industry is using astroturf groups like Dick Armey's "FreedomWorks"(backed by pharmaceutical, insurance, and oil companies of course) and concocting some new ones like "Conservatives for Patients Rights", to encourage mob thuggery by the wing-nut fringe: disrupting meetings of Congressional reps with their constituents and stamping out rational discussions of the issue - because they know rational people tend to be suspicious of insurance industry talking points, framed as they are to protect their profit margins at the expense of those who need actual health care services.

The fools who showed up to harangue Doggett in Bastrop, however, got more than they bargained for. We were ready for them. Bastrop County Democratic Chair Barbara Nichols - along with former chair Mitzi Van Sant and a host of other precinct chairs and other friends some sense and decency - swung into action as soon as Lloyd's staff told them what had happened in Austin that morning.

Following a short press event old City Hall to announce a $200,000 appropriation for the Bastrop County Historical Society's effort to convert the old building into a museum, Lloyd was scheduled to hold a town hall meeting at 5 pm at the Kerr Community Center in Bastrop, set up by the BCDP and open to all. Normally these little meet-ups involve around 10-20 people and are pretty relaxed affairs. But Barbara and the gang called in the troops - Democrats, local public officials, and other good people who were appalled by the morning's news and resolved to help set a different tone in Bastrop.

Just get to the Kerr Center, Barbara told them - and get there early.
It's not a big place - a historic building in the heart of Bastrop's African-American community, once used as a meeting place for Camp Swift soldiers, renovated several years ago - and only seats about 60 people or so.

Get there early, we did. By the time Lloyd and his wife Libby arrived, we had already filled the place to SRO with friendlies. When a half dozen troublemakers arrived shortly thereafter (they were following Lloyd around), they first noisily argued with police outside when informed that signs were not welcome in the building. Then they tried to create more drama in the open doorway, whining at the police and anyone in earshot about how we were "infringing on their right of free speech". They were informed them that they were welcome to come in and participate, but disruptive behavior would not be tolerated. After more caterwauling outside, they finally put the signs away and entered the meeting room, grousing about it all the way. Then they dutifully attempted to carry out their orders from FreedomWorks - hollering out nonsense & non-sequiters ("$25 trillion dollars!!") , absurd and hostile questions about "rationed care" and "tort reform", and generally trying to gum up the proceedings by interrupting Doggett as he began speaking. The spittle took flight, if you will.

But they didn't last long. As soon as they began making a ruckus, many of us in the room - which included former & current Bastrop mayors, city council members, the county judge and school board members - called out their behavior, and the very calm & professional officers of the Bastrop Police Department escorted them out. Some of them followed to make sure their comrades weren't being oppressed. Those that did return were much quieter after that, though they still made a few feeble attempts to rattle the Congressman. It was clear that Bastrop would not suffer these fools gladly. Lloyd responded succinctly and assertively to a few of their questions, and didn't back down ("If you want to be treated with respect, you should act respectively.").
The civilized super-majority in attendance was thus able to ask many questions and voice concerns on health care, the stimulus, legislative strategy, and other issues, and though we weren't always delighted with Lloyd's responses, we were able to have a civil and reasoned discourse with him. This, of course, was precisely what the wing nuts did not want and, foiled in their attempt to create a kerfuffle and make headlines, they gradually trickled out (or were taken out by the cops again) and spent the rest of the event trying to work the cops outside about how oppressed they were and how unfair it all was...etc. To top it off, a few of them had brought their young children with them - I assume in order to bear witness their parents' ridiculous behavior. I thought only rich Yankees taught their kids to be rude jackasses.

My friend and fellow blogger MeanRachel also answered the call and drove out to Bastrop Saturday, for which I am grateful. I disagree with some of her impressions of the event - we were hardly helpless "manatees", and I think "sharks" would have far better instincts than those exhibited by the troublemakers we saw at the Kerr Center. I also don't think this is really the time to publicly beat up on one of our most progressive members of Congress - though like Rachel, I want him be more aggressive and quit sugarcoating poor legislation in his desire to get a consensus bill - because we should all realize by now that a "consensus" is not going to happen with today's GOP leadership hitching their wagon to the crazy train. That said, Lloyd is now one of 57 House Democrats who have pledged to vote against any final bill that does not contain a robust public insurance option.

But regardless of our feelings about what Lloyd and other Democrats could be doing differently, the good people of Bastrop made one thing clear: WE WILL NOT ALLOW civil public discourse to be hijacked and sabotaged by fanatics - especially when we know those fanatics are being used as pawns by the insurance industry and other right-wing lobby groups. Not here.

I'd advise Democrats in Travis County and elsewhere to similarly mobilize and stand up for common decency, and start fighting for real health care reform. There are powerful forces allayed against it, and they are leveraging the best that money can buy to keep universal health care and real insurance competition at bay.

Our message to Lloyd is this: we've got your back, SO FIGHT. And if Lloyd was gun shy about going to the wall for real reform before the recess, Saturday seemed to provide him with a call to arms.

But real reform requires that we all engage in this battle. Call or write in support of progressive Congressmen, donate to groups organizing for health care reform, call and write the obstructionist Blue Dogs who are watering down reform, and show up wherever possible to support real health care reform. Talk to your neighbors and friends - calmly and considerately - and debunk the lies and distortions being parlayed by the insurance lobby and their various front groups. The radical right and their corporate bed mates use war as their model for political battle, taking no prisoners & sparing no expense to force their agenda and their rules on our country and make working people pay for it. They must be met with a proportional response from all corners.

What's All This Then?

2009-07-19T02:32:00.000-05:00

Maybe a waste of time, or yet another way to spread myself too thin. Hopefully, this will become a a place to learn and share news of politics and progress in Bastrop County - from Elgin to Smithville to the county seat, and all the hamlets, subdivisions and various other wide spots on the roads out here.

It's clear that what media is available in this county has abdicated any and all responsibility to adequately inform our citizens and and promote healthy debate - and we'll get around to that very soon. It's particularly clear that Democrats and other good people of common sense in BC need a resource for information and perspectives on how to make our local government and officials more responsive, effective, and progressive.

Too much ground has been conceded to the forces of greed, ignorance and know-nothing fanaticism. Strong public schools, unspoiled public lands, a healthy small business community, family farms and ranches - these were the legacy of parents and grandparents who conquered a Great Depression and made the world safe for democracy. The current Republican power cabal in Texas has laid waste to that legacy and endangered our children's future. While they haven't quite managed to completely infect Bastrop County yet, rest assured they're working on it, determined to sell us all off to the mercy of big-box corporations, water wholesalers and land-grubbing developers. But decent folks still have room to maneuver and push them back.

There is a coalition here, big enough to turn it all around and headed back in the right direction. But it needs to come together in common purpose - willing to play smarter, pool resources and ideas, be ready to fight when necessary and stand against foolishness from all corners. If this blog will help expedite that formation and feed the need for good sense and decency in our blessed little county, I'll consider it worth the trouble and a rousing success.

And of course, we can always poke fun at people who deserve it, and irritate those without a sense of humor. I'll try to get around to all of it, but I am only one man - and a busy one at that.

More posting will follow, in rather haphazard fashion I'm sure, in the weeks to come. I'll also be recruiting others to contribute to it.

Topics for posts in the works:
Whither Tim Kleinschmidt?
Tracking local races - the 2010 Primaries
Down and Drought - What's up with the Water?
Bastrop Growth Patterns and Demographics

...and maybe a high school football preview or two. Friendly bets will be made, gauntlets thrown down. Don't be shy - Please kick in yer two cents if you see fit. Comment or send an email -

Robert Cyrus Ryland
Elgin, TX